Imagine you’re dining at your favorite restaurant. The chef has prepared your favorite dish. You savor the first bite – delicious. But it needs just a little salt.
As you reach for the salt shaker, do you think the chef is deficient because she hasn’t fixed this dish exactly the way you want it? No. You think no less of her, and are appreciative of what she’s prepared. You know it is up to you to add the condiments to match your needs.
Now imagine yourself in a training session where the ideas are solid, practical and proven. However, the examples aren’t specific to your industry or situation. You – or other participants – comment, “The instructor doesn’t use examples from our industry. This is too generic. He must not know about our situations. This isn’t a very good training.”
You forgot that it is your job to add the condiments!
In most training programs, the instructor’s job is to provide stimulating, practical information and processes. It is not his job to make every example specific to your situation. Even if the whole group has the same job in the same company, each person would have a different need.
It’s your job as a learner to:
• Adapt the content to your specific situations.
• Ask if you are unclear on how to do that.
• Take responsibility to get from this learning opportunity as many usable ideas as you can.
• Not expect the instructor to mind read your situations and questions.
Make this opportunity pay big dividends by doing your job as a learner.
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