How to Train Your People

At the beginning of every training session I normally ask my students why they are here.  Inevitably I get answers like, "I was told by my boss to attend", "I have to come for training or my boss will not be happy" and "Do I have a choice?  Coming for training is part of work, right?"

I would often counter what they said by saying, "That means you are forced by your boss to attend this training, right?"  The whole class would erupt into laughter.  I then thank them for their honesty and show instant appreciation to their boss (who could be inside the class).

Indeed the best reason for coming to training is no reason, that is, come because of being forced by bosses.  

As we know, training is not playing or social activity, very few people, maybe less than 0.01% of the population, would attend training on their own.  Most people need their bosses to force them to attend training.  The reason is that many employees feel that they know a lot and there is little they can learn from trainers who are not in their field.  They also told their bosses that they want to help the company to save money by not going for training.

But we know that deep down inside, these employees think that training will give them undue pressure as follows:

• They have to stay back late to make up for the lost time incurred in attending training;
• They are afraid that their bosses would ask them to do more things after the training;
• They are also afraid that the trainer would pressurize them during the training session;
• They just don't want to get out of their comfort zone and make the journey to the training centre.

Of courses the wise bosses would then ask these employees if they already know everything they need to know to do a 100 percent excellent job in their daily job.  Even if they know everything, knowledge is only potential power, only action is real power.  A wise boss would know that only with training will people get motivation, inspiration and enlightenment to take action.

Such a wise boss also knows that training is self-funding, i.e., the training fees can be easily recovered from the higher productivity of the employees after attending the training.  Now with the Government's PIC 60% Cash Grant or 400% Tax Deduction, training cost is reduced by 60% to 300%!  Unbelievable but true!

So the wise bosses would know that it makes business sense to send people for training.  And if the employees don't want to attend training for reasons stated above, the boss would force them, but never threaten them.  For training is not something that people would do on their own but need to be enforced from the outside.  Nothing venture, nothing gain. 

By Andy Ng, a passionate trainer that never forces people to attend training but instead lure them to attend with lots of freebies.  Related articles:

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