The Corporate Learning Institute

Why Leadership Training is Important in Our Recovering Economy

Check out the June 21 Blog Talk Radio Show,
Why Leadership Training is so Important
at www.blogtalkradio.com/corplearning.

 

Those of you that are over 40 will remember when time seemed to stand still and corporate life was predictable. We had uniforms and rules, protocol and procedure manuals. Those times are gone. Nowadays, we have a multi-generational work force with baby boomers sometimes clashing with emerging leaders that are considered millennial. We have worker engagement concerns, with employees caught between watching out for their careers versus feeling loyal to their employers. We have frozen pay schedules, frozen bonuses, and increased workloads.

In his book, Workforce Crisis-How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent, Ken Dychtwald noted that three demographics are present to create a leadership shortage in the coming decades:
1. The baby boom generation-1/3 of all Americans (76 million people), born between 1946-1964 will be retiring or changing careers.

This demographic speaks to the issue of secession planning, and how organizations will the knowledge base created by the baby boomer generation. Can organizations retain the skills, experience, customer relationships, and knowledge left? How?

2. The longevity boom-people are living longer, how will this affect the workforce?

Are workers still learning at age 50? 60? 70? How will emerging leaders interface with baby boomer leaders? So we have a multi-generation workforce. How can your organization create training and development opportunities to maintain leader performance over time?

3. Declining birth rates- we are not replacing the baby boomer generation with the same population How can your organization develop emerging leaders quickly and cost effectively? How can you recruit efficiently?

These demographics can help your organization prepare for the upcoming leadership pipeline shortage?
There are several things your organization can do”

1. Create training that introduces your baby-boomer leaders to new technology, innovative processes, and updated research in your business area.

2. Develop leadership-training programs that meet the needs of multi-generation leadership work force. How can your organization consider the specific needs of your demographic groups?

3. We will have fewer capable leaders entering the job pool in the future. What can your organization do to ensure that leaders are recruited, screened, and prepared efficiently for their new role?

Responding to the Need: Leadership Training at CLI
CLI offers training for leaders through two fully developed programs. Each has distinct design benefits.

The CLI Leadership Academy

The CLI custom-designed Leadership Academy provides organizations with a tailored approach to offering leadership training. Interestingly, clients can decide how the program is offered, the number and length of time for modules, and the content of the learning material. CLI has just concluded a 12-week leadership program with Argonne National Laboratory for 24 leaders in the health physics department. The training combined classroom and outdoor modules so that leaders could apply their learning. There are three key requirements for developing an effective custom-designed program:

1. Be clear about your needed outcomes

2. Prepare your group before the workshop

3. Develop highly relevant “sticky” training skills that can transfer to the workplace

 

The Leadership Challenge-a comprehensive training program

Authors Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have developed a comprehensive training program called The Leadership Challenge.
The program features five key practices:

1. Model the way
2. Inspire a shared vision
3. Challenge the process
4. Enable other to act
5. Encourage to heart

It is important that participants in this program consider completing the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) prior to taking the workshop. The LPI allows participants to view their leadership strengths and growth needs. In addition, an action plan allows participants to develop their leadership skills as they work through the program.

Companies today face many challenges, but leadership development is perhaps one of the most important considerations. There are also many options available to prepare leaders, even in a recovering economy.

For more information visit www.corplearning.com.

 

References
Dychtwald, Ken, Tamara J. Erickson, and Robert Morison. Workforce Crisis: How to Beat the Coming Shortage of Skills and Talent. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School, 2006.

Kouzes, James M., and Barry Z. Posner. The Leadership Challenge (J-B Leadership Challenge: Kouzes/Posner). 4ed. Washington D.C.: Pfeiffer, 2010. Print

Promoting Innovation Literacy in Your Organization

By Susan Cain, Ed.D., Partner, the Corporate Learning Institute, www.corplearning.com

 

Are your people innovation literate? Are they encouraged to bring new ideas to the table? How about this -are they involved in improving your products, services or processes? If the answer to any of these questions is no, or even maybe, you may be suffering from innovation illiteracy.

Innovation is the process that allows the creation of something new that has never existed before. In an organizational environment, innovation involves the process of opportunity identification, idea generation, prototyping, development, and market sales.

We have developed a tendency in the United States to outsource much of our innovative processes to our offshore manufacturing sites. In many instances, our research and development needs have also been outsourced along with our manufacturing. While this initially makes financial sense, we need to maintain competitive ability through training to improve innovation literacy.

According to the US Council on Competitiveness (2010), innovation will be the single most important factor in determine America’s success in the 21st century. In addition, researchers such as Daniel Pink, in his book, Drive! The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, (2009), noted that the new rules for employee engagement include opportunities for employees to experience autonomy, mastery and purpose. What a great opportunity we have organizationally to encourage two important goals at once-develop employees sense of engagement and add innovative potential to our organizations.

These dual needs fuel the innovation pipelines that can rebuild our competitive future. Understanding the building blocks of innovation literacy begins with thinking about basic steps that you can take to encourage creativity in thinking and innovation in application:

Encouraging Innovation in Your Organization

Innovation literacy skills allow your employees to recognize opportunities that are hard for others to see. Helping employees “see” possibilities starts with what you talk about, and what you encourage, but also what gets people in trouble in your organization. If employees know that creativity and innovation are valued by the organization, they will seek out innovative approaches and share what they have learned. If there is neutral or no emphasis or value for creative thinking or innovative approaches, they will be less likely to step up and offer ideas.

 

Five Ways to Make your Organization More Innovative

1. Send the message out that you are one organization sharing a common vision, sharing similar challenges and working collaboratively as one together.

2. Become a learning organization. Communicate your organization’s expectation that employees “own” problems and possibilities that they see, even outside of their area. Teach employees to “learn” as an organization by seeing problems through to resolution in collaborative ways, across boundaries.

