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

2008 Transport Leadership Program Gains Further Momentum

It is wonderful to have yet another group of Transport Professionals participate in the Transport Leadership Program, which results in the qualification of the Diploma in Business (Frontline Management).

Some of the themes that participants will be learning about include

• situational leadership
• finance for non-financial managers
• contemporary techniques for motivating team-members

We look forward to active discussion from delegates via this blog!

Gary Hamel Learning Points

I attended an excellent seminar by Gary Hamel who is considered to be one of the top business thinkers in the world and currently visiting professor of strategic and international management at London Business School. He is also in the process of establishing the management innovation lab where he is aiming to create tomorrow’s best practices – see http://www.managementlab.org/

So what did I learn from Prof Hamel?

Some key pointers:

1. In order to create an organisation that can out-innovate anyone else, we need to re-look our current management structures and create management for the new century.

Can we even imagine the different forms of management that we are familiar with right now? Can we picture for example an organisation where we invite outsiders to co-develop strategies? Can we imagine an organisation where there are no titles or rank? Where we give employees the right to say ‘no’ to any order or request?

Well, these types of companies are starting to emerge. Have a look at HCL Technologies as an example of a world-class company where command and control as a model no longer exists; where bonuses are paid at the beginning of the year on a trust basis and where customers are told employees come first.

2. Why has management stayed the same for so long? If you brought managers back form 100 years ago, they would find many things that are almost the same. They would find things to be just as hierarchical and as many big leaders who appoint little leaders.

There is no question that these management practices ensured strong economic progress and organised people in an efficient way. But are we now prisoners of a paradigm trap where the management practices of old gurus are still embedded in organisations right now?

In order to be truly competitive we will need to radically re-invent management practices. We will need to re-visit the way we manage, the way we adopt business models and the way on which we provide service. Look at companies such Ryanair, Facebook, IKEA, I-tunes for examples of how innovative practices have led to great success.

We are now facing challenges as organisations that we have never had to face in the past. The pace of change has gone crazy and for the first time ever, each generation that is born is born into a whole new world. Industry has changed in the last 10 years more than it has in the last 100 years. An organisation like Coca Cola where the brand was thought to protect the organisation – now finds itself behind the ball when it comes to changes in the beverages industry.

Everything is moving at such an exponential rate with changes in social networking, communications bandwidth, pressures for ‘green’ and the amount of information in the world and how we access it. The companies who are resilient survive and those who are built to accommodate that kind of change are ahead of the pack.

We often seem to change only when there is a crisis. Oh – suddenly we wake up and put in new leadership to turn things around. But surely there must be a better way? Surely, we don’t have to wait until we reach the bottom of the trough to work out how to be a better organisation.

3. What can we do?

3.1. Don’t try to dismiss the evidence. Look at those who thought MP3 files would never be as good as CD’s. Don’t rationalise your way around the facts and the stats. Don’t think you know everything – have some humility. Don’t simply listen to people with a fixed mental model – get out and listen to those you don’t normally hear from. Don’t be afraid to do your own research. When Nokia decided to take on Motorola the top team went to the Rapangi district in Tokyo to see what was happening out there. They learnt to play by different rules. What wave can you surf when your competitors are not even paying attention?

3.2. Start with lots of ideas and experiment to find the real winners. You don’t get straight to a winner. The next big opportunity does not look like that at the start. If you visited Ebay’s offices 10 years ago, you would not have said that it would have the 30 billion dollar market value it has today.

3.3. Fully engage the talents of everyone – ensure that everyone brings their full potential to work. Sounds straightforward – and it is! You can buy global commodoties anywhere but you can’t buy the best people unless you have created the right environment.

SHRM 2008

I returned last month from the most amazing conference imaginable and it was a real privilege to have been among so many interesting and like-minded HR professionals.

The conference was the annual major event for the Society of Human Resource Managers – SHRM. All 15 000 delegates congregated in Chicago in a vast conference centre – I had blisters on my feet from walking up and down to the various venues.

There were 750 exhibitors and full of new ideas – and some new gimmicks. Unbelievable guest speakers including the fabulous Sydney Poitier, the most eloquent speaker I have ever listened to. He had me in tears and thankfully I saw that the girl next to me was in the same teary state. If you can get hold of his biography it is an inspirational read.

So – what did I learn? Where do I even begin to tell you everything as there is just so much. So sit back as this is a longer than usual blog.

Main learning trends

1.Story-telling

A very strong theme that came through in all sessions was the power and the value of story-telling. This was really interesting for us at MCI as our LEGO Serious Play methodology is based on the use of the models as a catalyst for creative thinking.

Keynote speakers at the conference all told stories. Sydney Poitier told the story of his life and why he is now a philanthropist. Historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, told the story of why Abraham Lincoln is such a great leader.

