Great Expectations......from training programs, what the dickens!

Recently, I completed the design and delivery of a training program on leadership for first=time managers.

One would agree that this topic is relatively complex in relation to relatively more defined subjects such as communication skills, finance fundamentals, project management or labor-laws. The latter are grounded with widely accepted "rules" and governing principles. Training programs on "people-management" and "leadership skills" do delve into certain basic fundamentals of dealing with human elements, but to expect them to dish out formulaic solutions with mathematical "if-then" algorithm-like features could turn out to be......well, unrealistic. 

It was interesting to observe that many participants often sought direct magic-pill solutions to situations in leadership, particularly while dealing with biases. "How do I solve the problem of bias in performance appraisals?" or " how does one select a competent team member for a coveted assignment without upsetting the other members who may feel resentful or neglected?" were common questions from some of the participants, for which the trainer was expected to deliver specific pat and accurate responses. These are the types of situations which may not have ready-made silver bullet answers. Many participants struggle to comprehend that the kinds of problem-situations that we encounter in the people dimension may be touching the realms of the abstract.

Morgan Jones, former CIA Analyst, describes 4 broad types of problems in his book "The Thinker's Toolkit".

Simplistic: where there is only answer to a problem statement or question, for example: Who is the current Prime Minister of India?

Deterministic: , here again, there is only one answer, which is determined by a formula; example: What is the area of a triangle whose base is 20 feet and height is 10 feet?

Random: Different answers are possible, and all can be identified, for example: Which of the candidates will win the election?

Indeterminate: Different answers are possible, but because all or some are conjectural, not all possible answers can be identified directly. For example: What would be the impact of climate change on the global economy in the long-term? 

Most training programs addressing topics that span the first three types of problems may tend to receive higher or positive feedback-ratings from the participants. However, topics with indeterminate elements that need to be addressed, such as leadership development, may require answers to be derived through guided discussion along with other creative pedagogy, based on the principles of adult-learning. The answers so derived may not be 100% accurate all the time; sometimes they may be the best or the closest approximation to the "ideal" and "invisible" solution.

I would advise potential learners to attempt to understand the nature of the problem statement before enrolling into a training program, so that their expectations can be set appropriately. Great expectations can sometimes lead to great disappointments with respect to training interventions, depending on the topic. 

As one ascends the corporate ladder, problem statements evolve in parallel from simplistic and deterministic to indeterminate. Dealing effectively with complex indeterminate problems is one of the hallmarks of leadership. Learning interventions that address indeterminate issues may provide approaches or pointers that warrant experimentation with development along the way while being applied to problems in the real world scenarios (the key-words here being "experimentation" and "development"). The point I am trying to emphasize is that solutions to indeterminate problems are seldom preconceived.

To quote Einstein: "Problems cannot be solved at the same level at which they were created".  Especially indeterminate ones.