Here are some observations that might cause everyone to at least re-evaluate the value of an MBA degree more objectively.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I hold an MBA degree.

1. I have worked with MBA’s from the top programs in the country including Harvard, Wharton, and Kellogg.  I have also worked with those who earned their degrees from one of the many other MBA programs – usually in the evening while working.  There have been, what I would call, outstanding managers and leaders from both camps.  And there have been some whom I would consider dangerous to themselves and others – abject disasters as business managers.  My conclusion is that those high potential business people would have been high potential even without the MBA degree.
2. I have also met a number of MBA’s – even from top schools – whose technical skills – being able to read financial statements, or create a business plan, etc. were first rate.  But whose reasoning ability – the capacity to understand the second, third, and fourth order consequences of a decision – and the ability to get work done through others was sorely lacking.
3. Most MBA curricula focus on teaching business basics – the same basics that one would also get in an undergraduate business degree program- often taught by the same faculty using the same text books – except that the course numbers indicate a graduate school designation.  And because the courses are not cross-disciplinary, the curriculum reinforces the prevalent silo orientation of most corporations that organize around accounting, marketing, finance, and manufacturing functions.
4. Most business school faculties have a strong academic orientation.  That fact has at least two implications.  First, what gets taught is taught from a very theoretical perspective. Second, faculty get promoted not for their teaching but for their research.  So corporations that hire MBA’s have to spend time teaching them “how things really work”.
5. From having been an adjunct MBA professor for about 18 years,  many of the MBA students that I encountered lacked basic writing skills.

For what it is worth, I think corporations need to re-think their hiring practices and critically assess the value of an MBA.  At the same time, take a look at outstanding liberal arts graduates who have learned how to think, and write, and communicate. And who know how to learn. I can assure you that this pool could learn the basics of business (e.g., how to create and read financial statements, how to do a business plan, how a business makes its product or service and its money, and marketing principles) in less than six months – probably even in six weeks. By far one of the best MBA students that I taught was graduate of a liberal arts college whose whole curriculum is based on reading great books and writing about them – and she has been a quick learner in every position she has had.  So think about it.

Here’s why.  Most planning committees so highly structure a conference that there is very little time to connect with colleagues, share ideas, and meet new people in the field.  Usually these opportunities are available at 15-minute breaks or at those god-awful cocktail receptions. As Open Space Technology creator Harrison Owen noted years ago, the most interesting conversations usually occur outside the formal setting of a conference.

At this particular conference, the luncheon speaker gave a presentation on why lectures are de facto “bad and that “good’ trainers use a variety of gimmicks to “keep people engaged under the assumption that engagement equals learning.  The reason for this approach is that according to the presenter, television, with its ten-minute segments in between 3 minutes of commercials has conditioned everyone to only tolerate short periods of information exchange.  While the speaker was clearly professional and passionate about this approach, you’ve probably guessed by my tone that I was a little annoyed by the content.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a member of the American Society of Training and Development, and have been doing instructional design and training for about thirty years.  I completely support the importance of keeping the training class engaged and maximizing learning.

At times this session seemed like a mix of an out-of-control auction and the behavior of frenzied commodity dealers on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade.  I see this disturbing trend in training in which sizzle gets rewarded over substance and feel like the training community is selling it’s collective soul because it is afraid to make training challenging.  Why do we have to “dumb down workshops just because network television has dumbed down what it offers in a format that conditions people to short sound bites instead of a deeper dialogue.  What is missing is the opportunity to reflect, to go deeper, to really promote understanding. I think it is important to find ways to make these activities more accessible.   And what was missing from this keynote was the presence of any opportunity for exchanging points of view on when this anti-lecture approach is NOT the best one.  From where I was sitting I found it interesting that there were a significant number of people who were not engaged in the activities being suggested by the presenter.

I know this entry may irritate some of my colleagues as much as the content of the presentation (not the speaker) irritated me.  However, I feel a need to put a stake in the ground and invite others to do the same.  I am all for making learning enjoyable and enlivening.  However, I want to do it in a way that does not sacrifice substance and that has respect for the intelligence of the learners.

A feature article on Training Magazine’s website about this company using training to drive a core business process is a great example.  What impresses me about General Mills is they try to hire the best people they can and instead of treating them like an expense item on the income statement, they view their people as assets on the balance sheet and they continue to invest in them and their success and development.  From comprehensive training programs, to 360 degree feedback, to individual development plans as well as carefully thought out programs around retention, career development, inclusion, and onboarding of experienced hires, they strive to be best in class.  Kudos to General Mills!

