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Learning about learning

Rebels, Leaders & Other Tide Buckers

2/25/2016

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I'm a rebel. There. I've said it. I admit it. And it gets me into all kinds of trouble trying to fit into Corporate America. Tracy Goodwin (aka The Red Sweater Lady) of Captivate the Room asked to interview me and titled the conversation When Speaking Your Truth Becomes a Threat and More. Yes, indeed, I have stories. How about this?
Me: There is a major problem here and we need to fix it. We could....
Boss: Yes. We all know there is a problem. You need to stop harping on it.
Me: But [boss] don't you see this is just like story of The Emperor Has No Clothes?
Boss: Yes it is. We all know that this is a problem. Nothing is going to change. No one is going to fix it. We need to stop talking about it.
Me: But we could...
Boss: I don't care. WE are not going to fix this. It's not our problem.
Me: But it's making everything we do take six times as long.
Boss: That doesn't matter. That's how it is. If you are going to work here, you need to deal with it.
Me: But isn't fixing it dealing with it?
Boss: No.
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I just spent a year on this merry-go-round working for a large regional bank. I was specifically hired, courted, actually, by my boss to come in to make changes. That was just fine as long as nothing had to change. Huh? I managed to convert a series of allies and bring them along with me to embrace change and work in new ways and they loved it. But it's hard bucking the tide all the time. 

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Talent Management & Talent Development for 2015

1/14/2015

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names and priorities

Over the years, we have watched the names change for those of us who deal with people in the business world. In the 60s it was Personnel, and the function was primarily administrative. Then in the 80s it was Human Resources, and we managed human capital with better alignment to the business. Today it's Talent Management. Whatever we call ourselves, we're focused on the people side of the business, allowing the business to focus on the business operations and growth.

In the arena I work in, we've been training, learning & development, something or other university, and lately, Talent Development. We're about teaching people to do their jobs and improve their skill sets. Most of the time, we fall under the umbrella of Talent Management, though sometimes we report to operational lines of business.

I was at the ASTD conference in 2014 where the American Society for Training and Development changed its name to ATD, the Association for Talent Development. It was a pretty slick transformation as the reveal occurred overnight and all the branding throughout the enormous conference center changed from the old to the new, supported by a giant announcement meeting pep rally type forum. I would expect people who teach about change management do it well.

I initially resisted the name change, but I'm growing to like it, since it better reflects what we are trying to do for people. We are learning that training may not be the best way to develop skills. We've also seen that some of the training we've created has been pretty useless. Dan Pontefract makes a great point in his article Talent Development Isn't Just About Training:
Talent is developed inside and outside of ‘training and development’. It comes in the form of coaching, mentoring, job shadowing, wiki’s, blogs, rotations, lectures, books, articles, job aids, leadership models … the list literally goes on and on.         -Don Pontefract

70:20:10 Rule

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He's right. There's so much more to learning than sitting in a classroom. Research that comes out of the Center for Creative Leadership speaks to the 70:20:10 rule. The origins of this come from the work of Morgan McCall, Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger at the Center for Creative Leadership. The rationale shares that learning starts with a need: “Development generally begins with a realization of current or future need and the motivation to do something about it. This might come from feedback, a mistake, watching other people’s reactions, failing or not being up to a task – in other words, from experience. The odds are that development will be about 70% from on-the-job experiences, working on tasks and problems; about 20% from feedback and working around good and bad examples of the need, and 10% from courses and reading.”  

This aligns with Jay Cross' work on Informal Learning, which he calls "unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way most people learn to do their job." Think about how you do your work, and what you've learned during the last week. How much of it was in a classroom?
People acquire the skills they use at work informally — talking, observing others, trial-and-error, and simply working with people in the know. Formal training and workshops account for only 5% to 20% of what people learn from experience and interactions.     
                  -Jay Cross
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http://www.coursepark.com/blog/2011/05/informal-learning/

Learning Concierge

For the people in the learning world, things have changed.  People have been sharing these models for almost 20 years. It's time to start implementing them.

We need to function like a concierge for much of what we do. We need to be equipping learners to find the resources that they need to support them to do their jobs. We may be creating classroom experiences, but it is no longer the primary vehicle for learning. We need to be listening for needs, rooting out problems and offering solutions.  If we are going to be developing talent, we need to examine what needs developing and provide ways to develop skills. We want learners to see their learning partners as allies and resources. For some of us, that means a paradigm shift to adapt to the needs of the 21st century workforce.

After all, we're no longer personnel paperwork administrators. 

References

  • Cross, J. (2015). Informal Learning Center. Retrieved from http://www.jaycross.com/wp/?portfolio=informal-learning
  • Lombardo, M. M. & Eichinger, R.W. (1996). The Career Architect Development Planner (1st ed.). Minneapolis: Lominger. p. iv.
  • Ponterfact, D. (2014). Talent development isn't just about training. [Weblog]. Retrieved from http://www.danpontefract.com/talent-development-isnt-just-about-training/
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    Jean Marrapodi

    Teacher by training, learner by design.

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