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Thinking strategically at every step

 

Using strategic thinking throughout the training cycle

Working strategically is not just about setting strategy at the executive level of the organisation. It is about how you approach every aspect of your work. For a start, think of yourself as a business professional first, and only then as a professional with a human resource development specialty. See the world through that frame.

You can apply a strategic mindset at every phase of the learning and development cycle, from receiving a request for training, through to the design of programs and initiatives, delivery and evaluation. The key is to keep the end in mind – how does what I am doing help the business?

Here’s how thinking strategically works in practice.

A. Request for training

You have just received an application/request for training. What do you usually do next? What can you do to ensure that you add value and impact the business? How often do you actually ask the manager making the request if the training is relevant to the job? How will it help to meet the job, department and/or organisational objective? Is it a real training issue or a process issue? Are there any other developmental activities that will enhance the learning?

Historically, learning professionals have often reacted to training requests by attempting to fulfil them as promptly as resources would allow. Instead, discover if training was really the right answer. Ask these questions:

  1. Do we have a problem?
  2. Is it a performance problem?
  3. How will we know when the problem is solved?
  4. What is the performance problem?
  5. Should we allocate resources to solve it?
  6. What are the possible causes of the problem?
  7. What evidence bears on each possibility?
  8. What are the probable causes?
  9. What general solution type is indicated?
  10. What are the alternate subclasses of solution?
  11. What are the costs, effects, and development times of each solution?
  12. What are the constraints?
  13. What are the overall goals?

By asking key questions, you will be able to identify if problems are worth solving, define the desired and actual states of performance, identify possible causes to an identified performance problem and determine if training and/or other activities are better suited to solve the performance issue. You are now applying a results-oriented mindset to achieve the results needed by the business.

B. Design of training programs and initiatives

Before you begin to design and develop the training programs, consider the following:

  1. How are training goals of the programs aligned with corporate goals?
  2. Who will receive training?
  3. What are the high-level training goals for each audience?
  4. What is the benefit of training for each audience?
  5. What factors are used to prioritize work?
  6. How will learning be designed, developed and delivered? How will training be designed for results?
  7. How often do these training programs need to be reviewed and updated?
  8. What resources are required to accomplish the plan, including headcount, services, hardware, software, budget, and so forth?
  9. How will return on investment be measured?
  10. What will be outsourced?
  11. What will be designed and developed in-house? Why?
  12. What will be purchased off-the-shelf? Are you purchasing libraries of courses?
  13. Combine individual and organisational development as by teaching people how to improve their teams and organisations, you can simultaneously improve individual skills and organisational results – the ultimate win-win!

Furthermore, due to economic needs, learning styles, demographics and new technologies, the new frontier is all about connecting, collaborating and learning in different ways, so what can you do to ensure that you and your organisation move into the new frontier? Ask the following:

  1. What is the future of learning in a techno-global world with multiple generations in the workforce?
  2. Will the approaches and techniques you are presently using to design and deliver learning still be relevant to the learning process in five years?
  3. What criteria are you using to ensure that new learning environments are robust and engaging and not just venues for the consumption of ideas?
  4. How do you ensure that technologies promote active learning and not passive consumption?
  5. With many technologies available for connecting individuals (Twitter, blog, email, texting), what are the ways to turn a connection from a list of names into an opportunity for collaborating and learning?
  6. How can you leverage social learning and informal learning in the workplace?
  7. What is the best use of technologies for facilitating and delivering learning assets?

C. Delivery of training programs

Here you should consider:

  • What is the best and most cost efficient mode of delivery given the resources available?
  • Are you introducing e-learning? Are you increasing self-paced instruction and decreasing instructor-led training?
  • What percentage of your training uses e-learning rather than traditional classroom instruction?
  • Is there a strategy for when to use e-learning rather than face-to-face instruction? What is the advantage of that delivery strategy?
  • What is the delivery strategy? Do you have dedicated instructors, outsourced instructors or managers/leaders as facilitators? What can you do to influence management to encourage more managers to be facilitators?

Organizations that effectively utilise leaders as facilitators can realise six key strategic benefits:

1. Helps drive business results

Implementing a leaders-as-teachers approach drives business and organizational results as it ensures strategic business alignment between senior business leaders and the programs and services provided by the learning function.

