by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
In a recent client survey of the DOTS client community, I was intrigued by the response to the questions relating to the greatest challenges facing learning and development professionals. There were a few. Employee engagement was high ranking in the survey responses across all industry sectors and sizes of organisations.
I am interested in learning more about this challenge. There are a couple of questions in particular that I am going to add to my conversations with clients in the near future. These are;
Is employee engagement an equal reciprocal relationship or is it weighted more to the employer or to the employee? I am referring to responsibility and activity undertaken to improve engagement. I know one colleague who is a HR consultant who would argue adamantly that the bulk of responsibility for employee engagement rests with the employee. What is your opinion?
The second question I am asking is around different perceptions of employee engagement based on generational differences. I do not buy into a lot of the stereotypes about generational differences although there are some that warrant attention. I am interested in employee engagement as a derivative of leadership and how this may require different tactics for the different generations or age brackets within a diverse organisation.
As always, please let us know if you have some ideas and/or experiences you would like to share in these areas.
by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
There is a great big spectrum of business innovation and too often the perception is that innovation only applies to things like iPhones and other great big disruptive products, tools, processes or marketing campaigns. Innovation also occurs in small and medium businesses when a person creates a new process for managing stock control or automates their payroll. Innovation happens on the desktop and small office as well as the global market place. If you are a business owner or manager are you aware of the innovation that is going on in your organisation? Do you know if you are supporting and sustaining innovation or stunting and destroying it? I was in a client meeting yesterday that was focused on rolling out a new performance management system. The meeting included a number of managers and administrative level persons. During the meeting there were no less than three suggestions that were raised by the administration team that were met with a negative reaction almost instantly. There may have been more but these three ideas stick out in my mind since they are ones that I have discussed with other clients as well. These ideas were ways to compound the benefits this business was going to realise yet the ‘no team’ opted for the negative option rather than listening further to gain a better understanding of what was being put forward. I wonder if the CEO would have supported the ideas or quashed them without a discussion. I wonder how many other great ideas are killed by colleagues and managers who opt for the easy option of ‘no’ as opposed to the more interesting and potentially risky option of ‘yes- lets have a look at this more closely.’ Innovation can hatch and thrive with ‘yes’ and gets buried further with ‘no.’ How many organisational cultures are riddled with people who prefer the easy option of ‘no’ and the maintenance of the status quo. If you look at your own behaviour honestly do you see a pattern of ‘yes’ or ‘no’ reactions to the seeds of innovation in your business? Are you permitting a culture of ‘no’ without even being aware of it? All of us in business know that the speed of change is increasing and we can point to the acquisition of Instagram byFacebook this past week as an example of just how fast things are going. Instagram is a super young company that built a substantial user base (no profits) in an exceptionally short period of time (18 months) with an attractive, free and fun application for the iPhone, (and subsequently Android). This is a big example but it is happening at all levels in all markets at varying paces. To maintain competitive it is now imperative that we all rid ourselves of any sense that we know what the future looks like, shed our reliance on existing systems and processes and adopt a “I haven’t got a clue” perspective. If you really get this you will not only support the ideas of others , you will actively seek them. And once you are successfully creating this cultural environment of ideas and innovation you are on your way to becoming a ‘learning organisation’ and building greater resilience into your organisation. By building greater resilience you are creating readiness for what no person knows………the future. I guess all of our futures may begin with a “yes.”
by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
The recent announcement by the Australian Government to assist employers to link with skilled workers in the United States is designed to help fill critical skills shortages in certain segments of the Australian economy. Licensed workers in the United States will be able to be granted immediate provisional licenses when they arrive in Australia. Members of the DOTS LMS client community are key players in the industries that are targeted to benefit from this scheme. The DOTS LMS can be utilised to help support this process for our client organisations in some very key ways. Firstly, it would be advantageous to engage with these workers prior to their arrival in Australia. This engagement could take the form of delivering company information and cultural insight to those planning to migrate. Companies may also choose to deliver some online induction modules as well as deliver some preference surveys and self assessments. All of these tools will help the person migrate assimilate more easily and engage more closely with the employer.
by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
There are two features in DOTS LMS that are certain to make the user experience more streamlined as well as providing administrators/course creators the ability to eliminate manual processing. These two features are Pre-requisites and Completion Actions. Pre-requisites in DOTS LMS are used the same way they are in any learning pathway. In DOTS LMS you may set pre-requisites for any course. In addition to courses you may also set pre-requisite competencies in DOTS. The learner is able to see a clear path of learning and the adminstrator/course creator is able to ensure that the instructional design is followed. You can establish pre-requisites at any time using one of the DOTS LMS course dashboards. Have a look at this image and you will note that pre-requisites and completion actions are tools listed in the Secondary menu on the right.
You will see below that you may add both course and competency pre-requisites.
The Completion Actions add even more flexibility by linking a course result to a next action in DOTS LMS. You can set the automated completion action to initiate an action based on both successful and unsuccessful completions. You may use as many completion actions as you wish to generate a learning pathway. The completion action is a tool that is in addition to the DOTS Course Plan feature.
These two built in feature of DOTS LMS provide so much scope for administrators and content creators to ensure both a great learning experience as well as an automated process flow that enhances productivity. If you require any assistance with these features or you would like to learn more, please give us a call or email us.
by Brian Clark | Uncategorized
Imagine if you were a judge in a business competition that measures your business across dimensions such as financial results, people, processes, technology, innovation, leadership and overcoming obstacles. Detach yourself from your business physically, intellectually and emotionally and view your business as a judge would do when comparing your business to others. I know how hard this is as I am both a business judge and a business owner.
Being a business judge has been responsible for some of the most powerful insights and learning in how to improve my own business. As a judge I also know how difficult it is to detach yourself from your business to gain a clear view of what is looks like to others, be they judges or customers. Despite the difficulty, detachment is absolutely necessary to gain a fresh perspective to inspire new ideas and the motivation to change. Without detachment you can often be defensive and prone to rationalize your status quo.
There are a few ways to make this process effective. If you are a sole operator you probably have the toughest challenge but you can do your research and analysis yourself or get help from a consultant, business coach or fellow business owner.
- Establish your judging parameters. It is hard to benchmark your financial performance against competitors but can base your judging on the health of your finances and rate of growth.
- Do your research on competitors and similar organizations. You can do this online and in person by visiting their premises. In my judging we look at the office layout, cleanliness, ease of access, and other elements. You can visit websites, visit forums, look through social media (Linked In, Facebook, Twitter) for insights into the profiles of your competitors and feedback from customers.
- Set up a scoring scale and use it. For each judging parameter use a scale and score each company you research as well as your own. I suggest you score your own business first and last.
- Judge the business and not the product or service. There is an inclination to rate businesses that are engaged in exciting and/or interesting products and services higher. I remember an instance of this with a comparison between and event management firm and a robotics firm. Many judges could not comprehend how the event management firm scored higher. The robotics firm was not as well managed, had immature processes, could demonstrate no focus on people development among other factors that were attributes of a model business.
When you have performed your research and filled in your score cards, it is time to go and spend some time thinking and planning. You do this part of the process away from your business and distractions. I cannot help but give a tip that describes all the contestants in the contest that I judge, ‘focus on the basics and the detail.’
In our next blog we will explain how to convert your business judging to creating better results in your business.
