Unteachable People?

This post by fellow Brightonian Julia Chanteray * on people she can’t work with got me thinking…Now normally I say I’m the uber-trainer and course participants are marzipan in my pudgy flip chart swishing fingers…however it got me wondering if some people are just unteachable?

I know, I know…it’s not nice and a bad workman blames his fools but I’m going to put both my unteachable ego and PC objections aside and talk about unteachable people.

Characteristics of Unteachable People

I can’t train people who don’t want to learn

Which is why I never accept people on courses who have been told by managers they have to be there. Waste of my time and theirs. Forcing someone to learn is like pulling on a blade of grass to make it grow faster. This argument taken to it’s extreme form means there is no teaching at all actually – only facilitating and coaching.

I can’t train people who don’t want to change

Learning involves change. There is no way around this. I can however motivate people and encourage the love to overcome the fear.

I can’t train really stoopid people

Yes, yes, there are different learning styles and multiple intelligences and it’s best not to judge people…but maybe there are just a few plain ‘ole morons out there? I’ve also noticed the better the trainer the less I hear them whine about this however so I’d better be careful…

That’s about it I think…
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Training So What: People can learn, some won’t.
* Julia’s session on marketing cocaine last night at the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce was fab too. I should clarify it was just a make-believe exercise on business planning.