Mediocrity...

The bane of today's corporate world


An ex-colleague and a  friend, Arup Sengupta, started a conversation recently, on Facebook, on the need to develop skill sets, around Transactional Analysis and NLP, amongst in-class trainers. While many of our friends added comments on the agreeing to the same, but in no time the conversation-thread moved towards the need of BootCamps which are BootCamps in word & spirit; no mollycuddling, but hardcore break-the-horse-and-make-a-stallion kind of BootCamp.

Someone even defined BootCamps as 'cardboard houses so that the trainers sound-the-part without any conviction'. This someone, Kapil Kant Kaul (hereon refered to as K3), also stated a stark truth about the mom-n-pop-stores kind of training companies, that the problem starts when these training companies, with their greater affinity to bottom lines look for trainers who are like onions; can be thrown in any recipe but unable to be a complete recipe in itself.

Well, I agree with K3, and somewhere we are responsible as well. We allowed that to happen under our nose, and like a child who closes her eyes and thinks that the world is calm & quite as nothing can be seen, we closed our eyes as well. These training outfits and trainers operate on the epitome of rehash of content; walk into any of these companies or take a peek into any of these trainers' hard-disk, and you would find 'generations of universal slides with only a different company logo', and as K3 states, that the skillset is only defined by how much can be crammed in a day of presentation and that is followed by a 'vomit' both literally and figuratively in a training session. This phenomenon is seen rampant across India, and while there are some exceptional trainers and training professionals and CLOs, they are outnumbered by these not-did-well-in-sales-and-hence-into-training trainers and training outfit owners... as my friend, Rajat says, 'there are people who live these behavioral models without having being 'certified', and there are more who live life vice-versa'.

I must commend K3 to bring out the bitter truth about cats & dogs... mediocre trainers inform, good trainers share and great trainers inspire; unless the trainer lives those values, authenticity and conviction may never come in. Training ought to be a profession of people who are passionate about actualization, both self and transcendental and not a last resort of burnt-out salesmen to get a regular paycheck.

As bitter the truth is, one needs to take an accommodative view... or should we not!!!

Rajat offers a pragmatic view, and while I agree with him, my understanding of 'mediocrity' gets shaped with what he says in the thread; and this is how it goes...

...and just like in any other profession, there is a range of performers, from passe to the excellent, also in training, there are training companies dealing with knowledge and basic transactions for the masses, there are a few 'evolved' training companies doing work around leadership, transformation, and OD, and, then there is the Aastha Channel (akin to the GOD Channel on cable); just like every sales person cannot be a CEO (of course, one can dream to be one!!!), similarly, every trainer may not evolve to be as inspirational trainer (again, one can aspire to be one!!!)

I do agree that the biggest killer is 'mediocrity', but lately, I have realised that 'mediocrity' also ensures that there is no stress. So, one of the questions that I ask trainers nowadays is whether they want to be good or they want to be superlative. I have seen a lot of excellent facilitators who have remained good and have allowed their round wheels become square wheels as the context changed, and this is my understanding of the initial indicators of mediocrity 'seeping in'; someone, who thinks s/he knows everything, and stops questioning & learning... or being questioned.

So, the question I ask, time to time, is whether its OK to remain mediocre; as no one is aware and hence, no one asks. And as no one is aware, I continue to make people believe that my 'this' current state is superlative. True-To-Heart, 'superlative' is a state, of which there is no single definition, but, many an indicators; the strongest one being, the want & ability to listen without barriers and learn; and to be OK to be questioned & challenged; and to fail.

Somewhere in the thread, one of my earlier supervisors, Rohit, talked about a certain set of trainers as the 'last of the breed'; are they really extinct!!! Well, it might be true, if we refuse to change & bend and be ahead of the pack. I also believe that there are quite a few facilitators or wannabe facilitators who can actually be superlative, and there are many facilitators who have become superlative, and I hope they continue to remain; and continue to encourage others.



Next is What!
(not Samsung)


First - A common-interest society is being formed to get the relevant executive and non-executive people in the fold.

Second - Standards for Roleholders at all L&D professionals, including specialists within the profession, and for all levels... They are in the pipeline.

Third - A 'College of Learning' is on its way.



I hope that my quest for words to capsulate my experience from my-war-of-two-decades-against-mediocrity, does not leave readers confused; India needs a transformation in the way our facilitators operate; but, no one is to blame, let's own up the fact that we all were together when Caesar was being stabbed...

Let's start anew!