The Performance Improvement Blog

What Do You Want: Drill or Hole?

Employee training and development professionals, with the endorsement of their HR and Training departments, continue to invest in the latest and greatest technology and content without first figuring out how best to get the results their organizations need. Richard Flanagan, co-author of The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning, likens this to buying a drill before you know what kind of hole you want. He writes: 

We've all heard the old adage that people don't buy drills because they want drills, they want holes. Unfortunately, in the Learning/Development/Training world too many customers are still asking for drills without clearly defining what kind of holes they need, why they need them, where they need them, and how they will measure them; and too many providers – L/D/T professionals - are still taking orders for drills without clearly understanding and gaining upfront agreement on the number, size, distribution, pattern, or location of the desired holes, how success will be evaluated, or even the need for the holes in the first place. 

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think the drill is a wonderful metaphor for the training and development field. Drills are getting more powerful, very high tech, more mobile, and more fun, so people will buy drills and then find a use for them. I'm afraid that much of the training that goes on in organizations is a drill looking for an excuse to make a hole.

Business Results from E-Learning

E-learning (I’ve never liked that term.) is increasing as a training and development tool. But the key question is, “Does it contribute to achieving important business results?” A meta-analysis of online-learning studies by the U.S. Department of Education offers evidence that “e-learning” in certain circumstances and done in certain ways, can increase knowledge more than classroom-based instruction. However, retained knowledge does not necessarily mean that business results will be achieved. That requires an organizational experience beyond the technology.

Sean Murray and I wrote about this issue in an article titled, Getting Business Results From E-Learning, published in the January 25 issue of the online magazine Learning Solutions.  We argue in that article that unless   managers of learners are implementing five factors, that we call the 5As Framework, the organization will receive little benefit from e-learning programs. These five factors are: 1) alignment; 2) anticipation; 3) alliance; 4) application; and 5) accountability. And it’s not enough for HR and training professionals to be implementing this framework. Managers of learners must employ these principles to create an environment in which employees learn and apply that learning to achieving important business results.

New Research on High Performance Leadership

Outstanding leaders care more about productive relationships with their team members than they do about “making the numbers”, according to a study recently completed by researchers at The Work Foundation   and titled, “Exceeding Expectation: the principles of outstanding leadership.” The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 77 senior leaders and their managers and direct reports in six “well known and enduring” companies in the UK. They looked for differences between “outstanding leadership” and merely “good leadership.” They were surprised by their own findings.

They write:

What is striking is that the research has uncovered clear differences between good and outstanding leadership. There is now evidence to support a systemic, people centred approach to high performance leadership. This is a paradigm shift for most leaders who remain focused on the numbers and has implications for all organisations seeking to improve their performance.

Apparently, outstanding leaders involve their team members in decision-making, remove barriers that are getting in the way of team members being successful, and make engagement a priority. And this emphasis on employees and their needs does not change in times of severe economic pressure.

The report concludes with this statement:

The report’s researchers stress that the emphasis on people-centred leadership is particularly critical while the world is still experiencing tough economic conditions. They point to the widespread tendency to assume that in difficult times, people think they need powerful leaders, with a controlling, target-driven approach. Yet, evidence from the research indicates the opposite, demonstrating that this instinct can be counter-productive.

One might expect that when leaders are feeling pressure for results, they will revert to a command-and-control style of leadership. But according to The Work Foundation study, the best leaders stay focused on achieving high performance by creating a climate of trust, respect, and honesty. 

Employee Engagement in 100 Sentences

Advice about developing employee engagement in organizations is offered in a new, free e-book titled, Employee Engagement: Powerful Sentences of Advice for Managers. Published by the Employee Engagement Network, edited by David Zinger, and written by its members, the e-book consists of 100 sentences about employee engagement.

I wrote this statement for the book:

Set performance goals collaboratively with employee and then hold yourself and employee accountable for achieving those goals.

Some other selections from the book are:

Make time to discuss expectations - both what you expect of your employees, and what your employees expect of you.  (Jason M. Beauford)

Don’t give someone responsibility for something, unless you are also going to give them the power to affect it.  (Samantha Wood)

Your motivation is not their motivation - understand what motivates your employees and harness that information to bring out the best in them. (Phil Canale)

Download the e-book here.

What's the Point of Investing in Training?

On the Linkedin Chief Learning Officer Magazine Discussion Group, John-Paul Hatala, Visiting Professor at Louisiana State University, asks:

Why do we even bother providing training to our employees? What's the point of investing in training if we're not sure it makes an impact on organizational effectiveness? Furthermore, if we did measure its impact, would we know how to fix it if the learning wasn't transferring back to the job? So how do you measure training effectiveness and if it's broken how are you fixing it?

What provocative questions! These are some of the questions my co-author, Sean Murray, and I have addressed in our new e-book, Getting More From Your Investment in Training: The 5As Framework. From our research and experience, we are convinced that if you want “impact on organizational effectiveness,” then you have to measure impact. And in doing so, you have to identify the factors beyond the technology   and content of training that either facilitate or are barriers to learning. These are factors such as alignment of training with business goals, anticipation that learning will be applied to achieving business goals, supportive learning partnership between learner and boss, immediate application of learning to something meaningful, and feedback on performance. Our book goes into depth about each of these factors, and offers suggestions for measuring training effectiveness.

