BYOT: Bring Your Own ... Training (not Tequila) for a fresh approach to learning

Training has become cliché in the Microsoft Dynamics GP community. Partners say they provide training. Most of them do and it's generally pretty good. End users claim they were never trained because either their predecessor in the job was trained or training was so long ago that they can't remember and, by the way, the business has changed since training.  I'm not drowning in sympathy for either side. For partners, it's not hard or particularly exciting to deliver training from a book. For end users, you still own your career and the job that you do, whether your employer trains you or not.

Let's put all the blame behind us and figure out how to do training right.

There are big budget training opportunities like on-site training from partners or conferences like Convergence. These are great for implementations or new features post-upgrade, but it's easy to lose the pieces you don't use.

The opposite end of the spectrum is self-training via CustomerSource, books, or other resources. Self-paced training of this sort can also be a great option, but it requires a lot of discipline and the information they learn isn't being shared.

There is some middle ground. GPUG Academy offers hands on training from your desk with an online instructor. You get the benefits of a classroom and an instructor without having to leave your office.

However, I have a favorite method for ongoing training in companies. It's BYOT, Bring Your Own Training (Training...NOT...Tequila). The concept is a simple twist on the classic lunch and learn concept and it's easy to get started.

A coordinator picks a topic. The company provides a conference room and lunch. The best part is that there are so many ...