Learning: The Magic of Making Training FUN

We talked about the three C's in the last blog. Brands must deliver. I have enjoyed travelling Emirates Airlines in the past but today was a nightmare. Growth creates challenges. You cut corners. I guess that's what happened today. The crew forgot to serve me lunch for 4 hours. No regrets, no apologies. Can you believe it it was the first time in my life I was served a quarter cup of mango juice with the promise she will return. She did not till I asked her two hours later. Yet, she did not say sorry. Pretty cabin crew but does that help deliver the brand. I doubt they understood the vision and mission of the airline or they were engaged. All that they told me in excuse was the new 777 Boeing aircraft was too big 340 passengers and “boy, it was full.’ They regret the flight was full. Lucky I had biscuits with me to ensure I did not die of starvation. Even if I had I do not think the crew would have minded that. They were just least bothered. Service recovery was even worse - I...

Three Objectives Let us review what performance management is designed to do.  The principle of such a business process has three objectives:  Performance Planning & Alignment: First, to develop and align goals that is essential to implement business strategy. This must link with the organizational structure and positions. The creation of a position is not without a reason. Organizational structure is nothing but a series of relationships/positions designed to successfully implement strategy. Second, to create consistent goals which align employees with managers and business units and align these goals with the organization’s overall priorities?  These goals also help employees themselves stay focused. Coaching and development:   This process enables a structured process where managers are able to provide coaching and development. This can be supported by Learning & Development organization, leadership development, and other organizational developmental processes i...

Performance Appraisals do not work. That seems to be the conclusion of many authors including Deming and Drucker. They have proposed various alternatives around the concept to make it work. During the last few years, we have studied the utilization of the various performance management programmes used by organizations and the software programmes available. There is little doubt that organizations struggle to implement a precise process which will best reflect their organization’s goals, culture, and desired management style. Most organizations have difficulty with the performance management programme or the software. This leads to organizations designing a process around the system features and capabilities. The rapid growth of performance management off the shelf software is creating quite a bit of difficulty for organizations. Research organizations studying HR systems believe a major shift is taking place. While enterprise systems are being gradually edged out because of the ava...

What got you here won't get you there The motives behind people's self interest usually can be narrowed down to four items: 1. Money 2. Power 3. Status 4. Popularity Marshall Goldsmith says that people will not resist change if we invoke the natural law i.e touch their hot button - their self interest.

It is quite a while since I posted the last blog. I have been travelling through to four countries. While navigating through the cold weather of Chicago, I found two motivating incidents: 1. The momentum of Barack Obama in the US elections was staggering; he is very likely to be the next president of the United States of America. 2. He seemed to sell the idea that“The best performance improvement is the transition from the non-working state to the working state.” There is certainly a lot of excitement in the air and as Senator Ted Kennedy said " I feel change is in the air."

Appraisals get done by now for most organisations. The question now is how to translate these performance objectives into reality. Until now many organisations have focused on looking at historical performance management methods. If we drive looking at the rear mirror, we are very likely to crash. With plans in place, there is a need to look forward resulting in forward looking performance management. Anthony Politan says you can integrate what if scenarios with traditional budgeting and planning systems to change faster than industry norms and acquire a competitive advantage, Such an approach he says takes performance management to the next level. Visit this webpage to get to know more about taking performance management tot he enxt level. http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/articles_taking_performance_management_next_level.html

Annual Performance Appraisals have always had mixed reviews. Managers do not like it because of the time consuming process and employees do not like it because of its perceived unfairness. The entire exercise loses the original intention of improving employee learning and performance and becomes a dreaded process. In a survey by New York based On Point Consulting, only slightly over 40% of line managers and HR Managers think there is value in a performance management process. While the tool by itself might be useful, the prevailing culture in an organisation is critical for its success. One way to improve is not to just do the annual appraisal but schedule quarterly meetings to discuss performance and make the meeting a feedback event. This requires managers to be coached. A successful performance management system should - 1. Help employees build their skills and competencies 2. Is consistently applied across the organisation 3. Uses a rating scale that enables differentiation of perf...