Finance is incredibly dull and boring!

Do you agree with this title? There is a good chance that a large proportion of you will agree with it. You are therefore, likely to start turning off now if we go into the nitty-gritty of finance, just like you do when faced with the monthly budget figures or having to go into the ghastly planning round. So we are not going to do that. Instead, we are just going to explore why you might feel like you do and put up a little bit of a defence for “Finance”.

Your response to the initial statement will be determined by a number of factors. Not everyone finds numbers stimulating. It may be that your logical mathematical intelligence is not the strongest and that you find figures harder, less exciting than those who are stronger in this intelligence. This is fine. No one has an equal strength or preference for each of the 7 intelligences (1).


Another reason for this perception could be that the way Finance has been traditionally taught does not lend itself to peoples preferred communication style. You know the scenario don’t you? An ex-Accountant stands up and talks at you about Accounts for a few hours. This may be very pleasing to the ear, but does little for those who have either a visual or kinaesthetic communication preference.

This style is even less pleasing for those with an activist learning style. In fact, it does not fit naturally very well with the other 3 learning styles either – reflector, theorist and pragmatist.

This all leads to the perception that Finance is dull, boring and hard. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that Finance has got such a terrible, and in our view, unjust reputation.

So why do we think it is unjust? Well, its simple. Believe it or not, there is a direct link between you and the finances of the organisation. Everyone, everywhere within your organisation is impacting the finances somewhere. Therefore, the more that you understand the basics then the better informed your day-to-day decisions are likely to be.

This provides the last point in understanding your perception of Finance, the one of “relevance”. Knowledge is one thing, communicating it is another, but understanding its relevance is another. We are going back to the traditional training syndrome here – good on knowledge, wavering a bit in terms of communicating it, absolutely no thought to relevance.

So what does this mean for you? Well, nothing mentioned above are insurmountable problems – all can be tackled so that you can become even more effective than you already are. Developing a thoughtfully put together programme will pay dividends both in terms of personal knowledge, changes in attitude and a tangible improvement in organisational profits.


If this is achieved then how could anyone say that finance is incredibly dull and boring?!!


Mike Newman
www.xlearning.co.uk
07899 728 628


(1) ‘Frames of Mind’ by Howard Gardner