It's my job, I just do it

So. This week I talk about the closing gap between L&D and OD. Hmm. Here's what I'll be talking about.

I've been asked to provide a case study of what my experience in the workplace has shown me about this development. It's quite a simple story really. When I came in to LBi, it had just passed a year of being a newly merged company. My role was initially to provide L&D service to the organisation. This included a range of activity from setting up Interview Skills training, to managing the training budget, to managing our agency CPD activity, and designing and delivering internal training courses. And that about covered a lot of activity in my first year.

My second year saw a lot of the organisational change and development I wanted to get involved in, and had the opportunity to explore. Thankfully, no-one in the business really had an agenda for L&D, so I was fairly free to push the boundaries in the way I thought (and still think) best. So last year saw a lot of activity done in developing a competency framework for the business. This is now being rolled out, but it took a long time to get there. The business has company values which no-one really understood. From there it was a case of defining them into terms staff understood, not PR talk, plain English talk. After that, I worked with each department, and levels within departments to define what the values meant for them, and how their day job reflect the values.

And from this we now have our competency framework. It's in Version1 at the minute and will be a continual evolving beast. But this was one stage of an organisational initiative which needed to happen. If you look at the Burke-Litwin model of OD, it offers an interesting perspective about factors you need to consider when engaging in, and developing an OD initiative. I know what the organisation culture is in the business, who from the Leadership team needed to be involved, what the purpose of the competency framework was to be, which systems were currently in place to support it, what management practices are currently being carried out, where the motivation lay for the framework, and how it would support organisational and individual performance.

I won't go into the details of the above, but I'm glad I have the Burke-Litwin model to help me consider if I approached the exercise in the right way. But I think I'm sending you on a bit of a red-herring. All I've done is described how I approached an OD task. I've not really talked about the closing gap between L&D and OD. So why is this question important? Where does it come from? And what do we hope to achieve from it?

Well, I think the question is important because in an organisation of any size where there is an L&Der of some description, the business can and does see the benefit of having such a person involved fully in providing support to the business, and (at a cynical level) serving to put a face on taking staff development seriously. What an organisation may not, and to my mind, will not realise is the benefit of having someone dedicated to OD. I've talked before about who tends to be an OD professional (in my post about what is Organisational Development), where I mention that it can be anyone in a business who has a mindset for dealing with OD issues.

This is not restricted to those in the HR field. Indeed, it's anyone who identifies a business need, and helps to develop and deliver a solution which improves business performance. In the automotive industry this tends to be the engineers as they are concerned with continuous improvement and lean thinking. In healthcare it tends to be operational staff who want efficient caring of patients. In businesses it tends to be HR.

The L&Der tends to be the one from the HR and other groups, who sees that there's a need for an organisational initiative. They tend to be the one who knows how to engage with the right people, and in the right way. They tend to be the one who know how to develop a solution and deliver it. They tend to be the one who knows how to roll it out and communicate it to the business. And that's why there's a growing questions of where the closing gap comes from.

What does this mean for the future of both the professions? Erm. Do you know the lottery numbers for this Saturday please? This is an academic question which will not be answered any time soon. We just have to wait and see how varying businesses respond to their organisational issues, and how these get answered. There's an ever growing distinction of roles and responsibilities of every aspect of HR, and this is another in that mix.

For me, for now, it means business as usual. I do L&D, and I do OD in my spare time. Because that's what's demanded of me and my role. I enjoy it and find it challenging. There will continue to be L&Ders who find they're asked to do OD. They won't be going to a workshop or training course about how to transfer their skills, they'll just get on and do it. I find the question of the closing gap slightly bizarre and frankly am unperturbed by it. I don't mean that in an arrogant way. I just don't see it particularly adds to the profession. It's a good question for those concerned on the matter, for me it seems another example of navel gazing which could be better time spent elsewhere.

Being positive takes effort

I write often about positive psychology and the very practical applications it offers to help people realise and understand how they can act differently if they wish to lead more 'happier' lives. Now, 'happier' is always a subjective term, and no-one can dictate to you, how happy you should be, this is a judgement you need to make for yourself. But, if you do wish to be happier, there are some very easy, very practical things you can go.

