July Fast Company Article Summary by Carol A. Thesing

Learning Without Limits by Gina Imperato, July/August issue, pg. 46-48

This article explains how Beth Thomas of the Limited Inc. trains employees. She has employees participate in game show formats to learn training information.

Thomas explains people enjoy training that is fun, relevant to them, and rooted in a deep understanding of the business. She also says people hate training that is generic. I, for one, can agree with that. According to Thomas, it only takes a 2% increase in productivity to get 100% return on an investment in training.

Thomas and her training team teach courses that vary greatly, from entry level to management and decision making. Her sessions are specialized, customized and cooperative, which is her first guiding principle. To do this, her team go into a unit wanting the training and analyses how they work and designs the course applicable specifically for that area.

Thomas second principle is to make the training accessible to the employees. Thomas even does one-on-one training at an employees home.

I found another interesting twist to Thomas training was the fact that she has found on-line learning isnt always the right solution to update training. Even though shes a technology fan, she feels most people do not like big chucks of learning done by computer.

The article concludes by giving five tips on ways to train. They are: 1. Let business schedules determine learning schedules. 2. Interaction is where the action is. Learning should be self driven. Interaction should take place at least every 8 minutes. 3. Games are good! Icebreaker games are different than work training games. 4. Four hours, not forever. Longer training result in less retention. 5. Get them while theyre young. Train new hires as soon as possible.

My response: I look for and enjoy good relevant training but nothing upsets me more than wasting time in any kind of irrelevant meetings or training. I have so many thing to do in a day, to sit somewhere that is not productive is very irritating for me. I love games but the key still is reverence. Training can also be personal growth. Training for me doesnt always have to do with business. I think if some time is spent on personal growth, which helps develop a better person, it will develop a better employee. I liked the idea of training no more than four hours. Ideally, to train, work, and then retrain or evaluate helps me retain more.

When talking with a colleague, he was very concerned about games that may be labeled cutsie. Fun to me, is stress to him. This is where Thomas would say the training needs to be personalized. My colleague also agreed that training needs to be relevant to him and not generically relevant to the whole. He also said he would rather have longer hands-on training where he could work with real life situations.

-- Anonymous, September 15, 1999