The Learning Blog

Performance Management

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 05:43:00 +0000

Performance Management and L&D are inextricably linked, the more in depth the complimentary relationship the quicker the real results are realised.

The role of this inter-relationship is that of improving performance by developing individual and team capability and capacity to work effectively.

Of course, PM is about much more than this, from bridging that gap that usually exists between the organisation’s mission and employee actions, to balancing those competing priorities of service levels, process efficiencies and budget constraints.

Of central importance though is the realisation that performance is not controlled by the executive team, it is in the direct control of staff. L&D can obviously play a huge role in influencing, developing and on-boarding these staff to the PM strategy and operational impacts.

Personal Development Planning (PDP) is a perfect tool to use to assist in actioning a PM strategy as PDPs are related to the work at hand and the capacity the individual has to carry it out. This is where the third circle of the Venn Diagram comes into play, Succession Planning, or as I see it, Talent Management.

If staff are focussed on their personal, professional and career development within the PM framework they are much more likely to be contributors to the PM strategy success. These will be the employees that view performance review meetings as learning experiences and change as an opportunity to adapt and grow.

The Coach

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 02:09:00 +0000

Coaching is what happens when a coach (or manager) assists a person to enable their talents to emerge and creates an environment where these talents can develop.

Unfortunately I have seen and heard of far too many internal coaching programs that are about “coaching” participants towards a defined goal of the business. Or more specifically, it seems that the coaching program offers a defined set of possible outcomes.

These programs meet with mixed success due to the fact that not every participant has the exact same goals that may have been identified by the business through a TNA, succession planning, or a desperate retention strategy.

Coaching takes the “learner-centric” model to the extreme, it is all about the participant. The only pre-existing structure to great coaching programs should be regular meeting times and a broad “behavioural” framework within which the coaching will operate. We must still keep in mind that this coaching is within a business context and although it may deal with some personal issues in a broad sense it must not cross the line into life coaching.

I believe that giving staff, particularly Gen X and Y, access to coaching programs where they feel valued and supported can be a key performance and retention tool. Staff like to see that their personal development is valued by the business and that developmental efforts are not just about job-specific skills or compliance.

Good coaching will attempt to move people from a rigid mindset that sees limited opportunities or possibilities in situations or the current environment to one of open-minded optimism. People are enormously empowered when they are able to see that nothing is impossible and the power to enable change is in their hands.

Nothing is more powerful than a group of “possibility thinkers” within a business for realising the full potential for creativity, innovation and breakthrough achievement.

Baby Boomer's Knowledge

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:13:00 +0000

How do we tap the knowledge of the most experienced and generally quite senior members of the organisation?

It has been shown that despite the best efforts of organisations to capture key knowledge, on average only about 20% is accounted for in structured or unstructured data. The other 80% resides in the heads of the Baby Boomers….who are in the exit lounge.

It is not just about transferring this knowledge to the next in line through clever succession planning, given the average tenure now-a-days this is only a temporary measure. The drive must be to capture this departing knowledge for broad consumption no matter how many times the seats are vacated and re-occupied.

So how do we capture that information before it exits the organisation without the use of a Matrix type spike that is inserted into the base of the skull? Much of it has to do with engaging these staff in some of the traditional roles of L&D, here are just some ideas:

Knowledge Transfer:

Engage these staff in the creation of learning objects (formal training material, PowerPoint presentations or short e-learning objects)
Engage these staff in producing documented information that supports existing procedures or policies (the thinking behind quality documentation is often more important than the documents themselves)
Ask these staff to spend as much time recording details about required contact businesses, departments or individuals that are used to “do the business” as they would for a client record. This is quite often an overlooked area: the who and the how as opposed to just the what and the where.

Knowledge Sharing:

Engage these staff in key roles in communities of practice or action learning groups
Nominating these staff as the “ask the expert” for key operational topics
Use these staff for group coaching (as well as individual coaching or mentoring)

L&D Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:29:00 +0000

When I first heard it, marketing seemed like a strange term to use for communication about training activities within an organisation. Now I see that it has much more in common with commercial marketing than I first thought.

