Are Organizations Approaching Learning All Wrong?

I am sure we have all attended work place training that is either Stage One or Two - maybe Stage Three...

Stages One through Three all seem to be the typical things you think of when you hear that you are going to 'Training' at work. Lucky for me, I get to go to some stage one training tonight (not)!

Tonight I am looking forward to two hours of someone talking to me about Christmas products to make sure we are all prepared for the holiday season. After the meeting, some flyers will go up in our back room as a reinforcement of what is talked about tonight. Besides the flyers, the material tonight will rarely be revisited and employees will be expected to retain the knowledge and pass it on to customers. The problem with our training tonight is that we are shoving 20+ people into a small space who want to catch up with those they haven't seen in awhile and have to work tomorrow. Most of our training meetings usually go the same way - people visiting while the trainer is presenting, people shhhh-ing each other, people trying to leave early because they are thinking about work tomorrow. All of this results in the same thing - people thinking about other things and not focusing on the material. We do not have culture/environment that inspires/promotes learning. Much of the material at work that I have learned and retained has not been taught at these monthly meetings - but rather from chatting with co-workers, asking questions when I had them, and experience with the product.

While I recognize that a more traditional training (Stages One - Three), can be effective in the workplace - I think it's really important to consider a company's culture when building training programs. 'Stage 5' might not always be the most effective approach to teaching materials - and that's OK, but this needs to be considered when you are dealing with learning in the workplace. If you do have more traditional training sessions - How can you reinforce that training so people don't lose it? How can you make it interesting? How can you make it relate-able?

I love the above diagram because it incorporates the value of learning! I am not excited about the training that I have to go to shortly because I know there is going to be little information that I will take-away from it due to the challenges listed above. Even though I am not excited - I am still expected to know the information as part of my job - it will be up to me to ask questions, reference flyers, etc. to get any information that I don't take away tonight. Since I am seeking out that information myself, I will place a higher value on it - I am taking the time and energy to learn something myself after all! I have been sharing tidbits from my St. Thomas classes with the lady who doing the training tonight so it will be interesting to see if tonight is any different from past meetings - but she can't change the culture of our shop alone.

For me, the takeaway is that training and learning in the workplace are a necessary thing - some people might love it and be excited for it and others will hate it - but there are things that can be done to make learning fun and feel less like traditional training that we all dread. Are organizations approaching training all wrong? Clearly, some of them are since I am going to a training session tonight that I will (most likely) take away little information from. The bright side is that 'training' is evolving - maybe faster in some places and slower in others. Either way, some progress is better than none!