The Optimized People Development System

Tag: business

  • Patience is a Virtue, and Soon, a Crucial Leadership Skill

    Patience is a Virtue, and Soon, a Crucial Leadership Skill

    It’s ironic that a technology that drastically speeds things up will require people to slow down in many areas of their work. Leaders in the AI era will have to develop something that we’re not typically known for…patience. In a sped-up world, the ability to play the long game will be a needed leadership trait.

    This Fast Company article is a great read for leaders, highlighting the need for different ways of thinking in the fast paced world of artificial intelligence. This new approach to leadership will also require ways of measuring certain outcomes differently. Outcomes that may take some time to materialize.

    Most business leaders have been conditioned to chase short term measures – this week’s production numbers, this month’s sales, this quarter’s financials. Generations of managers have been trained this way, and this has filtered down and out across the workforce.

    McDearmid captures the frenetic tension quite well. “For years, we filled our calendars, stayed visible, and kept the machine moving. Our worth was measured in hours, output, and presence. It had to be. Humans were the system, and the system required us to keep it running. We didn’t question it because that was how things got done.”

    The repetitive stuff was the work, and the measures by which the work would be gauged. Fueled by numbers relatively easy to get, requiring minimal patience. However, the human work of curiosity, collaboration, and changing mental models can be slow to unfold. Exploration can take time. Intentionality too.

    The article describes the directional change that leaders will need to make. How their focus must change from tasks to direction setting, seeking clarity for the initiative, and clarifying vision with the team, to name a few. It also points to the fact that leaders will need to be able to think differently about how long it will take to see some important deliverables.

    “AI has taken the repetitive pieces off our plates and has given us back the chance to think, create, and build with intention. It gives us room to lead.” In this new, redesigned space for leadership the ability to ponder and contemplate could be useful skills. Leaders with imagination and a gardener’s mindset will have an advantage. Systems thinking will be highly prized. Because ushering slow moving change through a system previously built for speed will require a shift at the system level.

    It may seem counterintuitive to work on the skill of slowing down in a sped-up world. However, learning to wait calmly for important and often subtle changes is a skill that itself takes time to develop. The sooner we start training leaders to slow down and wait, the faster we can realize the advantages of AI.

    Image by Annette from Pixabay

  • Want Your Employees to Stay? Three Ways to Help Them Unpack

    Want Your Employees to Stay? Three Ways to Help Them Unpack

    You start trying to keep them even before you get them. This idea that efforts to retain employees should start in the recruitment process often surprises some stakeholders of an organization’s people development system. Retaining good employees is a long journey and like any journey, a time of reflection can add meaning to life and cement the impactful parts. In fact, reflection might well be one of the most powerful yet often overlooked ways to inspire people to stay.

    Many employee retention efforts, center on benefits and incentives for individuals and for the whole team. To keep people, we invest in their development, we provide great benefits packages, and we strive to help them see a version of their success that excites them. We give bonuses, we throw holiday parties, and company picnics. All good and all necessary. Although these can help promote engagement, their commonality limits their effectiveness.

    In an insightful article for MIT Sloan, Catherine Bailey and Adrian Madden shared the findings from their study on meaningful work, where meaning comes from, and the mistakes managers make that can rob employees of meaning. Interestingly, the authors, in this study, found that the meaningfulness of work was not related to interactions with employers or managers. The factors were more intrinsic.

    Based on their research and feedback from participants, they offered five qualities of meaningful work; one of which was reflection, unpacking what happened in the work, what was it about, who was it for, what was the big “why” of the work, etc. “Meaningfulness,” they write, “was rarely experienced in the moment, but rather in retrospect and on reflection when people were able to see their completed work and make connections between their achievements and a wider sense of life meaning.” Confirming a widely held notion that finding meaning in work comes from an inward place.

    Knowing this, how can we optimize our people development systems (and by extension our organizational cultures) so that reflection is not only possible, but intentionally built into the system’s structure? Here are three practical ideas to start the exploration.

    1 Create space and support for reflection.

    The number one tool for reflective learning is time. It’s also the most elusive, so put it on the schedule. Consistency is key. One approach might be to have a 15 to 30 minute reflection time scheduled for the day. Then a one-hour reflection time at the end of the week to consolidate and review each day’s reflections, and a one-hour reflection at month’s end with someone (a coach or a leader) to dig deeper into any themes, observations, or opportunities that are discovered.

    Consider providing notebooks or journals. The tactile nature of writing can sometimes help by slowing down the process and enhancing the act of remembering. Although, these could be held within a learning management system along with scheduling tools that help with reminders. Aim for a structured, but simple approach.

