I’d like to draw your attention to shepherds pie. A favourite dish throughout the land, and definitely one of my kids’ top 3 meals. But shepherds pie can be a funny thing. When we had our kitchen refitted last year we were restricted to the microwave for a couple of weeks, so I bought a ready made one for us. My kids hated it, and to this day check that any shepherds pie I present to them is home made. On the other hand, my daughters friend (who loves shepherds pie) turned her nose up at mine. My friend however, was keen to learn my recipe. So why the variation?
The simplest explanation is that we all have our own version of shepherds pie: There is no single ‘correct’ way to make it. Every cookery book will recommend something slightly different even though they are based on the same core ingredients. In many ways, designing training is like making shepherds pie. For example, every organisation has a management development programme, but none of them are exactly the same. Like the shepherds pie where some people put in garlic, or add mushrooms, or leave out the herbs, management development programmes might start off with the same core ingredients but they are altered and seasoned to suit the individual organisation.
I guess that's why I sometimes have a problem with trainers who try to insist there is only one route to success. My version of shepherds pie is not exactly the same as my neighbours, but there are similarities. The management development programme I write or company X is not the same as the management development programme I write for organisation Y. People within those organisations have their own ideas about what should be included and what is important. They have come up with those ideas independently of each other and yet there is often a lot of similarity. This is because no one has exclusive rights over great ideas. Intelligent people read, discuss, observe and think, and through these methods they often reach similar conclusions.
As a training designer (or HR ghostwriter), it is up to me to create your desired training programme to your exact recipe. It doesn't matter if I would prefer to have less of one thing, or more of another, or that a programme I wrote three months ago had great success with XYZ. Individual organisations usually know what will work for them and it's my job to make that vision a reality.
Sheridan Webb
