Why Training Doesn't Work

“Nitin, I have some issues to discuss. Can we meet sometime this Friday? I have called Mr. X also”. This call was from Mr. A, training head in an organization, who I had got to know some time back. Mr. X was also a fellow trainer working as an independent consultant.

We met that Friday. I could see that Mr. A was upset about something was not willing to talk till Mr. X arrived. Finally when Mr. X came in, Mr. A came straight to the point. “I have been put on notice. Both the Managing Director and the Operations Head are not happy about the effectiveness of what my team does. I have been asked to pull up my socks or look for another job.”

This was serious. “Is there something specific that has happened or is it a general comment?” I asked. “We have a huge order from an American client. To make sure that nothing goes wrong, a cross functional team was created. We pulled out the best people from manufacturing, services, maintenance and sales teams to form a group exclusively for this client. I was given the job of building a cohesive team of these people. We spent three days in a training workshop with them. But it has not worked. They are not working as a team, and it is affecting the order. The client is unhappy and so my Managing Director is unhappy!”

Mr. X: What did you do with them in the three days?

Mr. A: We talked about the importance of working in a team. We gave inputs about skills required. We talked about communication skills and conflict management… the works!
Mr X: Maybe that was the problem… Your inputs.
Mr. A (Exploding): What?! What do you mean the inputs are a problem? That was the finest workshop you could ever have on team work! Even you couldn’t have designed a better program!

Even I was surprised at Mr. X’s comment. The workshop did seem to have all the right ingredients. Maybe the problem was in the delivery. I was about to ask, but Mr. A pre-empted me.

Mr. A: We got excellent ratings from the participants. They loved the program. Everyone was so charged after it was over. No, the problem is that my Managing Director has unreasonable expectations!

Mr. X: If asking you to assist in bringing about a change in people is unreasonable, I disagree. Isn’t that what your job is?
Mr A. (A bit defensive now): We did what we could do to the best of our abilities. If people refuse to practice it at work, what can we do?
Mr. X: Exactly… that is the issue… They don’t practice what you teach at work.
Mr. A: Yes! I said that! And that is not my problem!
Mr. X: Maybe it is… Tell me, do the team members know how important this job is for the company?
Mr. A: Of course they know!
Mr. X: Do they also know that working as a team is critical to their success?
Mr. A: Yes they do…
Mr X: Do they also know the cost of failure?
Mr A: Yes they do… What exactly are you getting at?
Mr. X: The point I am trying to make is that they know all this and yet they do not work as a team… Why?
Mr. A: How do I know? Maybe they are just dense!
Mr. X: Maybe you should try to find out and maybe that’s what you should have focussed on in your workshop.

 Silence... It made a whole lot of sense.

Mr. X: I have seen this in a  number of situations. Ask anyone if team work is important, or is customer service important and they all say yes. Yet it doesn’t always happen. The issue is not about their knowing, the issue is deeper than that.

Me: What could the possible reasons be?
Mr. X: It could be anything… it could be attitude; it could be some biases or even insecurities. Sometimes it could be cultural issues. The idea is to target the deeper issues and the desired outcome will happen.
Mr. A: What about skills… Those could be an issue too.
Mr. X: Sure, but you won’t know what exactly is the real issue that you have to work on, unless you do some research with the audience.
Mr. A: I don’t know how I am going to find the time, what with all the other work I have.
Mr. X: Don’t you understand? That is your work, rather the main part of your work. The effectiveness and success of your training initiatives depend on that!

I could see Mr. A mull over what he had heard. Yes, it made sense. How often had I similar experiences as Mr. A. If I looked back on all those training initiatives which had failed to make any difference at the workplace, it was because the core issues had not been addressed.

Then Mr. X winked and smiled. “If it still seems a lot of heavy work, you could always hire me….”

Teaching Lame Crows to Walk

“In your arsenal, do you have anything that teaches lame crows to walk?”

My initial days as an independent consultant. I was in a potential client company with the sales manager discussing training opportunities. This company had once been a market leader but had slipped way down over time. As a result the sales manager had been fired for poor performance and a new one appointed in his place. The new sales manager, who I was having a conversation with, was supposed to be the miracle man with a reputation of turning things around.

“What do you mean, teaching lame crows to walk?”

