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David Maister’s Passion, People and Principles

post # 541 — Wednesday, May 7, 2008 7:00am — a Strategy and the Fat Smoker post

Strategy and The Fat Smoker - New podcast episode available now

The tenth episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.

The series is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name. Each chapter will be accompanied by an executive summary ebook covering the same material. I encourage you to forward these to friends and associates who may be interested in the topics covered. If you are already a subscriber to my podcast feed, this pdf will be available in your itunes.

This tenth episode, Why Most Training is Useless, deals with the reliance many companies and firms place on training as a surrogate for the hard work of true skill development.  Training is a wonderful last step in a change process, but a pathetically useless first step. I examine the numerous other essential steps in that process.

NOTES FOR THE EPISODE:
00:35 – Introduction
00:42 – Training is no quick-fix
02:08 – Choosing managers and implementing training
04:31 – The keynote speech
10:04 – The hard business of making change
14:46 – The correct approach to training
19:42 – Summary

You can download Why Most Training is Useless or sign up to receive new Business Masterclass seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My seminars are always available for download at no cost.

2 comments

Navtej Kohli said

http://www.navtej-kohli-sportsblog.com

This is a very interesting video. I never looked at training from this perspective.

posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 3:56am

Jay said

blueboxsw.com

I kind of disagree. I think there are three main reasons why most training stinks:

1) Training departments are frequently dumping grounds for employees who are unwanted in other parts of the organization but haven't commited a great enough sin to actually get fired.
2) The actual business need for training is frequently undefined. The makes it difficult to define what, exactly, needs to be taught. Please don't give me a manual or a set of powerpoint slides and simply tell me to develop the training from that.
3) There's a stunning lack of understanding of the instructional design process in most companies. This is a well defined set of guidelines, methods, and best practices for creating effective training. You wouldn't hire a plumber that knew nothing about plumbing, why would you hire someone to create instruction that knew nothing about putting together good instruction?

posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 10:06pm

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