I’m dreaming of a motivating manager just like the ones I used to know. During the holidays, does that motivating manager have to be a dream? A wistfulness for someone to emerge and provide the encouragement to help others do their best? Is the idea of a motivating manager something relegated to a holiday wish list—you hope for it, but there’s no real certainty of its arrival?

We don’t have to look too far this time of year to find fictional characters, old and new, that mirror the characteristics of leaders who fail to motivate. But is there one on the list that does?

What can traditional holiday characters tell us about what we want, or don’t, in our leaders? Let’s look at them one by one.

• Scrooge – A greedy and angry manager bent on taking from and belittling others, despite their best attempts to help him. Yes, he’s redeemed in the end. But who wants a manager that yells at you, refuses to share, and then asks for forgiveness? Hardly motivational.
• The Grinch – An agile leader who adapts his menacing ways to inflict the greatest harm. He’s the guy who ultimately also comes around to embrace Whoville corporate culture but not until leaving trail of destruction in his wake.
• Frosty the Snowman – A happier, friendlier leader likely to initially garner many followers. But, ultimately, did he really have the substance people needed? After all, he did melt away. A leader, however amiable, who doesn’t produce results doesn’t inspire motivation.
• Buddy the Elf – A contemporary leader filled with optimism, an ability to connect with others, and strong skills as a team player—an unassuming leader of the people. And while it pains me to say it, he just doesn’t have the maturity required of the job.
• Mensch on a Bench – A man of integrity and honor who brings a sense of fun to his job while also encouraging generosity to others. Since the Mensch watches over the menorah all night, his workaholic tendencies don’t provide the best role model for this teams.
• Mrs. Claus – Much like the corporate C-Suite today, female leaders, like Mrs. Claus, are underrepresented. It’s time for Mrs. Claus to lean in to her strengths as an executive role model for up-and-coming female leaders.

So who, then, is my motivating manager? At the risk of sounding cliché, you’ve got to give it to him. The big guy. The main event. The motivating manager is Santa. Why?

• He’s globally aware – He knows that the world is not made up of his corporate headquarters. He crosses time zones, and cultures, to reach all.
• He’s got a clear vision – To bring joy to all the kids of the world—can’t get clearer and more motivational than that.
• He’s got a strategy – He executes on his plan of toy delivery through a clear discipline—he’s got a list; he checks it twice.
• He’s a good delegator – While he has the adulation of millions, he knows he needs to rely on others to get the job done. Enter the elves, the parents, and the mall Santas everywhere who help him deliver.
• He’s a great communicator – With a simple “ho, ho, ho” you know where he stands. There is clarity and consistency to his message. He communicates authentically.

Finally, he’s got that elusive certain something that we can’t always put a finger on, but we sense it when it’s there. It’s not holiday magic—Santa has executive presence. He has the ability to be fully present with others—to listen to them completely and give them his undivided attention. He shows gratitude and cares deeply for others, expressing this care with abundant generosity. He’s resilient, even when challenged time and time again by non-believers; he proves his existence and embraces all.

Let’s give it to him as the current motivational leader and look for new and more diverse leaders to emerge in coming years—I’m looking at you Mrs. Claus!

About the Authors

Leah Clark

Leah Clark is the Leadership Practice Lead at GP Strategies, as well as an author and the founder of LeaderConnect. With over 28 years of experience in her field, Leah brings a unique perspective on the mindsets and skillset that are critical to leadership success to her coaching and consulting. Her clients benefit from her collaborative approach to crafting a well-connected and thoughtful leadership development strategy. Leah holds a Master of Arts; Organizational Psychology, Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts; English and Sociology, Boston College.

The holiday season is upon us, which also means the shopping season has begun. This is the time of year advertisers declare open season on consumers. From targeted social media ads online to the twinkling store retail displays, advertisers are fighting for our attention. They tell us what we want, making it even more difficult to find what we actually need.

Sometimes in the L&D world, this is how we approach our learners; with so much content out there, we try to capture the attention of our learners using a variety of formats. For example, augmented reality (AR) has recently been made readily available on most smartphones and has created opportunities to deliver readily accessible interactive experiences, combining virtual learning in a real-world setting.

