KATHMANDU: Today training has become an essential part of all organ-isations. However, there are mixed responses about training. Some say it is useful but very boring while others say it is entertaining but lacks an enduring effect. For a training to be complete, it needs to be useful, enjoyable and even move beyond.

So, “What makes a complete training programme?” To this, I would ask back: “What makes a complete person?” A person is not just the body or the mind but the combination of four elements — body, mind, heart and spirit.

In combination, an individual becomes even more than just the mix of the four components.

Similarly, training can be good when it develops one or more part of a person, but becomes great when it nourishes all four parts of a person and beyond. Then training turns out to be much more.

Now, let us see what development each part requires:

Body: When we say, “Training must be practical,” we mean we want some immediate applicable skills. Through training, we want to learn some new skills and way of action. Moreover, body is linked to the mind. If we sit in one place and try to learn skills in one day, the process becomes tedious, in turn it becomes difficult to learn anything at all. This is because when the body is passive, so is the brain. Active movement of body is prerequisite to an active mind. And this is the reason games, activities and physical exercises are introduced in trainings.

Mind: Mind is always engaged in thinking. But mostly our thinking is guided by certain patterns and structures. That is why we become stressed out. Training sparkles when crazy ideas and out-of-the-box thinking are generated, leading to creative thinking.

Heart: Heart of the matter is the matter of the heart. But in official setting, heart is most neglected. Organisations make the heart redundant while operating. But many problems that cannot be solved by thinking can be solved in no time by the heart. It is engagement of the heart that makes trainings beautiful and effective.

Spirit: We are ‘human beings’. But in modern society, we have become ‘human doings’. Being is our essence, the ‘life’ of our life. Without it, everything is nothing. That is why people feel lifeless, even when they have everything.

The usual approach of working in an organisation is problem solving. We have been so habitual to it that if there is no problem, we create one so that we can engage in solving it. It is as if we have no problem, we have no existence. When we work at being level, the difficult and seemingly unsolvable problems are unsolved, rather they are dissolved.

An ideal or highly effective training could be the one which addresses the needs of all four parts — the body, mind, heart and spirit. Again, a trainer of higher excellence does it not in separation, but in integration, just as all four parts are inseparably united in us. When parts and whole is captured in its completeness, the beyond emerges spontaneously.

(The author is a leadership trainer and consultant associated with ‘Kabule — The Wise

Leader’ and ‘Catalyst For Transformation’. He can be contacted through kabule@mos.com.np)