Organisational Learning

In my last post, I introduced the idea of Systems Thinking to argue David H. Maister’s belief that “Training should not be used as a first (or stand-alone) step to long-term change, but as part of a process toward organisational change.”

In this article, I’d like to continue and build upon this argument to help you understand why stand-alone training is not enough to encourage the evolution of your organisation.

Complex Issues

As Training Managers and Corporate Trainers we fully understand that the business world is developing quickly (from corporate practices to new technologies) and that organisational problems are becoming ever more serious and complex to address.

The only way to solve these problems is through organisational learning to ensure that all systems and subsystems are able to fulfill their functions effectively and are encouraged to reach their full potential.

Peter Senge wrote in his influential book ‘The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization’:

“An organization is learning when it can bring about the future it most desires. In the business community, learning is much more than just a way to create the future you want; in today's fast-paced, highly competitive work world, it may actually give your organization the edge it needs to survive—and thereby keep fulfilling its purpose.”

Organisational learning focused originally on the practice of five core disciplines:

Systems thinking is the art of seeing the world in terms of wholes, and the practice of focusing on the relationships among the parts of a system, which is the subject I discussed in my last article.

Team learning is what happens when a group of people working on something together experiences the feeling of synergy and productiveness. When a team is learning to its full capacity, the group as a whole becomes much more than just the sum of its parts.

Shared vision is possible when everyone in an organisation understands what the organisation is trying to achieve, is truly committed to achieving that vision, and clearly understands how his or her role in the organisation contributes to making the vision real.

Mental models are the deep rooted beliefs and assumptions we hold about how the world works. These models shape the decisions we make in life, the actions we take in response to events, and the ways in which we interpret others' behaviour.

Personal mastery is the identification of what mark you want to leave on the world during your life. Meaning, what's your unique purpose in life, and how do you want to go about fulfilling that purpose?

Support & Expand

These five disciplines should be core to organisational learning efforts. However, many working within Systems Thinking also believe there are other disciplines that support and expand on the above five, including:

Corporate culture is that intangible "something" that influences the environments in which we work every day. Corporate culture includes: policies, beliefs, activities, and rituals that determine an organization's "personality." A company's culture can support or hinder learning, encourage or stifle creativity, and so on.

Corporate social responsibility addresses the question of how the business community fits into the larger social picture. Specifically, what responsibility do organizations have beyond just their own industries and arenas of competition?

Dialogue concentrates on new communication forms that strengthen a group's combined intelligence. This discipline offers several fascinating tools and techniques that may seem unusual at first but will transform the way you talk with others, stimulating questions and insights that we often miss through traditional forms of conversation.

Leadership in the field of organisational learning takes on a particular focus. Specifically, how managers and leaders can unleash the full potential of each and every employee in the organization. This discipline is redefining the role of management within the corporate world.

Sustainability, as a discipline, entails being thoughtful stewards of the natural resources on which our organizations depend. After all, if we use those resources without regard to their limits, we may deplete them permanently—and our organizations can't survive that. Would you spend that money or use that much of it was yours, not your organisations?

Work/life balance is an interesting topic since the boundaries between work and home life have blurred in recent decades. The discipline of work/life balance seeks to explore the ramifications of these changes and address the question of how to set priorities and find meaning in both our work and non-work lives.

Structural Connections

As discussed in my previous post, everything really is structurally connected. An organisation committed to learning must practice all of the above disciplines in some form, rather than tackling them in isolation. Each discipline reinforces the others, and when they come into alignment, the organisation becomes more effective and productive.

Return on Investment

Business English may achieve a 1% increase in employees’ TOEIC scores but you need to question how this is going to affect your organisation in the long run. Is a 1% improvement a good return on investment? Surely, a Communications Skills team learning course which incorporates leadership and focuses on your corporate culture and a shared vision is going to produce a much higher return on investment over time.

I’ll say it again, everything within your organisation is structurally connected and therefore, “training should not be used as a first (or stand-alone) step to long-term change, but as part of a process toward organisational change.”


Many thanks for reading,

Emma

For more information on corporate training and seminars, or to provide feedback, please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

The Process of Organisational Change - Systems Thinking

“Training should not be used as a first (or stand-alone) step to long-term change, but as part of a process toward organisational change.”

My first supporting argument for the statement above (from David H. Maister’s report, “Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time") is based upon Systems Thinking.

One of the greatest advancements in how we understand and direct change in organisations is systems theory and systems thinking. To understand how they are used in organisations, we first must understand a system.

