“The Times They Are a-Changin”

What if learners train themselves?

The Baby Boomers will passionately recall the ‘Sixties’, with Bob Dylan’s mesmerizing song, “The Times- They are a-Changin”. A mellow spirit of peace and optimism prevailed. The hippie pervasive mantra ‘Make Love not War’ was exciting and change was a heady reality.

Bob Dylan was correct, the pace of change has been chaotically fast and disruptive, with technology spearheading the charge.

Something has NOT changed, I’ll come to that……..

As, I approach nearly 4 decades of training and development forgive me for even thinking I am a specialist in this arena. Luckily, I don’t, because I have not mastered it. I’m simply on an ongoing learning path and a great believer in Alexander Pope’s “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”. I wish I could say “I have arrived, let me off” but that moment never arrives.

So what keeps me going?

Well, I’m curious and in great company too. Einstein once remarked “The important thing is to not stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

My challenge and frustration lies in trying to find answers to the ongoing question of why the Roles of Managers in most Organisations have NOT CHANGED. Everything surrounding managers has changed and at a volatile pace too.

Organisations have flattened out and are much less hierarchical – whole layers of management have been stripped out. Millennials dominate the work force. They are not the malleable and compliant workers of old. They want to innovate, initiate and lead.

Today, customers change their branding and appoint new suppliers in the wink of an eye and totally rule the marketplace. In fact they dominate and the rules of engagement change daily, not annually.

That’s why Business Plans and Strategies focus on the immediate short-term. 5 year Business Plans that focus on the long end game have been chucked out the window.

Despite all these frenetic pressures whirling around us, management’s roles have simply remained the same

It’s fairly apparent that Managers still follow the old fashioned Management Model of PLOC. Plan, Lead, Organise and Control. This Model was invented by Louis Allen in the 1960’s and refashioned business thinking into a disciplined science. It became the universal handbook for business leaders and had great impact. But sadly, today’s executives and managers tend to over stress the Organise and Control aspects of this Model and these archaic disciplines are completely out of tune with the mind-sets of the staff, who are mainly Millennials.

We see evidence of this in management’s inability to engage meaningfully with their staff, retain their best performers, compete on the world stage, keep abreast of latest technology trends and respond to shareholders ever increasing demands for ROI.

Training normally focuses on improving the skill sets of the work force. And who are the people we converse with? Yes, you’re right, we speak to management and executives because it’s this group that makes the call and has access to the budget.

Now the “Times are a-Changin” and there is light at the end of the tunnel because our approach to training projects has radicalised and been turned on its head. My company, the Peer Training Group has re-engineered a system, originally developed in Canada, called Peer Training that addresses staff up-skilling and empowerment.

Our first challenge is to befriend the managers and get them to understand that up-skilling their staff will not threaten their positions. Managers are by nature an insecure lot and very protective about their titles.

The next challenge is to get them to realize that traditional training – putting people in a room for a few days and exposing them to a radical set of new skills – and then expecting them to become star performers is really a pipe dream. It’s a “Spray and Pray” approach that has been habitually implemented over so many years and failed.

So what’s the Alternative?

• What if we allow the learners to draw up a post course syllabus based on 3 hours a month that they run by themselves? Furthermore we ask the staff to select amongst themselves who will facilitate and everyone gets to take a turn.
• What if we encourage the learners to choose topics that apply to their real work scenarios and reflect real-life challenges? The chances are high that delegates will participate and immerse themselves in debating issues that are relevant to their lives. This is Experiential Learning and research shows that this approach ensures a better learning retention than any one way lecture. Experiential learning encourages staff the chance to practice skills in a low-pressure environment and then reflect on how to best change their behaviors.
• What if, instead of passively learning sales skills during a one way lecture, delegates actively participated in the training? And what if that training didn’t feel like hard work —rather it was fun and meaningful? Like a good game.
• What if the learners produce Action Plans at the end of their session so managers can evaluate their progress? And the managers, like any good coach can give constructive feedback, something staff yearn for, yet seldom receive.
• What if, the entire organisation becomes a learning organisation and everyone is involved in Peer to Peer Learning? When staff are engaged in the training and can apply learning to their real work scenarios, they retain the information for a lifetime, so you don’t have to spend money so often on formal training.

This is no longer a pipe dream as many progressive companies are starting to view their staff as ‘managers’ or custodians of their company’s destiny and their voices are actually important, heard and acted on.

Our intention is not to displace the managers, but rather allow them to focus on more important issues like planning and leading. As we allow the new style workers the space to develop and innovate, they become more responsible and accountable. This is something we have been trying so hard to achieve – and we have failed dismally - using outdated approaches to managing and learning.

This call to action is not for the fainthearted. It requires a true commitment to change and empowerment and finally it is not a panacea, a magic pill to solve all organisational hassles.

The new approach does however give me hope as a training veteran that positive change is in the air. Let’s accelerate into a brand new adventure together by adopting the Peer 2 Peer Learning approach.

I’d appreciate your insights, wisdom and critique – please feel free to add to this by leaving your comments below.

Clive Price

Managing Director

Peer Training Group

www.mypeergroup.com