Learning and Development Awards

At the Management Consultancy International end of year prize giving function, several of our candidates and training managers received special awards. These individuals and teams stood out from the over 600 portfolios that we assessed during the year and the high quality and precision of their work was truly remarkable.

TAA portfolio of the year went to Sharon Morgan from Oporto and Peter Quinn from Hyundai.

FLM students of the year were Matilda Ika Rob Scott from Toll Holdings.

Customer Contact student of the year went to Abbe Keeble from Travel the World.

Sydney Ports took the team award for best TAA group where there was a 100% completion rate and some outstanding portfolios submitted.

Often in learning and development, managers and coordinators who put so much effort into ensuring the successful rollout of programs are not recognized. This year, we introduced a new category called ‘Learning and Development Champions’. We awarded certificates to Daniel Fluckiger (ex-Allianz Insurance), Fel Donatelli (Allianz Insurance), Tanya Sitta (Toll Personnel), Dan Moore (Daikin) and Jodie Elder (Travel the World). All of these learning and development champions show an extraordinary amount of passion and dedication for ensuring successful projects and programs.

Last but definitely not least, there is always the admin support team that ensures that it all happens smoothly. This year Co-ordinator of the year awards went to Laura Kennedy and Emma Bates from Toll Personnel and also to Maria Mercado-Thai from Vodafone.

HR and Innovation

A few weeks ago I listened to Terry Davis, MD of Coca Cola Amatil, talk at the Local Government HR conference on the topic of innovation and HR. Here are some of the key points that he put forward:

1. Terry stressed that particularly in tough times, what gets you through is having the “best team of people in place”.

2. The top brands will survive – the others will cease to exist.

3. Staff do what they are rewarded for most and this makes KPI’s integral to the business model. People gravitate to what hey are paid for and earnings are at risk based on performance.

4. People who own a strategy should be the ones developing it. People therefore come before strategy.

5. Business success depends on levels of engagement and how rewards are structured.

6. Core values are extremely important as this is what drives the business.

7. Community projects are important as they create higher levels of customer advocacy.

8. You need the right leadership to challenge the status quo – you need to be able to question things without fear of retribution.

9. Coca Cola has its own internal recruitment and does not outsource to an external agency. Key roles are filled via referrals and not through advertising. Files are kept on key people who will eventually be head-hunted.

10. Coca Cola is committed to a strong policy of diversity – 2 women out of 8 board members and 25% of senior leadership are women.

11. OHS features as a standard agenda item at board level.

12. You need to continuously innovate – even if at first you do not succeed. The ‘Mother’ product was not initially successful and has now been re-launched with great success. Failure is a way of learning.

13. Tough times mean that we will have to work much harder and much smarter to achieve what we want to. CEO’s need to be clear about what the goals are for the future to avoid coffee machine talks about who is next on the chopping block.

14. It is important for all employees to take leave. This refreshes everyone to come back with new ideas and also is valuable in eliminating petty fraud.

15. Work-life balance is not a key value at Coca Cola. There is no substitute for hard work and that is what life is about.

16. Set clear codes of conduct so that everyone knows how to respond in a range of situations and there are no issues around ethics.

LEGO plays seriously at the Microsoft conference

I was invited to assist in facilitating the Womenbuild session at the Microsoft PDC conference 2008 on 26 October this year. I was privileged to co-facilitate at this most incredible event – particularly as it is an issue that is close to my heart. The purpose of the Womenbuild session was to find ways to attract women into technology fields and to create avenues for them to harness their talent and innovation when developing software.

The 5 hour session was formulated around the principles of LEGO Serious Play and the group was challenged to build a whole range of different models, all relating to the theme of what it would take to create a more vibrant network of women and how the message could be spread at further conferences to be held in the future.

The recurring theme from the WomenBuild day was about establishing relationships and connecting with others to form stronger networks. Participants also spoke about how vital it is to commence working at school level to encourage younger generation girls and show them that bridges can be built and obstacles to entering the profession can be overcome.

The group also discussed establishing a mentoring program where young women are ‘buddied’ with those who are more experienced in the profession.

About 20% of the group was made up of men. They made some interesting comments - some had specifically come as they would like to ensure that their daughters have every opportunity available and that there would be no glass or concrete ceilings in their way.

The WomenBuild program incorporated the powerful LEGO Serious Play hands-on process that draws on the power of creative thinking to shift group conversation from talking heads to focused minds. Each table was run as a facilitated conversation with physical LEGO brick constructions that ensured that the diverse wisdom within the group was tapped into.

The participants certainly left the room with a clearer shared understanding of the inspirational career paths for women in the IT profession.

Well done to Microsoft for stepping up in a proactive way to encourage a diverse workplace and to ensure that the software development industry has pathways and possibilities for all who wish to enter the field of software and product development.

Frontline Management - why now?

I am often asked about why it is important to hold nationally recognised qualifications.
Some organisations prefer to do training that is needed simply to fill skills gaps and do not want to spend the time or the money linking these immediate needs to training packages.
There is certainly an argument though that, particularly when the labour market tightens, individuals who have sent themselves a clear career path value qualifications. National certificates and diplomas are are worth their weight in gold in terms in terms of creating the entry point into a job.
As an article in the My Career section of the Sydney Morning Herald on November 1-2, 2008 briefly mentions, in a tighter marketplace the key action items to holding a job and progressing career prospects are:
Upgrade your qualifications and nurture your networks.
Your viewpoints are welcome!

