How does a well aligned highly energised organization look like?

One quality or characteristic that sets apart a well aligned, highly energised unit,whether it is a harmonious  happy family,an upbeat corporate or a partnership of a music /script writing duo  is the clarity about what is important for the unit,what is negotiable and what is not.As for example if 'Truth' is important for a family, all members including the youngest child knows this & will  take a stand on it without compromise. In the same manner in a factory, if 'Quality' is a core for the organization, every one across the organization is clear about this and any suggestion from anyone to compromise it in  any manner would be refused by even a junior member of the team without a second thought.Similarly, a music director duo could be clear that they would not create a 'Kolaveri' type of song irrespective of the amount of money the customer is prepared to pay.
In the recent elections to the Delhi assembly,the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the second largest number of seats but was still short of majority. The media persons were asking ordinary leaders of the party as to whether they would form the government with the support of either of the two established national parties.The respondents who did not enjoy any position in the party hierarchy had no hesitation in saying that they would not take the help of either party, as they were two sides of the same coin. The clarity at this point of time was so good that there was no shred of doubt in their minds to make the statement.If a similar question was to be asked to the leaders of the established parties, the answer would have been "our high command" or "national executive"will deliberate & decide.

This brings us to the interesting observation  that when an organization or unit  is young or new, the clarity as to the fundamentals is very high amongst all the members and the consequently they  enjoy  high  levels of harmony. With the passage of time,as the business becomes bigger the clarity begins to erode and you see the energy levels of the members of  the family/organization/partnership begin to sag. Our challenge, whether it is in a family or organization is to keep the alignment and energy levels of the unit consistently high by regular frequent communication & reinforcement of the fundamentals that are the core and non negotiable. Would you like to call them the core values? Whatever you call them,you will be able to assess  the level of its clarity in the unit by observing the energy levels in the organization.If the energy levels are coming down you know where the correction or fine tuning is required to be done.     

One to One review

In order to meaure effectiveness of training programs, we have been trying to go a step above the traditional immediate reaction level feedback forms.In this connection for knowledge based programs, we conduct a pre & post test. Participants take a test immediately before a training  program and the same test is taken after completing the program. If a person scores 50 out of 100 in the pretest and 80 in the post test, you know that he has assimilated knowledge from the program.
We also have a one to one review with participants one month after the completion of training programs when the faculty reviews the retention level of learning by the  participants & the extent to which he or she is applying the learning at work or in  personal life.It is also an opportunity to ascertain as to whether the participants require any support for implimenting the learning at work As for example a participant may request us to recommend to his HOD to support him in applying a particular learning. After six months we have an online survey administered to the participant as also to his boss for assessing the extent to which the participant has been able to apply specific learning gained from the program in the day to day work.
The responses from participants during the one to one review sessions has   been   very satisfying.I would like to share here the feedback from participants who attended the "Networking" (a job competency)  program facilitated by me.This job competency program focuses on improving the networking within the department,with peers from other department and other external contacts like vendors if one's job demands it. The course content includes builing rapport and trust,understanding the internal customer's needs,better communication etc. 

This sharing of what transpired in  a one to one review  is just a sample & similar responses have been received in respect of all our programs. The aim of sharing this is to draw attention of everyone  to the fact that training & learning is not just about man days but something that can  really impact our effectiveness at work:- 

1)      “I am now looking at things from the customer’s priorities & point of view. Being a maintenance person , I have learnt not to get tensed up & pass on pressure to my juniors. Instead I talk to them of my requirements & improvements after  the crisis has been dealt with .

I communicate better with my counterpart in other shifts & explain personally instead of just jotting down the issues in the log alone. This initiative helped in avoiding a breakdown which could have been for 4 to 5 hours.”

2)      “I am now interacting more with my internal customer and developed good rapport. “The win as much as you can” activity has enhanced my desire to collaborate  with other departments for overall good of company”

3)      “After the program, I am giving more support & respect to vendors, having realized the importance of their contribution to our success.”