Of course, the whiteboarding technique, an oldie but a goodie, is a fun way to deliver content in an alternative format. And gamification can be used to provide an opportunity to engage learners, appealing to each learner’s desire for challenge and rewards. We use many vehicles and formats to capture the attention of learners and deliver learning successfully. But delivering content is simply no longer enough—we need to focus on outcomes and ensure that mastery of the learning is occurring. So how can we do that and produce learning that captures engagement? The solution is simple: learner experience design (LXD).

LXD is a relatively new discipline and falls within the human-centered design framework.

LXD combines the discipline of instructional design with user experience, ensuring the focus remains on the learner and how they learn, leading to the desired learning outcome. LXD does not have a step-by-step systematic process, but follows more of a creative process, like design thinking, with an outcome that’s uncertain at first but clear in the end. LXD has three key points of focus:

• Focus on the learner.
• Focus on learning rather than the idea of training or instruction.
• Focus on the process the learner goes through to reach the desired learning outcome.

In recent years, efforts in L&D have moved toward finding new ways to package the content we create. We dazzle our learners with gamification or virtual or augmented reality, design WBT that we think is valuable, and finish their training with a level 1 survey to make sure they liked the course. In the meantime, we’ve forgotten the most important component: the experience of the learner. Simply put, human beings respond to and learn from experiences. As L&D professionals, that puts the responsibility on us to refocus our efforts on the learner and the process that the learner goes through. This is where LXD enters the picture.

Earlier this year, GP Strategies led a design thinking initiative within a learning organization to help uncover the conscious and unconscious expectations learners had placed on their learning organization. What we uncovered changed the trajectory of the learning strategy, not only for the year, but for the next several years. Learners told us:

• Understanding people is critical to our success, and we need soft skills training: listening, reading people, cultural training, and selling skills.
• We need inspiration and support to stay motivated and gain confidence and competency.
• We want our learning to be personalized to our needs and topics that we want to build on based on our experience and interests.
• We want the flexibility to learn what we want or need, but with enough structure to understand goals and what is expected from us and to know where our learning is taking us.
• We prefer hands-on and interactive learning so that we can learn and apply the information at the same time.

You are probably nodding and agreeing with these themes. Our learners, all our learners, are telling us the same thing—think of them. It’s time for us to reposition ourselves as curators, facilitators, and enablers of learning based on their needs. It’s a mind shift for us. For so long we made the decisions; we were the experts. But our roles are now evolving, and we must embrace the evolution if we want our learners to continue to trust us. If you are looking for a magic solution to make learners interested and engaged in what you are delivering, it’s simple. Look no further than the learners themselves. LXD is the perfect evolution in the field of instructional design to ensure we remain focused on the experience of our learners.

About the Authors

Keith Keating

With a career spanning over 20 years in learning & development, Keith Keating holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership and has experience in a myriad of areas ranging from Instructional Design, Leadership Coaching, Operations Management, and Process Transformation. More recently Keith has been leading clients on the development and execution of their global learning strategies. Regardless of the role, at the heart of everything Keith does centers around problem solving. He studied Design Thinking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and found Design Thinking was a perfect tool to add to his problem solving "toolkit". Since then, Keith has been utilizing Design Thinking to help clients tap into understanding and resolving unmet customer needs.

Rest easy. This is not another article reinforcing assumptions, projections, or myths about Millennials. Millennials are of the most studied generations, which means that for every article and study about trends attributed to this group, there is another one-click away to debunk it. We need to broaden the conversation and talk about the millions of people in the workplace who offer as much value, vision, and human resource as do members of Generation Y.

THE SITUATION

The world and the marketplace are changing at a rapid pace, and our workplaces must be equipped for that change. The heavy-handed Millennial rhetoric may be our best attempt at making sense of this change–to categorize and qualify so that we can begin to feel knowledgeable. But by placing too much importance on the “trends” in generational categories, we can give a false sense of the degree of difference between different-aged workers.  It’s a difference that sometimes borders on divisive. If you search for difference, you will find it.

Building a strategy around managing, attracting, or retaining only one group, can serve to isolate others. According to BlessingWhite research, 63% of employees on average are engaged, but 77% of employees in the best organizations are engaged. The lowest scoring organizations have under half (49%) of their employee population who are engaged. Managers and companies cannot afford to isolate the other half of their workforce. Success requires the highest levels of engagement from as many people as possible, regardless of generation.

