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Strategic
Learning & Development
Learning &
Competitiveness
The
ability to learn faster than your competitors
may be the only sustainable competitive
advantage. (Arie de Geus)
People
are the only long-term competitive advantage
and lifelong learning is the only way
to fully develop that advantage. (Richard
Teerlink)
The
rate of learning by individuals, teams,
and the company as a whole must meet or
exceed the pace of change in the external
environment. (Michelle Darling)
An
organisation's capacity to improve existing
skills and learn new ones is the most
defensible competitive advantage of all.
(Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad)
Learning, Employability,
and the New Employee Contract
Joel Kurtzman, "Thought leader: Jeffrey
Pfeffer," Strategy & Business,
Issue 12 (3rd Quarter 1998)
Charlie
Bresler, Senior VP for Human Development
at Men's Warehouse, stands up in front
of all the students at their training
center (called "Suits University")
and asks:
"What
business are we in?" Everybody says,
"We're in the men's clothing business."
And he says no. And somebody says, "We're
in the tailored men's clothing business."
He says no. Somebody else says, "We're
in the men's formal wear business."
He says definitely no. Finally there is
silence. Then he says, "What's my
title? Senior VP for Human Development.
And that's the answer. We are in the people
development business."
Bresler
then describes a new covenant: "Our
deal is we are going to build you, we
are going to develop your human potential
and, along the way, we're going to teach
you how to sell men's clothing. In return,
you will provide great service and help
develop the firm. The two things come
together, and that's the key to our success."
Companies
today can no longer guarantee lifetime
employment, but by managing and Moving you forward, they can just about guarantee
lifetime employability!
Building
& Maintaining Talent
Witherspoon & White, Four Essential
Ways that Coaching Can Help Executives
Imagine
a pro football team that recruits the
best players, puts them through training
camp to hone their technical skills &
learn the plays, and then plays the entire
season without a practice session or a
coach.
There's
not a team owner in the world who would
ever expose such a major investment to
that kind of risk. Yet most business organisations
do just that!!!
All Hands on Deck
Any
company that's going to make it in the
90s and beyond has got to find a way to
engage the mind of every single employee.
If you're not thinking all the time about
making every person more valuable, you
don't have a chance. (Jack Welch)
No
one can do it all on their own. To accomplish
anything great, you must be able bring
people together around a common cause.
Great leaders build great teams--teams
that are aligned, focused, committed,
and capable.
The
ultimate challenge of leaders who are
senior managers is to develop the next
generation of leaders more capable than
themselves. (Dave Ulrich)
Strategic Learning: Linking
Skills to Desired Results
Athletes
may want to develop all of their muscles,
but the reality is that a sprinter needs
different muscles than a miler.
It
would be nice to develop all of our individual,
team, and organisational muscles, but
we do not need all muscles in equal proportions;
it's also impossible to focus on everything
at once. ("Muscles" include
knowledge, expertise, skills, abilities,
capabilities, competencies, know-how...)
We
have to understand which muscles--which
skills or capabilities--are mission critical.
We have to develop precisely those individual,
team, and organisational capabilities
that will most help us:
- Conquer
critical business challenges
- Enhance
competitive advantage
- Increase
value delivered to customers (and all
key stakeholders)
- Translate
strategy into action
- Formulate
new strategy and identify & leverage
new opportunities
- Develop
future leaders
Developing
more talented employees is not the end,
but the means to the end of creating a
competitive organisation. (Dave Ulrich)
Learning
& development add value to the business
only when they help a business achieve
its primary goals & create new opportunities.
(Dave Ulrich)
iLEAD: Some Principles
of Our Practice:
"Combining Individual & Organisational
Development"
Consulting
projects & educational programs must:
- Be
relevant & strategic, i.e., linked
to the organisation's unique challenges
and mission critical objectives.
- Help
you succeed: the best leaders, educators,
and consultant do not try to do your
job for you; they teach you how to do
a better job on your own.
- Combine
individual & organisational development:
by teaching people how to improve their
teams and organisations, you can simultaneously
improve individual skills and organisational
results--the ultimate win-win!
A
few simple insights:
- Improving
your team or organisation: leadership
is about improving your team or organisation,
not managing or maintaining the status
quo.
- Learning
by doing: our most important lessons
on leadership happen on the job, not
in the classroom. Educational programs
must therefore include theory, practice,
AND "action learning," i.e.,
the application of new skills &
ideas to real problems in real time.
In other words, educational programs
should teach new ideas & skills
by helping people use those new ideas
& skills to improve their team or
organisation.
- Initiative:
taking the initiative to get things
done is a crucial leadership trait.
You should never hear the phrase: "it's
not my job." Organisations need
initiative from everyone at all levels.
- Three
Levels of Leadership that all leaders
must master:
a)
Improve: produce results for your
team and organisation
b) Engage: get others involved in
improving the organisation
c) Develop future leaders: teach
others how to improve & engage
With
a powerful conclusion:
- Opportunities:
the best way to develop leaders is to
give people opportunities to lead--and
the support they need to lead successfully.
In other words, teach people how to produce
results for their team and organisation,
and give them the support they need to
produce those results successfully.
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