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

All Managers Are Trainers

Above: Conducting in-house sales training with ClarkMorgan Corporate Training. Suzhou 2008.

In my last post I discussed the importance of implementing training from the top, to improve managerial behavior, and allowing the improvements to filter down from senior management to the middle management and beyond.

Before I continue my analysis of "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time." By David H. Maister, I’d like to expand upon my previous article. I’d like to extend the idea that a company should use managers to spread the word on best practice within the workplace by stating that ALL managers ARE trainers:

All Managers Are Trainers

If you manage other people within your organization, then you are a trainer. Whether you are an effective trainer or not is another question. Effective managers put people into a position to succeed and provide them with the skills and knowledge base to do so. Ineffective managers set people up for failure by failing to provide the necessary training, and then complain that they can’t find effective employees. The success or failure of any business depends on the skill, confidence, and motivation of the employees. However, the skill, confidence, and motivation of these same people depends on how well their manager trains them.

Improve consistency with trained employees

Even though tasks are completed using varying techniques from organization to organization, it is important that tasks are completed in a consistent manner in each individual company. Consistency improves labor efficiency and can improve company performance.

Consistent efficiency is achieved by establishing a standardized routine and then training should be used to ensure that all employees actually perform the routine in the same way every time. If a standardized routine and an effective training program are not in place, it is almost certain that working practices will vary from one person to the next. This variation means that with some employees, resources are being used less efficiently.

Training increases confidence

Employees need to clearly understand their work and how they can do a good job. Training is an effective tool for managers to orient new staff and to help current employees adopt new practices or technology. Training activities should always give trainees skills that they can use immediately within their job. Effective training will help workers to recognize when a job is completed to a high enough standard and make them feel confident in their ability to produce good results.

Training is an effective motivational tool

Managers need to make sure that they and their staff have the right attitude towards training. The right attitude can only exist in a company that believes improved performance benefits everyone, including the employees. An employee can then understand that training to enhance performance will ultimately benefit him or her personally. This creates an environment where employees will feel motivated to take advantage of opportunities to improve performance.

Managers should train their team to have a feeling of ownership in their work. The best way to do this is to ask employees to constantly look for ways to improve work processes. In-house training is critical to successfully incorporating new practices, but there is no way to determine if a new practice is working without unless the practice is consistently used. Managers need to help employees understand this concept.

Employees will then appreciate that training is not only as a means for improving skills, but also as a means for implementing the ideas and decisions that they helped to make.

So, there it is; my full argument as to the importance of implementing training from the top down. Please forgive my digression from my original topic for today, “Training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice.” I will cover this topic in my next article.

Until then, happy training!

Emma

If you would like to discuss anything within this article or previous posts, please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk or leave your comments for me here.

1: Changes At The Top

Above: Spark09 – Shanghai. An event hosted by thought leaders and attended by future thought leaders. Coming soon to Hong Kong and Beijing!

“True long-term changes in any organization need to begin with changes at the top - in managerial behavior.”

As I mentioned in my previous post, it is common for organizations to use their training budget as strategically as they would their coffee break budget.

The multinational company I spoke about previously, invested in inspirational speeches for the masses in the hope that theoretical training would be enough to change employee work habits, but as we all know, knowing is not the same as doing. They wasted their valuable training budget, at a time when waste is not an option, on ineffective methods and an untargeted audience.

So what audience should they have targeted?

I can give you three good reasons why, within any organization, long-term changes need to begin with changes at the top – in managerial behavior:

Firstly, training must always be linked to management behavior and organizational strategies, and who understands the strategies of an organization better than top management. When the management trainee can see how the improvements will benefit the whole organization, and the connection between the skills and the company’s goals, they are more focused on applying the newly learnt behaviors.

Secondly, managerial ideas tend to filter down from senior management. Training ideas developed at a lower level are less likely to be adopted by the senior management and will, in turn, become obsolete in a short period of time. However, if a results-oriented manager demands improvements from all staff, employees are far more likely to jump to attention.

Thirdly, changing workforce demographics and the war for talent mean that organizations are seriously suffering from a lack of talented middle management capable of becoming higher management. Companies must, therefore, build from within their ranks. It is an enormous challenge for HR to retain potential talent and maintain their leadership pipeline, but using strategically planned training as an incentive for talent to remain within the organization is mutually beneficial.

