PLUTON LIMITED: Industrial relations in action

When the waves are washing about your ears, knowing about the sea and sailing is less important than the ability to swim. When you are in the soup, you care little about the recipe—the problem is to get out. Knowledge about industrial relations is all very well, but at work it is what you do that matters. Industrial relations training demands more than the offering of knowledge through chalk and talk. Understanding and techniques need practical application, skills are about behaviour, not intellect. Attitudes are best challenged by events. Learning, and the integration of learning, is best when it can involve the whole person—beliefs, thoughts and feelings all brought into action.