Category: Education

IS UNCONSCIOUS BIAS SNEAKING INTO YOUR WORKPLACE?

“Okay you guys; it’s time to get down to work,” Jordan says to her team. “Man, this is really going to be a challenge,” Luke replies, exasperated. “Oh brother, here we go, another late night at the office,” Sarah sighs loudly.
This conversation seems like a typical team exchange about a big project, right? Well, it is—and it drives me crazy. Why? Because of the language used: “you guys,” “man,” “oh brother.” This is a mixed gender team, yet the pronouns and expressions are entirely male.
It’s true that male pronouns are traditionally used to represent all members of a group regardless of gender. However, defaulting to what’s “traditional” is very tricky. One could argue that traditionally, women didn’t really have a voice in business anyway, or that traditionally, women were not leaders. The problem with “traditions” is they can be safe-havens for unconscious bias.

The Problem with Unconscious Bias

When language promotes bias, the impact is bigger than you might expect: it expresses an inherent belief that male teams are better. Or worse, that women don’t even belong on a team at all. The language may appear neutral or non-sexist, in that it applies to everyone, but it discriminates against women because it reflects the values of the men who created or developed the workplace. Another poignant example is the expression, “Are you man enough for the job?” Even if sayings like this are meant to be harmless, they contribute to many of the challenges women face in the workplace. For example, consider this: How often do you assume the CEO of a company is male?
It’s not only men and women that are guilty of this, the Oxford Dictionary is also an offender. Anthropologist and Ph.D. student Michael Oman-Reagan identified the following biased definitions (and more) in the Oxford Dictionary:
However, gender-biased language isn’t all we’re guilty of. I hear age-biased language about millennials all the time. For example, “I just hired a new kid.” The hire is most likely a “recent graduate” or “young person” which are better terms to use than kid.
I even saw generational bias in a recent article: “…many kids admitted into top schools are emotional wrecks.” If this is the language we use to describe young people, then our words subconsciously allow us to treat them like children, which partly explains why Gen Y feels like no one takes them seriously. Is this really how we want to treat the second biggest generation, who happens to have the most educated people in its cohort?

When to Watch Your Words

That brings me to an important question: Are leaders giving enough thought to the language they use daily? I’m not talking about overtly offensive language or ethnic slurs. I’m talking about the subtle language we say on autopilot, the type of language that comes from—and worse, reinforces—unconscious, biased behavior.
My challenge for all of you is to eliminate these biased words from your vocabulary and try these alternatives instead:
  1. “You guys”: Instead use “everyone,” “all of you,” “team”
  2. “The kid”: Instead use “the young person,” “young lady,” “young man”
  3. “Oh man” or “Oh brother”: Instead use “wow,” “ugh,” “yikes
  4. “Attendees and their wives are invited”: Instead use, “Attendees and their guests…”
  5. “Congressman”: Instead use “Member of Congress,” “legislator,” “representative”
  6. “Mankind”: Instead use “humankind,” “humans,” “people”
  7. “Manpower”: Instead use “personnel,” “staff”
  8. “Salesman”: Instead use “salesperson”
Seems simple enough, doesn’t it? After you start with the eight words above, you’ll begin to notice how much this language is used on a daily basis. All it takes is practice and awareness to help lower the burden of bias on the women and young people around you. Remember: language creates action and action becomes accepted behavior which informs organizational culture. Your language, and your actions, matter.

5 TIPS FOR MANAGING UNCONSCIOUS BIAS AT WORK

Bias—a tendency to believe that some people and ideas are better than others—wreaks havoc in the workplace. It keeps women and people of color out of the boardroom, limits job opportunities, prevents organizations from the true monetary and cultural benefits of a diverse workforce, makes it difficult for Baby Boomers to get jobs and more. While it’s easy to identify and limit bias when it’s overt, that’s not always the case—in fact, bias can often be completely unconscious.
Even those with the best intentions behave in biased ways, and simply have no idea they’re doing it. Most of us use biased language without giving it a second thought.
Companies like Google, whose employees are 70 percent male, 3 percent Hispanic and only 2 percent Black look to unconscious bias, or hidden bias, as a way to explain their inequitable diversity statistics. How else could such a well-educated, well-intentioned company account for hiring mostly young white and Asian men?
The good news is that unconscious bias hiding in plain sight works in management’s favor, because the concept is relatively blameless. If we all have hidden biases, then working to eliminate them won’t single us out—hopefully increasing employees’ and leadership’s willingness to learn.
Here are seven tips for managing unconscious bias that you can use for yourself, your team and your company’s leadership. Remember: No one is immune to unconscious bias and all initiatives should be company-wide.

1) Take an Implicit Associations Test

A good place to start is with an Implicit Associations Test (IAT), developed by Tony Greenwald, a University of Washington professor who started researching unconscious bias in 1994. The test takes five minutes and cuts through the perceptions of our own biases on gender, religion, race, sexuality and more. Prepare test takers for the fact that about 75 percent of people who have taken the race IAT show biases.

2) Watch Your Language

Avoid words or phrases like: “the kid,” “oh man” or “oh brother,” “manpower,” “you guys,” “attendees and their wives,” etc. These phrases are biased and feed the subconscious biases of those around you. Here is more information about biased language, including a table of alternative words to add to your vocabulary.

3) Identify Entry Points for Bias

Start by taking a look at these four things:
  • How people are hired
  • How work is assigned
  • What happens during performance evaluations
  • How compensation is determined
Where does bias have the opportunity to influence each process? For example, when looking at how people are hired, you may notice that 70 percent of people interviewed are men. You could then strip names and other identifying aspects from resumes before review to see if those statistics improve. This tactic is referred to as the interruption strategy. In addition, you could ensure the interview panels are more diverse—for example, when one gender has more decision making power than another, it perpetuates gender bias . People tend to hire and promote people who look like them.

4) Visualize a Positive Interaction

Psychological research shows that visualizing a particular situation can create the same effects behaviorally and psychologically as actually experiencing the situation. In addition, brain studies reveal that mental imagery impacts several cognitive processes in the brain, including attention, perceptions, planning and memory. This means you can train your brain for action through visualization.
What should you visualize? You can imagine yourself in a positive and productive meeting with team members who are of a different ethnicity, generation or gender from you.

5) Encourage Workers to Hold Each Other Accountable

Part of making a concerted effort to eliminate prevailing bias is working together. This is especially key when it comes to hidden bias. Awareness is the first step to enacting any sort of change, so help those on your team be more aware of their behaviors so they are able to self-correct. This goes for management and leadership, too. All major organizational changes need to have complete buy-in and support from leaders.
Biases come in all forms. There are biases against each generation, people with disabilities, LGBTQ people, working parents—even a person’s height can cause bias! It’s important to realize that all biases hurt the success of organizations. By creating an environment for open dialogue, you can make a strong effort to address this issue.