Before I launch into the different kinds of activity you should think about, let me stress this. This isn't a one trick pony. In order to achieve a more positive state of mind, or be happier, it takes concerted effort, and you need a strong support network. Be that friends, family, work colleagues, or professional help, someone needs to help you on this journey. Without a support network this will be a truly difficult task.

Additionally, extensive research has been carried out into the tangible effects of acting in the ways listed below. The research shows positive changes in a person's own sense of positivity over a period of time, how positive they are about others, and whether or not, the practices hold a lasting effect. I'll not cite the various pieces of research as I'm in a rush. But, and I will hold my name to this, I would not be suggesting the things below, if I didn't believe it.

I've written before about writing 3 good things at the end of the day. If you follow me on Twitter, you'll see I try to do this, and you'll also see how infrequently I do it. It's a very easy thing to do for a short while. As a continued effort though, it does take practice before you remember to do it regularly. In honesty, I think about my #3goodthings most nights, I just don't write it down. And that's the hey part, because you're articulating it rather than thinking it.

A gratitude visit is a very powerful way to raise your sense of positivity. This essentially entails you taking the time to visit one person and let them know why you're thankful they're part of your life. This doesn't have to be a regular weekly or monthly activity, but it does need to happen at least once or twice over a long period of time. What this helps to do is raise your confidence in being able to appreciate those in your life, and expressing it in a way which is meaningful to both you and the receiver.

Act in small ways which are unselfish. It doesn't take a lot to give someone the time of day, or to help answer a query. But in this busy world we fool ourselves into thinking that someone else will do it. Yes, maybe they will. But should that stop you from doing it too? No. There are few people I know who truly act without expectation of the same for them. And for that I will always hold them in high regard.

One of the most powerful ways to help you and others around you feel good, is by smiling. So much is associated with a genuine smile. This is pretty self-explanatory, but if you're not one for doing this, have a look at those around you who do, and consider how much of an impact they have on those around them.

And that's where I stop. Four things you can do to help raise your level of positivity and how you think about being happy.

Serenity Prayer

Back when I used to work at QVC, we ran a programme called the QVC Difference. Essentially a 2 day residential course aimed at increasing your self-awareness, and focusing on how understand others better. Part of the course focused on the Serenity Prayer which came to mind yesterday, and thought I'd share it with you.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that You will make all things right If I surrender to Your Will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen."

Read into the prayer what you will, but for me, there are a few strong messages.

The serenity to accept the things I cannot change. If only this was easier to do. I can accept there are things I cannot change. But with serenity? Few can do that, and do it well. I used to have serenity in abundance in my college days, but something happened along the way which slowly beat it out of me.

Courage to change the things I can. I'm all about change. It's my job for crying out loud! And to do so with courage, that's a continuing journey I find myself facing. I have some very supportive and amazing people around me - both online and offline. I can change - if I want to - because I know I need support in order to do so.

Enjoying one moment at a time. There are daily stories about sudden life changes we never expect to happen. For this, and this alone, I am constantly grateful for this life I have, and never take it for granted. I kiss my wife, and my kids every morning without fail before I leave the house as I never know what will happen when I walk out that door.

Trusting that You will make all things right. Faith is a difficult one to sound-bite, so I shan't. I have faith, and sometimes I have to hold on to it for dear life.

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life. I am. Around me I see all manner of wonderful, difficult, harsh, joyous, sad events. And I wonder - am I happy with where I am right now? Yes. Yes, I am.

I don't think the Serenity Prayer resonates only if you are Christian, or only if you practise a religion, the message is a good one, and for this reason, I hope it resonates with you.

Come tweet with me

This week's Q&A topic has probably been written by many others before me, and I may not be saying anything new, but I wanted to put it out there to see what opinions are around. My question is this:

Is it possible for organisations to use social media for employee engagement?

Here's my thinking. The trend for employees to have a social media account of some sort is increasing constantly. At the moment, here's how most of those accounts are being used:

Facebook - personal relationships, event type pages, uploading videos and photos of company events
Twitter - networked relationships, creating a 'personal brand', promoting your message to the world
LinkedIn - professional relationships, job opportunities, conference promotion
Yammer - in-tact relationships, deeper discussions on topics selected by people regularly working together
Blogs - individual voice, rants, thought pieces, attract a following
Foursqaure - competition element, checking in, winning badges, special offers for 'mayorships'

And that's just a selection of what's out there. So we can take each of those and think - how can an organisation use any/all of those to engage with their staff better? Cynicism aside - truly aside,

Facebook - so it seems 500 million of you have a Facebook account. I don't for what it's worth. but I'm in the minority it seems. Imagine if you would, a company friends you. Not to follow what you have to say, but so they can update you on company communications. We're holding a company meeting, we're hiring spread the message, there's a new starter today say hello, did you know Bob is wearing a red pyjama outfit for Comic Relief?

Twitter - not so different about the kind of message that can be spread from Facebook, just a different way of sending that message out.

LinkedIn - encouraging your staff to connect with each other, but with the aim in mind of developing a strong employer brand. Brands in this day and age know the power of a collective and crowd sourcing. So you have a strong public brand, but what about a strong professional brand?

Yammer - wikis and intranets are still the way to go, but Yammer offers an additional way to talk to each other. Remember that internal training on Assertiveness? Let's talk about that a bit more. What about the new internal product we've rolled out? Discuss and comment.

Blogs - blogging is an interesting beast, but all the same there's a lot of people at it. Done something you're particularly proud of? Ask someone to write about it on their blog. That's right, on theirs, not yours. You already have a company blog which will have a corporate message. How about hearing the same message articulate differently? Are you brave enough?

Foursquare - 'checking in' presents an interesting opportunity for rewarding being 'present'. A slightly more organisational bent, rather than engagement - but rewarding people for 25 check-ins, with a free coffee? A mayorship with an Amazon voucher, or additional company discount?

I know there will be heavy cynicism from a fair few of you, and that's all good, but indulge me for a moment.

The question then:

Is it possible for organisations to use social media for employee engagement?

Time to step up the game

Had a great chat yesterday which lead to an invitation to speak at a workshop in a couple of weeks, and with a possibility of speaking at a bigger event in September. Yes! I won't lie. This has been an ambition of mine for some while. And it's also why I started blogging. I'll make it clear from the outset. This isn't about making money, this is about me talking.

There's a lot happening in the world, and a lot of people voicing an opinion on all and sundry. I don't think L&D is being best represented in the big bad world. There's far too many safe players who will tell you best practise looks like this, and the growing skills of L&D means x, and how we need to be more strategic in our delivery, and how businesses need to take L&D more seriously. That's what we're griping about in our profession? Are you kidding me?

There's very few people out there whose voice I respect and will listen to. Some in particular are Lee Sears, Gene Johnson, Peter Butler and Nick Shackleton-Jones. There are very many other speakers, but they are saying nothing of consequence. Same old same old. Sorry Perry Timms, even you're not that interesting. I like you, you engage an audience brilliantly and yYour work with the Big Lottery Fund is pretty great, but you're not describing or talking about anything which we haven't already seen, or aren't trying to achieve ourselves. This doesn't mean you don't add value, I just don't see you're actually pushing any agenda.

L&D is a veritable power force of change. I do, will, and foresee my role in the business I am currently in - and every business I will be in, as being one that I get to the heart of and create the L&D culture it deserves. And the only way this will happen is by being an internal consultant who gets at the heart of the business. External consultants serve a purpose, but have a very different perspective to what a business needs. My belief is, and hopefully comes through in all I do, that L&D doesn't rest with one person. L&D's role is to facilitate learning in whatever way is best.

I have a big hope that I do get asked for more speaking opportunities. Having 1 now, and a possible other later in the year is a great affirmation for me that I'm saying something which resonates with others. So, my focus has been given purpose. One other main activity I'm hoping to get sorted within a fairly short space of time is moving this blog to a proper platform. You'll have heard me ask questions about this in recent weeks, and I still have more to think about. So, I'm planning on making things happen for me. I'm quite clear about what I want to do, my road to getting there is proving to be interesting and exciting.

I'm a sharing soul

Last night I attended an event for folks who use social media, Twitter in particular, to have a tweet-up. Those of you who follow me know of this as #ConnectingHR. It's odd going to an event like this. You talk to these people on Twitter. You're kind to each other, and you have an interaction of sorts. You can't really call it a relationship because there's no vested interest in the other party. Not really. We might help and we might offer support, but you can't do much more virtually. But you know, in your mind, that you don't care if these people listen to you, if you offend them, or if they like you, because they're not real. Not really. Of course, they're real, but you know, they're not to you, because there's no relationship.

And then you decide you're going to meet up. Not just one or two of you, but all of you who talk. It's reminiscent of the old chatroom scenarios. You remember those. Bob lives in England, Karen lives in Fiji. They talk, they think they have a spark, they agree to meet and either they find they really do have a spark, or it was all based on false perceptions. But this was nothing like that. At all.

So the first #ConnectingHR event was last year, another after that, an unconference followed, and then last night the first tweet-up of the year. Right. So I'm off to meet a group of folk who share a hashtag. WTF? Are you fucking serious? Yes. Absolutely. Erm. Why exactly? Because we're a community. Ok. Now you're just talking nonsense.

Am I? Twitter is where I am me. I tweet about everything under the sun. I mix personal, with professional with work with food with my children. This a) gives those following me a complete insight into who I am b) fills up timelines because I tweet so damned much. On a night like last night though, that leaves me in an interesting position. I knew there would be folk there who actually read my tweets. They respond - actively - to what I say. For whatever reason they do this, they do this. I'm grateful for that. So going into the pub, the first thought that struck me was - Fuck. This is like going on a blind date where the other person actually knows an awful lot about you already, but they have no idea who you are. And having a Twitter handle such as @LearningGrump (nee @naturalgrump) makes things even more interesting as often folks just have their names as their handles, so mine is a bit more distinctive than most.

And then we say hello. And you look round the room recognising folk. Bob! Billy! Ben! And you connect immediately. Because you already know each other. Because all you're doing is putting faces and real people to the names. And you find they're just as wonderful in real life as they are on Twitter. I didn't need to meet these folk in real life to help me know I have a supportive community. It's helped, as now I can associate better with all of them. More importantly, though, I can now build relationships with them.

Are you warmed up?

Well, this week's Q&A post is all about doing an energiser before training or a workshop. Looking at the world of sport gives an example overview of why we should do this. Before any sports-person embarks on their competition, they prime their bodies. They go through intense training several weeks prior to condition their bodies in the right way. On the day itself, they body needs to get the adrenaline flowing so your reaction times are quicker and sharper. The body needs to be in a state of readiness so it can take on its challenge. During the competition, the sports-person paces him/herself. They know full well that their body can only handle so much, so they have to make sure they're not over-stretching themselves. And once completed, they warm down. The body has just been through an exertion of energy and power it doesn't normally have to sustain. The warm down helps the body to say, it's ok, you can relax now.

So, if you question the need to do an energiser before training/workshop, think of this example. The key is, make sure the energiser/exercise you get the group to do, is relevant to the task ahead of them. Don't play Lego and have fun, if you're in a conflict resolution workshop. The delegates won't appreciate it, your credibility will go down the pan, and your objectives will not be met.

The question for this week then is - What's the best energiser/icebreaker you've taken part in (or if you're an L&Der, that you've designed and delivered)?

Email and work are not the same thing

You there. The one who says they are working when they are answering emails. You and I need a serious chat. Modern work life means work-related communications happen through email in the first instance, person-person second and by telephone third. But let's be clear about that - emails are only a communication medium, they are not work.

Doing work means that you are acting on something communicated to you, and producing a result of efforts. This is working. To claim that you have spent x hours 'working' by answering emails, you are misunderstanding the nature of what it means to work. Yes, you probably do receive hundreds of email, but - BUT - they are simply someone communicating a message to you they wish you to do something about. Responding to your emails is not doing something about it. Forwarding your email is not doing something about it. Passing on the request to someone else is not doing something about it. You are only doing something about it when the person sending you a message is satisfied their expectation has been met.

Why does this grate on me though? It's not about the blackberry culture we're now in. That's an expected way of working now, to be always connected to work. It grates on me because of the perception people think it gives of being busy. Yes, it does give the perception you are busy. Are you being productive or effective though? That's a whole other matter.

