Good Intentions will never take you anywhere you want to go!  Most people would rather “think about it” than “do it”

– John Maxwell

I heard this quote from John Maxwell during his “30 Day Journey” I recently completed via Right Now Media.  It seems to have been something intended for me, as I’ve been faced with this concept in many different conversations recently.  Maybe because this whole Covid-19 and working from home has given me the opportunity to take part in more training that I typically would.  This podcast from “Manager Tools” covers this subject head on.  The overarching quote I took away was this:

Training is not the answer…it’s only a means to an end, it is not the end in and of itself…as a manager, what you actually want is behavior change. – The Manager Tools Guys

The basic foundation of this podcast is that way too many people and organizations attend training to be trained…and they feel that attending and completing the course is the goal.  BEHAVIOR CHANGE is the goal.  As John Maxwell said, there are way too many people who would rather “think” than “do”.  I put myself in that camp as well!  I listen to podcasts, read books, watch YouTube, but do I really incorporate what I’m learning?  If not, why am I wasting my time on these “training opportunities?”

Here are some of the key concepts I took away from this podcast that I feel will benefit you as well:

  1. The purpose of training is to impart skills that you need to do your job at a high level…to be good at your job
  2. Most training programs don’t bridge the gap between “knowing” and “doing” and when it doesn’t achieve this goal, the training program is a waste of $$ and time because it doesn’t serve to improve skill
  3. A new skill that isn’t put into action isn’t a skill at all, it’s just knowledge – A “skill” is what you do, not what you know
  4. 80% of your skill building comes from “on the job” activity and learning…only 10% come from separate and stand alone “Training”…that’s why appropriate delegation is such as an important skill to leverage as a manager
  5. Knowledge by itself isn’t valuable…when it changes behavior that affects our ability to meet our goals it becomes valuable to an organization: You aren’t contributing to the performance of your organization by obtaining knowledge…it only becomes valuable if it makes you “better” at your role
  6. “Applied” knowledge is more valuable than knowledge: some people feel they are more valuable because of knowledge they’ve gained over time…your value comes from your ability to “apply” the knowledge on useful pursuits to the organization 
  7. If you want to change something, you need to MEASURE and REPORT OUT on it…that will cause behavior change!
  8. Training isn’t about the “going”, it is about the “changing” when you get back
  9. “Having”, “Knowing”, “Feeling”, and “Believing” are NOT Behaviors 
  10. We don’t get paid to do what we like, we get paid to be effective & productive: If you aren’t constantly pushing yourself to become more effective, you are dragging down the company’s overall performance and earnings! 

As my current director says often…”Activity is good, results are better!“

Manager-Tools is one of my all time favorite podcasts, but I truly engaged with this one as I listened to it this week.  This one is worth the 40 minutes of your time…if for no other reason at about the 21:30 mark when he begins talking about how strong the job market is…it was at that time, little did we know that COVID-19 would destroy it only about 3 weeks later!!  Please listen to this one, but after you listen, APPLY what you’ve learned!!