Google Ad #1 - desktop - 728x90

Google Ad #3 - desktop - 728x90

Google Ad #1 - mobile - 300x200

Google Ad #3 - mobile - 300x200

ATD_Half_Page

Googel Ad #1 - Side Bar - Content pages

ATD Footer Logo

Donn Coffee

ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT OR TRAINING

It can be tricky to find the right balance between sharing and oversharing at work. Many people hesitate to set a boundary with a coworker regarding how much they share, as doing so may hurt their feelings. But the promise of having “crucial conversations” is that you can deliver tough news in a respectful way.Here are a few skills that can help:Start With HeartWhen beginning a crucial conversation, get your intention right before speaking. Clearly examine your reasons for not wanting to hear about your coworker’s personal life. Starting with the heart ensures you understand your intent. And when you understand your intent, you can communicate it more effectively. Starting with the heart also pushes you to find a respectful intention beyond desires to rid yourself of irritation.Perhaps your intent is to express that their interruptions disrupt your focus, your workload is demanding, or you simply don’t have the emotional bandwidth. Whatever the reason, consider how you can share it honestly and kindly so your coworker can better hear your request.Master Your EmotionsThe primary reason we struggle in crucial conversations is that by the time we speak, we are already irritated, angry, or disgusted with the other person’s actions. Then, no matter how much we try to fake it, our negative feelings creep into the conversation. So, before opening your mouth, open your mind. Try to separate people from the problem. Try to see your coworker as reasonable, rational, and decent—even if their actions frustrate you. It’s likely they are desperately looking for a connection and not intentionally trying to disrupt your workflow. When you hold a generous thought about the other person, you will come across them entirely differently. You will be able to calmly communicate your good intent rather than speak out of frustration and annoyance.Help Others Feel SafeUnskilled people believe that certain topics are destined to make other people defensive. Those who are skilled at crucial conversations realize people don’t become defensive until they feel unsafe. They become less defensive because of what you’re saying than because of why they think you’re saying it. But when others feel respected and trust your motives, they let their guard down and begin to listen—even if the topic is unpleasant.Communicate Your Good IntentStart the conversation by assuring your coworker of your positive intentions and your respect for them. And finish by kindly drawing the boundary. Here is another question for you to consider. Is there a happy medium? Is there a way to both hold a boundary as well as be more available to your coworker? Can you tell them that you enjoy talking with them but are not available for uninvited drive-by conversations in the middle of the day? Maybe you can spare 10 minutes every now and then when things are slow, or over a coffee break. Perhaps your colleague is seeking friendship and connection, and you could find a way to offer some, assuming it’s in a manner that respects your time and attention.I started this blog by sharing the promise of crucial conversations—that tough news can be delivered respectfully. I’ll end with a caveat. Just consider that even though tough news is delivered respectfully, it doesn’t mean it isn’t hard to hear. It’s possible there will be no way to say something without your coworker taking some offense. But if you do your part to get your heart right, master your emotions, make them feel safe, and communicate your good intent, how they react is up to them. Their response is not your responsibility. Your responsibility is to be both candid and respectful at all times.

