Independent training institutions, such as the NTL Institute, have usually attracted employees from the upper-middle tiers as well as a few from the very top. In-house programs, such as I and many other trainers and consultants offer, are usually geared to the mid-level management of organizations, or to the young, promising employees who are picked to be the future leaders of the organization. It is very appropriate for these programs to be conducted on-site by an external trainer or educator, like myself. By offering the program inside an organization, I can take advantage of the rich dialogue about real-life problems that can take place in this setting. This advantage requires that I create a safe and appreciative setting for candid discussion to occur and that I gain sufficient knowledge of the problems facing the organization through pre-workshop interviews, questionnaires and document review. While the program can thus build on internal issues and dynamics, I provide a moderating perspective as an outsider trainer or education. I can relate the problems of the organization to broader trends and generic issues, and identify where this organization’s problems are similar to or distinctively different from those facing comparable organizations. I thus provide something of a benchmarking function, and remain relatively neutral in moderating the dialogue that occurs.
While some training and education programs are offered by external trainers and educators to lower level employees, these employees are more likely to receive programs that are delivered by in-house trainers (Source Two) or peers (Source Three). In many cases, training and education is limited to on-the-job learning provided by other employees with more experience (Source Four). Unfortunately, the lack of externally based training and education often means that employees who are actually doing the work of the organization gain very little perspective on their work or on the organization in which they are employed. They typically are unable to fully appreciate the setting in which they work. They know little about how their own organization aligns with the broader marketing and economic forces that directly impinge on their organization and their own job.
Many organizational leaders complain that their employees are too narrow-minded. Yet these leaders do little to correct this parochial perspective. This failure to provide the external perspective to lower level and new employees becomes particularly troublesome when contemporary leaders seek to attract knowledge workers to their organization. This failure is even more egregious when high level administrators seek to empower their employees with the authority and responsibility for solving problems and making decisions. As I will discuss more fully in the following series of essays, effective empowerment requires extensive training and education—otherwise it is a sham.
