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Just before the holidays, I had the pleasure of working with Daniel Pink on a Training Magazine-hosted webinar entitled "A Whole New Workforce: Educating and Engaging Employees in a Right-Brain World."

 

For those of you who don't know Dan's work, I strongly encourage you to read his book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. In it he gives an overview of the importance of right-brain thinking in our modern economy and describes the six abilities that individuals and organizations must master to compete in an outsourced, automated world. It will certainly make you think about the ways our world is changing and the implications of these changes for our organizations, our employees and ourselves.

 

I first met Dan when he spoke several years ago to ISA, The Association of Learning Providers. In a high-energy, thought-provoking presentation, he addressed the need for educational suppliers to understand the implications of his research and conclusions as we design programs and services for our clients. His ideas resonated very strongly with me and reinforced Paradigm Learning's commitment to discovery learning as our foundational design methodology.

 

One of the six aptitudes that Dan explores in his book, for example, is the idea of "story." "Story represents a pathway to understanding that doesn't run through the left side of the brain," he says, adding that stories provide "context enriched by emotion, a deeper understanding of how we fit in and why that matters."

 

In all the business simulations that we've designed over the years, we use a story to engage learners in the experience, to move the learning along a path of discovery and to help promote long-term retention. In Zodiak^®: The Game of Business Finance and Strategy, for example, small teams of learners buy Zodiak Industries — a good company, but one that is not growing or keeping pace with the competition. As the story unfolds, the new owners make strategic decisions — about raising prices, investing in new equipment, adding new products, changing payment terms — that impact the top and bottom lines. The story is fun and engaging, but most important, it simulates a "real" company and helps learners see and feel the impact of decisions and actions over a period of three years. The ah-ha's are many, and the story is one that learners will remember as they return to their jobs.

 

Another of the six aptitudes is symphony. Dan defines this as "the ability to put together the pieces... to synthesize rather than to analyze, to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields, to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers."

 

Designing ways for learners to grasp the big picture is always a critical consideration for us, whether we are developing our products or working with clients on custom projects such as Discovery Maps®. We use visuals, simulations, games and other experiential learning activities to build toward a holistic understanding — a symphony — of learning content. When managers and employees grasp the bigger context, they are more likely to act in ways that are in sync with the organization's strategies.

 

I hope that you'll take some time to view our webinar or to read Dan's book. For those of us in the learning industry — whether as suppliers or as organizational learning professionals — I believe that Dan's research and conclusions can guide us to develop training and communication programs that help employees think and act in more conceptual and creative ways.

 

PS. Dan has just released his latest book, called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. More food for thought as we develop and retain employees!

 

 

 

I was attracted to a short article the other day titled "The Role of Curiosity in Learning." In a nutshell, the author defines a learning organization as one that encourages a culture where employees can – and do ask questions. Unfortunately, she says, many adults have forgotten how to be curious after having lived through the "sit down and be quiet" approach of many of our educational systems. And our organizations haven't always made it easy for employees to be curious!

 

The article reminded me just how important it is for companies to use the power of questions to help employees through the turmoil of change.  

 

What, why, how, when and what about me? These questions are very real to employees as change occurs -- new systems, mergers and acquisitions, senior leadership changes, reorganizations, layoffs and more. When organizations use one-way communication during times like these, questions will usually get answered around the watercooler -- and not necessarily answered correctly. Employee morale, retention and productivity can suffer.

 

Organizations need to tackle change questions by getting employees to talk. Conversation is the key ---but it needs to be structured conversation that allows participants to explore the right questions in a setting of participation, honesty and safety.

 

That’s why Discovery Maps® work so well for major change initiatives. This high-involvement approach  drives discussion around issues that employees are already highly curious about. It guides small teams of learners to discover answers and to raise even more questions of their own. As they learn, they  integrate new information (ah-has!) into their own knowledge base.

 

Here’s what the author says about "great questions" (paraphrased):

 

When Paradigm Learning helps clients communicate strategic change, our biggest challenge after understanding the change issue is to help them come up with great questions -- those that get at the what, why, how, when and what about me concerns.

 

Questions that tap into employees' curiosity.  Questions that guide deep thinking. Questions that are simple yet relevant and revealing. Questions that point the way to new insights  The second challenge, then, is to integrate those questions into an experience that is engaging, challenging, nonthreatening, targeted, relevant and honest. 

 

For change communication professionals, then, one of the keys to success is posing the right questions in the right setting.

A recognized leader in the area of change management, Daryl Connor of Connor Partners, recently posted a blog in which he lists the characteristics of two types of organizational change ... incremental and transformational. (Exploring a Project’s “Degree of Difficulty” (Part 2 of 5).

 

In this blog, he says:

 

He concludes by saying that transformational projects are inherently more difficult to orchestrate than those with incremental improvement objectives.

I like the way Mr. Connor has clarified differences in these two types of change. What is very obvious about both of these lists is how important it is to have people throughout the organizational knowledgeable and committed to change. And, when the change is transformational, it is absolutely essential to success.

Recently, Paradigm Learning had the opportunity to work with several clients whose changes have been transformational in nature, requiring an educational approach aimed at employee “heads” (knowledge and understanding) as well as  “hearts” (emotional connection and commitment). For example, we worked with:

 

* The procurement operation of a major government agency, implementing a new customer service initiative impacting all processes and people

 

* A major hotel chain reorganizing its entire sales function and changing everything from job descriptions and processes to locations and reporting relationships

 

* A large office equipment manufacturer undergoing a major technological shift in HR processes, changing the way HR personnel interact with employees and how information is accessed.

 

* A health care organization whose mission is to change the way healthcare is delivered, needing to build its own employee commitment to this mission.

These clients have used our Discovery Maps^® to significantly impact the outcomes of their change initiatives by guiding learners to discover the whats, whys and hows of the change as well as the WIFM’s (What’s In It For Me’s) for the organization, customers, departments and individuals.

When transformational change is occurring, using whole-brain approaches like this can make a big difference in the level of employee engagement and involvement.  

Want to learn more about using whole-brain approaches.  Join us for a complimentary webinar, A Whole New Workforce: Educating and Engaging Employees in a Right-Brained World, on Dec. 8, 2009.   The New York Times best-selling author Daniel Pink (“A Whole New Mind”), John Hine of ConAgra and Catherine Rezak, co-founder of Paradigm Learning, will share how new learning approaches can harness the right-brain capabilities of your workforce. Click here to register.

Have you seen the latest employee morale and commitment survey conducted by Watson Wyatt and WorldatWork ? If not, you can view it at WorldatWork.

 

Here are some highlights, according to a Chief Learning Officer "Industry News" post this week:

 

An executive with WorldatWork was quoted as saying....."Taking a total rewards approach and looking at all of the ways companies can motivate and retain - including compensation, benefits, work-life initiatives and career development - is going to be essential."

 

I agree! In my September 9 blog post, I talked about the importance of managers taking accountability for employee retention. This is becoming more and more important as the economy shows some signs of recovery and as job opportunities begin to open up. I think what I said in that blog bears repeating:

 

Manager Accountability for Retention: Managers at all levels -- not just at the top -- need to be held accountable for keeping good people in the company. They need to be more involved than ever before. They need to step up their "management by walking around" activities. They need to bite the bullet and deal directly with employee emotions -- including fear and anger. They need to provide an open door for employees to walk through to talk about their issues and concerns. And, they need to develop employees in ways that make them want to stay.

 

Interestingly, we  have found that the use of Paradigm Learning's Mosaic: The Art of Talent Leadership -- a program for managers to help them understand their impact on retention and to build a plan to take action with their own employees -- has actually declined during this time of economic unrest.  We think it's possible that some of our clients who said things like "We can't afford to take time to deal with employee retention issues right now" might end up saying "We wish we had done something earlier!"

 

What do you think?

A colleague told me that she would send me something I needed for a time-sensitive project as soon as she got back to her office. I watched her take down a note and star* it several times.  Six weeks later I’m still waiting.

A 12^th grader contacted me via email for a history class project. She wanted some information about a fellow Vietnam vet and needed it right away. I spent several hours getting her what she had requested and asked for only one thing in return: a copy of her final report. That was a year ago and I’m still waiting.

A neighbor who I have seen repeatedly at parties over the past three years told me again last week -- for about the fifth time – that he would be calling me to get together for dinner.  I’m still waiting.

None of these stories have made a big difference in my life.  But they all demonstrate something that HAS made a big difference. It’s a principle that I learned from my US Navy CO, Master Chief Petty Officer Billy C. Owens, in 1968:

In the service, living up to that principle was about life or death.  My team knew it and lived it. We had to trust each other.

Although leaders in companies today don’t have the same life or death issues to deal with, they are in a position – day in and day out – to make decisions and take actions that significantly impact the company and other people in it. They have been “entrusted” with their position – and can either demonstrate trustworthiness or not.  It’s really pretty simple.

If you are a leader of people – no matter what your title or responsibility – you have to do one thing always:

And there are no excuses. If you make a commitment, you’ve made a commitment. Period.  Forget “the story, reason, who’s to blame and how you feel about it” excuses.  There are no excuses for not living up to your word.

In our leadership training program, Impact 5: The Business of Leadership Game®, we deal with the issue of accountability – including the accountability for developing your own personal effectiveness as a leader.

 Being effective in your job --- and also in your life … becomes a lot easier when your word becomes who you are, rather than a philosophy or something you just talk about.