Wat als talent ontwikkelen een makkie was ?

Gisteren vond de VOV beurs 2013 plaats. Zoals altijd is dit een evenement waar heel wat sprekers interessante lezingen geven en waar aanbod en vraagzijde uit learning & development elkaar ontmoeten.

Eén van de interessantste sessies die ik bijwoonde werd gebracht door Greet Van Hecke en Valerie Jacqmain van Ticka. Ik deel graag de inzichten die ik daar hoorde via deze blog.

Multipliers en diminishers
aansluitend bij het boek van Liz Wiseman (the multiplier - how great managers make everybody smarter) maakten zij het onderscheid tussen multipliers en diminishers in leidinggevenden.

Een multiplier is een leidinggevende die aan zijn medewerkers aandacht geeft, maar hen wel verantwoordelijk maakt voor wat ze doen. Hij oefent dus een gezonde druk uit en brengt hierdoor medewerkers in hun stretch zone, van waaruit talenten sneller ontwikkelen. Een multiplier wordt getypeerd door volgende kenmerken :

• trekt talent aan en gaat dit verder optimaliseren
• zorgt voor een goede werkomgeving die het denken stimuleert
• dagen medewerkers uit door hen in de stretchzone te zetten (ipv in comfort zone te houden)
• ze bouwen communities doorheen de organisatie
• geven medewerkers eigenaarschap van hun resultaat en investeert in hun successen. 

De diminisher staat hier lijnrecht tegenover. 

Mijn bedenkingen hierbij :

Ik merk vaak dat leidinggevenden een soort angst hebben om druk uit te oefenen op medewerkers. Het is als het ware dat ze schrik hebben de medewerker te bruskeren als ze hem in de stretch zone duwen. Nochtans toont heel wat onderzoek aan dat medewerkers dit juist als motiverend ervaren, mits ze de juiste ondersteuning en middelen krijgen in een voldoende veilige (leer)omgeving. 

Managers kunnen volgens mij dus zeker de motivatie verhogen door meer de kaart te trekken van multiplier. Uiteraard zal de aanpak naar medewerkers afhankelijk zijn van de maturiteit van de medewerker en van de situatie. Ervaring leert me immers dat het belangrijk is om medewerkers eerst een gezonde basis aan te reiken en hen dan (zo snel mogelijk) op een coachende manier uit te dagen om de lat telkens hoger te leggen. 

De term multiplier was nieuw voor me, maar het heeft me alvast getriggerd om er meer over te leren. 

to be continued… en alvast bedankt aan Greet en Valerie om dit te delen. 

6 Tip om toppresentaties te geven

Voor veel mensen blijft presenteren een akelige gebeurtenis. Zenuwen, klamme handen, droge keel, black-out, … het zijn maar enkele symptomen waar menigeen presentator de nacht voordien van wakker ligt.

Voordat ik jullie enkele concrete tips geef, toch even een blik op de vraag "Waarom geven we presentaties ?"

Er zijn 3 redenen om een presentatie te geven. Je wil dat je publiek

1. iets gaat doen
2. iets gaat laten
3. iets nooit meer vergeten

Dit lijkt kort door de bocht, maar als je erover nadenkt klopt dit als een bus. Alle overige presentaties zijn tijdverdrijf. Omdat je dus een sterke impact wil hebben naar je publiek, is het belangrijk om je boodschap met de nodige punch te geven. Hieronder enkele gouden tips.

Tip 1 : Connect : Trek de aandacht van je publiek en laat het niet meer los
Het menselijk brein kent een aantal beperkingen. 1 ervan is het feit dat we snel zijn afgeleid. Als je een presentatie geeft is het dan ook belangrijk dat je meteen de aandacht van je publiek trekt en erover waakt dat je dit vasthoudt. In technische termen wordt dit "connecteren" genoemd. Je kan een connect maken met je publiek door bijvoorbeeld te starten met een duidelijke vraagstelling die voor veel mensen herkenbaar is en het onderwerp dat je wil aansnijden meteen in het middelpunt van de aandacht zet. vb als je een presentatie geeft over leiderschap start je met "Wie heeft er een medewerker waar hij al wel 100 keer dezelfde uitleg aan heeft moeten geven, en nog steeds snapt de persoon het niet?" Je zal meteen een aantal knikkende gezichten zien en opent zelfs de mogelijkheid dat men hierop antwoordt.
Indien je een langere presentatie geeft, kan je deze techniek regelmatig herhalen. Telkens je een connect maakt, scherp je de aandacht van de deelnemers bij en zorg je dat jij uitzendtijd krijgt bij hen.

Tip 2 : Start sterk
Je krijgt nooit een tweede kans om een eerste indruk te maken. Ook in presentaties klopt dit. Zorg er dus voor dat je meteen goed van wal steekt. Humor bij het begin van een presentatie scherpt de geest aan. Mensen onthouden immers beter als ze plezier hebben.
Maak je publiek nieuwsgierig door een tipje van de sluier te lichten van wat je gaat vertellen. "straks hierover meer…"
Paul Jambers was ook een kei in presenteren. Elke aflevering van het spraakmakende programma Jambers startte hij met "… (onderwerp van de uitzending), wie zijn ze, wat doen ze, wat drijft hen?" Door deze eenvoudige vraagstelling trekt hij de aandacht en weet je meteen wat er gaat volgen.

Al deze technieken zorgen dat je publiek niet achteroverleunt op z'n stoel, maar brengt hen naar het puntje van hun stoel. Je maakt hen immers nieuwsgierig naar wat komen gaat.

Tip 3 : Geef structuur aan je presentatie
Mensen houden van een logische opbouw. Start met het geven van de structuur (waar je nadien regelmatig naar teruggrijpt) en ga dan steeds in op één of meerder details. Door steeds terug te grijpen naar de structuur, blijven deelnemers het overzicht behouden en houd je hen vast tot aan de bestemming van je presentatie.