WILLIAM TINCUP: 7 STEPS TO DEFINE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

HR leaders spend a lot of time thinking about how to support and enrich other people’s careers. But it’s also important to turn the lens on ourselves, making sure we’re fully present and fulfilled at work. To wit, we asked William Tincup, principal analyst at Key Interval Research, for his advice on polishing up your personal brand:
Would you hire yourself? Don’t answer just yet.
Just for a moment, think of yourself as a product. What are your features, benefits and attributes? What is your brand strategy? In order to create your true and unique brand, you need to ask yourself some hard questions. This won’t be easy, but I promise it will be worth your time.
To get started, here are 7 suggested exercises to follow as you define your personal brand.

1. What is your vision?

What is the vision behind what you do, who you are, how you behave?
Try to visualize what your life and career looks like now, 6 months from now, 3 years from now. What are some of the paths that enable these visions? Even if your vision of your future self is blurry, it’s okay. You just need to have an idea—an inkling—of said vision. No one else is going to manage your career, it’s up to you.

2. What are your values?

What do you really stand for? What line cannot be crossed?
Your brain should hurt when you conduct this exercise. At the edges of these thoughts are: What would you be willing to die for? There are no easy answers, but you must be in touch with your values. Period. Those that don’t understand their own values, generally speaking, end up having their values trampled.

3. Where do you flourish? Where do you fail?

You need to have an understanding of where you shine, what support structures you need and what types of people inspire you. These qualities will define the “Feng Shui” of your employment and help you predict success.
Being able to predict your own failure and—hopefully—avoiding it is another story. You must be able to explain that to your bosses and potential employers, and step away from opportunities that you know will be toxic. Read: “The only times I’ve ever failed in life is where I tried to be someone else. If you want me to be someone else, let’s part ways now.”

4. Admit that when you’ve sucked, you’ve sucked in a big way.

Most candidates try to present themselves as perfect. All recruiters know know they’re lying. Get comfortable with your warts—all of them. If you cuss, own it. If you’re a social drinker, own it. When you’ve let others down, own it. Tell the truth. And, more to the point, if your potential employer wants someone that’s perfect, you were just going to get fired anyway. Save everyone the time and sorrow. Own up to your flaws.

5. Why are you so awesome?

Own up to your strengths, too. Inventory all of the amazing things you’ve accomplished. Turns out, you’re probably pretty awesome—don’t be afraid to share it. Modesty is attractive, but too much humility will make you appear either weak, not compelling or both. It’s hard to know when to beat your chest, but take your inventory of success and be brave enough to spread the word about your awesomeness.

6. When are you rational? When you are emotional?

Personality experts would have you believe that personality is everything—who you marry, who you befriend, how you act at the Christmas party, etc.
I’m not sure I buy the depth of that, but I do believe personality is critical to matching employers happily with employees. So, as an employee, how well do you really know your own personality? No perfect answer. Just inventory yourself and ask some really difficult questions: When am I at my rational best? When do I become emotional, and why?
In this exercise, you’re just trying to become aware, that’s it. So you can tell a compelling story about your personality. Like fingerprints, it will be only yours.

7. How do you make other people better?

I’d use a sports reference here, but that’s really boring and lazy. Truth is, we’ve all been in situations (groups, classes, parties, etc.) where we’ve seen it with our own eyes: a person making everyone around them better. We’ve also seen the opposite—a person who destroys the things and people around them. People be damned. Success be dammed. Scorched Earth.
You should be able to articulate, specifically, how you can and will make everyone you interact with better. This is where you align your brand with your company’s brand.
So, there are seven (simple?) exercises. You’ll think of more “brand called me” exercises as you think about yourself as a can of soup or box of cereal. You’ll come up with more inventories. The game is simple and yet oddly complex: know thy self.
And by “thyself” I mean your “true and unique” brand. If the exercises above were easy for you, then start to inventory your passions and your competencies, and look for the sweet spot where you align those with your brand. Oh, and by the way, 99 percent of Americans haven’t created this said alignment.
That stat was completely made up, but you get the idea.

Day of Prayer

Our governor has declared today, March 29, to be a special day of prayer for our state and for our nation, particularly in regard to the current virus pandemic. In response, I offer three timely prayers as written in The Lutheran Hymnal (published in 1941). I considered modernizing the pronouns and verbs, but chose to leave them as written.

Prayer for the sick: “Almighty, everlasting God, the eternal Salvation of them that believe, hear our prayers in behalf of Thy servants who are sick, for whom we implore the aid of Thy mercy, that, being restored to health, they may render thanks to Thee in Thy Church; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.”

A second prayer for the sick: “O Lord, look down from heaven, behold, visit, and relieve Thy servants for whom we offer our supplications; look upon them with the eyes of Thy mercy; give them comfort and sure confidence in Thee, defend them from the danger of the enemy, and keep them in perpetual peace and safety; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.”

This third prayer might spark some thought and conversation: In time of great sickness: “Almighty and most merciful God, our heavenly Father, we, Thine erring children, humbly confess unto Thee that we have justly deserved the chastening which for our sins Thou hast sent upon us; but we entreat Thee, of Thy boundless goodness to grant us true repentance, graciously to forgive our sins, to remove from us, or to lighten, our merited punishment, and so to strengthen us by Thy grace that as obedient children we may be subject to Thy will and bear our afflictions in patience; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord.”

I posted these on Facebook an hour ago. It will be interesting to gauge the reactions. J.

The Beatles

In April 1973, Apple Records released two double albums (eight sides in all) containing fifty-four songs that had been recorded and released by the Beatles between 1962 and 1970. Officially named The Beatles 1962-1966 and The Beatles 1967-1970, the recordings quickly became known as “The Red Album” and “The Blue Album” because of the color of the album covers. (A double album of new material from the Beatles, released in November 1968, had been named The Beatles but is usually called “The White Album.”)

Other compilations of Beatle music had been released before 1973 and have been released since 1973, but for many Beatles fans the Red Album and Blue Album are the definitive collection of Beatle songs. Fans can easily debate the selections. I, for example, would have included “If I Fell,” “I’ve Just Seen a Face,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Here, There, and Everywhere,” “I Will,” and “Sexy Sadie,” among others.  With the coming and going of compact discs and the current availability of digital recordings, the red and blue albums are likely irrelevant to newer fans of the Beatles. But in the history of Beatle fandom, those albums have an important place.

A few days ago I tested my memory to see if I could recall all fifty-four songs included on the red and blue albums, as well as the order in which they appeared. Some sides I remembered easily; others were dimmer in my memory. Finally I had to pull them out of my collection and fill the gaps. (Yes, I still have my vinyl albums that I bought in the Seventies and Eighties.)  Interestingly (to me if to no one else), the songs I had forgotten were largely from the Rubber Soul and Magical Mystery Tour eras. “In My Life” and “Hello, Good-bye” are both songs that I like, but for some reason I had forgotten that they are included on the Red Album and the Blue Album, respectively.

