Corporations have always learned new business practices from external sources such as customers, competitors, suppliers, industry experts, trade journals, and many other bearers of technical data and market information. They have also learned from internal sources such as in-house experts, master performers, senior managers, technical researchers and analysts of operational data (such as production records). They have even learned though often grudgingly from creative employees on the front line.
Traditional methods that are used to capture the insights of employees and produce new data tend to be carefully managed processes, formally structured and specialized. They include:
* Research and development departments.
* Market-research activities such as focus groups and surveys.
* Management and technical consultants.
* Hiring managers and professionals with needed expertise.
* Internal surveys, needs analyses and suggestion boxes.
* The infamous "memo" that raises critical issues.
Should training go on this list? Courses certainly can introduce new skills or topics to an organization, but much of the time training merely transmits existing wisdom and information from executives and privileged specialists down to the unenlightened masses.