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THE DEVELOPMENT
ALTERNATIVE - One size doesn't fit all.
“Training and Learning”
In recent years, much of the HRD world seems to have been dazzled by
a mess of fads, one-size-fits-all Codes of Practice, and acronyms.
It seems that we believe we can address the glorious complexities of
human interaction and development by the application of bland
formulae and shallow cure-alls.
At the worst, these become axiomatic to the point of tyranny. On a
recent course, delegates were asked to share their action plans. “I
can’t!” wailed one. “I know what I need to do, but it isn’t SMART so
it doesn’t count!”. Apparently he’d been so indoctrinated with the
acronym that he believed it to the point of discounting anything
that didn’t fit.
A reductive and formulaic approach to human development is
disastrous, because we are in a complex, challenging, even daunting
business – that of getting the best out of people……and we need to
accept and work with that complexity if we’re to see lasting and
valuable results from our work.
A Varied Approach
One of the things we need to do is to stop treating all learning
needs as training needs. Sometimes, to enable to people to develop,
other strategies are more appropriate. A continuum (see below)
illustrates the range of learning:
Development - The Missing Ingredient
Whilst the left and centre of the continuum are generally
well-served, the same isn’t true of development/self-development.
It’s hard to sell to a business constituency, which is mesmerised
(and rewarded) by a short-term bottom line. Further, both skills
training and competency selling are largely aimed at building
compliance in employees, rather than empowering them. Development
aims to empower.
Compliance is a huge problem for organisations as it tends towards
conserving the present rather than helping organisations to evolve
to meet new challenges.
For an example of the dire effects that an attitude of compliance
has had on development training, one only has to look at
outdoor
management development (OMD). It’s potentially an ideal medium for
self-development (and in the past was often used as such) because:
· It allows people to reflect and reach personal conclusions on
their actions, perhaps modifying behaviour as a result, perhaps even
changing deeply held attitudes.
· It can provide people with a canvas (typically outdoor tasks) on
to which they can project their own learning. My experience shows
that this is often more powerful (and effective) than telling people
what they ought to be good at, and then training them in it.
Sadly, whilst one can still find genuine attempts at running
self-development programmes, most providers have given up, taking
easier routes to making a living, typically:
Bogus “teambuilds”: It’s easier to sell one-day events under the
label of teambuilding than to seriously address the real thing. The
events themselves are pleasant and diverting days out – activities
like archery, landrovering, dinghy sailing. If people have fun
together, it is argued, they must be bonding. Sadly, the opportunity
to genuinely explore the issues which really matter isn’t taken.
Some suppliers even make a virtue of their essential triviality,
offering courses unencumbered by facilitators, who might get in the
way of the fun by asking difficult questions. As well as outdoor
activities, treats offered include lawnmower racing and “It’s a
Knockout”. What larks!
But it isn’t development.
Shock Treatment: Some practitioners offer programmes aimed at
humiliating or frightening people. This process takes many forms,
including “teambuilds” in which groups who fail to achieve are
subject to a gunge-tank or some similar form of ritual humiliation.
A related approach is the simple one of finding out what peoples’
greatest fear is and then confronting them with it. (“yesterday you
said you hated heights…. today you’re going abseiling!”). Students
of George Orwell will note the resemblance to 1984’s Room 101.
Other more sophisticated sadists offer refined forms of torture
which have included simulated abductions of senior managers.
I have no idea what it’s all supposed to do for people’s
development. I suppose there’s something to be said for making
people aware of just how nasty life can be, but in my experience
most people already know that, and piling on the misery doesn’t
help.
Development Training
Somewhere in between these two extremes is a wonderful tool for
personal development that just isn’t being used - a form of training
in which delegates work on absorbing tasks, interact with others,
take part in process review, reflect, and are empowered to learn
what they need to learn through a process of facilitated reflection
on their actions.
Why isn’t this training often offered these days? There are a number
of reasons for this:
· Development, especially self-development is a process which
requires time. Courses used to last 12 days. Five later became the
norm – and proved to be sufficient time - but nowadays even two days
is considered a luxury. It’s well-nigh impossible for the
development process to happen in that time, and Companies are
reluctant to spare employees (and employees to be away from work)
for longer.
· As has been noted, development isn’t SMART. It’s a complex,
difficult, profound process. So selling it isn’t easy. The need for
training to be focussed and systematic – which self-development
isn’t - has been a theme of every state intervention in learning
management since the early 1970’s and has become a taken-for-granted
by many HR professionals. Thus, development is unlikely to feature
on organisation’s training plans, except (maybe) in the guise of
teambuilding.
· Because it’s difficult to sell, many organisations purporting to
sell OMD, as noted above, have opted for an apparently easier path,
marketing fun-days and teambuilds instead, or retreating to the
outdoor pursuits heartland of young peoples’ courses.
All of which leads – in OMD anyway – to the demise of development.
Is that bad?
Yes. Speaking from personal experience, the three things which have
had the most positive effect on how I’ve progressed as an individual
have all been development experiences:
· A week-long “T” Group from which I emerged with enhanced powers of
assertion and led to greater self-respect.
· A week-long OMD course which enabled me to harness my creativity -
which had been dormant for years.
· A part-time Masters’ (research based), which taught me to think.
Those three experiences have changed my life, enabling me to release
talents and abilities which other forms of education had done their
best to stifle.
It can do the same for your people – with results that may be
potent, perturbing and – initially at any rate – hard to put into
words. But results that will last - to everyone’s benefit. Your
people may be less compliant – but they’ll be more proactive….
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