HRD09 - the years largest learning event

HRD 2009 is nearing, while this year I will not be able to attend the whole conference I will be attending the exhibition.
What are you going for? what are you hoping to achieve?

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

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After only 5000 days of the world wide web

The Web is now just over 5000 days old - yes that is all.. imagine what the nest 5000 days will bring.
Kevin Kelly in this TED presentation highlights some interesting thoughts, Including the fact that the net is the largets and most reliable machine we have ever made.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

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Twitter

Having spent the week at the World of Learning Conference and blogged on behalf of TrainingZone's Water cooler I discovered that they (TrainingZone) were experimenting with Twitter as a 'soundbite' tool - so I have set up a Twitter account to see how this can add value to the worlds of training, OD and learning.

So lets see what happens - please don't expect my Twitter to describe all my activities - they will all be around learning, development, change and management... also don't expect a post every day!

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

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Web 2.0 - should all learning programmes use this?

Why do 'self generated' web 2.0 based groups work...? Easy they are owned by the learners themselves - it is in their interest to make it work for them. Their evaluation criteria...

When something is offered by the organisation it is a formal offering and some people feel constrained by that. Hence the very same reason why so many learning Centres, LMSs and intranets fail to fully engage, and communities like TJ Online and TrainingZone work so well. People opt in. Sure we ignore the web (1.1 2.0 & 3.0) at our peril but the biggest thing that we need to change is our attitude to control and doing for our learners.

We should support their use of third party applications and not limit them to using our own. If we think we have a challenge in control - wait for the future - the young people joining the world of work at the moment are years behind the 14-16 year olds - and they have a very different attitude to web 2.0 - they use these tools - as tools not environments to live within (unlike the 18-30s) who seem to exist within the virtual world.

So my view is offer the technology by all means - but only as ONE solution - NOT THE solution. let the learners find and own they own technology adjuncts.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

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Leadership, Coaching and Management Resources

How often have you struggled to find a quality graphic for your leadership presentations, or for use in your coaching sessions?

Over the last 4 years the team at RapidBI have been developing and producing their own and the management models part of the site has experienced increasing traffic. Following requests the team have now made over 120 PowerPoint Slides available for use in your own PowerPoint presentations.

For more information visit the leadership, coaching and management models download page.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Generation Y - changing the face and pace of work

Times they say are 'a changing' and this is clearly demonstrated by the expectation and aspirations of young people entering the world of work.

The video below is an excellent intro to some of the challenges facing us. But how do we really show managers and decision makers of today, the realities of the challenges and expectations of the future workforce?

I have thought long about this and come up with the following as a way of demonstrating the sheer changes facing our business future:

Have a room - a big room 36m3 (or bigger) and in that room have 6 42in screens - one showing each of the following:

1. MTV - loud volume


2. CNN


3. BBC news


4. Reality TV show


5. back to back cartoons (Road Runner, Tom and Jerry, etc)

The sixth is connected to 3 PC's positioned at a desk - the screen is showing all 3 pc's at the same time. Then put a manager in the room and give them a task... on one of the pc's is a continuous stream of instant messaging requests....

and that ignores the mobile phone... and other people in the room...

This is what it is like for the average teen - and they cope with the amount of data - AND they study (ok work to us) with increasingly improved grades. They work hard - I know I watch my teenagers. The work rate is relentless.

This is their reality, they have to do huge amounts of work in very little time slots, their attention span has been (self) educated out.. we need to recognise this and work with it if we are to start to engage. they collaborate like no other group before. Corporate competition is at risk with the newer generations - they have learnt to swap ideas and work for the benefit of each other - it is an exchange world. This opens up fantastic possibilities for those willing to take the step - equally it is a massive risk for those that don't

If we think the 20 somethings are a challenging part of 'generation Y' we have not seen anything yet - those just 5 years behind undertake almost 50% more activity.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Lessons from Web 2.0 in the boardroom – more than just technology?

Having just returned from Harrogate I recall a significant amount of web 2.0 was being talked about. This included a session on 2.0 and HR, several of the exhibitors were using 2.0 technologies, not to mention both Personnel Today and my own blog (www.cipd2008.blogspot.com ) both using and promoting web 2.0 technologies.

There is a view that many organisations have yet to embrace this technology fully for:

• internal knowledge management
• networking (internal and external)
• recruitment of generation Y and beyond

Seth Godwin the marketing guru and author in his blog claims that the very best people do not need CV’s. and that the best people will be found and approached (Headhunted) and web 2.0 certainly provides the tools to do that. And this week in the works press the story of Jonathan Chase (from South Wales) being found on the web by NASA and commissioned to write and perform an education piece is an example of this activity. Fortune favours the brave as the old saying goes.

Gorillas in our mist
Earlier in the week I came across a concept called “Gorilla Leadership”. Gorilla Leadership is a sort of reverse ‘back to the floor’, where knowledgeable front line staff are taken away from their normal place of work and get involved in senior management and strategy meetings. Their role is to short circuit team leaders and middle management, to share knowledge and inform senior management of any potential opportunities based:

• what they know about customer needs and feelings
• what works and does not work in the structure and culture of the organisation
• to predict the future impact on customers and staff of proposed product and organisational changes.

Is this another tool in the OD (organisational development) tool kit for employee engagement? This approach of building close relationships between front line staff and senior managers appears to be a real and innovative approach to 360 degree communication in a diverse organisation. A human world version of what Web 2.0 aims to achieve. A model many entrepreneurs use in their firms – not least because of their size.

So perhaps Web 2.0 is starting to educate us to take the communication concepts of transparency and true two way communication back from technology into the way we manage and run our organisations.

If gorilla leadership is the minority (few people can get fully engaged) what is the mass market equivalent? In the 1960s the concept of Team Briefing was developed by the Industrial Society. The team briefing booklets that the organisation published were used by many organisations in the 1980s, but in the last 10-15 years we seem to have thrown the baby out with the bath water as we strive to increase communications with employees – as almost every staff survey says we need to do more and improved communication with our people.

The Team Briefing Concept
Team Briefing is a powerful method for cascading information from the very top (business plan and performance against it) down through the organisation and back up again. Questions that were asked and answered (and not answered that required a reply from another part of the structure) are communicated up for feedback and replies communicated where necessary.

The Team Briefing system works because the approach involves a face to face meeting (often less that half an hour) as well as an opportunity for providing feedback. Typically meeting once a month, the information required will fit on a double sided A4 sheet. If it does not then it suggests that too much is trying to be conveyed.

Team Briefings traditionally give management an opportunity to brief down and listen up. They are excellent at focusing direction, creating a culture of clear communication etc. Typically they are organised around Business plan and departmental goals. As the process cascades though the organisation the core brief is augmented by local team leaders. It’s easy to measure the result and track the impact on culture and communications over time.

Full Circle
And so we go full circle, I hope that this web 2.0 approach to management processes is remembered and implemented fully and widely. In difficult and challenging times often the best thing to do is go back to basics – albeit with a modern twist…



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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Guerrilla leaders in the board room

While on my regular morning 'recon' research trip I came across the concept of Guerrilla Leaders in the boardroom and the idea fascinated me. I first picked this up at the leadership hub. In essence the concept is much like 'back to the floor'... but in reverse. Directors take shop floor people up to the board room as 'advisers'.

In my days in London Underground some 15 years ago, every six months we offered a graduate trainee the opportunity of becoming the Engineering Directors PA. This was a fantastic success, and those that took this role accelerated there career faster than peers, both inside and outside the organisation.

As Colin Scowen commented on the leadership Hub:

"... the assumption here is that said guerrilla leaders have been selected precisely because they are willing to speak their mind,not willing to be cowed by the rank of those around them etc.

1) Although it would take longer, the pulse would make itself felt in mahogany row. This would become almost a regular sanity check on any new initiatives. If you can't explain it to the guerrilla leaders, then how can you expect the shop floor to accept it.
2) There would be some seriously effective 360 feedback loops forming, which I am sure would make the levels of management between mahogany row and the shop floor up their game a bit.
3) Some of the thinking behind the company strategy would make it's way back down to the shop floor without having passed through the middle management filters. This will help to give a better, balanced view to the shop floor of exactly why they are doing what they are doing."

Web 2.0 in the boardroom
As change agents this is a strategy not to be ignored in organisations - especially those with a large customer facing team. Directors getting back to the floor is only part of the picture, having people move from the floor to the boardroom can provide a reality check on changes to processes and policy that will impact the relationship with customers. This sort of change management activity is the web 2.0 concept for managers. The way many organisations run their organisations is still in web 0.9... we may ask for comments and feedback, but we we manage comments only to a limited extent - and we certainly do not publish all comments received my managers... We are still using the "Team Briefing" methodology first promoted by the Industrial Society... badly, for even this system required written feedback up and down, but many implementations ignore this element.

Time for business to learn from the web technologies - or generation Y will hit us harder and faster than we are already expecting...
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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys

Times are getting harder for many of us, and it is not just individuals being affected.

As the economy bites harder organizations of all sizes are having to tighten their belts, yet at the same time engaging with employees and retention of key people have never been more important. Over the past few months the RapidBI development team have been preparing this new and exciting solution.

At the NFEA (National Federation of Enterprise Agencies) annual conference RapidBI showcased its new EESS - Employee Engagement and Satisfaction Survey.

The EESS is a unique combination of four key factors:

• An employee engagement survey
• A staff satisfaction survey
• A ready to run 'out of the box survey'
• An easy to integrate custom question module (included)

Online management
The whole process can be managed on-line and requires no specialist training or accreditation. Users have the option of 'pay as you go' or for freelance consultants or providers becoming a 'listed' user and having instant access to the family of diagnostic tools available.


Customising the EESS
To keep the process as quick and cost effective as possible the EESS allows users to have up to 10 of their own unique questions in addition to the standard question set.


Using the product
Once a user has purchased the survey for their organisation (or client) they are taken through some simple steps to configure the survey and add their questions. When they are ready to go they communicate their customised user-names and passwords, and when the 'closing date' of the survey has passed the administrator logs in to their control panel and downloads their reports - easy!

Comparing results

The EESS automatically produces graphics and analysis of results and runs a comparison of your organisations results against those held on the database. This is a powerful way to benchmark the performance of your organization against those of others.

In addition when you re-run the survey you have the ability of seeing any change against previous results.


Easy, ready to run and low cost - a welcome in the challenging economic climate we find ourselves in.

To find out more visit www.rapidbi.com/staffsurvey/

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

A minute to win it - networking opportunity

Do you really have a minute to win it?..... or a minute to lose it?

On Wednesday morning at the NFEA annual conference exhibitors were given the chance to deliver a 'minute to win it' or elevator pitch to the conference participants.

As a one off pitch this style and being prepared for an 'instant' presentation works very well, however with six or more individuals delivering one of these 'one hit wonders' one after another how do you get noticed, do they all appear similar or are they memorable. Has the concept of the 'Minute to win it' presentations reached the point where everyone rehearses and times the pitch to perfection and the only way to get noticed among a number of presentations is to have a gimmick, have you got to be an incredible presenter to make these work?

So what did I do to get the attention? Well for me it is about confidence - a very short message and to be aware of the audience and their needs "at that moment in time" and not to 'take' your audiences time but to give it back - the key after all is to get remembered - not to sell! (sales Can come later - build rapport first)... Did it work? Well only people that were there can answer that one.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Technology on the move - PocketSurfer2 reviewed

As a professional often on the move, I am always on the look out for new technology or gadgets that will help me communicate more easily. Courtesy of Training Journal I have been given a Pocketsurfer2 to review. I will be using the device for the next couple of weeks. in fact this post has been started on the PocketSurfer2. (but had to stop here...)

