Why most business training doesn't work...
TL:DR Business training usually doesn’t work because the course is designed by the wrong people with the wrong outcome in mind.?
I get it, we are all short on time, but reading this will help you get more out of every single second you try to learn for the rest of your life. (promise)
Shit is about to get real in the world of business over the next six to twelve months...aaaand most people are going to be tempted to look for some kind of training to help with that.
I wrote this...(and the book this is taken from) to help you get more out of the learning you do in the future
Here is why business training usually doesn’t work…
?It’s like this…
?Why business training doesn't work
Businesses are started by regular "people with ideas".
The reasons people start businesses are as varied as the people themselves.?
They have come to owning a business by chance, with little or no experience, no support network, limited skills and usually very limited resources.?They just love what they do and want to give themselves a fighting chance in making it work
Sound familiar?
So, in order to give themselves the fighting chance to bring their beautiful idea to life, they do two things.?
1.???They start looking for advice on the internet
2.???They find some kind of business support course in their local area.
Sounds like a good idea...right?
Well...absolutely not to be honest.
And the reason for that lies in the question that I get asked in almost every workshop and coaching session I have led over the last 20 years.?
The most pointless question...
?That question always starts with the same words.?"What's the best way to...."
?And that is the thing.
?There IS no best way.
There is only the way that works for you and the ways that don't.?
?Business Advice is not transferrable.
All businesses are unique and specific to the people running them, the products and services they sell and where they operate.?
Giving huge amounts of general advice on what to do can be confusing, disengaging or downright unhelpful.?
The world is changing on an almost daily basis.
?...you see where I am going with this...?
?If everyone's business is so different, with the people running them having vastly different levels of skills and abilities, how can the same 'Business Course' information be useful for all of them?
Most people attend business training because they think they don’t have enough information…
That is, of course…bollocks.
Googling "How to grow my business" turns up a simply frightening 4,550,000,000 results...if you spent 1 second looking at each of those posts it would take you 144.2 YEARS.
We can both agree that is probably enough information.
The real challenge for many people in the first three years of business isn't knowing what to know, it is knowing what to do.?
Let me show you.
?You already know most of the things you need to know
If I were to ask you what do you have to do to run a successful business, you would be able to give me a pretty detailed and clear answer about all the moving parts that you need to focus on and manage.
So maybe adding more information isn't the answer??As the results of the search suggests, the sad truth is that we can't actually Google our way to success.?
We need to know...HOW to do what we need to do.?What is the right way...for us.
"We are leaving the age of information and entering the age of implementation"
Alex Hormozi, Entrepeneur
Back to the question I mentioned earlier, you are probably thinking about ..."What's the best way to...."
...and that question is the core of the problem for a 'number of reasons', especially for those of us who have ended up running a business by accident.
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?Maybe I should talk about the 'number of reasons' I just mentioned to help make everything a little bit clearer.
The Reasons You Think There is a Right Way and a Wrong Way To Do Business
?Reason #1 - School Motherfucker!
There are two ways school holds us back from being the absolute business badass that we are on the inside (yes, that includes you).
And most training courses are based on the same lesson design as school...
?School insists that there are definite answers
Anyone who tells you they have all of the answers you need is so full of shit that they squeak
School has trained almost all of us that if we sit down and be quiet and listen patiently then the person at the front will tell us all the answers and facts that we need to do well in the big exam later on.?
We pay attention.?We memorise.?We regurgitate the information.?We succeed. ....right?
?Nope.
The joyful/terrifying truth is that the exam for your business is for the rest of its existence.?
However, you get to set the curriculum AND the passing mark.
It is entirely up to you.
Exciting right! (and a bit terrifying)
Ever wonder why the kids at school who were rubbish at sitting down and doing what they were told...are often the people who are particularly successful at running their own business..?
It's almost like the skills that helped you be good at school are of little help when running a business.
School was amazing at preparing you for getting a job...and as we will see in a minute, having a job uses the opposite mindset as running a business.
So...my awkward question at this point is.
If school was teaching you to get a job (not running a business)...how useful will you find it to try and use the same mindset and studying skills on a business course...to learn how to run a business...?
Exactly.
Reason #2 School teaches you to how to win at a job. (it is what it was designed to do)
Winning at job = fitting in
Winning at business = standing out
?Are you trying to create a job for yourself...or a business?
Many people who look to set up a business are either jumping out of, or falling out of, a job in a bigger business.?In order to succeed at that job, we have to do a number of things (alongside being technically good at our job) that will help us become a useful and functioning part of that organisation.?
We have to fit in, not rock the boat, be part of a team, etc and the more we do that, the better an employee we are.
If you think about a running a business, fitting in with your competitors, being like everyone else doing what they do, not making any noise...how well do you think that business is going to do?
Not very well...right.
The purpose of a business is to stand out from the competition, to be distinctive and unmistakable.?It is literally the opposite of fitting in.
This is the difference between doing things right (like everyone else) and doing the right things.
So, if you approach going on a course to grow your business, in the same way as you did at school...looking for them to tell you the answers, then how useful do you think attending that course will be?
Moreover, because the only real learning experience we have ever had was school, it is easy for us to think that school was the best way to learn.
To pass an exam, maybe it was.?
But for our businesses, there IS no exam, so maybe we need to take a different approach to when going on a course so that we can squeeze every single drop of useful stuff out of it..?
The Takeaway
Remember, you are looking for what you can apply, like for real, make the person at the front help you design actual specific practical steps - for your business.
Thank you for reading, especially as it has been a little longer than usual. I'm not sure what I will be writing about next week...maybe the results of my recession research.
Hopefully you found this article useful, let me know in the comments.
Neil x
?
Helping women leaders in science progress their careers, realise their full potential & maximise impact | Award-winning coach | 1:1 | Teams | Groups | Workshops
2 年Looking forward to reading more in the book you mention!
Digital Marketer, Paid Search Specialist and Web Designer - Helping businesses in the UK, USA and Mexico.
2 年Great Article - I'm reminded of Monty Python "we are all individuals" - I'm not!
Linked In marketing services that start conversations that convert. ?? Lumpy Mailer that gets sticky doors opened
2 年Read this twice and saved it. Many a business owner goes the education route when they have run out of steam on ideas for where their business is going. Doing the same as everyone else never is going to be the solution. It’s the DNA of what you do that counts. What’s Disintinctive, Notable and Attractive about your offer and approach? No one ever said I’m buying into what you do because you’re the same.
Marketing Manager at PSA
2 年This is so useful from both a business owner and a person who helps businesses. I am also asked what is the right strategy for X, and I always say there is no one right way...But I still ask that question too, in the hope that someone will just give me a process to follow, probably because that is what school taught me to need