 “I have inherited a useless team”, he replied. “The morale is down, they don’t have the necessary drive to push sales and they have no impact in the market. They haven’t earned their sales commission in over a year and don’t seem interested in doing anything about it. They hop when they are supposed to be running. The only reason they are still here in this company is because no one else will take them. And the only reason I cannot throw them out is because I can’t get replacements. No one wants to join such a dejected team.”

 “Ok”, I said. “I understand about the lame part. But why crows?”

 “Just a figure of speech”, he replied. “Don’t take it literally”.

 Wow! Calling his team members crows… Maybe a topic of interest for some psychiatrist. But I had other things to worry about.

“So what exactly are you looking for?”

“I need a training workshop that will transform the team,” He replied. “I want them to be up and running. I want a highly charged and motivated team that will conquer the market. I want fighters!”

I went back to my office with a load of questions in my mind. In my conversation with the Sales Head, the impression I had got was that the sales team was the main culprit for all the woes that the organization suffered. But were the sales people really responsible for state of affairs or were there larger organizational issues. Even if they were responsible, what had caused it? And finally, how do you convert so called losers into fighters? 

The next day, I met an old colleague of mine who I shall call Mr. A. He had spent his entire working life in the HR function. Now retired, he still kept in touch with people in the HR community.

 I explained my problem to him, and the conversation that followed was not only interesting, but for me an eye opener.

Mr. A: I have heard you. Now tell me what exactly is your problem?

Me: I don’t know who is responsible for their state of affairs, so I don’t know how to tackle the issue.
Mr A: State of affairs of that company is the problem of people who run that company. What is your problem?
Me: If I don’t know the core issue, how can I address it?
Mr. A: You have been given an issue. You have to teach lame crows to walk.
Me: But I don’t know what has caused them to become lame!
Mr. A: Ok… That’s a constraint. Now what are the possibilities?
Me: The only possibility that I see is that I will not be able to come up with anything concrete, and so will not get this project.
Mr. A: Look around you. What do you see in this room?
Me: I don’t understand…
Mr. A: Tell me what all do you see in this room. Everything…
Me: Ok… I see furniture, books, papers, a computer and you and me. I also see tea cups on the table, some pictures on the wall, a carpet on the floor, curtains, fan……………
Mr. A: Now if we were to remove everything from this room, what will be left?
Me: Everything?
Mr. A: Yes… Each and everything, including you and me. Then what will be left?
Me: Let’s see… The walls of this room…
Mr. A: What else?
Me: The air in this room…
Mr. A: That’s good. What else?
Me: Maybe the echoes of our conversation…?
Mr. A:  Ah! We are now moving to the esoteric stuff… I will accept that. Anything else?
Me: No, I can’t think of anything else.

(I strongly recommend readers to do this exercise before reading further. Make a list of what would be left if all the things are removed from the room you are in)

Mr. A: Interesting how the human mind works… It first thinks of constraints, but it refuses to think of possibilities
Me: I don’t understand…
Mr. A: You saw the walls, but you couldn’t see the door…?

I was silent. The door had not even come to my mind.

Mr. A: Not your fault. That’s how we operate. We think of constraints almost instantly, but cannot see the opportunities. You have to force yourself to stop thinking of why things cannot be done before you can focus on how they can be done. Not an easy thing, but with practice you will be able to do that.

My mind was still reeling. Why did the door not come to my mind?

Mr. A: You are a consultant now. An external person. So you will not get every piece of information that you need at all times. You have to make do with what you have and do your best. For that you have to change your attitude from looking for constraints to searching for possibilities.

Me: So what possibility do you see here?
Mr. A: That’s so simple. You don’t have to teach lame crows to walk. They don’t have to walk. They have to fly…. So teach them to fly.

 The next week we made a presentation to the Sales Head. When he asked, “So have you figured out how to make these lame crows walk?” I replied, “No, but I am going to talk about how to make lame crows to fly.”

It worked. We got the project.

 

 

 

Gurukool - The beginning

Gurukool: A system of education in ancient India where in students lived with their teacher during the period of education. The bond thus created between the students and their teacher wend beyond the conventional relationship.

 By now readers of this blog will have concluded that though being part of the function, I have always viewed training with a (un) healthy amount of cynicism and scepticism. And rightly so. However there is one instance which forced me to abandon my cynical approach and actually see the power that a properly designed and executed development initiative can unleash. A development initiative called Gurukool.

