Einstein made the comment:

It is the first sign of insanity to keep doing the same thing hoping for a different outcome.

I have just been involved in a two-day workshop geared for world-class presenters and was reminded of the amount of background technique, method, content and context required to truly set participants on fire and ensure learning and behavioural change occurs. Why am I telling you this? Because I don’t believe the average person realises just how much work goes into making a workshop a memorable learning experience and I certainly don’t believe that the majority of the holders of the Certificate IV workplace training qualification get this either?

It seems that in order to provide workplace training of any sorts today, it is obligatory if not mandatory to hold the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAA). So this qualification has become a ‘must have’ in industry and in parallel with this need, the intent of the qualification has become diluted. My colleagues and I talk about this all the time. If we all had a dollar for the amount of times we have heard participants or potential trainers say ‘I just want the piece of paper’ we would all be extremely wealthy. And unfortunately this is exactly what has happened. In the quest to provide the piece of paper, industry is churning out very ordinary trainers, trainers who have no concept of engaging the learner, trainers who have no idea how to structure a piece so that it is clear to the learner what they are learning, trainers who use death by PowerPoint and over load the learner with useless and too much information.

Learning can be overt and learning can be subtle. Sometimes the best learning occurs not by what is being said but by what is not being said. How many trainers know what NOT to say? How many trainers are comfortable with silence? How many trainers provide their learners with an environment that is conducive for them to learn? How many trainers even know how their learners learn?

The Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, the Australian Qualifications Framework and the Australian Quality Training Framework have all been designed to meet a need; a workplace / industry need and workplaces and industries have embraced this framework with gusto – but is it working?

I hang out a lot in the mining sector. This is one industry that has seemingly embraced the framework and sends all their operator trainers on TAA programs. The training departments within most of these mining organisations talk about the AQTF, build their job descriptions, training plans and training matrices around the metalliferous mining competencies and create assessments designed to determine if operators and others within the business are competent to do their jobs: sounds magnificent, feels robust and looks rigorous, but is it?

Mining companies have an added reason to embrace this framework and that is safety. It is legislated within the Mines Safety Inspections Act (MSIA) Regulation 4.13 that all persons working on a mine site will have adequate instruction and training in safety procedures, systems of work and in the tasks required of the employee; they will be assessed before commencing work at the mine; they will be retrained and reassessed whenever systems of work or plant and equipment change; records are made of any instruction, training, retraining, assessment or reassessment and those records will be kept for a minimum of 2 years after the record is made.

So Section 4.13 provides a compelling reason for mining companies to embrace this training and assessment framework and build and support a world class training system. Sadly, this does not happen. Let’s unpack that last sentence; sadly – this – does – not – happen. I am sure by now many reading this blog are feeling quite indignant that I should make such a comment. But that is the point. I so understand that for all intents and purposes it appears that many, if not all companies within industries have what they would feel is a robust training and assessment system. However, this becomes extremely diluted because the same companies focus on the parts that are not truly important. They focus on the paperwork, on the record keeping, on meeting policy and legislative frameworks and audits; they focus on the parts of training that do not affect cultural or behavioural change forgetting that the only reason we train people is to influence the way they do the job aligned to best or world practice.

So given that I have done my hours, given that I have been operating in this field for many years, I feel my opinion is worthy of listening along with industry statistics (workers compensation and the number of injuries and deaths) that suggest whatever the mining industry is doing currently, is not working. So my question is, given we all know it is not working, why then are organisation’s not doing anything different?

It reminds me of that quote:

If we continue to do what we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always got.

So we churn out trainers that have a piece of paper, yet do not have basic understanding of pedagogy. We have trainers that have a piece of paper, yet cannot tell you about the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF), because if they could, then they would know that there is really no need for them to have the TAA if they are not issuing a qualification and many, if not most mining organisation’s do not. We have trainers that have a piece of paper that suggest they can assess the competence of others, yet they cannot tell you what the principles of assessment are or the rules of evidence?

If the trainers that hold the qualification understood just these three (3) key principles then I would agree… it would be likely that the organisation would have a robust training and assessment system. But when the fundamentals are missing is it any wonder we have a less than second rate training system that supports the suggestion ‘you got your qualification out of a weetie packet.’

