Train, Coach and Teach!

It was just one line in George Bernard Shaw's 1903 play “Man and Superman”:
“He who can, does; He who cannot, teach.”.

And yes, it was a rather simplistic and funny statement in a piece subtitled “A Comedy and a Philosophy”. But it is a sentence that still resonates and/or can be heard in today's comedies.
By the way, Shaw is a complexly interesting man (as far as I have read enough about him): he was an Irish playwright, socialist and theater critic. A freethinker, supported the fight for equal rights for women and was in favour of equal pay for men and women; also, a committed vegetarian and opponent of animal testing. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, where he accepted the honor but declined the prize money. And was, after visiting Stalin, a fan of the USSR system and furthermore radically against vaccination.

Of course, I don't have to explain that good teachers are essential in the development of a person, both young and old! The fact that our education system and its quality are under pressure due to too few teachers, and an overly full agenda of activities, is a very current theme in Netherlands. If even the basic skills of reading comprehension, language in a broader sense and arithmetic are too often substandard, you know that something is seriously wrong. Everyone can imagine that disadvantages in primary education continue to affect secondary education and later also in technical and university education. And it is a bad thing that more and more private training is becoming available, because you have to be able to afford it. Good education for everyone not only provides equality of opportunity and the possibility to develop yourself the way you want, but it also provides social balance, regardless of the financial imbalance that (sometimes?) exists in Netherlands.

And I certainly don't have to explain that teaching is a profession for which you also need to have a certain talent... there are plenty of examples, from the mediocre trainers in football - that specific very good football player is not always an equally good trainer! - to the lesser gods in the education I had myself - I remember that one great teacher to this day!

Well, we don't all have to become the Messi or Miedema of training, coaching and teaching; even the less great teachers were very well able to convey their teaching/learning material to me.

But what made that great teacher so good? I especially remember the passion and humor of that man, his drive to get me to understand it (differentiation, integration, physical chemistry... pfff) and his conviction that I would certainly gain those insights. Well, I received my diploma a few years later, with good grades.

It is that passion and giving students the confidence that they can do it, is something I have always carried with me in every training and coaching moment in my career, during my years in the Laser Center at DSM Research, but also later as a Colour Specialist and Lab Manager in Emmen (Netherlands).

It is often said that “Knowledge is power” and that may be true, but for me “Knowledge is freedom” is more true. Knowledge gives you freedom of thought, gives you insights to perhaps make different choices, to be innovative, to work independently and to be self-reliant. My experience as a Colour Specialist in a production environment is that if you share knowledge, this ultimately leads to higher quality and more efficient productions; especially in a continuous process, for example, Colourists on the night shift must be able to make all kinds of colour decisions independently.

This week, the “Onderwijsinspectie”  (the dutch Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills) is once again sounding the alarm about the quality of education; this is very necessary and we should join them in motivating the political parties to really do something about it this time in the coming years.
But I would also like to sound the alarm for education and training at companies! For years, Human Resources has been playing a declining role, training budgets have been under pressure and Management is increasingly opting for either shortened training programs or "on-the-job" instructions by colleagues. And then I consider myself fortunate to have worked at DSM (now Envalior) in Emmen (Netherlands), where Operators are trained above the existing budget and with great training programs; so it is possible, but I fear that this has become an exception more often than I prefer.

And so, a call to all companies: Perform an inspection of the quality of your own training and programs: do your employees have the basics they need, are they regularly trained to increase their professional knowledge and do you have or hire enough talented teachers for your company?

Teaching focuses on imparting knowledge and facilitating learning, while training concentrates on developing specific skills and abilities.
Teaching emphasises understanding and conceptual comprehension, whereas training places emphasis on practical application and execution.
These are valuable definitions that I have read somewhere on education and training with the most important keywords for me: knowledge - development - understanding - application!
And in my opinion this does not mean that you first set a financial ceiling and then make a training plan. This includes first looking at what is needed: for whom, with whom and for what purpose.

I keep saying it: Training motivates, binds people to your company, is fun, increases the quality and even productivity of work.

So… Invest in education and training, invest in Teachers who can!