Tip 4 : Geef presentaties met SUCCES
In hun wereldwijde bestseller "Made to stick" gebruiken Dan en Chip Heath het woord "SUCCES" als acroniem om je presentaties kracht te geven.

• Simple : houd je verhaal eenvoudig. Geen oeverloze details en 24 bulletpoints die niemand kan onthouden, maar een eenvoudige logische opbouw en verhaallijn.
• Unexpected : verras je publiek door onverwacht uit de hoek te komen. 
• Credible : werk aan je geloofwaardigheid. Dit kan je doen door bij je intro te vertellen hoe lang je reeds rond een bepaald onderwerp werkt en welke ervaringen je hierin hebt. 
• Concrete : je publiek houdt van praktische tips en tricks waarmee ze meteen aan de slag kunnen gaan. Hoe concreter je verhaal hoe beter het blijft plakken.
• Emotions : emoties zijn vaak sterker dan droge feiten. Emoties wekken de ziel van je publiek los en maken reacties los. Door je verhaal uit je hart (emo) te vertellen, neem je je publiek sneller mee.
• Story : door anekdotes toe te voegen aan je verhaal, toon je ook dat je de zaken die je vertelt zelf hebt meegemaakt. Anekdotes hoef je trouwens ook niet voor te bereiden en af te lezen. Je weet immers beter dan eender wie wat je hebt meegemaakt. Let alleen op dat je hier niet oeverloos gaat uitweiden en blijf bij de kern van je verhaal. 

Tip 5 : Zorg dat je boodschap blijft hangen
Als je aan het einde van je presentatie komt, is het sterk om nog eens bondig samen te vatten wat je wil dat je publiek

• gaat doen
• gaat laten
• nooit meer vergeet

of had ik deze 3 punten al eens gezegd ? :-) 

In zijn kookprogramma waar hij mensen aan huis helpt te koken eindigt Piet Huysentruyt steevast met de inmiddels beroemde zin "En wat hebben we geleerd vandaag ? Ten eerste… ten tweede… ten derde…"

Door dit einde laat hij zijn publiek zelf herhalen wat ze geleerd hebben en vat hij de aflevering nog eens bondig samen. Een gegarandeerd succes.

Tip 6 : Deel nooit het podium met iets dat meer licht geeft dan jezelf
Powerpoint is een fantastisch instrument … maar je mag het nooit misbruiken. Ik ga hier niet over uitweiden, maar nodig u uit om het fantastische filmpje "Life after death by powerpoint" zelf te bezichtigen.

Stoelen aan de kant - Informeel leren stimuleren

Vorige week begeleidde ik een interessante intervisie groep waar we werkten rond het thema informeel leren. Informeel leren neemt een steeds belangrijkere plaats in het organisatieleren in, maar omdat het net informeel gebeurt, is het voor veel mensen moeilijk om er vat op te krijgen. Uiteraard reist hierbij de vraag of we überhaupt vat moeten krijgen op informeel leren.

Wat is informeel leren ?
Informeel leren zijn leervormen die vaak spontaan ontstaan en los staan van het traditionele klaslokaal. Vaak ontstaan ze vanuit een concrete nood, waarbij men op zoek is naar praktische antwoorden die gemakkelijk geïmplementeerd kunnen worden. Enkele voorbeelden zijn individuele coaching, peterschap, training on-the-job, … Doordat er een directe link is met de praktijk is het leereffect vaak hoog bij deze leervorm op voorwaarde dat men tijdig terugblikt op "wat leer ik uit deze situatie?".

In onze discussie kwamen enkele interessante zaken naar voor die ik graag met u deel.

Hoe stimuleren we informeel leren in organisaties ?

• Social media : Als we over informeel leren praten is het nog altijd verbazingwekkend hoeveel bedrijven medewerkers trachten af te schermen van social media. Met elke smartphone kan je op facebook, linkedin, twitter, skype, … maar met je bedrijfs-PC mag dit niet hoor. Door de toegang tot deze social media te verbieden, ontzeggen deze bedrijven medewerkers een gigantische bron aan informatie en een sterk netwerk naar andere professionals. Ik ben volledig akkoord om een aantal afspraken te maken over het gebruik van deze tools, maar toegang is absoluut een vereiste voor de professional van de 21ste eeuw.
• Cases : in plaats van nog eens een meeting te organiseren loont het de moeite om praktijkcases te laten delen tussen medewerkers en hierover een discussie te openen. Door deze actieve kennisdeling van praktijkervaring, ontstaat er meteen een hoog leereffect en staat heel de organisatie even stil bij wat men kan leren uit gebeurtenissen en ervaringen. Dit kan trouwens perfect via lunchsessies, infokiosks, …
• Mentors : mentors zijn ervaren medewerkers die een expertise hebben opgebouwd rond een bepaald onderwerp en tijd krijgen om deze kennis over te dragen naar andere medewerkers. Door mentors tijd en erkenning te geven voor deze rol, borg je het expertise in je organisatie en maak je meer mensen competent.
• Succesverhalen rondbazuinen : elke organisatie kent zijn succesverhalen, maar soms vergeet men deze met de ganse organisatie te delen. Gebruik interne magazines, intranet, vergaderingen, … Hierdoor sla je meteen 2 vliegen in één klap : enerzijds motiveer je medewerkers door hen te erkennen voor de geleverde successen. Anderzijds zorg je dat andere teams kennis en ervaring opdoen die leidde tot dit succes, waardoor ook zei hieruit kunnen leren. 

Hoe kan je informeel leren toch structureren ? 

