I used to expect a lot from trainings. If I didn’t walk away completely transformed, I would feel cheated. If I heard something I already knew, I would feel annoyed. After a while. I would walk into trainings with a chip on my shoulder, almost daring the trainer to tell me something I didn’t already know. It was an unhelpful combination of hubris and busyness and a belief that I was being taken away from the real work that I was supposed to be doing.
As a trainer now, I see this in my participants all the time- a type of poetic justice, if you will. These reflections of me are easy to spot as the annoyance is often too difficult to hide. Sometimes it all plays out as if on a stage- actor walks in, slides into their char, stretches out their legs, crosses their arms, looks straight ahead, and dares me to tell them something they haven’t heard a hundred times before.
I get it. I really do.
Trainings can be a colossal waste of time and when they are, they do take us away from the real work we need to do. Sometimes they are a waste because the trainer is just not very good. In other cases, the trainer may be good, but the level of the training is not right for the expertise in the room. Or the expertise in the room is too varied to benefit any one portion of it. Or a topic is of no interest or use to the participants but was chosen by the powers that be for a reason known only to them.
But often, the issue lies with the participants themselves- and yes, I am including myself in this too. Participants who think they already know everything. Or hope to learn simply by being present physically without being present mentally, half-listening while checking emails and social media feeds. Or expect one training to fix everything in sixty minutes or less.
A good training requires that both the trainer and the participant do their part. That means that both come ready to do the work. It also means that both are committed to doing the real work which, for the trainer comes in preparation of the session and for the participant comes in what they do after it. And it requires an understanding that the work of learning and growth is almost always long and slow and happens in countless tiny steps. It is often these tiny steps that make the most difference.
Managing expectations is essential to getting value out of trainings and most other things in life as well. If you expect to completely master a new skill in sixty minutes you will almost always be left feeling disappointed. If you expect to learn something new without putting in any work, you are setting yourself up for failure. Instead, if you approach most trainings for what they are designed to be, an introduction or starting point to a new concept, strategy, or skill, they can provide the value you are looking for. If you recognize and appreciate that growth and learning only happen step by step and you appreciate trainings as one of those steps, they can be of great value to you.
Further, it is important to recognize that it is these small changes that lead to big changes. Often, we want the million-dollar idea or solution to fix it all. This is so rarely possible. Instead, what moves the work forward is the accumulation of lots of small improvements made consistently over time. My sister always says, “If everything was just 5% better, the impact would be massive.” I think about that a lot. In my personal life and my professional one. When it comes to saving money, being healthy, building relationships, big grand actions have their time and place, but true growth comes from small consistent changes over time.
If you have been a manager for a long time, there is still a lot you can do to learn and grow. Walking into a training convinced there is nothing you can get out of it will only prove you right. But listening, sharing, and asking questions may just get you that incremental growth you are seeking. Perhaps hearing something for the 100th time suddenly adds an insight that the previous 99 times did not. Or maybe someone else’s story sparks an idea for you. Or maybe you meet someone in that training who becomes a resource somewhere down the line. You just don’t know, and you cannot know if you are determined not to find out.
In the same way, it is important to approach your work with a similar mindset of small consistent growth over time. Yes, there may be occasions where big sweeping changes are possible and impactful, but in most cases, you and your work will improve over time little by little, step by step. It is not as noticeable or newsworthy that way, but it is effective and almost always the only way.
As you approach your own leadership and the growth of your team, this approach will serve you best. Achieving big goals requires small, consistent steps. Which ones can you start today? How can you celebrate that growth over time rather than waiting for the larger noticeable growth at the end? How can you stick with it when the process feels slow? How can you stay active in the process both as a learner and a teacher? What is the first small step you are ready to take today?
