 | Onequality of leaders and high achievers in every area seems to be acommitment to ongoing personal and professionaldevelopment.
~BrianTracy
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| | Book Report:Sticking Point Solution
Getting yourbusiness from “Here” to “There” is rarelyeasy. It requires vision, leadership, discipline, and more than adash of good fortune. So what do you do when economic times aretough? What happens to those descriptors of when money stops movingaround the world – and that dash of good fortune is replacedby economic despair?
Author Jay Abraham is a marketing expert who has seen it all, andlends that even-handed tone to his new book, The Sticking PointSolution; 9 Ways to Move Your Business From Stagnation to StunningGrowth in Tough Economic Times (Vanguard Press, 2009).
The book poses a chapter-by-chapter series of questions that askshow your business may be “stuck” using ineffective,dated, or economically induced worst-practices. These chaptersbring to light the thought provoking subjects of strategy, changingmarkets, overhead, and more. Abraham then breaks down thequestions, and illuminates solutions – but keeps your handson the steering wheel. This isn’t a “how to”book, rather a “shouldn’t you be…?” bookthat rightfully keeps the onus, and thus the proper action, in thehands of the reader.
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| Winning withChange Leadership
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Are successfulleaders going to excel, regardless of the times in which theylead? Some may say yes. After all, Jack Welch lead GeneralElectric through both solid and turbulent times, right? But hold ona moment.
In the last 18 months, we have seen countless top executivesstumped (and many of them have later failed) when trying tomaneuver through this changing environment. At the same time,some companies have taken the recent rough waters and, even given ashrinking industry or seemingly impossible sales slump, have turnedtheir companies around.
Let's look at some of the characteristics that are embraced byleaders (and their organizations) in changing times.
Using Organizational Memory
In less turbulent times, lessons learned in the past could becalled on as wisdom for decisions made in the present. Thesedays the past should not be counted on for the wisdom it onceoffered. The playing field has changed, and you will not beable to count on those lessons to lead you through. Ofcourse, they still have value. They just can't lead the wayanymore.
Psychologist Jerome Bruner has a pithy way to describe what happenswhen the best of the old informs the search for the new. Theessence of creativity, he argues, is "figuring out how to use whatyou already know in order to go beyond what you alreadythink."
Innovative leaders do still use the past to inform decisions, butthey don't count on those old lessons to show them theway.
Remaining Committed to Change
Being committed to change could mean that you are continuouslychanging. Consider those organizations that are alwaysbouncing from one production methodology to another, continuallytrying out new supply chain management systems or can't seem to getenough of the latest management fads. No, remaining committedto change means making a change and committing to it. The newdirection may not be the panacea that you are looking for, but youwon't know until you have given the new plan time to takehold.
Learning at the Speed of Light
The world is changing at a faster pace than ever before. Imagine the significant changes we've seen in how we use technologyin our daily business, even in the last eight to 10 years! Ask yourself what you need to learn, and how you can push yourselfinto new knowledge areas. This will keep you growing andevolving. Most of all, it will mean that you will be moreprepared for making the next set of decisions that come yourway.
Tapping the Group Genius--or the Hidden Genius in theGroup!
Change is not best made alone. Let'sface it; you may be the leader in your department or organization,but you need the troops to get involved. These days, the mostpowerful contributions often come from the most unexpectedplaces. You may find a hidden genius in your group or acollective genius, aka: your customer!
Your change leadership mindset gives you the tools to considerideas from every corner, in order to address the current climatewith a large dose of courage, informed risk-taking andambition.
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| Here's the Key toSolving Real Workplace Challenges!
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We develop trainingprograms, plan for monthly expenditures, solve business challenges,develop new products and services, and take care of human resourcesprocedures. We can do it all, right?
But you still have them. Those real workplace problems thatdon't have a home. They may be big, they may be complex, butthey don't sit squarely in anyone's corner. So how can yousolve them?
By utilizing action learning, that's how. Action learning is a process for bringingtogether a group of people with varied levels of skills andexperience to analyze an actual work problem and develop an actionplan. The group continues to meet as actions are implemented,learning from the implementation and making mid-coursecorrections.
Action Learning is a form of learning by doing. It is used toaddress problems and issues that are complex and not easilyresolved; find solutions to underlying root causes of problems; andto determine a new strategic direction or to maximize newopportunities.
Organizations such as General Electric, IBM and the FederalAviation Administration have used action learning for successfulresolution of complex, real workplace problems.