Last year’s movie Yesterday imagined a world in which the Beatles had never existed and almost no one had ever heard their music. One man could remember and reproduce the songs of the Beatles, and he introduced them into the world. At first he found it difficult to get people to listen, but eventually the songs made a big impact. The first time I saw the movie, I didn’t like how the Beatle music was scrambled together, not showing the development of their musical styles and interests. But I then realized that younger Beatle fans know the music of the Beatles exactly in that fashion—all one package, without context of years and albums and formative influences. My children grew up hearing the Beatles music at home, and they probably remember some songs by album—Abbey Road, for example, or A Hard Day’s Night. But even for them, hearing “And I Love Her” side by side with “Oh, Darling” would probably not strike them as essentially different songs—just two of the many great songs written and recorded by the Beatles. J.

Home Schooling Activities to educate students during the COVID 19 virus emergency

Learning at Home during the ‘Lock down‘

(I haven’t written a blog for months but thought I would share a few ideas that i had posted on Facebook. There are still people viewing my blog so here goes)


Learn Five New Things a Week
I heard yesterday on National Radio an interesting idea for students to do at home ~ get them to learn five new things a week ~practical things like learning to cook something new, or study something of personal interest etc Students could make a list of things they want to learn about – a personalized curriculum.
I note a lot of school sending out worksheet activities for their students but I feel the situation requires something more creative. Too many worksheets would not be a good idea – time to think out of the box.
Set up a ‘My Learning Journal /Scrapbook’. 
Students could set up a My Learning Journal to record activities ~could make a wonderful family historical artifact to share in the future?
Set me thinking of other possible home learning tasks like: 
Sorting family photos and making a PowerPoint presentation to share with the family
Finding and writing up family histories from mum and dad.
Develop a family reading group and share what each member has been reading (keep a reading log) 
Draw something every day (maybe choosing something from their environment),
Keep a diary of events as the situation unfolds ( think of Anne Franks)
Write a short poem each day and illustrate to share 
Research the photos and ornaments around the home – there is usually a story behind each picture /ornament
Do  personal research project on something of interest each week (make a list of ideas to add to and then choose o to study),
With mum and dad keep a record of family spending,-learn basic budgeting.
Do a research study of a family pet – how to care for them, how they evolved to be pets how wild animals relate to domestic pets.
Learn to use basic Te reo phrases  as a family (school could supply or google them),
Learn to play a musical instrument (possibly not a recorder!). Develop a simple percussion band with siblings (in the backyard),
Develop a PE obstacle track in the backyard.. Time and record how long it takes to get around How many balls can you catch before dropping a catch; develop a short cycle of fitness activities,;play skipping and catching balls game ~make a record of improvement.
Try out different art activities ~simple printing (potato printing) /using different media.
 Take digital photographs on a phone and select five to share/print. Could set a theme  nature photos for example.
 Research some simple science activities to do using Google , for example kitchen science (all baking is science)
Technology challenges ~like make a bridge from rolled newspaper or experiment how far can your paper dart can fly,/lesson on keeping safe
Learn the names of flowers in the garden ~research them on Google
You might want to learn about viruses ~sure is plenty of information. Guess most parents will have had a family meetings to discuss the virus with family members. 
Just thought some of the above may be of interest? 
And that the list above may also encourage you to think of your own activities
A bit of advice ~try to encourage kids to take their time. Too often they think first finished is best
On reflection the ideas above cover all the Learning Areas of the New Zealand Curriculum and , in particular, the phrase every student should ‘seek , use and create their own knowledge’.

HOW TO ASK A PURPOSEFUL QUESTION

At an early age in your professional career, many were taught to seek ‘why’ people do things.  Whether you are a sales person, a project manager, or an implementer, we were taught to ask ‘why’.  Even in your personal life, we continue to ask why someone would do something like that to us, or why did someone make that decision.  Well, I’m here to tell you that is poor advice.

Let’s Gain Clarity

We need to understand what we are truly seeking and how to go about getting the real answer we seek.  The fact is that we really don’t want to know why, but we want to know, for what purpose.  Yes, there is a difference.  When asking why, we are communicating that we seek justification when what we really want is to seek for what purpose, or value.  By asking ‘why’, which implies justification, that places the individual in a defensive position.  When one is placed in a defensive position, the sole objective is to reduce or eliminate the threat, which, in this case, is you.  So long trying to get any meaningful information.  Now, let’s get practical.

A Common Professional Scenario

Let’s say you are engaged with a customer, either internal or external.  You seek to find purpose in a project or request.  You immediately launch into ‘why’ questions.  Your customer hears ‘give me your justification’.  They become defensive, believing they are not required to justify their request, especially to you.  In their mind, you have crossed the line in a hierarchical position in the relationship. They begin to shut down and gaining information becomes increasingly difficult. You get frustrated and continue to ask questions, badgering the customer, sounding like a four-year-old (why, why, why).  Eventually, they give you an answer, maybe even the justification for their request, which, unfortunately, is not really the information you need as it won’t help you solve their problem or fulfill their request.

What To Do

Okay, so what should you do?  The idea is to seek purpose or value so questions like “for what purpose do you need…?” or “if you had X what would that get you…?” might be more beneficial as they provide you with information that you can actually use.  Providing solution that support others’ purpose is really what you seek.  By raising the discussion to a higher level, you are now coming across as one that wants to help.  A by-product of this approach is that you being to understand not only the value you can bring, but also what your customer values, which is great insight for future discussions.
So, next time a customer has a request, or a loved one needs your help, seek to gain their purpose for the request and not place them in a defensive position by asking for their justification.  You and your customer (and your loved one) will be happier and more fulfilled.  #HappyLearning #HappyLife

ARE LEADERS BORN OR MADE? (WHO CARES!)

