There are many excellent websites defining and describing coaching and mentoring, and this blog does not have to repeat their content here. But within Oakwood we like to distinguish between learning and development facilitated by line managers, which we tend to call ‘Coaching’, and similar work-based learning provided outside of the chain of command, which we usually label ‘Mentoring’.
Both are vital activities. Our version of coaching is the main component of ‘delegation for development’ and ‘on-the-job learning’: the main way that people learn their jobs. Our version of mentoring helps people gain essential perspective on their role and is a great help in their career development.
Both are labour-intensive activities, often tying up relatively important and senior, and thus expensive, people. Using internal mentors keeps costs largely hidden, while using outsiders can result in low fixed (setup) costs but high variable (delivery) costs. E-mentoring, by telephone, email, social networking websites and live chat software can offer eco-friendly, just-in-time alternatives to face-to-face meetings. As e-mentors and learners are not tied to place or time for their sessions, travelling and accommodation expenses are avoided.
Coaching and mentoring needs no special facilities other than time and privacy. What is vital are the trust and rapport between the coach or mentor and learner, and the communication skills and specialist expertise of the coach or mentor. Confidentiality is also important, although mentoring sessions often start by exploring and agreeing the three-way contract between coach, learner and the learner’s line manager or HR manager (on behalf of the organisation). What are the expectations and objectives of all sides, what information shall be shared and reported on, and what outcomes are to be measured?
Coaching and mentoring are highly effective influences upon the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour of learners. They seem to work equally well for Activists, Reflectors, Theorists and Pragmatists. The private, confidential and one-to-one nature of coaching and mentoring means that is usually preferred for and by senior management. The problem with this privacy can be that the effectiveness of the process, along with any issues and problems arising through the process, can be hidden or ignored, unless monitoring and measurement is agreed in advance.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Monday, 22 November 2010
Book learning
Trainers and coaches often say that what they enable is not just ‘learning’ but also ‘behaviour change’: that classroom-based events are opportunities for learners to plan and practise DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT in their jobs. That if all that was needed was new knowledge being transferred into the heads of learners it would be cheaper and easier to just buy them the right book.
So why not do that, anyway? Put together a list of appropriate and useful business books and buy them for your staff. In comparison with the price of training, especially training involving international travel and accommodation, book learning is relatively cheap. There are probably already budgets in HR and other departments for publications but they are often forgotten, seldom managed or measured.
Reflectors and Theorists respond well to book learning. It is highly effective for the transfer of large amounts of complex information. It can also influence knowledge and attitudes, although it is less effective for transfer of skills. But you can make the learning more ‘sticky’ for Activists and Pragmatists by setting up regular (monthly or quarterly) Book Groups, where the readers are brought together for a meeting to discuss the book and its implications, and make action plans for the organisation. Books Groups also make sure that the books themselves are read: people don’t like to turn up to meetings when they haven’t done the preparation.
So: identify learning needs, choose and buy the appropriate books and set up the Book Groups (you’ll need champions and/or chairmen). Most of the monitoring and evaluation will happen through the reports of the Book Group champions but you can also set learners short tests or quizzes to reinforce and assess the learning.
Over the next few weeks this blog will look at the range of – often ignored – learning opportunities available in organisations. In this busy high-tech world we must not forget books: they’ve worked well for hundreds of years, and will probably continue to be an economical way of passing on large amounts of information for a long time yet.
So why not do that, anyway? Put together a list of appropriate and useful business books and buy them for your staff. In comparison with the price of training, especially training involving international travel and accommodation, book learning is relatively cheap. There are probably already budgets in HR and other departments for publications but they are often forgotten, seldom managed or measured.
Reflectors and Theorists respond well to book learning. It is highly effective for the transfer of large amounts of complex information. It can also influence knowledge and attitudes, although it is less effective for transfer of skills. But you can make the learning more ‘sticky’ for Activists and Pragmatists by setting up regular (monthly or quarterly) Book Groups, where the readers are brought together for a meeting to discuss the book and its implications, and make action plans for the organisation. Books Groups also make sure that the books themselves are read: people don’t like to turn up to meetings when they haven’t done the preparation.
So: identify learning needs, choose and buy the appropriate books and set up the Book Groups (you’ll need champions and/or chairmen). Most of the monitoring and evaluation will happen through the reports of the Book Group champions but you can also set learners short tests or quizzes to reinforce and assess the learning.
Over the next few weeks this blog will look at the range of – often ignored – learning opportunities available in organisations. In this busy high-tech world we must not forget books: they’ve worked well for hundreds of years, and will probably continue to be an economical way of passing on large amounts of information for a long time yet.
