What? Have I lost my sanity? ‘Training is important!’, I hear you say. And yes- training is very important! What I mean is that training is a complete waste of time, if you attend and then walk away and do nothing about what you have learned!
So many people feel empowered when they get the training promotional flyer by email or in the post that says “You will learn this, this and this”. They get a sense that they can now ‘get ahead of the pack’, just like they have dreamed for a long time. They pay the registration fee, attend the session, get motivated and turned on by new concepts. They visualise how much better they will be when they are implementing these new strategies.
10% of people actually do something!
In most training sessions, 100% of people get at least something out of it and want to implement what they have learned. But only 10% of people actually walk away from the training and do something about it! Unbelievable!
Everyone that attends training says the same thing. When I ask ‘hands up who wants to be successful in their career?’ everyone puts up their hand. It seems like everybody wants to be the best! But very few are willing to actually pay the price of implementation and move to the new level they want to aspire to.
When writing this article I was in Alice Springs conducting training for property managers. I went out to dinner after the seminar with a friend who happens to be one of the best and most respected property managers in the Northern Territory. He too was sharing with me his frustration that very few people are actually willing to go to training, and then go away and do something about it.
It’s quite ironic that a group of property managers in any regional or metropolitan area get together and sometimes feel resentment because one or more competition companies are also represented there. They automatically think the competition will immediately go away and implement the very same concepts you might identify. But the odds are they are likely to actually do nothing!
The habit of implementation
This is not the case with everyone. In fact, I owe my own career and success to the fact that I made sure I went back into the workplace and implemented what I had learned. I owe my regular habit of implementation to the success I now enjoy as a respected trainer and property management consultant, delivering training and strategies to the best property managers, principals and businesses over South Australia and Northern Territory.
Let me share with you how you can make the most of your training, implement what you have learned and successfully move to the next success level (or the next 10 levels). Here we go:
1. Identify What to Implement- When in the training room, always be thinking- ‘What can I take away and apply, no matter how small’.
2. Record What to Implement- Once identified, mark or highlight carefully in your workbook or notes. Ensure that you have written everything down about that concept, so when you come back to it later, you can go over and revise the whole concept again successfully and refresh your memory.
3. List What You Want to Implement- Make a one-page Action Plan at the end of the training with what you want to implement- in order of priority (at home that night, in the car on the way out, in the training room when everyone has left). Perhaps just record in dot points 7 things you wish to do.
4. Display Your Action Plan- Put your Action Plan up somewhere in your office where you will view it several times a day. It will become your little reminder and prompter, you’re your success scorecard.
5. Make Time to Implement- Make a time slot each fortnight or month to implement each one. These are your ‘golden hours’. This is a time when you know you will likely to be interrupted the least. It could be before or after work, or on a weekend. Don’t put your implementation time block into your working week- unless you know 100% you will not be interrupted! Perhaps plan to be away from the office in this time slot. Go to a café, lock yourself in a back room at the office- but make sure you get it done without interruption! Also, switch off your mobile phone. Once something is implemented, cross it off or tick it off your Action Plan. That way you can also see your progress.
6. Implement One Bit at a Time- Implement each idea one bite-size piece at a time. A mound can be moved one rock at a time. You will be amazed over time what you will achieve if handled it in small chunks.
As you implement your selected strategies, something will begin to happen. After implementing one or two things, you will start to see results and feel empowered at what can be achieved. You will start to taste what success really is! It will become easier to keep implementing as your results and their benefits become more and more apparent.
Implementation is the key!
Yes, training is a complete waste of time- unless you implement what you have learned!
Don’t be part of the majority that says they want to be successful, but do nothing about it. Success is a deliberate and intentional action. It is not something that will happen on its own. It must be planned and implemented. You will never ‘find the time’ to do it. You must make it happen!
Implement what you have learned, and training will become the most valuable thing you will ever do!
Be the best you, you can be!
