Читать книгу Powerful - Patty McCord - Страница 19

So many companies spend so much money on—and ask employees to devote so much time away from their jobs for— formal training classes. Much of this time, money, and effort is misplaced. As sports coaches will tell you, there’s no better way to learn how to perform than to be in the game.

A little while back I was consulting to a young company I love, and the learning and development head told me that their younger people needed to learn to be better managers. I asked, “What do they need to know how to do?” She answered, “Well, they need to be better managers.” I said, “Specifically doing what?” And she said, “Management.” I pressed, “But what part?” She responded, “Well, we’re going to have to have a full curriculum with conflict management and interpersonal communication.” Those are probably the two most popular classes in the training canon, and I’m sure they’ve helped some people become better managers. But if I could pick one course to teach everybody in the company, whether they’re in management or not, it would be on the fundamentals of how the business works and serving customers. This is the information people most want, because they know they can take it and run with it. Courses on conflict resolution they generally roll their eyes about, not to mention resenting the time away from their work.