"I don't have enough time to train"

I've heard this line a few times over the years. Often from managers or business owners that are very very busy 'doing stuff', but not always making that much progress. You may have met similar people, where there is always a lot of activity, but not always clarity on what it is achieving or if it is actually making a positive difference.

I'm not what I'd class as an L&D professional at all but I do believe that a

team of people who know why they do what they do, with really good knowledge and skill and practice, can make a huge impact.

The image at the top of this article shows someone trying to change a wheel on a car; they appear to know the theory (stationary car, jack to raise the wheel, undo the bolts, take wheel off, replace with new wheel, tighten bolds, lower jack...), but doing this as an individual who lacks expert skill, it's going to take some time.

Life is full of people who know what to do, who get on with their little bit and make it work; effective, not necessarily efficient or economical, but they do eventually get a task completed.

Now watch what a team approach to this same task is. A team who have purpose, who have invested in developing knowledge and skill.

1.92 seconds for this Formula 1 car to stop, be raised off the ground and for 4 WHEELS to be changed. 1.92 seconds! It took me 20 seconds to type this sentence.

I know some people will take a skeptical view of this example as Formula 1 have lots of money and it's not like the real world. But the principle is still sound, this team have to be the best they can be, they see their part of a wider purpose to give their driver the best possible chance to win the race. They're undertaking a very manual and repetitive task, but doing it with expertise and professionalism to be as good as they can be.

They can achieve this because they invested time to train.