Training

You know, there are needs for training in the workplace. In the instance I went through it recently, we're getting a new system in place to track our system issues for the clients and ourselves. This training is a necessary part of the learning of the system, but wow, does it have to be so boring?

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy learning new things, and when we were learning new things about this new system, it was a very interesting time. However, not everybdy in the world "gets" these things as easily as I do, and those wh are quicker on the draw don't understand the point of the training class. There may be no such thing as a stupid question, but there are questions that are out of turn.

The trainer, here, repeatedly said that he wasn't teaching our in house processes, but only the conceptual workings of the system. This way, we would know how the system worked and could adapt it to our process, whatever that may be. A lot of people had a lot of trouble grasping this, and continued to ask questions that a) dealt with only their part of the business and b) we were going to cover at a later part of the course.

He ended up answering b-type questions when they came up in brief, which only lead to more questions and more time wasted (and more boredom on my part). The a-type questions, though, were always more incessant and more demanding, and even though we did have two people who knew the basics of the processes we were going to follow, they weren't clear on everything because the system isn't live yet. Did you understand that, people? The system isn't live yet, and so they don't know yet.

Another question had to do with the grouping of clients since it is no longer done by the facilities' IDs, but by a single ID assigned to the contract as a whole. We knew that we were going to look up the individual ID in another system to cross reference, but this one person was all but demanding an explanation of how one specific client would work, and the helper who knew the processes wasn't familiar with that specific client's contracts (as they have several), and so could not answer this until they look at the system when it's up. This person refused to let it go, and made it a parking lot question (that's a question to be reviewed later). Nevermind that once the system goes love, it would take probably 30 seconds to answer it then.

This was a big reason I didn't ask a lot of in-depth questions. First, I understood how the system worked, and could easily adapt it to whatever the powers-that-be tell me to do with it. Second, I knew a lot of these people would remember little to NOTHING about what they learned today, so the review process would be beyond extensive, and drilled into our heads by the time the go-live date comes in three weeks.

I have the learning capacity to pick stuff up in one session. Three weeks of drills, and I'm an expert before I ever touch it. That's why they love me.

And if you think that's conceited... Well, sometimes the truth sounds that way, doesn't it?