Innovative Express

"Improving effectiveness by making the complex simple and making the simple work!"

March 2007

In this issue:

Changing Interactions...
Rounding Up The Usual Suspects...
Personally Speaking...

I hope this newsletter finds you well.

A case study based on the “Winning Through People” practice highlighted in last month’s newsletter has been accepted by the Performance Improvement journal. The acclaimed journal, geared toward practitioners of human performance technology (HPT) in the workplace, is published by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) in partnership with John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Broadly speaking, HPT principles are: focusing on outcomes, taking a systems view, adding value, establishing partnerships, and being systematic.

As you know, there is a lot more to performance improvement than just training. Do you know how much U.S. organizations spend on training? ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) estimates that U.S. organizations spend $109.25 billion on employee learning and development annually.

With literally hundreds of billions of dollars spent on training, why is it not more effective in changing organizations’ practices? Why are training departments rounded up like the “usual suspects” when the corporate axe comes out? The current issue of Innovative Express explores this issue and looks into why the training departments are not as effective as they should be.

Inspired to agree, disagree, or otherwise comment? Have an interesting story to share? We hope that you will let us know your thoughts.

Abhay Padgaonkar
President, Innovative Solutions Consulting, LLC

Changing Interactions...

My friends at McKinsey & Company published some fascinating research in 2005 and 2006 about how the workplace interactions are changing.

McKinsey & Company placed every job in one of three categories: transformational (extracting raw materials or converting them into finished goods), transactional (interactions that unfold in a generally rule-based manner and can thus be scripted or automated), and tacit (more complex interactions requiring a higher level of judgment, involving ambiguity, and drawing on tacit, or experiential, knowledge).

They concluded that tacit interactions are becoming central to economic activity. Making those who undertake them more effective isn't like tweaking a production line. Their research also found that U.S. jobs that include tacit interactions has been the fastest growing segment accounting for seven out of ten jobs created from 1998 to 2004. Also, jobs involving tacit interactions pay 55 and 75 percent more than those of employees who undertake routine transactions and transformations.

The age-old tactics of standardization, automation, and consolidation—traditionally used for boosting the efficiency of transformational or transactional activities—have very little effect on jobs requiring tacit knowledge. From a workforce development perspective, tacit knowledge, by definition, is difficult to capture and even harder to impart. This creates a special challenge for Chief Learning Officers as learning now involves a lot less of classroom training and a lot more of experiential learning and apprenticeship, which they are ill-equipped to conceive and deliver.

McKinsey Article on competitive advantage from better interactions

Rounding Up The Usual Suspects...

At the end of the famous movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick shoots Maj. Strasser as he tries to intervene. When the police arrive, Capt. Renault, played by Claude Rains, saves Rick’s life by telling the police to "round up the usual suspects.”

For decades, Training departments have been on the defensive, fighting to get the recognition they deserve. Re-branding the department as “Learning and Development” or “Global Talent” has hardly helped— any more than it helped Personnel to be called HR or Data Processing to be renamed IT. Corporate Leadership Council’s research report titled Defining Critical Skills of Human Resources Staff based on a survey of 555 executives in 68 countries points out that “fewer than one in six CEOs assigns strategic importance to HR and only one in four rates HR’s performance favorably.” Training didn’t even make the list!

Here are top-ten common obstacles that prevent Training departments from being invited to be at the head table.

