The Difference Between Training & Development
Using “the little gray cells” is an expression the legendary detective Hercule Poirot, created by Agatha Christie, was often fond of using. A more “modern” example of this comes from management consultant, the late Peter Drucker, “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process…” So, if we know that we should keep “the little gray cells” active and that learning is important, what difference does it make whether that learning comes via training or development?
Simply put, high performing teams (HPTs), need members who are high performers. While this may appear to be a blinding flash of the obvious, what may not be so obvious is ensuring that your hiring system has the components it takes to attract high performers. High performers are not just going to come beat your door down. The truth is that high performers are not that easy to find and finding them will become even more difficult because the United States population growth is dropping. The fewer people, the fewer high performers. What can your organization do to help attract the best of the best out of a dwindling supply?
Building high performance teams isn’t rocket science, but high-performance teams don’t just appear out of nowhere, nor are they built overnight. Any type of team building requires effort but building high performance teams takes even more effort, dedication, and commitment. No, it’s not rocket science, it’s more of a combination of art and science. Just how does the blending of these two working together result in building high performing teams?
People say the one constant in life – and business is change. However, there really are two, the other is conflict. While you strive for diversity in your culture, anytime you put a group of people together working with one another daily who have diverse thoughts, experiences, beliefs, ideas, talents, backgrounds, skill sets, and levels of skill sets, you’re going to have conflict. No where is this truer than on high performing teams. Let’s face it, these are competitive people otherwise they would not have made it where they are. Conflict is inevitable and a natural part of their DNA. As a leader don’t you have enough to do without having to manage team conflict?
When researching literature about strategic thinking, every author has his/her own definition for what constitutes strategic thinking. Indeed according to a report by the United 
People think that other people’s jobs are easy. “Oh, anyone can do that job.” “ I Could do that job with my eyes closed.” This is particularly true about jobs such as facilitating, teaching and training - especially training. Making matters worse, in Corporate America during a layoff, downtime, or economic turndown, training is the first position to go and the last position for rehiring. Adding insult to injury, trainers often garner the least respect of their co-workers. In short, Corporate America is not treasuring its trainers. So, this begs the question, “Can training really be that easy?”
People make up teams. Every person on your team has different skills and every team member’s skill set brings something to the table. Team members also possess different behavioral styles, motivators, and different competencies. In addition, every team member has various levels of business acumen, and of course diverse levels of EQ. Is EQ more important than skill sets? Can an entire team have an EQ score?