Tag Archives: skill development

Whose Plan is It?

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“I just finished working on my team’s Professional Development Plan,” Elena announced.

“Impressive,” I replied. “You identified the basic skills, advanced skills, initial training, advanced training, along with timelines. All necessary components in a plan.”

“Yes, I got tired of new recruits coming to work, doing only what is required not to get fired,” she lamented. “Maybe this will get them off their collective asses.”

“I see,” I nodded. “I don’t have a problem with defining the skill levels, the corresponding training available. But, I am curious about the plan. Whose plan is it?”

Elena stopped to think. “You’re right. It’s my plan, not their plan.”

“I mean, you can have expectations, performance standards and timelines, but those are yours. And, if they don’t meet your expectations, they may have to part ways. But the professional development part is on the team member. As the manager, you can communicate your expectations and timelines, but the plan, and the execution of the plan has to be theirs.”

Practice

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“But, we sent him to training,” Marjorie was disappointed.

“Just exactly what did you expect him to learn from the training?” I asked.

“His role in the company requires a very specific skill set. Without this technical knowledge, our engineers will bulldoze him over.”

“Is it possible,” I wanted to know, “that your disappointment has little to do with technical knowledge and more to do with the application of that knowledge? What you are expecting may only be learned by doing. Like riding a bicycle. Most training works only on the technical knowledge part, not the application part. And, the application must be practiced, over and over, before you see progress.”

Special Practice

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“You did some training last year, tell me about it.”

“Well, first, we invested a decent budget. This was a new process we were working on. We spent a lot of time looking at different programs. We put together a decent PowerPoint, even hired an outside trainer.” Travis stopped.

“And?” I said.

“And, after all was said and done, a lot more was said than done.” Travis chuckled. “I heard that in a seminar once. But maybe it’s true. After the training, some of the people worked the new way, but some didn’t. Over time, the whole process was abandoned. ”

“You know your program really didn’t have a chance. It was missing something critical,” I said.

“I know, you are going to say positive reinforcement, but we all talked it up and everyone got a certificate when the training was over,” Travis defended.

“That’s all very nice, but I am not talking about being nice. I am talking about being effective. In the training you demonstrated a new process. This new process required a new skill, a new behavior.

“Travis, I can show you how to throw a ball, but if you want to get good at it what do you have to do?”

Travis looked puzzled, “Practice?” he said.

I nodded. “Very special practice.”

The Practice of Delegation

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“I’m a little disappointed,” explained Ruben. “Disappointed in myself.”

“How so,” I asked.

“Since I was promoted to manager, everyone said I should delegate more stuff. So, I tried.”

“What have you tried?” I prompted.

“Well, I bought three books on delegating. I finished one and I am reading the second.”

“So, what’s changed, for you?”

“Nothing really. I mean, they are really good books, but I still do everything myself.”

“Ruben, delegation is a skill, a skill that can be learned. Every skill has two parts. The first part is technical knowledge. That’s the stuff you have been reading about in those books.”

“What’s the other part?” Ruben asked.

“The other part is practice. You actually have to get out there and practice. I really don’t care how much you know. I am interested in what you can do.”

Habits Help, Habits Hurt

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“But habits can help and habits can kill,” I said.

“I don’t understand,” Muriel replied. “We just talked about how competence and habits go hand in hand.”

“Yes, they do and like many things, your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness.” I could see Muriel’s face scrunch up, mixed in resistance and curiosity.

“Competence requires a set of habits. Habits help us, habits hurt us. Think about a new problem that must be solved, like that change in production last month.”

Muriel winced. “I know, I know. We practiced hard on producing that left element. We were really good at it, and it was difficult. Then we got the machine. Using the machine was even harder, so my team kept doing it manually. Someone even sabotaged the machine configuration that kept it out of the loop for two days. All in all, it took us three weeks to become competent on the machine, when it should have taken only five days.”

“Habits can sometimes be a powerful force in resisting change. Habits are grooves in the way we think. They can be helpful, but sometimes, we have to get out of the groove and it’s tough.” -Tom