Okay, this post is really not about whether or not leaders are born or made.  The particular title of this post is one that’s been debated for a long time and continues to be debated in various circles. This is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart since this is my area of study. Though I pose this question as the title of this post, I would also suggest that we’re not really posing the correct question.
The issue is not really about whether a leader is born or made but more so about having an understanding that allows for intentional development and a process that we can repeat. We know that leaders are both born and made, however, what makes the discussion more interesting is whether or not we can repeat the process. It is obvious that we cannot repeat former, leaders are born, but certainly can repeat the latter, make and develop leaders for the future. So, why am I bringing this topic up on this blog?
The reason is simple, as L&D professionals, we are always seeking to assist in the development and improvement of those we serve. What we are seeking is a set of repeatable processes that not only can be replicated but that their outcome can be predictable. To that end, here are three areas for consideration as you develop learning and development processes.
Competency Model – Yes, I said it, the ‘C’ word. The often used yet trivialized term that we utilize in our circles. As overused as it is, this is the correct word. Basically, a competency is all of the skills, knowledge, and experience that contribute to the correct behavior needed to accomplish an activity or role. Therefore, a model is a set of competencies that combined allow me to completely fulfill the role required. From our example above, there are many leadership competencies that would assist in my understanding of what needs to be done.  This answers the ‘What do I need to do”
Reliable and Valid Metrics –  In this case, reliable and valid actually have a very real meaning. A reliable metric is a metric that measures exactly what it is that you’re trying to measure. For arguments sake, this reliability can be measured statistically, however, it is not the topic for discussion on this post right now. A valid metric is a metric that measures what it is that you want to measure. These metrics usually emanate from valid and reliable instruments. What I’m suggesting here is that we have instruments that reliably and validly measure the competencies stated above. This provides a current state of preparedness that acts as a baseline. This answers the “Where am I?”
L&D Assets to Close the Gap –  Lastly, we need a set of learning and development assets that help us close the gap between where we are, as identified by our instruments, and where we want to be as identified by the scores we would need to achieve. This answers the “How do I get there?”
Are Leaders born or made?  Who cares!  We now have a good understanding of a repeatable process that will get us to our objective.  Have a comment, idea or rebuttal?  Love to hear from you.  I’m at @DrTomTonkin on Twitter.  #HappyLearning

HOW TO BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR EXTENDED ENTERPRISE

No business operates in isolation. In today’s increasingly global and interconnected world, fostering good relationships with your entire value chain is not only critical for survival—it’s easier than ever.
No matter how much you invest in workplace and employee training, at the end of the day, success rests on how well the members of your value chain—distribution partners, sales reps, franchisees, service techs, and—work together to produce, market and sell your product or service. When treated with respect, these members can actually become more than just a “value chain”—they become true additions to your team, referred to as your “extended enterprise.”
So, how can you help everyone work better together? By providing resources and training to your value chain, you take the first step towards building  powerful relationships with your extended enterprise that deliver a more enjoyable experience to customers and benefit everyone’s bottom line.

Partner Enablement as a Customer Service Strategy & Profit

Extending your training programs to include your downstream partners empowers your channel sales and customer support teams, resulting in improved customer service and better brand impressions. This is particularly relevant for companies that build and sell complex products— such as software, electronics or machinery—because the crux of their survival lies in the ability of downstream partners to understand and utilize not just the initial product, but any updated versions after purchase. Let’s say, for example, a manufacturer sells armored vehicles to military contractors, and the military contractors in turn resell them to a private security company. If the manufacturer offers consistent training and information as part of their relationship with the contractor, the contractor can then instruct the security company on how to operate and service the vehicles. As a manufacturer, you enable your entire extended enterprise—from reseller to end-user—to do their jobs more effectively and ensure your product is performing at an optimal level.
This in turn provides the customer with a more satisfactory experience, leaving both the customer and the reseller with a stronger impression of your brand. The benefits don’t stop there: A 2014 Global Customer Service Survey by American Express found that “over two thirds (68%) of consumers state that they are willing to spend more with a company they believe provides excellent customer service.”

Satisfied Customers Become Brand Advocates

When a customer purchases your product, you should think of it as a marriage—not just a wedding. Treating this relationship like a marriage means ensuring your customer feels supported throughout their entire tenure, not just at the point of purchase. By providing them with continued support through access to online training and resources, you enable them to get the most value from your product.
This not only impacts future purchases, motivating them to buy your product again, but will also lead to them to recommend it to others in their network. In 2011, Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Michael Luca studied how customer reviews and ratings on Yelp affected revenue, finding that “each ratings star added on a Yelp review translated to anywhere from 5 percent to 9 perfect effect on revenues” and proving that customer reviews have a ton of influence on prospect decisions.

Cohesive Brand Experience

In 2011, a MyBuys and eTailing Consumer Survey “found that 72 percent of consumers wanted integrated marketing communications, but only 39 percent felt they got it.” Three years later, the same MyBuys and eTailing Consumer Survey found that “65 percent of companies still reported inconsistent marketing and messaging across different channels and devices.”
By providing a partner enablement platform where everyone in your value chain can get the same information about your product and company, you not only meet the desire for more consistent messaging—you also instill confidence in your value chain to speak on behalf of your brand. In addition, you’ll instill confidence in your internal employees to trust your extended enterprise to represent your brand, allowing everyone to work more efficiently.
Providing a place online for your distributors, marketers, channel sales and even customers to engage with your brand and each other acts a natural feedback loop, reducing the time customer service will have to spend on one-off inbound requests for information; your customers won’t have to sift through pages of Google links for the answer, or suffer through 30 minutes of hold music just to be transferred four times.

ONBOARDING IN HEALTHCARE: TO SOCIALIZE OR NOT – IS THAT A QUESTION?

I’m sure you remember. It was your first job. You wondered whether or not they would like you. You thought to yourself, “Will I be able to do the job?” Peer pressure seeped in when you walked into the hospital the first time. However, it’s not about your skills. It was whether or not the culture would accept you. Would people embrace you and give you the understanding of the “ins and outs” of this particular hospital?
Leadership told you that you would be onboarded, that murky process when the hiring manager pulls you aside and has you fill out all the employment forms as well as to confirm you are up-to-date with your compliance training. Perhaps you get to meet your boss, some coworkers and go out to lunch. How would you be received? 

Where is Onboarding?

The fact remains that onboarding, as a discipline, is often neglected not only in the healthcare industry but also by other industries as well. Little has been said about the onboarding process since usually confined to employment forms and compliance training. The reality is that onboarding is an integral part of the employee lifecycle and can make a difference to whether or not you can stave off the challenges of attrition for years to come.
In the market, the healthcare industry has suffered an average of 28% turnover year-over-year (Note 1). As baby boomers continue to retire, reports show us that two-thirds of nurses over the age of 54 will be considering retirement in the next three years (Note 2). If these predictions continue, it appears that we will be 1.2 million nurses short by the year 2022 (Note 3). The challenge is real and current.  The need to address onboarding is an immediate one.

Let’s take Different Perspective

Human Resource scholars from Portland State University, Talya Bauer and Berrin Erdogan, decided that they would assume the challenge to define better and address the lost art (and science) of onboarding.
Bauer and Erdogan define organizational socialization (read “onboarding”) as “a process through which new employees move from being organizational outsiders to becoming organizational insiders” (Note 4).  Their conclusions suggested that it is more important to take the time to socialize new employees into the institution early on in their employment history to ensure greater levels of employee satisfaction and organizational commitment, while at the macro level, reducing turnover and increasing personnel performance.  They offer a set of steps that organizations can take to help in the socializing process.  These measures consist of socialization tactics, formal orientation, recruitment and realistic previews as well as, providing organizational insiders as preceptors.