Monday, 15 November 2010
Blended learning
Blended Learning is a fancy name for something that is really just common sense. It means giving learners the opportunity to learn in a variety of ways, from a variety of media and situations. So as well as arranging a training course or coaching for your line managers, you can:
• Make sure they agree their learning objectives with their managers, and that their managers check progress at least every month or so.
• Set up a short regular meeting with them where you can all discuss the course, their coaching and their other learning.
• Give them each a copy of the appropriate business book on the learning area, such as The One Minute Manager or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and ask them to read them.
• Start up an in-company learning blog – a bit like this – and give them the link so that they can read and comment on it.
• Ask them to look for, read and watch good management resources on Google, BBC, Wikipedia, BusinessBalls, LinkedIn, Amazon, YouTube, etc. (and report back to the meeting).
• Encourage them to listen to short publicly-available learning podcasts at their pc or on their iPod.
• Lend them a DVD with appropriate content (such as purpose-made training videos or even some episodes of The Office – UK or US as both are excellent) and ask them to discuss the best examples of what NOT to do.
• Organise some successful local business people to visit and present what they do in return for lunch.
• Support the managers to do ‘management-like stuff’ outside of work: run sports clubs and societies, help organise their faith groups, do charity work in the community, join the TA or Special Constabulary (UK) or other volunteer services.
• Evaluate the learning with online tool like SurveyMonkey.
Blended learning like this adds little cost to that of a single learning event or programme, but increases the impact, relevance and ‘stickability’ of the learning enormously. Go on: try it!
• Make sure they agree their learning objectives with their managers, and that their managers check progress at least every month or so.
• Set up a short regular meeting with them where you can all discuss the course, their coaching and their other learning.
• Give them each a copy of the appropriate business book on the learning area, such as The One Minute Manager or The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and ask them to read them.
• Start up an in-company learning blog – a bit like this – and give them the link so that they can read and comment on it.
• Ask them to look for, read and watch good management resources on Google, BBC, Wikipedia, BusinessBalls, LinkedIn, Amazon, YouTube, etc. (and report back to the meeting).
• Encourage them to listen to short publicly-available learning podcasts at their pc or on their iPod.
• Lend them a DVD with appropriate content (such as purpose-made training videos or even some episodes of The Office – UK or US as both are excellent) and ask them to discuss the best examples of what NOT to do.
• Organise some successful local business people to visit and present what they do in return for lunch.
• Support the managers to do ‘management-like stuff’ outside of work: run sports clubs and societies, help organise their faith groups, do charity work in the community, join the TA or Special Constabulary (UK) or other volunteer services.
• Evaluate the learning with online tool like SurveyMonkey.
Blended learning like this adds little cost to that of a single learning event or programme, but increases the impact, relevance and ‘stickability’ of the learning enormously. Go on: try it!
Monday, 8 November 2010
Biodata
Why don’t more large companies use biodata in their recruitment and selection processes? If you recruit large numbers of people who take on work with similar job descriptions and responsibilities, and if you run a decent performance management system, grading employees in terms of their competence and performance against objectives, you’ve got the basis for a very effective recruitment tool.
Biodata (derived from ‘biographical data’) can start with a statistical comparison of information found in your standard application form (such as number of school qualifications, academic institutions attended, etc.: basically any ways of distinguishing between people based on their résumés) with the measured performance at work of the people concerned. Or it can compare the answers to specially-designed biographical questionnaires with job performance. Either way, the statistics used for this are complex and require training to apply and interpret, so this work is usually undertaken by specialist Occupational Psychologists or Psychometricians.
The output of this comparison shows which parts of applicants’ biographies actually correlate with high work performance. This correlation does not perfectly equate to prediction, but with some common sense you can assume that you’ve found a few real distinguishing factors with mark out your best applicants from the also-rans.
Biodata needs large sample sizes (so small companies can’t benefit from it) and some up-front funding for the initial statistical research (so the HR team needs to have a strategic role and the respect and support of the CEO and board). But it can – in the long term – help you recruit more effectively, taking less time to judge each candidate, but doing so with far more effectiveness. Take some time to see whether it can help your organisation.
Biodata (derived from ‘biographical data’) can start with a statistical comparison of information found in your standard application form (such as number of school qualifications, academic institutions attended, etc.: basically any ways of distinguishing between people based on their résumés) with the measured performance at work of the people concerned. Or it can compare the answers to specially-designed biographical questionnaires with job performance. Either way, the statistics used for this are complex and require training to apply and interpret, so this work is usually undertaken by specialist Occupational Psychologists or Psychometricians.