So if you are asking yourself what it will mean for a significant percent of the workforce to be Millennials in 2030, you’re asking the wrong question.  A more pressing question is, “What does it mean to have a multi-generational workforce right now and how can you leverage that?” Change is a given and workplaces will continue to be multi-generational. Now is the time to consider how to make your team and organization a place that can absorb changing generational needs. 

WHAT ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADERS CAN DO

Focus on universal trends

Several studies found some difference in generational preferences, and also found large degrees of similarities between the needs and wants of Millennials, Baby Boomers, and Gen Xers who, combined, will continue to make-up over 80% of the workforce for at least the next five years.  For example, a multi-generational study by IBM found that the majority of the workforce, regardless of generation, hold the same beliefs that engagement is best produced by inspirational leadership, clearly articulated vision/business strategy, freedom to innovate, and a collaborative work environment, among other things. The ability to produce leaders who can inspire, create the space for innovation to happen, and clearly communicate a vision in an individualized manner requires significant training, investment, and preparation.  Enhancing leadership in this way will attract and engage people from across all generations.

Understand what motivates your people and give feedback

Maximizing contribution is about aligning work priorities to an individual’s personal motivations and aspirations. In order to do that, you need to communicate with every person you manage. Don’t assume you know what’s important simply because of the generation from which they come. Learn how they like to be rewarded and recognized. Find out about their interests and strengths so that you can better align them with assignments and opportunities. Understand what they want to learn about so you can match them with chances for growth and development. And in the process make sure you’re giving feedback. Much has been made about the Millennial’s need for feedback.  The truth is that giving regular performance-based feedback is one of the most effective means to ensure that your team has clarity and can achieve organizational priorities for employees of all generations.

Address the awkwardness

Increasingly, Millennials are moving into management positions and it is not uncommon for them to lead individuals who are older, more knowledgeable, or have more extensive experience. This is a challenging dynamic, especially in cultural contexts where there are high power differentials. This dynamic can sometimes lead to managers operating on extremes—conceding to their reports out of appreciation or respect, in a way that it hinders their ability to lead effectively. Or, in an effort to prove their credibility, overcompensating and heavy-handedly managing their reports into disengagement.

Managers need to find the balance between appreciating the unique contributions of each team member and owning the role as manager. In order to equip managers with the tools needed to address these dynamics, we believe that leaders, regardless of age or generation, should focus on competence and connection. Leaders need the skills and confidence to know they can do the work, and the abilities and perspective to connect with their people regardless of age. This formula will allow them to lead with transparency and impact, so they can navigate a sometimes awkward and volatile workplace. The outcome? Higher performance and satisfaction from their teams.

THE RESULT

By embracing your multigenerational workforce and preparing your leaders appropriately, you will not only produce higher engagement and performance, but you will also begin to attract the best of all age groups.Rather than obsess over what makes Millennials tick, focus on leveraging the benefits of your workforce regardless of their age.  Maintain an employee population that represents all generations and their diverse perspectives.  Absorb change and reflect differences.  By doing so, you’ll create a culture of balance and resilience.

Sources

BlessingWhite. Let’s talk about great days at work: 2017 Employee Engagement Report. 2017

IBM Institute for Business Value. Myths, exaggerations and uncomfortable truths. The real story behind Millennials in the workplace. 2015

Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd. The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today. 2010

About the Authors

GP Strategies Corporation

GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.

I don’t want a lot for the holidays
there is one thing I can’t stand.
All those boring compliance trainings
underneath my learning plan.

I don’t need another policy
or eSigning on the dotted line.
It doesn’t mean I read a thing
or will remember what to do in time.

I just want something fun,
please, before the year is done.
All I want for the holidays
is Compliance Training that’s fun!

We have all done it. I even took a compliance training class this morning—for the record, I passed the quiz on the third try and did not read the content.

This makes me a terrible learner—but a great person to give some tips on how to make compliance training fun.

• Treat People Like Adults: More than likely, the people you are training are adults who can read. Unless you know your target audience needs to have the information in an audio format for accessibility, treat people like the adults they are; give them the compliance policy, and trust they will read it.

• Billboard Your Content: Look through the policy and imagine that you are on a highway. Think of all the times you have driven down a road and been able to read the billboards and other signage as you speed by. Summarize the training content in creative ways like the way advertisers do. It is more important that the content is memorable than it is serious and detailed.Creating advertisements for key concepts ensures your learners are more likely to remember it in the time of need.

• Mini-Games: Have you ever been addicted to a video game on your phone? Two factors usually influence the reason why this happens: they’re easy to play and they’re fun!When developing compliance training, you could make a long, drawn-out, complex scenario for the learner to respond to—but face it, the answers are usually apparent. Why not make it simple and fun like the games you play on your cell phones? Add some characters and humor to the assessment to increase the stickiness.

• YouTube or Netflix: Consider how we spend our time. Think of how many times a day you might pull up a funny clip on YouTube and watch it as a break or a diversion. Now try to find the time to binge-watch a show on Netflix. Need a little more time to binge-watch, right? Keep the duration shorter and more frequent for important compliance training. If these training moments can be interspersed throughout a normal working day instead of being longer and needing to be scheduled, the user is more apt to take the course.

• Ease of Access: While there are times when you need to keep your compliance training under lock and key, try to make it as easy to access as possible. You do not want people to be frustrated before they even get to the information. Also, ensure that logging in does not take more time than taking the actual exam. Make it easy for people to log in and access the compliance training, while still being safe online.

In this holiday season, think about giving and receiving gifts. Whether it be presents over the course of seven days or under a single tree, the quality matters. It does not have to be the biggest present, and it does not have to be perfect. A present needs to show you truly understand the receiver and have their best interests in mind.

Compliance training is actually a gift we give our employees to keep them safe—consider the recipient of your compliance gift, and make it a fun experience for every learner.

Happy Holidays!

About the Authors

Sheri Weppel

Sheri Weppel started her career as an art teacher covered in finger paint, clearly teaching people about out-of-the-box thinking (or at least off-the-construction-paper thinking). While working on her master’s degree in Instructional Design and Development at Lehigh University, she realized that we could learn a lot from the public-school classroom. Concepts like micro-learning, learning styles, gaming, and training on demand were common in grade school, but were considered new concepts in the corporate sector. Because one degree is never enough, Sheri continued her studies at Lehigh with a focus on Gaming for Instruction. In her spare time, she spent her evenings losing to her husband in Scrabble and wanting to throw the letter Q across the room, making her realize the emotional attachments we can have to games. If we could harness that desire to succeed, compete, or win to a learning environment, what impact could we have on learner motivation? Countless games of Scrabble later, Sheri started at GP Strategies as an Instructional Designer and was able to inject those concepts into solutions for her customers. This is often a challenge for customers that want to use gaming but often don’t believe they have the time or budget required to successfully launch into the gaming space. Sheri is driven to help these clients find a balance in embedding gaming elements into instruction in a practical manner. In the past nine years, Sheri has held many roles within the organization, from instructional designer to sales lead for blended learning, and is now focusing on the off-the-shelf product GPiLEARN+, growing the product into a true blended learning solution. Regardless of her role, Sheri is always focused on working with customers to help build impactful training solutions that focus on the needs of all populations. She helps clients determine specifically when to incorporate gaming versus using hands-on, traditional approaches. When she is not working, Sheri enjoys having adventures with her dog Olivia, attending barre classes, and learning new three-letter words that begin with the letter Q.

They might come when you are sleeping, they might come when you’re awake, but software updates are most definitely coming to town. In the glory days of floppy disks and even CDs, software updates usually needed to be installed manually and the user knew well in advance what updates were being made. Generally, the user would receive a disk in the mail or have to pick one up from their local Circuit City—but these days, most of our software is updated automatically (and sometimes even installed automatically) even if we don’t request it.

The cloud offers a ton of benefits. Systems can be easily connected and integrated, data can be shared, and people can be connected. One of the most overlooked benefits, though, is that software bugs can mainly be ironed out by the provider with little or no action from the customer. Cloud software also allows the provider to make small improvements or radical changes, including modifications to the user experience.

