Who's On First?

Who’s On First?
Learning, Performance, Human Capital, or Talent Management?

I recently spent three days in Boston attending the 2006 Saba/Centra Summit where I was invited to speak on the topic of Building Holistic Learning and Performance Strategy. My time-slot in the two-and-a-half day agenda was toward the end of the conference despite my desire to position the topic early in the conference as a “strategy roadmap.” To be perfectly honest, I think the “roadmap” value of the topic actually served a better purpose positioned later in the Summit. Given the overwhelming spectrum of technology options afforded by the new Saba Human Capital Management (HCM) Suite and the added collaboration opportunities afforded by their recent acquisition of Centra, more than a few participants had that “Where do we start?” look on their faces.

The audience obviously was filled with existing Saba and Centra users, but the mix of usership was largely based upon the learning discipline with only a sprinkling of performance module users. I expected more performance management integration, but that clearly was a future desire more so than a present reality. Research I have read postures that only a minority of businesses own comprehensive performance management strategies. Those findings were reflected accurately by those companies present. Minority status does not imply “bad idea”. Actually, it represents a potential future shift from mostly manual, paper-intensive, home-grown, or stand-alone performance systems to a streamlined integration of learning and performance.

Integrating Performance Management

Making that jump to integration places an immediate demand on aligning business strategy and mission-critical outcomes with complex changes and efficiencies offered by bringing these two disciplines together seamlessly. As Josh Bersin said in a webinar in August 2006:

“The biggest criterion of a successful performance management implementation is training managers not only how to use the tool, but how to be good managers.”

This does not only imply better management skills, but a plethora of procedural and hands-on changes that enable effective performance management activities like monitoring, assessing, evaluation, and competency development all year long. New continuous performance management capabilities go well beyond the current annual drills we endure at year-end to finish check-box employee appraisals and slam together individual development plans before HR’s deadline. When you consider integrating those changes it becomes apparent that plugging in the technology is the easy part.

Start with Assessing Readiness

Assessing learning and performance readiness; the precursory steps to developing holistic L&P Strategy offers an opportunity to better define the logical starting point when considering next technology steps. By the time my opportunity to speak rolled around, more than a few in the audience were primed to consider readiness seriously. Developing L&P strategy requires stepping back from impending technology decision to consider both cultural and methodology implications first. Important questions must be answered before investment is made in the right mix of technology:

• Are we ready as an organization to embrace a continuous approach to managing performance?
• Are we willing to invest resources to build the bridges between competencies and learning?
• Do we have the organizational synergies aligned between HR, Training and business stakeholders?
  
  ...just to name a few.

Start with a Foundation of Learning

The complexity around the question “Where do we start?” was exemplified when two thought-leaders appeared to contradict themselves in back-to-back keynotes on the morning of day two. The first emphasized the role of learning in the context of HCM; followed by the second keynote focused on talent management. The first executive referred to learning as the “mother-ship” and that performance management integration would follow; succession planning and talent management sequenced right on its heels. The very next keynote speaker contradicted the role of learning by saying it was “no longer the tip of the sword.” More than one participant noticed the contradiction.

At first glance, the differing views did seem a bit confusing. On closer inspection, they were both right; merely referenced from two different perspectives. One was a senior Saba executive referencing their HCM suite of products that has evolved to include a new Talent Management module from a foundation of learning management. The other speaker was a leading consultancy executive riding the crest of the wave called Talent Management. It truly is a matter of contextual perspective when the role of learning is addressed. All agreed Talent Management is a subset of HCM. The unspoken assumption of the second keynote was that effective HCM is built on the foundation of learning and performance management. Until competency management builds bridges between learning and performance, aspects of career development, succession planning, and even workforce planning tend to be extremely manual and paper-intensive; which, by the way, are the primary reasons no one is willing to tackle the task without seamless technology.

Learning Really Is On First

Trends were confirmed that configurations usually started with learning management with performance management integration as the next logical implementation. Next steps incorporate competency management, succession planning, and ultimately the talent menu. There were a few users who started with performance, but none present confessed to planning to deploy succession and/or talent before they deployed learning. I suspect those users who led with performance really did not lead with it; they simply had a different vendor’s learning management system in place, though no one confirmed my suspicions. That tells me learning is still the logical foundation and should be the cornerstone of your strategy mix. Learning and performance implementations should precede succession and talent because of the critical links to competency management that is embedded within performance. Truly leveraging talent implies that critical competencies are already in place and aligned with performance goals – and ultimately with specific learning by role.

