10
oct
2

4 Things Every Manager (and HR) Should Know about Developing Employees

Posted by Coaching Skills, Experiential Learning Activities, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Learning Style Assessment, Supervisory SkillsNo Comments

Suppoerted Self Dev CoverBy David Berke

1. You don’t develop people

All development is fundamentally self-development. I can’t learn for you. You can’t learn for me. But most people can’t figure out everything on their own. They need various types of support. That’s what a manager can and should do. Here are some ways to provide support. If the manager does these, he or she also will be helping his or her employees motivate themselves (because you can’t motivate someone either):

  • Demonstrating that he or she (the manager) believes that the development effort is important
  • Ensuring that the development goal is clear
  • Arranging for necessary resources
  • Providing feedback regularly about the process the employee is using to accomplish the goal
  • Helping the employee to manage potential obstacles in the workplace such as schedule

2. Attending a Training Class (or watching something online) is almost never enough

If you want someone to be exposed to information- and that’s all- attending a class or watching something online could be enough.

But if you want someone to remember what they saw, they need to apply it. If you want someone to develop skills related to what they saw, they need to practice and get feedback. It’s a manager’s responsibility to make sure the employee has the opportunity to do the application and to get feedback. The manager doesn’t necessarily have to be present to oversee these things. But the manager is responsible for making sure it happens and that the results are tracked. That’s because the employee development process and the outcome of that process are a manager’s responsibilities.

 3. You can’t make it safe to fail

If you’re a manager, you’ve undoubtedly been advised to make it safe to fail. That way your employee will make safe for your employee to take a chance and learn. If you have to promise immunity from failure to get an employee to learn something new, you probably need a new employee. The truth is there is no such thing as immunity from failure- if an individual can’t figure it out, eventually someone else will have to.

On the other hand, if the employee works at a place where the rule- explicit or tacit- is that making mistakes is same thing as failing, that employee probably needs a new place to work.

Everyone makes mistakes- when they’re learning and after they’ve learned. People are not perfect. But different organizations- and managers within those organizations- have different levels of tolerance for mistakes. Be clear about what those are from the beginning.

It would be better to tell an employee it’s safe to make mistakes as long as the employee learns from those mistakes- and doesn’t make them again. It would be better to have some clear expectations and a plan. The plan could have a progression over time. The manager and employee could agree to check in regularly to status the plan and revise it if needed.

4. A development goal is not a plan

A manager and employee discuss what skill the employee needs or wants to develop; they agree on a goal; and…and… and often that’s where the conversation ends. The employee agrees to do something. The manager may say that they should check in periodically to see how things are going. But there’s a good chance neither will occur unless there is a crisis related in some way to what the employee should have learned.

The fact is stopping with the goal only works if there is an obvious solution. If someone wants to learn something, the obvious solution is a workshop or class. But a class or workshop is almost always an incomplete solution and most managers know that from personal experience. Usually successful development requires a combination of activities that will include one or more development assignments along with the workshop or class; or maybe no workshop at all. And sometimes the manager’s assistance will be needed to set up those assignments and provide resources.

Pretending there is an easy answer when there isn’t, is not helpful. If you have a goal to accomplish you need to do more than hope you’ll figure out what to do and how to do it. You put together a plan. It can be detailed or it can simple. But it should be something that reflects the manager’s and the employee’s best estimate of what it takes to accomplish the goal.

___________

david-berke-200x300David Berke, the author of Supported Self-Development, is a principal at Lorsch, Berke & Associates, LLC. He has over 25 years of experience working as a manager, individual contributor, and consultant in the fields of management and executive development, employee development, leadership development, and organization development.

In addition to Supported Self-Development, David has written a book on succession planning, Succession Planning and Management:A Guide to Organizational Systems and Practices. He co-authored a book on leadership development, Developing Leadership Talent. He also has written a number of articles on succession and leadership development. 

Please join us on Wednesday, October 15th at 2:00 pm EST as Mr. Berke leads a free webinar through HRDQ-U.  Don’t let this opportunity pass you by.  Sign up today!

