{"id":2642,"date":"2013-06-25T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T09:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spontaneousdevelopment.com\/sdnuggets\/?p=2642"},"modified":"2013-06-24T19:36:12","modified_gmt":"2013-06-24T19:36:12","slug":"why-company-retirement-courses-rarely-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/why-company-retirement-courses-rarely-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Company Retirement Courses Rarely Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a sequel to yesterday's issue of my Speaking IDEAS newsletter, titled \"Speaking to Retirees & Aspiring Entrepreneurs<\/a>\". If you have to organise training courses for (prospective) retirees, start-ups and\/or aspiring entrepreneurs, THIS\u00a0is one article you want to read. Otherwise you may get it ALL wrong. Believe me!<\/span><\/p>\n

Before leaving in December 2001, to start my own business, I was Training & Technical Development Manager (TTDM) in Guinness Nigeria's Benin Brewery<\/a>. (In 2008, I'd acted on two seperate occasions - for one month, and later for 3 months, as TTDM). Among other roles, I arranged for prospective retirees, to attend pre-retirment courses, by liasing with external training provider firms.<\/p>\n

Before leaving, I was also opportuned to act in senior management roles, as Production Manager and Technical Manager.<\/p>\n

However, my entire 7 year stay in that company, often had me working closely with the Training Department. .<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have a habit of reflecting deeply on happenings around me. That habit has helped me discover ways to make a useful difference in various areas of endeavour.<\/p>\n

Among other things, I noticed that many companies simply send employees on generic training courses. Little effort seems to be made to research the course contents. As a result, there is often not much relevance and tangible impact, with regard to the real world the attendees will return to. <\/em><\/p>\n

Training Providers Need to Go Beyond What Others Are Doing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What is needed, is an experiential learning event that involves a facilitator who brings real world expertise to share with the audience.<\/p>\n

It's the best way to serve retirees or aspiring start-ups. That is, deliberately investing time, effort and energy, to RESEARCH, and highlight, ALL<\/span> <\/strong>real issues likely to be faced by start-ups. And offering solutions based on what works in the real world, for them to use.<\/p>\n

Burt Dubin<\/a> stresses the importance of doing this, a lot, in his newsletter, and many speaking success articles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>It's not just about getting attendees competent, in the ABC's of the business area(s) being taught in the course.<\/h3>\n

Attendees need to be told the importance of developing \u201cstreet wisdom\u201d,<\/strong> to interact with suppliers, and especially buyers\/clients.<\/p>\n

Otherwise they could end up frequently struggling to get paid for their products and services - despite being competent!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen a lot of this happen first hand. <\/strong><\/p>\n

For instance, I once had a client whose manufacturing operation sold an excellent consumable item across many states.<\/h3>\n

But his distributors routinely held him to ransom, by failing to remit money for sales of items he sent them on credit <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0via hired trucks.<\/p>\n

Yet they still called and asked for more. <\/strong>He told me he could not <\/strong>say no<\/strong> to their (blatantly selfish and inconsiderate) demands, because they made a lot of sales for him.<\/p>\n

I told him that was only<\/strong> because he was not <\/strong>actively recruiting new<\/strong> distributors who could perform.<\/p>\n

These are not things we learn easily. It can be a painful process!<\/strong><\/p>\n

To show how bad this can get, that client ended up taking a bank overdraft facility that nearly ruined him. <\/em>All in a bid to cope with cash flow demands, when he could not redeem over N2million in receivables from his distributors!! <\/em>Among other things, he needed to pay salaries! <\/em><\/p>\n

This is why coaching\/mentoring of people who attend pre-retirement or business start-up courses, even AFTER the events, can be quite useful.<\/p>\n

Along with books that help attendees get better prepared to handle such issues, coaching\/mentoring can boost their ability to succeed with any business idea.<\/p>\n

Attendees Also Need Exposure to Guiding Philosophies for Success <\/strong><\/h3>\n

