As background, some local legislators here in South Carolina have recently
taken GREAT issue with a program put on by our state government's Special
Schools training group for BMW. The course was a 3-day team building
program, paid for by the state as part of its commitment to BMW for
locating here a few years ago.
Needless to say, this committment also caused about 20 or so other
manufacturers to come to the area and has been a great economic boon for
the region.
The state paid $963 per person for 213 supervisors - not too bad methinks.
And given that this is an outstanding place for outdoor recreation and
specifically rafting (Deliverance was filmed right down the road and the
Chattooga is a Wild and Scenic pretected river), Special Schools included
a half-day trip down the Nantahala.
WOAH! State Money for Raft Trips. So, it's become a media event.
I wrote a letter to the editor of the paper and he called me asking me
to expand on it as an Op Ed (Opinion Editorial), which I did.
Reactions to the comments and the like would be appreciated. It should
appear in Sunday's paper and I head to Denmark on Saturday (client work,
not to escape!).
(Title:)
Soft Training: Wasted State Monies or A Good Investment in Human Capital?
Dr. Scott J. Simmerman
Managing Partner, Performance Management Company
(Bio:)
Dr. Simmerman is managing partner of Performance Management Company
consultant, frequent keynote speaker at international conferences. He
is author of 5 books and works with companies on leadership development
and productivity improvement. He is past chair of the Palmetto Chapter
of the American Society for Quality as well as a board member of a
number of other international associations.
(Article - 707 words)
There has been extensive discussion as to wasting taxpayer monies on
what some legislators call "soft" training. Is this an example of abuse
or is team building by Special Schools a good economic investment for
companies and our state?
Some legislators have taken a negative position and are proposing audits
about what they and the Greenville News label "soft" training. The
common term is "soft skills" or general skills training and a variety of
data show it accounts for about 33% of all training hours and involves
about half of all workers.
Is this wasted money? Maybe. But consider that soft skills training
includes programs on leadership, managing change, problem solving,
selling skills, safety training, time management, communications, and
employee counseling and coaching as well as programs on productivity
improvement.
Technical skills training (the "hard" skills) would include a wide
variety of skill building programs such as computer software training,
training in statistical process control, operational training on
machinery, and the like. Wednesday's advertisement by Greenville TEC
for their automobile repair programs would be a good example of the hard
skills.
One needs only to look at a few statistics to see the importance of soft
skills. The popular Dilbert cartoons, for example, generally focus on
thinking, communications and leadership skills. It is a lack of soft
skills that are often the cause of workers "going postal" and for much
of the service quality problems with people that we so often encounter.
Nationwide, chief exectives from 150 organizations say the skills they
would most like to develop in members of their executive team are:
47% Team Building
44% Strategic Thinking
40% Leadership
34% The Ability to Motivate Others.
All of these are the so-called soft skills.
Companies like BMW are doing team building for bottom-line impacts. One
large-scale survey recently showed workers spent 61% of their time
working in teams, with 70% saying that it makes work less stressful.
Two-thirds said it improves quality, productivity and profitability. It
may be "soft" but it certainly has impacts, since statistics show that
90% of workers have exposure to teams, but only 50% receive any team
training.
What makes companies and teams successful? A major survey found 33% of
workers said "getting along" and 29% said "listening," while another 21%
said "setting priorities." South Carolina's Special Schools Program is
unique and has been a proven advantage in recruiting new companies to
the Upstate and elsewhere.
The big controversy seems to be anchored to the float trip on the
Nantahala and the use of tax money for any recreational activities most
certainly raises justifiable concerns. But the "raft trip on tax
dollars" is also a very convenient negative image -- not much has been
said about the other content of the 3-day program or how the activity
was debriefed and connected to the job tasks and goals. To think that
the BMW management is interested in giving front-line supervisors paid
vacations during the work week is both silly and misguided.
Successful global companies in very competitive industries must be very
bottom-line focused and decisions are generally made about impacts and
benefits of training. The same can be said for our Special Schools
personnel -- they design programs based on obvious benefits such as
building better interdepartmental communications to impact quality,
productivity, and cost.
These outdoor experiential programs are being used worldwide by nearly
all major organizations. I know because I sell a different product, a
team building simulation that we've used with clients as diverse as the
Hong Kong Civil Service, EDS, Fluor Daniel, and Christ Church School.
Granted there are other ways of doing team training than rafting on the
Nantahala. But this kind of event is also a memorable experience and a
kinesthetic learning aid. Getting teams to work together is difficult
-- you can't lecture on it.
As a taxpayer, I don't mind Special Schools and BMW spending money on
team training since it improves morale and produces better cars more
productively. This builds our economy.
Perhaps there are other more critical matters that our legislators
should find of impact. Teamwork and trust are two critical
organizational skills that benefit organizations and appear, based on
public comments, to be something they apparently don't understand.
-- For the Fun of It!Scott J. Simmerman SquareWheels@compuserve.com Performance Management Company -- We support consultants and trainers worldwide with products like -- -- The Search for the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine -- www.clicknow.com/stagedright/dutchman/
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>