Leadership Lesson: The High Cost of Silly Training

(I will probably live to see the day when there is a course out there for managers to help them find their inner Furry. Lead like a Furry or some such.)

There is a dirty little secret in the training and development "industry," and I intend to expose it, right here, right now.

Training can be a racket.

This was never more evident to me than when I encountered an excellent checklist (Via Rowan Manahan) pertaining to email etiquette. Wanting to share my find with you, something that people of average intelligence would "get" and probably quickly benefit from, I Googled what a class in "email etiquette" would cost someone. Here is what I found:

How To Write A Darn Good E-Mail, a one-day class offered by the American Management Association. Cost: $995.00
Email Etiquette Training Seminar, 1-day, Cost: $329.00
Email Efficiency & Etiquette Module (Bonus: File & Find It Fast Module), A 3-hour "Live" Webinar. Cost: $195.00
E-mail Etiquette Training Course on CD, CD-ROM, Total Training Time: 6-12 hours. Cost: Was $399.00, now $149.00!

Need I show you more?

Anyway, the leadership lesson for today is that training can be a racket and often is. You don't always get what you pay for, and what may be offered can be taught and learned by other simpler and less expensive ways. Take Mr. Godin's nifty checklist for instance...

E-mail etiquette training in one sentence: Review and think before you hit "send."

Imagine that. And for free!