Socialization Tactics

In essence, this step suggests that the organization could intentionally connect new employees into the social structure of the institution. Some socialization tactics utilized, unconsciously, may be described as a “sink or swim” approach in which the employee is made the struggle to figure out the associated organizational norms and how they are to fit in. Though a tactic such as this has been effective to highlight self-directed employees, it is not very predictable in its outcome (Note 4).
An example a socialization tactic that is more useful and predictable is that of providing an activity that brings together current and new employees. Often, the perception of team building is as an activity without an outcome, however, in this case, the journey is far more beneficial than the destination. Having the opportunity to intentionally interact, at a social level, with new colleagues, makes the onboarding experience, not only more useful but also pleasant.
An example of a good onboarding socialization tactic is present at UCLA Health, where new residents are invited to participate in a day long ropes course activity to assist in establishing clear communications and building trust.  These activities also help in the future when teamwork and critical problem–solving skills are required.

Formal Orientation

This particular step is fairly traditional and has a place in the onboarding process. Not only can formal orientations help new employees feel welcome and provide them with the appropriate information for success, but it also shows the employee that the organization is rigorous and well-structured, that it has the best intentions for their success in their new job. Research does indicate that orientation programs can be effective when discussing the goals and the history of the particular institution. Evidence also shows that face-to-face orientation has greater levels of benefit over computer-based orientation when it comes to understanding the job (Note 4).
One hospital in the East utilizes the Wizard of Oz as the primary vehicle to present strong leadership skills.  Each new staff member is required to watch the Wizard of Oz movie before their formal orientation so that they can discuss leadership principals in the movie and at the hospital.  This approach is efficient and memorable when they are in the midst of the hustle on the hospital floor.

Recruitment and Realistic Previews

We have already recognized that social events are essential in the onboarding process, but it should not stop there. Bauer and Erdogan also suggest that a good onboarding process continues to recruit the employee even after the candidate becomes a formal employee. The recruitment process, during onboarding, is not like the recruiting process when discussing a job with the candidate, but more so in providing a realistic view of the job to be performed. A realistic preview encompasses showing the new employee the company culture, in action, and giving them as much accurate information about what is required (Note 4). Often, onboarding processes provide a glossy and unrealistic view of the organization and the associated job, therefore, eroding a proper understanding.   A better approach to this situation is to conduct ongoing job fairs and other cross functional activities so the new employee can continue to embed themselves in the institution and have a more realistic view of what is required.
An example of recruitment and realistic preview come from a national senior living healthcare provider.  Every year, they conduct an operational meeting where many of their 20,000 employees converge at headquarters to hear from senior leadership and take corporate training.  During their stay for the week, there is also a department “fair.”  Picture a large convention hall with many tables set out representing the various departments and major projects currently at the organization.  This strategy allows new employees as well as veterans to see what is happening across the groups and potentially provide a vision to serve in different capacities within the company.

Organizational Insider

One of the more significant discoveries of organizational socialization research is the use of a mentor, or preceptor, assigned to the new employee. Having a one-on-one relationship between mentor and new employee allows for specific questions to be answered as well as job instruction, offering social support during the socialization process. Continued research has found that new hires are more likely to internalize key values of the organization, and its associated culture if they attend social events and spend time with an organizational mentor (Note 4).
Meet Steve and Katrina Greer.  Some time ago, Steve contracted Leukemia and admitted to the Penn State Hershey Medical Center (Note 5).  Katrina, Steve’s daughter, spent many a day and night at the hospital with her father as he underwent treatment.  Katrina, concerned about her father, observed the nurses take care of him.  Katrina had plans to become an orthodontist, however, after seeing the critical role that nurses play in our healthcare system, she deiced to become a nurse herself.  “Nurses saved my father,” Katrina states.  She especially connected with one of Steve’s nurses, Angie.  It was Angie’s actions that convinced Katrina to take up nursing.  Mentorship is a powerful force.
Though there are many influences in the onboarding of clinical staff in a healthcare institute, organizations must begin to tackle the onboarding process in a more proactive way. As the job market continues to be challenging for healthcare institutions to satisfy their need, these same institutions must take heed to current lackadaisical onboarding processes and take advantage of an intentional approach. By examining these four areas with relation to your current onboarding processes, you may be able to be in a better position to provide greater levels of organizational socialization thus achieving better odds in increasing retention, improving performance and overall employee satisfaction.
Onboarding alone is not the answer.  There are many factors that contribute to attrition and productivity.  It is for that reason that Cornerstone is conducting a four-part series focused on healthcare talent issues.  We would love to have you attend the next session on on October 19th where we will be focusing in on engagement.  Interested? Here is the link to register and we look forward to seeing you there.

THREE STEPS TO MAKE LEARNING LAST

I think it’s fair to say we all want our learning to last.   I think we call it ‘sticky’.  We spend many hours reading, watching videos or in training classes, we want to see our efforts (and our expense) pay off. From a corporate perspective, CEB, a research firm, reports that sales representatives are forgetting 70 percent of the content that they receive in one week, and 90 percent in one month.  That’s from the learner side of the equation. From another point of view, leaders are looking for lasting learning to go to the next step and provide bottom line impact.  An ATD/ROI Institute study found that 96 percent percent of CEOs stated that their number one concern in learning is the associated impact it may bring.  They want proof that their investment in learning has a corporate payoff.
In this post, I break down two learning ingredients, the learning process and the learning content into the two areas for consideration to make learning last.

Making Learning Last

The first key ingredient, the learning process, at the lowest level, is to move the new, learned material from short-term memory (STM) to long-term memory (LTM) such that it can be accessed when needed for many years to come.  This process is called encoding.  This process also transcends age, gender, experience and other demographics when we consider creating learning content because we are addressing the human brain.  Whenever we consume information, we are storing it first in short-term memory.  This is a very similar paradigm of that of a PC.  When we are entering information, we are entering it into memory.  When we hit the save button, that moves the data from memory to the hard drive for later retrieval and use.  So, how do we ‘hit the save button’?
The way to move information we consumed from STM to LTM is through rehearsal and repetition, however, we must be sure that that the information consumed is correct.  The adage “practice makes perfect” is false, practice makes permanent.  Be sure you have the correct information when the student rehearses and repeats as we are not only moving information from STM to LTM, but we are also creating new information that is generated from the experience itself.
The second key ingredient, the learning content, suggests that we also need to understand that the human brain is composed, at the highest level, of two sides, the right brain and the left brain.  We know that the right brain addresses aspects that are abstract; it concerns itself with the big picture, while the left brain addresses the detailed piece; it creates the linear directions needed to accomplish something.  The left brain makes the ideas of the right brain come to life.
The last key ingredient, also concerning content is that we need to ensure that the information correctly stored in the brain and easily retrieved.  The default way that the brain stores all sorts of information is using schemas (Aronson, E., Wilson, T. D., & Akert, R. M. (2005)).  Think of schemas as little cubbyholes created from our previous experiences.  When we learn new information, if not given a new schema, we will utilize older schemas to store this new information.  Sometimes the schema could not match-up to the learning purpose.
To illustrate this, in a recent meeting with top level executives at a for profit organization, I conducted a word association exercise.  I presented the group with a word, with no context, or, in our case, a schema, and then gave them 15 seconds to write down other words that described the given word.  The word I gave them was ‘baseball’. After fifteen seconds, we went around the room to see what everyone wrote.  There were some standard answers like ‘past time and ‘sport’, but there was one person that gave us another set of words.  He chose ‘passion’ and ‘dream’. When we discussed his words, he told us that when we was a child, his dream was to be a professional baseball player.  As a matter of fact, he tried out for the Majors at one point.  His schema was based on his experience and without context for the word, that is where his brain placed the word baseball.
So, what do we need to do to make our learning last.  Below are three steps, based on these findings that will make your learning investment last.