 As I sit down to write about Gurukool, I am experiencing a block. Writing about the events that led to creation and execution of this initiative is fairly simple. But how does one write about the emotional upheavals that we as the training team went through? How does one describe the personal growth that the facilitators experienced when delivering the workshop?  It was indeed a rollercoaster for we practically participated in lives of more than a thousand people in the three years we ran the program.

 It is also difficult to write about Gurukool in one single blog. The events, experiences, realizations and associated learning are too many to fit in a single article. I have therefore divided the entire experience in three parts. How it all began, how the design was created and lastly about conducting the workshops. While writing I also realize that it will be impossible for me to convey all my thoughts and feelings related to Gurukool. I accept this limitation and ask you, the reader to please bear with me.

 It all began with annual business review in the company I was working for. Ours was a retail organization with a large number of frontline sales personnel. In fact these sales people constituted nearly 70% of the total workforce in the company. Typically they were high school pass outs in the age group of 18-24 years. Unable to continue further education due to family reasons, economic and otherwise, they found this as an opportunity for gainful employment as the job required no particular prior skills or experience. We provided them with on-the-job training for about a month before putting them on the shop floor.

 One of the issues that was discussed in that review was to do with high turnover and poor service delivery among the frontline staff. All kinds of retention and performance bonuses had been announced, but they didn’t seem to work. Very often the sales employees just didn’t turn up for work leaving the poor manager completely clueless about manpower deployment and work planning.

Discussion on the issue was like a hockey game. “This is serious. You need to find a solution to this problem.” said the managing director, as he passed it to the business head. The business head did not keep it with himself for long, as he deftly deflected it to the HR Head. “You need to come up with some plan to solve this problem”. The HR Head was equally adept at the game. She passed it on to the recruitment head, “Is proper staffing an issue?” The recruitment head expertly deflected it back. “No, there is no problem with recruitment and staffing. The issue seems to be of retention.” Back to HR head, who now passed it to where there would be no comeback. “I think we need to find a solution to this problem through training.” “I agree”, concurred the managing director looking at me. “Nitin, please come up with a development plan to address this issue.” Every one nodded. The issue had been discussed to every ones satisfaction.

Every one’s except mine. I was upset and angry. How come such issues always seem to land at my doorstep? If it works, it’s someone else’s great idea. If it doesn’t, well, training didn’t do a good job. And it was with this frame of mind I met my team of eight trainers (T1, T2, T3……….. T8) the next day. After I had explained the situation, the conversation went something like this:

T1: I don’t understand… what are WE supposed to do?

Me: Find a solution to the employee turnover and service quality issues
T3: We could do service training, but what can we do about employee turnover?
T4: Yes that’s an HR problem. Why has it come to us?
Me: Doesn’t matter whose problem it should be. It’s our problem now. So let’s have some suggestions
T3: We first need to find out why the problem exists
Me: Great! So how do we do that?
T6: We should conduct an employee engagement survey
T2: That will only tell us what is the level of engagement, but it will not answer the why.
T5: We will have to do some kind of research to find the root cause of the problem
T6: What kind of research?
T5: I don’t know… there must be something
T4: Why us? It’s not our issue!
T1: Because someone out there hates us…

 We weren’t making any headway. And then T8, the newest member of the team came up with an idea

 T8: Why don’t we go out and find out?

 Everyone looked at her incredulously.

T2: And how are we going to do that?

T8: We are eight of us. So we can cover eight cities. Let’s spend time with the frontline staff and find out from them
T3: And what makes you think they will answer our questions?
T8: I wasn’t thinking of asking them… more in terms of working with them.

 Total silence. Work with them? No one had done that before. But it made a whole lot of sense. So at the end of some resistance and further discussions it was decided that they would spend a week on the shop floor in different cities. I was to hold fort at office. At that time I was not sure what would come out of it. But I was certainly sure of one thing. At that moment, T8 was definitely the most unpopular member of the team.

 One week later

 We met in office on Monday morning. Something was different. Everyone was subdued. No bantering or jokes, as was usual in our meetings. I waited for them to open up, but there was silence. I had to prod them.

Me: So how was it?

