Management 'training'

I was recently given the chance to attend an all-day ‘course’ aimed at managers. It was run by a consultant, who no doubt charged a handsome fee. Because some of the managers couldn’t make it, it was opened up to other employees, as the consultant would charge his full fee anyway. The course was entitled ‘Managing change’.

And what a useless exercise it was. It began with a role play game. I forget what the game was or what management wisdom it was meant to elucidate. All I remember is that it was a good laugh and some of the commentary on our performance was overly pedantic.

After that, the whole day was an utter waste of time. The well-remunerated management consultants do no more than present common sense, albeit nicely dressed. Sometimes they do not even do that. Rather, they ask some commonsense questions and the participants, in true interactive fashion, supply the commonsense answers. This method of bringing to the surface what we already know does have a history, of course, as it was how Socrates discussed philosophical issues with his students. But that is beside the point.