Fruitful or Futile training?

By+ROBERT+PARKINSON

ARE you encounter- ing problems with Chinese employees？ Maybe when you tell them how to complete their tasks， they ignore your instructions. Before you conclude that Chinese employees are hopelessly untrainable， I would like you to consider the difference between coaching and training.

For those of you who lack management experience， let me explain the major difference. Training is direct； the person who gives the training is 100 percent in charge. He or she controls each phase of the training process and the specific content. On the other hand， coaching involves a lot of interaction. The coach plays the role of host， and keeps the process moving by exchanging questions and answers with all concerned.

Maybe youre an “authoritarian” style person who likes to have employees execute your commands. I suggest you at least try coaching before training. In a training session， expat managers often ignore the importance of cultural differences. You might think you have explained a task clearly， when in fact the audience have no idea what you want. And many Chinese employees， especially green ones， are too shy to ask for help， not to mention that some foreign bosses do not speak a word of Chinese.

Employees universally have the same career goals， but they are culturally different in how they decode information at work. The reason why training before coaching does not work well is that most employees do not understand the task they are doing or why they have to do it. Eventually， they start thinking “I have had enough of this task” and tend to avoid you. This is absolutely not the kind of management experience expat managers want. So， in terms of culture， why doesnt training work so well？

One problem I observe is that at first， a lot of Chinese employees lack the ability to work independently. A striking example is how differently they raise their children. When a Chinese kid asks a parent for help opening a box， the Chinese parent will simply open it for him. A Western parent， however， will tell the kid to watch closely because she or he will only do it once. When children get used to fixed ways of problem-solving， many of them tend to depend on others later on.

If your employees depend on their colleagues when working on a task， forcing them to learn efficiency principles will only confuse them. If they do not know how to do the task by themselves， and are too afraid to ask， then take some time to show them， step by step.endprint

Another cause is the Chinese style of training. In China a lot of trainings are for certification purposes； no one bothers to listen to the trainer because they are busy on Weibo or Wechat. The same instinctive response actually appears when employees hear the word “training” from expat managers. The trainer expects rapt attention to the presentation he/she has prepared； to the employees， this is just another boring session.

Of course， you do not no- tice their indifference because most Chinese employees are smart enough not to disappoint their managers during training. Confucian values teach them to respect people， even those they do not like. As you explain how to increase sales revenues， you might find the audience nodding yes in agreement. No questions， no doubts. This means that they are not interested.

This phenomenon originates in Chinese education. Old-style teaching did not encourage students to question the teachers authority. Those who did were considered uncourteous. The majority of Chinese practice this value in every aspect of their lives.

I particularly find that training on a large scale does not work well. To solve the dilemma， why not try coaching in small groups？endprint