The Cave Man Guide to Training and Development
Jack Shaw
Copyright Jack Shaw 2011
Published at Smashwords
Dedication:
To Bill Parks who inspired me from the beginning. He had a simple way of looking at life and everything was a learning experience—so this is for my best friend who died way too young.
To my friend and colleague, Carter McNamara, who took a chance on me as his blog host for Training and Development for his online Free Management Library.
To my wonderful wife, Amy Keys Shaw, whose love and support for me surpasses her need to see perfect English and accept my informal and break-the-rules way of looking at things.
And, to all my kids who think anything Dad does is so cool.
Introduction
Chapter 1 -- Waiting for Darwin - Cave Man Training Today
Chapter 2 -- What Would a Cave Man DO? – How We Know What We Know About Training
Chapter 3 -- How We Learn–Six Points You Should Know
Chapter 4 -- Training Character
Chapter 5 -- Training for Survival: How to be the Fittest in Today's Economy
Chapter 6 -- When Did a Warm and Fuzzy Training Function Become a Strategically Aligned Business Unit?
Chapter 7 -- Three Things You Should Know About Communicating Credibility
Chapter 8 -- ABCs of Presenting-a Trainer Staple
Chapter 9 -- Training and Development: Differences and Priorities
Chapter 10 -- Why Isn’t All Training Like Training for Your Black Belt?
Chapter 11 -- The All-Important Needs Assessment and the Disconnect
Chapter 12 -- Training Every Employee to be CEO (Or Head Cave Man)
Chapter 13 -- How to Make Training "An Affair to Remember"
Chapter 14 -- Training to Prevent Customer Service Disasters
Chapter 15 -- Seven Steps to Guarantee Great Training Results
Chapter 16 -- Icebreakers - The Who, What, When and When Not to Do Them
Chapter 17 -- How Many Steps to Continuous Learning? None
Chapter 18 -- Power of Gazing in Training, Love and Other Matters
Chapter 19 -- Beyond Constructive Criticism--Methods to Evaluating Performance
Chapter 20 -- The Creative Leadership No-Brainer
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the world of Cave Man Training and Development. It is my hope that this book is an exciting world of discovery, of re-thinking what we do, and getting back to the basics. To some this book may be filled with reminders, to others it’s a new way of looking at training, and still to others, an entertaining way to re-capture what was lost after years of training frustration. It may help you take control of your world and reaffirm the importance of your field, not only in your own mind but in the minds of others.
It is ironic that the most important aspect of working with people is a human resources training manual: a rather dull book no one really wants to read. It isn’t people friendly at all. I suspect in some ways these resources are archaic–in the same way we used to learn everything by rote. There are some great articles on the Free Management Library site where I am the Training and Development blog host. While a 500-word how-to blog that covers performance evaluation would be woefully inadequate as a complete source, you can still seek keys to success and starting points. This book tries to consolidate the keys of success and bring you those starting points.
For me in my self-proclaimed role as a Cave Man trainer looking for roots in simplicity, I look at performance in a different way from typical trainers who come from human resources and work with those manuals. It’s still a people concern even though it can have business repercussions. Perhaps, it is too simple or naive to say “Take care of your people and they’ll take care of you,” but I do find that at the heart of my philosophy.
The purpose of the book is to help you simplify how you think about the job, the process of training--and, how it can work easily with taking a common sense—a Cave Man approach to at the basics of behavior. I call myself the Cave Man trainer because I learned like the Cave Man did by looking at my world for connections and for solutions. Now, it’s your chance.
In this book, you’ll discover why you need to keep the training and communication basics in mind. Education is a fine thing, but combined with “Cave Man” common sense you’ll motivate your audience or classroom to learn and retain what they learn. If you are struggling with your training assignment or find yourself disillusioned and frustrated, this book can provide just what you need to find your own perspective or motivate you to once again see the value and excitement of our wonderful profession.