This is what Michael Anleitner, CEO of Livonia Technical Services Company, writes about our book on the Linkedin Lean Six Sigma Discussion Group:

In this book Steve and Sean describe a simple yet powerful way to make any training initiative into a meaningful and worthwhile process. The book is short, direct, and to the point—and it includes a great set of tools at the end of the book that can help anyone implement a potent game plan for improving training outcomes. As someone who has been conducting detailed professional-level training for almost 25 years, I found that Steve and Sean’s ideas are well worth considering. If you are involved in any way in formally training people in the workplace, I think you’ll find this book worth the money.

It’s only available as an e-book at this time; you can download the first two chapters for free and/or purchase the entire book, including business examples of each of the five factors that contribute to business results at http://www.realtimeperformance.com/ebook/

Finally, a full disclosure: I have no financial interest in this book, and I posted this note simply because I am convinced that Steve and Sean’s concepts are worthwhile for any professional who wants to build skills in an organization.

Whether you download the first two chapters for free or choose to read the whole book, please let us know what you think. We hope the book helps people manage training in a way that contributes to business success, which, after all, is the point of investing in training.

Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: The Book

The one thing (I sound like Curly in “City Slickers”.) that will lift us out of the depths of our struggling economy and sustain economic growth for years to come, more than anything else, is learning. Daniel Pink says that any routine task will be outsourced (probably to Asia) and the jobs that remain will require creativity and empathy. I contend that constant learning is the key to this “right brain” way of thinking. To be creative and empathic, people need continuous input of information. They need to learn about different points of view, different ways of doing things, different scenarios, new skills, and learn how to apply all of that new information to solving problems. Continuous learning in this way will be the key to competitiveness and success in the future. This is not happening in most organizations today.

People are motivated to learn and we have the technology to facilitate learning effectively and efficiently. That’s not the problem. The problem is the many organizational barriers to learning. These barriers are explained in the clear and practical book, The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning: How to Turn Training and Development Into Business Results. I finally got around to reading (The book was published in   2006, but I’m a slow reader.) this excellent explication of what “learning leaders” must do in their organizations:

1. Define training and development in terms of business outcomes
2. Design the before, during, and after of training and development programs
3. Deliver the programs in a way that application to achieving business results is clear
4. Drive the process of application and accountability for learning
5. Deploy support for transfer of learning to achieving business goals
6. Document and use the results of training and development programs

  I like the Six Disciplines book because it picks up from where my 1994 co-authored book, The Learning Alliance: Systems Thinking in Human Resource Development, left off. And I think the Six Disciplines supports Sean Murray’s and my 5As Framework for managers to apply in supporting a learning culture (including any learning intervention, e.g., coaching) in their organizations. Underlying the six disciplines are the 5As: 1) alignment; 2) anticipation; 3) alliance;  4) application; and 5) accountability. Regardless of whether its 5As or 6Ds, the point is to create a learning culture that contributes to business success.

 

Measuring Results of Diversity Programs

In an article titled, “Diversity Plans Tough to Measure” that appears in the latest issue of Human Resource Executive Online, Jared Shelly writes that although many companies want diversity programs (according to a study by i4cp), most have not defined what they mean by “diversity” and most don’t measure the ROI of these programs. It is my experience that for many companies, having a diversity program is simply a way to protect themselves against EEOC complaints and lawsuits. They don’t care about quality and results of these programs.

For others, who care about impact on their organizations, their HR leaders believe that it is too difficult and too costly to measure the return on their investment in diversity initiatives. If by ROI they mean a dollars and cents calculation of cost savings and revenue increase, they might be right. However, evaluating the impact of diversity programs should not be difficult nor should it be costly. The first step is to define diversity in the organization. Does it mean:

• complying with EEOC guidelines?
• recruiting a diverse pool of candidates for a job opening?
• promoting women and minorities to senior level positions?
• working effectively in diverse teams?
• effectively managing a diverse workforce?
• being personally aware of one’s own stereotyping?
• something else? 

We can’t develop useful measures of diversity until we know which of these definitions is being used and, therefore, what are the indicators of success.

I have written previously about measuring the results of one particular diversity program (including measuring ROI). The purpose of that program was  “… to improve leadership skills for middle and senior managers by providing information, tools and processes for them to become more effective at managing and leading diverse teams to deliver exceptional customer service.” To achieve this goal the company put employees through an intense, three-day leadership development and team building workshop followed by informal coaching. One cohort of participants were surveyed several months after the workshop to determine who was applying what they learned and who was achieving business results related to the diversity program. Those who reported gains were interviewed. From these interviews, the company discovered that the program had a profound effect on the attitudes and behavior of some managers. Positive actions that were attributable to the diversity program were documented and, in some cases, cost savings (e.g., retained worker) and revenue increases (e.g., successfully negotiated contract) were calculated. From this study, HR leaders discovered the strengths and weaknesses of the program and its potential for success. This study was neither difficult nor expensive and the results were vital to the company and its employees.