I find myself pondering an interesting subject this week. During a conversation with another trainer they made the point that they don’t believe it is their place to change people’s attitudes just to ensure that staff know what they should be doing at work. Hmmmm….now I’m not really a “tell people what to do” kinda trainer so this doesn’t feel quite right to me. I certainly agree that I can’t make people change their attitudes…but I do feel a certain responsibility to offer opportunities for people to challenge their thinking, explore new ways of looking at things, hear other people’s views, and provide a ‘safe’ environment for people to try out new attitudes, approaches, tools, techniques and ways of doing things.
In my opinion and from the outcomes I see in the work we do at vivoHR, this approach leads to lasting improvements that are right for the person, right for the team and right for the business. There is a strong commitment to change, a sense of personal responsibility for the outcomes and an understanding of how changes impact on the bigger picture of company success. But are there times and certain types of subject matter when a “just do this because the rules say so” type of training would be more appropriate? Are there times when training gets overcomplicated because we’re trying to work on hearts and minds when what we should be doing is telling people what to do? Problem is, I can’t think of a time when simply telling what to do would work better. After all I’d rather a manager followed the new health and safety policy because they believed it was part of their duty of care to staff, than did it reluctantly because they had to. And, I’d rather a team understood and respected each other and wanted to work well together than simply kept the peace because the company rules don’t allow for disagreements. Wouldn’t you? I shall continue pondering and if you have any thoughts to add then please do!