Marketing has been defined as: the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service (Wordnet)

In L&D I think this is exactly what we are doing, the slight difference is that we need to be promoting to multiple levels of the organisation and generally we need to convince not only the consumer but also their manager and the whole of the business of the quality of the service.

We also have to also keep the three P’s of commercial marketing in mind. Product, Place, Price and Promotion.

Product: What do we have to “sell” and how desirable is it to the “market”, do we need to update it to keep it relevant?

Place: Are we offering the service in the right areas of the business in the right formats or delivery methods? (Face-to-face, on the job, e-learning…)

Price: Not only in terms of dollars, but cost to the business and the individual in terms of time and effort invested and return on this investment.

Promotion: How are we targeting the message to ensure we are appealing to the real needs of the business and individual?

In the same way that organisations will expect their marketing department to develop and deliver on a long term marketing plan I believe L&D should be doing something similar. Themed campaigns are particularly effective, to create a branded message around L&D activities can be very powerful.

I don’t think the production of a training calendar is sufficient, the message needs to be regular, relevant, and read by many (my three R’s). There are so many options available now to get the messages out there, with Intranets, Email, Team Meetings, Staff Notice Boards, Staff Fridges, Newsletters, the message needs to appear in as many different media as possible.

Of course, any promotion is also helped by celebrity endorsement, the business’s celebrity may be the CEO, GM, or an identified talent within the organisation. Use them! It won’t cost you a thing, and you probably don’t have to photograph them scantily clad to attract attention to your program.

The "Gen Y-ification" of Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 03:32:00 +0000

As we are all required to be working in more complex environments where the amount of knowledge required to do the job is ever increasing, it is important to prioritise what needs to be known now, and what is irrelevant until it is needed.

Generational theorists will tell us that Generation Y only want broad knowledge and are then happy to get the finer detail “just in time”, when they need it. I believe as the amount and complexity of information grows and consistently changes it is not just Generation Y that need to take this approach.

As Albert Einstein once said (allegedly) “I don't have to know everything; I just need to know where to find it when I need it”

There is a certain wisdom in not trying to cram too much knowledge into people’s heads too far from the point where they will actually apply it. Staff are now holding a smaller percentage of the knowledge they need to do a job in their heads and are sourcing it closer to the time they need to apply it.

This then raises the all important question of “how easy is it for staff to access the right information at the right time?”

We talk about the Googlization of learning with the predominance of SEARCH as the preferred method of seeking information. Well, you will be pleased to know that corporations can now Googlize their entire network. The Google Search Appliance (GSA) and the associated products allow users to search corporate websites, intranets or networks for information in the same way that they would the www.

Of course one thing you would want to be sure of was that your quality system was such that there was no redundant information within the network or hidden on the intranet!!

These moves will directly impact not only the way in which we deliver training, but what content we include in the training. It will also highlight the need to have a strong partnership with the IT Department as the security versus freedom of information conversation is thrashed about.

Mmmmm... Mobile Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:55:00 +0000

I’ve just come back from a flying visit to New Zealand where I talked to over 100 people in about 26 hours about e-learning.

In one of the sessions at least half of the audience were 30 or under. Of this group half probably had their own MySpace page and a few even had their own avatars on Second Life. It was interesting to chat with people about how they are using or planning to use new technologies to deliver a blended approach to learning: we hear a lot in the press about Web 2.0 and how emerging technologies labeled as such will influence e-learning. But when I asked what impact the most ubiquitous under-30 device of them all – the mobile phone – has had on learning and development, the answer was none. That’s not incredibly surprising but I wonder why this is, and whether this will change in the next few years.

Two of the key issues I’ve seen in all the years I’ve been involved in this industry have been around deployment and tracking: how do you get the content out to the audience and how do you measure usage and pass/fail rates. Well if everyone has a mobile phone, surely the first issue of deployment is surmountable. OK, many mobile phones are personal and not work-related, not every organization has access to their employees’ phone numbers and not everyone has the same spec phone. But the pace of development of applications for the mobile phone is increasing exponentially (m-payment; m-gaming; m-marketing and so on) – is there a possibility of someone coming up with a killer app for m-learning ? One company to look out for in this regard is Chalk Software who seem to have a great mobile content deployment solution, with e-learning specifically in mind.

The second issue is tracking – how would you be able to transmit AICC or SCORM progress back to an LMS from an m-learning application? I haven’t seen a solution for that one yet, but maybe there is one out there already. But does it always matter? Sometimes I wonder if we place too much emphasis on tracking the actual piece of content we deployed. If we can solve the deployment issue, we can always solve the assessment issue via another avenue: perhaps a stand-alone test application linked back to an LMS. Not pretty but….maybe the answer is using m-learning to supplement other methods such as e-learning or classroom training: I read recently that in Africa SMS-based quizzes are included as part of teacher training.

Who knows? Maybe Apple’s launch of the iPhone will introduce a new wave of thinking around m-learning and how it can fit into a blended learning strategy.

Many thanks to Barry Murphy for this post!!

Starting to Blend.

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 03:09:00 +0000

Place all ingredients into jug, ensure lid is tightly fastened, select desired blend, ranging from irrelevant to optimal, by pushing the assigned button.

Seriously though… The first steps into a blended learning approach can be uncomfortable for facilitator and learner alike if it is not implemented with caution.

Generally speaking, if the blend is relevant to the audience, the content and the environment then it shouldn’t have to be forced.

The last thing any audience wants is to be forced into something that they don’t recognise value in.

My ACE considerations for the first steps:

Audience: What generation are they? What is their existing level of knowledge? What is their level of motivation? What is their existing comfort with non-classroom learning?

Content: Does the content lend itself to alternate delivery methods? Does it require further support beyond the initial learning event? Is there supportive content or resources that can be available through a blended approach that will enhance the learning?

Environment: Does the workplace culture recognise and support learning outside of the classroom? Is there an existing coaching model in the business? Can learners easily access online resources? Are there other networks (social and structural) in the work environment that can be leveraged?

Perhaps one particular program will be enhanced with the addition of some dedicated coaching time over the following two months. Maybe another would benefit from some online course pre-work to ensure a common level of key concept knowledge before the classroom delivery.

Yet another long-term developmental program could be enhanced by:

the formation of a community of practice
the group contributing to continuous improvement by sharing and collaborating on specific knowledge through a targeted Blog
forming a mentoring network consisting of experienced knowledge workers
having the group actively participating in the updating and enhancement of course materials delivered both online and in the classroom
conducting a coach-run induction program for all new entrants into the program

The complexity of the blend will depend on the complexity of the need. Golden Rule: “Don’t add complexity where it doesn’t already exist”, I tell this to my wife regularly.

Experiential Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:05:00 +0000

“I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand.” Confucius

Obviously, Confucius was talking about contemporary L&D practices when he spoke these words ;-) Not a truer word was spoken though.

Adult learning principles support this notion but Experiential Learning (ExL) bridges the gap from practical activities in the classroom to real-life planning, decision-making and application.

There are many learning interactions that support ExL, some that support direct participation in real world issues include problem-based learning, action learning, individual and team projects.

An emerging option for ExL is interactive “gaming” simulations where the learner is placed in a realistic, work-relevant scenario and is called upon to make decisions based on a range of complex stimuli. In this virtual world the learner can interact with other virtual people within the virtual office to discover solutions to issues or procedures for tasks presented to them through each scenario.

Whatever your opinion on the virtual approach, the importance to me is the central focus of placing the learner in a “real-life” situation to discover and apply their learning.

With the assistance of ExL approaches learning can become a collaboratively built bridge, not an isolated hurdle for each learner.

Blending Learning to the Environment!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 31 May 2007 00:04:00 +0000

Reducing our carbon footprint is something we can all do - both in the office and at home.

