Helene Blowers (LibraryBytes), points us to a wonderful post over at the Twopointouch blog. In his post, Sit and Listen, Author Ian Delaney makes a number of great points including:
- Employers also tend to confuse training and learning. Training gets done to you. Learning is something an individual does themselves. Companies tend to think of training as their responsibility, rather than learning.
- Educationalists have identified at least 37 different types of ways in which we learn stuff, from reading a book to playing simulations. Each individual will have their own preferred and most effective learning styles. In-house training tends to focus on one - sit in a room with a bunch of other people and get talked at.
Delaney suggests that part of the problem is tied in with many organizations’ dreadful appraisal/evaluation processes (and I heartily agree.)
The entire post is well worth a read, as is Helene’s post, where she writes:
The best learning happens by self-discovery, when two very important elements are present. In order for anyone to truly learn, they must be
a) engaged in their own discovery process and
b) be motivated to learn.and neither of these really require a “trainer.”
I agree completely–several months ago I wrote about having culture of training vs. a culture of learning. I think that increasingly we need to be moving in the direction of focusing our organizational efforts on nurturing cultures of learning and professional development, spending much less time on putting together “training programs.” In my ideal world, we’d all be self-directed learners taking charge of our own professional development with our organizations focusing on how to support that process.
Thanks Michele,
For your comment and for sharing the link to your fantastic post!
I found your article short and to the point. Thank you.