A Carol Kallendorf, Ph.D./Jack Speer Organization

If You're Sending Your Best into Combat. . .  

. . . the Least You Owe Them Is to
Train Them Right

Jack Speer, President, The Delta Associates

Why Softskills Training
Too Often  Is Useless

The Marines have a slogan, "Always Training, Always Ready."  That seems obvious in the context of Marines.   Well trained soldiers most often survive. 

Training in organizations, however, is often useless. 

Managers attend management training and continue to manage badly.   People attend classes on negotiation and come back and rip somebody's face off the very next week.

In organizations, we need training, but we don't train for the right things--or even at the right time. 

Train someone to get a product out in 30 days instead of six months and you'll have people wanting to be trained. 

Teach someone how to make a million dollar sale instead of a $10,000 sale--and show him or her that they'll be getting the commission--and you'll have organizations standing in line for training.

When someone tells me they hate softskills training, I quickly tell them I hate it too.  I only want to begin with the end in mind--Is there a payoff I want or a cliff I can keep from driving over?

If you have a concrete measurable goal you want to achieve with a team, we can help you.  Our training deals with real business combat where there are real bullets.

The Rules of Engagement Have Changed
in the 21st Century. . . and So Has the Training

The number of training sessions is radically down in companies and organizations today.  That's because most employees, as well as management, believe that traditional training is most often not worth the time it takes.

That's because the old ways don't work.  Training has changed.  Probably forever.

Slogans and off-the-shelf training worked for some organizations in the 20th century. 

The military is a huge trainer, because it knows that well trained armed forces win battles and suffer fewer casualties.  But even 20th century military training won't work in the 21st century.   If you had been a military trainer in the 20th century, you would have taught the troops to look for the tank coming over the hill and recognize the nationality of the flag that flew on it. 

That's not the way it works today.  Today you'd be explaining to your troops how to rid terrain of homemade bombs (IEDs) and look for unlikely people coming out of nowhere.

In the 1990s we talked about reengineering, process, quality, customer service.  The results were revolutionary.  The problem is that traditional training is stuck in that era.  The answers of yesterday are not often applicable today.   In a world of incredible cost cutting, how much customer service can a company afford and will customers buy it?  Can my company handle IT from a help desk halfway across the world?  How do we really do global functions and teams?  How do we think strategically and critically in an environment of wildly unpredictable trends and variables?

Training today is vital if it is a response to an issue in which a team has a critical task and lacks the tools to be successful.  A new system is going on line, a product deadline looms large and is a critical factor in the success of the company, a product development team is stymied.

When a product or service is stuck, training is critical to move forward.  Without training, expensive, devastating failure is certainly unavoidable.  You can break up the team and send in a different set of people, but if systemic blockages are in place, they'll fail also.  Failure to train would be like sending a special ops team in without the proper battle skills and equipment.

The approach that the trainer must take in these cases is that of a business diagnostician.   Getting the team to do what they're doing harder and faster is pointless.  They have to understand the goal, the milestones, who's in charge of what, how they'll work together and the tools they'll need to accomplish the job.

We follow a process in developing training that trains to needs and situations.  We first do an accurate analysis of what is the goal, what's at stake, who stands to win and to lose, who has the ability to make the milestones happen, and we give the team tools to achieve the goal.

Let's talk about 21st century training.  That kind of training makes you money by enabling people to achieve goals.  Please contact us at 512-498-9780 or jspeer@delta-associates.com.

The Delta Associates
1704 Briar Street
Austin, Texas 78704

Voice, 512-498-9780
Email, jspeer@delta-associates.com
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