Why development and not just training is so important:

Being a facilitator or trainer gave me some useful insights into employees. First let’s look at the differences between training and development and then as to why development should be the preferred goal of training.

Training:

1. Short Term

2. Focus on the Present situations

3. Job Oriented

4. Motivated by the Trainer only

5. Objective is to improve work performance only

Development:

1. Long Term

2. Focus is on the present and future

3. Career / Vocation Oriented

4. Motivated by the Trainer, Individual and Company

5. Objective is to prepare employees for their future with the company

One of the key differences is one I want to focus on. In Development growth is continual and depends a lot on the individual or employee. There is a reason this is true. Have you ever heard of how it takes 21 days or 3 weeks to change a habit? This is because our brains are built that way. Our thoughts impact what we end up doing. Dr. Caroline leaf’s work in neurology explained that it takes us about 3 weeks to change the impact of our thoughts from negative to positive. Thus, if you expect any real change to occur you need continuous practice.

Then I also saw it takes about 3 months in a development program process for employees to switch dependency of results from the trainer to themselves. We all have our emotional crutches and due to the nature of training we have grown accustomed to make the teacher responsible for what we gain in training, but because Ameliorates Employee Development Program is empathetic by nature, soon enough employees start to take on the responsibility of their growth for themselves. This can not be done in a sympathetically based session (where the material discussed is entirely dependent on what the individual wants to discuss or learn) when there is supposed to be a dependence. But most training programs are empathetic (in other words it encourages without deviating from the course or subject material and thus encourages individual responsibility)

If you are not sure if your employees need training or development contact us for a free training needs analysis: info@ameliorate.co.za

Keep Improving

The Ameliorate Team

#training; #development; #growth; #change; #selfdevelopment