T2: (After a long pause) It was different.
Me: How so?
T2: I don’t know how to explain… but it was different
Me: And how has it been for the rest?
(All together): Different!
Me: Have you people discussed this before coming in?
T3: No, we just met in office
Me: But you all will have to tell me more about this ‘different’. Just saying it was different doesn’t help!

Another long pause

 T4: Let me try and explain what I felt. I felt that all things that I worry about, everything that I get stressed about are so meaningless.

Me: Please elaborate…
T4: These youngsters are fighters. They have such a tough life, and yet they manage to laugh and smile…
Me: Anything else?
T1: The  most amazing thing for me was that in spite of their origins, they have dreams to better their lot. And in spite of hardships they are not willing to give up their dreams.
T2: But it’s sad to see them get bogged down with their day-to-day struggles. Some of them are intelligent enough to be in the top colleges.
Me: Anything else?

I knew I was provoking them While they were sharing their feelings and emotions, I was sounding like an emotionless b*****d. But I was doing it on purpose. I somehow knew that the answer was in the feelings that they were sharing, and not the experiences themselves.

 T4: One customer came in with his wife and son. They wanted to shop for their son’s birthday. After they left, this sales guy cane to me and said, ”you know they spent more in 15 minutes than what I earn by slogging for a month.” It was heart-breaking.

 Aha! The first clue was here.

 T7: I went with one sales girl to her home. The entire family of five people live in just one room. They don’t have much, but they made me feel so welcome. I doubt if I can ever match their hospitality.

Here was the second clue..

It went on for some time. Finally I had to conclude.

 Me: I hear three things. One, dreams, and a desire to rise above origins. Second reconciliation with the fact that they work in an environment where people are spending more money in minutes than they earn in a month and third, adjustment to the reality of working in an environment which is more luxurious than where they live. Have I missed something?

T4: No that about sums it up.
Me: So now can we work on an initiative that can address all these three issues?

Normally when we designed any development initiative, there always was a certain amount of excitement. But this time it was different. It was almost like a missionary zeal. It was like suddenly they had an opportunity to do something about a situation which till then they had just helplessly observed. This time the excitement and energy was unbelievable. I guess each one of them had also grown through the experience.

Our Gurukool journey had thus begun.

 To be continued

 

 

The training that did not happen

“I don’t want managers in my organization, I want leaders”! I had heard this many times. In fact this was a kind of joke we had laughed about. Only this time I was not laughing. When the managing director of your company says it, looking pointedly at you, it is no longer a laughing matter.

 I had joined this company about a year back as head of HR and Training. The occasion was the six-monthly business review. All the business and functional heads were attending. In spite of difficult economic and business conditions, we had managed to achieve 87% of our targets. So the mood was quite upbeat, although there would be some recriminations from the managing director (Why only 87%... why not 100%). But that was ok. After all that was his job.

 Normally the HR function had almost no role to play in the review meetings. Unless some business head wanted to use the function as a scapegoat for non-performance (They did not give us the right manpower at the right time) or for moral support (Our competitors are paying better incentives… ask HR, they have collected the relevant data), my contribution was negligent. But since the convention was that all business and functional heads should attend, it also fell on me to be an almost silent spectator in the day-long sessions twice a year.

 The meeting began in the usual fashion. The Finance Head presented his array of spread sheets giving data about the (non) performance in the last six months, the business heads started readying their PPTs and arguments and I settled down to a long and slightly boring day.

 But this time it was not to be the usual manner. After the Finance Head finished his presentation, the bombshell dropped. The managing director, who, normally would remain silent throughout the meeting except when asking those uncomfortable questions suddenly butted in. “I am aware of the economic conditions and difficulties that we are going through. And I know that all of you will give this as the main reason for not achieving targets. So let’s not waste time. What I want to talk about is what can we do different to make sure we achieve targets in spite of the conditions. I don’t want to go through your presentations. I want us to discuss this one issue.”

 You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed. No one was prepared for this. One of the business managers tried to get the meeting back on track. “Sir, if we analyse businesswise monthly regional performance, we may be able to understand what we can do better”. But the managing director cut him short. “Don’t waste our time. I will tell you where the problem is. Our team heads behave like managers and not like leaders. We have too many managers in the company and not enough leaders”. Then looking pointedly at me, “I don’t want managers in my organization, I want leaders. And Nitin, being the head of training, it is your responsibility to create leaders in this company. Please interact with all business heads and come up with a plan. I am also available for any discussion, if you feel the need.”

