Nice little book 'Why I Hate the Office' by Malcolm Burgess with some funny comments on why he hates training. Training venues
“The venue must always look as if it’s been rejected by the Footballer’s Wives location manger as being to vulgar. If it’s Spanish-Ranchero-Georgian…you know you’ve got the right place”
Training course
“Another training course where staff have to tell colleagues they’ve sat next to each other for six years their names. Don’t forget the de rigeur warm up exercise that asks trainees which fruit or vegetable they identify with.”
Learning styles
“Geoff and Pam (trainers) claim to be responsive to everyone’s learning styles which is why they do a PowerPoint presentation and then read it out to the audience in case you, er, can’t read.”
Coaching
“If coaching really works, why is the person your employer uses still hoping to move out of her garage? Whatever happened to their Unleashing Your Personal Power? We honestly think they’re keener to enter the ‘dependency situation’ than we are. Your coach will help you find your Way Ahead, and, if all else fails, you too can become a life coach just like everyone else.”
On dress codes for training courses
“Women are scared of anything that makes them look like Edwina Currie in civvies and keep to boring black; men usually end up in M&S chinos and look like they’re attending a barbecue in Weybridge”
Brainstorms
“It’s brainstorm hell in there as 35 people take six hours and 180 bottles of Badoit to decide the purpose of a meeting is to communicate.”
Competencies
“it’s all about competencies – something has to justify your low salary. They’re designed to make sure everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet – just in case anyone shows a tendency towards creativity and expects to be paid for it”
Assertiveness
“We’ve all done the assertiveness training (20 people in a meeting all saying, calmly and effectively, that they won’t do a thing).
Induction
“You do the induction course and receive the shiny handbook but wonder why none of it bears the slightest resemblance to what’s going on around you.”
Trainers
“Trainers, incidentally, like to call themselves facilitators so they don’t have to take responsibility for what’s happening.”
Break-out groups
Brainstorming is just another name for flip-chart hell.”
3 comments:
Cry. Definitely cry.
It makes me think of the post-training happy sheets/donut link. "What did you especially like about the training?" Well, there could have been more chocolate donuts and the coffee ran out too early. Yea, but what about the training? Donuts and training. Training and donuts. I weep.
Oh, don't limit this just to classroom training. I remember a post-training comment from someone taking an online course:
This room is too cold.
We could ask what the trainer learned from the trainees . . .
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