Build Your Business Expertise And Reputation To World-class Levels Right Where You Are

In my work as a researcher, an author, and a management consultant, I often notice business people hurting their careers by acting on mistaken beliefs about how and where to learn world-class skills and to develop new knowledge. Most people persist in seeing the world as it was in the early 19th century when advanced skills and technology were highly concentrated in just a few manufacturing industries within just two or three countries. Acting on such incorrect beliefs, some business people make repeated learning pilgrimages to the headquarters of certain companies where they expect to find all the best practices. Finding that many others are also visiting makes the business people feel as if they are on the right path. The visitors return to their offices fully committed to following the "new" practices.In reality, such high-profile headquarter visits often reveal only practices that are below average for a given industry. Why? Best practices are more often located in smaller, newer organizations that are relatively unknown than in larger, older ones that are well known. In addition, what a company takes pride in having accomplished doesn't necessarily equate to describing its current effectiveness.Here's an example. Winners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the United States receive quite a lot of publicity, and many organizations become aware of them. As winners, award holders are required to host visitors who want to learn about their practices. Their conferences attract lots of visitors from around the world.My visits to the award winners have been more like history lessons than practical learning opportunities. Table 7 represents a year-round trimester program and Table 8 illustrates a semester program. Both programs are representative of other colleges in terms of total numbers of hours of clinical and basic sciences. The program from Table 7 is spread over 4 years with 10 trimesters. The first 2 years of the program are heavily focused on the basic and clinical sciences. In year 1 (three trimesters of 15 weeks each) there are a total of 1,515 contact hours (960 hours in basic sciences and 555 in clinical education), of which 585 are spent in lectures and 930 in the laboratory. This represents an average of 34 contact hours per week for the students.In year 2, the focus is again on basic sciences (375 hours) and clinical sciences (1,110 hours). There are a total of 1,485 contact hours in year 2 (795 in lectures, 690 in laboratory), and there are an average of 33 contact hours per week. In year 3, all of the contact hours are spent on clinical education (which includes clinical sciences and clinical clerkships). Year 3 has a total of 1,410 contact hours (330 in lectures, 300 in laboratory, 780 in clinic), an average of 31 contact hours per week. Year 4 is given over to a clinical internship for 15 weeks (one trimester) for a total of 450 hours or 30 hours per week. Table 6. Average Total Contact Hours in Specific Clinical Subjects Taught in 16 Chiropractic Colleges (Includes lectures and laboratories).Clinical subjectHours % of Total Adjustive technique/spinal analysis555 22% Physical/clinical/laboratory diagnosis410 17% Diagnostic imaging, radiology305 12% Principles of chiropractic245 10% Orthopedics135 6% Physiologic therapeutics120 5% Nutrition/dietetics90 4% Professional practice & ethics65 3% Biomechanics65 3% Gynecology/obstetrics55 2% Psychology55 2% Research methods50 2% Clinical pediatrics & geriatrics50 2% First aid & emergency45 2% Dermatology30 1% Otolaryngology25 1% Other160 7% Total hours of clinical training2460 100% Source: Center for Studies in Health Policy, Inc.