As soon as I became involved in the human resource and training and development industry I was addicted. I attended my first workshop conducted by Team Management Systems coauthor Dr Charles Margerison and from that moment I knew I wanted to be part of it. The majority of the people who attended the workshop were serious in their quest to foster excellence in teamwork and to improve understanding within their organizations or with their clients. I found the interaction on the workshop stimulating and different from anything I had previously experienced. P> Training and development is an area which greatly differs from the cut and thrust of business. The challenge is in designing workshops to achieve everything from awareness of differing learning styles to improved performance on a diminishing budget. Effective training and development sometimes seems like the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Like a good comedian, a training & development (T & D) specialist needs to have a feel for the audience and like a talented actor have the power to attract and keep their attention. Facilitating to a room of people who have been told to attend or think that any form of training is a waste of time, must be similar to facing the enemy in war. Preparation and nerves of steel are essential.

A T & D specialist must have the ability to change direction at a moment's notice, round up the audience when they stray and lead them down the desired track. A T & D specialist needs to be factual enough to be taken seriously, plausible enough to be believed and persuasive enough to deliver the message.

In other words, a T & D specialist needs to be a designer, teacher, actor, comedian, politician and counsellor, all rolled into one. A T & D specialist has to promote the vision of an organization, show employees the way to achieving that vision and still have enough energy to keep abreast of the latest techniques.

It would seem that T & D specialists, particularly private consultants working alone, have to be a team in themselves. Customer service is at the top of the list of priorities to guarantee customer satisfaction. It is important that T & D specialists identify their own strengths and weaknesses. Like the cobbler who had no time to shoe his children, T & D specialists often overlook the development of their own skills, until problems arise.

The Margerison-McCann Types of Work Wheel can be an easy model to use to prevent problems before they arise or provide a solution quickly. The eight work functions and linking apply to any organization industry or profession. I have listed below how each could apply to a T & D specialist.

Advising

Collect information on your customer and their needs.