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Moving from theory to practice
Thursday, January 25th, 2007

How does one take the theory from a textbook and apply it to real world business situations?  This is a challenge that organizations need to help their employees overcome. 

It seems to me that the secret is to help employees learn to think about the issues and what it means for them.  One way of doing this is to ask simple questions that relate to the subject.  As an example, here are two of the questions that students had on their quiz in Business Law today:

Reymundo wants to be a conscientious manager and to set the right ethical tone for his company.  What are three steps that he can take to do so?

Now, suppose that Reymundo is an hourly employee at a company.  What are two steps that he might take to encourage ethical behavior?

Think about how you might have answered the questions.  Even without reading the textbook, one may well have some common sense answers to questions like these.

Posted in Business Articles, Solving Problems, Tips for Students, Training | No Comments »



Traditional Training is Ineffective and Inefficient
Monday, January 22nd, 2007

During the years that I negotiated training contracts for two Fortune 100 companies, I sometimes questioned the impact of the training and the expenditures.  Experience teaching college classes for the last year and a half makes me question the money spent on training even more.

Most organizations purchase training because they want to change employee behavior.  In most cases though, organizations are unable or unwilling to commit to the sort of training programs that are most likely to result in behavioral changes. 

In this article, we will talk about what I have learned from teaching and some of the steps that I believe organizations must make if they are going to change their employees’ behavior and maximize the return on their investments.  The five key elements that appear critical are:

  1. Obtaining employee buy-in
  2. Developing clear and realistic goals for training
  3. Defining specific steps that employees need to take
  4. Practicing the steps that are required over time with reinforcement
  5. Helping employees think about how they can improve on the approaches taught

So, let’s talk a little about each of these elements and how training might be used to achieve the desired result.

Buy In

At the end of the day, employees are likely to follow an approach only if and to the extent that they believe it will be successful.  Success requires many things, including alignment of the employer’s goals and those of the employees.

Throwing training at the issue may accomplish a lot in the short term, but much of the impact is likely to be the result of the Hawthorne Effect.  The Hawthorne Effect can result in changes over the short term.  In fact, almost anything can lead to changes over the short term. 

Think about the impact of conditioning though.  The first time a person tries to run a marathon, the person is likely to struggle and, potentially even quit.  What happens if the person tries again?  Over time, the person typically is able to go longer distances and, eventually, the person may finish the race. 

Applying that same idea in the context of training, one has the Hawthorne Effect, as well as some impact from the training.  (The relative composition of Hawthorne Effect and impact of the training may vary.)  As more training is provided, the Hawthorne Effect decreases because people are conditioned to expect the training.  As a result, the training has to be better in order for the impact to be realized.  Either that, or organizations take progressively more dramatic or traumatic action to change employee behavior.  (Think about the superstars, race cars, prizes, letters that officers provide in connection with training, and the message that one must complete the training if one wishes to retain his or her job and one sees the sorts of dramatic and traumatic approaches that organizations take.)

Training Goals

What can training do?  This question is asked in many ways at many organizations.  At the end of the day, training can help employees that wish to develop their skills do so.  It can also act as a bandage for processes that are broken.  It can teach employees bad processes, mask systemic problems, and encourage complacency.

The important thing is to set training goals that are realistic, relevant to the organization’s success, and consistent with the behavior that employees should be demonstrating.  Training goals really should be set at the highest level of the organization, or at least blessed at that level.  Too often though, they are set at the lowest level of an organization or training is seen as a low spend area and unworthy of senior leadership’s attention.  And, in many cases, senior leadership may not be the source of the strategic vision that is requires for an organization’s success.

Specific Steps

A lot of technical training teaches employees to take specific steps in particular cases.  When one moves into the leadership and management training (the so-called “softskills”) it is often viewed differently. 

Over the last year and a half, I have seen hundreds of people read books and learn nothing.  Then, we talk about the issue in class and identify actionable steps that they can actually take.  By practicing those steps in class, people become comfortable with the ideas and see ways of improving on the approaches as well.   

Practice

Essentially, training is intended to help people develop new habits.  In order to do so, repetition is important.  Also, it is important to allow time to develop and integrate the new habit in one’s daily routine.  A two or three day class (or a week long class, for that matter) is unlikely to lead to the formation of new habits.  There just is insufficient time to create sustainable change.  Think about what is required to make sustainable change and I am sure that you can see what I mean.

Thinking

When people read a book, they often merely read the book.  A better approach is to read a section and ask, what the section means for them and how they can improve the approach.  In classes where this is discussed, students learn more because the book gains new relevance.  Last spring, one of my business law students said that I was helping him learn to think and that no one had ever made him think before.  Sadly, that often seems to be the case. 

People are often encouraged to accept things, rather than to challenge ideas.  Accepting ideas is reinforced when questions are perceived as being unwelcome and blind acceptance is expected.  Still, people need to feel safe and to trust others in order to feel safe in thinking about ideas.  When they feel attacked, they tend to shut down instead.