Sytems

Quite simply, a system is an organised collection of parts, also known as subsystems, which are integrated to achieve an overall goal. The system has various inputs, which go through certain processes to produce certain outputs, which together, accomplish the overall goal for the system.

Systems are usually made up of many smaller systems, or subsystems

For example, an organization is made up of many executive, administrative and management functions, groups, individuals, products, and services. If one part of the system is altered, the entire nature of the overall system is often changed, as well. The system is therefore, systemic; it relates to, and/or affects, the entire system.

As we know, systems range from simple to complex

Each subsystem has its own limitations, and includes numerous inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes geared to achieve an overall goal for the subsystem.

A high-functioning system continually exchanges feedback among its various parts to ensure that they remain closely aligned and focused on achieving the goal of the system. If any of the parts or activities in the system seems weakened or misaligned, the system makes necessary adjustments to more effectively achieve its goals.

A pile of sand is not a system

If you remove a sand particle, you have still got a pile of sand. However, a functioning car is a system. Remove the carburetor and you no longer have a working car.

And your organisation is not a pile of sand; it’s a functioning car.

Your organisation includes numerous inputs, processes, and outputs; due to its complex nature it involves continual feedback exchanges; and making a change to one input without the necessary changes to supporting and supported subsystems, will create misalignments and a need for major, labour intensive, adjustments to these subsystems.

In the next article I will apply Systems Thinking to your organization and advise you on how you can use this methodology to improve your training strategy.

More information on Systems Thinking can be found at www.managementhelp.org

Thanks for reading,

Emma

For more information on corporate training and seminars, or to provide feedback, please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

Putting Training into Practice

Above: An enthralled crowd at Spark09's Shanghai event earlier this year. This exciting event was presented by thought leaders and covered the topics: Humanity, Environment, Science, and Business. Spark09 will be in Beijing and Hong Kong soon!

Putting Training into Practice

Point number two from "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time" By David H. Maister is that training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice.

Maister’s viewpoint is one which I strongly agree with and have, unfortunately, experienced many bad examples of. One experience was within an American multinational company:

The company’s training budget for the last quarter of 2008 was untouched by the economy but the Training Department was, understandably, under pressure to use the budget to full effect. The Training Manager was adamant that the staff required on going Business English in order to improve their communication skills despite the already high level of English within the organization. The problem was clearly the way in which employees communicated, not their level of English, but there was no convincing the Training Manager that a Communication Skills seminar followed by ongoing Core Communications training would be more successful. After Business English had been taken in to account; however, this left unused budget that could be used on soft skill training.

Long discussions and well-funnelled questioning made it clear that both Communication Skills and Time Management seminars would be highly advantageous to all concerned. These are extremely useable skills that can be put into practice instantaneously by trainees to immediately improve workplace efficiency. What more could a company want from their corporate training.

However, the Training Manager decided upon a Powerful Presentations seminar. A great choice of seminar that is not only highly interactive and skill oriented but also a great confidence and motivation builder for employees. It’s a topic I love to deliver and that trainees always enjoy and learn from.

However, during the routine telephone interviews used to customize the training to employees’ needs, it became apparent that not one of the trainees needed Presentation Skills training at this early stage of their career. They were all fresh graduates, very few attended meetings at all, and it was going to be at least a year or so before any of them would actually deliver a presentation to their boss, let alone a larger audience.

I discussed this with the Training Manager who fortunately saw the light when I argued that “Training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice” and subsequently booked both of the aforementioned skills seminars instead.

Skills into Practice

Formal training MUST be reinforced through the individual’s application of new skills on-the-job. The trainee must be able to walk away from the training with a clear idea of how they are going to put their new skills into practice. Then the learning process should be enhanced by the support and coaching of performance managers and colleagues. Individuals need to seek out learning opportunities and request feedback as they perform new tasks and projects using their newly acquired skills.

Use It or Lose It

You must remember that if employees take part in a concentrated amount of training and cannot follow up with the ability to apply what they have learned, the skills will be forgotten in a matter of days or weeks. Trainees retain only what they can apply and continue to use.

I’ve often heard of companies that were originally going to spend two weeks and teach employees “everything” but found that they only retained what they put to use within the weeks after training. Instead they have decided to break the training into more manageable segments for a better retention rate and therefore greater ROI.
Companies wanting to gain the greatest ROI from their corporate training strategy need to recognize that a training program is not close-ended, it is something that should continue and be part of the culture.

In my next article I will discuss Maister’s third point: “Training should not be used as a first (or stand-alone) step to long-term change, but as part of a process toward organizational change.”

Many thanks for reading,

Emma

For more information on corporate training and seminars, or to provide feedback, please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk