CorpU Weekly Digest: Learning Excellence (2012-August-06)

Topics: Learning Excellence

Here are this past week's headlines in learning excellence: 

• (1) Learning and Development's role in creating positive culture and exceptional workplaces ;  
• (2) BCG research suggest connection between mature human capital practices and performance ;
• (3) The bossless office: Is it the wave of the future or an idea that will always be a utopian dream, given the inevitable intrusion of human nature? This Wharton article offers some interesting points ;
• Book: Talent Leadership: A Proven Method for Identifying and Developing High-Potential Employees ; 
• Webinars ; and
• Conferences

 Learning and Development's role in creating positive culture and exceptional workplaces 
Many organizations seek to be recognized as an exceptional workplace as part of talent attraction, talent development, and talent retention efforts. But becoming an exceptional workplace doesn't happen organically or spontaneously. Like running a marathon, most are not in good enough shape to decide and then go out the next day to run it — many need the time to prepare and train. The first step to preparing to become an exceptional workplace is to understand the current state of your organization, and the potential hurdles that could obstruct the way. These are common roadblocks that we often see: 

1. A clear recruitment strategy. Companies often fail to strategize a recruiting process to hire the right people and develop a strong team.
2. Focused, achievable goals. Don't let yourself get bogged down in the day to day and forget to set or work toward goals. Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timed. 
3. Lack of recognition. Employees that know they're valued will give 110% and maximum productivity to achieve your goals. To that end, reward and recognize your employees through simple programs like spot cash awards or store gift cards.
4. Inconsistent and erratic communication. Don't leave communication to chance.  Set up regular ways to communicate with your employees.  This could include a newsletter, town hall meeting, lunch, or open door office policy. 
5. Inconsistent and irregular feedback on development and performance. Performance feedback — both formal and informal — engages employees, reinforces their work toward the company's objectives, and ensures efficient teams.  The only way to make managers accountable to give this feedback, however, is to incorporate it into their own performance goals.
6. Inflexibility. If you don't have family-friendly policies, you'll have trouble recruiting top talent and keeping employees engaged. Encourage employees to take vacation, train them on time and stress management, and consider flexible hours or telecommuting options.   

Learning and development is an important part to building an exceptional workplace, and this article offers a few suggestions on where, how, and when. Read the article by Nancy Mobley (CEO at Insight Performance), "6 Roadblocks to an Exceptional Workplace"

 BCG research suggests connection between mature human capital practices and performance
For HR departments, quantifying the economic value of people management is a tricky proposition. Yet now is not the time for companies to skimp on their people expenditures. With the pressures of globalization, the growing scarcity of talent, and an employer-employee relationship frayed by persistent economic pressures, companies today—more than ever—must regard their human capital as an asset worthy of continual investment. There’s yet another compelling reason to remain committed to investing in people: companies that do so enjoy better economic performance. Those that excel in leadership development, talent management, and performance management, for example, experience substantially higher revenue growth and profit margins.

Figure 1. "People" Companies outperform the market over the past decade in cumulative growth rate of share price by up to 99 percentage points 

Taking into account the findings of interviews with leading business and HR executives across the globe, BCG focused on three topics: leadership development, talent management, and performance management and rewards. These three topics encompass more (and more varied) people-management activities, thus offering companies more levers for boosting their performance advantage. BCG’s survey results confirmed the importance of these topics, revealing significant differences in the concrete actions taken by high- versus low-performing companies.

Figure 2. Some of the critical practices separating high-performing companies (top 10% of companies by profit margin and revenue growth) from low-performing ones

Read BCG research report "Realizing the Value of People Management"

 The bossless office: Is it the wave of the future or an idea that will always be a utopian dream, given the inevitable intrusion of human nature? This Wharton article offers some interesting points.
Reactions to the idea of a bossless office are varied. Even proponents of bossless offices note that decisions can take longer to make when there is no hierarchy. In addition, human nature suggests that someone will most likely rise to the forefront of any group and, even without the title, assume the role of leader — not always in a helpful way. But these proponents also say that a flat organization allows employees to work more creatively, more productively, and more independently, and feel a greater stake in the success of the company. A bossless office "is a very democratic way of thinking about work," says Wharton management professor Adam Cobb. "Everyone takes part in the decisions, so it's not being directed from above. The idea is that the people doing the actual work probably have a better sense of how to get it done than their bosses do. It's a matter of distributing the expertise to where the expertise actually lies." Read the Knowledge@Wharton article "Going Boss-free: Utopia or 'Lord of the Flies'?"

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 The Business of Learning: New Major Products, Mergers, Acquisitions, and Partnerships

No major news in mergers, acquisitions, or product releases.

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 Books To Read

Great leaders drive efficiency and productivity across teams and units, which is why organizations pour money into leadership development and why leadership development is a US$60BB global industry. But most companies have no real way to gauge whether their endeavors are paying off — much less where they are falling short. A forthcoming book by John Mattone titled Talent Leadership: A Proven Method for Identifying and Developing High-Potential Employees (to be released October 17, 2012) shows how to set up a world-class leadership-development program — and have the metrics to demonstrate impact. Packed with research findings, best practices, case studies, proprietary assessments and more, this innovative book explains how to:

1. Use assessments to benchmark current and future executive talent; 
2. Apply the resulting data to identify leaders with potential based on their capabilities, commitment, and alignment with organizational goals; and 
3. Leverage analysis to target training and coaching where they will have the greatest impact on individual performance and overall operating success by measuring, calibrating, and recalibrating the leading indicators that directly predict organizational health and the ability of leaders to meet those needs. 

This book is for leaders of HR, Talent Management, OD/MD professionals, and the vast population of operating managers who are charged with identifying, managing, and developing high-potential and emerging leaders. Buy Now 

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 Webinars 

Sales Force Training: A Paradigm Shift - Learn from Fortune 500 Market Leaders
Date: August 09, 2012, 12noon ET
Presenter: CommLab Register now

Gen Y Sales Force Training: What Works and What Doesn't
Date: August 23, 2012, 12noon ET
Presenter: CommLab Register now

Overcoming the Three Biggest Challenges in ROI of Leadership Coaching
Date: October 24, 2012, 1pm ET / 10am PT
Presenter: Lisa Ann Edwards, M.S., ACC, partner of Bloom Coaching Institute Register now

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 Conferences

Attracting, Developing and Retaining World-Class Talent
Date August 6-7, 2012
Location: San Francisco, CA, US Register now

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