    A place for reflection that is free from distractions and that promotes a meditative atmosphere is helpful. A quiet place to contemplate and rewind the day. Going to this place to reflect can help in the habit building stages as the learning culture takes root. Having an encouraging partner also helps. Coaches that understand how reflective learning works and how they can encourage this type of growth and development helps individuals by posing questions and guiding the thought processes so that these exercises remain focused and productive.

    2 Build reflective learning into the PDS.

    One of the guiding principles of the Optimized People Development System framework is becoming a learning organization. In such an organization, everyone engages in learning (including the leadership team) and each person should understand how this plays out for them. The theme of learning is supported by each of the five functional areas of the PDS.

    Starting with the recruiting process, explain to potential employees how learning, reflective learning in particular, is part of the organization’s DNA. Set expectations and show them how this will happen. When onboarding, give them the tools for reflection and connect them to a coach. The training process can support how to become a reflective learner and then extends through to the performance management processes in the PDS. Retention efforts then incorporate these tools, times, and steps into conversations with leaders and coaches to ensure that the learner is tapping into those intrinsic forces that create meaning at work.

    3 Learning leaders.

    You’ve probably heard the well-worn research finding that 80% of the people who quit a job do so because of a boss or supervisor. Adding to this, Bailey and Madden found that the factors that contributed to feelings of meaninglessness were, in fact, driven by how people were treated by their leaders.

    Robust and ongoing leadership development is vital to creating a culture of learning. There are many growth opportunities as highlighted in Bailey and Madden’s “Seven Deadly Sins” – a list of management behaviors that can drain the meaning from work. Each of these seven are behavior based and are indicative of leaders with underdeveloped emotional intelligence, who fail to understand the value of relationships, and who struggle to connect their behavior to the team’s success, among other things. Most of the root causes of these leadership behaviors can be addressed through training and coaching support.

    One additional way to optimize leaders’ abilities in the context of the OPDS framework is to teach them how reflective learning can strengthen them and their teams. Encourage them to share their own reflective learning experiences with the team and to ensure that the tools and supports put in place for them are being used. Most importantly, guard the time for reflection selfishly. For themselves, and their team members.

    The OPDS framework allows teams of leaders to experience their PDS as a complete system, together. In this manner, leaders learn to help each other avoid those destructive “Seven Deadly Sins” and help each PDS stakeholder see how they influence the success of the PDS. Time for reflection as a leadership team can identify ways to continuously improve this important system.

    Reflection as a retention tool.

    Finding meaning in the work we do is a personal journey. Some days the meaning is hard to find. Other days it seems to overwhelm. Without the time to reflect and remember, the journey can slip by in the busyness of the workplace and meaningful connections are lost. For the employee, a lost opportunity to learn. For the employer, a lost opportunity to create stickiness and engagement.

    Image by Pexels from Pixabay

  • A Real Tech Savvy Team

    A Real Tech Savvy Team

    It seems like revolutions come around faster and faster these days. In manufacturing, Industry 4.0 has barely taken off and already Industry 5.0 is upon us. Actually, the latter has always been a part of the former, but the focus was definitely one-sided.

    I4.0 is industry jargon for the latest industrial revolution brought on by automation. It encompasses things like robots, multiple types of sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to the ways that we produce just about everything. Although there has always been, as part of the I4.0 discussion, some consideration of the impact on people, that part of the conversation was seriously overshadowed by the cool factor of the machines.

    The Shift

    Industry 5.0 acknowledges that the humans in the equation matter; they matter a great deal. The European Union sought to add the propre emphasis to I5.0, saying that it, “Provides a vision of industry that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society. It places the wellbeing of the worker at the centre of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth while respecting the production limits of the planet.”

    This definition is more expansive and recenters the conversation around taking care of important matters. Namely, people, in the workplace and outside of it. We need people with know-how, and we need to take better care of them. This vision of I5.0 also changes the scope of what people need to know.

    Developing tech savvy people used to mean helping them learn to use technology. To understand the “how” of technology. Now, developing the tech savvy workforce of the future includes not only developing their abilities to use technology, but also their ability to think about it, apply it broadly, and grasp the “why” of it.

    A Tech Enabled Team

    Technology can unleash new levels of creativity and ingenuity, not just from a select few team members with specialized training, but from many members of the team. The people doing the work can offer great insight as to how to automate it. They will also be able to help identify other opportunities to automate, once they understand the broader reasons driving the Industrial Revolution.

    Developing technology skills will certainly reach beyond their work life as well. Artificial intelligence tools are accessible to everyone, and the pressure is on for everyone to learn how to use them at work and in other areas of life.