9
oct
1

Creating Change Management Capability

Posted by Coaching Skills, Communication Styles, Corporate Training Materials, HR Training, Leadership Style Assessment, Supervisory SkillsNo Comments

This week we hosted a free webinar, Creating Change Management Capability, with Mark Hordes.  Mark is Vice President, OD & Change Management for the Americas with Molten-Group. Close to 200 people listened to the webinar live.

You may view the archived webinar here.

Did you know that only 30% of change efforts actually achieve their business goals and targets? If your organization is like most, the challenge begins when employees are asked to do something different. When change processes and tools aren’t integrated into the overall project management framework, it’s a recipe for failure. That is why it’s critical for organizations to take necessary steps to help employees take to change as a duck takes to water. Here is what some of our participants had to say about the webinar: “Overall very good overview of change management.” “This is the best webinar yet! Mark got straight to the points and the points were succinct, practical, and illustrated with examples. Thank you very much!” “This was a GREAT session. Knowledge level of change management was greatly appreciated.”

The webinar’s main focus was on the 4 Building Blocks of Change Management:

  1. How to Prepare, Manage and Organize Change
  2. How to Measure Change
  3. How to Think about Change Resistance
  4. How to Sustain Change

“When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at…change.”
-Wayne Dyer

cartoonMark Hordes said, “So if you look at the little cartoon, the guy on the island sees an image out there and he yells boat. The person in the boat sees it and he says land. So each one has a different filter. So the intent here is that whichever image that you chose, if you only have a fixed point of view about that particular image, it may not be the best approach to the circumstance that you’re having to deal with and the impact it will have on the people who are in the journey with you. There are many, many definitions of change management. You go on Google, the internet, you probably find hundreds. But I think they’re all pretty much all bound to the same thing. It’s really the process of aligning the organizations people and culture with changes in the business strategy, organization and process assistance.” Hordes went on to say, “Making sure that over 90% of the people affected by the change have strong awareness of it.  Awareness is so important to making sure the change is accepted. Some people will flat out reject change. There are some people that we need to manage quite closely. I would say they are your wildcards in the bunch. These are people that often come with hidden agendas to disrupt, dismantle, blow up your change process and say see I told you so. And we better learn quickly who those people are we have to manage quite closely.”

One of the final topics was, “What Will It Take to Gain Support?” Some of the topics covered:

  • Sense of personal gain and benefit
  • Right thing to do NOW!
  • Involvement with the change
  • Respect for the person leading change
  • Believe it’s the right time for the change
  • Understand what will NOT change…

How can you manage change in the best way? Tune in to the webinar and find out. change managementTo fully understand all of the concepts and more, you must watch the webinar yourself. It is just under an hour and will change the way you view change. Sign up to make sure you don’t miss the next free webinar!

29
sep
1

Free Webinar- Creating Change Management Capability: Experience Success

Posted by Corporate Team Building Games, Corporate Training Materials, Experiential Learning Activities, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Learning Style Assessment, Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

14088-Change-Slider-Medium

Did you know that only 30% of change efforts actually achieve their business goals and targets? If your organization is like most, the challenge begins when employees are asked to do something different. And when change processes and tools aren’t integrated into the overall project management framework, it’s a recipe for failure. That is why it’s critical for organizations to take necessary steps to help employees take to change as a duck takes to water.

Creating Change Management Capability is different. Unlike most change management presentations that focus on the failure rates of change management efforts, this webinar is centered on action. Subject matter expert and thought leader Mark Hordes will present the critical success factors and “must-do steps” that will enable your change-management initiatives to reach success and sustain the test of time. Register today for an hour of learning that will transform the way you and your organization approach change—and experience success.

Join us on October 1st at 2:00 pm ET for a free webinar on this topic.  Register today for an hour of learning that will transform the way you and your organization approach change—and experience success.