So here is the thing: for learning to occur, for the adult learner to be engaged and fired up about learning, for cultural and behavioural change to occur and people remain safe, we need to go Beyond Cert IV and ensure our trainers get that training is not just an event that our punters show up to and sign appropriate bits of paper, it is about an outcome. It is about visibly seeing a shift in participants after the event and that shift, adds value back to the individual and the business.

Do you have memories of certain events that perhaps decades later you still recall as potentially being defining moments in your life?

I do, I have several. One of these was when I was thirteen and at the home of my very first love interest, a boy from the neighbourhood. His mother knew of my mother, so she was making friendly conversation with me and asking after her. I recall it being just at the time my mother was first needing to wear glasses.

I was recounting the events of how my mother had just been to see the optimist (sic) and was due to go back a week later to pick up her glasses. I was animated in my storytelling as I felt so grown up to be having this conversation with this boy’s mother. So I mentioned the optimist many times and was puzzled when my boy interest kept giggling and having these knowing glance exchanges with his mother who I recall at one time putting her finger over her lips in that ssshhhhh motion.

I left and went home both elated and puzzled at what might have been happening during this conversation.

The next day, I was in the car with my mum and dad and I mentioned how I had caught up with Mrs Taylor and was explaining how I had been telling her how mum had been to the optimist, when my dad interjected with ‘you mean optometrist?’ And there, in those few seconds, my stomach knotted and my life slipped into deep embarrassment. How could I have been soooooo stupid to not know it was an optometrist and not an optimist?

I then recalled the look of knowing that was being shared between my love interest boy and his mother and wondered why did they not correct me? Why did they smirk and giggle and basically allow me to make an idiot of myself and say nothing?

And here I am thirty odd years later, writing about this event because it is so indelibly etched in my memory as one of those life defining moments.

Now when I see people with their fly un-done, or green gunk stuck in their teeth or suffering bad body odour, I tell them playfully, when appropriate and always respectfully. And you know what? All people are thankful and grateful as I know I would have been had I been picked up for my incorrect word all those years ago and saved the pain of re-living the embarrassment over and over again in my head.

So the moral to this story is courage and compassion. Find the courage to tell the person that is potentially embarrassing themselves so they can rectify the situation and move on, rather than them having to work it out later and re-live the hell for however long it takes to get over it, if indeed it is ever gotten over?

Well, I have managed to create a happy ending to the little puppy saga and it came about through building relationship.  In all the time we have been living in our house we have never really got to know one of our neighbours.  She is a quiet, elderly woman that mostly keeps to herself.  We actually made judgement about her many years ago when the children were small.  Occasionally, they would lose a ball over the fence into her front yard and were never able to retrieve it as she would not allow it.  Often, she would not even return their balls as this seemed an intrusion for her.  So we accepted what we deemed her quirkiness and never really bothered about her since.

However, what we have since learned from neighbours we do have relationship with is our first dog Rusty, quite frightens her making it impossible for her to venture into her front yard.  Her yard is higher than ours so we get to see head and shoulders above our fence-line, which Rusty reacts to by barking.  He is of course alerting us to the fact that potentially someone is coming into our/his yard!  We knew this about Rusty but always thought that he was simply doing his job and we would turn off the alert fairly quickly.  What we didn’t know was the affect it had on her. 

I am going to fix this situation by screening off the fence so that when she and any of her friends and family are in her front yard they won’t be visible from within our property, therefore not inciting Rusty to react.  I have also known that since the renovation Rusty has been a little anxious and not behaving as well as he should (barking when anyone enters the property) so I am also bringing in the dog behaviourist to help re-adjust him.  I have made this commitment to the neighbours and the local Ranger, so I now have a provisional OK to keep the third dog – what a relief!

All in all, another great learning opportunity; it is all about relationship.  When we get to know people and build relationship with them, we get to understand their fears, anxieties and passions.  We understand how to interact with them to get the best outcome for all concerned.  Without relationship, we simply see difficult people and conflicted situations.  With relationship we are more willing to understand the situation from the other’s perspective and find resolve; a win-win for everyone and gladly this is what we have achieved.

