Engagement

by Rick Nason, PhD, CFA
Partner, RSD Solutions Inc.
www.RSDsolutions.com
info@RSDsolutions.com

At RSD we do a lot of training.  It is something that we are good at, and something that we enjoy doing.  I believe that being good at something has much less to do with skill and much more to do with passion – or even the more pedestrian “enjoying what you do”.

When we are first contacted by companies about training, they always present us with a wish list of topics that they want their people “trained” on.  In this age of efficiency, the list of topics is always much longer than the time allotted to the training.  This quest for efficiency in training is quite understandable.  However the real efficiency comes not from cramming a lot of training into a short period of time, but from cramming a lot of engagement into a short period of time.

No one likes cramming – admit it, did you really like cramming for an exam when you were in school?  No – it was a drag, a bore, and totally ineffective as you probably lost 90% of the information you crammed within three days after the exam.

What is effective in training is getting engagement of the participants.  At RSD we focus on engagement and getting people who “do things” rather than people who “know things”.  With engagement, training is fun, effective and efficient.  You learn so much better when you want to rather than when you have to.  Cramming sucks.  Engagement is a joy.