3. Offer creativity and innovation skills training: this may seem obvious. Teach your people how to solve problems, spot opportunities and test out new ideas that can make a difference to your product or service delivery.

4. Share successes and treat failures as learning opportunities. Do not publicly punish or belittle those who have failed.

5. Show real-world impact of innovative impact by sharing successes.

Below is the CLI model of the innovation process:

These basic innovation skills and steps allow companies to gain a foothold in optimizing a product or services. These are teachable, easy to understand concepts that will allow your employees to learn and apply their learning where it matter most-in your organization.

For more on innovation, contact CLI at (630) 971-5074.

About the Author
Susan Cain, Ed.D. is co-founder and partner of The Corporate Learning Institute and a founding partner of the Black River Center for Management Enhancement. Susan is an expert in the field of corporate training and development. She is a valued consultant and coach to numerous Fortune 500 companies crossing all industry sectors worldwide. She has a proven record of accomplishment of collaborating with teams from top-tier companies to maximize their return on strategic and human capital investments.

Trends in Team Building

By Dr. Susan Cain, the Corporate Learning Institute

Dr. Cain has been a practicing organizational consultant for 25 years, working with top-tier corporations and organizations throughout the world. She is partner at The Corporate Learning Institute, a Chicago-based training and development organization offering corporate training, coaching and strategic planning services.
We have all heard all the descriptions of the current economic challenges and what we should do about them; economic downturn, slump, recession, let us hit the reset button, rebound, regroup, rethink, engage, enhance, rebuild, remotivate, rebirth. However, what are the current trends in team building today?
To find out, I searched through the ASTD (American Association of Training and Development) database, looked at recent publications and asked several clients from large multi-national corporations they are were doing to build teams in their organizations. What I found was surprising, and points toward the need to find new ways to motivate employees to work together, despite the daunting economy.
First of all, the news from ASTD: The growth of elearning platforms will continue to provide learning opportunities for time-strapped employees. But how can teams take advantage of this new technology? Elearning offers teams opportunities to learn about team development, can help them diagnose their culture, allow them to assess their strengths and limitations, and even develop action plans. Many e-learning companies exist to help build elearning platforms that are customized for your company’s training needs. A good example of the usefulness of elearning to build teams is the growth of companies offering tools like the Myers Briggs Type Inventory on line. Teams can complete their work style assessments and share results the same day.
A brief search of recently published material revealed a strong focus on the need to develop individuals and teams that feel engaged and committed to their organizations. Patrick Lencioni, who wrote The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, has commented recently that “companies that create true team environments turn into places where other team-oriented players want to work.” Team building training can help potential teams develop the identity, skills, and strategies they will need to drive high performance. There are three essential approaches that trainers use to build team performance. The first approach includes team-building events that focus on building personal motivation, engagement, and appreciation of others. Examples of these include cooking events, outdoor team challenge sessions, or charity events. If done well, events can provide a short-term solution to a company has need to deliver an important message, build morale or even introduce new employees to each other.
The second training approach offers actual skill training that focuses on building teamwork skills such as communication, collaboration, problem solving, and support. Training program are available in short sessions or multi-day sessions. Some companies even opt for short learning modules delivered over a longer time span. Short-term training is best for building awareness of team building issues, while longer-term training offers opportunities for application of learning and integration of learning gains back to work. Training sessions can be held at your company or a designated off-site location. Work with your training provider to determine your needs, time requirements and expected learning outcomes.
The third area-team strategic coaching- focuses on a team’s objectives and tactics for getting work done. Research shows that in a downturn economy, that companies are more likely to hire external trainers who can provide an exact fit for the type of training that they need. Team coaches offer on-going consultation so that team performance improves. A coach can play many roles, such as trainer, facilitator, or coach, to help a team achieve its optimal performance together. A competent coach can make a huge difference in the life of a team.
Finally, I asked some of my own client corporations to tell me which area they were focusing on to build teams in their organizations. From larger companies I received word that cost-containment was still a critical need and hiring and wage freezes were still the norm, but that many were returning to providing team engagement events that allowed team members to become more familiar with each other and feel more connected. Example of this is a telecommunications client who held a charity event to bring new hires together. Other midsized corporate clients reported that they were offering half-day team refresher session to any interested group.
Knowing what a team needs and providing training services when needed is a vital part of creating what Lenciono calls “true team environments”. As technology improves, it is likely that web-based training tools will be combined with hands-on team building to develop high performing teams more efficiently. One client concluded that that “Human beings will always have a need to connect directly with each other. Computers serve a purpose, but it is important to know others in your company, and how to connect to them.”

Team Building Strategies

February 8, 2011, Lisle, Il-

The Corporate Learning Institute announces new team building strategies hoping to rebound in 2011. The new CLI annual e-brochure is now available on the CLI website, www.corplearning.com, and contains many new training programs. Team building strategies are important for an organization to function efficiently in turbulent times. CLI has responded with a fresh batch of team training workshops. The new team building offering includes the Break Through Team Building Workshop as well as innovation training, communication training, problem solving training, time management training, leadership development training and community building and development at work. CLI President Dr. Susan Cain states that, “Building strategies in your organization should include a realistic assessment of your needs and budget constraints. CLI can help you target the training needed and avoid unnecessary expenses. Your strategy should include asking CLI to develop a needs assessment and designing the best options for your company”. CLI begins with the needs assessment process to determine the real needs of your organization. Then, CLI works with you to determine the best approach for developing a given team. Time, budget, and skill development needs should center the development process. Finally, CLI delivers the training services and provides a follow-up evaluation as well as next step training opportunities for your company. Contact CLI today at (630) 971-5074 or scain@corplearning.com for a proposal today.