David Garvin, a professor at Harvard, has
defined the learning organization as “…an
organization skilled at creating, acquiring, interpreting,
transferring, and retaining knowledge, and at purposefully
modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.”
Executives must think differently about developing their
corporation’s future talent. Today’s dynamic environment,
filled with global competition and business discontinuities,
defines the arena in which learning must flourish. To do so,
a much more active orientation is required.
Our approach to learning and performance solutions is grounded
in the creation of knowledge and the building of capabilities.
Cascading strategies create “lines of sight” through
the organization and a basis for alignment; identification
and diagnosis of the required capabilities provides a linkage
between strategy and learning - shaping the organization for
success.
The challenge for most companies today is to make learning
and performance planning more germane to the enterprise. Rather
than focusing on the right person for the right position at
the right time, we look at developing talent for strategic
tasks. Leading a corporation requires a constellation of skills
and talents that reside in more than one person and in more
than one strata of the organization.
To realize the potential of all employees requires a deliberate
focus on fashioning an organizational culture and learning
opportunities that develop and build capabilities that support
competitive strategies. We focus on the following:
LEARNING SYSTEMS
At the heart of learning lies a set of processes. These processes
must not be left to develop by chance. They must be crafted
deliberately. Learning is not an “abstract” notion,
it is necessary to get the job done. Learning occurs by design
and in pursuit of clearly defined needs. It has direct links
to the bottom line.
For any organization to be considered
best in class in terms of learning it must exhibit certain
characteristics.
- It’s cultural
values must support lifelong learning and competency development
- There must be strong
executive leadership and participation
- The system should
be characterized by broad participation
- The learning system
is driven by business performance goals and is competency
based
- There are tight
linkages between learning departments and their users
- Resources need to
be matched to need and objectives
- Learning staffs
should be competent and include a balanced mix of expertise
- A balanced array
of approaches should be employed
- Strong administrative
coordination is required
- Internal resources
are leveraged through appropriate use of outside resources
PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS
Performance systems focus individual
performance and development in ways that will impact business
results.
In our view, a performance management
system should also be continuously refined, but the basics
won’t change. A well constructed performance management
system should help you do four things to achieve business
results:
- Define accountabilities,
plan work and set priorities;
- Develop the skills
and competencies needed to improve current performance and
build for future needs;
- Review progress
against preset performance expectations to avoid any year-end
surprises; and
- Reward people in
a way that reflects their contribution.
Managers and supervisors have four responsibilities:
- Communicate the high
level goals and the need for clear objectives, accountabilities,
and outcomes from each person;
- Agree on the most
critical aspects of their current role;
- Work with people
to develop individual performance objectives and expectations;
and
- Clarify how to help
them be successful.
For more information on how we can help
you craft an effective learning and performance system, contact
us by email or call 1-210-408-2885
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