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FREE Practice Management Black Paper for Management Consulting Firms 
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Run, Hide or Even Bury Yourself or You'll Get Trained
by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur
The poet Maya Angelou once said we should train animals but educate people. That distinction applies to our own and our clients' evolution more than anywhere else. Every day thousands of organisations are wasting money on training but forget to provide education.What is the difference? Just imagine your daughter explaining to you what her class did in school: "Mom, Dad, we had sex education in school today." And you know it is part of the curriculum, so it'is no big deal.
Now imagine this: "Mom, Dad, we had sex training in school today." Would you then ask: "And how many boys did you train personally, honey?" Or, this: "And how many boys did you receive training from, honey?"
Can you feel the difference between training and education?
And when you only train people, they perish. Training only tells people what to do and how. Only education teaches them why to do it at all, and how to improve upon the methods of doing it.
Training is acquiring information in the form of collecting facts. It is both theoretical and practical, but rigid with pretty low limitations. Education is the process of becoming aware through learning, experience and observation. It is experiential and flexible. The slaves at the oars are trained, but the captain at the helm is educated. He can perform the slaves' job, but the slaves cannot perform his.
The more people know why to do something, the more innovative they become at implementing it. Trained people can perform tasks, educated people can use their unique talents, expertise, experiences, intuitions, and other attributes that contribute to the desired results, the constant improvement of the client's condition.
Education consists of value-added components, which are missing from training. The time and money you spend on quality education could turn out to be your wisest investment. It keeps you on the top of your industry. Think of education as an investment, not an expense.
There are some areas where you need to educate your clients:
- You educate your clients about the value your solution means to the success of the project, so you won't be condemned to an hourly rate, which is the worst fee structure.
- You provide specific skills and abilities. This is best accomplished by ensuring that people have access to the knowledge and expertise required to do the job. It can range from monthly Master Mind Forums to corporate resource centres with books, tapes to lend to associates.
- You assist your clients to develop the wisdom required to perform the job. This includes change in behaviours, belief systems and thinking patterns.
- You assist your client to sink in organisational "street smarts," and cultural realities of the environment.
- Educate your clients about the simple fact that you don't train but educate people. It will increase your perceived value.
Even circus animals are noble, and very good at being circus animals. But that's all. So, if you treat people like circus animals, your company may end up with a bunch of clowns or elephants trotting around in circles getting nowhere.
So when you next hear "training", just run to the furthest corner of the universe and plug your ears to make sure that no shred of "training" information reaches your brain. It can be hazardous to your health and wealth.
Here are some further differentiating factors between training and education.
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Training Objective: Memorising and regurgitating a fellow professional's (a.k.a. instructor) opinion
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Education Objective: Guiding people to find their own answers in a process of self-discovery and self-exploration.
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Over a century ago, Henry Peter Brougham said "Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave." Of course, for the same reason many consulting firms are scared shitless to offer broad education for their associates. Once you see the big picture, you can't be manipulated so easily. And we all know that most managers manage by manipulation.
Copyright 1997-2008 Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan. All rights reserved. You are free to use this article in whole or in part. One favour though: Can I ask you to you include complete attribution, including a live website link. Also, can you please let me know where you plan to publish the article.
The attribution: This article was written by Organisational Provocateur, Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan of Dynamic Innovations Squad, a firm specialising in helping consulting firms to sell their expertise at the highest margins. Get Tom's free Practice Management Black Paper when you sign up for his monthly newsletter, Commando Consulting: Lessons And Practices From The Ultimate Professional Service Firm, The Military. Visit Tom's website at http://www.di-squad.com.
Copyright 1997-2010 Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan & Dynamic Innovations Squad, All rights reserved. Vancouver, BC, Canada
As you grow your people, in return, so they grow your firm