WordPress is a free blog site. It does not let me do any customization of my own, as well as attach certain files (such as .wav files) without upgrading for $99/year. Im choosing to be creative and see if I cant work around these restrictions.

I have attached my recorded Elevator Speech in the last page of this PDF. Scroll down and click on the Play button to start the audio file. The transcript of the recording can be found below (on PDF page 1). Please contact me if you have trouble accessing the audio. I would be happy to email the file to you.

Scenario: Imagine you have just 2 minutes or so to give someone an "elevator speech" regarding the "truth" about training. This person does not believe that training is important, complicated, or even necessary. What might you say to this individual to convince him or her otherwise? What key insights could you impart that this person likely would not have known and would find surprising and/or interesting?

Elevator Speech The Truth about Training (Transcript)

Hey there, hows your day going? Have you given any more thought to my training proposal? I really feel like we

could meet some of those goals being sent down from management if we spent some time looking at our

employee training program. Ive been doing some research on Employee Training and Development, and I learned

some interesting insights about training.

Did you know that training benefits both the employee and the company? Yes, so besides providing new

information or improving a performance issue, training can be aligned with our companys business strategy and

change the climate and culture of our company. To put it in terms of money for the guys upstairs, the strategy

influences how the company uses physical capital, financial capital, and human capital. (Noe, p. 54)

Oh, and we have the concept of training all wrong! Training is not a single event where you sit in a classroom for a

few days and suddenly youre better at your job. Weve been forgetting the practical application! You wouldnt

expect your kid to learn how to ride a bike just by you telling him how, right? You gotta get on the bike to learn

how to ride. I read that, Tacit knowledge developed through experience and shared through interactions

between employees is impossible to imitate and can provide companies with a competitive edge. (Noe, p. 57)

Just tell management that, Creating and sharing knowledge refers to companies development of human capital.

(Noe, p. 58)

That means we need to spend more time practicing what we learn here, before we expect to see improvement.

Makes sense, right?

But wait. If you take this next idea up to your boss, shell totally be open to working on our employee training and

development. Training can help support our organizations strategy! We could totally be there heroes if we did

this! First wed identify our companys business strategy, and then decide on some strategic training and

development initiatives that would help support the strategy. Together we could design some activities linked to

the initiatives and finally decide on some metrics to show training success. Were talking about making training

that is outside the box, outside the classroom that is really getting down to what our employees need, not whats

available.

I wanna talk more about this with you. What are you doing at lunch? Ill take you down to that new caf on the

corner and we can talk more about it. Noon, Ill meet you back here at the elevator.

References:

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee Training and Development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Truth about Training Elevator Speech.pdfWk 2 Blog Elevator Speech