In the office, the best place to start is to convince your organisation's senior management of the importance of reducing carbon. With their commitment and backing, more is likely to get done and the impact will be felt across the organisation. With their involvement, all areas where improvements could be made can be considered, such as the use and type of office supplies

As we look at how we are making information available to staff we should be keeping in mind environmental concerns. Making training and information available electronically can have a significant effect on your organisations carbon footprint by:

reducing travel
reducing the need for accommodation
reduced amount of facilities to hire or run
limited or no use of paper

With things such as Intranets, Content Management Systems, Learning Management Systems, e-learning, Virtual Classrooms and other collaborative “e-tools” your organisation can make a difference. No need to sign any treaty, just look at ways that your practices impact the environment.

Thanks to Kath Greenhough for this post.

Management Development!!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Tue, 29 May 2007 03:35:00 +0000

I believe that Leadership and Management Development can be the most important programs that you can invest time and energy into.

These programs help support continuous improvement efforts, succession planning, talent management, employee engagement and retention (of both those in the programs and those around them through cultural change). As a direct result this can increase the organisation's competitive advantage.

You would have all heard that horrible research finding: “the major reason that staff leave is because of bad managers”. This statement grates for me as it seems to be pointing the finger at the managers themselves….are they ‘bad’ managers or under-developed managers?

I will be the first to admit that sometimes there will be individuals in management positions that simply shouldn’t have ever been promoted to their level of incompetence, but there will always be a broad array of “differently abled” individuals to work with in any program. This just highlights the need for the individualisation of the learning experience and the offering.

Some individuals will be capable of engaging in self directed pathways whilst others (the unconsciously incompetent few) will need direction, guidance, monitoring, feedback and coaching.

Effective programs must then cater for this broad array of individuals and learning engagement preferences or needs.

A complex task, but a very worth-while one when developed with the business and deployed in an integrated fashion through the business.

Where is Management and Leadership Development on your priority list?

L&D, don't go it alone!

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:37:00 +0000

As L&D focuses more on how staff access organisational information and broader knowledge through formal and informal means it is apparent that we need strong partnerships within the business.

L&D need to have an understanding and an input into how the business manages informational change and communicates knowledge, from policies and announcements to perishable, time-critical information.

To understand this and to have a real supporting role in the processes implemented there needs to be L&D involvement from the early stages.

These partnerships may extend beyond the traditional ones of the Leadership and Management teams to being involved with the knowledge workers directly within various departments. From my experience the stronger strategic and operational relationships L&D has with IT and Finance the better!

In the same way that a small change to a policy may have flow on effects within the quality system, so too can it have an impact on various L&D activities within the business. Strong partnerships ensure that information is shared and the L&D offerings remain current

Increasingly, in today’s L&D space it is about providing broad ranging timely information, and unless the right information is at hand it can affect performance.

How strong are your partnerships?

Where is the relevance?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 03 May 2007 04:19:00 +0000

This is the question we have to continually ask ourselves.

Is the training relevant to the business?
Is it relevant to the immediate need?
Is it relevant to the learner?
Is it relevant to the method of delivery?

Usually we can tick off the first question first. Particularly as L&D more closely aligns itself with the business strategically we are seeing more emphasis on targeted programs, customised materials and this is being measured by business impact more than “happy sheets”. The more dynamic these programs can be in regards to the ability to customise, the more relevant they will tend to be for particular needs or for particular audiences at particular times.

What is increasingly important is how relevant is the activity or method of delivery to the learner. Different generations will prefer different ways of accessing information. We are seeing 70% of workplace learning occurring in the informal space which is being driven by Generation X and Y.

As these generations start to make up a greater proportion of the workforce we need to continually revise the relevance of existing programs to this audience.

The pull from these generations is for much broader information available through the most efficient means. Increasingly, they are wanting to control the information, but the benefit of this is that they tend to be quite willing to contribute to it as well.

It is really Planning Training 101: Identify your audience and plan the best way to deliver and assess. It is just that today we have so many more ways in which to do this.

Controlling learning

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 06:52:00 +0000

As the conversation flows from classroom based learning, to e-learning, to informal learning, to Blended Learning we are really talking about a significant shift in the control of the learning.

Effective contemporary L&D strategies must account for this shift.

Many of you will be familiar with this vicious circle: we know the training we should be doing but we are too busy to release staff to do it. What is really being said here is: we have insufficient effective and efficient learning options available to us.

