Training courses - ever wondered why they aren't always successful?
At some point in our working lives, we’ve all attended training courses. Some are great, some leave a lot to be desired. Is that the only reason that we don’t always get value from them? I honestly don’t think so.
Have you ever experienced coming away from a course academically understanding absolutely everything, but you’ve still not managed to change your ways of working? Honestly? I imagine that’s true for most people on at least some courses.
Maybe you’re a manager and you have sent members of your team on courses to develop in areas where it’s clear that there’s room for improvement or where you see great potential in them, even if they don’t yet see that potential in themselves. Did you always see results? Even with the most diligent worker, I suspect that at least some of the time you just didn’t see the change that you were hoping for.
Have you ever wondered why?
Let’s explore a little more. Let me start with some theory.
Dilts Pyramid
The world of Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) loves a good model. In reality, models are great for simply explaining why we tend to experience things in a certain way.
Robert Dilts developed a pyramid model which is useful in many contexts. In particular I think it is very useful when it comes to personal development.
This pyramid helps you to understand yourself and your environment better.
It also provides an indication of which of the levels changes needs to take place at in order for personal development efforts to be successful. The levels clarify, for example, where a problem, a goal or your personal mission is located.
Hang in there with this bit, read it a couple of times if you need to, understanding this model will help the examples shared later come to life for you.
The Levels of the Dilts Pyramid
These levels are often referred to as the logical levels.
Environment
This is everything outside ourselves. It’s all that we react to, our environment and the other people that we meet.
Each event in our lives can be experienced externally with the senses and can be answered with the questions "Where?", "When?", "Who?", "With whom?", "Who else?".
Behaviour
We react to the environmental stimuli by concrete actions, by speaking or even with unconscious reactions. This is our behaviour and refers to all externally perceived actions and reactions of a person: their actions, their words, their gestures, their movements, their breathing. Behaviour can be described with sense-specific terms. This is about the "What?".
Skills
The skills are behind the behaviour. Our abilities enable us to act. Our knowledge and our experience are part of this.
Activities are cognitive and emotional processes that a person goes through to make a certain behaviour possible. They are not perceptible from the outside. It is about knowing, thinking and feeling, including awareness of these abilities. The question is "How?".
Beliefs and values
The next level are the beliefs, the convictions, the values, the inner criteria that underlie the actions (consciously and unconsciously), they are the actual motives of a person, guiding ideas that he believes to be true and uses to use his abilities.
People only use existing abilities if there are corresponding beliefs and criteria that allow them to do so. Beliefs are interpretations from previous experiences. They are individual theories of why something is like this and not different.
Identity & Vision
The next level is the level of identity & vision. The self-image, the ideas a person constructs about himself and his behaviour, his abilities and beliefs, all of which are mostly held unconsciously. Vision is about our professional, family, social or perhaps philosophical beliefs and or religious affiliations. This spiritual level guides and shapes our life and gives our existence a foundation. It is about the "big questions" in life: "Why do we live?", "Why are we here?", "What is the meaning of life?".
These levels feed into one another. Generally, if you aim to develop within one level, you’ll have an impact on all the levels below it, but not necessarily those above it.
Building it up from the bottom…….
On the lowest level, the "Environment" the human being moves with his "Behaviour".
Behind the behaviour are the "Skills" which make it possible to execute any behaviour.
Behind/above the skills is the motivation to want to do something or to develop and practice the ability to do it. Since this motivation is not only drive-driven, we are not only talking about motives here, but also about "Values and Beliefs". We use these as criteria to decide what we believe, i.e. what we consider to be right, true and important.
Finally, we define our "Identity & Vision". With this we distinguish who we are, what we are, what belongs to us and what does not.
So why don’t training courses always work?
You may have heard that if you don’t use it, you lose it. I believe that to be true. Training is best done ‘just in time’ so that the learning is fresh and front of mind at the time when the skill is required to be used. So if you train someone too far in advance, that learning may be lost by the time it is needed to be used.
But that’s not what I want to focus on in this blog.
Training courses are typically aimed at helping you develop new skills.
Whilst working on one level can impact those levels below it, for example, going on a training course will teach you new skills enabling you to behave in a new way within your environment, if you don’t also deal with any conflicts within your values & beliefs, then it’s likely that the training won’t have the impact you intended.
Let’s use an example.
You send someone on a training course to learn how to do presentations. In that course they learn all the techniques for constructing a good presentation, how how and where to stand, tonality, use of gestures etc, etc. But if that same person has a limiting belief that they are a bad presenter, then the chances are they will still be nervous about presenting even though they technically have the skills required.
Or, on the same course, you have someone who doesn’t have any limiting beliefs around their ability to present and they learn the same skills as everyone else, but they don’t value the skills or the opportunity to speak, you are likely to still have a reluctant speaker even though they can technically do the job very well.
I found it very sad to finish one of my hypnotherapy courses to hear one of the delegates saying that they wouldn’t start working with clients yet as they didn’t feel they had sufficient expertise. If they didn’t have it then after intensive training which included practical work, then sitting and waiting for an unspecified time also wouldn’t lead to an increase in confidence.
So, in order to make any meaning change in your life, you need to focus at least one level higher than the one you’re actually hoping to change in order for the change to be effective. So in the case of learning new skills, you need to also be aware of any challenges around beliefs and values and potentially around identity & vision. In doing this you will have a ripple effect down through all the other levels.
What can you do about it?
As suggested previously, in my opinion you should work at least one level above the level in which you wish to make a change.
If you want to change your behaviour, it makes sense to go on a course to learn the new skills required.
What you do need to consider is whether there are any elements in the higher levels that you need to address in order for the skills you will be learning to be utilised. Do you have any limiting beliefs? Do you value the skill that you will be learning?
If you’re a manager and you’ve identified a learning need for a member of your team, it’s worth stepping back from looking at it with your own eyes and instead step into the shoes of your team member to understand if it is simply a skill gap or if there are some softer aspects that may need attention alongside the training or before it.
I have been fortunate to have worked for leaders who have seen potential in me when I couldn’t see it. For years I believed that I was stupid. Logically, with two professional qualifications and an MBA to my name at that point, that belief didn't make any sense. It took a leader who saw through that and put me forward for a development programme that did address more than technical skills, one that slowly started to unpick my incorrect and limiting belief.
Personal breakthrough sessions
Whilst you can work to undermine and remove limiting beliefs, like I did with my belief that I was stupid, we often have multiple, seemingly unrelated, limiting beliefs. Generally, there is a single lynch pin limiting belief which when that belief is removed that all limiting beliefs beneath it are also removed. Doing that really is transformative. If that was all a breakthrough session did it would be extremely powerful, but it goes much further than that.
If you are ready to transform your life or you recognise the potential in a member of your team and would like to make this investment. Get in touch for more information.