Linda A Hill, Prof of Business from Harvard University, used story-telling as a way of explaining why Indian organisations are moving so far ahead of the pack.

Speakers on presentation and facilitation skills emphasised how CEO’s who make a difference and lead teams through change, use the value of story-telling.

In order to create powerful stories think of the following events in your life and then link the story to some challenge that your division or organisation is facing right now:

Inspiring moments in your life of in the life of someone you know

Personal challenges, difficult decisions, choices, hurdles, obstacles in your life or the lives of people you have known.

Startling events, major changes, new experiences that shaped you

Awkward situations, failed attempts, lots opportunities.

Inspiring people, mentors, individuals you admire, remarkable achievements, memorable events you have witnessed or experienced.

2. Messages for HR managers

The Director of the SHRM was retiring and gave an inspirational message to HR practitioners.

She said:

1.Don’t ask for a seat at the Exec table

2.Dare to be bold

3.Dare to change the way HR is perceived

4.Dare to be personal

5.Keep the human in human resources

3. Professional development

The States is very focused on ensuring that HR managers maintain professional development points to ensure continuing registration as HR professionals. HR managers cannot secure top jobs without proof of ongoing professional development and that registration has been maintained.

This ensures that qualifications are current and that managers are up to date with latest thinking. Certain sessions at the conference and the pre-conference were attended by thousands of people in order to secure points. The points work in a 3 year cycle so everyone has adequate time to attend sessions and ensure currency.

Wish that this was something that we could do in Australia!

4. Exemplary Practices

The States follows the criteria set by the 'Great Place to work Institute' and awards organisations that meet these criteria.
Have a look at their website for some insight into how this operates:

Interesting to note that on stage on the second morning of the conference were representatives from 100 large and small to medium enterprises who were publicly recognised and acknowledged as having met the criteria.
This was accompanied by full page adverts in the New York Times and other newspapers.
A real encouragement for organisations to also live up to these standards.

5. Inspirational messages

Several speakers sending out messages to motivate and energise - and let me tell you that these sessions were also really full!

If we look at tombstones, they are written as 1920 – 1999. The small dash between the 2 dates represents someone’s whole life.

If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.

Write things down to help memorise them.

The most important story is the one you tell yourself

Energy runs the world – focus your energy

The past is a reference point and not a residence

There are infinite possibilities and opportunities – if we don’t see that we have not been paying attention

We grow by making a decision to do things differently

In HR, help people to fulfil their dreams.

Energy for growth is learning. The fuel for growth is curiosity.

Customer service is about giving people an experience that is sensational

As HR professionals bring vision, passion and purpose to the organisation.

If this blog is of interest to you, we are running sessions in Sydney where I go into more detail about what we learnt. Email info@mci.edu.au for more details.

Rio Tinto lunch presentation

I attended an interesting presentation by the Chief Executive of Rio Tinto, Tom Albanese. Much of the discussion revolved around the Rio Tinto strategy moving forward - but nonetheless some interesting points made that have a bearing on HR and L and D planning as well.
1. Albanese sees a great sense of opportunity in Australia and says that how we react to these opportunities will define our future. Australia is in a strong position economically but it is at a critical juncture. The decisions that are taken now will have a massive impact on future generations.
How do we maximise and prolong our resources?
How do we deal with the skills shortage?
How do we lift the capacity of the minerals sector?
2. He sees an unprecedented move by people into cities from rural environments, particularly in developing countries such as China and India. About 1.4 billion people will move into cities globally and as they move they will require additional housing, roads, schools and consumer goods.
3. In order for Australia to take advantage of this sustained demand for metal, there is going to be a huge need for expertise and for skilled labour. Rio Tinto employs 17000 people in Australia and is the largest employer of Aboriginal labour as well.
4. Albanese sees the critical place for skills and training. 20 years ago engineers were being churned out in great numbers. To reach these types of numbers again we need major shifts in thinking. Today the attraction of banking has been more apparent than a career in engineering. So it is a full commitment required in the schooling system as well to ensure that people are steered to this sector.
5. Albanese also points out that in order to increase their talent pool, Rio Tinto has looked to the Aboriginal community. They have taken up the challenge of doing pre-employment training as well as adjusting the interview process to suit this community. 8% of the Rio Tinto workforce is Aboriginal.
In order to continue to punch above its weight globally, Australia need to see challenges as opportunities.

Frontline Management

We are so excited! We have won the Best Frontline Management program award from LEARNX and Training Australia magazine. The award is for the frontline management program that we developed for Toll.
The reasons for receiving the award are:

• An innovative approach to delivery. We made sure that we used a blended learning process including mainly face to face delivery as well as DVD input.
• The program is specifically tailored to the transport environment and this ensures complete engagement from the participants
• Yes - there is theory but the emphasis is on practical examples and scenarios which ensure that the level of confidence of participants increases
• The portfolio of evidence is user-friendly and this also increases the percentage of completions on the frontline management program
• The facilitators are familiar with the Toll 'story' and relate their insights to what happens in practice
  
• A varied and exciting content also keeps the learners engaged - there are guest speakers from within the business; there are external videos; the groups build LEGO models and there are debates, role-plays, quizes and theoretical input.