How to Respectfully Draw Boundaries at Work

When COVID-19 arrived in the United States in early 2020 and the country was awash in questions about its origins, a relative of mine was certain that the virus was not what officials said it was, wasn’t dangerous, and probably wasn’t even real. I shared a different perspective, citing information that I believed was reliable, but she was firm in her stance. Feeling indignant, I determined I would do what most of us do when another person is skeptical of what we deem to be facts: I would bludgeon her with more facts! Being a writer, I decided to do this by letter. I began by expressing what I believed in my self-righteous stupor to be good intent: to keep her safe. Then I proceeded to school her in “The Philosophy of Logic,” “The Psychology of Belief,” and “Coincidence and Conspiracy.” These and other subheadings eventually became chapter headings, complete with bulleted lists, hyperlinks, and citations. A week later, the letter exceeded 4,000 words! I read and reread the letter aloud, trying to imagine how she might receive it. I tweaked the words over and over, hoping to tame the screed. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t imagine her receiving it with anything other than total irritation. The way I wanted to handle that disagreement is perhaps best represented by a quote by James F. Welles, who wrote, “We cannot really understand ourselves without understanding stupidity; and if we understand stupidity, we will understand ourselves.” Notice that Welles does not say “We cannot really understand other people without understanding stupidity.” Yet when it comes to our disagreements, that’s always how we imagine it—it’s only others who are capable of being so stupid. In the Crucial Conversations courses, we learn about our reptilian brain. Because we associate facts with truth, when it appears to us that someone is willing to disregard them, we experience conflict. When we experience conflict, the reptilian brain lights up, we tell ourselves convenient stories, and we (often) foolishly resort to either silence or verbal violence. So, whattayado? First, check to see if you feel indignant. If you feel some sense of disgust, you’ve most likely concluded the other person is ignorant and you’re not. While you may not be wrong in your assessment of the other person, you’ve probably overlooked your own fallibility. One lesson of Crucial Conversations, and of life in general, is that when we judge only others to be fools, we are more likely to act like a fool in our interactions with them. Next, seek mutual purpose. You may need to explore motives to find some common ground, but it might be as simple as listening or suggesting an alternative. “I appreciate what you’re saying. I’ll keep that in mind as I do my shopping.” Or, “Thanks for your input. I don’t feel comfortable revising our lessons completely without more research and discussion, but how would you feel if we took such-and-such approach for now?” Also, talk tentatively. Don’t misinterpret the alliteration—there’s no need to be timid. To forward your ideas tentatively simply means to make it clear they’re your perspective. Share the events or experiences that have led you to your conclusions. About a week after I tucked that unfinished letter away, my relative and I decided to meet for coffee and openly discuss our beliefs about Covid. I felt very vulnerable. But instead of trying to teach her everything I think I know about logic and science, I listened to her viewpoint, and then I shared mine—as a viewpoint. “Based on my experiences, this is what I think.” That was far more effective than “Well, this is just how the world is.” We didn’t see eye to eye, but we maintained our respect for each other, and we gained new appreciation for each other’s viewpoint, which is all I wanted in the first place. In time, our perspectives shifted, and in hindsight I can see it would have been futile to fight each other with facts. 

What to Do When You Disagree About “Facts”

