Why Aren’t they listening?

Jim anderson is a training specialist in the human resource department

of a large pharmaceutical company. in response to a recent company-

wide survey, Jim specifically designed a 6-week training program on lis-

tening and communication skills to encourage effective management in

the company. Jim’s goals for the seminar are twofold: for participants to

learn new communication behaviors and for participants to enjoy the

seminar so they will want to attend future seminars.

The first group to be offered the program was middle-level managers

in research and development. This group consisted of about 25 people,

nearly all of whom had advanced degrees. Most of this group had

attended several in-house training programs in the past, so they had a

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106 LeaderShip Theory and praCTiCe

sense of how the seminar would be designed and run. Because the

previous seminars had not always been very productive, many of the

managers felt a little disillusioned about coming to the seminar. as one

of the managers said, “here we go again: a fancy in-house training

program from which we will gain nothing.”

Because Jim recognized that the managers were very experienced, he

did not put many restrictions on attendance and participation. he used

a variety of presentation methods and actively solicited involvement

from the managers in the seminar. Throughout the first two sessions, he

went out of his way to be friendly with the group. he gave them fre-

quent coffee breaks during the sessions; during these breaks, he pro-

moted socializing and networking.

during the third session, Jim became aware of some difficulties with the

seminar. rather than the full complement of 25 managers, attendance

had dropped to about only 15 managers. although the starting time was

established at 8:30, attendees had been arriving as late as 10:00. during

the afternoon sessions, some of the managers were leaving the sessions

to return to their offices at the company.

as he approached the fourth session, Jim was apprehensive about why

things had been going poorly. he had become quite uncertain about

how he should approach the group. Many questions were running

through his mind: had he treated the managers in the wrong way? had

he been too easy regarding attendance at the sessions? Should he have

said something about the managers skipping out in the afternoon? Were

the participants taking the seminar seriously? Jim was certain that the

content of the seminars was innovative and substantive, but he could not

figure out what he could change to make the program more successful.

he sensed that his style was not working for this group, but he didn’t

have a clue as to how he should change what he was doing to make the

sessions better.

Questions

From a leadership perspective, what is Jim doing wrong?
What specific changes could Jim implement to improve the

seminars?

………………..Answer Preview……………………

Failure in seminars like illustrated in Jim’s case can be associated to a number of factors and they are mentioned below. Jim may be failing in implementing his seminar for failure to understand and employing the ideal marketing practices. There are many ways to market seminars such a direct mailing, networking among others. In order to ensure the success of such a seminar the leader should take time….

APA

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