 With that he stood up and walked out. The meeting had ended. The rest of us just sat as if paralysed. After some time, one of the business heads looked at me and smiled, “Good luck to you”, and walked out. Another one tried to be helpful. “Perhaps this is a passing fad. Give it some time. Something else will come up and this will be forgotten”. One by one they all walked out leaving me with my own confusion.

 Managers to leaders? What did that mean? And what’s wrong with being a manager? Even if we are, by some miracle, able to convert all managers into leaders, what would happen then? How would it impact business? And what would they do differently if we began calling them leaders instead of managers? And just because I happened to be the training head, how was it my responsibility to convert managers into leaders? Well actually the answer to this last question was easy – because the managing director thought so!

 I sat there alone for quite some time. All I was getting was more questions and confusion. I had to do something. Perhaps the best way was to talk to the business heads. That might give me some clue.

 I met the first business head. “What do you think is the difference between a manager and a leader”? I began. “I don’t know. Isn’t it your job to find out”?

 I tried another opening. “What if instead of managers in your team, you had leaders”? “Why do I want leaders in my team”? He replied. “I am the leader of my team. The rest have just to do what I tell them to do.”

 Another business head revealed his thoughts. “A leader has to do all the thinking. If we have too many leaders in a team, it will lead to disaster. Everyone will be thinking and no one will be doing.”

 Yet another had this nugget, “A leader leads and a manager manages. There can be only one leader, which in our case is the managing director. The rest of us are managers”.

 It wasn’t helping. Perhaps the managing director would be able to help. After all this was his great idea. So I took an appointment and finally met him. I have tried to pen down the ensuing conversation verbatim:

 Me: Sir, I need to get your perspective about the difference between manager and leader.

Managing Director (MD): There are no different perspectives. Everyone knows the difference between the two

Dangerous grounds. I could not show my ignorance, and at the same time I needed answers.

Me: Yes Sir, but your verbalizing will help me understand it better in our organizational context.

 Lame, but that’s the best I could do at that moment

MD: Well leadership is about leading. It is about giving direction, about motivating people to give their best, about achieving results.

Me: And a manager is not capable of doing that?
MD: If a manager is able to do that, then he becomes a leader.
Me: And what is being a manager all about?
MD: It’s about managing. It’s about making sure that things happen as they should and nothing is out of place. It’s about planning and organizing and executing.
Me: Isn’t a leader supposed to do all these things also?
MD: Of course he does, but he also needs to lead his team members
Me: And isn’t a manger, in order to make sure that things happen as they should, supposed to give direction and push his people to do their best?
MD: To an extent, yes…
Me: Sir, then, I still don’t get the difference between the two.
MD (Now a bit exasperated): Well the main difference is that a leader will always achieve his targets while a manager will not!
Me: Aah, I understand now. Then sir, you will be glad to know that nine out of our twenty six managers are already leaders, because they have achieved their targets.

 A long pause, where both of us were just looking at each other.

MD: I have another meeting coming. So we will carry on with our discussion at another time.
Me: Sure sir. Do let me know when you are free so we can conclude our discussion.

 I walked out of the managing director’s office. Something caught my eye on his secretary’s table. I paused to take a look. It was a brochure for a talk by a motivational speaker entitled ‘Leaders deliver results, Managers don’t’.

The meeting to conclude our discussion never happened.

It Is All About Connect...

In my experience, I have come across several people who have given fantastic insights about how a good training program should be designed. To a large extent, whatever I know about training and how it should be conducted, I owe it to them.

 I was working as the head of human resources function of a small organization, which was part of a large group having diversified interests and businesses. Typical to such organizations, I had a dual reporting, one to the CEO of the company and second to the Group HR head.

 This organization was unique in several ways, one of which was the belief that practice of organizational values was the only route to success. This belief was relentlessly pursued and practiced by our CEO. That this company was very successful and profitable only lent support to the belief.

 Every year we had a festival of sorts where all employees were invited to a two days event.  While the main reason was celebration of success in the previous year, we also picked one of the company values to focus on during the coming year. A one day workshop was designed around the value chosen where the employees were explained the meaning of that value in the organizational context. Various events and activities were also announced to propagate the value in the company. In the previous years, external trainers had been chosen to facilitate the workshops.

