“Why do you feel
that your team needs to be trained?”
“What are the
takeaways you expect from me?”
These are the
two questions I ask, when I am being hired as a trainer.
Unlike physical
regimens of soldiers and athletes, most managerial training
sessions, irrespective of the settings, are often initiated and conducted
without a defined purpose or end-state in mind. The question, what triggered
the need to call a trainer, seldom elicits credible response. Training sessions,
under such conditions are trainer-dependent and gravitate towards being ‘tales’
“full of sound and fury signifying nothing”. Such sessions are often recycled wide-spectrum
templates. Training, if not specifically customized is no training. The state can be best compared to the
difference between the well-fitted and the ill-fitted. Adequately customized training enables
the trainee, to no end.
My experience
with performers, consistent and erratic, brilliance that flamed out and winners who started slow ( i being one amongst them), taught me that inherent to each individual and organisation is
the wherewithal and more, for growth sustenance and success. What is required, is
a catalyst to initiate the search for inner strengths and fuel the journey
ahead.
As a trainer,
to be of any credible value, I had to empower myself with requisite knowledge
and techniques. I spend a lot of time reading, researching, observing events as
they unfolded and understanding the unseen and unsaid. My formal training in
NLP, certainly helped. Real life events and the human dynamics behind it
triggered the articles I wrote and published this year. I could finally derive a
matrix for evaluating success.
Little did I realise
that I would be tested as the year drew close. An acquaintance of someone, who
had attended my programme got in touch with me to find if I can take on a session
with 'few' teenagers. More out of my compulsion to be tried and tested in the most
demanding of situations, I agreed. The ‘few’
turned out to be more than 200 high-voltage teenagers, brimming and bubbling with
endless energy. Four sessions of 2 to 21/2 hours each, in batches of 50 to
60, over two days should have been a killer. But, when participants, don’t
want a break, don’t lose interest, give their undivided attention and ask
for more, either they deviated from what is expected to be 'normal for teenagers' or my spurs were real solid.
My toil has been worth it.
As I wind up my
activities for the year and head for the family vacation precisely in four days, I proved
to myself that one element of my success mantra, ‘Skills’ (acquisition,
absorption, adaption and application) really worked.
Few years ago I
was overwhelmingly voted to be the mentor for my department.
Now a few have adopted me as their mentor to help navigate a journey called life.
Now a few have adopted me as their mentor to help navigate a journey called life.
Skills certainly
reward.
As usual very well written indeed.
ReplyDeleteYou have hit the nail on the head. Your assessment of the way many if not most corporate trainers function is bang on.I have attended some of these programmes while working in corporate, after I left service. While I must admit that some ( very few) were eye openers most were run of the mill types where the trainers set the agenda, not knowing what the participants desired or required.
For this situation, It is primarily the HR planners who are to blame. For most of them its just ticking off the couple of training programmes that have to be done as per the calendar.
The many positive feedback that they collect justifying the programme and its results are primarily given by participants out of fear that negative feedback , if any, would be at some stage used against them for a slow and painful execution as time passes.
Keep writing and enlightening us friend. Enjoy your well earned Xmas break.
God bless
Kanthy
Good . Congradulatoins for your commitment to the society .
ReplyDeleteNice article
ReplyDeleteVery well summarized. Contexualizing the training subjects in the corporate scenario is the success mantra for a trainer.
ReplyDeleteThe blog is very relevant to current times on account of huge skill-set gap between educational institutions and actual industry requirements. While educational institutions are equipping students with theoretical knowledge,often they have not been able to train and inculcate critical, job-specific skills. Customized training could help bridge the gap. Training will require to be relevant to the job, and importantly empower a trainee to bring value to his employer. Conventional training modules will have to make way for task-specific and customized modules. Your efforts to mentor the young would undoubtedly broaden their perspective and help them in their corporate journey.
ReplyDelete