TJ - The Publication for Learning and Development

L Vaughan Spencer

By L Vaughan Spencer (April 2008 Issue)
0 Comments Comments
Article Rating:

Poor Best

Email to a friend | Print Version

In a downturn, what gets attacked first? Training.

It’s time to fight back! Let’s not mince infinitives. To be a trainer means being in the front line. You’re under attack – from the cannons of corporate cost-cutting, the blunderbusses of boardroom brigadiers, and the vagaries of volatile ‘vision’ vapidity. Management manoeuvres may leave your flank exposed. Truly L&D means Live & Die. Those who live by the blackboard may die by the sword. You’ve got to shore up your defence. It’s kill or be killed. Dog eat dog and the devil take the hindmost. You’re a fighter pilot, in a dogfight to the death over the Fields of Failure. We are the guerrillas of the .org smorgasbord.

Are You Winning the Battle?
Don’t Surrender Your Agenda.

So next time you’re summoned to a meeting with senior management, remember to pack some iron (that means taking a gun, in street-talk. I don’t mean this literally, except in the most extreme of cases, like in the world of stationery supply). Be armed with up-to-the-minute stats. Give ‘em one in the eye with your ROI!

CASE STUDY A company in Dunstable was losing a million pounds a week. They decided to do some training. We sent in the SAS (Succeeder Application Squad). Now they are making a million a day.

Personally, I thrive on this uncertainty. It keeps me on my toes. I’m a prize-fighter, a heavyweight, and some call me the Muhammad Ali of Motivation. Float like a butterfly, sting like a Myers-Briggs INTP. A jab to the jaw of ‘front-office’ and ‘fee-earner’ fecklessness, a right hook to the cheek of those too chicken to cheer for change. Don’t throw in the towel. Get to the weigh-in early. You’ve got to fight fire with facilitation. Pretty soon they’ll be on the ropes and pleading with you to get down and dirty with some tip-top training; Hey buddy, can you spare a paradigm? Time to make your (Em)Power Play. I love the smell of flipchart in the morning. When the going gets tough, the trainers get training!

You’re the cavalry, arriving with a skills workshop to terrify the enemy. A little performance management here, a sales module there, a nugget of negotiation and you’re fully aligned, your foes vanquished in a volley of Lean Six Sigma. Who said training was a non-contact sport? Sometimes you’ve got to use your elbows in the corridors of power en route to the Water-cooler of Win/Win.

So what’s your big gun? The Personality Test. Forget the Big 5, the Great 8 or the Terrific 12. Think Succeedy Six…

Clothes - Have they done color therapy? Are they a ‘Brown’ wearing black? Or are they fully aligned chromatically?
Moisturise - Is their skin-care regime up to par? Do they cleanse and tone? Do they use pre-shave skin scrub and post-shave balm?
Hair  - How’s their Tong Shui (Feng Shui of Hair)? Can the Dragons of Failure attack through their side-parting? Do those sideburnskeep them focused? Does that Urchin Cut really suit them? 
Food - Are they eating the right things? Are they following the Alphabet Diet (whereby you must eat only things that begin with the same letter as your name)?
Goals - Have they got any? Have they written them down?
Everything Else - What do they seem like? Do you like them?

Of course, it’s important for anyone in training to be fully armed before they go into battle. Using metrics based on information garnered from the Succeedy Six, the Succeeder Laboratories have identified eight Personal Personality Types (PPT)©. Look at the table below. It will help you identify strengths and weaknesses - your own and your coachees’.

Type                           Strengths                                 Areas for development
Loser                         Not much expected                No friends
Slacker                      Doesn’t over-promise           Never delivers
Slow-Coach             Methodical                               Get on with it!
Bossy-Boots            Assertive                                  Gets on people’s nerves
Know-All                    Knowing lots of things          But not as many as you think
Attention-Seeker      Everyone knows you             They wish they didn’t
Worry Wort                Risk-Aware                              Lighten up!
Succeeder                Popular. Successful. Fab.    Promoting Succeederology©

So remember…
Fight the good fight!
Organise a team-build offsite!
Roll out a fully integrated e-learning website!
Motivational might is right!

Agree? Disagree? Contact L-Vo with your personal or work-related query via www.Succeedy.com

We have only displayed above the opening paragraph of this article. If you are a TJ subscriber, login now so you can download a PDF of this article in full, free of charge. For non-subscribers the PDF can be purchased for £9.00 see the "Buy Now" Option above.

Click here for a free 30 day trial to Training Journal

Back to top | Current TJ

 

Readers Comment

Comment on this story here >

Be the first to comment on this news story