As L&D strategically aligns itself with the organisation, the business drivers will dictate (and start to exercise control over) the types of learning engagement options necessary. The business need will also dictate the speed at which the learning must be available. It is then L&D’s job to ensure that these BL options are relevant to the audience and to some extent allow the learner to control their engagement with the learning.

This is a significant shift for many and is a transition that is necessary in today’s marketplace. Organisations cannot afford to fall behind as the learning landscape changes.

@ the speed of learning

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Learning is the acquisition and development of memories and behaviors, including skills, knowledge, understanding, values, and wisdom. It is the goal of education, and the product of experience.
Wikipedia

So, if learning is this, which I think it is, then the time between the “education” (training or information transfer) and the “experience” (application and reflection) is a significant factor in the speed of learning. This is one of the best arguments for e-learning resources, immediate application with just-in-time learning.

Organisations are demanding business impact from learning activities as the line between training and performance gets further blurred. The important question to ask an organisation is moving away from, “what training do you provide for your employees?” to “how does your organisation manage knowledge?”.

The knowledge we are talking about is not just the key organisational information, policies and procedures but the intrinsic knowledge collectively held by the workers. Studies have indicated that up to 80% of an organisations’ knowledge base actually resides inside people’s heads.

So, to increase the speed of learning (with 80% of the knowledge), it is obvious that organisations need to look specifically at how they are connecting people within business relevant contexts to share the right knowledge at the right time.

How are subject matter experts capturing and sharing their information?

How are workers connecting to and accessing this information?

Informal Learning - No Jacket Required

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 02:30:00 +0000

As you would all probably know, it has been shown that 70% of workplace learning is gained through informal means, with the remaining 30% gained from established formal avenues. In many organisations most learning resources are dedicated to the formal programs.

The focus is shifting though, with more informal learning approaches being discussed and considered for L&D and Knowledge Management. And the good news…..informal learning can deliver fantastic results for very little cost.

Informal learning disseminates knowledge through an organisation much quicker than formal means. Informal learning is very learner-centric as individuals can choose their own way to transform a moment in the workday into a learning experience by searching for and discovering the right information in the right format at the right time for them.

I have spoken in the past about the need for the responsibility for learning to be shared throughout the organisation and not be left squarely in the lap of L&D. To implement meaningful informal learning avenues this shared responsibility is essential. There needs to be a decentralised capability to create and share knowledge so that the flows of information and knowledge are not only top-down but horizontally and bottom-up.

By now we are all aware of many informal learning methods (if you need a refresher look at my last post on The New Blended Learning) the art is choosing which ones are appropriate to your environment. As with any L&D efforts the methods have to be relevant, accessible, efficient and effective to be accepted and deliver a real business impact.

It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again, effective L&D and Knowledge Management practices contribute directly to the Competitive Advantage of your organisation, so how important is it to get on the informal learning boat?

L&D (and executives) need to understand, and approve of, the informal avenues in place already and plan carefully to ensure complementary relationships with proposed informal learning initiatives.

The New Blended Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 04:50:00 +0000

What is increasingly important in this discussion is how we define “learning” and where we draw the blurred lines between training, learning and communication.

I have heard Blended Learning (BL) defined as the combination of e-learning with traditional training delivery. I think that this “blended training” can be an element, but I have a much broader view of what BL should be or could be for an organisation and also for the individual. I think a BL approach to formal programs is valuable, particularly when there are a choice of paths and methods of engagement to suit a broader audience.

The new focus of BL, however, addresses more than just classroom and e-learning, it also encompasses formal and informal learning. Learning opportunities within the new BL are then defined by how these methods are used in combination, and increasingly how they are used at the learner’s discretion.

The learning opportunities or avenues open to L&D now are many and varied and can include:

Face-to-face: action learning, class, coaching, conference, lecture, meeting, mentoring, observation, observed exercise, role play, social network, tutorial, water cooler conversation, workshop.

Virtual: ask-the-expert, blogs, chat with a mentor, chat with peers, communities of practice, courseware, e-mail, helpdesk, instant messaging, jam sessions, mentored exercise, podcasts, polling, quizzes, reference portals, RSS, telephone linkups, video objects, virtual classroom, wikis.