UPDATE: Thanks to Sheridan Webb for pointing me to this questionnaire - Busy or Productive? - that can help you to consider the above for yourself.

Getting senior management buy-in?

I love reading stupid comments. Check that. I don't love reading stupid comments. Stupid comments make me angry. Check that. Stupid comments make me incredibly frustrated that people don't pay enough attention writing better. What am I blathering on about? I've just read a tweet about getting senior management to buy-in to the value of L&D. Hmm. It's an age old discussion. A rather pointless one though if you ask me.

It's a simple message really. You can't expect anyone in your business or organisation to value what you do, if you don't show them why first. This is true of any department and not restricted to L&D in any way. Let's stick with L&D though. So, you want to be taken seriously? Here's my list of what has to happen. Caveat: I'm only talking about internal L&Ders, externals can adapt the list for their purposes.

1) Understand the needs of the business. Don't listen to what managers think they want. Take note for sure, and reference, but managers rarely understand their actual needs. For example, Bob approached me asking for presentation skills for his team. After some discussion, I found that presentation skills was part of what his team needed. The other part was how to deal with challenges, discussions and difficult people. That's not presenting at all, that's a mix of facilitation skills and active listening techniques.

2) Develop content with the business. You may know what makes a great piece of training design, and what exercises you enjoy using, but have you checked that's how the audience will receive it? Say I thought using Lego for every exercise regardless of topic was the way forward. I might then go on to deliver some training with this exercise to a group of managers who immediately refuse to take part in the exercise because they see no relation to what they do on a day to day basis. Buh-bye Lego exercise and your credibility.

3) Deliver it with a business leader. It's fine if you want to deliver training by yourself, there's no harm in that, but only your immediate audience will see how good you are, and if you're lucky they'll praise you to their manager. Delivering with a business leader though means that you will immediately create conversation amongst other business leaders about the work you are doing, because they're a peer group and they like to spread good news as well as gossip.

4) Follow up with a session to review the content. Your audience will talk about you more and be more likely to remember their training if you produce a follow up.

5) Have a calendar of some sort. Seriously, this is such an easy win but so easily overlooked. People like to know when they can expect to attend a session if they're not able to make the one you're organising next week. Making it available and visual also makes it easy for people to refer to.

6) PR what you do. You have to, have to, have to do this. No-one will know about the work you are doing unless you talk about it in some way. Be clever and smart about this, don't just spam messages all over the show. You want people to see you're being a benefit not a nuisance.

7) Meet with business managers regularly. Not weekly, but quarterly at least. Find out how the business is doing. What's going on. Where's the business heading? Vision? Strategy? Business plan? They will then see that you are taking the business seriously, not just L&D but the business.

And that's only some of what you should be doing. You should be doing other things too like being consistent, have a training budget and manage is closely with Finance, and attend regular conferences or workshops yourself. But that list above is a good place to start if you want the business to take you seriously. It takes time though. From experience I can guarantee that getting the above right means you will be taken seriously by your business. Then, getting buy-in from various groups is easier as you've shown clear reasons why.

I should add, it's not a do all or die list. Do the ones that make sense.

Is there a bit of Punjabi inside you?

A break from the norm of L&D type posts brings me to wanting to write about my culture. Sparked by some bhangra being played on my way into work this morning! It's important to immediately clarify that there is a difference between being Sikh, and being Punjabi. Already confused? Sikhi is a religion, and as some of you will know, I am Sikh. Those who practise Sikhi, have defining characteristics such as the clothes they wear, and typically look something like this:

I, clearly, am not a practising Sikh. I hope to be some day, though.

Being Punjabi, though, is quite different. Punjab is a state in North India, with borders on Pakistan, close to the Himalayas and has a population of approximately 80 million.

Historically, Sikhi originated in the Punjab area, and as such many Sikhs are Punjabi. However, being a Punjabi, doesn't mean you are Sikh. Those living in Punjab are also Hindu, Muslim and Christian. So, the commonality they share is the Punjabi identity.

I want to give you some insight into what it means to me to be Punjabi.

