I enjoyed reading the blog post. It triggered questions and tempted me to reflect on my own views.

“How do you train someone to become a great manager?”
– You don’t. There is no guaranteed course of training to make good managers. For decades, the management schools have argued that ‘managers are born, not made’. Can any amount of training guarantee a Sachin Tendulkar? No. The same goes for any other profession. A training program is concerned with basic aspects of concept and application. But that is not enough to make one good or great. It is the talent that creates the special acumen in most great professionals.
Just like theories, styles and methods in ID, a training program can teach you very basics. Case studies can tell s about certain strategies that were innovative – leading to success. But they never pose to be a set pattern.

The same goes for leadership skills. You can teach someone what leadership skill is all about. What qualities should be nurtured to foster leadership. But you cannot necessarily make him a great leader. Think of some of the great emperors who conquered vast territories of land down the history. How much of training did they get? In most cases leaders and managers are self motivated people who can identify their goals and objectives and achieve them through pragmatic planning, execution and coordination of their teams and other resources.

So far so good. I agree with you. The examples of persuasive actions can be seen differently. I would say it is the product or service that generates the interest of the user. technology is a tool that supports the product or service and compliments the product/service with its convenience. Just think of it. You need to stay in touch with your loved ones. In the last century, you would write a letter or send a telegram to communicate with them. Even a decade ago, you would make a telephone call to establish the communication link faster. These days you would use the mobile phone or the internet for an instant touch. The speed and quality of communication has improved with the advent of technology, but the basic need –need to contact and communicate remains the same. Technology only evolves around our needs, it does not necessarily create a need or persuades us to change our behaviour/attitude beyond the ease of its use.

Talking about simulative learning, we say that the best thing about them is that they are risk free learning. Agreed. But remember parenting is far greater than feeding, changing nappies and putting the babies off to sleep. It is all about feeling…knowing which cry is for hunger and which is for a colic pain. For the past 60 odd years Dr Benjamin Spock’s book: baby and child care’ is one of the biggest best sellers simply because it tells you how to handle your baby in every possible way. But neither the robotic simulation, nor Spock persuaded people to become parents. A mother knows how to look after her baby by instinct, even animals know that. As they say ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. The necessity is the persuasion itself. The book or the robotics are tools to accomplish them.

The urge to learn is the persuasion, e-learning is the tool.