In addition, managers achieve a deeper level of skill development when they are expected to teach others and to know the ins and outs of their newly acquired work practices. When put on the spot to practice what they are now preaching, managers feel the need to rise to the challenge and develop their skills to the next level; therefore adding value to the initial training.

Finning Ltd., the world's largest Caterpillar dealer, has the right idea. Finning’s executives are not only first in line for service and quality training, but they are also the trainers delivering sessions to their employees. The perfect example of adding value to training and therefore maximizing training budget!

Okay, so, I gave you four good reasons instead of three, but you can’t go wrong with delivering more than your clients' expect. So, no complaining!

I’m sure you’ll agree with me that all four points are valid reasons to begin with changes at the top, and therefore focus your training budget at managerial behavior.

Tomorrow, I’ll cover point number two from "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time." By David H. Maister:

“Training is a waste of time and money if what is taught is never put into practice.”

Until then, thanks for reading,

Emma

Please contact me with any thoughts or questions on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk or leave your comments here. Thank you.

How to Ensure Training is Worthwhile

Above: Andy Clark, Co-founder of ClarkMorgan Corporate Training, conducting a highly interactive 'Train the Trainer' seminar in Shanghai earlier this year.

How to Ensure Training is Worthwhile...

I have been shocked and dismayed at one training trend I have noticed over the last six months, and I’d like to talk about this today and over the following few days; training for training's sake.

HR and Training Managers have, in general, been provided with a lower training budget over the last few months; you would therefore think that needs analysis and well-targeted training would be of utmost importance during these times. Efficiency and communications skills must be of a priority, as well as training and motivating those with leadership potential.

However, I have noticed a huge increase in completely untargeted training, of little immediate use, with no incentive for future improvement, and extremely ‘stand-alone’. I’ll give you an example:

I know of a corporate trainer who was recently employed by an extremely well-known multinational corporation. This company wanted training once a month for an unlimited number of staff and they didn’t want the employees to interact with the trainer in any way. They insisted that they needed the trainer to ‘lecture’ for two hours at a time about any relevant business topic, such as finance or sales. The lectures were, of course, used as a reason for employees to excuse themselves from normal work and produced no improvement in efficiency or effectiveness. No matter how many times the trainer tried to discover the real needs of the organization or find the underlying reason for the company needing training, the answer was always the same: You. Lecture. Two hours. No interaction!

T&D magazine published a fascinating article titled "Why (Most) Training Is Useless: Start Developing Skills; Stop WASTING Time." By David H. Maister. Although this is a rather negative title, I would like to add my own positive spin on this and write an article for each of his reasons why ‘most training is useless’, and tell you how to ‘make your training useful’… In fact, more than useful: highly productive and highly effective.

Tomorrow, I’ll begin with point number one: “True long-term changes in any organization need to begin with changes at the top - in managerial behavior.”

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 Changing Landscape of Corporate Training

In July 2008, Bersin & Associates published a Corporate Learning Factbook. The paper made some salient points about the changing landscape of corporate training. Key points included the following:

• Training budgets and staffing are continuing to grow, but at a slower rate.

• Per learner spending is essentially flat, primarily because organizations have more employees to train.

• Organizations are spending the largest percentage of their budgets on leadership development and management/supervisory training.

• Cutting-edge groups are utilizing new approaches to better address the learning needs of younger workers.

• Learning is being integrated with performance and competency management initiatives.

• Chief Learning Objectives are aligning closely with overall corporate strategy to increase effectiveness.

As 2008 progressed and we entered 2009, it became clear that these points were no longer relevant. Training budgets were frozen or reduced; many organizations had fewer employees to train; and the reduced training budget was being used to motivate the masses rather than develop potential leadership.

If you had asked me my thoughts on these key points at the beginning of this year, I would have pessimistically predicted that every point would be rendered obsolete by July 2009

However, as we approach the middle of 2009, I am energized by the need to alter my predictions. I now believe that by July, corporate training research will produce almost identical results to 2008. So, even though multinational companies and the training industry have not evolved to the extent hoped, there has been no devolution either; which cannot be considered disappointing in the current economic crisis.

This, in turn, proves that Corporate Training is a vital component to the development of any company wishing to develop its employees and expand its business.

Many thanks,

Emma

I'd like to know your predictions for the rest of 2009. Will your company increase corporate training levels by 2010? Do you believe the 2009 report will unveil identical finding to the 2008 factbook? Feel free to leave your comments here or email me at eharradine@hotmail.co.uk. Thanks.