Many cloud software providers, large and small, push updates to the users quarterly to keep the platforms running smoothly. Sometimes the changes are small bug fixes that do not impact your processes. Other times, updates are large and have an impact on daily activity. Regardless of the size, automatic updates can be extremely helpful in keeping your system current and functioning properly, but they can also cause issues if you don’t have a plan in place to prepare you for the coming updates. Enter a robust maintenance plan.

If your organization relies on cloud software for critical operations, as many companies now do, then these updates need to be reflected in your training materials. Putting a software maintenance plan in place is critical and can save your organization time, money, and confusion. As often happens, software updates can build upon previous versions, which means that training materials that do not reflect the last several iterations of your software could potentially be obsolete. Understanding the new updates and keeping training materials up to date can be time consuming. As part of your maintenance plan, consider a dedicated support team, internal or outsourced, that can lead the charge on your software training and maintenance initiatives.

About the Authors

Derek Levandowski

Derek Levandowski is a Field Marketing Specialist with GP Strategies, focused on Technology Adoption and Human Capital Management Services. He joined the GP Strategies team in February 2017 after three years with Maverick Solutions, a Division of GP Strategies. A New York native, he currently resides in Wake Forest, North Carolina with his wife Melissa.

Accountability: The Unsung Hero of Leadership 

The term “accountability” is rarely used to inspire or excite individuals to greater heights. It’s not a word you’ll find trending on Google or receiving the adulation of its popular word peers (I’m looking at you “disruptor”). The dictionary defines accountability as the state of being accountable, liable, or responsible. With a definition like that, it’s no surprise it’s not a trendy favorite. 

But accountability is the unsung hero of leadership. Without leadership and accountability, you have nothing. No accomplishments. No successes. No results. Organizations need to reframe accountability and start looking at it as a positive quality. Being accountable is not placing blame or scolding. Rather, accountability is a powerful force that gets things done. 

Building Trust Through Integrity

Accountability at work flourishes when people can be trusted to follow through on their commitments. An environment of accountability is one where the leader and team members assume the best in their colleagues—coworkers want to deliver all they can for themselves and for the organization. Being accountable is not about: 

• Assuming others will fix a problem; it’s about being resourceful to find your own solutions 

• Blaming others; it’s about understanding your own responsibility 

• Waiting to see how something will turn out; it’s about taking appropriate initiatives 

• Being told what to do; it’s about asking for support when needed 

Think of accountability as a contract between leaders and the members of their team. While workers are expected to complete tasks and objectives within a given time limit, leaders too must also be held accountable for supplying team members with the resources they need, providing motivation, and pointing them towards professional development opportunities. When leaders apply accountability to themselves and their workers in equal measure, they create an environment of mutual trust and respect.  

Reframing Accountability as a Positive Leadership Quality

GP Strategies’ research on leaders across organizations revealed that 41% of respondents say driving accountability is a leadership development topic that could most improve their ability to achieve results for the organization.  

As leaders, there are several things you can do to reframe accountability and take actions to help it flourish. 

• Assume positive intent – Know that your people want to get things done to succeed for you, themselves, the team, and the enterprise. 

• Think about accountability as a force for good – For instance, use it to determine what others need from you to achieve results. 

• Bring a growth mindset to accountability – Realize that you have the resources within you, as do others, to grow and learn even through mistakes. 

• Think about accountability with an enterprise mindset – It’s important to leverage accountability to achieve results for your group and for the larger organization. 

Actions Leaders Can Take to Drive Accountability

Resourcefulness, responsibility, initiative, support—these are words of empowerment. When looking at accountability through this lens, the message it sends is that you believe in your employees, not that you will be checking on them to see where they are failing. Once you have embraced this mindset, it is important to introduce actions that will drive accountability throughout the organization. As a leader you should aspire to:  

• Model accountability by following through on your actions and by asking for help from others when you need it to get the job done. 

• Communicate your expectations and your support. 

• Help others take initiative; don’t solve things for them, but coach them to be resourceful. 

• Collaborate to better understand what is needed to be successful and recognize that reaching out to others for ideas and support is positive. 

• Encourage your staff to act early if things are not going well—they should reach out to you, or others, to find ways to fix a problem rather than wait to fail. 