OK, voor sommigen zal de bovenstaande zin als een tang op een varken zijn. Immers, zodra we informeel leren structureren, maken we het formeel. Ik ben het hier niet 100% met eens. Omdat er nog steeds zulk een waas bestaat over het informeel leren, maar we zien er wel de voordelen van, loont het de moeite om informeel leren toch meer naar voor te schuiven. 

Hieronder vind je enkele praktische tips om het informeel leren meer op de voorgrond te brengen :

• Neem een aantal informele leervormen op in het opleidingsaanbod van je organisatie, maar vermeld hierbij duidelijk wat de voordelen zijn van deze leervorm en wat men mag verwachten. (vb intervisie, case-besprekingen zoals hierboven vermeld, …)
• vermeld een aantal informele leervormen in het persoonlijk opleidingsplan (POP) van medewerkers en koppel het aan functioneringsgesprekken en evaluaties.
• Vervat informeel leren in het kwaliteitsbeleid van je organisatie om van hieruit innovatie en kennisdeling te sturen.
• organiseer een interne kennisbeurs in je organisatie waar diensten nieuwe innovaties toelichten, producten, methoden, best practicus, … 
• Gebruik intervisie als leervorm 
• Zorg dat kennisdeling een onderdeel vormt van iedereen zijn takenpakket. Dit kan je oa doen door kennisdeling op te nemen in de functieomschrijving, of er een bedrijfswaarde van te maken.

Zoals je ziet zijn er talrijke mogelijkheden om met weinig budget toch heel praktisch aan de slag te gaan met informeel leren en op die manier je organisatie slagvaardiger maken.

Meer tips kan je sturen naar pim@d-comma.com

Veel succes. 

De juiste witte raaf vinden

Rekruteren is niet eenvoudig en soms wordt rekruteren quasi onmogelijk gemaakt. Als je een intake doet met een lijnmanager lijkt het soms dat hij de witte raaf, met 3 poten en 4 vleugels zoekt.

• de kandidaat moet 30 jaar zijn, want jonger hebben ze te weinig ervaring
• daarenboven mag hij niet ouder zijn dan 45, want ouder zijn ze uitgeblust
• daarenboven mag hij geen kinderen hebben, want daardoor wordt hij minder flexibel
• daarenboven moet hij uit de sector komen
• daarenboven moet hij het juiste diploma hebben
• daarenboven moet het een … (geslacht) zijn
• daarenboven moet hij 12 talen spreken, want onze klanten vinden dat belangrijk
• en tot slot moet hij uit de streek komen, want met dat verkeer tegenwoordig…

dit lijkt een absurd lijstje, maar is nog té vaak realiteit, waardoor we de potentiële kandidaten beperken tot hooguit 2 of 3 mensen in heel België. In rekrutering is er echter één belangrijk gezegde

HIRE FOR ATTITUDE, TRAIN FOR SKILLS

Het loont de moeite om te geloven in het potentieel van mensen en als ze eenmaal aan boord zijn hen optimaal te begeleiden. De mooiste diamanten waren eerst een ruwe steen. Maar dit vraagt uiteraard een investering van tijd en effort, maar naar mijn mening loont dit zeker de moeite. 

Wat als ... alle superhelden in je organisatie zouden samenwerken

Veel organisaties hebben reeds de weg gekozen van competentie- en talentmanagement. Hierbij ontwikkelen ze vaak intensieve programma's om medewerkers te ondersteunen om competenties te ontwikkelen en op zoek te gaan naar passies, talenten, motivatoren,

De beste medewerkers (uw superhelden) namen elke opportuniteit om te leren vast  en zijn aan de slag gegaan om betere resultaten te behalen. ... en toch merken ze vaak dat er nog iets ontbreekt om de competitie te winnen.

Elke superheld werkt in team. Superman heeft Lois Lane, Batman heeft Robin, Catwoman en de trouwe butler Alfred Pennyworth... en zo kunnen we nog een tijdje doorgaan.

Wat als al uw getalenteerde, competente superhelden zouden samenwerken ?

• er zou meer innovatie zijn door de kennisdeling en gebundelde krachten
• processen zouden over afdelingen heen gestroomlijnd lopen
• kwaliteit van producten en diensten zou hoger liggen
• er zouden minder conflicten en absenteïsme zijn en motivatie zou hoger zijn. 
• onnodige kosten ten gevolge van slechte communicatie zouden vermeden worden
• u zou de concurrentie zeker voor kunnen blijven

en uw klant... die zou een fantastische, efficiënte leverancier zien van diensten of producten en zou telkens opnieuw voor u kiezen, want u levert snel, goedkoper en kwalitatiever dan uw concurrenten. 

Samenwerking is de sleutel om meer slagkracht te verwerven en uw groei te bevorderen. 

Wilt u meer weten over "De kracht van samenwerking" ? Schrijf u dan nu in voor ons avondseminarie op 19 december via www.deknappekoppen.be

Switching languages

Dear blog-readers. Over the last months there was a radio silence on my blog. Almost no articles were published and now I have sad news (for some). I will switch languages of my blog and from now on 90% of the articles will be in Dutch, since most of my customers are native Dutch speaking.

Thank you for being a loyal audience.

kind regards

Pim Vandijck

Change or (r)Evolution ?

Every day I hear people in organizations talk about Change. We have change managers, change agents, change programs, ... it seems like there is nothing else but change. And we all know, change is often associated with rather negative feelings, like shock, denial, frustration, depression, stress, anger, ... (check Kubler Ross curve to find more out about it). SInce organizations are always changing changing changing, employees always go through these emotions, which impacts their productivity.

Evolutions and Revolutions (the only difference between these two is that revolution are more enthousiast evolutions) are associated with emotions like hope. Hope for a new future, hope for a better life, hope for progress, ...

So next time you'd better start a revolution instead of yet another change program. Just be aware, revolutions require bigger commitment and engagement from everyone and that is why they last longer than any change program.

PS. Start by switching your jobtitle from Change Manager into Evolution Manager and behave upon it

Out most important skills for the future

Every year, around September, millions of children go back to school. They learn about math, how to read, history, geography, art, ... Luckily most children are eager to learn and absorbe what inspiring teachers tell them. But I believe this doesn't prepare them for the future. They need more.

Fact 1 : The amount of new technical information doubles every 2 year. This means for student starting a 4 year technical or college degree that half of what they learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.

Fact 2 : Simon Sinek states that technology is great. We can find tons of information on the internet, but, ... we learn most when we meet people. The personal contact between 2 people creates more trust between those people and more easily open ups our mind to learn from each other. The best online communities of practice, meet regularly in person, because this improves the connectivity between the people in the community.

These 2 facts bring me to the most important skills we should help our kids to develop :

• How to keep up-dated and constantly learn
• Connect with others IN PERSON

But, hey wait a minute... should we learn our kids to develop these skills, or should we encourage them to maintain these abilities, because as a father, I see every day that children already have these abilities, but they loose it sometimes on their way to certified wisdom (= college degree). 

Isn't every kid curious to discover ? And isn't every kid able to make contact with another kid when they are on the same playground ? Yes they are. 

It is clear we'll have to keep learning all life long. So you'de better stay curious and eager to learn and get connected to interesting people you meet on your journey of life. This is to me the key to life of over growing wisdom. 

How to develop new employees step by step - free workbook

Too often I've seen new employees getting lost in the new organization. They were not properly introduced and didn't clearly knew what their manager expected from them.

The results of this unprofessional approach are
- loss of motivation
- good people leaving your company soon after they got hired
- loss of efficiency and money
- bad reputation on the market

To support you in shaping a well structured training plan for your new hires, I wrote this practical workbook that guides you step by step through the process to develop a solid trianing plan for your new hire.

Discover your free download of this workbook on www.d-comma.com

- English version : click here
- Dutch version : click here

For more information on this topic, don't hesitate to contact me on pim@d-comma.com

10 Tips to be a successful professional

Many smart people have written books on how to be a successful professional. Some of these books give us great insights, others can be used to fire up the stove. 

Based on my personal observations and literature study I would like to share my best tips with you :

1. When people nag all day about their job, they have 2 possibilities : Do something about it and take action, or stop nagging. Keeping on nagging about it and not taking any action, will not improve the situation !
2. Stop looking for excuses outside your own circle of influence. The greatest opportunities to improve your satisfaction are inside your circle of influence. (or with the words of Michael Jackson : "I'm starting with the man in the mirror to create change")
3. When things go wrong you can react in 2 different ways : You can start looking for someone to blame (= digging & living in the past) or you can use this situation to learn from it and avoid making the same mistake twice (= shaping a better future). I don't know what you prefer, but I definitely prefer to shape a future. I'm not an archeologist.
4. 99% of the people in organizations have good intentions. Perhaps they need better guidance to turn these intentions into results. The remaining 1% shouldn't have been hired.
5. If you are a manager, dare to take decisions. Employees hate it when managers don't dare to take decisions. Not daring to take decisions is like a yellow light ; should I brake or should I dare to speed up ? Employees don't like the uncertainty.
6. There is huge potential in your team. Delegate, coach, support and you'll discover talents you've never expected. 
7. Motivation starts within yourself. If you don't know how to motivate yourself, then don't expect anybody else to motivate you. Decide and discover what you want to do.
8. Put yourself constantly in your stretch zone. By doing so, you will force yourself to grow every day. Don't overstretch. You have plenty of time to grow and nobody will blame you if you are not a CEO of a multinational at the age of 27. 
9. Give constructive feedback to people and be open to receive feedback. Feedback is breakfast for champions. 
10. Surround yourself with people you can learn from. They will make you smarter as well. 

Maybe you don't agree on the above mentioned tips. I just want to share them with you and I can tell you they worked for me. 

But never forget : If it is to be, it is up to me !

What is your excuse for not being brave ?

I woke up early this morning and enjoyed the silence of our home to read a book by Seth Godin. There was one particular paragraph that struck me :

If it would be easy or normal to be brave, then everybody would be brave. 

When things go wrong, everybody has a gigantic list of excuses. And by using these excuses we say "It was impossible to be brave". My point is that we should STOP RIGHT NOW inventing excuses in advance in case things go wrong. We should SHOW BRAVENESS, BEFORE THINGS GO WRONG !

(free translation from Seth Godin's Linchpin - dutch version)

He is soooooo right. Sometimes I get a feeling certain managers have a huge talent at inventing all of these excuses and blaming others. But not only managers. People in general. And by writing this down, it reminds me of the difference between managers and leaders. 

Managers try to control things, and when things go wrong, they do damage control.

Leaders show braveness. They dare. They challenge life and they don't settle for mediocrity. They believe in what they do, take the blame on them when things go wrong and learn from their mistakes. 

People prefer leaders above managers, because they push us forward, instead of pulling us backwards. 

My question to you : What is your choice ? Do you manage your life, or do you lead your life ?

Live your life !

How do you look at life ? Are you an optimist ? Do you see and grab the opportunities in life ? Or do you rather prefer to complain and focus on problems ?

In 2009 a group of 3 people started a project (Holstee Manifesto). They made a clear statement and urge everybody to have more focus on opportunities and enjoy life. The message is extremely strong and puts a lot of responsibility with YOU ! Don't blame anybody if things don't go the way you want them to be. It might take some courage and it might scare the hell out of you, but in the end you'll realize you had a great life. You didn't stay in a job you never liked. You didn't invest too much time on people you don't want to hang around with. You didn't spend most of your evenings watching TV.

No, you stood up and enjoyed life. So my message to you, get up and do something with your life.

Watch this movie

Print this poster and put it on the wall of your office.

It is your life, so enjoy it !

Improve the desire to learn with low qualified workers (research + case study)

Last Thursday I organized with VOV and HUB a conference on how to create a learning climate where people are more eager to learn. We had a special focus on some specific target groups like elder employees and low qualified workers.

In this blogpost I will share a best practice and a PhD Study on how to make low qualified employees more eager to learn. The best practice was presented by Peter Tavernier (Colruyt group) and the Study was done by Dr Eva Kyndt (University Leuven and University Antwerp). I will add some of my personal insights on the topic as well.

What are low qualified workers ?
Low qualified workers are people without any higher education. They often quit school at the age of 18 with or without any degree. Since many of these people struggled hard in highschool they are not always very eager to learn. They often developed a low self-esteem, because they were confronted by remarks like "that is too difficult for you", "you will never be able to learn this", ... When I'm working with these groups often they start turning around on their seats after half an hour, because they are simply not used to sit down in a classroom, they want action.

Despite all this, many of these people have enough potential in them to become a good professional, if they receive the right support and if the organization uses the right approach.

After all, organizations have all interest to invest in the development of this group of employees as well so they acquire the necessary technical skills, safety skills and perhaps over time even people management skills.

What does research tell us ?
Low qualified workers often don't have any experiences in discussing their personal strengths. Too often their surroundings always focused on their weaknesses instead of the opposite. Because of this, they have a low self esteem as learners and there is few or no learning intention.

The research of dr Eva Kyndt indicated a number of success factors to improve the learning intentions of this group :

1. the way we look at this group - believe in their potential
2. put learning as fast as possible into action - action oriented learning
3. give people autonomy to shape their professional ambition and their learning and support them on these ambitions
4. open the learning techniques, there is more than classroom trainings. 

The research indicated that positive experiences with learning activities are a good indicator for future willingsness to learn more.

These finding are in line with my own believe (and previous blogpost) on the K5F model that I developed (see below). 

The K5F model says we need more than just knowledge to put learnings into action. The 5F's that help you from knowing to showing are :

1. Focus : don't learn 10 things at a time, go step by step. You can only eat an elephant piece by piece. Low qualified workers learn easier if you give them smaller pieces and go step by step. Don't forget to tell them regularly that they are eating an elephant, so they keep the big picture in mind and know what's still to come.
2. Faith : help people to grow their faith. "oh no, that is too difficult for me" shouldn't be an excuse. Help people to grow in their stretch zone by giving them the necessary faith.
3. Fire : once people have enough fait, the fire to keep on using these new skills are present and you can start with a new focus to grow.
4. Feedback from a coach is important during the learning process to make sure you do the right things right.
5. Fun - make sure people injoy the learning moment. We all remember how easy it was to learn things we enjoyed and how hard it was when we were not interested or willing to learn a new skill.

Case Colruyt distribution center 
The Colruyt distribution center employs a large group of blue collar workers, often low qualified workers. Colruyt group developed a solid program to train and develop this group.

The Colruyt vision on people development :
They start from a strong believe where they believe in the potential of each and every individual who enters the organization. Everybody has certain qualities (perhaps not discovered yet). Next they make sure everybody is supported by a teamleader / manager / coach with whom they frequently meet to discuss their professional development.  They create a strong feeling of coherence between all employees (although there are a lot of ethnic differences on the same work floor. These are only the 2 first blocks in a value system of 10 blocks in total that are all focused on delivery to the customer.

Strong values
Colruyt defined 4 values for their learning culture :

1. Miztakes ar alawed (mistakes are allowed) - they are considered learning opportunities
2. We start from strenghts not from weaknesses
3. We don't put people under pressure all the time
4. We look together what's important for me

From new employee to strong professional worker
Since communication is important to succeed with this program and there are many different nationalities in the organization, Colruyts demands everybody has at least a minimum skill of Dutch or French.
Everybody starts in the same job (warehouse worker), and once you can do this job well, people can apply to learn a new side-task (handling on computer, procedure, safety handlings, ...). Based on the willingness to acquire new side-tasks they can keep on moving up in the organization.

It is clear they put the responsability to learn new skills with the employee. Through this approach, they encourage peoples will to learn, instead of having to learn. (Inside out learning instead of outside in learning)

Development interview
All employees have an annual meeting with their teamleader to further develop their professional skills. Colruyt developed a easy to use document that helps employees to discuss their personal development and ambition.
The doccument contains the following topics :

1. people at work or outside work say I have great qualities in the following domain :
2. Concerning my job :
1. where can I use these qualities ?
2. What tasks make me feel less comfortable ?
3. What can I do to be less comfortable ?
3. Concerning my future
1. How do I see my personal development ?
2. What can I learn to make this happen ?
4. Development plan : putting things into action

The greatest asset of this document is that they open the discussion between employee and his manager and make sure personal ambitions are taken into account. 

To conclude :

Colruyt defined 6 succes factors for developing low qualified employees and turning them into strong professionals :

1. Believe in the potential of all employees
2. Be clear in your goals
3. Create opportunities for professional growth
4. Put the focus on training on the job
5. Support these workers through good team-leaders
6. Create moments to discuss personal "maintenance"

What can we learn from this

The Otis Redding syndrome - focus to improve learning results.

In previous blogs I wrote about the need for focus to improve learning results. (click here for previous blogposts on the topic)

Recently Luc Galoppin and Bob Sutton explained the Otis Redding syndrome on their blogs. It is a very strong metaphor to explain why sometimes people with good intentions sometimes get paralyzed because of an overload of opinions and politics. And in the end, they don't change, because the choose for the well known comfort zone they've been in for the last 10 years.



In his world famous song "The dock of the bay", Otis Redding sings

"I can't do what 10 people tell me to do

so I guess I remain the same"

In learning we can also apply this syndrome. If someone is trying to learn a new skill, while 10 people are giving their opinion on how the person is trying to adapt the new skills, the person will get confused and frustrated and in the end he might stop learning and just remain the same. 

Can you imagine what happens if a football team is built of 11 coaches and only one football player ? Luckily it is the other way round or the poor player would be lost even before he sets one foot on the green.

So if you want to help people in their learning, make sure feedback is given in a positive, clear way, by one person. 

And for the music lovers, push the button below and listen to this fantastic song :

How social media can improve the learning culture in your organization

When I talk with professionals about the use of Social Media, I often get the feeling they don't know what to say ; should they embrace it ? should they ban it ? They often don't have the answer and it feels like a love / hate relationship.

Over the past years many organizations carefully started using Social Media in marketing to communicate with customers, in employer branding to build up an image to attract new talent or in providing information about products and services.

Only very few organizations embraced Social Media to improve learning in their organization. Why ? There are probably a wide variety of reasons. Studies showed a number of obstacles to use Social Media in learning :

1. Perceived lack of value
2. Not enough impact on content generated
3. Fear for sharing business information to the world
4. Lack of expertise on how and when to use Social Media in learning
5. Difficult to measure the benefits

I understand these concerns. We are just at the beginning of integrating social media in learning.  Columbus would have never discovered the Americas if he stayed in coastal waters. Sometimes we have to dare to step out of our comfort zone and discover new things. 

We can't deny the benefits of social media anymore. Tools like twitter, google, linked in, youtube, ... were once nouns. Today they became verbs, because sooooooo many people use them every day. If you don't know something, you google it. If you want to share something, you blog or tweet it. If you want to meet interesting professionals, you look on linkedin and perhaps you join a discussion group on the topic you want to learn about. 

Many Social media were once nouns. Today they are verbs. We can't ignore them anymore and we have to embrace them. 

How can you implement Social Media in your Learning environment ? 

Step 1 : Create a mind shift from training to learning. 

Too often I still hear people only talk about (classroom)training. These are the only formal ways to train people and make them learn. According to Charles Jennings this formal way of learning is only 10% of our learning portfolio. 20% of what people learn comes from other people through interactions like coaching. The last 70% of what people learn is through experience and doing the job. 

I believe the way people use Social Media is an important part of this 70% learning. We google, youtube, share, like, ... and unconsciously we learn by using these tools. 

Be aware of these learnings. They can be as important as any other (formal) training you attend. 

Step 2 : Don't open the gates all the way at once. Start small to become a giant. 

If you want to start using Social Media as a part of your learning environment, start small. Don't use all social media at once, but choose one or two tools that might help you. Try it out and discover what happens. Try it with a test group of people who already believe in it, but also people who can ask difficult questions. Learn from these experiences and move on. 

Step 3 : Help people to join you

Many people already have a linkedin or facebook account (If Facebook was a country, it would be the 3th biggest nation after China and India). But there are still many people who don't have an account yet. Help them to find their way through the labyrinth of social media. Help them with security settings of their account. Tell them what they can do themselves. Turn them into social media likers.

Step 4 : Create and share content with added value

There is an enormous amount of information available on the internet. It can be important to help people in your organization to find information with added value. Maybe it comes from a solid source. Maybe you created it. Maybe somebody in the organization wants to share something. By sharing content with added value, more people will be willing to use social media as a learning tool. 

Step 5 : Invest in digital wisdom of your colleagues

There is a lot of information available, too much. Not all information is as valuable. We need to help people in searching social media and use them in a smart way. Don't accept anything you read (what about this article ?) 

To conclude 

Schools are already embracing social media to make their students more eager to learn. Organizations will have to follow, because their employees already do use social media to learn (unconsciously). I see organizations carefully discover the benefits of tools like youtube, linkedin, wikipedia, ... to create a stimulating learning environment, and I believe we should continue on this new adventure. 

Play, discover and learn with social media. 

In one of my previous blogs I already explained how some companies use social media today. Find out more about it on : http://d-comma.blogspot.be/2012/10/how-kbc-bnp-and-alcatel-lucent-use.html

You can be a super hero !

Nowadays organizations are looking for talent to make their business grow. These talented employees are people who make the difference. Competent people with high energy, positive attitude, great communication skills, people who bring people together to deliver results, people with visions, ...

If you read this list, you might get the impression organizations need super heroes. Well, I believe you can be this super hero.

It is a matter of choice. You can choose to get up in the morning smile and say "let's go for it today !"Perhaps you'll have to start with small ideas, but once this snowball is rolling, you'll see it gives you energy and the drive to go for it every day. (imagine what happened if Mark Zuckerberg would have had the idea to build a social network, but didn't do anything with the idea...)

You don't have to be a manager or CEO to have this attitude. Anybody can do this. It is a matter of choice. (read Seth Godin - "linchpin" to see anybody can make the difference)

Be positive, believe in your own possibilities and competences, drum up people to deliver team-results, be patient with people who don't jump on the bus right away. And most of all do this every day of the week. Don't complain about all the bottlenecks and problems at work, but do something about them and take initiative.

Or with the words of Benjamin Disraeli 

Life is too short to be little

That comfy seat and the world outside ...

Oh it feels great to be in the office. Our beautiful designer desk, comfy seat, coffee at hand to stay awake all day long, a big screen computer behind which you can easily hide if anybody walks into your office, frame with a picture of your family, ... I guess you got the picture by now.

Enough reason for not leaving that oasis of comfort. The masses outside live a different life. Your agenda is fully booked, so you don't have time to be interested at the "others". Your job is to produce powerpoint presentations and excel data sheets which you present proudly to other comfort people in the office, although they are not interested because it is not their presentation.

