Paul Evanson

I joined the training profession in 1968 at age 17 because, heck, I could make $10 an hour teaching private guitar lessons. For reference, my day job as a fry cook was paying me $1.25 per hour at the time. No brainer!

To my surprise I found out I even enjoyed teaching guitar. (At the time I didn’t know you could enjoy a job.) I’d teach a student a few new chords, a scale or new song and, low and behold, they usually came back the next week with that new skill under their belt. Cool!

A couple of years later I was faced with a choice. I could go to college or accept an all expenses paid trip to the tropical destination point of Viet Nam. I chose college. But what to study? I know, how about Education?!

After graduating with my B.A. in Education I asked the familiar question,”Now what do I do?” I know, how about teaching?! Bad idea. After 4 years of teaching while earning my M.A. in Education I’d had enough. I couldn’t see spending the next 30 years being part of a bureaucracy that drove for mediocrity while ignoring the unique needs of its customers. It took me awhile to find words for this experience. At the time I just thought,”This sucks.”

Surprisingly I landed a job as Vice President, Operations/Director of Training for a fast growth, multi-location resort company. From that time on, I have worked only with fast growth and/or multi-location businesses.

I am grateful to this day for the opportunities that followed. Westin Hotels and Starbucks Coffee gave me my 'launch'.

When Cinnabon needed a training delivery system that could be systematically delivered and measured my team at Cinnabon built that system.

After Cinnabon I built training delivery systems for (to name a few): Car Toys, Premera Blue Cross, GT Development, Follett Higher Education Group, Tommy Bahama And now, NewBarista

One thing I’ve learned in 35 years is that fast growth, multi-location businesses are a different breed of cat. From a training standpoint:

– Consistency is mission critical. Same knowledge, delivered in the same way + leadership/management systems=Consistency. Hence, training systems.
– Vision/Values. The training must be overtly tied to the vision/values(culture) of the company.
– Operations Focused. Results oriented.