4)      Earlier  even when I come to know that a maintenance issue has come up, I request that it be referred through proper channel through my superiors. Now I start the process of attending to the work & the formalities are completed subsequently.”

5)      I now listen more to subordinates, even apprentices and encourage them to share their opinions. Feedback from them such as grease is flowing from a machine enables issues from not becoming big problems later..

6)      After the training, I became observant of the dominant nature of others-whether visual, auditory or kinesthetic and appropriately behave with them to enhance rapport. ‘

I now also communicate freely with boss without fear. I also discuss with colleagues  more & plan better  and get better results. My personal life has also benefited since I make it a point to spend at least an hour per day with family.”.

7)      “I am now interacting more freely  with the boss and reduced arguments with him”

8)      I am now able to get solutions through discussions, listening more to people & supporting them started understanding the real needs & problems of my internal customer and visit him often to sort out issues.  Interestingly they are also now more than willing to come down & discuss issues. .

9)      I improved relationship with peer department counterparts by taking the initiative to understand by ‘pacing’ with them .

  Exercises like these which seek to measure effectiveness of training enhances our credibilty as L&D professionals and would lead to our customers taking us more seriously.Our experience shows that when the internal customer is genuinely convinced that we can meaningfully contribute to their effectiveness, they are eager to avail  and benefit from  our services. 

The power of Feedback

I have been writing the blog for some time now and am happy that more number of people have started reading it. yet feedback on what the readers think is important for the writer to go on.This is true of all activites we do in life. A writer needs readers; a muscician listeners as also feedback from the recipients.Children need support & feedback as to how they are doing.It is that encouragement that eggs us all  to do well. 

Sometimes,I have had readers writing to me by personal Email.If they were to write the comments in the blog itself, it may encourage more people to read the article. As for example, my post on "Contributing to  service excellence"  had no comments on the blog. 

However I received a mail from Mr Thanigaivelan Dakshinamurthy, GM(HR) Gamesa Wind Turbines Ltd who wrote: "I read your article on " Service Excellence" and find it quite interesting. I agree with your concept and also feel that it is necessary "to keep their self esteem levels very high in order to work effectively in this role."  After going through other articles, I believe that there is plenty to know from you.Thanks for the inputs.We will stay in touch & Take care of yourself." No doubt, these kind words enthused me. But putting it on public domain enables more people reading the post which I feel is important in the sense, our experience with the program for the service providers of admin & HR group was that it was  very well received and there has been suggestions that this be extended to the finance employees. The focus of the whole program was not merely giving sermons to the service providers but real time feedback from those receiving their service, appreciating their own difficulties in a  handling a stress ridden "thankless job' as perceived by some of them. We discussed as to how NLP techniques can be used to build better rapport not only with one's customers but also with peers of other   departments whose support is crucial. EFT (Emotional Freedom technique) for handling stress and building trust by self disclosure & seeking feedback(Johari concept) . comments & discussion about  this post  in the blog itself, could have created more interest in HRDians, encouraging them  to attempt similar programs in their companies.  Similarly when I wrote the participant's account on Sothern Regional conference of NIPM, giving a gist of the learning from the entire conference, the chairman send me a personal SMS stating "your narration & thrust given by speakers in each session is great and commendable.It demonstrates that you were not only attentative but also absorbed the contents in great detail.kindly accept my appreciation for the wonderful manner you have brought out the theme spirit.I cherished it.Compliments to your in depth knowledge & involvement .Grateful thanks " Such powerful, graceful words from the chairman , would enthuse many more people to read & benefit from a successfully organized professional  conference. Ofcourse, it motivates me as the writer to write more!  The other day, while in indiblogger I was reading the comments of a blogger whose writing I had great respect for, lamenting that at times she feels discouraged in the absence of feedback/ appreciation  from readers and has contemplated quitting the writing process itself. Thomas Hardy the renouned novelist whose book "Far from the madding crowd"  was prescribed for us English  literature students in school, gave up writing novels all together because a critic of the said times was very harsh on his novels- very sad considering the quality of the few novels that he did write. But to my mind, worse than being criticised,is being ignored. If there is no response you have no idea as to the impact of your effort. Often times we watch a movie, see a painting  or read something, like it very much but do not express our opinion about it .How nice it would be if we told people more often of what we liked, what brought us happiness and sometimes what hurt us  as well ( though Appreciative Inquiry advises us to focus on the good things & what is good & working). In fact it is the absence of communication, that is the bane of the modern times.   In conclusion i would like to reiterate that the power of feedback is immense. Discussions & feedback, even when we do not agree with everything discussed in an article,  still plays an important function, that  of the subject being examined from different angles, providing clarity and benefiting professionals in the long run.

