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The Quick Fix - Interpersonal Skills Training
We live in speedy times
A call for good interpersonal skills development programmes
We have fast foods, fast cars, fast CD players, fast faxes, fast
e-mail. We have instant coffee, instant lottery winners, instant
weight loss, instant hair growth.
We expect things to happen ever more quickly and we have devised
a raft of gadgets to facilitate that: mobile phones that can
reach us whenever and wherever, answerphones to make sure we
don't miss a trick and Internet webs for global immediacy.
We are bombarded with things to make us more accessible, to have
easier communication flows, to save time. For business, that
makes good sense, doesn't it? The quicker things happen, the
more gets done, the less time is wasted in waiting. Push a
button and it happens.
Too often, it doesn't quite work out that way. Instead of easing
our working lives, the requirement for speed can become an
intrusion and an obligation. We somehow, without realising it,
become obsessed by the speed, rather than in control of its
usefulness.
At Impact Factory we view The Quick Fix as anything we have
around us that we think is going to make our lives better and
easier and doesn't.
In our work in the business sector we see that many people are
impatient for things to happen quickly and to happen exactly the
way they want them to. There are pressures in the current
economic climate that make it very easy to feel that things are
no longer in our control. There is an underlying anxiety about
good performance, with coming up with the goods and being on top
of situations.
If people are operating on a knife edge, with the possibility of
loss of business, or loss of income, or loss of status and all
that goes with it, they are more likely to have their attention
diverted away from solutions and onto the worry itself. The
worry becomes the focus. Out of that, a 'let's fix the worry'
attitude takes over, crisis management ensues and the real
problem gets lost.
And that's when people begin to look for The Quick Fix: the one
'thing' that's going to provide the solution. The one training
course, management consultant, book, video, programme,
restructure or culture change that will make everything all
right.
On a personal level, The Quick Fix can be alcohol, drugs, sex or
food. These are substances or activities that seemingly provide
relief from all that underlying anxiety and worry.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with quick fixes. They can
be quite pleasant and can indeed take the pressure off for a
time. Alcohol may feel very good going down, but it must always
be remembered that very little really gets done when you're
drunk and the hangover can be very depressing.
In the same way in business, there's nothing wrong with buying
in courses that look as though they'll be able to transform a
group of people into how you want them to be. There's nothing
wrong with trying to find something that will motivate and
mobilise staff to work better.
However, if you're looking for the one thing that will fix
everything, then you're probably ripe to be seduced by something
that promises a 'feel good factor'; something that will get your
people's hopes up only to dash them (giving them a 'hangover').
A good crisis will have you feeling like you've done something,
and pretty soon, having crises becomes the current Quick Fix.
Give your staff a couple of doses of Quick Fixes that don't end
up shifting much of anything, and you can bet your bottom dollar
you'll end up with an outbreak of cynicism and an ever
increasing lack of trust.
The problem is, when things get hard, it really is tempting to
try to fix it all in one go. The problems or issues took a long
time developing, but a lot of people we meet do seem to lose
patience in developing the solutions.
Indeed, there doesn't even have to be a problem as such, but
there will still be a desire for staff to work more efficiently,
get on better, be more motivated. And so solutions are sought
that will make employees more effective. Nothing wrong with
that, certainly. It's just that too often companies have a
desire to make the solution instantaneous, along with
the
expectation that staff members are going to be transformed into
some impossible ideal.
It's why gimmicks are so attractive. Here's the latest.
In these times of rapidly expanding use of technology in the
workplace, we now hear of interpersonal skills training that can
be done on-line, at your desk. Hard, for us as a professional
personal development company, to imagine developing
interpersonal skills without people to be interpersonal with.
But there you go - a sign of the times.
If you think about it, this is a new take on sheep-dip training,
where the sheep don't even have to leave the meadow!
So what's the advantage of the slow fix? To begin with, fix
isn't the right term, because as far as we're concerned, there's
nothing to fix. There are, however, things to develop. None of
us emerges, fully formed, into adult life (much though we wish
that happened). All of us take time to evolve, change a bit,
stay static for a while, change a bit more, take on new things,
reject some as well.
Yes, of course, occasionally someone experiences a spectacular,
life-changing event and they may make a huge shift in their
thinking, attitude, behaviour, and in the very way they live
their life. But, that's not the norm.
The norm is that we develop interpersonal skills in little bits
and pieces; in small turning points and choices; in getting a
new job, breaking up with a partner, the death of a parent,
having a child, getting a promotion, getting in touch with
religion or spirituality, battling an illness, clinching a deal
that's been in the pipeline for months. The stuff of our
everyday lives.
You know, it's a bit like someone becoming an overnight success
(to the rest of the world) after years of hard graft. You can't
just have an interpersonal skills program where you learn good
interpersonal skills by rote. Developing good interpersonal
skills is something that's done over time: through success,
mistakes, recovery, triumph, more mistakes, more recovery;
indeed, the hard graft of living and communicating with others.
It isn't done in a day, it isn't done by shaking people's
foundations, and it certainly isn't done by trying to change
them in order to fix a problem ("If I put my entire marketing
team through this super duper radical programme, then when they
come out the other side our marketing problems will be solved
and the company's downturn will reverse." Don't laugh! We've
heard that and other similar statements from prospective
clients).
Here's our take on the slow approach: real and lasting change
comes from building and developing what's already there. That
means respecting what people are, not wishing they were
something else. It means understanding that there can never,
ever be just one cause of a problem, and therefore, one solution.
If you're looking at professional personal development within a
company, a real interpersonal skills development programme is
something that is part of the fabric of an organisation, not
something bolted on as an afterthought. It takes time to
implement. It requires effort and commitment to make it work. It
requires thought, planning and people's consultation to ensure
buy-in.
Development programmes evolve; they can't stay the same because
people don't. So any such programme also requires follow-up,
assessment and review; things a Quick Fix just doesn't - can't -
do because it's too speedy.
The Quick Fix puts unfair expectations on everyone concerned.
Radical and gimmicky programmes with 'guaranteed results' rarely
produce long-term changes. As a matter of fact, those guaranteed
results are highly questionable, since they presume that all
people are alike and will be affected by training in the same
way.
You take the time - you will get results.
It takes a slow fix to make a significant difference: it's more
like gardening and less like Miracle Gro.
About the author:
Jo Ellen and Robin run Impact Factory who provide Interpersonal Skills
Training from Presentation Skills, Effective Communications
and Team Building, through to Leadership Development and
Executive Coaching for Individuals.
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