Training Budgets Waste or Total Waste?

If your business is interested in learning how to truly compete on a global scale, then it probably needs to get dramatically smarter, about getting smarter.

Why is it that whenever an industry has a down-turn the first budget slashed is training? One week management wants everyone to attend all sorts of training seminars and the next week almost ALL of them are canceled. Why?

I have my own theory as to why training budgets are cut in this way. I propose this theory in the manner of a confession. You see, for most of the past 20 years I've been involved in some form of professional training. I have seen first hand what companies intuitively know, which is that a great deal of the money, time, and energy spent in professional training total is a TOTAL WASTE.

There, I said it, I feel better already.

Unfortunately, this also applies to most on-line training courses. The big difference between on-line training and live training in terms of results is simply that you waste less money with on-line training because you spend less for the course. Not a big win.

Here is a simple test to see how effective your training has been.

List, from memory, five facts you learned at your last all-day training course.

Thirty days after you take that on-line computer training lesson, do you remember even two things you learned?

I doubt it.

Research dating back to Ebbinghaus in 1885 shows us why. The reality is, we are great at forgetting. Perhaps it is time we start applying this research? Or, here's an idea, perhaps we can apply some of the additional research done in human cognition and memory that has been performed since 1885. We do have an additional 122 years of research we could be using. Have you ever read any of it? When I look at most professional training it is certainly clear that your trainers haven't!

Remarkably, whether teaching in schools or training in business, for the the most part, we ignore 122 years of research. We use old and wasteful training methods. Hey Detroit! Interested in learning how to slash your training budgets while achieving dramatically better training results? Want to ensure your employees actually gain and retain the skills and knowledge required to compete in the 21^st century? Here is a hint.

STOP PUTTING YOUR POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS ON-LINE INTO COMPUTER BASED TRAINING SYSTEMS.

Please stop doing that, it just makes me sick. In case you didn't notice, most people are bored to death by PowerPoint presentations. Why do you think putting them on the Internet will suddenly make them more interesting?

There is a dramatically better way to provide training and education. Information worth learning should be properly reinforced so that it is retained and recalled long-term. Here is a thought, if you do training right, you should actually remember what you have learned.

Oh, and an additional benefit of doing training right - if you change your tools and approach, most training sessions should not cost more than $10. Think Charles Shaw training: if you are paying more than $10 a bottle of training, you are paying too much. If your vendors are charging you more than that, get new vendors, or demand that they implement a better system, a system based on real data and research in human cognition and memory.

If your business is going to be competitive in the 21^st Century you are going to have to have some of the most effective training and education programs on the planet. You can do this. First you have to be willing to admit that what you are currently doing is not good enough. Next, you have to change. The tools are ready. The time is right. The secrets are ready to be revealed.

In my next post, I'll tell you the secrets to dramatically reforming your education and training systems, including exactly what needs to change, how to change it, and where you can begin.