When making the leap from individual contributor to people manager, you quickly learn that your existing skill set doesn’t automatically translate to success in your new role. And it’s the same when you’re learning to manage a hybrid or remote team. This new(ish) way of working brings its own set of challenges. Hybrid work doesn’t appear to be going anywhere—83 percent of workers say they prefer a hybrid model versus working in an office full-time. This means that it’s essential to be aware of the common pitfalls of managing hybrid teams and be intentional about avoiding them. Here are some tips from Udemy instructors on managing remote teams.Common Challenge #1: Proximity Bias Proximity bias is the (often unconscious) preference we give to people who work onsite simply because we see them more often and work more closely with them. Think this isn’t a problem? Gartner finds that 64 percent of managers say onsite employees are higher performers than remote employees, and 75 percent say onsite employees are more likely to be promoted. It’s easy to see how these beliefs could create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where managers think remote employees aren’t as worthy of promotions, so they don’t advocate for them as equally or provide the same opportunities as those given to people working onsite.How to overcome it? Consider how you’ll attempt to limit this form of bias both in everyday activities and during critical points of the employee lifecycle, like performance reviews and promotions. Udemy instructor Hassan Osman suggests making meetings more equitable by asking all participants to call in from their laptops (even if they’re working out of the same office) and using tools like chat and polls to keep it interactive. For more tips from Hassan on leading a hybrid team, see his course, Better Virtual Meetings.Regarding your team members’ performance, Alexis Haselberger recommends several tactics such as intentionally advocating for your remote workers, highlighting their work in public forums, and regularly auditing who’s being promoted or rewarded, so it doesn’t skew toward in-person employees. For more tips from Alexis, see her course, Essential Skills to Lead From Anywhere. Common Challenge #2: MicromanagementMost people don’t set out to be micromanagers—they simply care about meeting deadlines and quotas and delivering high-quality projects. But somewhere along the line, they stop trusting their team members and start feeling compelled to follow up with them excessively or check their work far too often. While micromanagement is a threat in any work environment, it’s much more likely to occur when we have less visibility into what our team members are doing every day.How to overcome it?Alexis Haselberger recommends establishing explicit working and communication norms. For example, does your team observe core working hours? When and how should team members share updates? What is an acceptable response time to an email or instant message? Any time you assign someone a task or project, discuss the expected timeline and check-in points at the outset. This way, they can be responsible for sending you updates, and you don’t need to interrupt their work by asking for ad hoc progress reports. Udemy instructor Axel Rittershaus recommends relying on digital documentation so all team members can see that everyone is working on their tasks and making progress. Using project management tools like Trello or Asana makes it easy for anyone to get a high-level overview of a project’s progress. You can also reduce the need for progress update meetings when everyone has access to this information through shared tools. For more tips from Axel, check out his course, Leading & Working in Hybrid Teams/Remote Teams. Common Challenge #3: Burnout Burnout is a very real concern in the workplace. McKinsey finds that 49 percent of employees are experiencing burnout, but the real number may be much higher since those who have experienced the worst burnout have likely already left their roles.Burnout is even more of a concern in a hybrid or remote setting because we often need clear boundaries. When does our workday start and end? Should you respond to “one last” email or message? It can be difficult to balance our desire to appear productive and helpful with our need to care for our families or ourselves.How to overcome it?As a leader, look for ways to model good boundary behaviors. Alexis recommends taking vacation days (and not working during them!) and avoiding sending work emails or messages outside of regular work hours. If you can only find time to look at emails late at night or on weekends, make sure you use the “schedule send” feature so it arrives in your team members’ inboxes at a reasonable time, and you don’t create the expectation that they should respond outside of the usual workday.Axel says leaders have a responsibility to pay attention to their team members’ behavior. If you notice any changes—like a lack of enthusiasm, excitement, or participation—make sure you check in and encourage them to take some time off to rest and recharge.Common Challenge #4: Social and Professional IsolationWe gather a lot of information and build a sense of belonging when we share the same workspace as our team members—even if we’re not doing it intentionally. We might overhear a bit of a conversation and join in or run into someone while grabbing a snack and sharing a quick update. These types of serendipitous encounters are much harder to replicate in the hybrid setting, making it easy for people to feel left out in terms of social interactions and the information needed to do their jobs well. Gartner research finds that only 33 percent of organizations practice true information transparency, so we can’t just assume our team members automatically have access to information.How to overcome it? It’s become a bit of a cliché to host a Zoom happy hour, and many workers are over this trend, says Alexis. Luckily, you can do plenty of other team-building activities with your distributed team, including playing virtual board games, taking virtual classes together, or attending a virtual food or beverage tasting with an expert guide. Axel says there are four main categories for team building: Space and time for informal conversationsPlaces to chatVirtual team-building eventsIn-person team-building events Aim for a balance between each of these types of activities to best support your team. You might also offer optional ways for people to connect casually, such as through a watercooler channel in Slack, chat roulette where people get paired with a random coworker and have a virtual coffee break, or even a silent working hour where people can call into a Zoom meeting and work together quietly.When it comes to information sharing, it’s important to have clear documentation and processes, so people know exactly where and how to search for the answers to their questions. Many managers create “working with me” guides to share with their direct reports and encourage every team member to make their own version.Prepare Managers for the Challenges of Leading Remote and Hybrid TeamsThe companies that best adapt to remote and hybrid work are the ones that will maintain a competitive advantage in the future. When asked what they’re looking for in the future of work, most employees are hoping for better work-life balance and flexibility for day-to-day work. When done well, hybrid work has the potential to deliver both of those outcomes.Managers don’t just automatically have the skills that make them good leaders in today’s challenging work environment. Help your managers prepare to face the challenges of leading remote and hybrid teams through cohort learning from peers and other leaders. 

