Strategic Workplace Learning in the Public Sector
A little less than two years ago on this blog, I entered a curmudgeonly post on "The Non-Strategic State of Workplace Learning" (See Agile Bureaucracy, June 16, 2008 - http://community.thepublicmanager.org/cs/blogs/agile_bureaucracy/archive/2008/06/16/the-non-strategic-state-of-workplace.aspx ).
My snarky premise was that even though since the mid-90s government at all levels had begun requiring strategic goals, measurable outcomes and periodic reporting on results, "this shift (hadn't) yet made a noticeable dent" in aligning training and development investments with agency mission or management priorities. For example, I noted, "In a post-silo organizational culture, Chief Human Capital Officers (CHCOs) would be fully involved in the organization's strategic planning and management systems (and such T&D) activities would be (integrated) to meet priority challenges."
Designing Strategic Leaning Efforts
I also speculated that indicators of this integration might appropriately include the training community's involvement in designing learning efforts to:
foster an organization-wide performance culture
improve oversight and accountability behavior
recruit, engage and retain young professionals - among other priority HR challenges
help IT professionals and non-technologists alike keep pace with expanding E-expectations
help managers transcend boundaries of federal, state and local governments and foster collaboration among public, private, and nonprofit sectors
assure that transparency becomes an organization-wide value
help agency managers plan to share responsibility for achieving results - with other governmental levels, internationally and the private sector
prepare managers for and respond more collaboratively to catastrophic disasters
Again, the unflattering picture I painted two years ago didn't include much evidence that the T&D community even had a seat at the table on these matters. To be sure, some of the feedback (and blowback) I received suggested that I had painted too bleak a picture. (After all, even the Dutch Masters included a few swatches of thick, white oil paint on their invariably dark canvases.) Nevertheless, few colleagues - trainers, HR leaders, and other public management professionals - could point to instances where training figured as an integral part of strategic public sector initiatives.
Strategic Workplace Learning Observed
Well, in searching for such illuminating examples, I'm beginning to see some light. In fact, the theme of the summer 2010 issue of The Public Manager is strategic workplace learning - with likely articles featuring case illustrations from such government organizations as: the US Departments of Defense, Energy, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs; and New York State, among others. Moreover, many of these public sector workplace learning innovations will be presented in interactive or workshop-style sessions at the American Society for Training and Development's (ASTD's) 2010 International Conference & Exposition to be held in Chicago, Illinois, May 16-19 ( http://www.astdconference.org/ ).
Here are brief highlights from just two of these training efforts - both involving the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA):
Enabling Success in Afghanistan: Building Cultural Expertise at the US Department of Defense
As the United States geared up to send thousands of troops into Afghanistan, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) faced the challenge of preparing hundreds of intelligence analysts to enter the country knowing something of the history, culture, politics, and governance of the region. The Afghanistan-Pakistan Regional Expertise Training Program was developed to deliver cultural expertise training to intelligence professionals and operations personnel across the Intelligence Community and US Department of Defense. This case study considers how the DIA responded to a time-critical, far-reaching problem that crossed agency and coalition lines. It examines how to meet the need for an immediate solution while addressing questions of funding, format, location, and ideal content - in effect, how to create and evaluate a sustainable model for preparing employees to operate in a range of countries and cultures.
Creating a Collaborative Culture at the Defense Intelligence Agency
After the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the members of the Intelligence Community (IC) needed to transform from a stove-piped culture, where employees viewed knowledge as power, to a collaborative culture, where employees saw knowledge sharing as their personal responsibility. Creating such a culture begins with an effective onboarding program. In 2004, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) leadership directed the development of an orientation and acculturation program to bring together all junior-level, professional-grade employees, regardless of job responsibilities. The 5-week program develops an understanding of how all elements of the DIA work together to support US National Security objectives and Department of Defense operations, and to collaborate with other Intelligence Community (IC) members. This program is innovative among IC onboarding courses by its attendance policy, the length of the course, the curriculum, and the instructional methodology. DIA recognized that new employees could be effective change agents and designed its onboarding program to help establish a knowledge sharing culture. The recitation examines training techniques DIA has used to foster a culture of collaboration across organizational lines, explores the challenges within organizations that inhibit collaboration, and identifies the role of senior leadership in transforming the culture and the onboarding process.
Share Your Observations
In subsequent posts, I'll be sharing more examples of how government organizations are aligning training efforts with strategic agency goals. If you know of other examples of how public sector organizations have begun to align workplace learning efforts with priority mission and management challenges, please let me hear from you. Better still, encourage trainers and managers in these organizations to comment on this blog directly and weigh in with their own best practice T&D stories. I'll make sure to share these examples with a larger audience.
