Excellence in Training – Search or Discovery?

A few months ago Seth Godin posted a blog called Search vs. Discovery. In that post he defined the two terms this way:

Search is what we call the action of knowing what you want and questing until you ultimately find it.

Discovery, on the other hand, is what happens when the universe (or an organization, or a friend) helps you encounter something you didn’t even know you were looking for.

Which of those two terms apply to you? Which of them define your mission as a trainer?

Both.

You need to search for new and better ways to design and deliver training. You need to search for new ways to engage your learners. You need to continually be searching for better skills, tactics and content. You need to search for better stories and better ways to tell the stories. You must continually search for the dots and ways to connect the dots. You need to help direct officers who are willing to engage in the search for better skills, tactics, ideas and knowledge that will help them on their quest to dare to be great.

In the act of searching you will discover ideas, wisdom, insights and connections that you did not even know you were looking for.

When you provide training that is challenging, engaging, and makes people think they will encounter something they did not even know they were looking for. If you do a really good job they will discover that spark of greatness within themselves that will inspire them to dare to be great.

If you just entertain them in training they will get what they expected to get, they will have a fun day but, they will walk away without discovering anything about themselves and without the desire to search for more.

The Excellence in Training Membership site I will be launching in the coming months will be designed to facilitate both search and discovery.