1. If training is the problem, it is not the solution. Training is a solution to a problem; it is not the problem. As Bob Mager
writes in “What Every Manager Should Know about Training,” when you have a headache, it’s a headache. It’s not an
aspirin problem. While it might seem Mr. Mager is dealing in semantics, bad training decisions result in bad training.
2. If training is the first consideration to solving a problem, it will not solve the problem. This is usually a knee-jerk reflex to a
crisis and the choking death of Staten Islander Eric Garner by a NYPD officer is a perfect example. Although chokeholds
have been a violation of NYPD policy for a number of years, the Department received more than $44 million to train their
personnel to not use chokeholds. The three hours of lecture were poorly received.
3. Most “training problems” are management or communication problems that do not require training. Training is a process
not an end result. That process is supposed to continue in the form of coaching, mentoring, practice and feedback on the
job. That is where management must assume responsibility for their employees’ career growth. Only inept or lazy
managers blame training; it is one less thing they will then have to take responsibility for.
4. Training should be your last alternative to a solution. If you go to the doctor for that headache, she is likely to tell you to
“take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” She isn’t going to schedule you for brain surgery the following Tuesday.
Training should be the last solution to a problem, never the first because it is the most costly solution. Providing
resources, job aids, feedback, practice, one-on-one, and removing obstacles to performance will be far cheaper and more
effective. In training, each participant is being paid while being non-productive. It’s the same as being sick. The
Department is paying you and getting nothing in return. Multiply that by the number of participants and the number of
training days, and you have racked up quite an expense.
5. If management does not wholeheartedly support the training, it will be ineffective. Sometimes participants seem to have
noses like canines. If they get a whiff that managers do not support the training, they will attach the same value to it,
unless they find there is something in it for them. Otherwise, you can count on a huge level of apathy.