My message to all the people who recognize themselves in this situation : GET OUT OF THE OFFICE. Get connected to the people outside their. Be interested at the company you are working for. Discover what the products you produce are and how they are produced. Walk around and talk to people. Go to the coffee machine in the cafeteria instead of using your private nespresso machine in your office. If you see a new face, talk to the person and ask him for his name and what he is doing.

Perhaps you believe you don't have time to do this, but believe me, once you start doing this, you discover a whole new world and you'll be able to take better decisions.

By the way, the people outside your office talk a lot about you and your lonely life in your comfy office. They say things like ; "what is he doing", "who is that goldfish in the fish bowl?", "oh him, he is that expensive guy who doesn't know what we are doing, but boy he is good at powerpoint and excel".

Have fun and walk the day ! You don't need the guts of Indiana Jones to get out of your office and discover what's going on there. Just be interested at that world !

Do you understand me ? - 4 pitfalls for clear communication

Do you recognise the feeling that you are saying something to a colleague and for some reason it seems he understands the completee opposite. It feels like you speak a different language. 

Mis-communication causes a lot of damage. It can cause conflicts, it could make the difference between closing and loosing a new business opportunity, it could cost time, ... There are plenty of reasons why we fail at communicating clearly. Underneath you find the top three reasons I often see in organizations : 

1. Vague vocabulary : our language provides us a wide vocabulary, unfortunately some words are more vague than others; over there (I don't find that place on any map), in a while (when ? in an hour, a week, a month, next year), a little bit, maybe, later on, perhaps, ... We should at least try to avoid this kind of language and realize we mean, but the person we are talking to might understand something completely different. 
2. Not listening : some people have the habit to interrupt people while they are talking. They finnish sentences, or pick up your story to tell something about themselves. But bottom line ; they were not listening to you, they were just looking for an opportunity to start talking themselves. This kind of behavior is very frustrating and definitely prevents anybody from having a good conversation.
3. Too smart : In my first job, I was communication manager at the engineering faculty of Brussels University. One day, one of our researchers wrote an article for high school students about digital image processing. I read the article and - honestly - I didn't understand anything about it, so I asked my dean (a professor in computer sciences) to translate some things for me. Unfortunately, he didn't understand it either. I went back to the researcher and asked him to translate it in normal language. He wasn't aware of his jargon, but after an hour or two, I understood everything about digital image processing. Many people who are doing a job for a long time, take too many things for granted, and have difficulties to explain it to others. Always stay aware of the fact that you are the expert. Details and small steps make your point much clearer. 
4. Different perceptions : Perception is reality. Our perception is created by how we perceive the world around us. Culture, education, age, ... all intensify the different perceptions. Unconsciously these perceptions give a different interpretation to the things we hear. Be aware the person you are talking to might have a different perception on the facts than you do. 

There are probably many more pitfalls in our communication. Try to avoid them, check if the person you are talking to understands the same. If necessary make a minutes in written to make things clearer. 

Work together - the era of the lonely cowboy is over

How comes so may organizations face difficulties to make people work together ? Not only within teams, but (perhaps even more) between teams. Often there is a big gap between sales and operations, between blue-collar workers and white collar workers, between supporting services and the rest of the organization, …

These gaps leads to useless budget discussions : who pays the bill / who gets the profit ? It also leads to not sharing information with colleagues from another department. It leads to internal competition and a culture where we don’t help eachother. It leads to lonely riders who stare 8 hours in a row at their computer screen and don’t care about their colleagues next door. It creates a culture of US and THEM. Where “US” is doing all the good things and “THEM” are blamed for the things "US" actually screwed up. It is the end of any collaboration and innovation.

These gaps can be dangerous and they definitely don’t contribute to customer satisfaction. Non of your customers is interested in these internal battles. It doesn’t improve the quality of your services or innovation of your products.

The key to success is COLLABORATION. Together with colleagues, with partners, with customers. Create win-win and synergy.

Departments are not meant to be an island in the middle of an ocean. They should be part of archipel, a group of islands connected by bridges, tunnels, ferries, … Where people from one island visit the neighbouring island.

Create a culture of sharing, of people being interested in the world outside their personal job.  

Next time you walk to the coffee machine, and see a colleagues of another department, ask him how he is doing, ask what he is working on. Be interested and search for ways to collaborate.

Make time to do this, it will help you to grow faster and deliver more quality.

It is the end of the lonely rider era. We live in a time where sharing and working together is the only way forward.

To end this blog a really nice movie why you should work together :

8 ways to use FUN and improve learningresults

How comes we had so many difficulties to learn history, math, geography, ... at school, while we learned all the lyrics of our favorite groups by hart in no time ? Because it was FUN to learn these lyrics.

Too often seminars are an endless bundle of dry data we forget the minute we hear it. Those trainings are a waste of time and hence cost too much.

Spice up a training. Make people laugh (which stimulates the brrain activity), give people a reason to remember what you said (people are more likely to remember good things that happened than bad things; remember when we were young...).

My advise to add FUN to trainings :

1. Don't mix up Fun and Funny : you are not a stand up comedian. People have to learn and you are a learning facilitator. 
2. Know your audience : what is their age, background, interests, history, ... The more you know them the more you can adapt your training. 
3. Use visualization : use appealing images, perhaps cartoons. Definitely don't use endless slides with only data and graphs nobody can read. 
4. Challenge and reward : challenge people to get involved, to answer, to ask, ... Sometimes I take a bag of chocotoffs to my trainings and give away when people get involved. 
5. Use the right speed : go too slow and people fall asleep, go too fast and people are lost. 
6. Tell anecdotes : anecdotes are a good way to make to give people a feeling it really happened to them as well. 
7. Encourage them when they make mistakes : learning is about failing 100 times and the 101th time, you succeed. When you punish people because they fail(or threaten to punish them), they are less likely to try it a second time.
8. Make them dream of a better future : participants in trainings don't like status quo (otherwise they wouldn't go to training). By dreaming of better future, they move forward

Learn from Dacota Indians

There is a famous tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians :

"When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

This is a truism Unfortunately too often we see people in today business life hanging on to a product, a project or an organization while it already died. Even worse, they keep on investing more energy and hope the product comes back to life. 