Learning Week Celebration

In an earlier post I had discussed the challenge faced by the learning & development professionals to get  sufficient participants  released for training programs by our internal customers like production who have their own challenges & priorities of meeting targets.

In order to highlight the importance of learning  & continuous improvement, our L&D department took the initiative to observe one week in the month of November ( 25th to 29th) as learning week.It was in November five years ago  that the L&D centre was established in the company with 5 classrooms & a conference hall. As part of the week long celebrations, we sent daily learning quotes to the section heads and team leaders of all departments.We asked  two of our training service providers, Mr Narendra kumar of Instivate Learning Services and Mr Dilip Krishna od Born to Win as to what they thought of the idea of observing a learning week.Bothof them expressed  their excitement at the idea of showcasing learning.Video messages of their thoughts  were telecast, one at the time of inauguration & the other during the valedictory session.

On the first day a special Knowledge sharing session (KSS) was organized on the subject "Unlocking the mystery of extraordinary leadership skills" by Mr T.V Shivakumar,a reputed trainer.This was preceded by a formal inaugural session well attended by employees cutting across departments.In the welcome  speech I explained to the audience the significance of observing the learning week. During the course of the week competitions would be held in article writing and elocution in which the participants will share as to how .they were able to apply the learning from training programs and benefited in their day to day work and personal life.  I also reminded the audience of the story of two wood cutters.One of them worked hard & continued cutting continuously while the other stopped for a while to sharpen his axe.In the beginning it looked as though the first person was cutting more wood but it was clear subsequently that the second wood cutter was able to deliver more since he had sharpened his axe in between.Similarly one should not think of training as a waste of time ,but as an investment which would give rich dividends in future.   In their learning messages ED(Admin) and the VP(Production) drew attention to the importance of learning & continuous improvement.They. appreciated the initiative and wished the  week long  celebration all success.In the special KSS, the speaker suggested adding two key qualities to one's leadership style apart from the ones usually associated with leadership namely 'altruism' and 'unconditional love.'  This was a novel and interesting suggestion and at the end of the session we had a healthy debate as to the practicality of applying these in a corporate scenario.

There was active participation in the competitions organized in both Tamil & English and we gave prizes to the winners in the form of books at the valedictory session on 29 th November 2013. On that occasion we exhibited a video showcasing our L&D activities during the year 2013.The valedictory address was given by our Director (Finance) who appreciated the initiative of  observing the learning week and hoped that this would set the momentum for a better appreciation of learning activities & continuous improvement in the company. As a fitting finale to the week long celebrations, we had a special KSS by Mr Srinivasan, former member of the Corporate Management committee of the ITC group on the subject " Knowledge and Learning is the key to Growth and prosperity" Mr sreenivasan spoke of the importance of reawakening the child in us so that we are not afraid of making mistakes and the need to sharpen our skills for a learning lifetime,as he put it.He also touched upon Ken blanchard's life cycle model of leadership and the 7th habit of "Sharpening the saw" propogated by Stephen Covey. The session was followed by a lively question and answer session at the end of which the participants termed it a very rewarding experience.

We, the seven member team of learning & development attemped this exercise of observing the learning week as an experiment.But along the way, we really got excited by its possibilities.It afforded an opportunity to team members to show case their creative & organizing skills on the one hand while on the other it served to highlight the concept of learning as a way of life with focus on continuous improvement.I am sharing our experience so that readers taking a cue, may be encouraged to observe similar learning weeks and convert learning into a celebration.