 That year the value that was identified as a theme was ‘creativity and innovation’. Being the head of HR, the task of identifying an external trainer fell on me. I met several training consultants but was not able to select anyone though I couldn’t place a finger on what exactly was not right. Just to make sure that I was not going about it incorrectly, I had them present their workshop designs to the senior members of the company. The outcome was the same. “Something is not right… The spirit is missing”, was the common feedback.

 The date for our festival was fast approaching, and I was still wrestling with identification of the right trainer. Finally in sheer desperation I went to my functional boss, the Group HR Head. For reasons of propriety, I will call him Mr. A. I explained the problem to him and asked him for help. The conversation that followed is as follows:

A: I think I understand the reason for your problem.

Me: Then please explain. Some of the workshop designs are good, but for some inexplicable reasons, not good enough.
A: What is missing is the spirit that drives your company. You are talking about values. That spirit has to be built into the workshop.

To me it sounded like some esoteric thing floating out there

Me: Spirit? What spirit are you talking about?

A: That value system you talk about is a belief. A belief that is held by all of you. Do any of the trainers you have identified have the same belief?
Me: Of course not! They are external people, not a part of the company.
A: And therefore when they talk about the values, they will talk at a cerebral level, whereas beliefs operate at an emotional level.

 It was making sense at some level, but it still did not give me a solution to my issue.

Me: Ok… But how do we resolve this?

A: Why don’t you conduct the workshop?

It’s quite amazing how bombshells explode in your face when you are least expecting them. I wasn’t even sure I had heard him correctly.

Me: You want ME to conduct the workshop?!
A: Why not? You are part of the organization. You believe in the value system of your company. You have seen it work. You can convey things much better than any external trainer.
Me: Sure, I can convey it much better if I am doing it one on one. But addressing 200 people together… I doubt if I can convey anything at all. I don’t have any experience in training!
A: One or two hundred, it does not matter. When you are talking about things that people relate to at an emotional plane, then you connect at an emotional level. If it was a skill, then you would have to connect with them at a cerebral level.
Me: All that’s fine, but I don’t know how to connect with two hundred people together, emotionally or intellectually.
A: I am sure you will find a way. You still have some time.
Me: But why me? Why not someone else from the company?
A: As Head of the HR function, you are the custodian of the company’s value system. Who better than you?

 When the boss says, you do it, one doesn’t have much choice. But I was not about to give up without at least an attempt to fight.

Me: But I don’t know anything about training!

A: Use your creativity… After all that’s the value you are propagating. You have to practice what you are preaching…

 I was cornered. One last ditch effort

Me: It will be a complete disaster… People will laugh not just at me, but at the entire HR function!
A: Look at it this way… People will enjoy themselves and have a good time. After all isn’t that what festivals are all about?

 Left with no choice, I did work on the design. Of course Mr. A did not abandon me completely. I went to him several times after that to seek assistance in building content for the workshop. But that is the subject of another conversation. One thing that I did learn from him is how to connect with the audience.

 I still remember the two hundred pairs of eyes staring at me when I opened the workshop. After all these years, the memory still gives me shivers. But it gave me great confidence when the first few heads nodded in agreement to what I was saying. At some point I realised that the workshop was actually all about telling the participants that they knew the subject as well as you did, and it was only a matter of realising it.  Once that happened, it was a lot more easier and smoother.

I wouldn’t call that workshop a great success, but at least people were not laughing at the end of it. There is however one important thing that I learnt that day as an indirect outcome of my experience. You cannot be a successful trainer if you don’t believe in what you are telling your participants and you can only connect with them if your belief is genuine. It is this belief that differentiates a good trainer from an average one.

"Its all about Motivation"

It was my third year in the Training Function, when one day our company’s business head barged into my office.

 “Nitin, my team’s performance is slipping. We haven’t met our business targets for the second quarter. I need a solution for this!”

 He looked at me expectantly. Perhaps he expected me to pull out a magical solution for his problem. If I could, I would have loved to do just that. But I really didn’t have even a practical solution, forget a magical one. So I kept looking at him silently.

 “Don’t you get it?” he asked sounding exasperated. “I want a motivational workshop for my team.” “What is a motivational workshop?” I asked.