Avoid These 4 Common Challenges When Managing Remote Teams

March 2021 - ATD Links

It’s not enough to just come in to work, do a good job, and make friendly banter with those we see at the coffee pot or on our way to lunch or in our Zoom team meetings. It’s not enough just to keep our heads down and do our jobs well and hope to be

Be a Bridge-Building Employee: Career Advice

 Jan starts her business writing course by asking participants to write a persuasive email that has the goal of getting its reader to agree to attend a meeting. Most participants write an email that is too long, and 84.3 percent of the emails have grammatical errors. These results are exactly what Jan expected.Jan then shares with the group a variety of business emails, and asks them to choose two that they feel are most persuasive. Jan asks, “Why are they good?” “They both quickly explain exactly why I would want to be there,” Katarina, answers. Percy adds, “Mine was far too long and twisting. No one would read it all or reply.” He quickly sees how this course can help him. People Aren’t Blank Sheets We often build instruction as if people are blank sheets of notebook paper on which we are writing. This is clearly a mistake (that causes problems) on numerous fronts. Pre-existing knowledge is the foundation to build additional knowledge. Jan‘s exercise helps her participants discover pre-existing knowledge in a fun way. It is our job to help learners connect what they know to what they are learning. It is these connections that help learning make sense. In essence, your courses need to help learners perform three critical actions: activate directly related, accurate knowledgefill in critical, missing knowledgefix misconceptions. For example, in order to teach others to balance a checkbook, we can:Help people “activate existing, related knowledge” by showing them how balancing a checkbook is very much like how they managed the cash they earned babysitting as a teenager to pay all their bills and have enough saved to go out with friends. Let’s say you ask, “How can we do this?” Their answers relate to the process of inputs to and outflows from a checking account.Make sure that there isn’t any missing, critical knowledge by giving them a calculator to do basic addition and subtraction. If there is missing information, we would need to fill in gaps. Ideally, we would have determined this information in advance to know what information needs to be included in the course.Fix misconceptions by letting them know that they don’t need to know advanced math to have a checking account. When such misconceptions exist, they can really interfere with learning.Why Prior Knowledge Is SO Important Research shows that when we are able to connect what we’re learning to accurate prior knowledge, we learn more and retain that knowledge more easily. That’s because all learning is a refinement of prior knowledge. The implication is that we need to consider prior knowledge every time we deliver instruction. Doing so makes it much easier for people to learn. For example, if percentages didn’t make sense when you learned it years ago, a new lesson on interest rates will fail to make sense or “stick.” In addition, learners also must also be able to access prior knowledge. Sometimes participants have already learned something, but they can’t easily remember it. They may be overwhelmed or afraid. (See Dave Ferguson’s blog post on avoiding too much cognitive load and my blog post on when to train to automaticity for related information.) What If Learners Don’t Know Enough? (Inadequate Knowledge) Consider the following scenario: I know that the best ratio for coffee to water in a French press is one part of very course ground coffee to about 14 or 15 parts very hot water (almost boiling). I also know that the brew time is generally about 6-7 minutes. Do I know enough to make good coffee in my French press? No. This is what we call necessary but inadequate declarative knowledge (the basic facts or the “know what”). In this example, I know “what” but I still don’t know “how.” “Know how” is called procedural knowledge. The declarative knowledge I have is accurate, but I still can’t do the task. Likewise there are times when someone can do the task (they have the procedural knowledge), but they don’t have the understanding of what they are doing. For instance, have you ever been on the phone troubleshooting a technical problem with someone who is using a script? When you ask them a question, they can’t answer it unless it is in the script. So when L&D professionals say, “The only thing we care about is performance,” that isn’t exactly right either. People need to be able to perform (know how) with understanding (know what) so they have the nimbleness to change their performance as needed. What If What Learners Know Is Wrong? (Inaccurate Knowledge) Sometimes what people know is simply wrong. For example, there is a popular but erroneous misconception called the “Equal Transit Time Theory” that explains how airplanes fly (aerodynamic lift). Actually, planes fly because the wings force air downward, which forces the wing and the plane upward. Misconceptions damage further learning and can lead some learners to be resistant to correction. Scientists are still debating how wings work and planes fly! Likewise, L&D folks are still debating learning styles and other learning myths! See Dr. Will Thalheimer’s blog post debunking such myths as “people remember 10 percent of what they read and 20 percent of what they hear.”    Bottom line: We can’t assume that people actually know, what they say they know. We also have to uncover misconceptions and help people replace them with accurate information, especially when misconceptions make further learning difficult. Resources [National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, _Background Knowledge_](http://aim.cast.org/sites/aim.cast.org/files/ncac\_BKNov3.pdf)[Strategies for Activating Prior Knowledge](http://www.classhelp.info/Biology/Strategies%20for%20Activating%20Prior%20Knowledge.pdf)How to Assess Students’ Prior Knowledge