I am absolutely flabbergasted; how do you operate within a world that you feel is unjust?  Two years ago my mother-in-law lost her husband leaving her alone in Melbourne.  She was a wonderful person.  She contracted polio during the epidemic of the 1950’s and subsequently ended up with a leg in a brace for the rest of her life.  This setback however never stopped her from living her dream of working as a doctor and enriching other’s lives.  After her husband died the family decided to move her here to Perth, to be close to two of her three children.  We all know that a death and then a move are two of the most stressful situations any human has to deal with, let alone a frail elderly woman in her mid-eighties.  So we decided to cheer her up and took her down to the local pet shop so she could choose and love a puppy; this is how Jasper our third dog came to be.

It soon became apparent however that Betty’s health [Betty is the mother-in-law] was deteriorating and sadly she too passed, leaving Jasper an orphan.  The obvious thing to do was for him to stay with us, his pack and so he became our puppy, affectionately known as ‘little puppy’.  I never really got around to registering him with the local council but decided that I would this year, in order to be honest and do the right thing – coz that is the kind of gal I am!

Well, to my shock, angst and absolute horror I got knocked back!  So in my desire to be honest and do the right thing I got rewarded with a letter that says I have to reduce my dog numbers back to two!  How can this happen?  I am a responsible dog owner and our dogs are well behaved.  Yes, Rusty barks but not incessantly.  He is the protector so he tells us when people are here.  Occasionally his barking will incite all three to riot, but very occasionally. 

Has the world gone mad?  Are dogs no longer allowed to bark at all?  So, even if we did reduce the number back to two it is not Jasper that barks, so how will this resolve the issue?  I tried to have this conversation with the ranger, but to no avail.  He didn’t really want to understand the entire picture, he just wanted to play by the rules and the rules say only two dogs allowed.  He told me he had to canvas the neighbours and whilst they did not complain about the dogs barking they did mention the dogs barked – well that is what dogs do!  Yet even though there was no complaint the ranger took it upon himself to decline my request. 

How do I behave in this situation?  What sort of a lesson do I now teach my children?  How to lie and cheat so we can keep Jasper?  We can not give away a member of the family and all three dogs are dearly loved members of the family.  I will try to resolve this, I will appeal the decision and seek justice but it is very hard to stay positive when the world does not appear just!

“You get as good as you give” has been yet another observation I have made during the building project that has a HUGE parallel in life. For all intents and purposes the renovation (the actual building process) has been absolutely fantastic and 100% successful.  When discussing this with others I get many comments such as ‘oh, you have been so lucky’ and ‘wow lucky you’.  I have to say, luck had nothing to do with it at all.

I have come to realize that your external reality is very much a reflection of your internal world and vice versa. That is, whatever is going on around you is in some way reflecting how you are feeling and what is going on for you on the inside.  This is also relevant to the people around you whether they are folk you love and adore or folk that irritate you – they all mirror YOU!  We actually create the barriers we experience in life, we create the abundance, we create the world we live in.  There is a great saying by Laurel Lee that says “I know I do not see the world as it is, I see the world as I am.”

So what does all this mean?  Well, basically if life is sweet for you it is because you have inner peace; you are living consciously.  Conversely if life is conflicted, stressful or difficult then look inwards for the reasons why?  Ask yourself, could I behave better in certain situations, could I respond in a kinder way to those I am interacting with, could the situation I am finding conflicted, stressful or difficult be about me – am I simply deflecting responsibility by pointing the finger and laying blame on others?  In fact how often do you hear yourself blaming the other party?  One of the biggest learning opportunities is to listen to your language.  If abundant in your language is to blame others then take time to reflect on what role might you be playing in the given situation?  If you would like your world to be different simply take a different approach, learn a new perspective.  I guarantee if you take a different approach you will get a different response.  After all, the only person you can control in life is you, so if you want something different or better, then change your perspective, take a different approach to any given situation, because you really do ‘get as good as you give.’

I get it…  I live consciously and the building experience (and life in general) is testament to this!