You’ll learn how to stay on top of your game, how to guarantee training results, and, even perhaps, how to read the minds of your audiences. It will give you a new way to look at things—a fresh perspective no trainer or communicator, or manager should be without. Don’t just train. Lead!
Effective communication is at the root of all training and education methods. My unusual approach I’m told is insightful and different. I hope it makes you think when I ask questions like, “Why can’t professional development be like getting your Black Belt in Karate?” The process makes perfect sense. I ask some other relevant questions and suggest answers that may seem odd at first until you read on. I can’t promise you’ll agree with everything I say, but I can promise to give you something to think about—a unique perspective.
I have included in this compilation of writings, a variety of topics all related to training and development. My most popular training article, “The All-Important Needs Assessment and the Disconnect,” has been expanded here and I’ve included both parts of “The Creative Leadership No-Brainer.” My blogs are longer than the usual blog, but also a creative blend of content and commentary. My intended audience is the student of training and development and the experienced trainer or training manager, or anyone who wants to learn how we know what we know. I hope you enjoy the ride. It begins with a Cave Man…
CHAPTER 1
Waiting for Darwin - Cave Man Training Today
Some days I long for the days of just knowing and doing my part for the cave, but that was a long time ago. It was more basic then. I taught myself. Not really. I observed and modeled the behavior of others, my elders. They knew what to do. Sometimes I saw what they did and thought another way might be useful and tried it. If that new way worked better, I kept doing it that way. If not, there was no point to keeping it.
I looked outside for the best ways to do things, and found others who had already discovered very good ways and copied them. It was simpler that way and saved time. I learned that if I sharpened my spear and kept it sharpened I was more likely to kill the first time I threw it and struck my prey. I already knew where the vital organs were; my father taught me--or was it my uncle? I taught my brothers.
Later, when game was scarce I had to do what the others who couldn't hunt did. I gathered roots, herbs, berries, fruits and vegetables--anything edible--even bark for medicine. Who taught me how...I can't remember, but she was old and wise, experienced in the ways.
I became more and more experienced in other matters of my cave as well. Others sought me out to share that experience, and some of my own good ideas, too; and so I was proud. We even shared those ideas with other caves or tribes of the plains. In my own cave, I was recognized as someone good to follow--and by others more important among us who sought to learn from my example. Some followed me and did exactly as I did, while others saw what I saw and did what I did to the best of their ability, or according to their own individual differences.
It was a simple life--hard, but good.
Then, a stronger cave combined forces with another cave or tribe came and took our land with our natural resources, and many of our people. It made that cave stronger and us weaker. Only a few of us survived, and we started again. As one who was more experienced, I became one of the leaders. We found new land and new resources, and others like us, or those with another clan or tribe looking for a chance to make life easier by joining our clan--to make us strong again. And, we were.
We are strong and get stronger every day. We stand up to the clan/tribe that defeated us before, and they regard us with respect; they dare not attack. They know we are smart. We find ways to work around each other, even together when we must. We map out territories; it works out well for everyone. We have even begun to send old and wise ones to teach them some of our new ways--especially if it helps both our clans. We have much to share. It is making us both solid and safe. It is our hope it will make us thrive as a people for a long time, and there will always be plenty.
The leaders must keep us secure. They know things. They must continue to be clever. That way we can always keep our people fed and healthy. The caves and the tribes all have smart people who learn what they need to learn. They seem to never stop. This, I think, is a good thing. We will survive and grow. We are a wise people.
A little different training approach by today’s standards, I admit. However, don't you get the feeling that sometimes it's just so obvious--that it's all around us, waiting for us to take advantage? The survival skills we learned in prehistoric times are still valid--only we have labels. Training is not just part of a job; it's part of life and survival of the fittest. The fittest are those who keep learning when you don't have time to wait millions of years for evolution to kick in. Sorry, Darwin.
Specialists are great, but they can always improve and to do that means learning not just your specialty, but all around it. So, in my mind, thinking outside the clichéd box belongs to those specialists and others who are always willing to learn, always looking for connections; they are the Cave Man learners of today.
Now, where did I put my spear?
CHAPTER 2
What Would a Cave Man DO? – How We Know What We Know About Training
What exactly is Cave Man training? Actually, I just made up the term to get your attention, but it seems to have taken on a life all its own. As if from a natural point of view some things make sense and others are missing some primal elements. This is a take on modern training as I see it from this Cave Man perspective. You probably know it as non-traditional training, which is essentially bringing in outsiders--people in related fields to apply techniques, knowledge and experience that are similar enough or generic enough to be applied to your company for a positive effect.
Traditional training is more about bringing in the trainer who is in our field (in our company) with years of experience and wisdom to teach us the best way to do our jobs. It seems to me the non-traditional trainers should be the Cave Man trainers, those who did it first. They went outside the cave looking for innovation and brought it back, or brought individuals back, training Cave Men or Women to train the tribe.
The fact training is handled the other way around in the modern world should tell us something. A couple obvious points: one is that we have become a world unto ourselves and two is that we are big and have a lot of answers in-house. However, it does seem we are reluctant to look outside for answers. Is it the potential cost? Could cost less. Unproven techniques? Could be proven somewhere we don’t know about. Change? We are always wary of change. Or, is it just that we are suspicious of anything new? Could it be we think no one else can have a business that resembles ours, or have our type of organization or our kind of people? If this were the 19th century, I’d say, “Poppycock!”
Remember, it is the weak cave that is taken over, not the strong cave that seeks to learn from others to make the cave stronger still to survive. The Cave Man equated efficiency with survival, while we worry about the competition.
What I do as a trainer-for-hire is Cave Man training (non-traditional training or coaching) because I apply the techniques of any field that I find applicable in the training environment. In spite of degrees in English, psychology, speech and theatre, I am and always will be a Cave Man. Talk about roots…
Now, let me tell you why I think that I am the Cave Man Trainer.
I wrote about actors training lawyers in several blogs, which can make great sense from a communicator point of view. Both fields need great communication skills. Non-traditional training? Lawyers need to communicate. Another application might be to bring in psychologists or communication specialists to discuss predicting behavior of juries and judges (audiences). I just recently saw a website of a group of lawyers who specialize in training other lawyers. Traditional? Not quite. This group for lawyers specializes in developing effective graphic arts as they relate to juries and the courts. Now, the line is blurred. Well, they are lawyers teaching other lawyers, and it makes sense. The fact they are also lawyers may be a draw; we prefer people like ourselves. However, it is the differences between the two groups that bring one group to the table to train the other cave lawyers. It is the differences we need sometimes to be learned by others to expand and refine our knowledge.
Trainers are very often the subject-matter experts in their company, training others on what the employees need to know. Most often they have experience in the company and share company-specific information. If we consider that they are our cave men and women of old, they should have new ways to share. But here is the twist. Even though we may bring in outsiders, we want them to be mostly the same as us only have more specific information. Even so, it seems even the experts who train others in the same field have to change it up a bit, not only to make themselves more marketable, but to add something to the training. The bottom line must be an improvement of training. So it's still training from outside the box to use an overused but certainly appropriate term, and it makes perfect sense. I would train trainers and subject matter experts to be communicators. In Cave Man terms, I help the Cave Man with his spirit dance (speech) or his cave drawings (PowerPoint presentation or other illustrative tools) make his explanation or description the best it can be.
So, what does all this mean? It means bring to the table what is useful—and I've said this before: Do what works, whether it is outside the organization or not. A hunter who can bring more animals to cook for dinner is more important than the hunter who brings just one--even the biggest. Back then, there were no boxes, no precise measurements, just the need for survival so anything relative was important or could be.
Ask people a general question like why do you love your job, and they will give you a general answer like, "I like working with people." It’s a standard answer, but a good place to start. People who know how to work with people well regardless of their profession could have something to offer. I'm sure someone has written a book on the art of bartending and the art of barbering--two professions that deal with people in much the same way. They have a diverse group of clients. So, what's similar here?
