A while back, I did a post on "Creative" Leadership Programs ; where I described a list of real and fake leadership development programs (i.e., “Space Camp for Leaders”), and offered a prize to the first reader to pick the fake programs. The point was to shine a light on some of the ridiculous programs out there disguised as leadership development and the idiots, errr, naive managers and trainers who are suckered into spending their company’s hard earned money on them.
Maybe it’s the economic downturn and bad PR over AIG post-bailout junkets, but I haven’t seen many good examples lately.
Until I saw this one:
New Green Training Reduces Corporate Carbon Footprint
Yes, self-proclaimed “independent thinker" Streaming Strategies CEO Michael Warren has taken three good ideas:
Team Building + The Green Movement + Fly Fishing
And combined them to create one too damn silly to be true idea for a training program.
Here’s more from the press release:
StreamingStrategies, a new corporate training company in Virginia, announced today that it will launch its green corporate training services on May 1, 2009.
The company provides green training for strategic corporate teams that combines high quality classroom instruction with an eco-aware fly fishing experience for team building.
CEO Michael Warren said of the launch, “Our services help HR professionals green their companies. Our training is eco-friendly, sustainable and renewable. Based on Authentic Learning concepts, our training results in both an action plan to solve an immediate team problem and a blueprint for solving similar problems. Combined with a low-tech delivery method and a flexible format, our training allows green learning to be incorporated into organizational development events at virtually any venue, including remote adventures. Because we achieve training and team building in a single event, our training helps a company reduce its carbon footprint.”
OMG, "eco-aware" training?! Is it any wonder we continue to see headlines like this:
Training a 'waste of time' says one in three workers
Ouch! McKinsey Survey Says HR Can't Manage Talent
Don't trust HR to manage your talent
Well sure, it's partly because:
- There are a lot of charlatans out there selling crap like this and calling it leadership or team development
- There are a lot of incompetent HR and Training departments all too willing to buy and promote this stuff and other bad ideas
- There are a lot of desperate and gullible managers looking for silver bullets
Hey, I'm all for a good time now and then on the company's tab - just don't try to justify it as a training investment.
In my next post, I’m going to describe a way to develop leaders that is:
- Highly effective
- Free
- Easy to implement
- Very green
- and doesn’t involve fishing.
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