By Steve M. Cohen bio
Many offices place a low priority on training. It’s an understandable situation, but one that rarely leads to positive results.
Whether you’re dealing with office technology, procedure or specialized skills, training is not something managers should take for granted. Training can also be related to good morale, professional development, and team building. In fact, team learning is team building.
No one disputes that the economy is still in shambles. Everyone understands the need for business to be lean and for employees to do more with less. All this is the “new normal.”
Given all that, the question of what to do about training for professional development is still valid.
I suggest that there is an answer, even in the new normal. Managers can take the lead. They should take the responsibility for actually providing the professional development for his or her staff. They can bring the staff together and lead/facilitate professional development activities.
There is a cost, though not in dollars, but in time. For the employees, it’s time away from their productivity expectations, and for the office, it’s time away from their duties. But look at the benefits derived. Managers are actually and formally participating in the professional development of staff. The staff gets face time with their supervisors, and team learning is facilitated.
There is a tenet in educational psychology that suggests that while people can learn from teachers, professors, consultants, and other subject matter experts, people learn best from their peers. Really.
I am not suggesting that the manager is a peer, but the commitment to act as a trainer/facilitator reduces the gap between the two and highly increases the probability that the training time will be valuable and the learning actually implemented. Management is directly participating in growing his or her employees in a professional development venue.
Books on relevant topics, from technical skills to customer service, can be purchased by the organization in quantities and then provided to the group. The group members can then read them individually, and the manager can lead a discussion regarding the following questions:
- What were the main premises of the book?
- What does this mean to me (the reader)?
- How is this relevant to our office?
- How is this relevant to my job?
- How can the best elements found in the book be implemented in our office?
I suggest that this process be repeated on a monthly basis. One book a month and one or two meetings during the month to cover the subjects would certainly constitute professional development and team building, perhaps even change within the organization.
Taking a break from the process for perhaps August and December would still leave 10 books per year. Even this could be reduced to say five books a year. Either way, professional and other positive developments are occurring.
| Related reading: | ||
 Never-ending training# |
 How to do staff training that really works# |
 Creating culture change: a case study of how one firm made technology training a priority# |