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HUMAN LEARNING -
NATURAL DRIFT TO LOOSE COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
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 MY
PROGRAM IS ABOUT TO BE CUT ! - DEBRIEF - If you do not know your function's added-value toward your company's objectives then in today's lean and mean era much of your functional service may well be slated for outsourcing. This is just as true for KM as it is for HR or IT or Customer Service. Some of Karen's services have been perceived not to have added value to her immediate manager thereby relegating her programs to "niceties" not "necessities." Why should KM remain on senior management's agenda ? Can you give a clear business case to me ? The guest consultants highlighted Karen's lack of business acumen. She neither knew the drivers of her company's business nor demonstrated to date how her services were producing even specific generic benefits. The number one error I saw Karen make is poor customer capital skills, namely, toward her immediate manager. If she was business astute she would have been serving the needs of all her customers including the one who is footing the bill for expensive executive leadership programs. That also means here immediate manager. She obviously has never made the effort to understand his needs and his ongoing pressing needs. And she obviously did not appreciate his background, being non-academic, "hands-on" experiences. That alone should have raised warning bells from the very start. This proposed change should have come as no surprise to her....but it did. She failed to be close to her customers ! The report she gave him (therefore) I suggest missed the mark ! He wasn't interested in the comparative value between internal versus external learning programs....He wanted to know why we should have programs in the first place ! After a couple of years together she had obviously not helped him see SOME clear link between professional development and improved financial performance. Amazing isn't it... and we have all been there. We provide solutions to 'needs' that we think are there but have never really been present ! "But hang on...two things", retorts Karen. "One... there has been very few studies world-wide to quantify the effect training has on overall performance. That frustrates me. I haven't seen any. Two ... what business drivers ? Our current senior management team don't even know the critical success factors of our organisation let alone communicate them to us !" "On the first point, Karen, what have you been reading ? There are some major studies concluding the true worth of professional development for companies that if you were on your toes you would have easily discovered. For instance, the American Society of Training and Development's extensive study... or the IPA's study in England. But I also agree with Noel Tichy our guest consultant who said ROI on less tangibles services will always be difficult...I agree. All the more reason to work hard on your function's metrics ! You could have regularly educated your manager(s) regarding different measurement requirements to less tangible assets. But really that does not excuse you from ignoring these studies or preventing you from introducing valid people development metrics of your own. What about asking every alumni members for quantifiable performance outcomes as a direct result of their executive program... which would have added immense weight to your argument ? Yes ? But your second point about lack of strategic direction is a problem in many companies The CEO of SAP, William McDermott, recently said that before he entered the role probably 90 % of managers and staff could not clearly state the strategies of the company. Yes.. this one is largely out of your control although you could have been more proactive in directing your managers to how your services add to the bottom line. If management has only a generic 3-year strategic plan then obviously they are not convicted on the paradigms of critical success factors and core capabilities.You have no clear directions to work from... so everyone works to their own plans producing a disjointed organisation (which McDermott regretably saw happening at SAP). Mmmmmm. What does your manager I wonder work from ? Did you ever ask him ? Maybe that could have been your default scoreboard to start with." So Karen needs to develop business acumen by acquiring better business knowledge. Secondly, she needs to acquire better verbal communication skills as part of business acumen. I am not sure whether she has developed this either. Maybe because of her manager's laissez-faire leadership style he never bothered to train Karen in good business case presentations...or give her any strategic direction at all. "Karen, you may like to briefly listen in on how some CEO's have to present to their customer groups ( hear examples of business presentations from William McDermott of SAP technologies and from Steve Jobs of Apple Computers). The guest consultants were also alluding to a possible third shortcoming of Karen's. She may still not have Training/HRD acumen to provide a powerful smorgasboard of learning experiences, a "One Stop Shop" or an "Integrated Learning Suite" for her diverse customers. She has been providing a black and white version of executive development. She has not again kept pace with newer learning methodologies thereby limiting customer choices for both the learner and their manager. Conclusion This is quite a uniqe case study hypothetical because all four guest consultants came up with remarkably similar advice on a critical issue of how to keep a company board's priority on potentially under-valued company initiatives. In fact, KM may be even less tangible and measurable than one-off training programs and therefore may more greatly under-valued.Tichy goes further in that unless Karen is directly reporting to an executive board member then her company initiative is not perceived as strategic and thus a non-core activity and thus outsourcable. Will it be too late this time for Karen to transform herself into a business manager ? Is it too late for some of today's KM practitioners ? _______________________________________________________ |
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