!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> Streamline Training & Documentation: Why "Streamline"?

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Why "Streamline"?

Twenty-plus years ago, when I had to come up with a name for my newly established company, it didn't take long to settle on "Streamline."

In previous years, working for others, I had been exposed repeatedly to molasses-like processes for getting from Point A: We need some training to Point B: We've launched our training.

Going forward, I was determined to do what I could to encourage focusing time and energy on tasks and methods that had clear links to the quality of the training and documentation produced. I would resist productivity-killing bureaucratic processes.

I hasten to add that I almost always work in collaboration with others, so this was not a one-woman crusade. It was more a philosophy that I looked to share with like-minded people.

The ideal of streamlining also appealed to me as a guiding principle for what training should "look like" — tightly tied to specific agreed objectives and structured to allocate as much time as possible to practice. No tedious "learning contracts" and such, no hokey touches that leave participants wincing. Instead, steady attention to sound adult learning principles.



The final consideration in choosing the name "Streamline" was aesthetic. The clean and efficient lines of streamlined vehicles and, in fact, objects of every kind have always appealed to me.

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