I was in Philippines with my Japanese colleague who is responsible for the business there. We had a meeting with our partners and customers. One of the partner has a new sales rep and I told them I love to train especially young reps since they have not acquire any bad habits yet. My Japanese colleague remark that my training is academic. I do not know how to take this feedback.
Did he think I am too theoretical? Was it not practical? Maybe he did not feel the value of my training? Was it mean to be an insult? Well, I am not sure. Knowing him, I am sure he will not be disrespectful.
I was preparing training on Influencing Skills and using Robert Cialdini's book Influence, Science and Practice for reference when the comment hits me. Robert is a Professor of Psychology. I realise I will be reinforcing his feedback that I am "academic". Using Cialdini, I will be training using logic and my anecdotes will be based on rigorous scientific study.
So I thought about it and know this is not going to go well with my audience as I do have a wide representation from other areas in my company. I rack my brains hard. Influencing skills are rarely taught. Since joining the workforce I had numerous trainings from skills enhancement like how to repair medical equipment, how to train service engineers to management and leadership skills and even English pronunciation to get rid of my Singapore accent. However, no Influencing Skill training which is in hot demand.
I had a brainwave! There is a classic book which I recommended to everyone in my team in every new assignment I have. The author is not a Professor. He trains working adults. He died in 1955 but his name is alive and well. There is an organisation carrying on the torch. The book he wrote is How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie courses are available in Singapore and most other countries. The tips are practical and works. The advice are pretty much commonsense although commonsense really is not so common.
This book helps me achieve success and I will pass the wisdom on to others.
2 comments:
how i would interprete "academic" in the context of training is that it lacks applicability. it lacks practical sense. (at least thats what i mean when i comment a trainer)
its like the entirety of the training was centred around concepts. & as a participant, i may question if im able to acheive whatever that was being taught from reading a book.
maybe while utilising the author's resources, you can tie it up with examples relating to common issues that you deal with while at job?
just my 2 cents worth. =)
p.
P, wonderful to hear from you. I gives practical examples or "war stories" from my personal experience as well as experience from participants.
My observation on this colleague is he does not enjoy reading or go for courses on his own and needs "encouragement". Hence, I think he is saying "academic" to mean book-based training.
BL
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