Deciding which of the thought-leaders was most correct is a matter of perspective, but I feel the “Learning-is-the-mother-ship” perspective is more to my liking. That position does not downplay the significance of talent management, I simply do not think you should expect to manage talent effectively until it has been, or has the potential to be, developed via through aligned learning opportunities.

I must confess to being a performance consultant by nature. As such, I’m up to my hocks in my own biases toward the role learning plays. Count that as yet another perspective, but for now, I’ll stick by the order of a technology strategy that starts with learning and builds in a natural progression to include performance management before embracing mission-critical capabilities of succession and talent management.

Learning & Performance Readiness: Ready, Fire, Aim...

Does any of this ring true in tyour organization?

• Performance outcomes are not escalating to match the pace of competitive business demands.
  
• Conflicting priorities exist across stakeholder groups on how to address the shortfall.
  
• State of the art learning and performance technology deployed earlier is not being utilized with any consistency.
  
• Talent acquisition is more miss than hit, and churn is creeping up despite above-industry compensation programs and incentives.
  
• Three different conferencing vendors have seven active contracts within five different stakeholder silos.

Occurrences like these indicate that an organization is sorely in need of effective organizational learning and performance strategy. It eventually bubbles up to senior leadership and gains critical mass in the form of decisions laced with urgency to consolidate, cut costs and regain control.

Often, it is this same urgency, though legitimate in every respect, that precedes learning and performance readiness, and the wrong decisions are made for all the right reasons. Quite honestly, the decisions are not that wrong, they are just being made for an organization that is not ready to accept, much less implement.

Truly, being ready does not guarantee readiness!

Learning and performance (L&P) readiness is much more complex than being the proverbial jumping off point on the front end of an enterprise-wide transaction to buy new technology. I say this because L&P readiness is not a destination; it is a condition within the organization laced with critical interdependencies represented in three primary categories:

• L&P Technology
  
• L&P Methodology
  
• L&P Culture

Decisions cannot be made in any one of these three areas without understanding the impact of ripples sent upstream and downstream to and from the functional areas resonating in the other two. Of the three I’ve listed above, technology is often the first to be addressed; not always because it’s the right one, but because it is the most visible and viewed as producing the shortest path to tangible results. It may be; however, what good are tangible results that are not sustainable?

So...could it be that learning methods must be aligned before making the right technology decision? I hate to hand you an answer such as, “It depends.” But it does. Here’s a short life lesson that makes me so adamant about what I will soon share with you.

I used to work for Sprint Communications in the early 90’s, and they pulled off a coup by stealing away a young, hot-shot executive from AT&T by the name of Gary Forsee to lead the Business Sales Group. At the time, I was a Group Manager in Sales Training, and Mr. Forsee came into our group one day unannounced and asked us to gather in the conference room. We had a little chat. We walked out of that chat aligned and empowered. To this day I carry the impact of his words...

“Our mission is simple – acquire new, retain existing and stimulate additional minutes on our state-of-the-art network. As the sales training organization, you all play a critical role in our mission. I need each of you to assess what you are working on and decide if what you’re doing directly or indirectly drives acquisition of new minutes, protects and/or stimulates usage minutes on our network. If your actions are not doing either of those things, you have a responsibility to question the viability of those actions and pursue only those things that will enable the success of our mission.”

You might think that Mr. Foresee delivered clarity of vision that day, or demonstrated empowering leadership. I think both are true, but underlying it all was something he showed us all upon which sustainability could take root – business culture.

That morning, he established in my mind and in my heart a sense that not only Gary Forsee was behind what I did in my little silo, but the whole organization was rallying and pulling in the same direction. He established momentum by telling us we had to figure out through our choice of actions how to make the mission successful. He did not tell us how to do our jobs. He did not assign stretch objectives. He established a culture of individual empowerment that was in lock-step alignment with the corporate vision and mission. How we applied our departmental resources and priorities were our responsibility, not his.

To me, learning readiness should give the organization that same gut-level sense of knowledge and empowerment that the entire organization has made a commitment to L&P to ensure successful execution of the business strategy.

Certainly that means leveraging the latest technology and aggressively driving new L&P methodology into stakeholder units. The establishment of L&P culture must become a visible, sustained priority. This culture must become a rallying point where everyone in the organization feels empowered to learn and grow. It must become a visible “brand” that represents tangible proof that the organization recognizes and is serious about enabling the success and development of its most-prized human assets.

A visible culture of this nature will attract those who want to work in an environment where the organization expects them to succeed and grow. Visibility of this culture will demonstrate commitment by the organization that promotes retention of those who need the freshness of new challenge to facilitate continued growth.

A learning culture is not just the presence of a visible brand and a blend of leading-edge technology however. It must also promote a nontraditional environment where learning opportunities are continuous and accessible through informal, unstructured learning moments.

A learning culture is one where the learning is taken to the learner, not the other way around. If more learning really does happen at the water cooler than in the classroom, encourage more time around the water cooler. Collaboration is key. A learning culture embraces the concept of collaboration by taking radical approaches to encourage and promote organic sharing of informal, unstructured knowledge. Learning organizations facilitate it. They encourage it. They expect it.

For me, a commitment to embed a learning culture in the organization must be the first step taken by senior leadership. Aligning that journey with mission-critical business strategy must be continuous and visibly reinforced to maintain the momentum that drives sustainability. From that alignment, it is then possible to lead organizational change. It is then possible to gather “aligned” learning requirements that define the “right” blend of technological capabilities. It is then possible to define the “aligned” competencies to execute the “right” methods. When these things can be accomplished, L&P readiness changes from a condition to a state of mind possessed by every member within a winning, learning organization.

Is your organization ready to get ready?

Contact Human Performance Outfitters to discuss how a State of Learning Readiness Assessment may help build a roadmap for deploying your own holistic learning and performance strategy.

Gary G. Wise
Founder/Principle
Human Performance Outfitters, LLC.
g.wise@humanperformanceoutfitters.com

(317) 437-2555

Assessing Learning & Performance Readiness

In my initial alignment efforts with new and prospective clients, I always start by asking if they have a Learning & Performance Strategy, and I consistently receive a positive response. As we pursue further discovery, it becomes clear that, in many of those cases, what they truly have is a Training Strategy, and elsewhere there is a disconnected Performance Management Strategy. That's not a bad thing; at least they have something in place. It does, however, support an old, out-dated learning paradigm that rarely aligns business results (outcomes) with the continuous learning necessary to enable human performance to produce them.

Here are some other findings we see:

• Businesses typically have "pieces and parts" of a Learning & Performance (L&P) Strategy. The pieces missing represent strategy gaps preventing continuity of process and effective implementation across the organization.
• New methodologies and competencies are often required to effectively support L&P across mutually exclusive, unique business applications.
• Governance is most often loose and informal, or it’s totally MIA altogether.
• L&P decisions are made independently across siloed training groups, including decisions to apply specific technology and/or applications related to content creation, archival, access, and delivery. Collaboration is spotty at best.
• The organization has not embraced the new cultural paradigm of continuous learning, and it is dependant upon traditional formal training curricula and delivery methods to enable effective human performance.
• The organization typically has a repeatable model to support Change Management activity, but it does not have a consistent, repeatable methodology to integrate critical attributes of Change Leadership.

Human Performance Outfitters (HPO) offers a unique State of Learning Readiness Assessment to define gaps and enable prioritization to address them in alignment with current and future strategic business needs.

Before making the investment in new technology or even attempts to maximize what is already deployed, the organization must accurately identify their "pieces and parts" before they can start putting the strategy puzzle together effectively.

Not surprisingly, resources to accomplish this effort are likely in-house already. HPO may be utilized as an "outfitter" to equip those with internal familiarity with the knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to gather critical stakeholder data before analyzing and collaborating with HPO to generate findings. These findings are used by leadership to prioritize gap closure.

HPO uses an Action Learning approach where internal resources learn as they work through the SLRA process, equipping themselves with the ability to reassess readiness as business strategy evolves.

Additional details can be found under SLRA at the HPO Website

Learning at the Point of Attack

Imagine you are a sales professional sitting in your car juggling a cup of coffee and a wireless notebook computer. You are about fifteen minutes early for a critical sales call and will have a maximum of ten minutes in front of the prospect to “make your sales pitch”. You completed your new-hire product training provided via a box of CDs six weeks earlier, but the new product released last week (and just so happens to be the perfect solution for this prospect) was unfortunately not yet available in any of the training materials. Now is the time for training. There is no time to participate in the Product Manager’s virtual meeting taking place later in the day. There is no time to get back to the office and go through the mail for the new product training CD. And to be perfectly honest, you don’t really want nor need “training”. You simply need a competitive matrix, and you need it now.

This little scenario resonates with many sales professionals because it exemplifies the difference between ineffectual formal training and much desired immediacy of informal learning found in the form of readily available information. As predicted in 2001 by Dr. Jonathan Levy, then of Harvard Business School Publications, up to 85% of learning will take place in the context of the job within five to seven years. That’s today. “In the context of the job” translates to sitting in your car at the point of attack and needing an informal learning object “just-in-time” to be effective. You don’t want or need a formal training solution, and you don’t have time for a synchronous learning opportunity by the Product Manager. You need an information object that is downloadable and designed for display on your notebook screen. Oh yes, almost forgot – and you need it right now.

Find It

Product Marketing at HQ released a new competitive matrix comparing your new offering with the top competitor’s products early last week. In your email, you read that the Product Manager has planned a synchronous, virtual meeting for this afternoon to review the new matrix. Great! That virtual meeting is scheduled for 2:30PM, and your appointment is at
11:00AM. Rescheduling the appointment is not an option because the incumbent sales rep is coming in at 1PM to renew the existing contract for three more years. You either sell your product now, or you do not; at least not for three more years. Quota-bearing sales professionals do not like to be in that situation when they know they have the superior solution. So what’s left to do?

You now have ten minutes to go before your all-or-nothing shot at a $150,000/year contract.

You log onto the company Intranet with your notebook and type the new product name into the learning portal’s search engine. Immediately, you see your options for learning about the product. The search brings back three learning categories:

Training – which includes formal learning in the form of scheduled synchronous events and notification of a new product training CD recently distributed in company mail.

Information – which includes short product descriptions and point-of-sale collateral that has a competitive matrix.

Knowledge – which includes best practices in the form of summaries of several successful positioning tactics used by a couple of other sales professionals in different regions.

Select It

The search renders choices based upon the three primary categories critical to supporting the concept of continuous learning. By providing these options to the learner, we are empowering them to select what they need when they need it. By providing these options we are enabling improved human performance. Was training the answer? No. The learning solution had nothing to do with training, but it had everything to do with enabling effective performance through informal learning – through just-in-time access to an information object authored by someone who is not even a part of the training organization.

You select the matrix, download it and save for sharing with the prospect. Seven minutes to go before the appointment begins. You notice a best practice under the knowledge category and read a short blurb posted by a rep in the southern region that highlights an objection encountered from a prospect using the very product you are trying to displace. The advice is absolutely perfect for your scenario – forewarned is forearmed.

Apply It

The sales call goes well, but you do not close the business. The prospect’s business partner was called away to attend to broken water lines at his home and could not be present. You did not get the sale, but you did gain a verbal commitment that they were not going to renew their existing contract later that afternoon. You also gained a follow-up appointment for next week to return and replay the meeting as a courtesy to the absent business partner.

Back in the car, you write a short email to the missing partner, and attach the competitive matrix along with a short interactive narration and a couple of annotations related to why your solution is far superior to the current vendor’s product. Actually, you’ve just authored an information object of your own and sent it electronically to your prospect. It seems that informal learning can even be a sales tool when reflected toward the prospect.

You do not get the opportunity to return the following week, because the prospect extracted the validation necessary to proceed with the transaction, and you receive a three year contract in overnight mail two days later.

Believe It?

Sound far-fetched? Actually, it’s not far-fetched at all. With the appropriate mix of technology aligned with the business mission and the competencies to leverage it, this is how business could be accomplished in this scenario. Granted there are myriad business applications that will not fit a selling scenario as I’ve described in this paper. But... I challenge anyone to find an opportunity to learn that would not benefit by leveraging the personalization offered through seamless, frictionless, ubiquitous access to the three categories of continuous learning.

Does your organization embrace continuous learning? Can it? Does it have the right mix of technology to do so? Do you have a strategy that enables the learning needs of different stakeholder groups with this powerful concept? Have you aligned learning with the performance outcomes critical to achieving the corporate mission?

If not, I welcome your call.

This is a concept that exceeds the limits of traditional training strategies and offers a holistic approach to both learning and performance. Organizations who provide the right learning – to the right people- in the right moment – in the right amount – and in the right format will be the winners in this ever-increasing competitive world.

Gary G. Wise
Founder/Principle
Human Performance Outfitters, LLC.
(317) 437-2555
http://www.humanperformanceoutfitters.com/
g.wise@humanperformanceoutfitters.com

A New Blog for Learning Strategy Discussions

Updated: August 4, 2006

Thanks for stopping by. I'm Gary Wise, Founder and Principle of Human Performance Outfitters, LLC. (HPO). HPO is a learning performance consultancy that specializes in developing holistic learning & performance (L&P) strategies.

Develops what?

