I love Civil Air Patrol Cadet Programs. Sinceriously. Last week, I was one of the instructors for an updated Training Leaders for Cadets course.

One of the basic goals of this course is to help the adult leadership understand that to keep cadets engaged, we need to offer programming and education that’s interactive and hands on.  It’s ironic that this TLC class was designed to effectively be the dreaded death-by-PowerPoint; exactly what we are supposed to not be doing.

(Epic fail)

This happens in the adult world all the time. I bet you have to do some sort of annual training in your life that is exactly the same each and every year.  And you are bored out of your mind every year.  It may be so similar that you could take notes on your computer, save them and then just sit through next year’s training ready to give the answers that you already have.

Let’s call this what it is; laziness.  It’s easier to keep doing what you’ve been doing than to put forth the effort to create or find something better.  The deal here is doing the same exact thing doesn’t help anyone develop.  All it does is send the message, “You aren’t important enough to invest in, but if I don’t check this training box, the company will be in trouble.”

Here’s my plea to those training managers; Stop being boring.

If you don’t have the internal resources to do interactive, updated, modern day programs, bring in an external resource. Budget for it and be happy that you’ve budgeted for it.

When you invest in your people, they’ll be happier.  When they’re happier, they have more loyalty.  When they have more loyalty, they go above and beyond.  And they’re still happy about it.

Your people are your most valuable resource. Don’t squander them.