Training & Performance Improvement

To be more accurate, capture training or performance improvement moments using song titles or tracks. Here are my examples:
Q - What a client that insists upon training that is not needed says afterwards?
A - “I can’t get no satisfaction.” Rolling Stones
Q – What to say to a client when you can see a performance problem that is preventing success?
A - “How can I ease the pain” Lisa Fisher
Q- What to say to a client who has an emergency situation?
A – “I’m already there.” Lonestar
Q – What to say to a client that wants you to engage in unethical behavior?
A – “I’m already gone” Kelly Clarkston
Q – What to say to a training participant who continues to be disruptive?
A – “Hit the road, Jack.” Ray Charles

What questions and answers can you add?

Stumble it!

You might wonder what training and performance has to do with the current economic crisis. While it is easy to point fingers and assign blame, and certainly there is enough to go around, being accountable for your actions, or lack thereof, requires courage. There are questions that workplace learning and performance (WLP) professionals must ask and answer concerning their human performance technology (HPT) and/or human resource development (HRD) practices. These questions are:

• Is root cause analysis a routine part of your HPT practice?
• Have you integrated lean service concepts into your HPT practice?
• Are you experimenting with new tools to support learning and performance improvement?
• What theory into practice action have you taken to enhance your professional development?

The auto companies may serve as a model for HPT/HRD practice. The auto companies continue to make improvements in their current practices with limited ventures into new categories (small, fuel-efficient vehicles). Processes were fixed and/or enhanced that should have been eliminated (root cause analysis). Only in crisis mode did the auto companies streamline operations (lean six sigma concepts). Training and performance improvement does not set strategy for organizations. However, T&PI should have some influence. What path are WLP professionals following?

Are we going the way of the auto companies or evolving? Your thoughts? Click on comments and share your views.

Stumble it!

My reading of blogs and lurking in social media sites reveals an absence of learning, training, and performance improvement professionals (WLPs) in using/pioneering social media in their organizations. Why is that? I have an inkling, an untested suspicion. WLP professionals use, push, and pioneer in their organizations the tools they are most comfortable in using. A professional association recently asked their members about using Twitter and Facebook. The response was overwhelmingly, no. I will not use it. It’s not professional. Who says so? The most telling statement, “. . . let the net generation find us.” 

At a time when organizations must leverage all resources to gain a temporary competitive edge (or survive), we need WLP professionals who will leverage informal learning, contribute to the organization’s success, and learn what Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have to offer before dismissing these utilities. Social media is not a passing fad. Social media is how we “do” on the job training whether our peers are standing next to us or a continent away. Social media and blogs allow experts to document what they know, allow those with problems to find those with answers, and allow equal access to informal learning. What do you think?

Stumble it!

In the practitioner literature for human resource and training professionals, you will find practical information that you can apply in your organization or practice. In the academic literature for human resource and training professionals, you will find the theories and theoretical frameworks that support the development of practical application. Is there a middle ground? Or, are the professions divided into distinct groups of thinkers and do-ers?

There is a reason for the great divide. The academic literature is not written in a style that encourages optional reading. The practice literature, while immediately applicable, does not require thinking. The human resources and learning professions cannot continue in this vein. Real performance improvement requires both theory and application. Practitioners are not only responsible for driving change, but also for understanding (and contributing to) the supporting theories. The absence of a marriage between theory and practice makes practitioners re-active rather than proactive. The absence of a marriage between theory and practice leaves academics voiceless and contributes to a dumb-ing down of the human resources and training practices. What are your thoughts?

Lorretta J

Stumble it!

I know this is a late post, but here it is. Should learning professionals blog? My answer is yes. I am exploring the involvement of WLP professionals in corporate blogs as my dissertation topic. Because blogging is a grass-roots type of practice, WLP professionals may not recognize the need to blog. However, the reasons I have found for blogging in my literature review are: 

•  To encourage and support collaboration in the workplace.
•  To encourage a practice that documents the knowledge that occurs in the white spaces of organizations (dare I say double-loop learning, too!)
•  To model how blogging should be done.
• To become an early adopter of the practice and technology.
•  To be able to participate in “best practices” conversations that are currently dominated by the communications and technology fields
•  To gain confidence in social media, which is how Gen- Net expects to be trained.
•  To be able to conduct performance analysis and evaluations using the same delivery channels as training.
•  To recognize the role of WLP professionals as supporters and enablers of collaboration
•  To be able to answer the call, when it comes, to evaluate whether social media works.

That’s just my two cents worth.  And yes, I l blog at ljdavis.biz/blog

Stumble it!

For a number of years, we were warned about a talent shortage that would occur as baby boomers left the workforce. The challenge for workplace learning professionals was how to keep knowledge in the organization. In our current economic climate, the crisis of keeping knowledge in the organization is here. The crisis is emerging because of massive job cuts. How is your organization responding? Too often organizations eliminate jobs from a financial aspect without considering in depth how the organization will fill the knowledge gaps. You can assume that knowledge remains in the organization, that someone else will pick up the slack, at you own peril.

Here is the dilemma and challenge for training professionals. How do you encourage collaboration? How do you get the remaining workers to play nice in the sandbox and share knowledge? Although it seems like a time when workers would pull together, typical compensation strategies tend to favor individual accomplishments. Think about it? Why should employees share their knowledge when “what they know” may be their only form of job security? Please share your thoughts.

Stumble it!

As a manager or leader in your organization, how many times have you held a staff meeting, issued a memo, or made a phone call only to have your “message” misunderstood? It happens. It happens often. The reason? Too many leaders and managers fail to understand their role in the communication process.

Just like every other critical function in your business, communication is a key business function that warrants evaluation and measurement metrics. When, as a leader, you need to get things done, it is your responsibility to follow up on your communication to ensure the message received matched your intentions as the sender. You need to follow up at the lowest level in your organization.

Let’s say you discussed information with a direct report on Monday and that information is suppose to trickle down. How much time out of your day will it take to call one, or even two, employees lower on the information chain to see how they interpreted the message - or if they even got it?

When things go wrong, poor communication is chief among the reasons given. As a leader, manager, or supervisor it is your responsibility to check on the effectiveness of your communication. It can make the difference between success and failure. Most important, treating your communication like a business process will increase your effectiveness as a leader. Who doesn’t want to do their best?

Lorrettajd

Stumble it!

 How does the field of performance improvement differ from lean service (sigma)?  I suspect if the question is posed to practitioners in each field, they would separate like oil and water (or Democrats and Republicans).  In fact, many of the same tools are in used in lean service and performance improvement practices.  Performance improvement professionals would like to believe that lean service is a re-packaging of continuous quality improvement.  However, there is an important difference between the two.  Performance improvement tends to be a reactive practice.  A problem emerges and performance improvement practitioners are asked to resolve the problem. Lean service, on the other hand, it a mindset and philosophy.  Lean service seeks to eliminate problems; it is a proactive, forward leaning approach to business.  Performance improvement is like remodeling a house and lean service is analogous to building a new house from the ground up.

Your thoughts?

Stumble it!

Workplace learning and performance (WLP) professionals understand that organizations are faced with ongoing change. Such organizations require a workforce that is engaged in continuous learning in order to remain competitive. Yet the saying, “Physician heal thyself” could apply to many WLP professionals. The “To-Learn” list for WLP professionals is broad and long. It expands beyond learning and business to technology and new models of business.

It is not enough to understand organizational development, organizational structure, and adult learning principles. WLP professionals must also add e-learning, social networking tools, and business fundamentals to their repertoire of tools and skills. The top item on my personal To-Learn list is lean service. In reading the tea leaves, WLP professionals must understand, and many potential employers/clients require certification, lean service. If you do not understand value added principles, how can the client/employer trust that you can add value for them? The second item on my To-Learn list is to expand my understanding of blogs and wikis and to leverage this understanding.

What is on your list?

Lorretta J. Davis, SPHR

Stumble it!

Practitioners in organizational development, organizational effectiveness, and other related consulting disciplines place great importance on organizational structure.  Organizational structure is often defined by management structure; hierarchical, flat, matrix, or some hybrid version.  Management structure influences the flow of information.  I am suggesting that neither information flow nor management structure define organizational structure.  What does?

In our global economy, knowledge is the new currency.  How knowledge is created and shared in organizations is what determines an organization’s structure.  Created and shared knowledge is what adds value to an organization, creates a competitive advantage, and shapes the organization.  Old organizational structures are being challenged by the need to transform information into created and shared knowledge.  That is not a top-down structure or a lateral structure.  It occurs in the white space of organizations.  It results from relationships vetted by common goals and interests.  It invites organizations to use and leverage social networking tools.  It requires managers and leaders who engage in transparency and a willingness to lead by sharing.

Your thoughts?

Stumble it!