Education Without Execution Is Just Entertainment

“I’ve always said that education without execution is just entertainment.”
– Tim Sanders, author, Love is the Killer App

I came across the quote above by Tim Sanders, author of Love is the Killer App, in a proposal for training services this past week and it hit me just as hard as the first time I saw it a few years back. It got me to thinking about how much information we take in and the mere fraction of that new knowledge that we actually put into practice. (Well, most of us at least) As someone who travels nearly 30 weeks a year to train marketers on social media and Internet marketing, seeing an impact from our sessions is truly the highest reward, but alas, execution following training is never certain.

Think about the last training session you attended. Now think about your current habits, actions and plans. What elements did you take away from that training that you’ve now put into practice? Were there things that you had intended to do but never did? Were you simply entertained without taking substantive action following your training immersion?

I’m not saying that education or training shouldn’t be entertaining. Quite the contrary. I try to inject an element of entertainment into everything I do and I find that it helps to get folks to take action based on something memorable from the session. However, the whole experience shouldn’t just be entertainment.

QUESTIONS & ACTIONS

Dig out the last binder, handout or booklet from any one of the last training sessions that you’ve been to. Flip through it and look at your notes. Can you find something that you meant to execute that you can put in motion right now?