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Thinking strategically at every step

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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

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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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Just add Tech – Include Technology into your Learning Strategy

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Just add Tech – Include Technology into your Learning Strategy – The key trends that everyone is talking about these days are cloud technology, data analytics and mobile technology. There are many factors pushing towards these trends such as availability and accessibility of mobile phones; the increased mobility of workforce; the increased skills and education of the workforce; the move away from spreadsheets; more HR getting into the strategic role; skills shortages; the need for staff retention, engagement and development and so on.

So what do you need to do now in order not fall behind the competition? Where do you even begin to include technology into your learning strategy?

For a start, we need to look at both the present & future states of your organisation. Where is your organisation at now and where does it want to go in the future? What are its future business goals? Your learning strategy should be aligned to it. You will also need to consider the current and future states of the following:


Technology Infrastructure

The first step is to examine your organization’s existing technology infrastructure. To put it plainly, some organizations may not have the technology to offer the most advanced technology. You may know what your organization is capable of, but even if this is the case, you should always get your IT department involved in the planning stages of your learning strategy to avoid any nasty surprises later. For an example in this organisation of about 1,200 employees, it was a rude surprise to find out later after the e-learning programs had been rolled out that Flash updates need to be requested by employees calling into Helpdesk individually! Or you will need to write a business case to have Flash updated for the whole organisation! In another example, training records and e-learning courses need to be sent to the vendor for an initial mass upload but sharing documents through Dropbox or any cloud file hosting service to an external party is against IT policy. In other words, to make your life a little easier, you will need to find out your IT department’s security, infrastructure, IT support levels and availability, business objectives, future directions, etc. that may impact on your learning strategy.

Employees

While you’re looking at the organization’s current technology, take the time to also take a realistic look at your employees. The question you want to answer is not whether your employees are ready for technological advances in learning, but rather what kind of technological advances are they ready for.

Depending on the industry, age and nature of the organization, you may find that your audience is already highly technically savvy and may expect the Learning & Developing (L&D) team to provide them with stimulating technological learning interventions. On the other hand, your employees may be resistant to blogging or watching a training course via a synchronous web conference. Either way, your job is to determine just how far you can go.

Policies & Procedures

You will also need to review your current policies and procedures. Are there anything that needs to be changed? How does your management feel about work-life balance, e-learning and m-learning? How are you going to manage when online training needs to be conducted? Will these be during office hours or after office hours? With all these new technologies and mobile phones as well as with everyone and everything accessible 24/7, how are you going to draw the line? Are you going to be like the French and put a legal ruling in place that says employees are to shut off work devices and avoid work emails after going home for the day?

The L&D team & technology

As part of the L&D role, you need to plan, organise, deliver and evaluate the learning & development activities of the organisation. There are several tools and systems available to assist and streamline your L&D processes – from authoring tools to develop your online courses to the different Learning Management System (LMS) to administer, report and evaluate your online programs.

Considering the different delivery methods of training, be it face-to-face, electronic learning (e-learning) and mobile learning (m-learning), does your L&D team have the capability to develop the materials on your own in-house or do you need to outsource this?

You will also need the right LMS to provide a great way to track and report grades, completions and performance metrics. In fact, if your organization is ready for the latest and greatest, can you have a cloud-based LMS so that your learners as well as your team are not restricted by location? Can your LMS collect the key metrics that you need as well as generate meaningful reports? Can your LMS can be a Social Learning Management System (SLMS) that provides for online interaction and social networking or, if you plan to work on rapid development, will a content management system (LCMS) work better for you? Regardless of your choice, make sure it is the right choice for the direction and technology you want to deploy.

You can also consider including technology in classroom courses. For example, blogs, discussion threads, and social networks can be used as both before and after class exercises. Trainers may be able to gain insight in the learners’ knowledge levels both before and after the intervention, as well as learn how well the training affects behavioural change.

Look for opportunities to create online applications for courses, such as quick reference guides, games, short knowledge based modules, testing, podcasts and videos that can be downloaded and viewed after or before class. Methods like blogs or social networking are also great ways to get learners involved and keep them involved. The question is determining how to begin using these applications.

Overall, as you look for ways to integrate technology into the learning strategy, you will also be able to create a culture that is open to technology and at the same time, help the organisation stay competitive as well as retain and engage with your people.

Article republished from LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140803125130-5398941-just-add-tech-include-technology-into-your-learning-strategy?trk=prof-post

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Are you ready for Mobile Learning?

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According to United Nations, more people have mobile telephones around the world than have access to a flush toilet. In fact, in Australia, an astounding 70% of Australians own either a smartphone or tablet device, and 32% own both. In this Australian mobile device ownership and home usage report 2014, the usage statistics indicate that the majority of Australians are highly dependent on their mobile devices. They rarely leave these devices out of their hands even in the home (they don’t even go to the bathroom without it!).

Indeed, technology continues to move at lightning speed, offering opportunities for providing the latest and greatest information to our workforce – but it’s not always easy to implement. Mobile devices sales, especially smart phone sales may be higher than PC sales and this may be a good opportunity to get into mobile learning, however, to jump on the mobile learning bandwagon just because it is an emerging area does not necessary ensure that it will be effective. An understanding of the technologies as well as learning will be necessary to ensure learning strategies and solutions are aligned with business needs.

Mobile learning, also known as m-learning, is becoming an increasingly popular way to convey information and enhance the learning process in numerous fields. This is different from e-learning as rather than being restricted to a specific location at a desktop computer or fixed module, the learner is able to access information from an array of mobile devices, including laptops, tablets, smartphones and phones. Mobile devices can be utilized in several ways to deliver informal and formal learning, social tools as well as used as performance support tool.

M-learning is great if you need:

  • To capture expert knowledge or give access to experts who can provide support to learners
  • To use it on-the-job, resulting in a more learning-by-doing and less out of context learning
  • To access to information on the go
  • To encourage social learning

M-learning is also dependent upon the type of content and information required. It is suitable where:

  • Content is hard to nail down and is more problem solving in nature
  • Content is hard to retain or does not have to be retained
  • You and/or your people want to access it anywhere, anytime
  • Content are designed into small bite-sizes of 3-5 minutes or short videos that are easy to view on mobile devices

Overall, mobile devices are an opportunity within a suite of options and might prove an effective element within a broader learning strategy. Nevertheless, mobile learning may not be for everyone. For instance, those organizations that do not have a mobile workforce – it makes sense that they are not incorporating mobile delivery into their learning strategy. On the other hand, mobile delivery may be an ideal solution for those employees who cannot free up a few days to take a course. Moreover, you not only need to consider whether your employees are ready for technological advances in learning, but rather what kind of technological advances are they ready for.

So, what’s your stance in m-learning? Are you ready for it?

Article also found here: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140623014810-5398941-are-you-ready-for-mobile-learning?trk=mp-reader-card

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