More Effective Training

So what does this mean? 

Well, it seems to me that one thing all this means is that the meeting format used by traditional college classes - regular meetings scheduled over time - is more likely to lead to sustainable changes in behavior.

A second thing that it seems to mean is that the classes need to be more tactical and teach real world skills, allowing sufficient time for people to practice the skills between training sessions or classes.

In addition, it suggests to me that the traditional 2 or 3 day training class is inefficient and ineffective.

What are your thoughts about traditional training?  Is it meeting the needs of your business?

Posted in Business Acumen, New Ideas, Solving Problems, Training | 1 Comment »



Rapid job growth can pose challenges
Sunday, January 21st, 2007

In its January 22, 2007 issue, Fortune (www.fortune.com) announced its list of the 100 Best Companies to work for.  According to the report, Google was the best company to work for and had the highest job growth,  67% in one year.  

It can be exciting to work for a company with rapid job growth.  Rapid job growth can provide a lot of opportunities for individuals. 

That said, rapid job growth can also pose challenges for firms.  What are some of the challenges that can be raised by rapid job growth?  This article touches on a few of the business puzzles that can be posed by rapid job growth, specificially issues with culture, training, benefits, processes, and planning.

Culture.  When a firm is experiencing very rapid job growth, it is difficult to retain the culture and to help employees learn the culture.  There can be inadequate time to help the new employees understand the firm’s culture. 

Training.  In environments that have rapid job growth, it can be difficult to ensure that all employees have the training that they need to be successful.  It may be difficult to even decide what training is required.  Budgeting for training may be inadequate to support the growth.

Benefits.  The benefits that were attractive to employees when the firm was smaller may be too expensive or cumbersome as firms grow.  For example, Google provides free doctors onsite.  That might be very convenient for both employeees and Google.  I would prefer to choose my own physician and to have the physician separate from my workplace and employer, but others obviously feel differently. 

Processes.  Sometimes, processes that work for one size of organization are unable to support larger organizations.  In other cases, it may take time for the processes and infrastructure to be scaled to support the job growth.

Planning.  When a firm is experiencing rapid growth, it can be tempting to think that the trend will continue.  It certainly may continue.  However, is the firm preparing for the risk that the growth might not continue?  There is an old saying about the best time to prepare for the rainy day is when it is sunny outside.  At an individual and orgainzational level, this often seems to be forgotten.

These issues may not touch Google.  I certainly hope that they do not.  In many cases though, firms with fast growth have experienced difficulties in these and other areas as they have matured.  Hopefully, Google has considered this issue and has options in place to deal with the issues, if they arise.

Posted in Business Acumen, Planning Tips, Solving Problems | No Comments »



Team Building Puzzles
Friday, January 19th, 2007

The team members have been identified and the first meeting has been scheduled.  Now the real work begins.  Somehow, over the next days, weeks, or even months, the team members need to be able to put the interests of the team ahead of their personal interests, the needs of their work group, their organization, and the other teams that they belong to.  At least, this is what conventional wisdom says should happen. 

In business, the idea is for the team to be able to work together to solve business issues.  The team building approach has to support this.  Often, team building  activities are close enough to look right and sound good.  That said, they still may not work.  A few years ago, a team had monthly video conferences where we played word games and got free food.  Still, this didn’t translate into the work environment even though the events were sometimes rather fun.  Instead, team members found that the team building events were just another thing competing for their time.

How can a third party help make team building happen?  Will games, puzzles, or team building events help in this regard?  Is there a better way?  In this article we talk about these questions.

Third Parties

Sometimes, a third party can help orgaizations build stronger teams.  Two situations in which a third party can be especially helpful are cases in which the parties trust the person and situation in which the parties distrust each other.  If the team members trust the person already, a third party may be able to suggest options that will be well received by the people involved.  In contrast, if the people have high levels of distrust, having a third party to facilitate the communication can make it possible for people to hear each other better. 

It seems to me that, in order for the team members to trust a third person, the third person must be percieved as having a stake int he teams’ success and in the success of each team member.  Too often, when I have seen suppliers brought in to help organizations build teams, especially in the context of situations where distrust exists, the supplier has been perceived as being intersted in seeing the organization succeed at the team members’ expense.     

Success in building teams requires the person, whether internal or external, to understand the dynamics of the organization and to be credible with the team members.  Sometimes the person tasked with helping the team be created can come from within the organization.  It seems critical for the organization and the factions to be able to trust the person’s willingness to be fair and impartial. 

Games, Puzzles, and Events

Some use games, puzzles, and events to help the team “bond” with each other.  The challenge with actual games, puzzles, and events is that they can separate the business activities from the team building activities.  It is easy for teams to participate in ropes courses, trust building activities, scavenger hunts, and similar activities.  The bonding which occurs through such events and activities may not translate to the business environment. 

Better Way?

