Traditional training: You sit in a room, absorb knowledge, regurgitate it for a test, and apply it in your role. This formula, used for decades, is increasingly becoming archaic. In a fast evolving professional landscape, merely passing along information is not enough.
Kuty Shalev, the guiding force behind Clever Tech, implores us to reassess the way we think about training. For Shalev, professional training isn’t just about information. It’s about skill development and coordination.
Think about it. Today’s world has the likes of Google and YouTube. If information was the end-all, be-all, we’d all be experts in everything. But ask software developers about their number one challenge, and they’ll rarely complain about a lack of information. More often, it’s about building the wrong thing, a misalignment between development and actual user needs. It’s about the absence of understanding and effective communication.
The real professional treasure is not the knowledge itself but the ability to coordinate that knowledge with others. It’s a distinct kind of skill that transcends mere information hoarding. In his work at CleverTech, Shalev emphasizes the “universe of speech acts” where things like making requests, offers, declines, and declarations come into play. These speech acts are the lifeblood of modern professional interaction, and understanding them is paramount. They can’t be paused, Googled, or delayed. They require direct engagement, on-the-spot decision-making, and a deep understanding of human needs and behaviors.
Shalev’s insights reveal a significant gap in our modern training methodologies. Most professional training fails to emphasize the importance of coordination, understanding, and efficient communication. Instead, they focus on just knowledge transfer, which, while essential, is only a piece of the larger puzzle. We’re preparing professionals for tests, not for real-world challenges.
Moreover, our internal fears and barriers often restrict us from reaching our full potential. Professionals often face internal struggles: fear of admitting they don’t understand something, or the anxiety of how they might be perceived if they question or seek clarity. This isn’t a minor issue; it’s a professional blockade.
So how do we evolve? How do we move from outdated training methods to a holistic approach that encompasses both knowledge and skill development?
For one, we must recognize that being trained isn’t equivalent to being told what to do. It’s about experiencing, making mistakes, learning, and growing. It’s about challenging oneself and breaking free from the confines of our self-imposed limitations. For instance, gamifying the training process doesn’t just make it engaging but wraps it in emotion, a crucial element in the learning process. Such approaches help professionals internalize lessons deeply, preparing them for real-world challenges more effectively than traditional methods ever could.
The true mark of training success isn’t just what you know; it’s how you apply it, how you communicate it, and how you adapt when faced with unexpected challenges. It’s time we shift our training paradigms to reflect this reality. So we don’t just become repositories of information, we become able problem solvers, better equipped to navigate the unpredictable terrains of the new work.