The important thing to understand is that BL is not just for the Generation X and Y employees, it provides choices of engagement that are open and accessible to all. In fact, as knowledge management is a key driver of BL older workers should be actively engaged as knowledge resources (ask-the-experts, coaches and mentors). This tends to not only empower these workers in the new paradigm but ensures effective capturing of key institutional experience so that it becomes part of the organisational knowledge base.

The Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 03:39:00 +0000

The challenge of modern day L&D is to ensure relevance and acceptance by Executives, Management and Individuals within the business. The balance comes into play here as the expectations, requirements and drivers for each of these groups will invariably be quite different.

So how do you serve multiple clients with different demands effectively with the same offering?

Gone are the days when having a well established company-specific training program with a succession plan that articulates into a clearly defined individual career plans was enough. We are now dealing with the WIIFM (What’s in it for me) working generation, and I’m not just talking about Gen Y and Gen X, these Baby Boomers are catching on too. Linear career plans are dying a slow death with many individuals changing discipline or industry several times throughout their careers.

L&D offerings fundamentally need to be based on the needs of the organisation and be demonstrably delivering business impact, but unfortunately will not hold people’s attention for very long if they are limited to this vision.

In my opinion, L&D offerings must be broad, and should encompass training and resources in the following areas:

Company / role specific
Beyond current role (try before you buy career planning)
Transferable business skills (hard and soft)
Personal Development and,
ideally,
Health and Well-Being

Once again a balance needs to be struck here to ensure it passes the time / investment / return common sense test. * This is not a real test, but it sounds like a good one, “The TIRCS test”.

This training and access to resources must be through both traditional and contemporary methods. A range of engagement methods must be available to suit the range of learning preferences and enable just-in-time learning.

How many engagement choices do you have available in your organisation and how accessible are they to all staff?

Classroom (physical and virtual)
e-learning (courses, portals, reference materials, communities of practice, pod casts, blogs)
Blended Learning programs
Coaching / Mentoring relationships
Action Learning

Next Week: Blended Learning.....

Action Learning anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 05:03:00 +0000

The more I read about Action Learning , the more I can see the broad ranging benefits of the process.

The key elements to Action Learning are similar to the practice of Problem Based Learning (PBL) used in Universities and some progressive schools, with the exception that the problem is real and the solution is required to have real business impact.

Recipe for Action Learning

Ingredients:

Business issue with no obvious solution
A group of four to eight diverse individuals with stakes or insights into the issue
A range of questions from all in the group (extract pre-conceived ideas and rinse away statements)
The power to implement recommendations that emerge
A coach

Method: (for all team members under the supervision of coach)

Define the issue
- Rinse the issue repeatedly under the tap to ensure all caked on beliefs are removed
- Peel back outer skin to expose the raw issue kernel
Slowly fold in questions, followed by responses from individuals as they emerge using the reflective learning spatula (included in pack)
Repeat step 2 as necessary until firm recommendations emerge from the mix
Communicate and Implement recommendations through the organisation (add sugar to taste)

All jokes aside though, organisations that are committed to Action Learning are experiencing rapid and business relevant learning for both the individuals involved and the business as a learning organisation.

I see it as a fantastic tool to assist with continuous improvement, harnessing creativity and innovation, increasing employee engagement, managing knowledge and therefore increasing competitive advantage.

Further Reading: Optimizing the Power of Action Learning: Solving Problems and Building Leaders in Real Time (Michael J. Marquardt, 2004)

Learning...whose responsibility is it?

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 22:00:00 +0000

You can tell much about someone’s organisational philosophy by how they answer this question.

The mix of responses from within a single organisation may look something like this:

L&D Department
Human Resources – always HR!
Business Unit Managers
The CEO
The Organisational Development person – that’s why they created the OD roles wasn’t it?
We have an external provider for that…
The individual staff member

To be fair, it also depends on how these individuals define “Learning”. To many “Learning” = “Training” = “Classroom” = “too much down time” (or “a day off work!” – depending who you are). And then we get into different perceptions of face-to-face and e-learning and blended programs – which we won’t here.