The Combined Power of Accountability and Leadership Practices 

Accountability might not have the same swagger as innovation, and there’s no text abbreviation or emoji that can help bring it to life, but without accountability, innovation remains just an idea. Goals remain unfulfilled. Accomplishments cannot happen. Author Bob Proctor once said, “Accountability is the glue that binds commitment to results.” As a leader, one of the most empowering things you can do is to hold people accountable—tell them that you believe in their ability to be successful and that you will support them in achieving success. That’s the power of accountability. 

Are you looking for ways to transform your leadership culture? Our experts can help you create development strategies tailored to your specific goals. 

About the Authors

Leah Clark

Leah Clark is the Leadership Practice Lead at GP Strategies, as well as an author and the founder of LeaderConnect. With over 28 years of experience in her field, Leah brings a unique perspective on the mindsets and skillset that are critical to leadership success to her coaching and consulting. Her clients benefit from her collaborative approach to crafting a well-connected and thoughtful leadership development strategy. Leah holds a Master of Arts; Organizational Psychology, Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts; English and Sociology, Boston College.

Our recent leadership research revealed that leaders of leaders need less in order to do more. At first glance, this stated desire for fewer priorities could look like a desire to shirk responsibilities. What it really signals is that leaders want to be more effective in their role through greater depth of focus. Today’s leaders of leaders face myriad challenges to remain agile in an ever-changing market. Being responsive to shifts can lead to increased priorities for these leaders, though not necessarily the ability to achieve greater impact.

What is the result of too many priorities? The dilution of focus. When there is a never-ceasing stream of reactionary to-dos, genuine strategic forward momentum is sacrificed. For leaders of leaders in particular, this is critical, as they are responsible for driving strategy throughout the organization. When a leader has fewer priorities, they are able to go deeper in solving the root of the problem. Having fewer priorities allows leaders to not just solve the problem at hand, but also identify a solution for the problem beneath the problem.

Anyone who has ever tackled a difficult project knows it gets much, much more difficult before finding a way through. Being able to go deep with a particular challenge can lead to finding the many otherwise unidentified connections within the system so that the final solution is a genuine solution, rather than a Band-Aid in the moment.

To successfully achieve a priority, focused attention is needed. People have a finite amount of mental energy for the day. In the same way that a person needs both physical activity and rest to have a healthy, high-functioning body, their mind needs times of focused attention as well as rest for peak performance. Having too many priorities means each priority receives significantly less attention, resulting in less-effective solutions and potentially fewer solutions overall, not to mention the overall negative effects that too many priorities can have on a leader’s well-being. The stress of too many priorities and the frustration associated with the unlikelihood that all priorities can be achieved (resulting in a lack of real impact) take their toll.

We’ve heard from leaders of leaders that they need fewer priorities in order to be successful. The more organizations push for this less-is-more approach, the more substance they will get from their leaders of leaders. But what do leaders do if they have a list of priorities that exceeds realistic expectations?

Communicate – Leaders should clearly communicate why fewer priorities would allow them to accomplish more. When communicating up in an organization, it is always recommended to come in with a proposal for how to solve the problem that was identified, so leaders should be ready to name which priorities they think should be focused on and why.

Leaders shouldn’t just communicate up though; they should communicate the need across and down in the organization, clearly letting people know what they are trying to solve for in a particular priority. Leaders might not know who might have the insight, experience, or reference needed, so they shouldn’t be afraid to engage others who may not seem like possible candidates to help.

Prioritize – A leader should choose one to two priorities they will dedicate the most time to. They should ask themselves whether there are any that can be set aside completely for the time being. Then they should put planning into motion. It is recommended they carve at least a half hour per week for the simple task of planning out their strategy for making progress on that priority. They should ask themselves what steps to take, who to reach out to, and when. Then they should block time on their calendar to complete those items so they don’t get swept away in the rush of the week. If leaders don’t regularly dedicate time for planning, they may feel unproductive at first. But it directly creates the opportunity to be strategic.

Engage Their Community – Leaders don’t have to achieve their priorities in a silo. They should enlist someone on their team for the smaller priorities: It can lead to a growth and development opportunity for them. Leaders should ask themselves whether there are there any priorities that can be delegated to someone on the team to take on the deep-thinking part of the work so they can create that time for themselves on something with higher stakes? Leaders should connect with those that can give them access to the influencers and decision-makers that need to be involved in order for the final solution to be a successful one.

