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Leadership Training: It's a Trip
August 31, 2008
I’ve been making the same argument for a long, long time. And that is that training can easily be a waste of time and a waste of money - and I say this as a trainer. Let’s face it, we are the first to go when budgets get cut. Well, it’s no wonder! One of the bigger and more divergent trends in training has taken the concept of “off-sites” to a whole new level by shipping employees to all corners of the earth (usually first class) to learn new things. But what these things actually have to do with work and contribute to a business’s culture, growth and bottom line is tenuous at best. Some argue that these programs help retain workers in general, and top talent specifically. Maybe so. But I say there are far more cost effective, strategic, sound, business-savvy, inclusive ways to retain employees without making others feel as if they don’t measure up enough to be selected to play in a company’s “reindeer games.” It’s exclusive. And "big picture?" It can't be good for moral across the larger organization.
About a year ago, I wrote about feeling similarly conflicted when it came to the teambuilding bandwagon onto which so much of corporate America has jumped. It’s all too often that neither teambuilding nor training programs work because the objectives themselves are too far removed from business results. It makes no sense. Training is not a luxury; it's a necessity that shouldn't be eliminated in the same way that people cut back on vacations during belt-tightening times. What it should be is not cost prohibitive, but ongoing and highly relevant to the immediate, short and long-term needs of the business.
Well it seems I'm in good company. Douglas MacMillan also wrote about this recently as a questionable trend in Business Week. He’s not convinced, nor am I that ROI is anywhere to be found on these "training trips" that actually train people to do very little that pertains to work, if anything at all.
Posted by Donna Flagg on August 31, 2008 | Comments (0)
