The Interest of Self-Interest in Training

Man has developed with a deep-seated need to enhance his skills so that he may provide for his own survival and the survival of his offspring. Somewhere in modern history the business world stifled the expression of these needs for order and uniformity in the workplace. Yet a need for innovative workers has returned and training and development can help direct such effort into a useful form.

Man was once engaged in the crafts, carved knives out of bone, and innovated his simple farming practices. He adapted and innovated because only he was responsible for his sustenance. As government began to create protections and business demanded more uniformity from the previous agrarian lifestyle everything became more uniform. Business needs dictated that the daily work life was mundane and boring.

Corporations now have a need to encourage this self-expression and self-interest in order to foster innovation and market dominance. Only those organizations that that can develop stellar products and push them to fruitation will be able to maintain profit margins. Strong products will need "out of the box" thinking and new features that make them attractive in the market.

Training can give employees a proper avenue to express their natural talents. Obviously, no one wants people to carve beautiful art work on car hoods unless the guest so requests. It wouldn't make much sense to spend time on making machinery into artistic masterpieces. However, employees should be encouraged to generate new ideas and better practices that can save companies money. Training can both encourage this express and show employees when to use it.

The expression of this innovation is very important if companies hope to build greater innovation and more market share. Training must be backed up by appropriate avenues whereby people can submit and have evaluated such ideas. These strengths of employees can further the organizations position if something more then a suggestion box is used. This means that companies will need an avenue to receive, review, and implement new ideas.

In a market where overcapacity is common increased competition is making dents in profit margins. In addition, the manufacturing world has been expanded to include developing nations which fosters additional pressure on American companies to be more innovative and gain more market share. This will not be possible without an innovative and talented workforce that response to the "calls for action".