I recently read Clark Quinn’s post on the Social Media cigarette break and how he points out that Social Media is being used outside of an organization’s IT infrastructure because organizations are blocking their worker’s access rather than educating them and providing guidelines. He further says that employees are finding their access via mobile means and circumventing the system to get the information from their social networks. In Clark Quinn's words:
"It says a lot if you feel you have to restrict your employees instead of letting them know what the expectations are and ensure that they can follow the guidelines."
Yes it does. Ultimately I think the lack of clear guidelines and the quick manner in which organizations turn to block access is simply a failure of leadership. It is easier to block access than to do what they should be doing; Managing.
When I was first hired at Pearson Digital Learning several years ago I remember inquiring of my supervisor what my office hours were to be. She paused, looked at me puzzled and said something to the effect of …umm, well I guess most people come in around 8… Her next response told me volumes about who I was about to be employed by… Honestly, I really don’t care if something takes you 2 hours or 20minutes, you just need to have it done when it is to be done.
You see, she didn’t manage people’s time, she managed for outcomes. She trusted the process, she trusted the tools, and she trusted the people she hired...why wouldn't she?
And she managed well. Projects were fleshed out, time tables set, deliverable dates established, milestones created, status meetings held… but everything in between was up to me. Whatever I needed was provided- tools, resources, time etc.
Within my first 2 weeks I was asked to learn all I could to accurately document the development process on a proprietary tool that was being brought back from the dead. I proposed the idea of using IM to communicate and collaborate in real time with a former employee in an effort to capture all their knowledge. "Great! - Go for it" is all I recall her saying. And that was it, no more needed to be said or asked. Complete trust.
I was hired to do a job. If I had chose to use my time flitting around the Internet or using early SM tools to do more chit-chat than productive work it was going to catch up to me. I wouldn’t be able to hide for long as my inability to meet deliverables or quality standards would lead to termination.
So I wonder, if an organization feels compelled to block access isn’t it really a failure in management? If we don't trust people we hire, why are we hiring them??
Oh, and Alice Bauder, wherever you are, thanks for managing for outcomes and not managing me... Thanks for the trust.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
You be the Performance Specialist!
Recently one of my favorite researchers/thinkers in the area of workplace learning, Jane Hart @c4lpt had a great series called The Performance Specialist: 3 case studies on her Blog. In it, she provided a performance situation, a typical training dept. solution and ultimately the hypothetical approach of a Performance Specialist.
This led me to a conversation with Jane via Twitter where I asked- might we not present the problem only and leave it in the hands of the readers to generate the solution ... or role-play the Performance Specialist?
Well, needless to say I posted an idea on Google Docs and for one reason or another she didn't receive it (I blame user error ...me being the user).
Jane has much going on and I thought I could carry the torch a bit further. So, with a tip of my hat to Jane I present to you:
An Executive of an eyewear company is concerned by the lackluster performance of many of the retail offices in areas such as sales & customer service. The 4 member staff in each of the 300+ offices understands each metric and can see how they are performing by having access to KPI's through a highly visible, office specific Intranet report system that updates daily.
However, the struggling offices don't seem to have the skills needed to improve.
The Training Department is called in and suggests that the organization leverage Webinar technology to conduct synchronous training sessions with key staff members over a period of weeks. In addition he suggests the team design and develop asynchronous elearning simulations as a continuous reinforcement tool. Finally he suggests a small team of experts be sent into each region to conduct weekend training sessions in the critical areas.
The Executive has concerns. He's concerned about incurring more costs and pulling the L&D team off several other projects will cause delays in other areas. He also knows having office teams work on a weekend is demotivating. And finally, he is aware of the 5 Barriers to Effective Learning in Organisations (Barrier # 3 to be specific) as presented by Charles Jennings, and therefore asks the Performance Specialist to explore the issue.
The Performance Specialist ...
OK, here is where you can jump in. If you were the Performance Specialist, what would you do?
This led me to a conversation with Jane via Twitter where I asked- might we not present the problem only and leave it in the hands of the readers to generate the solution ... or role-play the Performance Specialist?
Well, needless to say I posted an idea on Google Docs and for one reason or another she didn't receive it (I blame user error ...me being the user).
Jane has much going on and I thought I could carry the torch a bit further. So, with a tip of my hat to Jane I present to you:
YOU BE THE PERFORMANCE SPECIALIST
An Executive of an eyewear company is concerned by the lackluster performance of many of the retail offices in areas such as sales & customer service. The 4 member staff in each of the 300+ offices understands each metric and can see how they are performing by having access to KPI's through a highly visible, office specific Intranet report system that updates daily.
However, the struggling offices don't seem to have the skills needed to improve.
The Training Department is called in and suggests that the organization leverage Webinar technology to conduct synchronous training sessions with key staff members over a period of weeks. In addition he suggests the team design and develop asynchronous elearning simulations as a continuous reinforcement tool. Finally he suggests a small team of experts be sent into each region to conduct weekend training sessions in the critical areas.
The Executive has concerns. He's concerned about incurring more costs and pulling the L&D team off several other projects will cause delays in other areas. He also knows having office teams work on a weekend is demotivating. And finally, he is aware of the 5 Barriers to Effective Learning in Organisations (Barrier # 3 to be specific) as presented by Charles Jennings, and therefore asks the Performance Specialist to explore the issue.
The Performance Specialist ...
OK, here is where you can jump in. If you were the Performance Specialist, what would you do?
Friday, July 9, 2010
Live and let live
Recently I was sucked into a tweet… @jenisecook reacted inquisitively to a post by @guywwallace in which he wrote “Just because a Learning Professional can determine a valid K/S need - does not in and of itself warrant meeting that need.”
My tweet of “Me too” was in response to Jenise's desire for more background info ...as I thought Guy was probably talking money and priorities…and he was.
Guy went on to clarify with “If the ROI was very negative, solving thousand $ problems/opportunties w/ $100k solutions - then: don't do it. Live w/ it.” His response is brilliant and the right response for learning professionals to latch on to. Guy also posted a few links to his blog where he supports his thoughts with more detail – take a look, all quite meaty!
My initial reaction, much like what I think was Jenise’s, was one of surprise. Meaning that hey, we have a responsibility to make right all the performance wrongs in our orgs. That's what we do!
The problem is that when learning professionals try to do this, chase every problem with a solution (formal or informal), they are also unintentionally telling management that yet again, they just don’t get business.
Learning professionals need to first remember that not every business problem is a training or learning problem… often it’s a motivation, resource, or quite often it’s a staffing problem.
Second, and equally important, learning professionals must be able to discriminate (as too must leadership). Both must be able to recognize when L&D services to address a performance problem really add measurable value and when, as Guy said, we need to just “live w/ it”.
Learning professionals often struggles to show their relevance and gain a seat at the table in most organizations. And any effort that reveals they are not working smarter, but only harder reinforces that they are out of touch.
See Jenise’s thoughts on the issue in her post Instructional Design vs. ROI: Guy W. Wallace
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