Warrior Wisdom With Thom Shea

Shifts in business practices have been happening faster with the growth of technology. During COVID-19, virtual meetings which were previously considered annoying became a necessity. Every day a new software comes out that allows people to do more with in less time. However, there seems to remain a struggle to advance training within companies.


In 2004, companies began outsourcing their training to save money. After paying for a training department, the initial numbers showed that they could pay a contractor less. However, like most things, they forgot to account for human error. The training agencies were not as familiar with the company and ended up costing more because of the lack of quality in training.


This is not to say that training agencies are bad, but they don’t have the level of knowledge about the specific company the employees will be working for. Unfortunately, so many analysts are high in IQ (Intelligence Quotient) but not in EQ (Emotional Quotient). It is very easy to crunch numbers and have a machine spit out a figure about budgeting. However, it is a much different skillset to know how future employees will react to training.


This is not to say that emotions in the workplace are good. Apart from grieving or encouragement, emotion is largely negative— resulting in excuses and inaction. Keeping emotions out of your goals is a very difficult process. In fact, society tell us how emotional we should be when it comes to our actions and goals. However, emotional reactions are then dependent on…more emotional reactions. The need for an emotional is a very addicting, cyclical process.


Another discussion about training is OJT (on-the-job training) versus process training. There are probably an equal number of practitioners on both sides of the fence with some using a combination of both. Most people may assume that if keeping training in house is a good practice then so should OJT, but that is not the case. Due to the demands it puts on company staff, whom are not experienced in training, this type of training can cause less efficiency for workers and doesn’t really give steps/guidelines for incoming employees. Processes, on the other hand, are constructed, or should be, when an effective system is created.


After reflecting on this, how does your company approach training?

Show Notes: 

1:29 - How do you hedge against emotion?

3:50 - People don't care how much you know till the know how much you care.

5:10 - Money doesn't buy culture.

7:00 - Why don't companies have training departments?

11:31 - Which is better: on the job training or process training?

14:58 - The history of military training