Conferences 2008

AHRI 2008 was their best conference ever as far as speakers are concerned.
Some very interesting insights emerged and some of my main learning points are outlined below.
All across the speakers, I noted the links in their thinking to what LEGO Serious Play achieves and when it comes to thinking creatively, LEGO Serious Play methodology is where all of this great thinking has the possibility of becoming a reality.

1. Daniel Pink

Daniel is the best-selling author of 'A Whole New Mind' and he looked at the 6 abilities that we need in this fast-moving world.
Brains are complex and one side specialises in linear, sequential and rational thinking while the other side looks more at the context and not only the text.
Our jobs used to be best suited to functions of the left side of the brain where we could follow things step by step and where analysing spreadsheets was important.
But this is no longer sufficient.
Big picture thinking through the metaphorical right brain is as important and if we don't value this function of the brain, we will be left behind our competitors.
The world balance has shifted as a result of

• Abundance
• Asia
• Automation

Our rate of consumption is incredible compared with for example 60 years ago when few households had a fridge. How many people now in the first world go without computers, mobile phones, microwaves and the list goes on... Not so long ago, in 1990, only 2% of households had a mobile phone.
Now in Australia, we are a population of 21.1 million with 21.26 million mobile phones.
Companies competing in this environment are looking to give the world something that they didn't know they were missing - the IPod strategy!
If we are to take bold and inventive leaps, or take something functional and infuse it with something unusual, we will not achieve this through left thinking alone.
Asia is also causing us to off-shore routine functions. India will be the largest English speaking country in the world and together with free telephony, any function that can be reduced and written down with a right answer will be done by Indians at a lower charge-out rate.
Automation where software in fact takes over some the sequential operations of a business, is going to be outsourced to other parts of the globe.
So what do we need to do to overcome these challenges?
We need:

• Design
• Story
• Symphony
• Empathy
• Play
• Meaning

1. Design
When General Motors lost 10 Billion Dollars in one year, Bob Lutz, CEO said about having to turn the business around:
"We are now in the arts and entertainment business and we are putting a huge emphasis on design."
Design is what is so important in terms of solving problems - we should be keeping a design notebook and keeping notes on good and bad design - this should be a fundamental business literacy.
Again - linking this to LEGO Serious Play thinking we play out in the real world what is happening in the mind!

2. Story
Get your organisations telling stories...
(Is this not where LEGO Serious Play becomes so powerful??)

3. Symphony
Create opportunities for diverse teams with diverse thinking to come together - with all these different types in the room seeing things from different perspectives, we start to see things in a systemic way and from a strategy perspective.
Again - this is what LEGO Serious Play Real Time Strategy workshops achieve. We have different types of people participating in real time in a cohesive way looking at what the organisation could be facing in the future and coming up with a better way forward.

4. Empathy
How do we enhance our empathy skills? Are we too self-oriented or do we see someone else's point of view. With LEGO Serious Play we have an enabling environment to encourage seeing the world from someone else's perspective.

5 + 6. Play and meaning
Have fun in what you do and also give meaning to what you do.
These are also key LEGO Serious Play principles.

2. Lynda Gratton
Lynda is Professor of Management Practice at London Business School

Lynda spoke about the importance of creating 'hotspots' in an organisation as this is where cross-divisional elements come into place. We can then span boundaries and jump into different worlds where we do not normally operate.
For example, at Tesco, they wanted to conduct a staff engagement survey. Where did they go for assistance? To the marketing team - why - marketing had been doing external customer surveys for years.
So how do we create hotspots where ideas can ignite?

• We need a feeling of cooperation
• We have to create networks to allow people to jump the boundaries
• We have to create igniting questions

Hotspots are crucial to an innovating business. Teams are so differently structured from how they were in the past as the world of work is more emergent, more voluntary and more virtual than ever before..
Knowledge workers are volunteers and you are looking for their discretionary effort to be creative.
Where teams are too similar, you rarely have hotspots. So, keep it diverse and yet not too complex so that the team falls apart.
The value of a company is not held so much in the people themselves, but in the relationships between people.
To move from the big freeze to hotspots you need to build a cooperative culture.
Create this cooperative culture from the top. If the Exec team itself is not cooperative, people notice as kids do when they see their parents fight.
Select the right people to join your team - a person who is too competitive does not do well in an environment that wants to be supportive.
Give gifts to employees in terms of time - such as mentoring and coaching as this builds a cultural cycle of cooperation.
Practices, processes and habits create hotspots - measure your own organisation to see if they exist!