August 1, 2011

 

Employee Development Systems, Inc.
The Personal Accountability Company

7308 South Alton Way, Suite 2J
Dry Creek Business Park
Centennial, Colorado 80112 
800.282.3374  

This practical guide reviews the basic tenets for creating a learning organization, and much more:

In The Drama-Free Office: A Guide to Healthy Collaboration with Your Team, Co-Workers and Boss (Green Leaf Book Group Press, 2011), authors, Jim Warner and Kaley Klemp give readers realistic examples of typical cases of "drama-disease" and how it can be managed and cured. 

The authors' research draws on years of experience working with more than 2,500 CEOs and their executive teams. They define the four major drama roles--the Complainer, the Cynic, the Controller, and the Caretaker. 

 

 

The culture of your organization determines communication styles, how priorities are set, and how things get done. In the words of Ed Schein, cultural management expert, “Culture is much more than just the way we do things around here." 

 

The particular ways that people think and perform in a setting are a result of the mythology or history of an organization. If we don’t understand the organization’s culture, we can’t step in and be effective, since culture asserts its influence without our even realizing it.

 

Many successful (or previously successful) companies aren’t open to examining their culture, since what they have done in the past worked for them.  What these leaders fail to realize is that other organizations also have developed cultures that have led them to success. The leader who is successful, has particular habits, and only hires those who work the same way as himself is well served by looking at what other organizations are doing.

 

Take General Foods as an example.  It is a brand that was built on the technology of taste.  The General Foods leadership was told that food should be nutritious, so they tried to make their foods nutritious in order to add to their product appeal, but the culture was a “taste good” company versus a nutrition company. Ultimately, General Foods made a conscious decision to stick with their culture, eschewing a large market for what they did best.

 

In order for new leaders to get a read on the culture, they need to get a firm understanding of the cultural artifacts and values of an organization.

 

Cultural Artifacts are visible and observable. These are the behavioral rules of how things get done in an office; how the office space is laid out, and the work processes.

 

Values are expressed in work habits and rituals.  At first, one typically learns the “espoused values” of an organization.  For example, if a corporate boss is asked why he runs a weekly meeting, he may answer “Because we’re a teamwork company” when in reality, all job evaluations are based on individual achievement.   Now the new manager knows that he is in an organization that espouses two competing values.

 

Whether you are a trainer yourself or you are responsible for hiring and preparing the training staff, here is a reminder of the core concepts that will help you create a robust training staff or simply become a more effective trainer yourself.

 

According to Robert Jolles, author of How to Run Seminars and Workshops, about 15% of a company’s problems relate to products and 85% related to process. This is no different for training. As a manager or department head, you may take great pains to find and hire competent, outgoing employees. However, it is still necessary to tell them how to convey the information, even if they have done training before.

 

Quality is the hub of every great training department. The spokes  include content, trainers, curriculum, evaluation and assessment, and environment, amongst other things.

 

To foster that quality, ensure that the trainers have some impact on or at least work alongside the curriculum developers to some extent. There are various ways in which trainers can be engaged in curriculum development.

 

The trainer and curriculum developer working together can often result in a faster start-up for the presenter to master the curriculum and delivery. It also helps the trainers develop pride in the information they will be conveying.

 

Consistency most obviously means multiple trainers using the same curriculum; it also means multiple trainers using the same positive, successful training methods. Of course, each presenter has his or her own style, which is a good thing. In order to ensure the quality of the training sessions, establish a benchmark, right from the beginning.

 

One way to do this is by using your most experienced trainer. Have him (or her) give a sample session to the rest of the trainers, pausing along the way to give an explanation of tactics or common practices. At the same time, point out the less successful alternatives, too.

 

The Manager's Pocket Guide to Corporate Culture Change provides the essential methods for mobilizing people behind these shared values. It teaches the skills to empower people within defined parameters, the type of support they require for success, and the best ways to recognize individual and team contributions.

 

It also reviews the basic tenets for developing people, creating a learning organization, and provides practical methods for aligning the culture behind the business strategy in order to manage the change.