In short, action learning involves working through real, relevantproblems; reviewing both the results achieved and then analyzingthe process by which the results were accomplished. When GE has implemented action learning, it typicallyenlists two groups of five to seven people of varying backgroundsand levels in the organization.
The process works best when dealing with real, substantial issuethat will have visible consequences if failure occurs.
The problem to be addressed by the team should be real and in needof being solved in a timely manner. The solution to the problemshould be acted upon. Incidentally, one bonus as a result ofthis process is that critically reflective learning will also takeplace. The action learning team typically does not have aleader, but rather is a self-directed work team with sharedresponsibilities.
When working with an action learning team, shift emphasisaway from what people already know, pushing them to ask freshquestions about how to create a solution. The last part ofthe action learning process is actually solving theproblem. It is not a list of recommendations ora report. It ends in a follow-through to a solution.
Give action learning a try. It has worked for manyorganizations, and introduces a new way of looking at and takingcharge of real workplace problems!
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| Press the ResetButton on Your Training Program
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Our interview this time iswith Sharon Bowman, president of Bowperson Publishing andTraining and author of Training from the BACK of theRoom (Pfeiffer,2009), and The Ten-Minute Trainer(Pfeiffer, 2005).
Sharon is a 'train thetrainer' specialist whose books offer innovative ways for trainersto slither out of the lecture slump and confidently step intoinnovative, successful workshops that show marked increases inresults.
Sharon, given a short windowof time, what is the central idea you would like to express tohuman resource professionals and trainingmanagers?
Quite simply, that the lecture format as atraining model doesn't work. My message is to encouragealternative ways of delivering training, since the traditionallecture format doesn't fit most learning styles. Many– indeed, most ofus – did our learningin a classroom, sitting at our desks, listening to a teacher. However, there have been many discoveries in the field of cognitiveneuroscience. Now wecan say with certainty that other models are more effective atconveying information.
Give us some examples of howthese new ideas might play out in a typical corporate trainingsetting.
Absolutely. We can make the followingassertions about success probability in a training setting:movement trumps sitting, talking trumps listening, and images trumpwords. In other words, when training participants move their bodieswhile learning, discuss the content, and link concepts to mentalimages, they will remember the information longer than if they justsit still and listen to a lecture. That being said, the advice Itypically give trainers is to take a hard look at their curriculumand decide how to break it up into small chunks of concentratedinformation. After working through each content segment,there should be a physical activity or a short reviewexercise.
Here are a few examples of these quickreview activities: learners play a gameusing index cards to put a process into the correct order,participants draw pictures representing concepts on blank paper orwhite boards, or trainees interview each other about whatthey learned – tracking the responses and thenreporting them to the class.
How do these concepts relateto generational issues that are being faced in the workplacetoday?
Thanks for bringing this up because it is verytimely, given the challenges that many organizations are facingwith regard to the development of Generations X and Y. Thesefolks have always been exposed to information in an interactive wayand these new training models fit them perfectly. Wehave gotten so much feedback from multigenerational trainers on howeffective interactive learning really is.
These are great take awayconcepts for our readers. Are you working on any relatedprojects?
As a matter of fact, right now I am developing anonline interface for trainers to learn these concepts. Theyare micro-courses that help trainers think in these new ways, asthey develop their own company or client trainingprograms.
Thank you for your time,Sharon! I know readers are looking forward to more greatmaterials from you. Sharon can be reached through herwebsite, www.bowperson.com.
When she is not teaching orwriting, Sharon can be found riding on the back of her husband'sHarley Davidson, someplace in the Black Hills or in mountains nearher home at Lake Tahoe.
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| Welcome to theSituation Room!
Generational Issues at theOffice...
Joan, the hiring manager of a mid-size training firm, conducted aseries of interviews for summer interns. The summerinternship typically consists of general office work, catching upon some filing projects and doing web site maintenance. Joanchose to hire Greg, the candidate who seemed most appropriatefor the post.
Greg came in on his first day and announced that he had beenworking on developing his own training program for largecorporations, and he had chosen your firm to roll it out to themarket. He had clearly gone to great lengths to preparecurriculum materials, activities and accompanying trainernotes.
He had also prepared a presentation to show the executives at thefirm. After showing Joan his full package and explaining allof his ideas and plans, he finished with the sentiment, "I'm readyto put this program into the pipeline. …And the soonerthe better!"
How would you handle this situation? Send in your solution!
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