Why would a company hire a trainer? Is it to boost morale, motivate
the staff, impart some valuable skills, create mindset change, shake-up
the poor performers, fulfill the training plans or just to ‘use
up’ the training budget?
No matter what the reason is, there is only one basic purpose: A
company hires a trainer to produce a change in its operations and
business. The sole function of training is to produce change, nothing
more, nothing less. Regardless of other results the trainer or HR
Manager may accomplish, the bottom line is a measurable change in
performance. The trainer is thus truly an agent for change.
We all know that change is neither good nor bad, change is only
constant. We all respond constantly to change – change in
economy, business cycle, oil price, family changes, society changes
and so on. Some people may respond better and faster than others,
and those that fail to respond to change will be left behind. In
fact, companies that went into failure were often due to their inability
to respond to change.
The good news is that although trainers cannot create change, they
can guide people and improve their ability to respond to changes.
Often in training, trainees have to do some re-thinking, unlearning
and then learn the new materials. Isn’t this process of re-thinking,
unlearning and learning exactly the process of change management?
We also know that motivation is the desire to learn to do different
things. A trainer cannot create motivation where none exists. But
a trainer can shape the environment to make it conducive to learning.
And a trainer can indirectly motivate employees through learning.
They say that adults learn in 3 ways:
- Adults learn when they are ready to learn. So you can’t
force someone to attend training just to fulfill the training
plan. That person must be willing and ready to learn.
- How to get them willing and ready to learn? Here’s where
we use the law of cause and effect. Adults will be ready and willing
to learn if they know that learning will move them away from pain
and towards pleasure. In the workplace, pain is ‘getting
stuck’, usually not achieving what we want due to lack of
knowledge and motivation. Pleasure is job satisfaction, which
comes from ability to get things done, which comes from more knowledge
and motivation. So a trainer ‘unstuck’ the employees
by imparting to them valuable knowledge. A trainer also does the
3rd thing, which is to…
- Implement the learning. Adults will only sustain their learning
and motivation if they put into practice what they learn.
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