“If you want to retain those who are present, be loyal to those who are absent.” -- Dr. Stephen Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

“Learning cannot be disassociated from action.” -- Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

“The most important measures are both unknown and unknowable.” -- W. Edwards Deming, Out of the Crisis

Stop Wasting My Time! by Kevin McManus

First published in Industrial Engineer magazine November 1999

We all know that learning is central to organizational improvement, but how do we ensure that we are really learning? Is it just me, or have other people out there developed the inability to sit through an eight hour workshop? For me, things have gotten so bad that I struggle to sit through one that is only two hours long. This, a possibly personal problem, has not near as much to do with thin, uncomfortable hotel conference room chairs as it does with my time being wasted. You see, I have developed a complex called “value-itis.”

As I reflected back on the past few years in search of the root cause of this affliction, I discovered that it all began when I listened to a brief presentation by my quality cohort John Guaspari. John, who has authored such books as “I'll Know It When I See it” and “The Customer Connection” is perhaps the value guru of our day and age. He didn't coin the term “value”, but I feel that he has created the ultimate value definition. On that day a few years back, John permanently engrained in my mind his value definition, and it has helped, and haunted, me ever since.

John's definition is simple. Value is what you are getting for something is costing you. You can apply his definition when you are deciding where to eat, sleep, or spend training dollars. For example, if you are trying to decide between staying at Motel Six or checking into the Ritz Carlton, simply apply John's value definition. The Ritz Carlton does offer superior customer service and amenities, but it also costs considerably more than the place that will leave the light on for you. You personally have to weigh the added value you expect to receive from a potential purchase against the added costs. Are you going to get more of what you want if you pay more?

Like most of you, my time comes at a premium. No longer can I afford to take my work time and invest it in a "learning" event, hoping that I will take something away from the eight hour experience. I have to apply the value definition and ask “Will I get eight hours of value from this workshop?” In other words, will I gain more from this eight hour investment than I would from spending my time in some other way? In most cases, the honest answer is “no.”

Now before you say that I have become overly cynical or that I have lost the desire to learn, ask yourself “What do I actually remember from the last eight hour workshop I attended?” Follow that question up with “What have I actually used from the last eight hour workshop I attended?” In most cases, you will probably recall that exercise where everybody ran around the room searching for someone else who was born in the same state they were. Seriously though, you might be fortunate enough to actually remember a concept or two, but it is even less likely that you really applied much of what you were exposed to that day. You can't use what you don't remember, but you still invested eight hours of time for five minutes of learning.

Statistics on retention show that only a few weeks after the "learning" experience is over, we remember very little of what we hear, or even write down. Personal experience confirms these depressing stats. Gaining this awareness has made me quite hesitant to attend any workshop given the potential misuse of my precious time. Unless I know that I am going to be physically involved in a well-designed learning experience, I will not spend my time or money. I will not, and cannot afford to, invest eight hours of time for only a few minutes of lasting value.

Is there a solution to this dilemma, or is this "just the way things are"? Sure there is, but it involves helping others make a significant shift in their mental models about what training should be. We have to choose to boycott any event that even resembles a lecture like the plague by saying “Stop wasting my time!” If we personally have training responsibility, we have to minimize the time we spend listening to ourselves talk in favor of interactive exercises that focus on real life applications. We have to be honest about, and have higher expectations of, what we want our training participants to remember and use from the time they invest with us.

Conference and workshop attendance is beginning to decline in this country. It is becoming tougher to attract people to these events, even we “promise the moon” in our multi-color, eye-catching brochures. You have probably even seen attendance in your own in-house offerings decline unless attendance is mandatory. Could these trends have more to do with a lack of perceived value than they do with simple time conflicts or shortages? How much money is being wasted each day on training in this country?

I can't walk buy a hotel conference room that is set up for a workshop without chuckling to myself if I see a lectern at the front of the room and the tables arranged in neat little rows. I have learned to “know it when I see it”, and what I see in such cases is a setting that look ripe for a lot of wasted time and money. Are you willing to help me “stop the madness?” Are you willing to develop your own case of value-itis, say “Stop wasting my time", and help lead the revolution towards improving how we spend our time learning?

Oh, and while we are at it, can we find a way to do something about those chairs? Keep improving!

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“The only thing I know is that I do not know it all.” -- Socrates