The following statement from David E. Neeleman, founder and chief executive of JetBlue Airways was the quote of the day in today’s New York Times.
“We had an emergency control center full of people who didn’t know what to do. I had flight attendants sitting in hotel rooms for three days who couldn’t get a hold of us. I had pilots e-mailing me saying, ˜I’m available, what do I do?’ “.  Oh my.

The article goes on to say that Neeleman was mortified by the situation and admitted that the management of his company was not strong enough and that the major culprit was an inadequate communications system. (When I checked their website this morning, the last update was yesterday at 5PM!)  He promised that 100 corporate employees would be trained to “backstop the problem within two weeks and that performance would be “flawless in a month.  I’d love to be a fly on the wall in this company.  Sounds like there is a lot of blaming present.  My fear is that there may be a lot of yelling and screaming to come that will only make the situation worse.

For what it is worth, I’ll offer this observation. When I checked the Jet Blue website this morning and click on a few links I came upon David Neeleman’s background.  It seems he fits the classic profile of an entrepreneur , left college after three years, started up a number of ventures, and had an excellent track record of seeing a need and then attracting the financing to make a business to meet that need a reality.  And so JetBlue was born.  I know a lot of entrepreneurs and they all tell me that that the thrill for them is in the startup.  Taking an idea and developing it into a business proposition is what turns them on , not the day-to-day operations once the business is started.  They leave the running of the business to the management talent that they hire and the importance of that step cannot be underestimated.  If Mr. Neeleman believes that the management of his company is not strong enough than he needs to assess what elements must be present that are not there now to build a strong management team.

Clearly, like a paramedic at an accident scene, JetBlue needs someone internally to step up, access the situation, and quickly stop the bleeding to get the airline back on schedule and repair damaged customer relationships.  Then there needs to be a non-blaming conversation to agree on what needs to be present , such as contingency plans, an improved communication systems, and crisis management protocols, for example – so that this situation does not happen again.  I think what Mr. Neeleman and others will find out that for the traveling public low cost is not enough of a value proposition to sustain an airline.  Reliability and the ability to respond to changing conditions under situations of complexity and ambiguity are required.

I think we can make two basic distinctions in training programs. First, there is the classroom or online session where a trainer (or the computer) presents new information and where there may or may not be “practice sessions. An example is when a new email system gets rolled out at a company and everyone goes through the tutorial at their workstation or in a training room and then practices what they’ve learned at a terminal. Second, there is the real time training where an experienced someone shows a newbie how to do their new job. We often see this form of training in customer service or high customer contact situations. For example, in a restaurant an experienced server “shadows a new server and explains and coaches them along to get them to the point where he/she can wait on tables alone.

I think we would all agree that the worst thing an employer can do is to throw a new employee into the “deep end of the pool. That is, expect the new person to perform at the level of an experienced one without appropriate training.

However, in the domain of real time training, I really wonder if employers think through the best time to do this kind of training in a way that will not unduly annoy the customers that are waiting to be served while the learning occurs.

Based on years of anecdotal observations, I would say that a number of organizations give very little thought to the timing of the training. Time and again, I see new employees getting the real time training during peak business hours with little sensitivity to the growing lines of customers waiting for service because the newbie is in learning mode. My favorite example was in an airport security line during the holiday peak travel season. The TSA person screening carry on luggage was a trainee. This person stopped the conveyor line for EVERY bag and bin that passed though the x-ray machine, pointed to an area on the screen that seemed suspicious to the trainee, then asked the supervisor if it was OK to let the bag pass. You can imagine that just a few minutes of this behavior would result in an enormous line of impatient travelers. I do not fault the trainee at all. My beef is with the supervisor who was so intent on the training process that he was clueless about the negative impact this situation was having on the customers in line and took no corrective action , like taking on the screening himself and talking the trainee through the process until there was a less busy time.

Yes, I know, many of you are probably saying, “it’s a government program, what do you expect. Maybe. But I have seen this kind of lack of awareness on the part of training supervisors in check out lines and customer service settings of large national companies including and airline (where two supervisors actually gave contradictory instructions to a trainee), a department store (where the supervisor left the trainee on her own only to have the trainee make repeated requests for assistance), and a hotel chain (where the new night front desk clerk had apparently received little training before his first night on the job).

So training supervisors of the world, here’s what needs to be present in the way you work. First continue to provide the best possible training to people who will be in customer contact positions before you let them on their own. Second, put up a sign or some other designation to show the person with whom you are working is a trainee. That way, customers can make a choice about the line they choose to enter. The Fairmont Hotels do a great job of this in training their front desk people. What they also do is have the supervisor never leave the side of the trainee so that if a complicated situation arises, or if the lines get too long, they can step in to handle the tough problem and/or get the lines moving again while using that time as a teachable moment.