Practical Application

  1. Be sure you have a process of learning that allows the learner to rehearse and repeat information.
  2. Insist that the content is sorted in such a way that the learner is consuming the right content for the right reason. Tell them what and for what purpose they need to learn something.  Connecting the right (abstract) part of the brain to the left (linear) part of the brain.
  3. Lastly, Does the learner know for what purpose they are consuming the content?  This allows them to classify the learning for greater retention in the correct, created schema.
Looking at your on-going learning efforts, are you making learning last? Let me know via Twitter @DrTomTonkin — #LearningLast.

DO YOU KNOW HER? A LESSON IN SUCCESSION PLANNING

I always enjoy this time year, the beginning of a calendar, which is usually the beginning of a fiscal year for many companies, where they are finishing up their performance appraisals from last year as well as any strategic planning for the coming year. Part of the strategic plans is taking a more critical look at their succession plans. In the past, succession plans were reserved for senior management, and usually, they were more of ascension plans. In today’s competitive talent world, all positions, specifically those that are critical to running the business must have succession planning efforts placed behind them. With this level of rigor required, many succession planning efforts are usually made by committee. Also, people considered for new positions often have a smaller body of work to show those making succession decisions. This scenario was not the case for senior leadership as most people occupying those positions usually had a much larger body of work for people to feel comfortable about their decisions. Without a large bodywork, many succession planners must rely on their experience and intuition. In today’s modern, and yet litigious world, this is often a very uncomfortable place to reside.

Carly Speaks

Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to listen to Carly Fiorina, the ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard and most recently a presidential candidate. Regardless what you think about Ms. Fiorina, she certainly does have a large body of work as well as a significant amount of experience. The topic of her discussion was on leadership required for our current society. She spoke about various ideas on modern leadership, but one area caught my attention, and that was of succession planning. Her premise was that modern leaders must have a good understanding of the talent that surrounds them as well as the ability to take notice of the potential. She spent a lot of time talking about how modern leaders must see the possibilities and not the constraints of a situation. She also made an interesting discernment between managers and leaders. She was first careful to say that managers are very much needed, as well as leaders. However, each fulfills a different role. Ms. Fiorina stated, “managers deliver results within the conditions and constraints given, while leaders change the conditions and constraints to deliver the results they need.”  Her statement is close to the quote that Peter Drucker stated, “managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing.”
So, what does all this have to do with succession planning? All of this adds up to the preamble of a view on succession planning that Fiorina brought to the talk. Not only do leaders must have an appreciation for the possible but they also must facilitate familiarity. When dealing with lower level positions in an organization that requires succession planning, and usually by committee, the one hindrance for accomplished people to move forward is that they are not familiar to those that make succession decisions. Not only must a leader have an opinion about the potential within someone, but once they see that potential, they must be able to socialize that person to others. Remember, we’re talking about people that do not have a large body of work to rely on, to be noticed.

So, what do we do?

So very often a lot of these famous leaders and executives talk about what someone should do. However, they rarely talk about how to do it. It was interesting that during the speech she addressed that particular issue and said that her practice, as an executive, was to talk about all the people that were in line for succession at the company. Regardless if it was next quarter or five years from now because she felt as if she needed to familiarize everyone with the people queued for upcoming positions. She said they would talk about the person’s current position and their current results as well as skills and potential skills. They talked about both their hard (i.e. technical) and their soft skills (i.e. interpersonal communications). What I then thought about that when she said that this group would meet to talk about these things is that somebody in the group needed to know about the people that they were indeed advocating. This aspect of familiarity is what we often do not address. If we are considering someone for succession, we are placing our vote of confidence as well as our reputation that this person will do what you said they would deliver; that we trust them.  Another challenge in the succession planning models of today.
Deutsch, Coleman, and Marcus (2006) state that the erosion of trust equates to missed expectations. It would be reasonable to suggest that to increase trust we must meet or exceed expectations. To test this assumption, we can utilize extreme such as telling a lie. Telling a lie is probably the most extreme way to miss an expectation. I think it’s safe to say that if somebody tells us a lie we probably don’t trust them. However, if someone says that they’re going to do something and does it, it’s fair to say that we have an opportunity to increase our trust for that individual. By connecting the previous discussion on betting our reputation on someone in the organization to advance, we must also be able to trust them.

Putting it all together

  • Be a leader – See what is possible and seek other’s potential. Don’t work within the constraints and conditions but redefine those constraints and conditions to achieve optimal results.
  • Invest in others – Understand people’s motivations, desires as well as professional aspirations. Build trust with others through meeting and exceeding their expectations.
  • Familiarize yourself with others – When you hear people talking about sponsoring others or advocating for someone else what that means is that they are allowing others, in the decision-making process, to familiarize themselves with you. If you are a leader, hold frequent and consistent meetings where the leadership team gets to know everyone else’s protégé.
Looking at your succession efforts, how are you familiarizing yourself with potential successors? Let me know via Twitter @DrTomTonkin — #FiorinaSuccession.

DOES YOUR ORGANIZATIONAL PERSONALITY MATTER?

What does that even mean, organizational personality, and why should we care? If you are concerned about high attrition/low retention in your organization, then this is a “must-read” blog post. See how your organizational personality affects employee engagement.
I was talking with my friend; we will call him Phil, well, that’s because that is his name. He mentioned that he felt that his relationship with his boss was starting to wane. When I asked him what specifically he did to bring their relationship to a standstill, he couldn’t give me more than his perception of who his boss was and not based on anything that his boss did. It was his perception of who his boss was that changed Phil’s engagement. I wonder if this was true of employee engagement. Would an employee engage differently based on their perception of the organization’s personality? Let’s add some science to this discussion.

