“[People] must be taught how to think, not what to think.” -Margaret Mead

Let’s clear up one misconception right here. College is not for teaching people how to do a job. It may teach some skills or the foundations for a type of work, but it is not a vocational school. College is for learning how to plan, gather resources, move others, and complete projects. College is for learning how to think critically.

Cutting to the chase: College is about learning how to think in ways that can be applied to different work—because people do change jobs and professions—and life in general. College, essentially, is for learning how to learn …by yourself …for the rest of your life. 

Okay. But what does this have to do with training behavior?

Companies like to train behavior ….or, at least they think that’s what they are doing. But they do it wrong. They teach a bevy of behavioral activities (think: shake hands, smile, say nice things to the customer, etc.) in hopes they will be repeated like an actor’s lines in a play. 

The problem is that those rote activities quickly fail when situations different from those in the “training” come up—and they do come up …frequently. 

What’s missing is the thinking behind those behaviors. What’s missing is what colleges are trying to do, namely, train the mindset necessary to adapt and critically discern the best course of action. 

Training behavior with rote “scripts” is like putting a Band-Aid on cancer. If you want real change that makes a real difference, it begins with the surgery of influencing thinking. It begins with helping people learn not only what to do but how to determine what’s best, i.e., how to improvise. And dealing with people—that’s just about everything we do at work—is almost always improvisation.

==> CLICK HERE to subscribe and get posts delivered directly to your inbox.