If you subscribe to the philosophy of The Learning Organisation you will be like me and see learning as an outcome of training and developmental activities. I see learning as any opportunity (that is capitalised on) to gain new job specific or transferable facts, knowledge or skills but also learning to adapt, question and innovate, and learning to learn together through reflective practice or action learning.

Learning in my definition is not just for the individual development or even work team capacity building. It is also, and most importantly, for the innovative development of the organisation and the maintenance of competitive advantage.

So, no prizes for guessing that my answer to the title question would be “all of the above” and everyone else in the organisation.

Start at the top.

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 01:27:00 +0000

I have written in a past post about the importance of culture in talent management, but obviously culture will affect nearly everything that goes on in the organisation. Regardless of what the mission and values statement say, culture is really about what common organisational values are demonstrated on a day to day basis, “what really goes on around here”.

Culture should be defined and implemented from the top, from the CEO. If the culture is looking more like one you would find in a petri dish then there is something wrong at the top.

So what does this have to do with L&D?

L&D should also assume responsibility for the development of executives within the organisation, even when it’s the CEO. The value of L&D within an organisation is almost immeasuarble when they can significantly improve the culture of the organisation and the leadership skills of the top executives. The tools are available: executive / leadership development programs; 360 degree feedback surveys; external executive coaching services.

The challenge is the delicate process of suggesting to the CEO that there may be a developmental need….

Extra reading: Leadership Deficiencies: Problems Often Start at Top (Chief Learning Officer)
http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=1733&zoneid=180
See also: Steve Simpson’s work on Unwritten Ground Rules http://www.ugrs.net

Strength Development

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:46:00 +0000

I read a book earlier this year that changed the way I thought about traditional L&D practice.

The book was Discover your Sales Strengths (Benson Smith & Tony Rutigliano, 2003) but the central theme was a transferable one of identifying people’s innate strengths. The books main focus was on matching the right people (with appropriate innate strengths) with the right jobs (with pre-identified strength competencies), in this case sales.

The reason the book resonated with me was that it spoke about the importance of identifying and developing your strength areas and not spending the rest of your professional career (or indeed your personal life) trying to develop strengths you simply don’t and won’t have.

The reason it changed my way of thinking is that I started to think about what we were doing with training needs analysis (TNA) surveys. Predominately we hold up key competencies or position descriptions against the TNA results and identify where the weaknesses of individuals lie. This will then usually cascade into a development plan for that individual. How effective would this development plan be for an individual who would never develop the talents or competencies identified? How enjoyable would they find their job if they felt that they were struggling with these areas and felt they weren’t really getting anywhere? How fulfilled would they feel if they had other unique strengths that weren’t identified (or seemed to be ignored) because the TNA focussed only on the competencies needed for their current role?

It got me to thinking about how important it is to revisit what we are doing with TNA and succession planning to ensure that we look at individuals’ strengths and capitalise on them and spend less time communicating to people about their short falls.

When I spoke to Tony Rutigliano about how this has changed his approach to L&D he emphasised the importance of identifying the people with the appropriate strengths during the recruitment process. (That is not necessarily the people with the most relevant experience by the way.) In a perfect world it would be great to think that all past recruitment efforts have gone to this trouble, but realistically we are all in organisations that have people currently sitting in roles that don’t play to their strengths.

I don’t have a well honed approach to cater for these concerns yet, but I am constantly thinking about it.

Keen on your thoughts....

Talent Management

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:00:00 +0000

Many organisations are struggling with the concept of Talent Management at the moment. In the current tight employee market place, particularly in technical areas, many organisations are searching for solutions.
I believe that L&D is inextricably linked in attracting, developing and retaining talent.

In my experience and from my reading I have found the most important factors for Talent Management boil down into four key areas:

Healthy corporate culture - focussed on excellence, continuous improvement, and innovation that respects staff as partners and regularly celebrates success.
Supportive and consistent learning and development approach – from induction, onboarding and mentoring through to access to broad ranging formal and informal developmental opportunities.
Clearly defined but flexible succession plans – by individual consultation identify career pathway options and development activities available to increase strengths to make transition possible.
Comparable compensation and intangible benefits – last on the list, because if packages are within industry benchmarks it generally becomes of little importance.