Science of Learning 101: Why You Need to Know What Your Learners Know

In the morning, do you reach for a favorite coffee cup or select an attractive outfit to wear to a meeting? Did the sleek and modern design of your smartphone influence your buying decision? What about your go-to websites? Are you drawn to the ones that are attractive and well-designed rather than those that are cluttered and difficult to read? You would probably agree that the visual design of a product influences your choices and buying decisions. And you most likely know that people prefer to use attractive products rather than poorly-designed ones. But you may not realize the extent to which design can impact a person’s emotions, which in turn affects how people think and learn. A Common MisconceptionMany of us have a common misconception—fueled by outdated science—that emotions and cognition are two independent functions. At one time, researchers were certain that cognition and emotion operated as two separate systems. Underlying this theory was the idea that emotions and feelings were a lower order function as compared to higher order rational thinking.Current research has basically done away with these older theories. We now know that emotion and cognition are interdependent. Emotions are crucial for quickly assessing a situation and for making decisions. There is also much data to show that positive emotions are particularly important for learning, solving problems, creative work, and innovation. This is because positive emotions, in most circumstances, enable more flexible and adaptive thinking (Isen, 2002).Aesthetics Evoke Positive EmotionsAlthough instructional design typically focuses on the cognitive aspects of learning, a new line of research is now exploring the affective dimension too. Known as “emotional design,” this research looks at the ways a learner’s feelings and mood can influence motivation and learning results.One obvious way to influence people is through visual aesthetics, or the appreciation of an appealing design. Thus, the importance of visual design in learning is gaining in stature and will become increasingly important in years to come. Initial research has already shown that evoking positive emotions in learners through an attractive visual design (layout, colors, imagery, etc.) can help facilitate a successful learning experience (Plass et al., 2014).As a learning experience designer, this presents new opportunities for success. It means visual design is another channel for reaching your audience and influencing learning outcomes. It means that by making e-learning courses, training slides, and other materials visually appealing, you may be able to increase motivation and enhance the learning process by influencing the learner’s emotions.Some Ways Aesthetics Can Enhance LearningHere are four of the many ways that aesthetics can evoke positive emotions and in turn, facilitate learning.Enhanced Value. People make rapid judgements based on sensory input and are instantly attracted to aesthetically pleasing objects, while rejecting those that are unappealing. Learners quickly judge the materials they use in a similar way. Not only do well-designed materials increase the appeal of the learning experience, learners will be more likely to judge the materials as credible and valuable. And perceived value is an important factor to adult learners. Increased Motivation. When learners experience positive emotions (which can be evoked through an attractive visual design), it can foster intrinsic motivation or the desire to learn without an external reward (Heidig et al., 2015). In addition, with an attractive design, the learning tasks are perceived as less difficult when compared to a neutral design (Um et al., 2012). Avoidance of Negative Emotions. One factor of an appealing design is its usability or how easy it is to attain one’s intended goal. In multimedia course design, the goals will vary according to task—navigating, playing videos, completing exercises, and taking tests, for instance. A design with a pleasing aesthetic will have the simplicity required to enhance task completion. It will help users avoid the negative emotions associated with poor designs, such as frustration and dissatisfaction, therefore enhancing the learning experience. Perceived Ease of Use. In the groundbreaking book, Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things (2005), author Donald Norman demonstrated the significance of aesthetics. He presented research showing that people perceive well-designed objects as user-friendly. In one experiment with an ATM machine, subjects perceived the attractively designed screen as easier to use than the unattractive screen design, even though both had the same buttons and functionality. Visual aesthetics enhanced the user experience. Considering how we are influenced and impressed by beautiful designs, it’s not surprising that aesthetics can have a significant impact on cognition and learning. By improving the visual design of e-learning courses, slides, learning portals, and similar learning tools, you can have a powerful effect on the learning experience. And isn’t that a common goal of learning professionals everywhere? For more visual design tips from Connie, check out her new book Visual Design SolutionsReferencesHeidig, S., Müller, J., & Reichelt, M.  Emotional design in multimedia learning: Differentiation on relevant design features and their effects on emotions and learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 44, 81–95, 2015. Isen, A. Missing in Action in the AIM: Positive Affect's Facilitation of Cognitive Flexibility, Innovation, and Problem Solving. Psychological Inquiry, 13(1), 57-65, 2002.Plass, J., Heidig, S., Hayward, E., Homer, B., & Um, E. Emotional design in multimedia learning: Effects of shape and color on affect and learning. Learning and Instruction, 29, 128–140, 2014. Um, E., Plass, J., Hayward, E., & Homer, B. Emotional design in multimedia learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 485–498, 2012.

