PBT Methodology
Personal Business Trainer is all about targeted training for faster promotions. By providing effective learning opportunities and conditions, individuals that aspire to become recognized leaders in their organizations can obtain critical skills and experiences beyond what is afforded in day-to-day business environments.
Personal Business Trainer has three key pieces: EDUCATION, DIALOGUE, and APPLICATION. These three pieces are cycled through on a topical basis to provide learning that is simply more effective than pursuing any individual piece on its own. A PBT Peer Group starts a cycle by selecting a topic of interest, for example, reading a balance sheet or learning about project management. Graduate level “classroom” teaching is provided to instill or embellish the knowledge of each PBT Peer Group participant. This education is supported with confidential discussion on various aspects of the topic, including experiences that have occurred across the Peer Group. Finally, if mutually agreed upon by the PBT participant, Peer Group Leader, and Employer, an application project for that topic is defined and executed. This completes a robust — learning from books, learning from others, and learning by doing sequence that provides participants with more thorough learning than normally afforded in class room work. These learning sequences are serial in nature, yet multiple concurrent topics are engaged and pursued at the Peer Groups interest and rate of desired progress. A half dozen topics may be in play at any one time and when one topic has run its course, another is put in place to ensure the learning rate of participants is maximized.
Personal Business Trainer also has multiple tracks of engagement in the following ways. The primary track is the PBT Peer Group and participating in PBT Peer Group cycles is a key part of the PBT process. Additionally, one-to-one coaching with the PBT Leader is added to the Personal Business Trainer experience and this provides room for check-ins to keep the individual’s program on track, personal topic development around career interests and individual challenges, and providing motivation towards aspirational individual goals. A third dimension of PBT engagement is employer sponsored project work. Similar to learning by doing described above, sponsored project work is more intense, more intentional and more long term than follow-up on PBT Peer Group topic. Consider the difference between completing a homework assignment and an internship. Part of the challenge with achieving promotions or even simply gaining leadership assignments is attracting the attention of local management and this employer sponsored project work is a structured way to not only ensure that deep seated learning occurs, but also to help make sure that management knows that deep seated learning has occurred.
If you’d like to learn more about the topics of study included in the Personal Business Trainer approach, please review the PBT CURRICULUM.