Training is dead. No one has told training that it is dead but it is dead. Education is called for these days and Education is not simply a semantical replacemet for training but an entirely different field of study and discipline. By definition:

Training is a noun

1. The action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behavior.

Education is a noun

     The process of imparting general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and             judgment, and generally of preparing others intellectually for a position or profession. 

There is a difference and, when examined carefully, it is the difference between success and failure in your efforts as a leader. Communication is your goal as a leader whether you recognize that fact or not. It seems to be left out of roughly half of the books, tapes, DVD's et al written about leadership.

Training has become ubiquitous since the 1980s because we, as an industry, stopped training Sales Managers entirely. We began "promoting from within" which was really an excuse to trim the payroll. Prospecting for, interviewing, recruiting and hiring a professional manager is very expensive (up front and on paper) and due to gross compression, competative pressures, attrition and scores of other excuses we settled for less.

Let us all face the fact that we are surrounded by people from different generations that have been taught to gather information differntly than most of us were. These "young" people expect more, demand more and deliver more if WE do more. Does it make sense to you, the leader, to learn how your people learn? Is it easier to create a "flow" that they are comfortable with and get them into the "flow" than it is to force them into yur "flow"?

In simple terms we need to learn to teach. Personally I spent hours on line and in conversations with people I know in education and it was eye opening to me as to how little I understand about education, communication and interaction with these various generations. It taught me I had a lot to learn, a lot to prepare and even more to execute in my quest to STOP training and START educating.

How do you, as a leader, educate your Express Lane Service Advisor? Can it be an "inside job"? Can it be accomplished in a timely and effective manner? Will it pay dividends? The answer to all of those questions is a big, fat, beautiful YES! 

A fair question might be; "Why the Express Advisor?" Simply put that position sees more paying customers, day in and day out, than any other person in the dealership. If you can master that position, from an education standpoint, you can tackle every other education opportunity in the dealership.

Memorization, recitation and rote. That is how Boomers and Gen Xers were educated in school. Flash cards, "fonix" (remember that?) etc. were all tools used to give the foundation that we would carry out into the world and eventually match it up with a practical application in our daily lives.

Presentation (highly visual and interactive), discussion and reason is how the "new" generations are taught to gather and process information. They use the internet, they search out "why" more than "how" and they were taught to look at a process in its entirety first then they will exammine their part of the whole.

Having them take tests, write notes, sit through slide presentations from last-century training companies is how, why and when they disengage. Shake up the process, do a little research, set up a world class presentation on the entire process from "soup to nuts" as it were, in relation to the Express Lane and you will see an entirely different level of engagement from that generation that you say; "You just cant get good people anymore."