Overview

The PocketSurfer2 is a pocket diary size device with 'instant' mobile phone technology connection to the web. It uses a Motorola RAZR style keyboard. So anywhere you can use a mobile, this device will allow you to do most things you can do in a browser on a desk top (except flash and video).




Claims



The manufactures DataWind claim that you get a 'full' web experience, rather than the limited experience on most mobile phones. The manufactures also claim that the surfing experience is fast - broadband fast over a GPRS phone network.



First experiences



The device arrives in a box 250 x 173 x 69mm, inside the box is a well protected (but using plastic and foam) carrier for the PocketSurfer2 and its accessories. In the box is the PocketSurfer2, mains charger (mini USB), a quick guide, a soft protective 'sock' and manual on CD.







Powering up









The device arrives with enough power to start the device and to go through a simple registration process. Through the registration you are shown how to navigate the various controls - the 'mouse', tab functions etc. the buttons on the keyboard are large enough to use your thumb. Once registered the device needs 4 hours of charging. Try to shortcut this and when you attempt to connect to the net the device tells you that your 'registration' is still pending and to allow up to 4 hours...

Charging
The good news is that the device can be charged via a mini USB and a charger is supplied, unfortunately access to the USB socket is so slim that a standard mini USB charger will not fit! - so there goes using my car based USB charger (although some units do ship with this lead). It is a real shame that this is not a standard connection - forget your special lead and you cannot borrow a lead to charge your device!

Going On-Line


Once charged and registered it could not be easier - push the 'Go' button, type in the address you want and hit enter. The quick as a flash the page loads - brilliant. The graphics are very washed out but for a basic surfing need the device is more than functional. getting used to the 'mouse' is taking some time. For the technical readers - this device appears to use a thin client to a secure server running IE, hence the speed and lack of clarity on the graphics. It also explains how you get 'the full web experience'. Thin client basically means you are using the PocketSurfer2 to access a more powerful computer doing most of the work for you - all the device in your hand does is give keyboard commands and show the screen.


Most of the pages I have initially visited performed well, although the tab function does not appear reliable in moving between fields. When I started posting this blog the input to reading on screen was very slow - correcting typing mistakes was very difficult and highlighting text to insert a hyperlink was impossible. Typing is a slow and unreliable process - as the tools for simple navigation around a text field are missing - i.e. basic arrow keys. The lack of a spell check also makes for slow blog posting.

Email
The devise has the ability to access POP3 and most other forms of email services - this provides an easier access to your emails than many phone based products.

Instant Messaging
For many this will be a welcome feature - especially those of us that want to keep in touch with our teenagers while we are away. Easy to set up but the slow nature of the keyboard makes fluent conversations difficult.

Calenders and organizers
While the device does not provide any diary type system you can access Yahoo Calendar as an Organizer.

Added functions
As well as basic surfing the device provides access to online secure document storage and basic applications, word processing, spreadsheets and presentation from a site zoho.com. The downside is that this device cannot connect to a printer - nor can it download data to a local memory device (i.e. USB or SD card)

Use your home PC and software from anywhere
You know the situation - you are away from home and need THAT file... how can you do it? The PocketSurfer2 is compatible with Logmein. Logmein is a piece of software that runs on your home PC which allows you access to your programs and document files at any time from any internet connection. I have been a user of Logmein for 4 years and it has saved my bacon on many occasions. With military level security encryption this service is fantastic and the PocketSurfer implementation is unfortunately of limited usability due to the screen resolution, this is a real shame as few if any mobile phones can do satisfactorily.

GPS

The unit come with a built in GPS unit which links neatly to Google maps, always a useful function - but as the device does not have a 'contacts list' you will need to bookmark the address previously - or have the address in another device. The GPS system is quick and will aid those on foot finding a venue at street level, however remember the system does not have any sound capability so do not expect turn by turn voice directions - This device is not suitable for use in a vehicle.

Charges
The PocketSurfer2 is supplied with 12 months connection to the Internet with an allowance of 20 hours per month, this should be more than enough for most people. The subscription for the second years is just under £40. For an additional £5.99 per months unlimited Internet access is available.

Needed on PocketSurfer3
This device is usable as a tool for those that are 'on the move' and in many ways is better than 99% of the available mobile devices. features that need to be included to make this a truly powerful mobile device:

• Touch screen to operate the mouse/ or improved mouse navigation
• Reliable 'tabbing' between fields on web pages
• SD or USB local storage
• Ability to have 'active history' to save entering whole addresses in the browser
• Standard mini USB connector for universal charging
• Remove the PocketSurfer 'top bar' this uses up valuable screen space for no real functionality
• Ability to navigate through text with basic arrow buttons

To make the device a truly 'must have'...

• WIFIi/ Bluetooth or cable for 'monitor out'
• Ability to 'run' PowerPoint slide shows
  

This device is not a PDA, and nor should it be - but as low cost laptops get cheaper it needs to provide a little 'extra value' than just a surfing experience.

Overall
More of a gimmick than a serious tool for the mobile professional. For its cost and Internet access it is good value for money - but is it a must have for the mobile professional? No not yet. Great as a 'get out of jail' device when you cannot connect to the net by any other means.

The device in use on the road

Use of the Pocket Surfer 'in the field' rather than in the office on trial are different things. I had occasional difficulty connecting (something I would not usually expect in west London) and my use would be for managing my website or blogging - neither of which it did very well. I actually found it easier to use my PDA phone and stylus than the keyboard, and many modern phones, while they do not have a screen size of the PocketSurfer2, do have better navigation control - right click and click and drag were difficult.

Ideal applications

One of the 'best' applications for the pocket surfer I can imagine is in the use of mobile survey completion - providing most of the survey is multiple choice and optimised for a 640 wide screen. Using the device for basic surfing and finding information was great - but as for actually using web based application... no not yet.

What happens when the device is lost?