 Believe me, I wasn’t trying to be sarcastic or humorous. I really didn’t know what a ‘motivational workshop’ was. The look I got was one of total disbelief and surprise.

 “What do you mean you don’t know what a motivational workshop is? I can’t believe that someone from the training function is saying this. Everyone knows what a motivational workshop is!”

“Actually I don’t. So help me. What is this motivational workshop supposed to achieve?”

He still didn’t believe that I was serious. “Achieve? It is supposed to motivate my people to put in their best and achieve their targets!”

 I didn’t know how a training workshop could achieve that. But I decided to find out. So I asked him to give me a couple of days and that I would get back to him.

 I called a few trainer colleagues working in other organizations to find out what motivational training was all about. The gist of what I got from them was, “Do a training program, preferably off-site to energise the participants. Talk to them about how their individual dreams will get fulfilled if they achieve the organizational targets. Like a football coach motivating the team before a big game.” I understood that. But that gave rise to another issue. How do you sustain that energy over a period of time? How do you make sure that the energy gets translated to output at work?

 I got several vague answers to that. The best one was, do another workshop in about three months. So motivational training was like that energy drink that they show in ads. An athlete has this drink every time he is tired, and he is ready to run another 100 meters in under ten seconds..

 It really didn’t make sense to me. Something was not right. So I went back to the business head and told him, “Look I really don’t know how to dothis motivational training.”

 He was angry. “If you are not capable of doing motivational training, I am going to get an external trainer to do it.”

 So he went ahead and found a trainer who took the team to someplace outside the city where they spent two days. Obviously disappointed with my response, I was not involved in the exercise. However, a couple of days after, the business head did drop into my office to tell me about it.

 “It was a great workshop. Really charged up my boys. You should have been there… learn a few things about motivation.”

 A couple of months later I bumped into our business head again. He looked tense. Naturally I asked him if everything was all right.

 “No, everything is not all right. Business is not picking up. Targets are not being met still and there’s a lot of pressure.”

 No wonder he was looking so stressed out.

 “So the motivational workshop didn’t work?” “I don’t know what’s wrong. They all seemed so charged up at the end of the training. But back at work, they were the same as before.”

 “Let’s talk about it. Maybe we can find some solution.”

 He looked sceptical. But maybe he was desperate enough to talk even to a trainer who did not know what a motivational workshop was. So he came to my office and sat down. It was an interesting conversation. At the end of it, I also learnt something about motivation.

 Me: Forget the word motivation for a bit. Tell me what you want your team to do.

Business Head (BH): I want my people to take ownership of their targets. I want them to do everything to achieve their targets. I am not asking for too much, am I? That’s what they have been hired for!
Me: And why do you think it is not happening?
BH: Because there is no motivation!
Me: I told you to forget that word. Think again…
BH (After a long pause): Because they are not taking ownership.
Me: You told me that. Why are they not taking ownership?
BH:I told you… there is no motivation!
Me: Please forget motivation… The word does not exist. Now tell me, why are they not taking ownership?
BH: I don’t know why they are not taking ownership. If I knew, I wouldn’t be sitting here!
Me: Ok tell me, what does taking ownership mean?
BH: This is such a waste of time! You know what taking ownership means!
Me: No I am dumb. I don’t know what taking ownership means. So please tell me.
BH: Look, I need to get back to work. I don’t have time for these silly games
Me: You have tried things that haven’t worked. Why don’t you give this conversation a chance. Maybe we will discover something that will work
BH (After another long pause): Ok….. So what do you want to know?
Me: I want to understand this word, ownership..
BH: Ownership… These people have been hired to do a job. They have to take responsibility for their jobs.
Me: And what do you do to enable them to do that?. .
BH (Almost exploding): DO?! Every day, twice a day I tell them to take ownership!
Me: What if our CEO also did just that? Just told you take ownership. Would it work?
BH: But that’s what has happened. The day I joined this company, he told me that meeting sales targets was my responsibility. After that I took ownership of sales and have been driving it.

Me: No he didn’t do just that. He also made sure that certain enablers were in place.

