Learning in Vegas…Bringing it Home
DevLearn: Notes from Session 703
Finally back home on the east coast after five days of living and learnin’ in Vegas at the Elearning Guild’s DevLearn 2011. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present a session on Friday morning on Blending Collaboration and Training to Improve Performance. My passion for creating work environments where employee professional development is valued as a corporate investment rather than overhead made its way into the presentation. Sixty minutes isn’t a long time to impart what human resources and learning development departments can do to move a company towards high performance, but I hope that some interest was spurred and possibly a few were empowered to talk about what can be done when they returned to work.
I promised attendees the session DevLearn presentation slides would be made available here along with an updated Blending Collaboration handout. The handout breaks out the resources and links that I found helpful at my own organization.
Please feel free to share with others in your organizations. If you have specific questions or concerns, please email me, kaseywood@gmail.com and reference in subject line: DevLearn 2011.
The Business of Employee Performance
Business and learning. A partnership that is often viewed as a couple at odds with one another. Yet there is a well-written book about their mutual need for one another,The Business of Learning, by David Vance. Vance, who retired in 2007, is the former President of Caterpillar University. In 2006, he was named Chief Learning Officer of the Year by Chief Learning Officer Magazine. Because of his accomplishments, he now consults with organizations on learning and performance issues. Needless to say, there is money to be made in helping businesses learn about learning.
Why are organizations willing to pay for his insights or the insights of others? The answer is simple: a well-trained staff whose professional development is a priority is key to organizational success. Let’s look an example: Starbucks and its CEO Howard Schultz. In the April 2011 issue of The Costco Connection, Tim Talevich wrote of the resurgence of Starbucks to new revenue heights in 2010. Earlier in this decade, Starbucks’ revenue declined as a result of corporate-wide decisions that led to a less customer-friendly atmosphere and a loss of “charm” that had carried Starbucks to ubiquitous status in the previous 15 years. Schultz, who had left day-to-day operations in 2000 by stepping down as CEO, noticed double-digit drop in “comps” by the end of 2007. He resumed the role of CEO in early 2008. After assessing what brought the stores to such a low-point, Schultz over-saw a shift in how Starbucks did business.
The toughest part of the change plan was closing 7,100 U. S. stores for the afternoon of February 26, 2008. Instead of a cappuccino, customers were greeted with a sign on the door that read:
“GREAT EXPRESSO REQUIRES PRACTICE. THAT’S WHY WE’RE
DEDICATING OURSELVES TO HONING OUR CRAFT.”
Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com
Starbucks’ associates spent that afternoon learning how to grind beans, something that had ceased in prior years to save time. 135,000 baristas learned what it meant to be a part of the new Starbucks from that afternoon forward. This included a return to some old ways and a ramp up on some new ways. (To learn more on the turn-around specifics please read Talevich’s interview with Howard Schultz.)
The moral of the Starbucks story is that success for any organization most often hinges on how well employees do their jobs. The Starbucks of the early 2000’s made a decision to cut back on developing skills and training employees. Newly hired employees were not educated on the Starbuck’s “charm” that was so vital in making the organization a success. Training alone did not turn the stores around but, without it, none of the other changes would have mattered.
Far too often, organizations cut training and development costs during a recession (and in other hard times) because reducing staff education is an easy target to lower overhead costs. But let’s think about it. In a time when layoffs are plentiful, hiring is reduced, and employees take on more duties, is taking away learning opportunities really an answer? It is never in the best interests of customers or staff to reduce “honing” skills and learning opportunities, especially during a time when there is great risk of low performance. In fact, during these tough times, staff education may even be more critical. Better training, mentoring, social learning and performance support programs are needed more, not less. Learning what to do effectively and efficiently is one of the best ways to improve customer satisfaction and — in turn — the bottom line.
Having worked in organizations, both high-performing and low-performing, I witnessed organizations that did not focus on employee performance improvement. These organizations suffered the most in and had the highest turnovers in the good times. Yet, over and over, when the hard times hit, training and development budgets were reduced. It simply doesn’t compute as a long-term strategy. Training and development has always been and always will be important in high-performing organizations. Although how this is done has and will always evolve. Today it is important to keep valued employees and it will be important for them to stay in the good times.
My goal here…lighting fires…fanning flames…and maybe occasionally ruffling feathers. Maybe you will find insights into how to enable positive growth in your organization. There will be opportunities to see what others are doing and referrals to some of the learning industry’s best consultants.
CC-licensed image: Lockers in FOTOMUSEUM Den Haag Gerard Stolk