Get some trainin mate

[Biltongboer]

I spent today attending two training courses. The first was something about corporate culture - “getting into the blueâ€. Peoples’ behaviour is set up into three sectors. Behaviour in the green sector is defensive, and contains things like avoiding responsibility and conflict. Then there is the red sector - things like competitive behaviour, power, perfectionism and so on - the Aggressive sector. Then the blue sector is about the positive things like encouraging others, etc. The company wants us to behave in the blue sector.

We all sit in a circle and this nice lady tries to get us to participate in the “interactive sessionâ€. Some people join the action, but most of them sit there like they’re in a wax-statue contest or something. Totally green behaviour, if you ask me.

This is all well and cute, but I don’t know if you can apply things like this to change people’s behaviour at the work place. the top 10% of top performing people in companies act mostly in the blue sector. The lowest 10% of badly performing people act mostly in the green and red sectors. Isn’t this just how people are? You will always get the top performers and the non-performers, and the in-betweens.

But I don’t know if you can easily accept a corporate culture and hope everyone will act in this way?

You can influence people to think about the positive, constructive things, but I think most of these behaviours have been formed when these people were little toddlers and mommy and daddy was teaching by example or by reaction to your behaviour - if they were there to do that.

Anyway, the second course was a stunner in terms of boredom. I can’t remember when was the last time I had to physically force my eyes open and rock my chair just to stay awake. We changed over to day-light savings time this Sunday, and that also didn’t help. I have to get up an hour earlier every morning, and just like in good old Namiebiejah, I hate it.

This guy who is supposed to train us, is standing around, looking unhappy. He is acting in the green sector. “They†did not provide the computer and the other things that he needed.

We all are sitting around a conference table, waiting for him to start this most exciting safety course. This guy doesn’t know how to get the PC and the projector going. Now here I witnessed an interesting Australian phenomenon: These Aussie males are a bunch of wimps. Except for Matthew, who jumped up to go and make some photocopies (because “they†didn’t provide photocopies), the rest of these guys just sat there and stared at the lecturer. No one moved a muscle. The first one to provide help is a woman. I jumped and started to get the PC and projector going. The only one who helped me was the lady. The guys all just sat there and looked at us with a real “dof†expression on their faces.

Unfortunately that was where the excitement also ended for the day. This course was so boring, I actually nodded off a few times, until the lecturer asked me whether I was OK. Eish. We had to fill in an evaluation of the course. One question was: “what part of the course did you appreciate the most?†- my answer: The end, I was so glad when I could finally get out of this little room.

I have a whole bunch of training courses lined up for the next three months. You have to do a million courses every year as part of your duty. I am so thrilled!!!

Well, at least now I know that if there is a fire in the building, and I am right next to a fire extinguisher, I have to leave the extinguisher to a qualified trained employee and run like hell - because I have not been formally trained in the use of a fire extinguisher. Eish. This is what we were taught today. See what I mean?

As Obelix always says: these Aussies are crazy...

Edited October 28, 2008 by Biltongboer

[choog]

Get some trainin mate

Bordem at the trainin courses, but good to see your learnin the lingo mate.

[Biltongboer]

Bordem at the trainin courses, but good to see your learnin the lingo mate.

Yeah, Good on ya mate!

[Moose001]

Brillaint as always!!!

[Eva]

And thanks for another English contribution...

[Mythryl]

You have my sympathy BB. We have SAMY sessions (Sales and Motivation) at work and they bore the tears out of me. My colleague (who is a "mature" 65 yr old) actually does fall asleep in these.

[Bob]

Welcome to Australia . . . . the 51st State of America.

A helluva lot of what goes on over there, we import into Australia, culturally.

Now that America is on its knees financially, and set to lose its crown as world leader, I wonder whether we'll still be importing the culture that is basically strangling America.

So much litigation over there . . . . and in Australia nowadays, as a result . . . . is drowning enterprise and initiative.

Maybe we should import more "have a go" South Africans to bring Australia's culture back to what made this country great in the first place?????

[Biltongboer]

Welcome to Australia . . . . the 51st State of America.

A helluva lot of what goes on over there, we import into Australia, culturally.

Now that America is on its knees financially, and set to lose its crown as world leader, I wonder whether we'll still be importing the culture that is basically strangling America.

So much litigation over there . . . . and in Australia nowadays, as a result . . . . is drowning enterprise and initiative.

Maybe we should import more "have a go" South Africans to bring Australia's culture back to what made this country great in the first place?????

Sadly, that interpeneurial spirit seems to be missing. The average worker does not seem to have much ambition. They're still nice people, though.

[Bob]

Australia's changed a fair bit over the years, with people in charge being held accountable for the slightest little thing.

There is so much litigation with "low lifes" exploiting a person at a disadvantage and taking the man next to him for every penny he can get.