2. Stimulates the learning and development of employees and future leaders

Having a leaders-as-facilitators approach serves as a catalyst for the learning and development of the employees who participate as students in leader-led programs. This dynamic occurs in three ways: role modeling, creating a safe environment for feedback and building networks.

3. Improving the leadership and skillset of those who teach

Leaders-facilitators also learn more as they teach. They move out of their comfort zones. They deal with various employee-students with job challenges of different types, sizes and intensities that enable these leaders-facilitators to learn, grow, change and develop. Teaching, for many leaders, is a very significant job challenge and one that also helps them to see new viewpoints.

4. Strengthening organizational culture and communications

Another key strategic benefit to implement a leaders-as-teachers approach is that leader-teachers have the opportunity to strengthen their organization’s culture and communications. Culture transmission and communications through leader-teachers occurs in numerous ways including role modeling, communities of practice (CoP), social networks, continuous learning and communication flow across geographies, business divisions and functions.

5. Promoting positive business and organizational change

The fifth reason to implement a leaders-as-teachers approach is that it enables them to serve as catalysts for business and organizational change through their direct access to a wide range of learners. It is important for these leaders-facilitators to lead by example and walk the talk.

6. Reducing costs by leveraging top talent

Finally, the leaders-as-teachers approach drives numerous cost efficiencies by leveraging top talent. In addition to reducing costs by not engaging external facilitators, this will also be a form of retaining knowledge and expertise as well as retaining and managing talent within the organisation.

D. Evaluation of learning and performance outcomes

You should start thinking about this stage even before the participant attends the training. In fact, with the results-oriented approach, you should begin the preparation and planning for evaluation as part of your program planning and design stage. This includes what are the key measures / benchmarks; where and how data are collected, etc.

For a comprehensive measurement and evaluation process, you may wish to consider these six types of measures:

  1. Reaction, Satisfaction and planned action
  2. Learning
  3. Application and implementation
  4. Business impact
  5. Return on Investment (ROI)
  6. Intangible measures

What are the possible ways you are able to show a direct impact on learning within an organization? How can you demonstrate value and make connections and show that learning has an alignment with business results? You may wish to take into account:

5. Cut costs

Organisations exist to make profits and cut costs. Unless you are a training provider organisation, it is difficult for the learning function to directly make profits for the organisation. The next best thing we can do is to help reduce costs and / or avoid costs. Consider the various ways that this could be done without impacting the quality of the learning and developmental activities.

  • Cost reduction is the least complicated case to make because it is easy to demonstrate reduced travel, lodging and meal expenses. You also can calculate the value of opportunity cost, which is how much money the company loses by having an employee away from his / her job. Do you have a total training plan for the organisation? Do you have the required number of training places for the various training courses so that this information could be used to negotiate with external training providers or request for training budget? Are there sufficient resources to have these training designed, developed and delivered in-house or outsourced? Can these training be conducted internally or at an external venue? Provide the rationale for budget requests, such as new or updated facilities, hardware and software, consulting and contract work, course libraries, staffing and skill development activities. Explore new and less expensive methods of delivering learning, including e-learning, simulations and other online options. How can you evolve the learning process from one-time training events to continuous informal learning that happens anytime, anywhere, in a variety of formats?
  • The case for cost avoidance is a little harder to make because it contends that the training program will help the company avoid expenses, such as costs associated with re-work or legal fees. A common example is sexual harassment training and compliance training.
  • When making a case for increased profitability you must show a direct relationship between training and an increase in profits. For example, demonstrating that sales representatives who attend a training program sell more than those who did not attend the program. In another example, you may be able to show that employees on an assembly line can produce widgets faster and with fewer defects than those who did not receive training. The increased productivity of those employees leads to increased profitability. Again, as mentioned earlier, you will need to determine what and how data can be collected accurately.

At the end of the day

With a results-oriented mindset, we can approach our work differently and play a more strategic role in our organisation.

All in all, you need to find more effective and efficient ways to train employees as well as new ways of designing and delivering training. You need to consider leveraging existing best practices and benchmarks, create programs or situations where employees can learn from each other, link learning to the strategic goals of your company and you must be able to communicate the value of learning to your top management.