The music. Bhangra. That's what it's all about. Traditional bhangra is played on simple instruments such as a tumbi or a dhol. And there's normally someone who will sing lyrics. The lyrics are normally meant to be quite tongue in cheek, taking a poke at Punjabi stereotypes, and also often about wooing a girl. Lyrics aside, for me, it's the rhythm produced from the instruments that I love. You grow up learning how to dance to the music, your social circle encourage it, at parties everyone's doing it, and it's contagious! Not many artists have managed to break into UK mainstream music except for Punjabi MC, with Mundian To Bach Ke. Since then there have been others, but not in such a big way. Anyway, every time I hear a good bhangra song, I want to dance. It's dangerous when sitting at my desk when listening to a good song as I'll be mentally bopping away, trying to refrain from physically doing the same, and trying not to look like I have ants in my pants.

The food. I love Punjabi cuisine. It is awesome! Every part of India has a different style of cooking. Sure they're all spicy, but they tend to have very different consistencies. Typical Punjabi food tends to be quite thick and/or creamy if it's curry based, quite dry if it's meat, and quite spicy if it's vegetarian. You may recognise saag, tandoori chicken or matar paneer. MMMmmm... A very traditional meal for families on Sunday's is to have parathas... oh mama. These things can fill you up for a day.

The culture. Punjabi's are a very social people. Everything is about socialising and needing an excuse to socialise. That's why parties are so big, not because we know that many people, but because we love being social. Sure there might be alcohol free flowing, but that's more of a gradual happening over time. It's all about throwing a big bash to show off how well you can socialise. Cynicism aside, it creates for a wonderful atmosphere where everyone mucks in and enjoys themselves. Even if it's a home dinner, you can expect 3-4 different families. And in some cases this is a weekly affair!

And those three things are at the heart of why I love being Punjabi. I've talked specifically about Punjab here. This isn't to say the other states in India are vastly different, it's akin to describing why those from North England differ from those in the Home Counties to those in London to those in West Country.

Make training fun?

Last week's Q&A post on the use of role plays in training was a nice experiment and turned out just as I wanted. My thanks to all who took part in it. For me, the important thing to bear in mind for future Q&A's is to not bother with a summary post at the end of the week because:
1) I'm not that important
2) My readers can wean their own conclusions from people's comments
3) I didn't actually say anything different

So, on to this week's Q&A.

If you are promoting training, should one of your key selling points, be "it's fun!". I read far too many training types who think that this is a valid selling point. As you may gather, I'm not convinced. I'm not concerned about the structure of the training, or its content, or the style of delivery, my questions this week is restricted to:

When promoting training, internal or external, how does the word "fun" help or hinder this promotion?

Role Play? No thanks

This week's inaugural Q&A post was on the topic of role plays within training. The question I posed was this: "Often in training it's necessary to practise the skills you are learning. But, is role play the best way to achieve this?"

There's been some excellent comments from the following people: Rob Green, Wendy Jacob, Matthew Warrener, Sarah Durbridge, TheHRD, Doug Shaw and Mr AirMiles. Here's a precis of their comments:

Rob talked about it being difficult to get into character for a role play as he's not facing the person he's likely to come across. Once he tries though, feedback can be useful.

Wendy was clear in stating "There is no realism in acting out a semi-scripted conversation" and "You can't plan for every response and scenario and, while I see some merit in discussing on a practical level how a new skill might be used, I've yet to experience a role play which hasn't been a painful experience for everybody."

Matthew made an excellent point when he said "...customers DO NOT HAVE SCRIPTS! We can discuss and debate customer/event scenarios but lets leave role playing to the cast of Fame!". I couldn't agree more!

Sarah thought about it from the trainer's point of view too and talked about role play feeling unreal and embarrassing for the participants.

TheHRD made an interesting observation when he said "I've found that in our culture people like to use it...not because they find it real but because they find it helps to practice".

Doug made a nice quip and said "I have scriptophobia, a fear of role play."

And Mr Airmiles provided a great comment, "There are other ways to practice and apply classroom learning - Micky Mouse Land role plays aren't one of them...".

There's plenty in the comments you can read and learn from, and I'm grateful for the contributions. I have to add my tuppence though. For me, you just need to consider the purpose of using role play at all. If it's a service based offering you have, create a duplicate environment, a simulation of sorts, where the person can not only practise what they've been taught, but become conscious of the environment they're in, the people they have to interact with, and apply themselves naturally.

