Creative Training Techniques Newsletter

How are things in your organization? How about in your community? Your state? My wife and I split our time between Minnesota and Arizona. We’ve noticed that Arizona seems to be hit harder by the current economy than Minnesota. Housing prices have dropped more (but then they also rose more rapidly over the past five years), more restaurants seem to have gone out of business. Every day more retailers seem to announce massive store closings. More bankruptcies are announced. The sales in January were bigger than ever, but did it help much?

So what does all of this have to do with you – and with training and performance improvement? Each of us always has a choice. We can let our circumstances determine how we think – or we can let our thinking determine our circumstances. Right now can be the greatest time of opportunity for you – if you see it that way. Now is the time to learn more and apply more. Now is the time to re-examine everything we do and ask ourselves whether or not it is adding enough value – or any value at all. If not – stop doing it – and start doing something that will.

Now, more than ever in the past 10 years, you have the opportunity to come alongside line managers in your organization and help them find ways to increase the performance and productivity of the people they manage. And how do you do that? One simple way is to each day ask yourself, “What is one thing I can do better today than yesterday?” Each day seek to make some small improvement. Done day after day it’s not long before those small improvements will have turned into a large improvement.

Suggest to line managers that they do the same thing. This is a personal way of applying “Kaizen,” the Japanese quality approach which is literally a series of small improvements. Few people in these times would think that it is okay to be complacent. Few would argue that business as usual will get the job done or will allow an organization to survive, let alone thrive, until things get better. Now is the time to emphasize personal and corporate responsibility for finding and doing the things that can create positive change and momentum in the organization. And it is the training and performance improvement people – like you and me – that can lead the way.

This month I’ll be speaking in San Diego, Houston, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Orlando, and Little Rock (exact details can be found at (http://www.bobpikegroup.com/pages.asp?pageid=17010). I hope to see you along the way. And on March 3, I’ll be doing a webinar where I’ll answer your questions on Thriving, Not Surviving, as a Professional Trainer in these Turbulent Times. Follow this link to ask your question now: http://www.askdatabase.com/campaigns/?a=45749&c=agf&b=6902. Until next month – add value and make a difference.

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