Each of these areas is a study in and of itself and many organisations will struggle to get all areas to an acceptable level at the same time. L&D can be a significant contributor in all areas.

Can L&D make a significant contribution to these areas in your organisation? This is not a rhetorical question by the way, I am interested in your views. Please feel free to comment.

L&D Capacity

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:18:00 +0000

We the willing, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. In fact, we have done so much, with so little, for so long, we are now capable of doing anything with nothing. Author unknown.

All jokes aside though, it is hard to attempt the incredible when you are weighed down by the day-to-day. And many of you may feel that there is not a lot more capacity within your L&D team with the current head count.
In any business it is a leap of faith to increase head count without a guaranteed impact on productivity, and in many cases it simply won’t happen without it.

It’s a little bit like the cart before the horse, but the value of L&D being “at many tables” (see The Partnership post 23 March) needs to be clearly established before any real argument can be formulated. Unless it is clear that L&D are proactively becoming strategically ingrained into the business planning and operational areas the argument won’t hold much water.

The emphasis needs to be on value creation as opposed to cost control and have clearly defined deliverables.
Obviously this process has to be carefully managed and negotiated as the worst outcome would be if you created more work for your already stretched team and not get extra resources!

Depending on how your business operates will depend on how you invite yourself into meetings and also how you formulate your argument for more resources.

A good read on demonstrating value of HR functions in a very formalised way is The HR Scorecard (Brian E. Becker, Mark A. Huselid and Dave Ulrich, 2001).

The Partnership

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:43:00 +0000

The challenge of creating any partnership is getting a seat at the table.

We all know that there is an increasingly broad array of expectations of L&D out there. The challenge though is for L&D not to be perceived as a fulfilment unit that is measured by how effectively it reactively responds to training needs.

In my experience it is the desire of L&D teams to be viewed as a much more strategic resource.

So now I ask, “What tables do you sit at?” By this I mean what meetings or planning sessions are L&D represented at?

Executive Meetings – discussing corporate strategy, culture, change or restructuring?
Management meetings – discussing retention, talent management, succession planning or career development?
Business Unit meetings – discussing communication, processes, time management or customer service?

The L&D area cannot work in isolation, or even at arms length from key stakeholders in the organisation. L&D must be a proactive partner within the organisation that is working at the executive, management and individual levels and responding appropriately.

Sounds good in theory I hear you say but where are we getting the time to attend all of these meetings and planning sessions?

Well, I intend to address capacity issues in my next post

Please feel free to comment on any L&D issue by commenting on this one.

Welcome to The Learning Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Peter Ryan) — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 23:55:00 +0000

Blog preface

I have read much about the importance of moving the HR function within an organisation from a position of operational focus to one of strategic partnership. Dave Ulrich’s Human Resource Champions is a good read on this fundamental shift. This partnership is obviously multi-faceted and not achieved overnight. A key facet of the success of this partnership, and imperative for the strategic link with the organisational objectives, is an effective Learning and Development function.

I also like to fill in my “spare” time with reading about the often bandied-around concepts like:

The Learning Organisation
Knowledge Management
Talent Development
Human Capital Management

Key to all of these concepts/methodologies/Utopian states is robust L&D strategy and capability.
In today’s world, L&D must ensure that formal and informal learning opportunities are in place, accessible, practical, relevant, effective, and that they are aligned to organisational objectives and support individual career development plans as well as succession planning initiatives.

Simple!

As we all know, it is not simple and really is the inspiration for this Blog.
In the coming months I intend to focus on the key challenges for L&D in today’s organisations, sharing my opinions and hopefully generating some discussion and sharing of ideas.
The life of a Blog depends on comments and interaction so I encourage you all to comment on anything of interest you find on this site. I will be reviewing and responding to comments and will gain inspiration on further posts based on these interactions.

So get commenting!