Are you a ‘Happy’ Organization?

Stephen Linstead and Heather Höpfl (2000), authors of “The Aesthetics of Organization,” suggest that giving human qualities to an organization may give us greater insight to some of the issues we may face with particular talent management concerns. For example, beautiful organizations are found to be attractive and harmonious while ugly organization, the opposite of beauty, are found to be alienating and fake. Comic organizations take deliberate actions to provoke laughter. Unfortunately, comic organizations are born from an unexpected release of fear. Once we have an understanding of different organizational personalities, we may see a metamorphosis. These authors maintain that a comical organization is what happens to an ugly organization when it evolves. Comical organizations are like beautiful ones, however, while beautiful organizations are the opposite of ugly one, a comical one may embrace its ugliness in a charming and self-deprecating way.
If we anthropomorphize organizations (give organizations human qualities), we may be able to diagnose talent attrition issues better and generate better solutions to increase retention. For example, you would not want to hang out with an angry person, would you? They are usually negative and see the glass half empty in almost all topics of conversation. Well, let’s say that your organization is “angry,” and the culture is that of being jaded and sarcastic, you wouldn’t expect people to hang around very long.
Let’s do an exercise right now. How would you describe your organization? What one word captures the personality of your organization? Overbearing? Happy? Joyful? Once you have that word, what “behavioral” evidence (remember, we are anthropomorphizing your organizations) do you have to make your claim? Is it unfair policies? Perhaps an espoused meritocracy that is mostly based on biased practices with little advancement led from effort and accountability. Whatever behaviors may be embedded in your culture, there is something you can do to improve these “personality traits.”

It’s really about culture

I think you guessed it by now that these “personality traits” all transcend into the organizational culture. Organizational culture is all of those shared norms, beliefs and values that linger in the fabric of the organization. Some of these values are embodied in the policies and procedures while others are an unintended consequence of these same policies, procedures and practices.
Edgar Schein, an organizational culture icon and a personal academic hero of mine, suggests that there are three major components in interpreting organizational culture, artifacts, espoused values and basic underlying assumptions (Schein, 2010).
  • Artifacts – These are the visual organizational structures and processes. These are usually hard to decipher as they are out of context and require us to see the whole picture before we can see their value.
  • Espoused Values – These are the strategies, goals and philosophies of the organization, the justification for their actions. 
  • Basic Underlying Assumptions – Unconscious, taken for granted beliefs. These are our thoughts and feelings, the ultimate source of our actions.

Let’s get practical

Given these lenses, we can see that an LMS (artifact) does not make a learning organization (espoused values). A performance appraisal process (espoused value) does not make for a fair compensation structure (basic underlying assumption), and mobility applications (artifacts) do not make an organization agile (espoused value). However, they can give us clues on how to potentially make it better.
Years ago, I was working is a midsized organization looking to revamp their performance appraisal process. Their thought was that by instituting a new performance appraisal process, they could drive change into the organization. There is some merit to this thinking if the espoused values and underlying assumptions line up.
When investigating their current state, I saw an existing performance appraisal process that included the necessary forms and other assets (artifact). Sure, it could use some improvement, what performance appraisal process couldn’t use some help? However, when I dug deeper, the sentiment was that performance appraisals were a chore. They barely had them yearly, and the managers that did not do them were put on the dreaded “list.” We all know the “list” (espoused value leading to an underlying assumption, being on the list is bad): The one that goes out to everyone and your boss depicting your insubordination towards the appraisal process (okay, a bit dramatic, but you get the idea). This motivation drove many to do the appraisal motivated by not being on the list as opposed to the benefits of having a productive discussion with your subordinates (espoused value).
There were also unintended consequences to the process. Given that managers did not want to spend any more time than they needed to, all of the assessments of employees landed in the middle of the scale because it was easier and faster than giving specific feedback. The consequence? High performers were not recognized; low performers were given a bye. High performers left as they did not feel valued and low performers stayed and continued to perform the same way since their performance endorsed a standard practice. Okay, how do we fix this?
We need to reframe what we value. In this case, the organization wanted to value talent, and losing talent was a bad thing. So, perhaps connecting the “list,” an espoused value, to losing talent and not to executing on an appraisal process might be a good start. At first, this appears to be a negative approach. However, we’re undergoing a cultural “you’re missing a thesis statement” here. A thesis statement tells the reader what you’re going to say, as well as helps them navigate through the transformation; these steps are just that, steps, and temporal at that, they are not forever. We need to transform the culture one step at a time. Once people do not want to be on the list for losing talent, they will then start to adopt practices that inhibit the loss of good talent like practicing good performance appraisal processes, a consequential benefit.

Three Steps to Adjusting your Organizational Personality

  • Identify your Organizational Personality and Associated Behaviors – Go through the exercise earlier in the post. What is one word that describes your organizational personality? What behaviors do you see that would give this impression? Are they the policies, procedures and practices themselves, or the unintended consequences from these?
  • Map these behaviors to the three levels of organizational culture – Some of these behaviors will map to artifacts such as people leaving early (or late). Others will map to espoused values, such as staying off “the list.” Lastly, some of these behaviors are underlying assumptions, such as getting a raise less than 5 percent means I’m not valued. 
  • Work backward and change your assumptions – Many times we start with artifacts, such as purchase an LMS, and assume we will all become great employees. We need to understand the basic underlying assumptions and reframe them so we can transform our culture. 
Examine your organizational personality. Can you make it better? You sure can. Let me know via Twitter @DrTomTonkin with the hashtag #OrganizationalPersonality.
References
Linstead, S., & Höpfl, H. (2000). The aesthetics of organization. London ; Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.
Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

WHAT DO BROKEN WINDOWS AND YOUR LEARNING EXPERIENCE HAVE IN COMMON?

If you are in the learning space and follow the trends as of late, you’ve seen that the market is shifting from a focus on learning management systems to learning experiences. This assertion is not a dismissal of learning management systems, but more so a focus on the experience that a learner may encounter. The fact remains that regardless of focus, we all have experienced learning to some degree. Starting at a very young age, we were given goals and expectations through rote exercises, and as we matured through the educational system, we became familiar with rubrics and lectures. The same can be said for corporate education. When you’re first hired, you were given a set of learning tasks during your onboarding, most likely including compliance training as well as awareness of corporate policy. All of these “experiences” influence the way you perceive learning.