Well this happened - on the last day of the CIPD Annual Conference in Harrogate I took my jacket off and it must have fallen out of my inside pocket...

I did not realise until the following day but then it was the weekend. On Monday morning I called the UK helpline and after a wait was through to a very helpful lady who after taking my serial number and confirming my details stopped the device. She was able to tell me that the device had been used over the weekend, but could not/ would not tell me what sites or where in the UK the device was.

Well the next time the person tries to use the device it just will not connect!

Having been given this one for review will I buy a replacement? Interesting question.. There are some things this device is particularly good at - and not so good at others. Had I lost the device 2 years ago my answer would have been a swift yes... now..... er... no I will not be buying one for myself.

Images © Datawind and taken from their site.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Tag Clouds

While looking at some enhancements for our website we have been experimenting with tag clouds. These make interesting graphics as well as functional tools for navigation. This one is based on our site map...

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/153607/Business_Tree

What do you think of tag clouds? do you like them?

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

CIPD Annual Conference 2008

RapidBI have been invited to attend the CIPD Annual Conference 2008 and we will be blogging here visit and comment.


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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

What is your NetRep? get seen on the web - appropriately

Do you know what your NetRep is?

A NetRep or interNET REPutation is the image people get from you as they surf the world wide web.

Every time you post on a social networking site, you contribute to a professional forum, you leave behind a footprint. the words, the tone you use says something about you. Even what other people post and say about you will impact job opportunities, contracts etc.

While you may not be able to control what others say about you, you can control what you put on the internet, to some extent you can also control what other people SEE of you. For example if there is an article which criticises your views, you can add more content to the net which pushes more negative articles lower down the search result listings. most people do not look beyond the second or third page of results. So you can manage your NetRep.

In association with Lookup-pages, Mike has designed a simple DIY workshop to help you manager your netrep, or guide others as to the approach you should and could take. To find out more about getting seen in the web, follow the links below.


For more details visit http://www.rapidbi.com/getseenontheweb/index.html or http://www.getseenontheweb.co.uk/

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Deep Dive - innovation tool

Deep Dive is becoming increasingly popular, but is this because this is a 'new technique' or is it just a new piece of jargon?

The technique was developed in IDEO a design firm and was subsequently published in a book (The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from IDEO, America's Leading Design Firm. Kelley, Tom. Doubleday, 2001. ) and a well know TV show (ABC Nightline - The Deep Dive ) focused on this innovative approach.

It seems from reading a range of online case studies that implementations are mixed, with many using the name (deep dive) and attaching it to a conventional brainstorming process rather than using the whole process. This is a shame as deep dive is a clever left and right brain full process approach to product development and problem solving.

To find out more read the book "The Art of Innovation" or visit Deep Dive thinking

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Transfer of learning to the workplace

With the Credit Crunch starting to hit many organizations, the ability to spend money on training , learning and development activities is getting harder.

This post explores some of the research and methods to provide you with the best opportunity of maximising your return on investment.

While reading a post on TrainingZone I was reminded of the unfortunate state of the profession in which I (and many like me work). It is one where many people new to the industry read one article and believe it as 'truth' or 'fact'. There are a lot of miss-truths in the training world including the miss-representation of Albert Mehrabian's work (7% 38% 55%) , the 1960 research on written goals from Harvard (or was it Yale) - both fictitious, and now the:

You remember 10% of what you read You remember 20% of what you hear You remember 30% of what you see You remember 90% of what you do - reportedly from Edgar Dale's "cone of experience"

From Fiction to Fact
So what is real? How can we maximise our learning and transfer? Below is a reprint of a summary from Tom Lambert, who was involved in research into learning Transfer at Xerox.

Transfer of Learning
Summary of Research Findings – by Tom Lambert

1. Bruce Joyce - University of Columbia New York 1984 and ongoing (at 1996).

Joyce found that the transfer of training to the workplace varied with the training methodology used. With the best available methods it remained, however, abysmally poor.

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Models of Teaching

Skill Acquisition

Transfer to the Workplace

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Theory and Rationale "Chalk and Talk"

5-10%

<5%

Demonstration (Modelling of the skill)

10-13%

5%

Practice with Feedback (Threat-free training room practice with structured feedback)

80-90%

10-13%

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Post-training, on the job coaching, by trainers/ consultants raised on the job transfer following practice and feedback to close to 80% in the short-term, but improvements were far from permanent.

2. Xerox Corporation 1986
Xerox research showed that, regardless of the training methodology 87% of what is learned and transferred is lost within the first three months.

3. Seward and Gers - Maryland Institute of Education

- longitudinal study 1984 -1996
This study has shown that insistence on training objectives which are expressed in the form of specific, observable behaviours and training in peer coaching raises the sustained transfer of knowledge to the workplace to between 90% - 96%. Random testing has been carried out over a period of twelve years.

4. Industrial Society 1991
The Industrial Society surveyed management in the UK in 1991. Their findings were that management was seeking ways of increasing the return on the training investment, but that there was little if any improvement in post training performance in a range of UK businesses.

5. Trainees were not pre-positioned to understand expectations of them after training. Often opportunities to apply what has been learned are denied;

6. Neither management nor colleagues are able to help when difficulties arise;

7. New skills require greater effort to apply, particularly at first;

8. New skills make the individual feel awkward – normal activities go less smoothly at first. The more important the area of work, the greater the discomfort as new skills displace valued behaviours;

9. There is a psychological and emotional gulf between "training" and the "real world".


Source © Tom Lambert workshop notes circ 1996


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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006 - 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Maximized Productivity From Your Consultancy or Training Investment

When 70+% of the workforce is employed by service industries, the traditional approaches to purchasing tangible items are no longer appropriate - and do not work effectively.

The purchasing of training and services requires a different approach, at least if you expect to negotiate the best contract, reduce and control costs, maximize and insure the quality of purchased services, and manage supplier performance.

With the credit crunch starting to impact organisations, salaries, energy costs, capital equipment, hardware and software are the costly items in budget, unfortunately, increased productivity doesn't automatically flow from making these investments.

Only skilled and competent users of these tools and resources can maximize your return. Training and development is the small investment that can make your big investment pay off, if managed effectively. Since not all training providers are the same, the challenge is... How to purchase training wisely?

Find out how to intelligently purchase training and OD consultancy in one of RapidBI's latest articles


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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

What is Business Transformation - fad to tool?

The term Business Transformation is being used increasingly in the worlds of project management, change and organizational development. But what does it mean?

• Is it change re-branded?
• is it outsourcing?
• is it a way for IT companies to sell additional services?

In this unique piece Mike explores Business Transformation and looks at how this approach can be used in your company. He gets behind the hype and looks at what can be done at a practical level to manage transformational change.Read the full article on What is Business Transformation?


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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Getting seen and found on the web - SEO for trainers

Search Engine Optimisation or SEO:

Is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via search results for targeted keywords.

Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it "ranks", the more searchers will visit that site.

Evidence suggests that:

SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Get seen on the web
With the web being used more and more for purchasers to find training and consulting providers, appropriate use of the internet is becoming critical to many training providers and consulting organisations.

Over the past few years I have been developing and using web SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques to get my business seen on the net. SEO is a technical way of saying I have used approaches which search engines like and as a result get listed higher than other sites for the same 'search criteria'.

Earlier this year I was asked to present a session at the TrainerBase conference on this topic. his was a well received session and as a result several people have asked if I would put together a more comprehensive (yet simple) course covering practicle ways that trainers and consultants can improve their web profile.

With this in mind I have developed a process called getting seen on the web - a one day programme with practical activities to raise you profile and tap into the work available. No computer programming is required - only the ability to surf the net and use programs like Microsoft Word.

For more information see www.getseenontheweb.co.uk
This one day programmes is suitable for Trainers, Consultants and other freelancers

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

How to Find a Trainer or Training Provider

Do you have to find a trainer to deliver a training solution?

As more and more organisations and companies reduce their training delivery capability and outsource their training, they need to identify and find competent trainers in a wide range of topics.

In the UK there is no single place to find trainers, TrainerBase is quickly becoming THE place to start, and find competent trainers. It is estimated that 60% of training purchasers that are using the Internet as a source of finding new providers.

There are many purchasers out there looking for new trainers; if you are visible and easily seen on the web you are more likely to be in the running for new potential work.

Using 'Find a trainer' web sites like TrainerBase.co.uk that are search engine optimised (that is your profile can be seen publicly) can be an important part of your overall marketing strategy.

Unfortunately many 'find a trainer' sites are 'closed' and the details of individual trainers are held back. If the site is effective and attracts a lot of traffic and users then this is not a problem, however the reality is this is a very diluted market space and unless you profile is publicly accessible - why bother? Having other sites point to yours is a valuable marketing strategy on its own, not just the hope that a purchaser uses a given site.

TrainerBase is unique in that is it is not sector specific, and yet is a one stop shop with trainers from a diverse range of backgrounds, offering a very wide range of training subjects.

Do you need to find a trainer or training provider? Then this is the place to look first.

You can also see which trainers have passed the tough quality standard the Certified Learning Practitioner standard

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Innovation Inventory

How to Develop Leadership and Innovation ...

The Creatrix Certification Programme - a one day workshop

Thought Leadership, Creativity and Innovation are the buzz words of today, yet many in management positions admit that they don't know where to start to develop these capabilities. Unfortunately, many re-badge what they have been using for the past 10 years and pass it off as ‘new’.

It doesn't have to be this way.

In the Innovation Equation:

Innovation = Creativity X Risk Taking

This is a proven way to look at culture and approaches to innovation in organisations.

The need for innovation is everywhere. We all know this in the work we do with organisations. But, how do you go about it? How do you talk about it? How do you generate innovative ideas? How do you foster and nurture it in organisations?

Creatrix™ is a process that includes the remarkable Creatrix Assessment. Part of the Creatrix Process is the use of the Creatrix innovation inventory

Creatrix Corporate Users include: Cargill, Country Inns & Suites, DuPont, John Deere, 3M, Laing O’Rourke, Yum Foods (Pizza Hut, KFC) and many other entrepreneurial, government and not for profit organisations.

Creatrix can help you work with individuals, teams and organisations to:

• Create a language of innovation for an entire team/ organisation
• Provide a framework for developing the culture & behaviours required for an organisation to become more innovative
• Understand the most valuable team profiles for innovation and implementation
• Increase the capacity of individuals, teams and organisations to generate and implement Innovative Ideas

Useful Links
www.rapidbi.com/creatrix/ - UK site
www.creatrix.com - US site
www.rapidbi.com/creatrix/creatrixcertification.html
www.rapidbi.com/training_dates.html

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Induction Training and Evaluation

From time to time organisations look at the induction and orientation processes they offer and look to review them. Increasingly this task is being set as a first project to people new to HR. To support their needs and to provide a starting block RapidBI has added a page to its series of articles to help 'kick start' the process.

Induction Evaluation survey and questionnaire

Other recent pages include:
A Guide to employee engagement and satisfaction surveys
A Business Glossary

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Safe Manual Handling Training

Health and Safety at work
The need to provide staff with manual handling training for a number of years, however the injuries caused by poor manual handling technique and risk assessment of handling operations are on the increase. To meet this need RapidBI have decided to take the training that we to in the voluntary sector and make it available to the corporate market. For more information visit Manual Handling Training page.

If you are involved in patient handling or people handling then consider our Patient Handling Training page, Our trainers have worked in the pre-hospital environment where safe patient handling is critical for the safety of the crew and the patient.

HSE Guidance

Is there a maximum weight a person can lift during their work?

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) set no specific requirements such as weight limits.

The ergonomic approach shows clearly that such requirements are based on too simple a view of the problem and may lead to incorrect conclusions. Instead, an ergonomic assessment based on a range of relevant factors is used to determine the risk of injury and point the way to remedial action.

The Regulations establish the following clear hierarchy of control measures:

1. Avoid hazardous manual handling operations so far as is reasonably practicable, for example by redesigning the task to avoid moving the load or by automating or mechanising the process.
2. Make a suitable and sufficient assessment of any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be avoided.
3. Reduce the risk of injury from those operations so far as is reasonably practicable. Where possible, you should provide mechanical assistance, for example a sack trolley or hoist. Where this is not reasonably practicable, look at ways of changing the task, the load and working environment.

Modern medical and scientific opinion accepts the scale of the problem and stresses the importance of an ergonomic approach to remove or reduce the risk of manual handling injury. Ergonomics is sometimes described as 'fitting the job to the person, rather than the person to the job'. The ergonomic approach looks at manual handling as a whole. It takes into account a range of relevant factors, including the nature of the task, the load, the working environment and individual capability and requires worker participation.

When a more detailed assessment is necessary it should follow the broad structure set out in Schedule 1 to the Regulations. The Schedule from the HSE lists a number of questions in five categories:

TILEE

1. the Task to be undertaken
2. the Individual that is doing the task
3. the Load to be moved
4. the working Environment
5. the Equipment available

Each of these categories may influence the others and none of them can be considered on their own. However, to carry out an assessment in a structured way it is often helpful to begin by breaking the operations down into separate, more manageable items.

The steps to follow

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 (as amended) establish a clear hierarchy of measures for dealing with risks from manual handling.

These are:

1. avoid hazardous manual handling operations so far as reasonably practicable;
2. assess any hazardous manual handling operations that cannot be avoided; and
3. reduce the risk of injury so far as reasonably practicable.

What should a Manual Handling training course contain?

’HSE does not publish prescriptive guidance on what a 'good' manual handling training course should include or how long it should last. However, in general, courses should be suitable for the individual, tasks and environment involved, use of relevant examples and of a duration long enough to cover all the relevant information, Such information is likely to include advice on:

1. Manual Handling risk factors and how injuries can occur;
2. How to carry out safe manual handling, including good handling technique;
3. Appropriate systems of work for the individual's task and environment;
4. Use of mechanical aids; and
5. Practical work to allow the trainer to identify and put right anything the trainee is not doing safely.

All RapidBI sessions cover these topics to an appropriate level for the participants.

To find a manual handling or a moving on trainer visit find a trainer at TrainerBase
If you want help to find a trainer visit our find a trainer advice page


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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

HRD - CIPD Exhibition and Conference 2008

Watch this space as we will be posting live from the event all week... 15-17 April 2008

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Management Resources

The Team at RapidBI have been busy developing new free content covering strategic and tactical business tools, thechiques and methods appropriate for people involved in the development of organizations or themselves. below are some of the newer pages - enjoy.

Main Pages:
Holistic Diagnostic Tools - Find out what using a holistic approach can offer you and your organization
Scanning the Business Environment - Why do this - is it just a waste of time or the critical factor?
Management Models - 100+ Management Models - a page full of graphical management models, covering organizational growth, leadership, coaching, change management etc.
Porters five forces - Michael Porter's five forces is a model used to explore the environment in which a product or company operates.
The PESTLE Analysis - The PESTLE analysis - a powerful tool for exploring the external environment of an organzation
Force Field Analysis - The Force Field analysis is a valuable tool in any decisionmaking process
SWOT analysis - The SWOT analysis - a powerful tool for exploring the strengths of an organzation
Personal Development Plans or PDPs - Need to develop a Personal Development Plan - all you need is here
PRIMO-F_- Business_Growth_Model - The PRIMO-F business growth model, a holistic approach
Continuing Professional Development or CPD - CPD has been around for some years, now the need for personal responsibility is ever increasing.
Write SMART objectives - Description on how to write SMART and SMARTER objectives for individual and business performance
Learning Logs - We have had requests for material to complement our PDP and CPD pages... here it is
Critical Success Factors - What are Critical Success Factors and how to use them
Corporate Social Responsibility CSR -
How does Corporate Social Responsibility impact smaller businesses
Learning Styles - Want to be a more effective learner? hers is a summary of the main learning style theories and application
Write a Mission Statement -
How to write a mission statement for your business.
more coming soon...
Psychometric_Personality_Testing -
What psychometric testing is and how to use it
Career Anchors - A powerful tool to help individuals understand their career strengths
Business Values -how to use values to create an effective organization
Change Management - Understanding the impact of psychology on change
Management Development and Train the Trainer short courses - the RapidBI home page listting the shourt courses available for delivery inhouse


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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Second bite of the cherry...

Yesterday when I visited the exhibition I was invited to attend a meeting today, needless to say that went well - so look out for some new and interesting announcements in the world for training and development later in the year!

So I was back again and decided to have another look around. Yesterdays visit prompted some thoughts about marketing and advertising. The one thing I noticed yesterday is that 99% of the stands were 'vanilla' - one stand much like another. Poorly worded background graphics full of buzz phrases - which failed to say what the company did, a laptop or two and a data projector.

One stand had a big inflatable 'catch the winning ticket' competition, which sparked some interest, and another had a small dance floor with some young (too young??) dancers. Another (Echelon) had what appeared to be a 32" blackberry! at least it was different and caught peoples eye.

But on the whole the show was oh so bland, bland, bland.

As communication and training organizations, the advertisers need to learn some lessons about engaging with potential purchasers. I took a number of photos of effective and ineffective stand messages - one of the better ones is below.

- Ed on the stand.

Watchout for another entry showing the Good, bad and ugly of stand displays!

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organizational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com/

© This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Learning Technologies 2008 Olympia UK

This usually thriving and lively exhibition seemed quieter than usual,
although only having one lift available to get in did not help!

While there appeared to be as many exhibitors as usual, the range of stands
did not seem as diverse as in recent years.