The trends that emerged and the lessons learned over these years will lead learning down an exciting and successful path for the future.

First published as a 2-part Article by same author:

“Thinking Strategically at Every Step – Part 1” in Training and Development in Australia, vol.36, no.6, October 2010, pp 12 – 13. Australian Institute of Training & Development (AITD)

“Thinking Strategically at Every Step – Part 2” in Training and Development in Australia, vol.37, no.6, December 2010, pp 12 – 13. Australian Institute of Training & Development (AITD)

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Improving Performance from the Inside

How do you improve performance from the inside as an internal consultant? Is there a difference between an external consultant’s work and an employee’s?

WHAT MAKES A PERFORMANCE CONSULTANT?

According to Hale (1998), performance consultants are experts in advising on, analysing and measuring performance, yet also facilitate the client’s commitment to taking responsibility for supporting performance. They are not inclined toward a particular solution and do not make recommendations until there is enough data to support them. External and internal consultants share many similar characteristics as both help their clients address problems and improve business results. In the context of performance, it could be in the improvement of an individual (for example, skills or knowledge); a team (for example, group dynamics or job redesign); or the organisation (for example, systems, structures or processes).

 

WHAT MAKES AN INTERNAL CONSULTANT?

You are a member of the organisation and may be employed as a performance consultant, HR advisor, HRD specialist, learning and development consultant, organisational development professional, training manager, change management specialist or even career development manager. The list goes on. Regardless of the different job tasks in each position, you are an internal consultant. Some professionals do not consider themselves internal consultants as they are seen as staff serving other departments in their organisation and/or a subject matter expert (SME) holding a support role within the organisation. Nevertheless, internal consultants are valuable to any organisation and people in these positions are often accountable for all or a combination of the following job outputs:

  • Developing and growing partnerships with sustained clients;
  • Identifying and qualifying opportunities for performance improvement;
  • Conducting performance assessments, including gap and cause analysis;
  • Managing multiple performance change interventions (solutions); and
  • Measuring the results of performance improvement interventions.

 

The challenges faced by internal consultants are plentiful. They may include:

  • Finding the balance between the need to belong and be objective enough to hold a neutral role;
  • Establishing and maintaining strong relationships within the organisation yet being able to confront other staff members, speak the truth and, at times, maintain client confidentiality;
  • Working through the chain of command and red tape, reporting relationships to your bosses (direct, senior level as well as those in the dotted lines) and juggling organisational politics;
  • Having the flexibility to play multiple roles – as a neutral outsider, an expert, a change agent, a leader, a team player, a process facilitator, and even a devil’s advocate; and
  • Managing between the day-to-day tasks of the job and the specific tasks involved in projects (performance improvement interventions).

Unlike external consultants, the organisation is the only client for internal consultants and the client-consultant relationship does not end after a project. Internal consultants are on the inside throughout the whole process of the variety of performance improvement solutions. In other words, there is little or no option of walking out – your credibility, reputation, relationships and own career are on the line.

 

THE CONSULTING PROCESS

There are a number of models that the consulting process may follow. Most adhere loosely to the following phases, although in real life the process is never straightforward and at most times overlaps.

 

Defining the request

Contacting

For external consultants, this is where they enter, lay the foundation of the consultant-client relationship and seek an understanding of the client’s need or problem. External consultants need time to learn and explore the organisation to determine if the project is appropriate. For internal consultants, this may be when a colleague from a different department comes into your office and says something along the lines of: “My sales people need time management training”. In another scenario, a senior manager may make a comment on production problems while at the water-cooler; in another, you may need to respond to new regulations or the generation of new products. Internal consultants hold an advantage here as they already have inside knowledge of the organisation: its mission, business goals, culture, structure and processes, and well-established relationships with the people. Regardless of how the contact was first initiated, this is a meeting where both you and your colleague (client) explore, clarify and determine whether to move forward.

The important note here is to define the need and focus with the end result in mind. You should ask, “What is to be achieved at the end that is valuable to the organisation’s goals and the relationship to human performance?”

