Conversation between CEO and New Training Professional

[Training Person is riding elevator, when door opens and CEO walks in.]

CEO: You're the training person, right?

TP: Yes I am.

CEO: So what have you done this quarter?

TP: I and my whole department have been doing a lot of research. We are talking to a lot of industry gurus. We have been passionately following all of the hot trends in training.

CEO: Sounds great. What have you learned?

TP: First, we have found that a well designed application needs much less training than a poorly designed one

CEO: Done. Let me move funding from training to application development. What else do you got?

TP: We have figured out that most behavior change comes from motivation, not instruction.

CEO: Great point. Let me jot myself a note to shift budget away from your department and put it into corporate communications and our bonus pool. What else?

TP: According to our new research, most learning happens in casual conversations. So that should be a priority.

CEO: Hmm. I know my infrastructure people handle telephones and cell phones, my facilities management and HR work on office layout, and my IT people support email and instant messaging. So thank you. I will split the rest of the training budget between those three camps. This has been a very productive conversation.

TP: (whoops).

CEO: I just feel badly that such a smart person as yourself doesn't have a job anymore. Oh well. Best of luck to you. I'm sure you'll do fine. Just have your office cleaned out by the end of the day.

[Door opens, CEO walks out]