BH: What enablers? He does not tell me how to do my job!
Me: Well, he enabled you to create your own team. He made sure Operations team and the service team gave you the needed support. Systems and processes to ensure smooth functioning between departments, things over which you have no direct control.
BH: But these are things that are necessary. How would you otherwise run a business without them?
Me (Smiling): Exactly
BH (Now suspicious): What are you trying to tell me?
Me: Your team also needs certain enablers to do their jobs. It could be the right skills, or the right systems and processes, or even words of encouragement at the right time.
BH: Of course they have all these things!
Me: Why don’t you ask them?
BH: Ask them?! What do you mean ask them?
Me: Well your team is doing the job. They would best know what they need to do it effectively.
BH: (Another pause): I am desperate enough to try even this… But what about motivation?
Me: Come back when you have done this. Then we will talk about motivation.

He didn’t come back. The next communication I got from him was an invite to a party to celebrate achievement of the next quarterly target.

 I still don’t know about how to motivate others. I believe that you cannot motivate others. People drive themselves to do something. All another person can do is provide the right environment. I believe it is all about the enablers.

 

Where is the PPT?

A constant crib among my fellow trainers and something that I have experienced also is that every one considers himself/herself as an expert on the subject of training.

 Look at it this way – I cannot dare tell a marketing person or a finance person or any other person how to do or not do his/her job. But each one of them considers himself/herself an expert when it comes to the subject of training.  Not only that, they consider it their right to tell every trainer they come across how to do his/her job better.

 Most times the situation for us suffering trainers is one of ‘grin and bear it’. But once in a while one does get an opportunity to tell someone that training is much more than standing in front of an audience and “delivering”. These rare occasions, when they do come, the efforts are well worth the results.

 I was in discussion with a business head for a personal development program for senior members of his team. “I have a great bunch of people”, he began the discussion. “Each one of them has unique strengths, but there is no synergy between them. I want your help in breaking any barriers that they may have so they can work together as a team”.

 So we spent nearly two hours discussing the objectives, design and flow of the workshop. Towards the end, the conversation went as follows:

Business Head (BH): So that concludes our discussion. I hope you have all the information you need.

Me: Yes, I think I have all data to work on the program, but if I need any further information, I will come back to you.
BH: Any time! How long will you take to finalize the program?
Me: About a week. We can then finalize dates for the workshop.
BH: Great! And please share your PPT with me once you have finished with it.
Me: PPT? What PPT?
BH: Your presentation for the workshop… Your slides
Me: I don’t have any PPT for the workshop
BH (A little exasperated): How come you don’t have a PPT? And even if you don’t, you will be making one for the workshop, won’t you?
Me: I meant I will not be using any PPT for this workshop

 The look I got from him was something. It was almost as if I was telling him that I would be painting a picture without paints or cooking without ingredients.

BH: But how can you conduct a workshop without a PPT?
Me: I don’t need a PPT for this workshop. There are no slides that I need to show the participants.
BH: No slides to show? Then how will you standardise your inputs?

 By now I was confused. Standardise inputs? And a power point presentation does that? Maybe I was missing something.

 Me: Why do I need to standardise inputs?

BH: If you don’t standardise, then how do you maintain consistency in quality?
Me: If the desired objective in each program is achieved, isn’t that a measure of quality of a training workshop?

 From the look on his face, I could make out that he was having second thoughts about going ahead with the workshop. But he couldn’t do much about it now. After all I was the training head of the company and it was he who had come to me with an issue.

BH: I think you should have a presentation. It will help you get consistency in your inputs.

It was then that I realised that this was one of those rare opportunities…

Me: Do all the participants think, feel and behave in a similar manner?
BH: Of course not! They are human beings… they are different
Me: Is there consistency in the way they communicate or act?
BH: No…
Me: Then why should there be a consistency in the inputs they receive?
BH: Do you mean to tell me that training cannot be standardised?
Me: You can standardise some training, like a skill training. But here we are talking of personal development. You can’t standardise that. Every participant will have to be dealt with differently

That got him thinking.

BH: Yeah, I can see that. Skills training like driving… That kind of training will need to be standardised.

Me: Correct. But even there I don’t know of anyone who uses a PPT…

 He smiled and nodded.

We did the workshop without any PPT. It went off quite well. And the business head was happy with the results. It’s been eight years since I left that organization. I have heard that now whenever a trainer comes to him with a PPT, he wants to know if it is really necessary.

 A convert, one could say. Or perhaps he still hasn’t given up on giving advice to trainers…