To many of those exhibiting, design meant web interface and images - not
learning design and learning style.

Networking
As well as meeting people that was pre-arranged, it was great to see some
old and new faces. The biggest surprise for me was to see my face on the
home page on one of the exhibitors stands as a featured contributor.

Stand quality
Many of the stands look like they were designed over the weekend, rather
than professionally conceived. Many did not even clearly say what their
offer was - let alone have a call to action. Does the world of training and
IT need to learn sales and marketing?

Free seminars
While I did not go to the main conference, I did watch some of the free
seminars. Great PowerPoint - if you like 10 lines of bullets and small
screen shots... But the general quality of presenters was well below average
- strange as these people are trying to influence professionals! May be I
should contact the organisers and offer presentation skill sessions and
coaching for presenters next year.

Misleading title?
It is a shame that while the show is called learning technologies - that
exhibitors seemed to focus on PC and mobile solutions and ignored many
other learning technologies all together.

Overall a few hours well spent - I now look forward to lots of emails and brochures by post.

Did you go to this event - what was your experience - Hot or Not?

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com © This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

Freelance - How much to charge?

Reading a post on the ASTD forum (community.astd.org) today made me think. Often people in the consulting and freelance world under value their services.

Some years ago I was asked to present to a local CIPD group about 'going freelance' and in the course of that preparation it highlighted some important facts that all freelances should be aware of:

When setting your daily rate, you need to look at the wider picture rather than just a recovery of your 'old salary'

Lets do some simple maths...
There are 52 weeks a year - you will want 3-4 weeks leave - that leaves 48 working weeks.

You need to account for admin - tax returns, marketing etc, this will leave you with 2-3 days to work a week - so that is 48*3= 144 working days. Marketing effort should not be underestimated - this included all unpaid time doing proposals, visits etc.

Now - rather than charge 'by the hour' and all of the timekeeping required to prove it - charge by the 1/2 or full day

So if you want an income of:

• 100k - that is 100,000/144 = 695 a day
• 50k - 350 a day
• 25k - that is 175 a day

You get the idea - remember of course that you will now need to pay for any training you need, equipment, internet connections etc - so these can easily mount up - do not undersell your self - set your price and be proud of it!

Useful references include:

http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/documents/TPB1.pdf

http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/documents/TPB2.pdf

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=159067

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=157537

http://www.hrzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=174142

http://www.trainerbase.co.uk/ResourcesShop/display_Resource.asp?keyword=solo

http://space.businessballs.com/index.asp?profile=2386&score= (look at going freelance download)

Mike

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com © This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

SWOT and PESTLE - why the debate

Yes another thread was started today about SWOT and PESTLE

Why is this such a difficult topic for students doing CIPD, marketing and business courses?

From what I can make out...

Often use of these tools is part of the course syllabus.. So tutors set an assignment on it. Most of the time tutors have not bother to understand HOW the tool can add value, rather than what the letters stand for. This means a short input session is given with an outline of what might be listed, but no more detail. Wores.. a case study may be used where so much information is contained that the poor student cannot make head nor tail of what is infront of them!

These are different tools -

• SWOT comes from the world of strategic planning
• PEST/ PESTLE comes from the world of marketing
  

A simple Google for "PESTLE" and a separate for "SWOT" will provide most people with the answers they need.

But to my mind the best resources on the net are PESTLE SWOT ;)

The best way to understand these simple - yet powerful frameworks is to use them.. again... again... and again.

Additionally in the 'real world' when these tools are used they are undertaken by teams. On a course it is done from an individuals perspective and unfortunately this reduces the effectiveness in my view. It is the difference of opinion when looking and exploring data that yields the most powerful answers - not a benign list!

See the latest discussion on this topic:

http://www.cipd.co.uk/community/forums/rss.ashx?&ForumID=47&PostID=72879

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com © This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

SWOT and PESTLE analysis in Business Improvement Reviews

The use of a SWOT and PESTLE are valuable frameworks as part of any business review/ health check or diagnostic process.

Most business reviews only look at internal factors. While these are of value, the views and perceptions of our suppliers and customers should not be overlooked.

While in the RapidBI process we use an extensive SWOT methodology, we also use the SWOT as a limited framework to gather the views of Suppliers and customers. We do not yet include a structured PESTLE analysis for the simple reason we have not identifies any common factors that could be built into a model more complex than the basic PESTLE framework. This unfortunately requires an experienced human to ask the right questions...

As well as the excellent content pages on the RapidBI site for SWOT and PESTLE, the following RSS pages are worth a visit. These are pages often used by students of the CIPD to post their SWOT and PESTLE questions - and Mike (Director of RapidBI) is a regular contributor. These can be found at:

PESTLE:

http://www.cipd.co.uk/community/forums/rss.ashx?&ForumID=70&PostID=42403

SWOT:

http://www.cipd.co.uk/community/forums/rss.ashx?&ForumID=46&PostID=26158

Worth a regular visit too!

For an effective Business Review - it is important to not only look to multiple views from within the organisation (staff, managers, directors etc) but to check externally with suppliers and customers too!
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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com © This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

How to do a SWOT analysis

I have been asked by many people how to complete a SWOT analysis.

A SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

A SWOT can be used with individuals, teams, organizations and in business planning sessions.

Rather than duplicate an article here have a look at SWOT analysis - at http://www.rapidbi.com/created/SWOTanalysis.html as this provide a comprehensive history and set of how to guides for a range of situations.

Mike

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com © This article is copyright RapidBI 2006, 2008 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

The Mayonnaise Jar and 2 Cups of Coffee

I was sent this today - a re-vamp of an old story - but worth remembering...

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favourite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else---the small stuff. "If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

        One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled and said, "I'm glad you asked."
       
        The coffee just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Marketing HRD & OD: From tactical to strategy

Summary
With the need for internal marketing activities increasing, Mike Morrison offers some tips and advice on how to develop your skills in branding and promotion, so as to meet the specific needs of the business.