If it's to practise a learned behavioural skill such as Assertiveness, or Feedback, this is much harder to control for in a training environment as the situations you create will never be true to life. You can't account for emotions, reactions, beliefs, culture, that a person holds within them. In these places I've always found it more useful to encourage planning of conversations and discuss those as the preparation can raise awareness, you then have to trust they'll actually 'do' it when they go back to work.

In the main, I don't believe role plays have a place in training any more. There are better and more effective ways at embedding learning - skills practice, simulations, video feedback, are all  If you do choose to use them, just be very clear about the objective. They'll work fine as thought starters, but won't help to truly practise skills.

Thanks to all above for contributing this week.

Death to the CV!

A few weeks back I met a Twitter friend Mervyn Dinnen for the first time and had a very good chat about all things social media, how we found ourselves using it, and about life in general. Mervyn's at a point in his career where he's trying something daring and I wanted to support this with a post of my own. He's looking for his next career opportunity, and I don't doubt that he'll find something. You can read his dedicated blog to find out what he does and what he wants to do. I will tell you though about his methodology for finding this job.

He is doing it without any form of a CV at all. Instead he is using purely social media/networking tools to help him find a job.

A quick point, Mervyn is in a fortunate position that he can invest time in this experiment. I wish Mervyn the best of luck in doing this.

He's calling it social recruiting. Makes sense. What I want to do is take a look at the idea of this and provide some of my thoughts. In effect, Mervyn is saying if a company is interested in him, he won't send over a CV. He wants his blog, his Twitter account, his LinkedIn profile, all to be the source of information that any potential recruiter would need. And based on that, they can contact him for an interview.

What fascinates me about this, is the sheer challenge to conventional job seeking methods. The Employ Kyle campaign saw some innovative use of social media to promote himself. And there have been many people using YouTube to promote themselves. Recruiters in the world today (in-house as well as out-sourced) should take note of what's happening in the world of social media, and learn quickly. I'll make mention of one other recruiter I know on Twitter, Andy Headworth. Andy is an absolute advocate of social media, and puts a lot of time and effort into figuring out how the various tools can be best used. You should check out his site.

Coming back to Mervyn though, he's got some real challenges that stand in his way:
1) Recruiters will insist on a CV - they will not understand how you can't have one, why you haven't got one, and what you possibly think to gain by not providing one.
2) Companies will put pressure on recruiters and on Mervyn for providing a CV - because they want the paper trail. They want the safeguard that says, "we choose to go no further because blah blah blah".
3) Practically, people haven't got time to engage with a candidate in this way - the beauty of what Mervyn is trying to promote here is, you have to visit his site, you have to read his tweets, you have to search him out on LinkedIn. That's far too much time to invest in a time poor economy.
4) It's just not the done thing - regardless of the ways social media is providing new ways of communicating and providing information, at risk of a cliche, the world just isn't ready for things like this. Challenging recruiting conventions is almost as laughable as challenging airport security.
5) His approach will be classed as the latest social media fad/gimmick - companies haven't got the time to indulge an approach like this. Social media? Just stick to email and phone thanks.

I am following Mervyn's job hunt with interest. I hope either you do too, or are interested enough that you'll pass on a recommendation for him.

Role Play? I'm just not into that

Seeing there are plentiful blogs to welcome you, get you kick started and provide ample advice on setting realistic resolutions for 2011, I'm going down a different track. I'm starting a weekly posting on something within the L&D world which would be interesting to open up to you all. In effect, I want you to write the blog.

The idea is simple enough. I pose a situation, you respond and I'll try write a post to collect thoughts on (potentially) solving said situation. I'll tweet it out once a day until Friday.

Often in training it's necessary to practise the skills you are learning. But, is role play the best way to achieve this? I've never been a fan of role play. But before I get into it, let's have a quick thought about why they're used. Effectively they're used to help people take a look at how they might use a learned skill and receive some feedback on it. That's about it really. Like I said, I want your help in writing this, so let me know your thoughts, and on Friday, I'll pull them together.