Is it little wonder that the average Australian shies away from wanting to be in a position of responsibility and be the 'fall guy" if anything goes wrong?

It has 99% to do with getting "easy" money and only 1% to do with natural justice. . . . and there's one place on planet Earth where all this nonsense eminates from.

Americans have adopted these and lots of other "unproductive" practices over the past 30 or 40 years and we've soaken them up like a sponge, also.

Unfortunately, America has been living in an unreal world for the past 30 or 40 years, so these practices haven't had the damaging effect on its economy and lifestyle that it really would have had.

Americans have been living on increasing amounts of credit that foreigners have been ploughing into the American $, and this has masked the true effects that these practices would have had on their economy and society.

These will now show up to be what they really are, because America is now broke and has to start paying back the credit that's been extended to them all these years.

Americans will also now have to wear the benefits or disadvantages of what their lifestyle practices will bring about, without any "masking" from the real damage they do to the economy and society as a whole, as foreigners are no longer prepared to bankroll America and its excesses any more.

If Australians are stupid enough to keep "importing" these sort of unproductive practices, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this will damage Australia in pretty much the same sort of way.

I liked the "Get up and have a Go" mentality of the people I met and saw in South Africa, years ago, and I want to encourage people who have the spirit to take Life by the horns to settle in Australia and show Australians what they can do and what Aussies used to be like years ago.

Aussies were adventurous people not so long ago and were spirited enough to have a go, but a lot nowadays are just sops, taking on another culture that isn't "Australian" . . . . not in my books!!

You guys can see some of the nonsense in Australian society as it is hitting you in the face when you first leave Sth Africa and settle here, but a lot of us in Australia have been slowly acclimatised and massaged into this apathetic approach to Life over the years.

I don't like it. Nor do I like where it comes from.

[Navigator]

Well said Bob, I have to admit, that is probably one of the most frustrating things I've experienced in Aus so far.

[Rissiepit]

Just a pity it is so difficult for so many "have a go" South Africans to get into Aus

[Biltongboer]

Just a pity it is so difficult for so many "have a go" South Africans to get into Aus

Yep, unfortunately that's the way it is. But one thing I can say is that it is absolutely worth all your effort to get here. If you come with the right atitude, you will find that this is truly a land of opportunities and greatness. Do what you have to - it's worth it. what you "give up" to get here doesn't weigh up to what you get in return.

[Ausraven]

Yep ... goto jump through the hoops, if you don't then you are seen as the "odd ball"

Find it most frustrating when I can see a solution but "da boss" is not interested in rocking the boat.

Heaven forbid that you put out a fire that will save the company millions if you have not attended the course.

Strekte BB

[Dax]

I cam empathise with a lot of issues in this thread.

Recently I was on an extensive Occupational Health & Safety course, and one of the things that it highlighted was the vast amount of things one simply cannot do.

In the education system we use a computer programme named “Chemwatch†to identify any hazardous substances that may be a danger in classrooms. There are thousands and thousands of substances that one simply cannot bring into a school anymore.

Only today I assisted another teacher to find a suitable paint to use for art purposes on garden furniture on the school grounds. All enamel-based paints are OUT, and in the end we had to settle for an outdoor, water-based acrylic type of paint.

Occupational Health &Safety is actually an industry on its own, just google ‘workplace consultants’ and check what you come up with.

You workplace is a bit over the top with a “desinated†firefighter, BB. Most workplaces train all their staff to handle fire-extinguishers themselves.

You see some anomalies in the “keep-safe craze.†Its like, we don’t mind to send troops to Iraq or Afghanistan, providing they are safe and out of danger, something that does not sit well with the essence of being a soldier, IMHO.

Cheers,

Dax

[Dax]

I can empathise with a lot of issues in this thread.

Recently I was on an extensive Occupational Health & Safety course, and one of the things that it highlighted was the vast amount of things one simply cannot do.

In the education system we use a computer programme named “Chemwatch†to identify any hazardous substances that may be a danger in classrooms. There are thousands and thousands of substances that one simply cannot bring into a school anymore.

Only today I assisted another teacher to find a suitable paint to use for art purposes on garden furniture on the school grounds. All enamel-based paints are OUT, and in the end we had to settle for an outdoor, water-based acrylic type of paint.

Occupational Health &Safety is actually an industry on its own, just google ‘workplace consultants’ and check what you come up with.

You workplace is a bit over the top with a “designated†firefighter, BB. Most workplaces train all their staff to handle fire-extinguishers themselves.

You see some anomalies in the “keep-safe craze.†Its like, we don’t mind to send troops to Iraq or Afghanistan, providing they are safe and out of danger, something that does not sit well with the essence of being a soldier, IMHO.

Cheers,

Dax