Why Aesthetics Matter to Learning

In my previous post, I discussed how typical mentoring programs often lack support and guidance for mentors. Mentors can be the linchpin in an employee’s development. Neglecting them risks everything mentoring programs are trying to accomplish.But what happens when, despite all your best efforts, you need to let your mentors go from the program?Moment Number 2: Keep Your Coffee Warm and Your Clients Happy by Developing a Mentoring Contingency PlanOne morning, I had just sat down at my desk with a fresh cup of coffee when I saw several new emails come through with the subject line, “Urgent: New Mentor Needed.” This organization had implemented a new annual cycle of their formal high-potential mentor program a few weeks earlier. This was the second cycle in the current format and everything had been going well—until now.As I skimmed through the lively email discussion, my coffee got cold on my desk. It turned out that one executive had strong objections to the mentor his direct report had been matched with. The mentor—let’s call him Connor—had left a really bad impression on the executive a few years back. Even though the match had been made with a lot of care—individual development plan goals and performance review strengths were matched along with DiSC-style profiles—the relationship was not going to be approved.The executive was so upset over the situation that he was calling the entire process into question. He had such a poor view of this one mentor that it colored his view of the entire program, and he was starting to get vocal about it. Everything else in my day stopped so I could get on the phone with all the parties involved and work through the situation.Let me stop for a moment to acknowledge the elephant in the blog post. This is one of the reasons that many people are proponents of informal mentoring programs, as well as formal programs in which the mentees are solely responsible for finding their mentors. Had this particular mentor-mentee matching process been different, the executive may not have been surprised and the firestorm could have been avoided. There is no doubt that in many situations, other options are far superior to the formal administration of mentor matches I’ve described. However, in this case, for this organization, and for the goals targeted by this program, we chose to pursue a more formal process.That morning, I spent a good amount of time reviewing other beneficial matches with the upset executive and some of the leadership team. Eventually, with my untouched coffee on my desk, I was able to remind everyone involved why we were doing things the way we were, and return my customers to a state of satisfaction. But, the fact remained: Connor was out of the program as a mentor.I could argue that the feedback due to Connor was not mine to give, but in any case, I was the one who had to make the call. Here are the main points I prepared for my conversation:Thank you for volunteering to mentor others; this is a critical need for the organization.Originally, we matched you with a mentee working on XYZ skills, which we know are strengths of yours.Unfortunately, the mentee’s supervisor does not believe that you will be a good mentor for his employee, and has asked us to remove you from the current pool of mentors.Because this program requires several critical parts to hit our target of developing our leaders, we not only need skilled mentors, we also need buy-in from supervisors to make this work.While I do not have more details for you about the feedback, I’m happy to answer any other questions you might have about this decision.If you are still interested in pursuing a mentor position within the program, my suggestion is that you work on the feedback directly with the executive, so we can look forward to bringing you into the program in the future.My intention was to be respectful but honest about the situation. As someone external to the situation, I was obligated to follow through and remove Connor. At the same time, I wanted to make sure Connor saw the opportunity for his own growth and development by working on the feedback he was provided.After this situation, a couple of really valuable lessons about mentoring programs were reinforced for me:Before implementing a mentoring program, be sure to describe the ways in which a mentor or a mentee might be removed from the program and what that process would look like. This might include removal as a result of poor evaluations, supervisor requests, low performance on the job, withdrawal for personal reasons, and so on.Don’t ever surprise your customers, whether internal or external. Remember to communicate early and often with all customers involved in a mentoring program to avoid emergencies like this one. Your customers most likely will include mentees and their supervisors, mentors and their supervisors, program administrators, and program champions or sponsors.I don’t enjoy giving bad news, such as firing mentors. However, I know that Connor did take my advice, sought out the executive, and eventually became a great mentor in the program.Learning from experience means helping us avoid similar risks in the future. There will continue to be days when my coffee sits cold and forgotten on my desk while I’m putting out fires, but as I learned from one of my own mentors, “Every day I win or I learn.” I’m so grateful that the situation with Connor came up and taught me such valuable lessons about working with my customers, and that it turned out well for him, too.I hope that these posts on supporting your mentors and learning how to fire your mentors have been helpful. The third and final post in the series will discuss measuring progress within the mentoring relationship.

