Tag Archives: Training
Learning
Before we start on our design journey we should perhaps clarify what we mean by ‘learning’ and ‘training’. A pure definition of ‘learning’ could be: ‘Learning is a process that enables someone to acquire new attitudes, skills or knowledge.’
To justify all the direct costs in providing learning opportunities, not to mention the lost revenue-earning time, a business must be able to see a direct benefit resulting from any learning its staff experience. So, for learning taking place in a commercial or business setting, we should perhaps expand the definition of learning to: ‘Learning is a process that enables someone to acquire new attitudes, skills or knowledge. . . so that they can do something they couldn’t do before, or do it more effectively.’
When we consider someone being able to work more effectively the four main parameters usually considered are:
- Quality – deliver new levels of quality.
- Quantity – process or handle more orders or items.
- Cost – do more for the same cost, or the same output for less cost.
- Time – take less time in basic handling, or work to earlier deadlines.
It’s being able to apply the learning to make a difference to performance which differentiates learning in the commercial sense from pure education.
At least one of the items you’ve written will describe the trainer. You may have used words like:
- knowledgeable;
- organized;
- inspirational;
- focused;
- approachable.
The list could go on and on. We all recognize the importance of a good trainer or teacher to make any subject come alive. But the focus of this book is not on the trainer but on the design of the training, so let’s look at some of the other items you’ve written. Your list may include:
- well structured;
- varied training methods;
- logical flow;
- appropriate models or concepts used;
- ideas I can take back and use straight away;
- appropriate balance of theory and practice;
- good handouts, visual aids or workbooks.
This list, which could also go on and on, clearly shows the benefits of good design. Given a well-designed course even an average trainer can deliver an acceptable learning experience. But if you start with a poorly designed course you need an exceptional trainer to turn it into anything worthwhile. It’s rather like the old saying: you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear – unless you are exceptional!
GOOD ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Oral communication is very important for any professional because during one’s career, every professional has to talk to a number of people of varying backgrounds and technical knowledge. We have to talk to the customer (to whom we are developing the software) in English. The customer may not be a technical person, many times the customer has no knowledge of computers even. We also have to interact with team members to discuss the technical details during project execution. We have to talk to managers in ‘management jargon’. Ability to talk to a variety of people requires good oral communication skills. B.C. Forbes said, “Speaking is essential to success in business and the whole of human activities”. Conservative Party of Britain feels that the patients are put to lot of risk because of the poor English spoken by foreign doctors, especially Indians, who constitute 25% of the total medical practitioners of Britain.
This does not mean that you have to use high sounding words. In fact usage of high sounding words and GRE/TOEFL type of language will irritate the interviewer. Answer should be simple and easily understandable by one and all. For example, if somebody’s answer for a question is ‘Cogitative endeavors to promote celerity of ambulation not infrequently produce retardation of the desired propinquity to the goal’, he may be thrown out of the interview room, even if the interview is for the post of a Professor of English!
It needs to be mentioned that nobody is born with good communication skills- we need practice to improve our communication abilities. Many times, inability to express oneself clearly arises mainly because of lack of preparation. Even for a small five-minute meeting, one has to prepare, depending on the agenda of the meeting. Good preparation keeping in view the type of audience would solve most of the problems that arise out of ‘lack of communication skills’. Realize that often you will have to deal with a non-technical customer in English. Again, the client himself may be poor at English. In marketing the product itself speaks, catalogues speak, customers speak and advertisements speak. Even if the marketing man speaks, it will be very much routine type, same jokes, same riddles, same style and same concept. In R&D type of jobs it is not like that. Here, you’ve. got an excellent idea or an interesting concept. How can you convince your boss or organization about the greatness and usefulness of it unless you are good at communication? How can you prepare a report on it and be successful? Especially in I. T., English is very essential. For example, Japan could excel in all fields of construction, automobile engineering and telecommunications but not in Information Technology, as they refused to accept English.
