Training, seminars, workshops – what are the differences?

Trainings, seminars, workshops – a look at the academic definitions

Training, seminars, workshops. These terms are part of our daily professional life, because we live from them. However, it is interesting to see how our customers or interested parties use these terms. Sometimes there is a wild confusion of terms, which is not surprising if you take a look at the definitions that exist. Wikipedia, for example, lists the following:

The term “training” generally refers to all processes that bring about a change in development.
A seminar is a learning and teaching event that serves to interactively acquire or deepen knowledge in small groups. Seminars are conducted by a seminar leader or trainer.
A workshop is an event in which a small group works intensively on a topic for a limited period of time. It is characterized by a cooperative and moderated way of working towards a common goal.

On the “training ground”

So what is what? Everything seems to merge and flow together.
The term training suffers a little from its limitations. Unless you imagine highly paid legs being chased around the soccer pitch by an equally highly paid trainer, the term is often used in business for knowledge transfer events. You send your employees to a training session because you want them to learn new functions in the accounting software. You train them how to conduct a job interview. You train them how to use sales techniques. In short – it’s about a trainer teaching the attendees a new thing or improving an existing thing. So far, so good. Similarly, this term is also applied to the intercultural field. You train how to behave in China, you learn what not to do in Brazil. The catchphrase “do’s and don’ts” is a common one. This is based on the idea that not much can go wrong in China if you hold your chopsticks correctly and don’t make a fuss when the Chinese are slurping their soup. This is a relatively naive, but unfortunately widespread idea.

Strength lies in depth

In order to really get to grips with a new culture and a new situation, it is essential to consider other, deeper factors. The challenges here are as varied as the situations themselves. When we talk about business life, for example, we may be talking about negotiations, secondments or projects. People are always involved, first and foremost the parties themselves. And they do not act in a vacuum, but always within their business environment. The conclusion is that we are dealing with a threefold complexity, namely culture, personality and the business environment. So it becomes clear that this cannot be taken into account in a training course in which a trainer “stands in front of the class”. You learn English at school, some learn it more easily, others need a little more time. But then you have to use it on your own in a foreign environment, which may also be different. English people behave and speak differently to Americans.

A seminar or workshop is needed to successfully prepare for these challenges. To return to our definitions, the key terms here are “interactive” and “cooperative and moderated working method”. Only in this form of work can the systemic approach be implemented, which takes all three factors (personality, culture, company environment) adequately into account. The participants themselves are involved in the process and the work, because ultimately they are the experts for their company and themselves. The expert brings in the cultural part and knows how to establish the connection to the other two factors together with the participant or participants using suitable techniques. This approach then leads to a holistic solution in which not only facts are made known, but individual solutions are also developed.

Expertise makes the difference

There is no question that this requires a certain amount of experience and training. All too often, we have heard that a language teacher has been hired for little money to tell us what it’s like in the country in question. These people would have been better off inviting the participants to a good meal followed by a trip to the movies. The money would have been better spent that way instead of paying for the illusion that you now know your way around. Reading one of the many relevant guides could have done the same thing much more cheaply. Either way, the actual goal would not have been achieved, you would merely have increased your knowledge with facts that you don’t yet know how and to what extent they are relevant and what you should actually do with them in reality. At best, you remember them when you are confronted with cultural differences, but apart from trail-and-error or truisms that happen to fit, you don’t know how to really meet these challenges.

The bottom line is that training can be a first step. But if you really want to make a difference, you should attend a seminar or workshop. Of course, this also means that you have to spend more money. But you have the guarantee that it is a real investment and not just a cost.