Most of us “technology-minded” people think we are connected to the world, but we aren’t. Not really. Not in what matters. Now, that’s the real question. What matters?
Little things like humanity, a caring, giving society, right? Isn’t that what we hope for? Then, the stark reality sets in. Humanity be damned and survival of the fittest begins yet again.
In today’s economy, it’s not unusual that my students are generally older and already working… They are not always at the jobs they envisioned or credible at the level in which they wish to be perceived. My students seek jobs in IT, business management and medical records and technical support. Practical jobs. There’s the problem. Humanity is all around us, not just at work.
I hope what I said to my students via email resonates with everyone, especially trainers who may have to do the same job, will find the approach useful. It was one of the those moments when I felt I was on a roll and that my message might be useful to others. So, here goes:
Please don’t take this as a scolding. It’s more of a philosophical discussion to help you understand why we approach things as we are doing.
You are a great class. I love your enthusiasm however misdirected. Sometimes it gets off point and it seems we waste time, but we aren’t. We talked about me a lot last class. We need to talk about you. Personally, I don’t mind; I’m an open book. That’s just who I am. Because I have a lot of experiences I share them with you, and I apologize if you don’t think they are always on point. I try. Give me some credit; many of you are otherwise engaged and not listening (hearing doesn’t count, remember) to me. Your persuasive speech is about you. What you think, how you put relevant facts together and communicate your idea to us.
This is all for you. I am fully engaged in helping you improve on what I think is one of the most important aspects of work and life. People who communicate well generally do better than those who don’t. Not all us have the luck or the heritage or money or even guidance to have had the early breaks to success. Now’s time to make up for it. The world has so much to offer that to exclude anything because you don’t know much about it just seems wrong.
The group evaluations were particularly telling about you as a class. You support each other. You care that everyone gets a good grade. You even make excuses for those not there. None of this is bad, but there are times to see yourself as part of a group, and times when you are an individual. There are times to step back and look at what it really takes to do a job as an individual with a past life of experiences. That will make you a compelling communicator.
If you work hard and take advantage of what is offered, you can’t fail. On its appearance, most people assume this is an uncomplicated subject and easy class. Wait ’til these people come in to take it.
You know how complicated and intricately woven communication is. I try to make it basic because it is basic–perhaps so basic as to be overlooked and taken for granted. People just say “I can’t do that,” or “That’s not my skill set,” or “I don’t do Sushi.” What happened to, “I’ll try it,” “I’m game,” or “Gee, that’s interesting, tell me more?” Do you understand the subtlety here? One group is passive and the other active. It’s not introvert and extrovert; it doesn’t matter. It’s how you approach whatever it is you want to do.
You should know by now that I don’t break down into little pieces what we do and “spoon feed” them to you; still, I simplify the process as much as I can. I don’t want someone to answer specific questions because there are no specific answers, and so there is very often no wrong answer. This is one of those subjects. (Think softer skills training.)
Why do I do I not “spoon feed” you the answers? It’s simple. I want the ideas and processes to ingrained in you forever, not forgotten after the tests. It doesn’t matter if you know what something is called specifically–only if it works and you do it. It becomes a part of you. Then, you have learned it.
We learn what works well when it comes to work. To be successful at anything as you should already know, we need to do more than the expected to be noticed in the workplace. Sometimes having a novel idea will rocket us to the top, but not that many of us do that. I could give you tiny details like someone telling you exactly point-by-point how to do your job, but I don’t.
You can see that in the speech evaluation sheets you get back from me. You can see I look at areas and how hard you tried to accomplish the general task. I give you general guidelines for a specific product and leave a door wide open for you to discuss if you have an issue or a problem. I try to make common sense out of what we are talking about and relevant to you because, after all, there no hard and fast answers.
Enough of the motivational speech (I wrote this here and now–not previously). I really want you to see that giving you examples and being human like you is to make you a human presenter. If you only fill in the blanks and get them right, you lose in the end.
You may have thought this isn’t a class for everyone (at least in everyone’s mind), but it really is. Not so much “philosophy” next email. I have some helpful additional sources and precautions I need to share relevant to the next two speeches.
That’s right. This is coming at the end of the class. It has taken this long to pull many students into the discussion, into the idea that communication is as important as the details.
Hopefully, they see for themselves now the very idea that humanity is losing touch unless we start communicating personally as well. Our current lack of communication skills has been extrapolated and commented on in many recent films and novels, all of which are usually very dark, where people are dull-witted, despairing and fearful of the future. In dystopias–not utopias. We know our society is on a wrong path, and we ask the question: how are we going to survive? If we aren’t, we should be.
Are we falling into Internet Space? No, but we’re holding on to the proverbial edge of reality.
By the way, this is not all I do. I believe in connections. Information and communication is applicable in training and development as well as education. If you are interested in my approach here or in other offerings on the site, you might also be interested in my book, The Caveman Guide to Training and Development. “Cave” and “Man” can be separate on purpose, I think. And more meaningful.
The “cave” is simply where we train. I promise there will be a II and III based on my articles here. If you like what you see here, I have a blog site, Shaw’s Reality, where I look at the world’s reality from a variety of perspectives. I have also published a young adult science fiction dystopian novel, In Makr’s Shadow.
By all means though, check out The Free Management Library’s complete training section.