Teaching vs. Training; Why Do We Do What We Do?

By  Akanna Osita-Okeke

I visited a friend who had a cute little poodle for a dog, and I watched in amazement as she got it to do many tricks from dancing to rolling over to playing dead.

After a while, I was about to blurt out a stupid thought but I just decided to hold it back in my head and ask myself the question instead: I wonder if it understands why it’s doing what it’s doing?

Of course animals do not know why they do what they do; they are instinct-driven after all.  But humans on the other hand (should) know why they do what they do. Or do we?

The answer to that question largely depends on how we learn to do what we do.  You see, the dog was trained to do those tricks, it was not taught.  When we are trained, we learn the skills necessary to do a job especially through practical experience, the same way that some companies train their employees to perform the tasks assigned to them.   The outcome is usually that majority of them do not understand why they perform those tasks; compared to if they were taught, in which case they won’t forget why.

Here are a few things, I believe, to bear in mind when teaching rather than just training:

When I started my first job in a bank it was explained to me, at the bank’s business school, that the essence of banking was the ability to meet the needs of both those with surplus –by keeping their money safe in the form of deposits, and those in deficit –by extending credit to them from the deposits accepted.

That got me excited! I understood why I was going in there. I wasn’t just trained on how to pay out cash to those in line and balance a till at the end of the day.  Doing that every day and not knowing why would have driven me nuts.

My friend was obviously getting her dog to do those tricks to entertain me. But the poor dog did not understand that.  It did not realize who its real ‘customer’ was. It was only obeying its ‘boss’, the owner.

I once worked as a sales recruiting assistant and most of my work was done over the phone. So, the potential candidates I was contacting had only my voice to rely on.  It was embarrassing the number of rejections I got when I first started, considering I was the one with the opportunity.  I wondered what the problem was –I had completed the training program successfully and I was following the script I was handed to make the phone calls with.

On one of my many bad days, I noticed my colleague beside me booking many appointments like she always did, so I decided to ask what her secret was.  She showed me the sticky note on her computer monitor that read “we want them but we don’t need them”. That was the principle that guided her.

I mulled over it and came to understand it.  My numbers subsequently improved because of a change in my attitude which could also be heard through my voice.  This progress came by understanding a principle and applying that mindset to the methods I used.

Back to the cute little dog:  As soon as I asked myself that question that I felt was too stupid to ask aloud, I got my answer.  My friend threw a treat the dog’s way and it jumped in the air and chewed it before landing.  This was why it was doing the tricks; for the short term reward of a treat.

That was its conditioning by its trainer.  Much like the pay-checks that well-trained employees receive at the end of two weeks of carrying out tasks.  We know why we do what we do –to earn an income that would enable us to take care of our needs –but do we understand why we do them?

When I won an award for the most valuable staff in my department, I went back to look at the criteria again, since the award recipients were determined by votes and not by the bosses.  When I looked at them again, I noticed that they emphasized the impact made, through your work, within the team and outside of it.  That got me thinking; there should be more award and recognition events in order to encourage an understanding of what we do –the impact we make through our jobs.  This has a longer term effect.

I once had an interesting conversation with a bank executive.  I asked him how he handled the different personalities and creative minds he had on his team. His answer was profound.  He said when he gave them a task he usually had two deadlines assigned to it.  One was the one that he communicated to the person performing the task and the other was the one he kept to himself, which was always later than the one he had communicated.  When I asked why he did that, he said he knew “they would always need time to experiment”.

As people make mistakes, they get to learn what not to do, and they usually come to a much better understanding of what they do and why.

These are only a few of my thoughts on teaching.  I believe that it develops people more than it develops skills.

Of course I do not rule out training, but believe in the efficiency it brings albeit without much diversity.  However, teaching develops a principle-based mindset in people that can be applied to various methods of doing things, for both efficiency and effectiveness.