Some might use a stronger whip to bring the horse back to life, others might do mouth to mouth. None of these strategies will fly. 

Despite your lasting enthusiasm you can't bring a dead horse back to life. MOVE ON ! START AGAIN ! RESET ! NEXT ! LEARN FROM IT (why did your horse die ?)

Why we need more FOCUS during learning moments

As a learning consultant I am often confronted with the quantity dilemma : On one side organizations want intense learning moments and urge me to "train" their people in leadership, change management, communication, timemanagement and project management and all of these preferably in a 2 day program. On the other hand participants in these trainings can only really "learn" in between 1 and 5 things (if not less) in these 2 days. 

At the end of a training I always ask for their take-aways from the training. Some participants give me a list of 10 or even more items they learned and want to apply as from tomorrow onwards. 

Unfortunately this is way too much. People don't change that radically in such a short timespan. Or they need more time with a clear schedule (what will I learn when and how) or we need to create more focus and learn them only 1 to 3 things at a time. 

Learning to ski

I love to ski and despite my long experience, I take a 2 hour training every year again. The ski monitor always starts with some easy skiing while he observes me. After these first 10 minutes, they tell me what I do right and how I can improve. Not a list of 15 items, but only 1 or 2 focus items. At the end of the ski-training, my ski abilities are improved. 

Why ? Because we focus on a small number of improvement points (although there is still more than enough room for improvement)

Translate this into business life

I believe one of the most important jobs for Learning & Development Managers should be to help employees to create learning paths. Step by step. Where do I have to start ? What should I be able of by when ? How will we evaluate the employee acquired the right competence ? 

Especially when people start in a new job, we need to help them to create a step by step introduction program. What should you be able of after your first month, after three months, after 6 months, ... After every stage, we should evaluate and check if any further support is needed. 

Unfortunately too many people require there new employees to be up and running and 100% competent after one week (preferably in their first day).

This doesn't fly ! We need focus and we need a step-by-step approach. 

Not only during introduction program, but after every good learning moment. Ask participants what they learned and want to apply and then help them to create focus. What is the one item they want to start with, then what, ... 

To round up 

Give people more focus when they learn and be patient. 

Instant learning - right here, right now

Business is always moving. As a result many operational people are always on the run. When they need to learn something new, they preferably get a USB stick, plug it into their brain, download a program and continue their daily rush with more knowledge. There is NO TIME FOR TRAINING.

This situation reminds me of a scene in "The Matrix" staring Keano Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. (watch movie below)

This is a science fiction movie. This technology doesn't exist yet. But as with all science fiction movies they often are a projection of a dream, a future, a desire... and maybe one day, this dream becomes reality.

What can we learn from this ? 
This dream is still a dream and no reality. I believe we should provide small chunks of instant information people can use to do their job. On the other hand, everybody should make time every once in a while to learn, get new ideas, turn off the action button and turn on the learn button. We need to evolve towards a combination of formal learning moments AND instant toolkits. I believe this is the only way Learning & Development can support Operations in a pragmatic way that delivers results. It needs investment from both sides.

My tip to you :
Attend trainings, read books and make small notes of things you never want to forget. Things you believe you might need in the future. From every class, every book, every seminar, there should be 1 to 5 such things. It is up to you to put them on paper and use them at the right moment. OK, you can google or youtube anything right on the spot, but remember, the above described technique is the most qualitative instant knowledge anno 2013. It is up to you to build yourself for the future.

My 5 success factors for teamwork

Ever since People walk the surface of earth, teamwork has been very important. That is probably one of the reasons why there are soo many books on this topic. As HR manager I was also often developing teams and supporting teamleaders to be solid teams that could achieve goals and deliver results.

Based on my experiences I develop my 5 important succesfactors for effective teamwork. I would like to share them with you.

1.     Be Clear about your expectations. Both as a member or teamleader you need to be clear about what you want to contribute, what other people can expect from you (or not), what are your must have’s and your nice to haves. There should be NO HIDDEN AGENDA in teams. Always be authentic. Hidden agenda’s are like cancer and kill any team over time. Be clear and specific when you give feedback to other teammembers. This will lead to better teamwork.

2.     Be interested. Be interested in others and be interested in what you do. Being interested in other teammembers helps you to get a better understanding of your colleagues. It will also give you more information on what’s going on in the team. When somebody is asking you for information, share it. The more you share, to more you’ll receive. It is a vicious circle that leads to more succes.

3.     Use good manners. Good manners are a sign of respect and make you more honorably. It is about using words like “thank you”, “please”, “sorry”. Sometimes these words seem to be the most difficult words in our language, but when you use them , you’ll get rewarded for it. (if you don’t believe me read “Tom Peters – Little big things”). When somebody says “sorry”, forgive him. But most imporantly, when you use these words, use them sincerely. Don’t fake your regrets !

4.     React in a correct way. Don’t overreact when something happens around you. We all know plenty of situations where people overreacted and said things they regretted afterwards. On the other hand, don’t wait too long with your reaction. The other person is waiting for an answer. Always be assertive. Assertiveness is very different from agressive. Assertiveness is taling with respect for the other one and maintaining respect for yourself. Listen when people talk to you, or you might miss the message.

5.     Be positive. People are more easily attracted to people who live their life. There is a clear correlation between positive leaders and positive teamwork. Remain realistic. Don’t be positive, because I tell you to, be positive because you like what you do. Work in a team you enjoy !

If we would all live by these 5 simple rules, teams would be more succesfull and would deliver better results. There might be other succesfactors, but these are – to my opinion – the most important ones.