Learning is not a spectator sport

I noticed that in January 2017  I have attended some good training programs. (Offline , Online )  totaling 30 hrs . That got me into thinking of results. What is the impact of these 30 hrs of training in my professional and personal Life in the first 35 days in 2017  ?

We have attended a lot of these internal and external training sessions. How do we measure progress from those training sessions? When do we realize that we got results because of that training?

Students (and we are all students) must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experience, and apply it in their own lives. They must make what they learn part of themselves. [Adapted from Chickering and Gamson, Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education]

The programme that made a big difference in terms of applying those techniques was the one in which the format was “giving real experience”. It made some power points without Power-Point. It made me realise good concepts and its application. I look for Usability and Utility and break it down to skill levels.

Three quick insights/actions that I took after the training sessions:-

1. Self awareness:   I thought I was approachable, but in a session when a person was asked to detail my profile just with eye contact, he wrote that I was arrogant. That was an eye-opener and had a great impact on me. Training sessions get the best out of you if you have a chance to get into an experiential learning process. It puts you in a vulnerable position. Who are you? There is a big difference in how do you want the world to perceive you and what actually others perceive you as.
2. I am applying two concepts-  Yin and Yang and ABQ (Ask better questions) in my life now. Yin and Yang is helping me in my personal life. I did not smile much. I only had those tough looks (Yang). By bringing in Yin there is a balance of eye contact and smile when I meet people and start conversations. ABQ – In my professional life this has helped in framing good questions. The quality of your questions determine the quality of answers.
3. Trainers make lots of references to Authors  & Books. I have collected lists of Authors and Books and browsed articles on topics like Neuroscience , Behavioral science , Sales Techniques and Leadership and Management thoughts. Some key authors that I have discovered (and re-discovered) this month are Marshall Gold Smith, Blair Singer and T A Harvekar.

It is very important to realise the need for training very much in advance as the intention is to change behaviour and impact change in people.

Can there be a wearable device or a mobile app developed which keeps a track of the day-to-day skill improvement needed, maintains it in a portal with date sheet and alerts  the user with online interventions for training? That will be super cool.  Maybe we will wait for AI / Watson to do it soon for us. I guess that at the pace we are moving I am sure we will have Augmented Training Programmes ( ATP).

How can you leverage training to facilitate quantitative growth?

 

 

 

 

 

Make training your North Star and  sales revenue will  jump (North – East).

For the moment be self aware of the requirements and collate your  requirements. With MOOC’S (mass open online courses ) and the internet university (Vlogs / Blogs / Podcasts) people can leverage training like never before. I found YouTube to be a great place to start our search for understanding.  I heard this great line last week  week , “It is the head that understands, but it is the body that learns.” (Pradeep Dutt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en3yMjGweZI)

It is important to move this understanding from Head to Heart to Hand and that will set you on the path to become a great leader and impact change.