The Happy Curmudgeon

Super Duper E-Trashcan Made Specially as a Receptacle to Idiot E-Fads.

Some of you may know that the ASTD Conference concluded last week (American Society For Training and Development). A few people took the time and made the effort to either inform during the conference, or write up their impressions after the conference, and no doubt, they should be commended for the spirit of sharing.

But there are some comments that are rather chilling, at least to me, because they reflect what I see as long term, ongoing problems within the training field. For years, I’ve been commenting to trainers’ complaints about being ignored by executives and other decision-makers, that respect and credibility need to be EARNED, and that many trainers simply don’t deserve to be seen as credible, or even valuable. Many, in fact, too many, fall into this category.

Why this is the case is complex, and something I want to address in future, but I wanted to start with a look at a comment or two from

Old School, New School, and lots of Social Learning: Reflections from the ASTD ICE09 convention

by Gina Shreck. Gina was one of the very few that took the time to send twitter messages from the conference. As a non-attendee, I thank here, though I’m thankful that I wasn’t treated to having her in a group I might work with.

She says a number of things which you can look at yourself, and I also should say I think we need more people who stand for something in this profession like Gina. That doesn’t mean, of course that in this case Gina has picked the right issues. She hasn’t. But that’s as much a reflection on the profession as anything else.

In between my sessions I was free to romp the halls; to frolic through classrooms soaking up all the big juicy droplets of learning that would surely be showering the entire crowd of 10,000 learners. I was excited… I was ready… I was…filled with dismay and disappointment, when one of the first speakers, who grant it, has been in the training industry as long as Larry King has been broadcasting, got up to begin and flipped the switch of an OVERHEAD PROJECTOR! The light bulb blew out, but not before the crowd caught a glimpse of the foil laid on the glass top UPSIDE DOWN! There was a delay as the AV crew had to go back to the Smithsonian Museum to find another bulb in the box of “Training Archives from the 19th Century!”

So, here we are. We have a professional trainer attending a professional conference, who is so put off that a presenter DARE use an overhead projector that she feels compelled to make it the first point in here commentary. There’s no talk about learning, which after all is the point. This is about being so superficial in attitude and knowledge that one believes that if the newest, more complex technology isn’t used, that somehow, it simply isn’t worth listening to.

Now, I’m certainly not here to berate Gina about whom I know almost nothing. But when I see trainers act like cats in search of shiney things to play with, rather than focusing on a) focusing on creating learning and b) focusing on creating value for the organizations they work for, it simply confirms my opinion that most trainers shouldn’t be allowed to make any decisions about anything except how they run learning groups. I’d rather they didn’t even do that, but frankly you have to leave them something to do if you are paying them.

Gina goes on to say:

Now the quiet gasps and waves of eyeballs rolling from the 30-50 year old crowd told me that I was not the only one who felt sadness and embarrassment for our industry that should be teaching us relevant and cutting edge information. Those in the room under the age of 30 had more of an excited look on their faces—–the kind of look you see in a child’s eyes when they walk into a wax museum and see the exhibit of the first prairie-dwellers in Nebraska eating a pheasant, caught by the trapper-father, who is standing life-like in front of them with his coon-skin hat on. I couldn’t take it, and I walked out, in search of a modern session.

Modern session? That’s actually not the correct phrasing. What IS going on is that because the speaker didn’t present the way Gina wanted, the speaker is a) labelled and ridiculed, and b) any value the learner might have gained by accomodating another person while being courteous, is negated. This strikes me as childish, quite simply, not because Gina chose to walk out (I walk out of a fair number of conference sessions) but because of the reasons she offered. Not Modern, my ass. What a great example — both in the behavior and comments she wrote, of an adult who does not act like an adult learner at all. Or at least a considerate, courteous, positive thinking one (Ah, well, it’s often the case that adults don’t act like adults, hence the uselessness of adult learning models).

So let me characterize the training industry, stimulated by Gina’s comment.

The training field is populated by a good number of people who have incredibly limited understanding of how people learn, different models of learning, different means of applying those models. They cannot appreciate the power of the models and theories because they’ve never heard of them. Ausubel’s Advance Organizers? Huh? Bandura’s Social Learning Theory? (isn’t that about facebook?) Pick one. Most trainers have never heard of them, and worse they have no interest in learning about them. “Oh, that’s just theory?”

Most trainers are limited to a rudimentary knowledge of “adult learning” which is a seriously flawed approach to learning, and thus train others in remarkably pat, patterned ways using rigid formulas . No lecture. Little focus on actual knowledge, much focus on the learning process (even if nothing is learned), much group work, and much emphasis on the learners teaching each other (the ignorant teaching the equally ignorant). That, by the way, is why so much training looks alike and feels alike. Trainers don’t have any other models to apply, so whether they are dealing with how to use a MS WORD, or how to deal with interpersonal problems at work the approach is often identical. Stupid, that. (Who is most inflexible, the ignorant or the “less modern”?

Many trainers, as it appears with Gina, are more interested in form, not function or results. It doesn’t matter to Gina that learning is not impacted by using an overhead projector, or even a flipchart, provided it’s used properly. It’s simply Not Modern. So comes the ridicule. Better a laptop and powerpoint, I suppose. Modern.

Since the majority of trainers are so badly educated in the foundations of the field, they tend to be very dogmatic about what might comprise the “right” instructional methods. That’s because they are not expert in learning at all. They are idealogues much like those that believe in a specific religion. One of the tenets of the “training religion” is NO LECTURES. Lectures bad. Now personally, I’m not a fan of bad lectures, but I am a fan of good ones. Any instructional technique has to be used in situations that are suited to it, and need to be implemented properly. Even lecture. But many trainers don’t understand that. They believe activity means learning, where activity is defined as talking or doing something. Sorry, but even basic understanding of cognition says otherwise — that learning occurs when the learner is focused cognitively (obviously there’s more).

Finally, for now, trainers are particularly converted to the latest fad in “learning”, whether it be elearning, social learning (the more “modern” meaning, not the original), twittering, technology run learning, accelerated learning and on and on. The latest is better (it’s not). When you don’t focus on your job which is a) helping people learn and b) contributing to the success of your organization via helping people learn, you can’t expect CEO’s, CFO’s, VP, Boards, etc to give you a hearing when you appear to be carrying a dead mouse around in your mouth.

You may find other trainers to validate your usefulness and who will agree that trainers get no respect, but please don’t complain to me about that when you are so ignorant and intolerant and uncurious about the basics you need to do your job properly. And next time you want to get a hearing in front of the brass, leave your shiny things at home.

Comments invited.