Your Team’s Answer is Wrong, Part 1

I had a nightmare last night. I was reliving a workshop that I took during a prior job.

I think the nightmare was triggered by a box of material I found in a storage area that contained documents from that job. I noticed the box was labeled "The Dark Years."

I was a participant in a three day workshop. Each of the participants was a member of a team working to solve case studies. The workshop culminated in a scored competition between the teams.

Case studies are a big step up from the traditional "tell" training so I was pleased. I worked with the other members of the team using methods discussed in the workshop to interpret the case study and make recommendation for solving problems. I was pleased.

We made flip charts that listed the key finding and recommendations. I was pleased. We elected a spokesperson and she shared our findings and recommendations to the entire group. I was pleased. We listened to other teams’ presentations. I was pleased. I thought we were done. And then it happened.

It was like enjoying the taste of a delicious apple and discovering a worm. The trainers passed out a copy of the "correct answer". And they kept doing the same thing case study after case study. I woke up from the nightmare flabbergasted and reminded myself that I know longer worked for that company.

The trainers had spent a lot of time designing and delivering a class and they spoiled it by trying to show that they were smarter than all the teams that spoke. The saddest part of the story is that when I told the trainers that the right answer was already posted on the walls, they didn’t have a clue what I meant. Despite all their design work, they preferred a a modified version of "tell" training.

You might be asking, "What should the trainers have done differently?". First and foremost, they should believe in the power of the people in the room. If a trainer sees something missing, they can add it to one of the flip charts created by the teams. That way they become a member of the workshop rather than the trainer.

One little thing, like a worm, can spoil something good. Don’t accept or make the mistake these trainers made.

See follow up entitled Your Team’s Answer is Wrong, Part 2.