The output of this comparison shows which parts of applicants’ biographies actually correlate with high work performance. This correlation does not perfectly equate to prediction, but with some common sense you can assume that you’ve found a few real distinguishing factors with mark out your best applicants from the also-rans.
Biodata needs large sample sizes (so small companies can’t benefit from it) and some up-front funding for the initial statistical research (so the HR team needs to have a strategic role and the respect and support of the CEO and board). But it can – in the long term – help you recruit more effectively, taking less time to judge each candidate, but doing so with far more effectiveness. Take some time to see whether it can help your organisation.
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Learning objectives and the status of learners
What is it that trainers, learning designers and facilitators, coaches, mentors and all the other people responsible for designing, delivering, assessing and reporting on learning interventions really need to know? They are often told about the politics, problems and personalities in the teams, divisions and organisations they work with, or the desired content of the learning intervention… and that is all very interesting, but it is not vital.
It is vital that trainers etc. get to know:
1. the learning objectives of their learners, long enough in advance for them to plan interventions that actually deliver on those objectives.
2. who those learners are, in terms of their seniority and past work and learning experience.
This usually means that learners and the people who manage them need to discuss, agree and record the learners’ objectives well ahead of the learning event, and pass them to HR and/or L&D who in turn need to pass them (with details such as job titles and brief business biographies) to the trainers. So HR and L&D play an essential policing role: setting deadlines for such discussions and checking both that they happen and that the output is passed on.
So what do learning objectives look like? Remember the acronym SMART helps us to remember the qualities that objectives need to have: they need to be Specific, Measurable, Agreed and Action-orientated, Realistic and Relevant, and Time-scaled. A simple structure is ‘By deadline date the learner will be able to demonstrate their learning through a defined behaviour’.
So an actual learning objective might look like:
By Monday 3 January 2011 Jasmine will be able to chair the monthly department meeting. In particular she will be able to:
• create and distribute the agenda (with timings and objectives for each item) and any supporting reports or other material to the correct recipients at least two working days ahead of the meeting
• manage the content of the meeting and the discussions of the participants in the time available
• ensure that the meeting makes the decisions and takes the actions necessary, allocating responsibility and setting deadlines where appropriate
• record accurate minutes and agree them with the meetings’ participants
• distribute minutes to participants and stakeholders no more than two working days after the meeting
• inform and update meeting participants and stakeholders about the actions arising from the meeting until all such actions are completed
Trainers and other learning professionals LOVE learning objectives like this. It focuses all their efforts in designing, delivering, assessing and reporting on the learning that learners actually need. All the other stuff – who said what to whom, why previous attempts at learning interventions haven’t worked, what the content could be – is great fun but nowhere near as useful.
Remember: learning objectives and learners’ status. That’s the best place to start.
It is vital that trainers etc. get to know:
1. the learning objectives of their learners, long enough in advance for them to plan interventions that actually deliver on those objectives.
2. who those learners are, in terms of their seniority and past work and learning experience.
This usually means that learners and the people who manage them need to discuss, agree and record the learners’ objectives well ahead of the learning event, and pass them to HR and/or L&D who in turn need to pass them (with details such as job titles and brief business biographies) to the trainers. So HR and L&D play an essential policing role: setting deadlines for such discussions and checking both that they happen and that the output is passed on.
So what do learning objectives look like? Remember the acronym SMART helps us to remember the qualities that objectives need to have: they need to be Specific, Measurable, Agreed and Action-orientated, Realistic and Relevant, and Time-scaled. A simple structure is ‘By deadline date the learner will be able to demonstrate their learning through a defined behaviour’.
So an actual learning objective might look like:
By Monday 3 January 2011 Jasmine will be able to chair the monthly department meeting. In particular she will be able to:
• create and distribute the agenda (with timings and objectives for each item) and any supporting reports or other material to the correct recipients at least two working days ahead of the meeting
• manage the content of the meeting and the discussions of the participants in the time available
• ensure that the meeting makes the decisions and takes the actions necessary, allocating responsibility and setting deadlines where appropriate
• record accurate minutes and agree them with the meetings’ participants
• distribute minutes to participants and stakeholders no more than two working days after the meeting
• inform and update meeting participants and stakeholders about the actions arising from the meeting until all such actions are completed
Trainers and other learning professionals LOVE learning objectives like this. It focuses all their efforts in designing, delivering, assessing and reporting on the learning that learners actually need. All the other stuff – who said what to whom, why previous attempts at learning interventions haven’t worked, what the content could be – is great fun but nowhere near as useful.
Remember: learning objectives and learners’ status. That’s the best place to start.
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