Participants Will Learn:

  • Create a powerful business case for change
  • Identify change readiness issues
  • Measure behavior and change
  • Turn resistance into positive action
  • Develop a highly interactive communications plan
  • Create change sustainability
  • Train sponsors to be champions of change

Who Should Attend:

  • Trainers
  • Organization Development Professionals
  • Human Resources Managers
  • Performance Improvement Directors
  • Senior Managers (responsible for large-scale change)
  • Organizational Champions
  • Consultants
  • Management Team Members

A former change management partner with Accenture, Mark Hordes is change management thought leader, keynote speaker, and former managing editor of the Organizational Excellence Journal (OEJ). He is the co-author of several best-selling books, including S-Business: Reinventing the Services Organization. Mark is an alumnus of the American Graduate School of International Management, “Thunderbird.” He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Houston as well as an MBA and MS in Psychology and Human Behavior from Aurora University. Mark’s clients include Chevron, Baker Hughes, Hoechst Celanese, Dow, and Marathon Oil.

23
sep
1

Making Change Work: Limit Resistance to Get Positive Results

Posted by Corporate Team Building Games, Corporate Training Materials, Experiential Learning Activities, HR Training, Human Resource Training, Team Building ExercisesNo Comments

By Mark Hordes

People don’t return phone calls. Leaders say “yes” but don’t follow up on their commitments. Good people leave. There are too many priorities to address change now. The time is not right. It costs too much! The cost of ignorance can be high.

Resistance to change is ever present and not new. We all understand during times of organizational stress and change there can be positive and negative resistance.

Managing change is the result of five elements that occur in an organization within functional areas at the individual, team and divisional level of relationship:

  1. Control. During times of change, employees need to feel comfortable having control over what is going to happen.
  2. Predictability. Employees need to understand the timeline for the change and when key events will occur. This allows people to have time to plan and helps them prepare for the new challenge.
  3. Capacity. Organizations need to consider capacity and personal absorption levels. People have limitations to the amount of change they can experience at one time. An individual’s personal threshold is usually no more than three change initiatives.
  4. Context. Context for the change revolves around internal and external issues. With transformations, many things change within internal departments. Internally, our roles and responsibilities may shift from an individual doing a singular job to one who now has responsibility to coach and be part of a self-managed team that has a new focus where everyone is responsible for developing multiple skills and jobs.
  5. Level of resolve. It is very possible to increase our personal level of resolve during times of change. This is accomplished by first understanding we are personally affected by change. Providing training on change fundamentals and how each of us deals with changes on personal and professional levels helps increase our resolve in effectively man- aging the change.

In most change efforts, a predicable drop- off in performance occurs. The response is a natural reaction to major change. The goal of change management is to reduce the depth and duration of the performance gap.  One can assume when we start a new project there is a steady state. As soon as the process begins, there is a performance drop, often due to employees waiting to find out the impacts of change on them.  Those responsible for leading change can minimize the impact of change on performance by looking for opportunities to manage the pre-transition and post-implementation phases.

The objectives of each transition phase are:

• Minimize A: Duration of performance drop-off during transition phase.

• Minimize B: Depth of performance drop-off during transition phase.

• Maximize C: Performance level after implementation.

• Maximize D: Continuous improvement.

To set the stage for successful program management, pay considerable attention to planning and pre-implementation activities (in effect, minimizing A and B). Before the implementation, conduct a change impact analysis to minimize the depth and ensure a faster recovery from the drop in performance.

In reflecting on major change experiences at the forefront of various major transformational efforts, several best practices in change management have emerged, including:

• Conduct an organizational and business process impact analysis prior to developing and implementing a change plan. • Develop a sponsor strategy along with the activities sponsors will do.

• Develop an ownership and involvement plan. Roll out the process through the organization.

• Create an implementation strategy that includes components such as a job redesign strategy, training plan, documentation strategy, communications plan, and an implementation and support plan.

• Create a measurement plan utilizing a balanced score card matrix. “The thing executives fear the most is the threat of rapid destabilization. The second is the complexity of successfully handling change,” says Lance Berger in “Mastering the Change Management Market: Achieving a Lasting Competitive Advantage.”

Remember, if you don’t manage change, change will manage you! Be a proactive catalyst for change, not a reactive casualty of it.

headshot-mhordes_200For more information, contact Mark Hordes at mark.hordes@molten- group.com  or visit http://sia-partners.com/

Mark will be hosting a free webinar for HRDQ-U on October 1st at 2PM ET called Creating Change Management Capability: Experience Success. Register here to reserve your spot today.

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