Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - September 28, 2014

Brian Gongol

Podcast: Updated weekly in the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning. Subscribe on Stitcher, Spreaker, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or iHeartRadio

Please note: These show notes may be in various stages of completion -- ranging from brainstormed notes through to well-polished monologues. Please excuse anything that may seem rough around the edges, as it may only be a first draft of a thought and not be fully representative of what was said on the air.

Why a company shouldn't develop its employees

Reasons not to develop your employees:

They might leave. (But, then again, people who feel like their employers are investing in them might actually develop a greater sense of loyalty than those employees who think that they're just disposable cogs in a machine.)
But really, they might leave. (True, but if you're deliberately working on a system for employee development, then you should be getting better at it all the time. And if that extends to better recruitment and selection, then weeding out a few opportunists and bad eggs is a small "tuition" to pay in the learning process.)
They might demand higher pay. (Then again, if they're getting better at their jobs through your training and development, then they're probably also creating more value -- and if you're doing it right, the value creation can outpace the rate of pay increases and your profits will grow while their earnings do, too.)
But they really, really might leave. (They might. But most people also need to feel challenged, or else they get bored and listless. Pursuing big goals as an organization while developing the skills needed to achieve those goals gives the organization a sense of purpose that gives them less reason to look elsewhere for that stimulation.)
It costs money. (Without question. But it only looks like an expense -- in reality, it's an investment in a non-depreciating asset that doesn't show up on a conventional balance sheet. A motivated, improving worker is a great resource for greater earnings power.)

A little more on development

It's easy for companies and organizations to throw out buzzwords like "learning community" or "life-long learning". It really has to go much deeper than just boilerplate or catch phrases -- it's no good to substitute coursework and syllabi and rigid old training programs substituting for actual learning. Too many young people think that when they leave school, they'll be done with learning. The reality is that once you leave school, every day is a pop quiz -- and you never know what exactly is going to be on the test. You frequently have to write the syllabus for yourself, and nobody makes you do your homework. It really has to be curiosity-driven more than formal, but it also has to be relentless.