Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Tom Foster has an excellent, fun read at his Management Blog concerning motivating employees. 

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He pokes fun at the emphasis some put on training manuals and their basic uselessness. I do enjoy his comment in response to the question if training is a waste of time: ““Training is not a waste of time; it is how you train that determines its effectiveness.”

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In telling the story about Tyler ’s rapid advancement in a video game, he asks some questions to show why it was that Tyler advanced so quickly and competently: 

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“How did you learn to play that game? Did it come with an instruction manual? Did you go to the bookstore and buy the Insider’s Guide to the game?”

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"No way, I just sat down and started playing it.”

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He goes on to ask Tyler if the reason he became an expert was because of the well-written instruction manual or Insiders Guide. 

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Here is the response:

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"No, I just played the game. My character got killed a few times, but I learned how to navigate around the danger zones. I learned how to engage other characters in battle. I learned out to accumulate powers. Every time I did something right, I got points. Every time I did something stupid, I lost points. My points accumulated, my character got stronger, I leveled up. All around the screen are status panels that give me constant real time feedback on where I am in the game and how I am doing.” 

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“And you did all this without reading the instructions or attending a training class?” 

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The excellent pointing out of the need for management to reinforce the desired behavior of their employees is fantastic! I think most of us with any amount of management experience and interaction with our employees; know that what is being spoken here is true. True training will zero in on what it is the company truly wants the workers to do and continuously, patiently, repeatedly, positively reinforce that behavior over and over again. 

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The goal must be permeated into our workers minds and measurement systems in place to track how they are doing. This way of training is vastly superior to superficial reading of manuals and guides.