Is ‘Head Trash” About Learning Costing You?

One day I got a call from a VP we’ll call Kim. Kim’s been following the progress of a knowledge transfer program we implemented in another division of her company. “Fantastic results!” she said. “Can you do the same thing in my division?”

“Well, Kim, I really don’t know,” I said. “It depends on how much ‘head trash’ you have about teaching and learning.” Silence. “Head trash?” she finally said. “What do you mean?”

Like most people, Kim sees the results and latches onto the techniques. What people don’t see and don’t understand are how much their attitudes and beliefs influence their ability to implement techniques and consistently apply them well, which is what delivers the results.

Let’s find out what your attitudes and beliefs about knowledge transfer are.

I’m going to show you a statement. And you have to promise me that you’ll say the first thing that comes into your mind. Don’t hold back. Promise? Here goes...

“In 3 years people at my company will learn twice
as much in half the time and never make a mistake on the job.”

When I show audiences this during my keynotes, people break out laughing and yell things like “Bulls**t!” and “No way!”

My response is “Then why am I here? Don’t you want this?” They always answer: “Of course we want it. But it’s not possible.”

So, they hold onto their low expectations, ignore important research (remember last month’s Stampede?), and pooh-pooh exciting new ideas and technologies about knowledge transfer. Viral teaching? That’s the ‘Telephone Game’. On-line learning? Too expensive. Social networks? That’s for kids.

And year after year they continue to fork over big bucks and waste thousands of hours on boring classroom training, procedures the size of ‘War and Peace’ and other traditional methods that deliver so-so results.

Let’s pretend you made the investment and accomplished the statement above. Can you imagine the benefits?

Employees up to speed and productive four times faster.
Less time in the classroom and more time doing work.
Lower travel expenses.
Eliminate the costs and headaches of on-the-job mistakes.
Higher employee morale and lower attrition.
More quickly and efficiently transfer products and processes around the world to take advantage of changing costs and market conditions.

You can probably think of many more specific to your company and industry. But, still not enough to change what you’re doing today, right?

Here’s a fun homework assignment:

Rewrite the “in 3 years...” statement from above as a company goal and give it in person to your CLO, VP HR or whomever heads up your company’s learning and training function.

What’s their first reaction? Observe their face and body language. Listen to what they say. You’ll learn a lot about their ‘head trash’ and have a great topic for on-going discussion on improving knowledge transfer at your company.

Let’s ride!

	Todd Hudson Head Maverick Ph: 303.819.6662 Todd@MaverickInstitute.com
p.s. Yes, that’s me under the trash can. I work on my own ‘head trash’ every day!