 

Agreement

Taking the time to review and clarify expectations, confirm roles and verify the actions of each party will enhance the success of the project. Items that always need to be included in the agreement are goals and outcomes, project steps/approach, deliverables and timelines, resources, support and confidentiality issues on the data collected and results. Unlike external consultants, this agreement for internal consultants could be verbal or written and/or done in a formal or informal manner depending upon the culture of the organisation.

 

Investigating the request

Information gathering and assessment

This is to collect information and validate the facts. Methods and sources of information vary from structured interviews, surveys, and observation, to review of policies and procedures and so on. Using the HPI (Human Performance Improvement) approach is extremely useful. Developed by ASTD, this is the systematic process of discovering and analysing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and non-financial results.

HPI would encompass the learning issues, structures/processes and work environment barriers that cause the performance gaps. These analyses would also help decide the nature of support required, the cost effectiveness and the preliminary design of interventions.

 

Recommending options

Feedback

This is the presentation of the findings from the information gathering and assessment steps. It is useful to present an objective and clear view on the findings without blame or judgement, in a format that is easily digested by the client. Be prepared to confront tough issues as well as objections. This phase also determines the client’s willingness to move ahead with the project.

 

Alignment

Once the work is done to identify and align business needs, performance needs, learning needs and needs of the work environment, the intervention could then be selected. The consultant needs to confirm and agree with the client on the selected intervention and the approach to achieve the desired outcomes. This leads into the planning process, identifying the necessary resources and support and determining the measures of success. This alignment enhances the success of the project as well as preventing damage to the relationship.

 

Implementing the solution

Depending upon the intervention selected, the internal consultant needs to manage the project, gather formative evaluation data and make mid-course corrections. The intervention focus may be individual, small group or even organisation-wide, hence the internal consultant needs to help relevant people adapt to the changes. Knowing your abilities and limitations as well as the culture of the organisation might also mean hiring the services of an external consultant as a more effective solution. At times, the internal consultant might not even play a part in the intervention but you would be adding value to your organisation just to check on the status of the project.

 

Measuring the results

The initial discussion should have provided the measures of success including the data sources and methodologies. Evaluating the results of the intervention could indicate what is working and what is not for continuous improvement; identify the overall success of the intervention; improve the planning and implementation of future projects; improve the internal consultant’s own skills as well as increase credibility, support and confidence that the consulting interventions are cost effective and valuable to the organisation. In addition to Donald Kirkpatrick’s famous 4 Levels of Evaluation, you could also consider Jack Phillips’ Return on Investment (ROI) model.

Based on the preceding information and analysis at the earlier stages, you must choose an evaluation model or a mix of models, and with the feedback from the client, decide on the methods to be used. It is important to secure collaboration with the client at the early stage – if their commitment, cooperation and contributions cannot be secured, the evaluation will probably fail. Criteria and standards of judgement, the time and funds available and the climate of the organisation need to be considered in the acceptance of the evaluation approach.

 

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of challenges and opportunities for internal performance consultants. As long as you follow a structured process and keep some tips top of mind (see Table 1), you will hold the key to success. Not only will you increase your own credibility, you will add value to your role in the organisation.

REFERENCES

Hale, J. 1998, The Performance Consultant’s Fieldbook – Tools & Techniques for Improving Organizations and People, Jossey-Bass/ Pfeiffer, San Francisco.

Scott, B. 2000, Consulting on the Inside, ASTD, USA.

Re-published from “Improving Performance from the Inside” in Training and Development in Australia, vol.31, no.6, December 2004, pp 6 – 9. Australian Institute of Training & Development (AITD) by same author, Elaine Yin-Tantouri

Also available on Linked in: http://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20140813130727-5398941-improving-performance-from-the-inside

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HR and L&D Professionals: Checklist for Business Success

Just like any part of the business, HR and L&D Managers can get wrapped up in the day-to-day operations and activities. We get absorbed into the “fire fighting” mode and have no time to be proactive.

business-successWhile this list is by no means exhaustive, it does form a good start to assist HR and L&D managers to refocus.

To earn that seat, HR and L&D managers need to develop C-suite-level thinking and contribute to the business conversation, not just the HR conversation. So, stop getting accused of being paper pushers and start being proactive and think like the business.