    The organization that has a tech savvy team, from the lowest to the highest positions, will have a distinct and significant competitive advantage. For example, imagine a team of people who are well versed in problem solving techniques. Now imagine that they also understand how to leverage AI in this effort, at the right time and in the right way. There are multiple benefits that could result from this combined approach. Not the least of which is the opportunity to learn from AI when technology suggests a path that has yet to be considered.

    Certainly, there must be some determined efforts to promote critical thinking and prevent the total abdication of human thought in the process. People should not simply surrender to technology but should cultivate their ability to envision uses for cobots and robots, the placement of sensors, or even to correctly prioritize data.

    An Engaging Scenario

    Technology is relentlessly pushing the frontiers of work. It is an exciting time, but for some, it can be frightening. Fear of losing jobs and being irrelevant in the new industrial revolution is pervasive. The warning – AI won’t take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI could – is just as ominous for the frontline worker as it is for the front office worker or the engineer.  

    When organizations include everyone on the team in the transformation to I5.0 and involves them in the conversations, the exploration, and the development of capabilities, an engaging culture becomes a healthy byproduct of the transformation.

    Technology is prevalent in many facets of life, particularly in the workplace and in the home. Helping people understand technology and use it effectively and responsibly, is helpful in those various facets of life. Studies show that individuals are adopting technology faster than most employers are. Organizations that tap into this interest and excitement will have a better experience as the industrial revolutions roll on.  

    Image by Matías Flores from Pixabay

  • The Wider Meaning of Technology Adoption

    The Wider Meaning of Technology Adoption

    Acceptance, embracing, agreement, endorsement…these are some of the synonyms of the word adoption. These words point toward a shift in thinking. However, when conversations about adopting technology happen in the manufacturing realm, the general meaning seems to always be related to application or implementation. The adoption of technology involves more than just getting a bunch of new machines though. Adopting tech has other important implications.

    Manufacturing has embraced the use of technology for years. Known widely as Industry 4.0, a lot of the emphasis has been on robots, sensors, and data analytics. Though now, AI is quickly making its presence felt in this important sector too.

    Typically, operations and production systems come to mind when considering how to apply technology in manufacturing. This is due in large part to the fact that engineers and tech pros tend to focus on the technology itself. The machines are cool. They do cool things.

    Last year McKinsey & Co. conducted a survey around the use of AI . They found that employees are taking the initiative and learning about it and using it at an ever-increasing speed. More so than many of the organizations that employ them. Apparently much more.

    This survey was aimed specifically at generative AI use across multiple industries. Obviously, in most industries, people will be impacted when technology solutions are deployed. The same is true for manufacturing. Maybe to a greater extent than in other industries.

    For this reason, it is important to look past the shiny robots and the slick AI generated solutions to ask some very important questions. What about your people? How will technology change the culture of an organization? How will the organization need to change to take advantage of technology? What does becoming a tech savvy team actually look like?

    McKinsey’s Relyea et al cautioned that, “Technology adoption for its own sake has never created value, which is also true with gen AI. Whether technology is itself the core strategy (for example, developing gen-AI-based products) or supports other business strategies, its deployment should link to value creation opportunities and measurable outcomes.” The people development strategy should certainly be included.

    The report clearly makes the connection between deploying technology and preparing/supporting the teams that use the technology. This is where a higher level of tech savviness is needed.

    In the future, being technologically savvy will mean more than just knowing how to create a prompt or program a robot. It will be more than just learning how the hardware and machinery works. It will also include thinking. How to think about technology. How to think with technology. Thinking about data and thinking about problem solving from a new angle.

    It is more than just training savvy people to do certain technical things with automation. It will be about learning to imagine where technology can be placed, uncovering the data that can help determine whether the change has been successful, learning how to tap into the strengths of generative AI when it is appropriate, and learning to properly evaluate the answers and suggestions given by an AI assistant.

    It will require tech savvy leaders learning how to coach their team to a higher level of tech savviness. Embracing new solutions influenced by technology as opposed to being rigidly connected to traditional ways of doing things.

    The implications will stretch across the organization’s people development system as people learn to harness the full potential of technology. The culture of the organization will need to adapt to these new realities. Developing leaders will include helping to instill this new thinking paradigm. Learning organizations will thrive in this new environment.

    Today employees are learning about and using AI on their own. They might be seriously trying to use it to make work easier and more efficient. Many may just be using it for entertainment. Recent studies have shown that they are also concerned about the impacts of automation, and they recognize that they must learn to work with these new tech tools. Technology has everyone’s attention.

    Workplaces that help people attain a holistic understanding of technology can create and promote a culture of acceptance and endorsement of these new methods and tools. These workplaces can help people embrace technology in the workplace and perhaps understand how to use it constructively beyond their workplace. These types of workplaces can bring team members to an agreement that becoming technology savvy requires that everyone involved must learn to think and apply these concepts together.

    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay