I've mentioned David Maister's podcasts before as one of my favorites. Perhaps its his wonderful speaking voice, but I think its more about his incredible content.
After posting about my experience with the Little Sisters of the Poor, I listened to Episode#2 titled Real Professionalism. He basically boiled it all down to CARING!
I just can't emphasize enough how simple yet important that is in all that we do as learning professionals, but more importantly in understanding what we are up against.
If your learners don't care about their jobs and what they do, then we can't expect them to care much about our mandated "sheep dipping" certification courses.
In my opinion, caring is so critical that it renders the need for formalized training obsolete (to some extent). When REAL PROFESSIONALs CARE, they do whatever it takes to get the information they need to get the job done. If that means learning a new skill then they learn the new skill by whatever means necessary. It could be simply sitting down with a book and working at it...trial and error...until they gain just enough understanding to be productive and get the job done. But most certainly if they are in a hurry, and they probably are, the last place they go to is the training department.
3 comments:
Brent - this was awesome. I couldn't agree more.
This is another post that I will be forwarding out! Thanks for always bringing the realistic perspective to everything --
Shel
I couldn't agree more! As a facilitator, I found that I was most successful when I "sold the need" to learn new stuff. If they don't accept that, then they are less willing to put in the effort to accept new information. As you pointed out, they will get it regardless of how well it is delievered, because they want to learn!
Chris
Brent: Very well said. I always wince when hearing someone refusing to join a professional organization or not attending professional development because their employer won't flip the entire bill.
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