Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Tasty Fluids

"A pint of sweat is worth a gallon of blood." - George Patton

This isn't about the exchange rate at some gross flea market.

Patton trained his troops hard. Often regarded as overeager to pour his men into every fight, he definitely was eager... but not before they had gotten a full six weeks of training.

"It's a damn waste of the most wonderful manhood of America to send green troops into combat before they are ready. We must train to win."

Often training falls by the wayside, something to be done ad hoc or completely through on-the-job training. In matters of training, undoubtedly doing beats watching. But who would stick a teenage driving student into the middle of the freeway on day one? Yet that's the siren song of "results-oriented" business, or more pointedly, "short-term results-oriented." The traditions of successful organizations demand that we create a high-quality on-ramp for new employees, with thorough manuals, visual aids, indoctrination into the vocabulary and acronyms of the culture, and most importantly adequate time to absorb plentifully.

No comments: