Margaret talks about her work:April, 2007I like to think of myself as a big picture, make things happen kind of person. Who doesn’t? But lately, most of my work has been very detail-oriented and tedious. And you know what? I don’t mind that. I think the devil really is in the details, and unless somebody takes the time to examine them, think about them and try to improve them, nothing much ever changes. For instance, I’ve spent the past couple of days listening to audio recordings of phone conversations of people I’ve trained. This is part of an audit I’m doing for one of our clients, and it’s where I think that client will get the real bang for their buck. The problem with most adult learning experiences is that there is no follow-up assessment of the skills taught and no real monitoring to determine if the content that was covered is being applied. That’s unfortunate, because we know that learning that’s not applied immediately is most often lost. We also know that behaviors have to be practiced on a routine basis to become habit and that it’s hard for people to undo their bad habits and replace them with good ones. So, this kind of auditing exercise is important. And in doing it, I not only provide my client useful information, I learn where my workshop participants are having problems that I didn’t anticipate and where I need to make different recommendations for processes. Part of the big picture is that continuous improvement requires monitoring. Unless somebody takes the time to really listen, to count, to think about the nuances of things, progress doesn’t get made. Just like in sports, it’s the small steps, the little adjustments, that lay the groundwork for the breakthrough performance. I could rattle on some more on this subject because it’s a pet theme of mine. But I’ve written this during a break. I need to get back to listening to those recordings.
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