Fire Me

OK that request seems a bit extreme and could just as easily be titled "Just Shoot Me" as you will see as you read on... but what the heck I'll go for the provocative. I believe - today, tomorrow or a few years from now you will fire your training department. So lets proceed as if this is an open letter from Training to the Executives.

You (execs) will inevitably hit a financial down turn and have to make the painful decision about who in which departments to cut. I'm as obvious a choice as a plump turkey on thanksgiving to be selected for the axe. It's easy really. I gave you what you wanted, not what you needed. Shame on me.  You asked for training. You asked for education and helping our workers meet compliance needs. I obliged as that's what hierarchies do; don't think, just do. 

So I did. 

eEverything is the rage so you jumped in feet first. I answered the bell and built really cool courses and we bought an LMS. web-based live course became the next venture and we needed skilled folks to lead these webinars. The growth in elearning courses pushed us to get 2 ISDs. Damn if we didn't swell the department. A department filled with non-businessy words and acronyms like classroom, courseware, ILT, LMS, LCMS, JIT, and REL. Come to think of it we didn't just build a different department, we built a different company within the company! (Photo on right? Yep, "The Kiss of Death")

The bottom line is... well, the bottom line.  And frankly all this effort resulted in little to no real impact and what gains we saw are hard to tie just to me and my efforts alone.  So in the end all I did really was add a huge cost. The courses were taken, the box in the LMS was checked and yet here we are... In the red. Sure the economy got ugly. Sure sales slumped as new competitors entered the market. Sure we had some turnover...some bad hires but frankly none worse than me.  

What the organization needed was innovative thinking, we needed creative problem solving and we had the answer to ride it out or even thrive during this time right under our roof and we missed it.

I missed it...

It's time to call me in and break me the bad news. But with my one final drag on the proverbial cigarette as I await the Governor to call in a pardon... I have one last request... 

Hire me back. I'm reformed!

Hire me back tomorrow... no wait, hire me back in two weeks I've got some stuff to do around the house first.  But when you bring me back let's call me something other than T&D Manager or whatever. Lets speak in outputs not inputs - I'll be your Performance Strategist. Come to think of this, lets go at this as if training was not an option! Lets hire back those people (or a few who get that the world has changed) from the T&D department and embed them in the work flow. No more trainers & designers we need more coaches and mentors, advocates and ambassadors. We need to go full throttle into connecting our people and further getting them connected globally. Let these folks who have learned how to connect, and learned how to continuously learn show others how to do it in their contexts. 

Actually hiring me back and some of those talented folks is really not enough though. Here's a few things you need to help me with.

1. Support me with your actions (not your words and money). Be a part of this, be vocal, be available. It's a hell of a lot cheaper and in addition to walking the talk you might just prove to be inspiring and create a raging fan base of employees who serve as beacons for even more talented folks to join us.  No more department even if appropriately renamed something to do with performance. We need to be intertwined in the business that is our business.

2. Change the expectation.  Lets build a connected workforce of "Learnkers" or "Workners" (Learner-workers) or better yet maybe "Performists" (workers-artists)? Corny? Maybe but since the real learning is happening in the real work we can't refer to our people as learners or participants or attendees. We must encourage our employees transformation to ones who believe in and readily show their continuous learning.  Maybe if we start by changing the language, we start empowering our people to be more than what the hierarchy sets for them (Peter Principle?). Let's enable a force of dedicated, collaborating people - A force that seeks and shares the most innovative ideas and the best tips and tricks to get the work done. 

3. Free the tools. Don't buy unique tools for an exclusive group. Lets find free tools that help everybody in all groups. And by help I mean tools that allow them to better connect and create. Connect them to each other, connect them to content their peers are creating. Learning is not a course, not a destination, its a verb. Its ongoing and going on everywhere. The "e" in eLearning now is for "extended" - Extended over time and space. Lets encourage our people to not only dip into the stream but feed it too, leaving breadcrumbs everywhere. 

4. Blow up the hierarchy. Keep your title and all that but let new voices in to the conversation regardless of where they sit in the pecking order. Technology today really lets everyone have a seat at the table anytime. It's an ephemeral meritocracy (HT @euan). Your job now is to keep the seat open. People will come and go. Let others from all ranks sit in it for a bit, make their contribution and step aside. You and I and hell everyone here wants the same thing - success.

So lets not wait - fire me and let's really get the company moving forward.