It’s often said, by professional communications coaches, that “Soft skills are the hardest to learn”, and to an extent, as a play on words, it works… all very Shakespearean in syntax.

But are you getting a little tired of the thousands of little sayings dished out by trainers day in, day out as if you, the potential delegate, are somehow going to change a lifetime’s behaviour pattern, because the facilitator invokes the spirit of Ghandi and utters the immortal phrase, “Be the change you want to see”.

I of course never fall in to the trap of using tired old phrases like, “If you can’t express your idea in a couple of sentences, you don’t fully understand the idea”… Einstein I think, or, “No plan survives the enemy”… some ancient Greek general I think or… an on, and on and on…

 “Miscommunication is the norm”… there, I used another stock phrase from the stock phrase book of training speak; it’s shorthand I picked up several years ago for, "We are mostly crap at communicating no matter how intelligent we are or become."

Why do trainers use ‘sayings’?

·  Because we ‘know’ that most of us have the attention span of goldfish and mostly only retain images and feelings about the topic they were being exposed to?

·      Because it makes us appear worldly-wise?

·      Because it’s the fastest way to create a neural pathway into a delegate’s brain so they can actually retain something from the day?

I think it’s all three…. and plenty more reasons beside.

So all in all; even though I cringe a little every time I hear, “Every journey starts with a single step” I say put up with the training speak because it’s training speak for a reason.

Ants

PS Or is it just me?