Why It's Important to Develop a Mentoring Contingency Plan

We all walk around the world with certain expectations. We have a sense of how the food will taste at a fast food restaurant. We know what our favorite slippers feel like on a cold morning. We brace ourselves when we get a letter from our accountant. When our expectations aren’t met, we struggle. We complain that the line at our go-to coffee shop is longer than normal. We can’t believe that a particular clothing store no longer sells red T-shirts.We also struggle when something or someone exceeds our expectations because we don’t know how to react. The entertainment industry plays on this mismatch of expectations and reality. But often, we celebrate when faced with such unexpected scenarios. Julia Roberts can afford to shop in the pricy boutique in Pretty Woman. Frodo is much more than a just a hobbit in Lord of the Rings and defeats the greatest evil in the land_._We carry around the same expectations at work. Learning and knowledge teams often begin projects with deeply held beliefs about the other. Prior interactions between the two teams (like the mass of ERP projects in the 1990s and 2000s) have built and reinforced such preconceptions. Yet in reality, both teams exceed these expectations.Learning teams see knowledge managers as organizers of information, building categories and subcategories to put knowledge into well-identified bins. Knowledge managers historically controlled the content necessary for the learning team to develop training, managed access to that knowledge, and ensured that all of the knowledge was formatted properly. The learning team saw the knowledge managers as keepers of policies, processes, and procedures for knowledge. The demands of these procedures frustrated learning teams, creating an impression that knowledge managers were more worried about the format and categorization of knowledge than whether it fit a particular need. Knowledge managers were perceived as gatekeepers, not enablers. Learning teams felt compelled to create supplementary content to fill in what they perceived to be gaps in the “fit” of the knowledge.Knowledge teams, on the other hand, saw learning managers as trainers only, adapting content that they had created. Learning teams might change the order of the presentation of knowledge to make it easier to consume, which would affect the context of the knowledge presented. Knowledge teams also felt an intense pressure to deliver “complete” knowledge to the learning team. This was particularly difficult in complex projects where changes to the deliverables would alter the knowledge required to build training, creating numerous back-and-forth interactions between knowledge and learning teams, and frustrating both. Knowledge teams also were frustrated by the amount of time that the learning team required to build training.Obviously, neither of these sets of expectations is true. Today, both learning and knowledge teams are driving toward the same goal—delivering the knowledge and skills that team-members need as close to when they need them as possible. Just-in-time knowledge and learning delivery systems mirror one another in intent.Knowledge and learning teams need to recognize their limiting expectations and learn to exceed them. Can you imagine the applause you can get if the teams move past their expectations?Would you like to know how to build this partnership and achieve exceptional results? Check out our March issue of TD at Work: “Enabling Success through Learning and Knowledge Sharing.”

Search results for 'Donn Coffee'

Categories

Refine By