Archive for the ‘Learning and Performance Practitioners’ Category

T&PI’s Link to the Economic Crisis

Sunday, June 7th, 2009

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.

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WLP Professionals and Social Media?

Friday, March 13th, 2009

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?

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The Middle Ground of T& PI Theory and Practice

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

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

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Collaboration in the Workplace

Friday, December 12th, 2008

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.

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Lean Service and Performance Improvement

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

 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?

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