Over the years, I have found that, rather than relying on these tactics, it works better and is more productive to use real world issues as team building puzzles. 

People often want to start by pretending to be a team and ignoring their individual interests.  This has seldom worked for me.  Instead, what has helped me is to get the personal agenda’s and organizational agendas out in the open. 

By acknowledging the self-interests of each team member and understanding how the performance of each team member is measured, how the negotiator’s performance is measured, and how the organization’s success will be determined, the interests of the stakeholders can be aligned. 

The critical element of this approach is that success for the team needs to mean that each team member is successful first and that the overarching objectives are realized as well.  All factions need to be committed to and incented to help realize success for the team.  Beyond this, the team members must understand what the team is to accomplish.

Analysis and Implications

Does this sound right to you?  What sounds a little off?  How can the concept be improved?  Most importantly, think about what this might mean for your business.

Posted in Solving Problems, Team Building | No Comments »



National Center for Education Statistics
Friday, January 19th, 2007

National Center for Education Statistics profiled undergraduates at US postsecondary educational institutions for 2003-2004 and found that 40% of the students were attending community colleges.  The approximately 7.6 million students attending community colleges were more likely to be:

  • Older
  • Female
  • Hispanic or black
  • Financially independent of their parents
  • Parents themselves
  • In the lowest income group (46% compared to 20% at 4 year programs)
  • Part-time students (66%)
  • Working (70%)
  • Receiving financial aid (47%, of which grants account for 40%)
  • Diverse in their commitment levels with males and white students being more committed to completing Associate’s degrees so they could transfer to 4 year programs

Click here for the full report.

So, what do these numbers mean for instructors and community colleges? 

One possibility is that commitment and retention of students will increase if the students are taught skills that are directly relevant to their jobs.

Finding time for students to meet outside of class may be difficult so students will benefit from a tool that allows them to work asynchronously outside of class.

It may be important for students to be given tools for dealing with conflict when they are required to work together because they may have different levels of commitment.  Perhaps, this issue is more likely to arise when the instructor assigns students to specific groups, rather than allowing students to select their own groups.

What does this mean for potential or current employers?  How important is education as a predictor of an employee’s performance?

Posted in Business Acumen, Negotiations, Solving Problems | No Comments »



Solutions are aligned with objectives
Thursday, January 18th, 2007

Often firms purchase training that is inconsistent with the firms’ objectives.  They make other purchases that are in conflict with the firms objectives as well.  So too they make hiring decisions, decide compensation strategies, and build processes that are out of tune with the organization’s strategy.

To the extent that money is spent or other resources are allocated in a manner that is inconsistent with an organization’s strategy, the action is part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.  In short, such actions are garbage answers.

Solutions are aligned with the organization’s vision, strategy, objectives, priorities, and plans.  If one is a generic company, then a generic approach may be fine.  Too often though, companies that know what they are trying to accomplish settle for generic approaches.  What are the costs?  How many shareholder’s resources are wasted this way?  Why might this approach harm goodwill and employee retention?

The costs of garbage answers far exceed any short term benefit associated with them.  One only needs to think about the issues that arise from training that is inappropriate for the organization in order to reach this conclusion. 

If inappropriate training is selected, it may be necessary to “untrain” people before one can retrain them.  Untraining may require additional coursework, replacement of tools, changes in processes, and, in some cases, changes in personnel.  There is a saying about not having time to do it right, so making time to do it over.  Mulligans are limited when one moves off the golf course and into the business environment.

Posted in Business Acumen, Negotiations, Solving Problems, Training | No Comments »



Why is training purchased?
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007

Before negotiating a training contract and before selecting a supplier with whom one wishes to negotiate such a contract, it is important to decide why training is needed.

This question can be asked in a variety of ways such as: 

  1. How will training improve the business? 
  2. What conditions will exist when the training is successful?
  3. What will employees do after training that they are not doing today?
  4. What is it about the current situation which suggests that training is needed?
  5. What conditions exist today that will not exist when the training is successful?

Training can be purchased for a variety of reasons.  Over the years, clients have given for making training purchases: 

  1. Improving skill set
  2. Employee retention
  3. Reward for employee loyalty
  4. Address performance issues 
  5. Employees asked for training
  6. Preparation for strategic initiatives
  7. Training had not been purchased for several years

One might wonder about how the reasons for the goal could impact the contract negotiations.  That is a fair question, by the way. 

Suppose that one is purchasing training because training has not been purchased for several years.  If there is no particular change to be realized by the training, what considerations would one have in negotiating a contract?

Think now about a situation where training is supposed to help an organization realize a strategic initiative.  In such a situation, what terms might be important?  How would the negotiations and contract be different?  What efforts might be used to confirm a supplier’s suitability in this situation?

As one thinks about the differences in these two situations, it becomes apparent that the reason for the purchase has tremendous impact on the subsequent stages of the acquisition, including the negotiation and the execution of the training. 

Posted in Negotiations, Training | No Comments »



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