The world the Google way...

Just attended a fascinating session with the General Manager of Google Aus and NZ, Kerim Temsamini.
He was speaking on the speed of change and how he even finds it "scary" to see his own kids doing things on the internet which at their age would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.
There are now no delays between the news and the story. You can no longer totally control your message.
There are 183 Billion emails sent every day - that is 2 million emails every second. On Youtube over 100 000 years of video has been watched. And yet only 15% of the world's content has been digitised.
The internet has truly democratised our access to information - for the first time the mass exchange of text is possible. A true "revolution" as never seen before.
So what are the further changes for the future?
1. At the moment mos of the web is in English - this is set to change and other languages are entering the web. But, fear not, as Google translator is being further refined and developed to be able to translate for you.
2. Mobile phones will be the next major point of access for on-line information.
3. People will be spending more media time on line.
4. There will be more consumer engagement with on-line and off-line marketing working together.
5. There will be more customisation and personalisation available - think of shopping carts that will guide you around the supermarket to the correct aisle and give you the information you need on your purchase.
6. Devices will be built that anticipate what we want - we will receive advice that there is a sandwich store around the corner and we had a sandwich yesterday - do we want another one?

So what do we extract from this session for our own organisations:
From the perspective of Management Consultancy International, it all comes down to innovation and being aware of what the trends are - taking these trends and translating them into your own business strategy and models.
Google itself as an organisation makes use of the LEGO Serious Play methodology to ensure that they remain in touch and engaged with their own workforce.

LEGO Serious Play

In the Financial Review Education Section (13/10/08) there is a great article entitled 'Lego-like plan creates thinkers' by Alexander Symonds.
The article is based on a discussion with Mitchel Resnick who is the Head of the Lifelong Kindergarden Group at MIT in Boston.
Prof Resnick makes the point that when we talk about learning we cannot use the term 'delivery' of learning as this implies that there will not be much interactivity. For true learning to take place, you need to ensure that there is more than just access to information or to content.
By allowing children to design and create things we ensure that they have a better understanding of the world and that they become creative thinkers.
This line of thought is just as applicable for all levels of an organisation - which is where the adult application of LEGO - LEGO Serious Play - becomes so valuable in moving an organisation towards a culture of innovation.
LEGO Serious Play sessions hinge on all participants actively creating the world and their perspective of it - and sharing that view with others. Sessions also ensure that learning takes place when the participant is in 'flow' and knowledge is not 'delivered' by the facilitator. As participants engage in play, meaning becomes more clear and learning happens through constructing models and sharing stories.
The technology side will soon appear when LEGO Robotics is introduced next year for use in the adult and business environment. This will create further opportunities for learning in a dynamic way and with positive outcomes for the organisation.

Traineeships

It is not exactly a rosy picture at the moment if you are on the corporate front line - stocks are tumbling and unprecedented events are taking place.
The impact on training teams is immense. When tough times bite the first thing to go is the training budget and that is if the L and D team still has its job and they aren't cut as well.
Well - let's accept that it is not business as usual and do something positive. Our pleas for extra budget are probably going to fall on deaf ears - so what can we proactively do to ensure that skills needs are met and that those who remain in the business are motivated and engaged.
First up, have a look at government-funded training. Forget about those who have turned their noses up at it on the basis that their business is so specific and on such a high level that "we don't need the forms and paperwork that a traineeship entails". $4000 per person who completes a traineeship is a substantial boost to any organisation's learning and development budget.
So instead of sitting back and waiting for an internal budget that is not going to come for a while, investigate whether funded training would be viable for your business.
Besides providing participants with needed skills, you are also ensuring that they remain motivated as they are acquiring nationally recognised, fully portable qualifications.
It is clearly a win-win-win situation.
It is very frustrating watching organisations who do not take up this incredible opportunity to boost budgets, upskill employees and create a positive environment.
Without question the most common objections to traineeships are:
1. The paperwork and bureaucracy
2. The organisation has its own way of doing things that is not in line with the traineeship
3. Lack of senior management buy-in or resistance from management.
In answer to these challenges:
1. Yes there is paperwork - but so is there paperwork to take a bank loan. Efficient systems keep this to a minimum. When you have a slashed training budget, learn to shuffle a few papers.
2. National qualifications are designed so that each organisation can utilise them in their own way. Participants do need to demonstrate that they can apply skills in the workplace and each workplace's standard procedures are allowed for. In any event, is it not better to display skills in the workplace instead of just looking at the happy sheets after a training session??
3. Get your figures correct and put a strong case to management based on the benefits to the business. Talk in financial terms - show how much the government pays and what this money would be used for. Talk about the impact of what the traineeships will be to the business. For example, how a frontline management program will assist managers who have to break bad news to team members.
Other tips:
Start keeping records not of everything you do - but of the impact that this has had on the business. Results count now more than ever and the days of the happy sheets is over - do not be as concerned about whether people "enjoyed" the training or not. Rather document what did they do differently as a result of the training. If nothing has changed, why was the training done at all?
Agree to make some sacrifices to the budget - this makes you look like a team player and that you don't always fight the system. If your interventions have been prioritised by the impact they have on the business, you will know which programs can be cut.
Have a look at the article on the Management Consultancy International website on traineeships for more concrete information.
http://www.mci.edu.au/article.php?article_id=35