I have had considerable contact with many training providers. Most simply use conventional approaches to conduct learning events for retirees or start-ups.<\/p>\n

When the attendees are told all the routine, recycled stuff, one <\/strong>major ingredient is often missed out.<\/p>\n

Yet, that\u2019s the stuff that helps majority of entrepreneurs who break through keep going till they do so! <\/em><\/p>\n

Some found it by reading Anthony Robin\u2019s book. I found it by reading books by Napoleon Hill and James R. Cook (Start-up Entrepreneur).<\/p>\n

That ingredient is the \u201cmental attitude\u201d needed for success - <\/strong> an aspect that\u2019s grossly neglected.<\/p>\n

Quite often, failures are recorded not<\/strong> because the business idea is bad, or the entrepreneur is incompetent.<\/p>\n

Often times it's the mental attitude resulting from a lack of access to, or adherence to a guiding philosophy. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not something that most people can fully grasp at one sitting or in one learning event.<\/p>\n

It often needs to be drummed into their heads, until they internalise it. <\/em><\/p>\n

This is why I believe a practical coaching element, comprising this guiding philosophy, mixed with business practice tips, must<\/strong> be combined to help him\/her.<\/p>\n

That's how training provided can make a real difference in people's lives. <\/strong>Otherwise, it would just be the same old stuff.<\/h3>\n

Most successful entrepreneurs got that way by persisting despite<\/strong> huge visitations of adversity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s rarely the number of academic or professional certifications one has that leads to success.<\/p>\n

Instead, it's often your ability to persist and stay focused, that gets you where you want to go in business - or indeed in life. <\/em><\/p>\n

First time start-ups, or prospctive retireess contemplating business start-up, must imbibe a similar philosophy, after<\/strong> they've settled on a viable business idea.<\/p>\n

Without it, the challenges they face will stump them.<\/p>\n

And those of them who cannot cope will cut corners to survive (by doing naughty things), or simply pack it in.<\/p>\n

Final Words<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In summary, providers of learning solutions for prospective start-ups, need to focus on developing learning events - and resources - with the above factors in mind.<\/p>\n

Maybe the approach I use could appeal to such training content providers...<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For years, I\u2019ve actively offered myself as a Contract Resource Person<\/strong> to event organisers. One time it got me invited to deliver a one-hour pep talk to 14 management trainees at Tantalizers headquaters in Festac. I was invited by a training consultant, who was hired to conduct a one-week induction program.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d met after my talk at Center for Management Development. I mention this only to give additional insight.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basically, interested event organisers can have me research and prepare custom learning materials, and information products etc - branded<\/strong> in their name.<\/p>\n

They would then use and\/or sell those items as theirs, <\/strong> without reference to me, or as otherwise agreed.<\/p>\n

That is one option.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the event that the idea appeals to both parties, we could go further to collaborate<\/strong> in delivering<\/strong> that program to the target audience. Agreements would be reached on what to do, how, and where etc.<\/p>\n

I would prepare any relevant information products for use \u2013 branded in the training provider's name (or company name).<\/p>\n

We could then also go on to collaborate to deliver the program etc.<\/p>\n

You can adopt a similar approach (or contact me<\/a> to help you).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a sequel to yesterday's issue of my Speaking IDEAS newsletter, titled \"Speaking to Retirees & Aspiring Entrepreneurs\". If you have to organise training courses for (prospective) retirees, start-ups and\/or aspiring entrepreneurs, THIS\u00a0is one article you want to read. Otherwise you may get it ALL wrong. Believe me! Before leaving in December 2001, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,266],"tags":[507,505,503,504,506],"class_list":["post-2642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entrepreneurs","category-my-dn-travel-news","tag-coaching-and-mentoring-entrepreneurs","tag-company-provided-training-for-retirees","tag-company-retirement-seminars","tag-pre-retirement-training","tag-start-up-entrepreneurship"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":1458,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2642"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2647,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2642\/revisions\/2647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tayosolagbade.com\/sdnuggets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}