Some Animals Can Be “Trained”
Learning Becomes Permanent
You can teach a dolphin to jump in the air by offering a reward when done. Once that behavior has been learned, the dolphin is “trained” and will always make the jump EVERY TIME the reward is offered, regardless of the weather, the dolphin’s mood and what the other dolphins are doing.
Not With People
I have come to the conclusion that you cannot “train” people. Often times I am introduced as a “sales trainer” and I usually start my talk with a disclaimer to the introduction. It’s easy to assume you can “train” people since they are a part of the animal kingdom.
You can teach people WHAT to do, but they are oftentimes greatly influenced by things like the weather, their mood and what other people are doing, regardless of the rewards.
Constant Coaching
Once taught, people must be motivated, coached and inspired to keep doing it. Even professional athletes that have been taught the game well need constant motivation, coaching and inspiration to play at their best potential. In professional football there are more coaches on the sidelines than there are players on the field.
Head Coach
The head coach never misses a down, and these are pros; the best of the best. In business we often times find the head coach (manager) in the office, the back room, out of town, or down at the bank during the game.
No wonder there are so many “fumbles.”
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
So true; especially in retail, where people are left completely alone without any supervision. It’s as if owners believe they are motivated to stay on their game for the complete shift. The fact is that many of them read, eat, text and visit with friends while customers come and go unattended. It’s important to understand that the cost of no supervision is much greater than the cost of ongoing supervision and coaching.
October 4th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Managers are a mixed bag. Some are really good, some aren’t. You hope that someone becomes a good manager because they lead the way in sales. Managers should still lead the way in sales, even if they are making extra money for being manager, they must set the example and show how to get it done. Managers can learn a lot about employees if they spy on them when the nanager is not there. Then you will know what is really going on and if employees can be trusted to sell. Let them know you watch them and have eyes that can tell you who is doing what. It is a
October 6th, 2009 at 8:49 am
It sounds like Ron is suggesting “micro-managing.” I say let managers do the managing and if they fail, fire them and get new ones. That part they do well in the NFL as well.
October 7th, 2009 at 6:14 am
Greetings everyone,
I believe it was Nordstrom who said “We don’t train our people to be nice, we just hire nice people.” Whoever it was is right, one has to look for fundamentals in a person to fill any position, retail sales or not. Management is important, motivation is key, all those other things like service, product knowledge, attitude and so on are vital, but it’s is all wrapped up in a personality, a character, the whole person who is drawn to retail and then shown ‘how to’ or trained. If the wrong sort of person is hired because they are there; because they accept a lower wage; because they don’t know what else to do; because they recently dropped out of college and thought well retail is easy let’s try that; because there are sudden seasonal gaps in headcount…and many other becauses; then that is wrong.
I am a trainer, and I disagree with a bald statement like “People cannot be trained.” I believe they can if you hire the right sort of people to start off with. The do learn, they improve, they stay the course, they produce, they enjoy and take ownership of their jobs, they seek out more training and greater success. That’s ideal maybe, but those people do exist, I have met many. This is such a complicated topic with so many sides to it, one could easily get lost by trying to explain or cover all bases. Anyway, another aspect is that the types of training techniques used to teach a dog to sit or a dolphin to jump through a hoop are very different from the methods used to train people for upskilling etc. I always revert to another of my favourite sayings which is:
“Before you knew how to ride a bicycle, you didn’t know how o ride a bicycle.”
To me training is as clean as that. Continuous coaching and motivation is a totally new subject.
Cheers
Lestie
Johannesburg
South Africa
May 11th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
Nice post! Here’s one for ya… In a hierarchical organization, the higher the level, the greater the confusion.