BUSINESS UNDERSTANDING CHECKLIST

  • Understand the organization’s business – its business model, its products and how it makes money in its industry
  • Speak the language of business to gain credibility
  • Understand the balance sheet and how it relates to business success measures
  • Provide advice on how human capital can be developed and aligned to meet current and future business needs
  • Recognize and act on emerging opportunities to quickly help prepare the workforce to respond to them
  • Understand what makes an open and learning organisation, and then support and develop that environment
  • Partner with senior leaders to establish HR and learning and development strategies that support the organization’s business strategy

BUSINESS PERFORMANCE CHECKLIST

  • Focus your efforts on improving those areas that will enhance business performance – such as customer loyalty, product quality and innovation, speed of development and delivery as well as sales effectiveness
  • Make sure there is a clear business case for an initiative prior to any investment, including the identification of the initiative’s drivers such as increased market share, improved leadership capability, reduction of key staff turnover
  • Establish clear measures that help answer the questions: Why are we doing this in the first place? Have we been successful? How do we know we are successful?
  • Demonstrate ROI and business contribution by linking initiatives to lasting and important business metrics that are key differentiators – such as revenue, market share, customer service and loyalty, quality, retention, turnover, efficiency and innovation
  • Share results with business partners and senior management and those who matter

STRATEGIC CHECKLIST

  • Ensure that employees have the right skills and knowledge to meet the strategic challenges of the organization in an effective manner
  • Work with senior management to identify high potential individuals to fill key positions in the future as well as a succession plan in which valuable knowledge of key senior &/or experienced employees are retained and transferred back into the business
  • Help the organization realign talent to meet the organization’s critical business needs
  • Develop your HR and L&D strategies to align with each other and more importantly, to the organisation’s vision and strategy
  • Ensure that the supply of talent equals the organization’s demand
  • Help implement career development and talent management strategies to retain and motivate the organization’s high potential and high performing employees
  • Help leaders diagnose developmental needs, identify training and development opportunities and create a learning culture
  • Budget for key development and training
  • Promote an environment where employees feel they make a difference, are valued and are continuing to learn
  • Capture employees’ hearts and minds to keep the best people who can create, innovate and move the organization forward

TECHNOLOGIES CHECKLIST

  • Learn about new and emerging learning technologies and support systems and how they can best help deliver training and learning as well as engage employees. For instance,
    • Mobile computing
    • Cloud computing
    • Social media
    • Big data
  • Ensure organization’s systems (e.g. employee selection and recruitment, promotion, rewards planning, management, information and control) encourage effective performance among employees
  • Ensure that these systems are reviewed regularly and are consistent across the organization and that they mutually support each other and produce meaningful reports
  • Analyze and select training and learning technologies based on a needs driven approach to meet diverse learners’ needs and accomplish learning goals and objectives
  • Integrate training and learning technology options to produce coherent blended-learning solutions that best meet an individual’s learning needs and learning styles

ETHICS CHECKLIST

  • Advocate and implement organizational practices that respect the individual and support a humane workplace in times of instability, high pressure and constant changes
  • Value multidimensional learning experiences that facilitate the development of emotional intelligence as well as knowledge and skills
  • Operate ethically and with integrity, “walk the talk” and ensure the right consequences are in place (i.e. rewards and punishments are fairly carried out)
  • Lead by example and serve as a role model for the organization’s values
  • Model personal development by actively identifying new areas for your own personal development

DIVERSITY CHECKLIST

  • Understand cultural differences and how to develop, design and implement HR, training and learning solutions for a global, culturally diverse audience
  • Help your organization’s leaders develop cultural sensitivities and abilities so that they can produce, market and sell products and services in other cultures
  • Stay current with all employment laws and regulations and ensure internal policies and procedures are current to the changing times
  • Leverage diversity to help employees, including leaders, understand and maximize relationships with associates form other cultures, countries, races and backgrounds
  • Make your learning community and learning resources available freely in the organisation

Article also available in: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140714110523-5398941-hr-and-l-d-professionals-checklist-for-business-success?trk=mp-reader-card

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