Stop the Training!

Written by Deb and Brad Warren on Feb 18, 2009 10:37 am

Read More: Leadership | Personal Development

We were recently asked to help a local university evaluate their Teacher Training Program. With great pride, the dean of the college informed us that his goal is to have the most comprehensive training program in the country. While this may appear to be a noble goal, it's outdated and will not create the high impact results of being first class. Teachers should not be trained. Teachers should be educated.

The result of successful training is that the subject responds to a stimulus or command without thought or deliberation. Domesticated animals should be trained. Education produces a more creative and insightful person.

The idea of employee training is not new. It's obsolete. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, the factory owners realized that they needed a new type of worker, not a self-sustaining farmer, but someone who could be trained. Those who managed the factories did not want someone to problem solve, or work collaboratively, or think much at all. They wanted people who could be trained to respond. The schools were designed to fill that void and prepare future factory employees.

It worked, or it seemed to work, for a while. The owners were educated. The schools trained the teachers. The teachers trained the students, and the well-trained workers got paid for complying without much thinking.

But then, as always, the world changed. A different group came along with a different idea. "Wouldn't it be better to stop training our employees and start educating them?"

"Oh no", cried the American owners, "If we educate them, they won't want to be workers, they'll want to be owners!" How true. An educated, not necessarily schooled - but educated, person desires the authority to positively affect change in their work and their life.

"But we'll lose control!" shouted the managers. "As educated team members, they'll create new ideas, share those thoughts with others, and try to implement new strategies!" How true, and how essentially wonderful.

So these new, wiser industrialists created corporations where everyone is respected, valued, and educated. All employees are now being taught to work together and develop new methods of improving their jobs and their company. Our older industries, most of our factories and schools who are resistant to change, find themselves beautifully equipped for a world which no longer exists.

Successful network marketing business owners, like you, consistently search for opportunities to educate themselves through books, webinars, and thought-provoking blogs. Let's make sure we learn the lessons necessary to thrive in this time of challenge and possibility.

It's time to stop the training! It's insulting to treat your business partners like pets by training them to follow a system of duplication. Instead, we should educate them on the power and responsibility of owning their own business. We should teach them to work together in creating the new ideas which will propel our individual enterprises and entire profession to even greater success.

Take action to educate yourself, your team, and your network. Keep learning. Keep thinking. And Keep Leading Forward!

Deb and Brad