OK, so I have taken some time to reflect. It has been three months working with store managers across Canada. And I am contemplating what one says to finish the series. If you have been following, my last a.m. post was in the p.m. and this will land in early p.m. Nevertheless, I have all along tried to share both what happened in my sessions for consideration and what needs to happen as anyone decides to take any, all and whatever information into action.
Here is the next, or rather the last paragraphs concerning my three month observations.
Training challenges me. I do it for a living. I have in so many words for the past two years stated I do not like the word training. It has an obvious negative connotation. It causes one to reflex. Maybe even be unnerved or become defensive to a degree. This is because, many times, it, the training lacks a specific behavioral goal and tactical point. It may very well lack…umm, an answer to what happens afterwards?
Here is another. Technology has changed how organizations provide information. There are so many ways to engage in a learning process. Clam shell voice devices have migrated to smart phones, iPhones, tablets and readers. If you have internet access, you can “google” a topic. You can search YouTube. You can, believe it or not, actually pick up a physical book and read it. Information dissemination is easy. The harder part comes next.
As a learner, they decide what happens next. The learner is responsible for the learning. And that is the ultimate “rub”…one’s decision. I had a great conversation with a peer yesterday and he postulated based on his research, the challenge is the psychology of decision making, especially when some people may even know the difference between right and wrong and still make the wrong decision. Think about that. What about when you don’t know what is right or wrong? So there is decision making influencing training and the act of sharing information.
Now look at my audience. I have always engaged and enjoyed sharing time with the ubiquitous retail store manager. This twenty-something guy or gal doesn’t wake up wanting to fail and their boss (maybe the owner) wants them to do “x” every day. Context is everything. Here we go. An owner will wants to keep costs down…for obvious reasons. We are thankfully in a capitalistic system and that means if you own a store, you sell widgets for a reason, at a cost and with the intention your profit exceeds your costs. Then there may be a regional manager, who wants the store manager to do the “right thing”. They also are linked to the profit thing as it feeds their compensation. So training, albeit understandably important is also a cut into profit. Another view is the store manager, my audience. They show up in the store doing the best they can, sometimes not really wanting to do the job and maybe even thinking about his or her loved one, they want to own a house and go on vacation, care for their children and maybe even pay off this or that loan. So if motivation is decisions people make for themselves and they are even capable making the wrong one despite knowing better, how does training “solve” that. Who is deciding the training result or rather, the desired result?
Think about what I have just said, as much as that diminishes what I do for a living. One more consideration before we get to an “OK, so what next?” moment. Think the bell curve regarding how people think about their retail management job. Twenty percent want retail; this is where they thrive. Another twenty percent…yeah, not supposed to be a manager…ever. It is the sixty percent who will be with you for, what three years at best? They are looking (maybe not obviously) for something different. I understand that and even in a weird way, respect that. As I have often said, there is no absolute right or absolute wrong, there just is. I chose retail and the ability to help others understand it…even just a little.
Point being? People chose their own destiny, even the wrong ones. And yet even in the wrong one, they still learn, they still grow, they still develop, they still own a home, they still figure “it” out…whatever “it” is. People make their own choices. They decide.
What helps make a good manager decide? Is that a better question? I have always considered how one learns and what causes learning to become engrained. It is not the moment, the event, the learning. It is when the idea meets “aha” or the moment someone says I will “pay for that” or “yeah, if I do this, it will benefit ME in such a way, I will be happier, better, quicker, faster, smell better…whatever”. The proverbial light bulb. Content is not the answer. It is a correlation from knowing to doing. It is that causality of moving from an idea into action. And what causes that is not necessarily face to face learning, or an LMS program, or an app.
So what makes learning a behavior? It depends. I am not being cryptic. I believe the learner is accountable for the learning and they decide relevance, the “aha”. All retail management trainers and consultants provide a “punch in the arm” of information. Therefore this suggests the better methodology is for you as facilitator of the “aha” to be improvisational and adapt to their “why”. It is that simple and that complicated. More to follow…