There seems to be a built in resistance to looking at taking the variability out of training, learning or education because people are different and have different learning styles. Some people are looking a variability as a good or necessary thing. I think what people are confusing is the difference between variety and variability.
Here’s an example of the difference. Let’s go to Baskin Robbins and see the 31 flavors of ice cream. There’s something for everyone. That’s variety. However, if every time you order Chocolate it looks different and tastes different that’s variability which isn’t very desirable.
To accommodate different learning styles we can teach a sales process in different ways. However, we need to teach the same sales process. Variability often comes in when trainers decide to substitute content, processes or models with there own preferences. As a result, people are trained differently. This difference leads to work being done differently which makes it harder to manage and leads to more mistakes and lower performance. It also happens when trainers aren’t up-t0-date on what’s actually happening in the work place. It’s not uncommon for a process or procedure to change on the job but not in the training.
It also happens when people assigned to coach and mentor do things differently. They pass along these differences and one shift does things one way and another shift does them another. This means that best practices aren’t shared. So I’d say, variety…good, variability…bad.
So clear to understand