Those that talk about it and those that do it

Jonathan — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:20:04 +0000

Mark over on the ‘Integration Training’ blog posted an interesting post about ‘Technique Head’ recently.

Mark writes about trainers and consultants who learn the theories and explanations then spout them out, almost as written, regardless of their own understanding of it, or the understanding of the people they are training.

These “theorists” use the theory not as a means to an end but as an end in itself.
I know some consultants and trainers, for whom the talking about and theorising about, is more important than the actual doing.

They are the sort of people who will write endlessly about nutritional values, cooking in various parts of the world, health and safety considerations and then struggle to make beans on toast and get a cup of tea ready all at the same time.

There is the saying “Those that can, do and those that can’t, teach”
To an extent this could be true, bad teachers/trainers are those who know what to do, yet how to do it is lost on them and their students. Good teachers are those who have, done and know instinctively the best way to get their experiences and knowledge across.
It would be a sad world indeed if all teachers were former failures.

So why aren’t these ‘theory’ trainers and consultants just shown the door on the grounds that they are boring and in effect only tell us what we can find out for ourselves as easily as they did?

We live in an age of “perceived expertise” – where anyone can read a few books, set up a website and then call themselves pretty much whatever they want.

Most of the population (this goes for business as well as consumer) is generally so insecure that they will buy any “quick fix” going.

I agree with Mark’s overall thinking that training must work – at more than a superficial level – so the training does not have to be continually repeated, making staff more efficient, speeding procedures etc. and overall, especially in these cost conscious times, saving money.

Management styles

Jonathan — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:55:48 +0000

Management styles

We all make decisions every day. It is these decisions that allow us to manage our lives, enabling us to do the things we want to do, while working with and around: other people, time and the everyday problems which always seem to occur.

Similarly a business needs to be managed. An Organisation is not called that because it falls apart every five minutes, but because the various parts have been managed and organised in order to fit its purpose

How the various parts are managed and by whom, largely depends on the type of organisation /business and its aims and objectives and the management styles of the individual managers themselves.

Management in its simplest form is about how you make use of your resources. These resources can be anything from how your money is spent and balancing a budget, moving people around, designing and placing items, in order to make the best of what you have.

There are four main management styles which can be employed within a business structure.

Taking each of these Management styles individually does not show a true picture of how a business should be managed.
It is likely that in most modern organisations many, if not all, of these styles are used at some time or other as changes to policies and practices are made almost on a week to week/month to month basis.

Which management style does your organisation use when and why?

Sharp End Training » Safety Considerations

Those that talk about it and those that do it

Management styles