Talent surveys indicate that developmental opportunities go a long way to engage and retain talent; hear more in an upcoming webcast on Engaging and Retaining Talent on April 22 during which Towers Watson will present findings of their latest Global Workforce study. One of the things development depends on is a continuous influx of good ideas, that when applied on the job improve performance. But taking that next step requires sharing knowledge with others about what has been learned, what the benefits have been. There are several places to document shared knowledge—in FAQ’s, in legendary stories, in shared wiki’s (see example in blog Accelerating Learning Innovation at Genetech). Here’s another blog with more about this, Treat Learning as a Process, Not an Event from guest blogger Andrew Jefferson. How do you do document applied knowledge in your organization? (please comment below)
Remember the commercials about the war against drugs that said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” that depicted a picture of a fried egg? By Friday your talent may feel their brain is fried. But if you think of nurturing good ideas like making a soufflé, incorporating space between ideas for them to expand, be applied and grow through sharing with others, ideas expand far beyond their original size and can nourish a knowledge organization. A memorable example of nourishing ideas that people had a passion for applying, see HCI’s webcast Economic Imperative: Investing in Talent Innovation presented by Phillip Newbold. How do you nourish an influx of good ideas from talent in your organization? (please comment below)
It’s been said many times that culture ultimately determines degree of sustainable change and improvement. I’ve also heard it said that defining culture is like nailing jelly to a tree, though I happen to disagree, and here's why-- Becoming a knowledge culture is actually more tangible; look around to see how many practices are modeled and reinforced, with supporting talent management processes? And if you find the list of practices in your organization is shorter than you would like, try using ladders of inference to drill into perceived root cause of desired behaviors, because it can help discover and apply insights together—for example, here’s how one might work:
- Goal statement: We want a performance culture where people get up to speed quickly on new tasks.
- Ask: What does that depend on?
- You might answer: A buddy coach
- Repeat the question: What does that depend on?
- Possible answer: Have people identify what they have found valuable to improve their performance that they could teach others.
- Repeat the question: What does that depend on?
- Possible answers: Incorporating teaching others into performance goals; listing on a webpage the tasks each person can teach to be an available resource. Etc.
A discussion with key stakeholders using ladders of inference can help get buy-in, especially when it is accompanied by a gap analysis to determine relative degrees of effort and value to close the gaps. How do you go about developing a knowledge culture in your organization? (please comment below). That reminds me, if you’re wanting to strengthen the coaching effectiveness in your organization, there’s a great webcast on Mar 16 on developing leadership’s ability to coach Learning Means Business.
Come back to view subsequent Talent Development blog entries over the next few weeks that will cover more ways to develop knowledge retention and transfer practices; and please participate by posting your comments on the questions raised above, as well as indicate what you’d like to see discussed in subsequent blogs.
photo couresty of scaredykat