Obviously the service product these professions offer is different. What is similar? The art of small talk. Who needs small talk? Everyone. Narrow it down to business. People, who sell, who consult; people who work with other people, etc. Does someone who teaches sales people know how to be a better sales person? More than likely, but he or she has something special beyond the track record to offer. Where did that come from? Sales experience? Perhaps. But, I'm also willing to bet it is from experience that came from elsewhere.
I've known people whose lives went totally different directions than they ever thought they would. While I liked writing and acting, my first love was animal behavior. It wasn't that I wasn't good at it that I didn't go into the field; I had gone a non-traditional route to study animal behavior in psychology, but, at that time, psychologists who studied animals did it in the lab, which wasn't what I wanted to do. What I wanted was to work with animal behavior in a zoo or in the wild; however, those traditional jobs went to zoologists, biologists, and veterinarians--not psychologists. I suppose now the Animal Planet television network would love me if I were 30 years younger. Even education at the time promoted the "box" mindset.
So often we think of who we are as the specialized education we sought and received, the title we hold, the company or work we do rather than the sum of many things.
I suppose I'm still close to psychology when I talk about communicating and learning. Animals learn, and comparative psychologists study animal learning and behavior to draw similar conclusions about human behavior. We haven't forgotten we are animals, too, have we? Just more sophisticated ones. We're back to the beginning.
I was fortunate to have a job in the United States Air Force as a special assignments editor and writer. My boss was not the editor of the news service, but the chief of public affairs. I asked, "What does a special assignments writer do? His answer, "I don't know but it sounds like an opportunity to ask a lot of questions about things you and everyone else knows nothing about." I don't know if he was being particularly wise or saying something that just sounded like it, but being the young "butter bar" (second lieutenant) I was, it made a perverse sense and I loved it. I walked around the headquarters and asked people what they did. And, I shared what I learned. In public affairs, just knowing what others do is important.
In any organization, it helps to know what others are doing. It's a motivator. Learning about people who are doing work unrelated to my own is therefore useful. Not only that, maybe there is some overlap, some connection I can make. Maybe there is a collaborative possibility to create a more efficient process or product. Again, the differences are showing.
I know this is a non-traditional piece on training so why do I think it is important enough to write about? I think, sometimes we get stuck. All of us--managers and trainers alike--forget we are all tied together at least by being the same species (back to animals again). Why else do we have retreats and motivation seminars, but to remind us that we all work together? We are supposed learn from each other, too, but we usually only do it when we are told.
The biggest problem as I see it is that people tend to overspecialize, build their own boxes. And, we think people outside our box don't know what we do. Actually, they know some of what we do, and some of it may be something we have overlooked or not paid adequate attention to. Learning comes to those who apply information that could be relevant to them. We need to be more cave men or cave women trainers.
Pardon me if this sounds sexist; it's not intended to be--just prehistoric. It used to be the women, weaker males and children were the gathers of the small items that were earthbound and easy to pick up, while the men hunted. Individuals were picked by their physical characteristics. Later as tools were discovered, sharp objects had more uses than just killing. Some clever people, even some of the hunters, became adept at using those tools and trained others who were interested. Bang, we have civilization beginning as we know it. Much simpler then since there were fewer specialties, but there was a real need for some to specialize. To not do it then would make you obsolete--probably extinct. Today, if that's all you know, you'll soon be obsolete. In the old world, in time, those who knew the most, the wise men, became leaders over the strongest ones. While a good throwing arm could down a large animal, a planned hunt that came from experience could bring down many animals.
I could go into the whole development of commerce thing, but I'll leave that to the sociologists and anthropologists and linguists and MBAs. They all have something to offer on the subject despite their different educations and backgrounds. Certainly people have other talents or knowledge than those directly related to the job.
Bringing in talent whose different background tells the same or similar story demonstrates a relevant lesson that is generally more engaging to an audience. Like science fiction and fantasy, it can tell us a lesson about today by placing that lesson in a world unlike our own. Theatre does it often as well. How else do you make a dramatic statement?