Front-end alignment: Training departments don’t have a crystal-clear understanding of the organization’s overall strategy and direction that they are expected to support. More importantly, Training needs to translate this abstract understanding of broad strategies into desired outcomes and needed changes in skills and behaviors.
Training ain’t learning: It is naïve to think that just because somebody was trained, that they have learned. A lot of training goes in one ear and out the other and sits on the bookshelf in the form of 3- ring binders. While well-intentioned, a lot of so-called training is just a “data dump.” Recent phenomena such as e-learning, distance learning, and self- directed learning—all invented to improve delivery efficiency—have drastically reduced the effectiveness by taking away an interactive environment conducive to learning. Training needs to find out how much people have actually learned and retained.
Learning ain’t knowing: It is one thing to have learned what to do in a classroom setting, it is entirely another to know what do in a complex, fast- paced, real-life situation. Oftentimes classroom training is delivered without incorporating the culture, processes, policies, politics, and personalities involved outside the classroom. Training needs to be careful in ensuring that what is taught is real and that it doesn’t end when the class is over.
Knowing ain’t doing: Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton point out in their book The Knowing- Doing Gap that “there is a loose and imperfect relationship between knowing what to do and the ability to act on that knowledge.” Training needs to challenge the very basic assumption that “doing” happens through “knowing.” There is ample evidence that it is actually the other way around! Training needs to figure out how to bridge the knowing-doing gap.
Be careful what you wish for: A lot of training today is done under the guise of reengineering. Except for the totally uninitiated, reengineering has become a euphemism for a not-too-distant reduction in force or layoff. If training is going to result in process improvements that will, in turn, result in job losses, what is really the incentive for employees to learn? As Upton Sinclair said,” “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
Cognitive dissonance: Many times, what the organization says it wants people to do is not necessarily what is rewarded. For example, typically an account manager or a call center employee is trained on customer service, but is evaluated and rewarded for business development or selling. Training needs to be mindful of the hiring practices and reinforcement mechanisms in place.
We’re all in it together: There is a great deal of interdependency and collaboration among different parts of the organization for pulling the ship in the same direction. If there are contradictory goals among various departments such as sales, manufacturing, client management, service delivery, IT, HR, and Training, no amount of instruction will put them on the same path. Training needs to highlight these disconnects and push for change.
One size doesn’t fit all: Adult learning research has shown that different people learn differently. According to Pamela J. Gordon, an adult learning expert, people with different learning styles ask different questions to sort and store information: “Why is this important to me?” “What are the facts?” “How is this practical?” “What if I do this?” Training needs to incorporate the needs of all different learning styles so everyone can track along.
The haves and have-nots: A disproportionate amount of training budget goes to the management ranks with the hope of a “trickle- down” effect, while employees on the frontline are left holding the bag. Mary Walton in The Deming Management Method says, “Too often workers have learned their job from another worker who was never trained properly. They are forced to follow unintelligible instructions. They can’t do their jobs because no one tells them how.”
What’s measured is treasured: Too many Training scorecards report activity (number of classes, training days, number of trainees, etc.) rather than learning outcomes. Training departments need to develop, measure, report, and hold themselves accountable for whether or not the trainees really learned, whether they can adapt it to on-the-job situations, and whether mechanisms and partnerships are in place to reinforce the changes in behaviors that translate into improved business outcomes.

The Bottom Line: Training is simply a means to an end. A scorecard with a greater weight toward higher level business objectives can go a long way in establishing the indispensability of the training department. Perhaps it is time for Training to learn a new trick?

Personally Speaking...

This may sound like corporate heresy---at least to some of you---but I am training myself to take more efficient naps. There! I said it.

Having grown up in India, taking midday naps (or siesta as taken in Spain and Latin America) was hardly a taboo. But research is proving that the image of a napper as a slacker is not only unfair, but it's just plain wrong!

In an extensive study, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Athens Medical School found that midday napping reduces the chance of death from heart disease in both men and women. I heard this from Sara Mednick, the author of "Take a Nap: Change Your Life" on NPR's Here & Now program.

Sara Mednick has a Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard. Her research indicates that among other things, naps increase alertness, boost creativity, reduce stress, improves perception, stamina, motor skills, and accuracy, help you make better decisions, keep you looking younger, reduce the risk of heart attack, elevate your mood, and strengthen memory.

Now take into account that this "product" is nontoxic, has no dangerous side effects, and, best of all, is absolutely free!

I was sold! Now I am training myself to take just a one-hour nap when possible whereas I am used to taking 2-3 hour naps on weekends. Dr. Mednick says that she has trained herself to take just a 20-minute nap. That's my goal too.

The Bottom Line: Hope that you too can become a guilt-free napper! Listen to "Take A Nap" interview with Dr. Mednick.

Disclaimer: "This written advice is absolutely intended to be used, and if used under expert supervision is known to improve organizational and individual effectiveness substantially."