Introduction
As the business environment changes, so does the potential contribution of HR and organisational development (OD) teams. As the day to day workload increases, often the profile of these functions diminishes.

Increasingly, the challenge of HR and OD is to undertake marketing activities internally. This is a need which is increasing and often requires a skill set not readily available within the function.

Why do it?
Many of us say that as a function we are not strategic enough. To a great extent that is true, since the business does not want us to be strategic most of the time.
What we need to do is to avoid re-branding the whole function, and concentrate on re-branding offers and services. For example, an organisational development function may have the following services:

• OD strategy
• HR strategy
• Recruitment
• Compensation and benefits
• Employee relations
• Development
• Talent management
• Training
• Learning
  

We need to recognise that all elements have their place, and many, if not most, of these are operational and tactical in nature. Let’s not try to make something operational look strategic – it just does not work.

This is a big jump from the direction many HR-related functions have been making in recent years.

Changing Mindsets
This is a double challenge. Firstly we need to recognise the need to communicate what we do to the wider world. Secondly we need to be prepared to start advertising our services and celebrating our successes. It is about seeing things from the perception of others.

Available resources to help
There are some books and publications to help HR undertake this role; however more has been published under the umbrella of marketing training. The principles and audiences are the same, so we can use these resources as well as ones aimed at promoting professional services in a wider context. That said, we can also use some of the excellent materials available in the general marketing arena.

Making it happen
When I have done this in corporate life, it’s about spending time with your customers. How much of your week do you spend building relationships? If it is less than two days a week then you are not doing enough. The better we understand our clients and their specific needs, the stronger our position is to offer a customised service. For many HR teams now involved in business partnering, leaving behind the (standard) menu driven offers is an increasing fact of life. Don’t get me wrong, our clients want and often demand a menu – what is different is that we will have a menu specifically for them.

Each customer is unique
It’s also not about advertising or promoting all of your services to everyone - identify a given group or audience and promote relevant services to them.

For example,
there is no point promoting talent management services or recruitment strategies to front line staff - they are just not interested. Equally, hard selling career development to managers is not effective - many managers will want to keep their best people and (wrongly) believe that by not encouraging them to develop, they will stay in the team longer. I know this is not best for the business, but if we are trying to raise the profile we need to see things from our customers’ perspective.

From a professional and holistic point of view we want to tell the world about what we do, yet the reality is they (the public, our customers etc) are just not interested. We need to frame our offer for each audience.

As HR or OD professionals, we need to learn from how companies market to their diverse audience. As a function, do you use your internal communication or marketing team to help communicate key messages?

You would not use a training consultant to design your comp and benefits systems would you? So why look at marketing any differently? As the saying goes – different strokes for different folks.

Who is the audience?
Whilst that is for you to work out, the following is a useful guide:

• Directors
• Senior managers
• Middle management
• Team leaders/ supervisors
• Front line / operational staff
• Professionals

While there may be overlap - there is nothing to say that any given person does not receive two or more different messages – it’s a language thing, not a conflicting message. We must ensure that we do not communicate conflicting messages as this can undermine the whole communication strategy.

The step up to strategic interventions
By driving HR and OD services to meet the specific needs of each part of the business, we are in effect taking HR from policy driven methodology to strategy driven, thus enabling the business to achieve its goals effectively.

Summary

Identify your audience
Build relationships
Promote only relevant offers
Get to know your customers
Build brands or labels for each discrete offer
Promote services directly to your clients needs
Did I mention – build relationships and position offers to the client’s needs?

Footnote
This article is not intended to encourage HR departments to re-brand to OD; indeed the challenge is to celebrate what you do and tell people in an appropriate way for them. Any department or function that calls themselves an OD function, I would ask them, “what business diagnostic tools do you use to identify business needs and to position your offer?” OD requires a completely different positioning from inside the organisation, and this positioning needs to be driven from the top; not from within a function.

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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com.

New updated Blog

Hi and thanks for visiting.

I have established a new Blog at http://rapidbusinessimprovement.blogspot.com please visit and I hope you enjoy the content.

Mike Morrison

 

useful links:

BIR Diagnostic - Creatrix - Coaching - Mike Morrison - Management Articles - Management Models - The PESTLE Analysis Tool - SWOT analysis - PRIMO-F_- Business_Growth_Model - Write SMART objectives - Critical Success Factors - Corporate Social Responsibility CSR - Write a Mission Statement - Psychometric_Personality_Testing - Career Anchors - Business Values - Change Management - Personal Development Plans - Learning Styles

Changing the face of organisational development

Have you noticed that as an OD (organizational Development) specialist it is difficult to get ownership of change with your clients - internal or external?
I have found the process Aim, Assess, Activate and Apply to be a wonderful approach. Not as academic as some MBA processes, however the clients love it.

The trick is:
Aim - define your goal, define the problem. If the client is not sure then maybe the Aim is simply to have a strategic or Operational plan to rapidly improve their business.

Assess - use a structured diagnostic tool. If you know what the problem is then you can use a targeted tool - I like the Creatrix for developing the capacity for innovation within individuals and organisations. For a more holistic business review I use our own Business Improvement Review. This is a 180 review of management and staff, with outputs covering Finance, marketing, Operations as well as the usual people and people processes. see www.tools4consultants.com for details.

Activate - .You as an individual (or organization) will have strengths as well as weaknesses. Activate these strengths as a vehicle to ensure success.

Apply - have a plan, manage the plan, keep the Aim in mind, use data collected from any diagnostic tools you may have Ensure that the plan is not only applied but is also reviewed, by all stakeholders.
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Mike Morrison is director of RapidBI, an organisational effectiveness consultancy. He has been involved in HR, OD and strategic development for over 20 years. He can be contacted via www.rapidbi.com © This article is copyright RapidBI 2005 – it may be copied providing the authors are credited, and direct links maintained