I hope this rather bold statement doesn’t offend anyone, particularly those who make a living in the training field. The statement in the following quote caught my attention in a recent article in the January 2006 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine by James Mitnick, Senior Vice President of Turner Construction.

“TKN (Turner Knowledge Network) is not about training. Training is for babies and puppies. TKN is about performance, where learning, knowledge and collaboration intersect.”

Viewed in that context, the quote really made sense and resonated with my own thoughts on learning. Mitnick defines “training” narrowly, as the act of teaching someone (or something) how to do a specific task without needing to think much about it. Whether you are training a baby to use the potty or a puppy to sit and heel or head to the back door, you are teaching someone the steps to an activity that will eventually become second nature. The training is best done by repeating the task until the results are satisfactory and consistent.

In that sense, “training” is more for the person who spends his or her day asking “Would you like fries with that, Ma’am?” than for the person trying to optimize a complex virtual server environment. Teaching the IT employee this way won’t accomplish the task at hand. Today’s knowledge worker needs more than simply “training.” While training serves a purpose to provide some fundamentals skills, a culture of continuous learning must be developed.

I really like the way James Mitnick articulates the distinction between “training” and “learning”:

“Learning continues to evolve as technology allows us to push useful information and knowledge to our colleagues. Although instructor-led courses continue to be an important part of practicing and testing for understanding, it is impossible to provide just-in-time learning to all staff members at the right time of their careers with consistent quality. Retention of knowledge is very difficult, unless it can be practiced in the real world almost immediately.

“As we have all learned, the cost of instructor-led training is very expensive — our world has evolved to become a virtual place in space and time, where information and knowledge can be accessed anytime, from any computer or hand-held device, to support collaboration and professional development. In the future, it might not be possible to distinguish between formal and informal learning, between the classroom and Web-based courses, between relevant and irrelevant. It becomes the responsibility of those of us who have been entrusted to lead our organizations to make sure it is relevant and appropriate.

“When learning happens, people enjoy their work, are more productive, increase value to customers and are happier overall. If ‘training’ is for babies and puppies, then ‘learning’ is for those of us who understand the importance of codifying and sharing knowledge within our organization. Understanding the difference between training and learning is the first step to becoming a world-class learning organization.”

At HP, we aim to provide as many of those resource as we can. It’s our way of – as Mitnick describes it – codifying and sharing knowledge within our technical community. After all, our goal is to develop and grow a highly competent technical, sales and services community, not house-break a puppy.