Permit me to explain further... The short explanation embraces a blend of three sub-strategies:

• Technology
• Methodology
• Culture

...to determine "strategy gaps" that enable leadership to prioritize and plan how to close them. Until this is accomplished, a truly holistic L&P strategy is out of reach. These three areas are interdependently linked, and a change in one implies a ripple effect of changes in one or both of the other two.

Typically, when I ask my clients if they have a learning strategy, I consistently get a positive response. Upon further discovery, it becomes obvious to all concerned that what they really have is a "training strategy." This is not a bad thing, because elements of one appear in the other. The key differentiator for a L&P strategy is the concept of "business alignment" across all three sub-strategies mentioned above. A training strategy does not do this; hence, it falls short when new, mission-critical, business learning objectives demand:

• Getting the right learning...
• To the right people...
• At the right time...
• In the right amount...
• And in the right format.

When you consider the scope of these five "right things" you can see there are implications specific to technology, learning methods and impact to people...and not just those people who are on the business-end of receiving or accessing learning. New skill and knowledge competencies are now demanding a more consultative role from those professionals in the organization who are in a position to address performance challenges. Is that only the training staff? Or does it include HR Generalists?

In 2001, Dr. Jonathan Levy, then of Harvard Business School Publications, hosted a webinar where he predicted up to 85% of learning would shift to the workplace; specifically, learning would happen in the "context of the job". That's not classroom training. That's not formal eLearning courses either. It's a shift to informal learning through tailored, targeted, accessible information "chunks" the learner can access 24X7 on a "just-in-time" basis. That adds new competencies and business rules specific to how learning content is created...and more importantly, by whom. Traditional ISD competencies are no longer sufficient. Add ready availability of easy-to-use, rapid development software into the mix and a veritable avalanche of content will need managed.

Do your infrastructure, business rules and taxonomies have the robustness to handle all these new demands on learning content?

Lines of responsibility blur when you consider implications of convergence of performance management functionality with that of learning management. Look at Saba, SumTotal, and Plateau...all known as leading "LMS" vendors. What you see is a blending (convergence) of performance management capabilities with those of typical LMS functionality that now is being referred to as Human Capital Management (HCM) suites. HCM integrates learning with performance and even talent management capabilities including:

• Career Development
• Succession Planning
• Competency Management
• Performance Management
• Staffing and Selection

Learning and performance have truly come together in these new integrated technology platforms. If your organization is headed down the path of deploying this approach, you must ask several critical questions:

• Have your L&P methods and processes changed to accommodate integration?
• Do you have the right competencies in place to deliver new methods?
• Are your people ready to learn continuously?
• Are managers equipped with skills to leverage apply performance management methodology continuously?
• Who drives those technology decisions now?
• Who updates the methodologies?
• Who updates the business rules specific to content?
• Is it training, Org Development, or is it HR?
• What does your strategy call for in this regard...or does it?
• The better question to answer is, "Can it?"

Here's a common denominator that is often overlooked. It has nothing to do with technology or even methodology, yet introduction to changes in either demands it be addressed. On the "people" side of things we are suggesting many "Changes". Implementing a L&P strategy demands efficient and effective leadership of Change. This is more than basic change management, and it requires the deployment of a repeatable model to lead Change.

I'll not beat you to death on this blog with the "whole story" as it is rather long and convoluted; however, I welcome you to stop by the HPO Web site for a closer look. Also, I have a more expanded version of this discussion in the form of an on-line white paper "Defining a Workplace Learning & Performance Strategy" that I welcome you to read.

The role HPO plays in all of this varies. I've chosen to base the vision of my business on a metaphor of rock climbing - hence the "outfitter" theme. Quite simply my vision is summed up in the phrase "Carry only what you need to the top!"

An outfitter does not climb for you. An outfitter equips you with the tools, tips, techniques, knowledge and skills to "scale your own challenges". I've been in this business for nearly thirty years and have engaged consultants often...and often wound up shaking my head in disappointment. Consistently, those engagements that were most successful were when the consultant was used for guidance (as a coach) and to help close knowledge gaps. We found we could do the work when properly equipped to do so. We just had to come up to speed with our competencies and capabilities first.

No one knows your business better than you. Use an "outfitter" to acquire the tools and skills to make your own climb and carry only what you need to the top.

Thanks again for stopping by. I welcome any dialogue my positioning may stir up because there is more than one way to the top. But...regardless of your route to the summit, I can guarantee you will have to implement an approach that embraces all three sub-strategies mentioned earlier.

Hope to hear from you!

Best regards,

Gary Wise
Founder/Principle
Human Performance Outfitters, LLC.
(317) 437-2555
g.wise@humanperformanceoutfitters.com