Many organizations have found themselves reorienting to a do-more-with-less approach in order to remain customer focused and financially strong. This same approach can unleash the potential for genuine, strategic impact for leaders of leaders when applied to their list of priorities.

About the Authors

Christin Rice

Christin Rice is a Leadership Development Consultant at BlessingWhite where she works with clients across industries to design, create, and implement learning solutions. She is the product manager for The Outthinker Process, an innovative and strategic thinking workshop based on the research of Dr. Kaihan Krippendorff.

Last week I had an opportunity to consult with a colleague on an e-learning solution for a life sciences company. The company is implementing HCM software—a classic implementation challenge involving  a wide range of users and job tasks. Most users will be doing simple employee self-service tasks. Others have slightly more complex personnel administration tasks, and a very small number will be using complex HR functionality. As we were discussing options, one of our big questions was whether it made sense for us to include software simulations in the learning solution.

As we spoke, it occurred to me that there really is a sweet spot for learning simulations—a middle range of tasks that are not too hard and not too easy. For very simple tasks, employees do not need to actually do the transactions to be able to learn enough to try the tasks online. In these cases, a job aid or a quick video does the trick. Asking them to do a system simulation might be overkill and simply frustrate them, leaving them wondering, That’s it? Why did you waste my time doing this simulation?

Meanwhile, for truly complex tasks, simulations cannot easily capture the steps and decision points needed to understand a transaction. Even if the steps could be captured in a simplified simulation, I believe that this would not adequately prepare learners to perform the task back on the job. The first time they were thrown into the transaction, they would encounter complexities that were never shown in the simulation.

Then there is the sweet spot—the tasks that are more than just a few simple steps but not full of complex decision points. These tasks follow a standard path; learners can get a good sense of the transaction by completing a simulation. And, of course, there are the infrequent tasks; learners can benefit by running through the steps to refresh their memory before they complete the task in the system.

Understanding just where the simulation sweet spot is for the functionality you are implementing can go a long way toward building an e-learning solution that resonates with your end users. And as an added bonus, identifying the sweet spot allows you to target your budget toward the most effective solution for each audience. Not every job task needs a simulation—look for the sweet spot and you will achieve better results, save time, and save money.

About the Authors

Linda Lamppert

Linda Lamppert has worked for over twenty-five years in the field of human performance technology helping clients improve the overall performance of their organizations and employees. In addition to a strong background in instructional systems design, she has over twenty years of experience designing and delivering solutions for companies implementing traditional ERP and cloud-based systems. Linda’s solutions typically include blended learning approaches, training and systems documentation, online performance support, documentation of policies and procedures, business process reengineering, and change management. Most recently, she has been focusing on the people-related challenges associated with global process and system transformations as well as integration of mobile and micro learning strategies to streamline platform adoption.

“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause, … to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight.” —Rollo May

Knowing what words to use in any given situation is a common element of leadership, but the greatest leaders understand that greater power resides in the space between words. To pause means to suspend activity, whether in thought, speech, or actions, for a temporary amount of time. Pausing can help provide leaders clarity and freedom for discernment and deliberate reflection to evaluate their next course of action.

Mastering the art of the pause can be daunting but eminently possible. Leaders experience the following three situations that can provide an opportunity for them to practice pausing:

Coaching or Mentoring

Coaching and mentoring allow leaders the vastly influential ability to equip others with the skills to become leaders. When guiding mentees on their journeys, allow them opportunities to make the necessary mental connections and process their own thinking. Constantly giving answers makes them passive acceptors of any discoveries. Creating a pause before jumping in with solutions encourages employees to become active discoverers. The intellectual reward of self-discovery has permanent, positive, long-term effects.

Situational Conflict

Leaders frequently deal with emotionally charged situations. Those can be made more challenging if the leader is also emotionally invested in the situation, courting bias and even danger. Once the brain perceives danger, the hypothalamus sends a signal to release adrenaline and cortisol into the bloodstream, overshadowing logic with a visceral fight-or-flight reaction. When handling emotion, leaders should allow a pause to create a space between themselves and the situation, which shifts energy from adrenaline-infused emotion to logical-based reason. Let the momentary pause become a bridge of breath before lurching back into the situation. Build the bridge with reflection, consideration, and perspective, making choices that will not be doubted later.