The Tipping Point Theory

In a recent webinar, “Creating the LMS experience: It’s the new way of delivering learning,” my team at Cornerstone tackled the importance of context and how it influences your learning experience. During the webinar, we discussed Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point framework. In essence, the framework answers the question, “How did the popular shoe, Hush Puppies, become a raging sensation in the mid-90s after almost being an extinct product?” Gladwell suggests that there are three components in creating a Tipping Point: “The Law of the Few,” “The Stickiness Factor,” and “The Power of Context.” Because of the complexities of each, we only discussed the second point in the webinar, “The Stickiness Factor.” This component was also one that Gladwell was a bit vague in operationalizing and needed some attention. For the sake of expanding on the entire notion of a learning experience tipping point, this article touches on only the third point, “The Power of Context.” It specifically addresses the theory of the “Broken Windows” and how it applies to the learning experience.

Is It a Crime to Learn?

Gladwell borrows the theory of the “Broken Windows” from criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Killing to frame his “Power of Context” tipping point component. The term, ‘broken windows’ came from the metaphor that suggests that if a window is broken (in a neighborhood) and left unrepaired, those that walk by it conclude that no one cares nor is in charge. From there, anarchy ensues. Wilson and Kelly suggest that crime is a direct result of broken windows.
Gladwell suggests that this is the basis for “The Power of Context” in the Tipping Point and this is something that we can also apply to our learning experience. A very classic example would be that of compliance training. I’m sure all of us have gone through an onboarding process at a new company that requires one to go through compliance training. What images do you have when I say the words “compliance training?” Yes, I thought so. These would be the “broken windows” in a learning experience. Explicitly, if this is the kind of training I can expect for my development, how compelling and engaging will it be? What might other “broken windows” do you have in a new learning experience?

Triadic Reciprocal Causation… Huh?

To best decompose and understand the learning experience in a fundamental and social way, we reach to Albert Bandura’s theory, Triadic Reciprocal Causation: Simply put, the three components that create a social learning experience—person, behavior, environment—all influence each other and create the overall learning experience. It is the quality of each the determines the effectiveness of the experience. Specifically, each of these three components has specific areas for consideration: 
  • Person – Understanding s person’s preferences, intelligence, thoughts, as well as personality, all have influence and how effective they are in their learning.
  • Behavior – Actions and verbalization, as well as nonverbal actions, influence the person’s learning effectiveness and experience
  • External environment – The corporate culture as well as physical material and other people have strong persuasive power for the overall learning experience.
Purely from a diagnostic perspective, we should evaluate not only each of these learning experience components, but also how they influence each other. For example, if the person is highly motivated, intelligent and has a personality to learn, but they are embedded in an environment that is not a learning culture and the physical resources are not available, the overall learning experience would be Ineffective.
As a concluding call to action, ay I suggest that you listen to a webinar recording that Brett Wilson, Practice Leader of the Thought Leadership and Strategy group at Cornerstone deliver on this same topic for even greater clarification.
So, given the three components, what would you say is the status of your learning experience? I would like to know, so let’s start the hashtag #LXState and message me @DrTomTonkin.
References
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point : how little things can make a big difference (1st ed.). Boston: Little, Brown.

BUILDING A SELF-DIRECTED ORGANIZATION

There are two critical challenges the modern Chief Learning Officer (CLO) faces. The first is that our educational system continues to manufacture dependent learners or learners that require direction, an authority figure and continuous specific feedback. The second challenge is that most private and public sectors take much of their learning cues from formal educational institutions. Though we are in a stage of focusing on the adult learner, many of the strategies and processes we utilize emanate from traditional educational paradigms.
Dissecting these two issues, we can conclude that they are not sustainable. If organizations need to continue to cater to dependent learners, not only are the learners themselves stagnant, but the company will also be outperformed by those who are less dependent. Second, by continuing to adopt the same educational paradigms, we will continue to enforce the dependent learning habits of our employees, and the cycle will continue.

Breaking the Mold

To break the cycle, the main intervention we need is to understand the self-directed stages of an employee, and how to move the employee through these stages.
Gerald Grow provides a framework for our understanding of how to assess a particular learner and a compatible teacher. I use both ‘learner’ and ‘teacher’ to suggest that these are nominal placeholders for employee and supervisor. The following is a quick summary of each of the stages of Grow’s self-directed learner model.
  • Stage One – Dependent –  A dependent learner is one that requires a very direct set of instructions that usually come through informational lectures and repetitive drills. Dependent learners  also expect immediate feedback on their performance, and  flourish with a teacher that has authority in the subject matter.
  • Stage Two – Interested –   Interested learners start to understand their purpose for learning but still require guided discussions, as well as specific learning goals. Instead of requiring informational lectures, now they move through inspiring discourses. An interested learner does well when the teacher plays the role of motivator or guide—one that touches on emotional need to learn.
  • Stage Three –  Involved –   Involved learners are now maturing in their learning prowess as they have an appreciation for the greater picture of what they’re learning and why. They do well with facilitator/learner discussions as well as group projects. They like their teachers to be more of facilitators that allow learners to be more independent.
  • Stage Four –  Self-Directed –   A self-directed learner is one that is capable and motivated to take on whatever is required as it pertains to learning a subject. Often, self-directed learners are lifelong learners that enjoy the learning experience even without purpose; they transcend that need. They enjoy independent study as well as creating work products such as white papers. They do well with teachers that are more consultants and resources.
Understanding each one of these stages helps us, subjectively, qualify ourselves as well as others around us to a learning stage. The interesting thing about self-directed skills is that they are not immutable. We can shape people to become more self-directed. I would also place an extra word of caution, as the goal is not to necessarily reach stage four for any given individual, but for them to be able to improve and maximize their potential. Moving from stage one to stage two is a huge accomplishment and should be celebrated. 
A corollary to this relationship between the learner and the teacher explains why some employees flourish better under one leader versus another. The key takeaway to this corollary is that we must understand how to best align our learner to the teacher, or at least the teacher’s behavior, as it comes to leading the employee. A dependent learner that has a teacher that is more of a consultant will not perform well and ultimately will become discouraged, making the teacher frustrated as well. That relationship would suffer, and the performance of the employee would never materialize. Aligning teacher-learner expectations is the key to improving overall organizational performance.

Intervention in Practice

It’s fair to state that I will not have enough time to develop a comprehensive intervention plan to overcome learning dependency; however, I can provide a few areas for consideration for those that are looking to move to a more independent learning structure.
  • Assessment – Self-direction is something that is not only observable, but also quantitatively measurable. Thus, I would suggest assessing everyone in your organization so that they may understand their particular learning dependency style. There are several good assessments on the market.
  • Intervention – Through detailed research in this topic area, we know that the number one way to ameliorate the dependent learner state is to equip line managers. Thus, you should institute a training curriculum that allows the manager to identify each employee’s self-directed state and to provide the guidance and support needed to move an employee to higher levels of self-direction.
  • Development Plans – Lastly, each employee should have a self-directed development plan that helps the employee understand how to learn better, not necessarily what to learn. Most corporate training development plans lead to special content matters as well as subject areas for improvement. Those are certainly necessary; however, tailoring the delivery can improve the employee’s self-directed skills.