Management Stories

There’s the story of a top salesman who made a terrible mistake. He’d bought a vast amount of fruit. He thought it would be a bargain but had totally overestimated and his company was left with tons and tons of this rotting fruit. He arrived at his office the following day and started to tidy his papers, clearing his desk. He gets a call from his manager, “Could you pop up and see me?” she says. “Of course” he mumbles and slowly makes his way up the stairs to his boss’ office.

As he enters the room he says “Look I know I got it wrong – I’m sorry – I’ve written my letter of resignation – here it is ” and puts it on the desk.

His manager looks at the letter, rips it in half, rips it in half again and puts it in the bin. “You must be joking” she says smiling ” We’ve just spent £20,000 on your training – there’s no way you’re leaving until you’ve made that back for us.”

Source: Speed of Recovery by Byron Kalies

102No Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mgmtstories.com%2F2010%2F08%2F31%2Ftreating-mistakes-as-training%2FTreating+Mistakes+as+Training2010-08-31+16%3A32%3A10Administratorhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mgmtstories.com%2F%3Fp%3D102 Posted by Administrator / Management and Organizational Behavior / HR and Training

In 1991, we put some 900 people through a basic seven-step problem-solving course, using two approaches. About half the employees came to our central corporate training facility for standard classroom training. The other half were trained in teams, on the job. This group didn’t get trained until they were part of a team that was working on a real problem. When they got to a point where they needed help, they called in a facilitator. First they learned Step 1 and applied what they learned. They didn’t worry about Steps 2 or 3 until they needed them. You might call this just-in-time training.

Three or four months later, we surveyed the people who went through these two programs. Of those who had received just-in-time, on-the-job training, 80 percent said they felt they used what they learned. Of those who had received standard classroom training, only 30 to 40 percent felt they had actually put to use what they were taught. We think a lot differently now about how to do training.

Source: Organizational Learning: The Key to Success in the 1990s by Ray Stata | Prism, Q4 1992

61No Comments »http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mgmtstories.com%2F2009%2F02%2F16%2Fhow-to-do-training%2FHow+to+do+Training2009-02-16+17%3A17%3A23Administratorhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.mgmtstories.com%2F%3Fp%3D61 Posted by Administrator / Management and Training