If you can breathe calm, you can stay calm.

Self-Reflection

Leaders have ample opportunities for concentration and deliberation, but many of them neglect to turn inward as self-reflection. Leaders need the chance to evaluate their own performance, to create self-awareness and to order their priorities if they are expected to guide their team to do the same. Successful leadership begins with knowing clearly what is being done and why. Leaders must ensure their actions and priorities are aligned and consistent in order to remain a figure of logical responsible authority. All leaders should pause to check in with themselves. A self-reflective pause can be completed in just a few minutes a day. The trick is finding value from the inward pause, not from how long the pause takes.

The following five example questions may aid in self-reflection:

• If I had the day to do over, what would I have done differently?
• What will I do differently tomorrow than I did today?
• What emotions arose today and why?
• What did I do today to further the success of those I lead?
• What was unclear or ambiguous today? Where am I struggling to make sense of the situation?

The haste at which we operate is in a constant state of progression. Faster. Quicker. Better. But as the world around us forges ahead, we owe it to ourselves, our businesses, and our teams to pause. Pausing gives us the opportunity to slow down to connect, reflect, ask, and understand, enabling us to be better leaders. It may seem we do not have time to pause, but when the rewards of doing so are positive and bountiful, time for pausing can always be found.

About the Authors

Keith Keating

With a career spanning over 20 years in learning & development, Keith Keating holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership and has experience in a myriad of areas ranging from Instructional Design, Leadership Coaching, Operations Management, and Process Transformation. More recently Keith has been leading clients on the development and execution of their global learning strategies. Regardless of the role, at the heart of everything Keith does centers around problem solving. He studied Design Thinking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and found Design Thinking was a perfect tool to add to his problem solving "toolkit". Since then, Keith has been utilizing Design Thinking to help clients tap into understanding and resolving unmet customer needs.

As we approach the end of 2018, many of you are probably planning business transformations for the New Year. However, the loftier the goals, the more care needs to be given to the process in achieving them. Here are five tips for reaching your change management initiative goals in 2019:

• Expect the unexpected. Remember that a major organizational change is not an overnight process. There will be hiccups along the way, software glitches, and perhaps even resistance from your user base. It is important to build time into your change management checklist for training, testing, and communications. If you were changing the paint color of your home, you would want the painters to take their time and make sure that every nook and cranny is covered with a fresh coat of paint. The same principle applies to change within an organization; take your time, be patient, and be flexible. Sustainable change is more important than fast change.
• Have a clear vision of your change’s intended result. It is important for leadership to be in alignment on the end goal of your change initiative. Chefs and management at a restaurant don’t just buy a bunch of groceries and start making whatever they can with the ingredients they had purchased; they know exactly how much of which products to buy to complete the items on the menu. They also have an intended dining experience. They tell their staff what the evening specials are and which items pair well together. They have lighting and sound levels that are appropriate for the experience they are trying to convey. Likewise, your organization may have purchased some fancy new tools, but without a clearly defined vision of what you’re serving at the banquet, it’s likely that many will go hungry or be dissatisfied.
• Prioritize communications. When change occurs, it is important for everyone within the organization to be aware of what changes are taking place and how staff may be affected. It is also important to update the workforce on the status and timeline of the change initiative as well as any delays that may occur. Effective and frequent communications can also mitigate resistance and help build trust.
• Remember that change does not end at go-live. You may have implemented your solution, but until your organization is fully adjusted to your new processes and tools, your change will not be sustainable. Implement communities of practice, super-user networks, performance support tools, and end-user training solutions that can ensure successful, sustainable change.
• Celebrate and recognize successes. Both team and individual successes can and should be recognized to help build momentum and raise morale. Change isn’t easy, so when milestones and victories are achieved, a pat on the back is just good policy.

As always, GP Strategies is here to assist you in all your change endeavors. Please feel free to contact us about your change initiative and we will connect you with a business transformation specialist.

About the Authors

Derek Levandowski

Derek Levandowski is a Field Marketing Specialist with GP Strategies, focused on Technology Adoption and Human Capital Management Services. He joined the GP Strategies team in February 2017 after three years with Maverick Solutions, a Division of GP Strategies. A New York native, he currently resides in Wake Forest, North Carolina with his wife Melissa.