Learning

Brain Learning

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Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock

Human beings have amazing brains. We are able to think, create, and produce at an astounding rate thanks to the thousands of cell-based activities that take place in our grey matter. Most importantly our brains allow us to learn, and to keep learning, well into mature adulthood.

In his article, Inside the Learning Brain, Nick Dam provides a framework for effective corporate learning based on the theories of cognitive neuroscience – brain learning.

Click here to read the article.

In order for corporate learning to take place, Dam confirms that adult learners must have an environment that allows for focused attention, high engagement, and single-tasking. At the same time, the environment that supports adult brains for effective learning is shifting rapidly through the ever-increasing intervention of external technology, especially social media.

The impact of this type of environment and its effect on learning is explored in the following clip: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains.

Both the article and the video clip support a common premise that we need to embed information into memory in order for learning to take place. This is called memory consolidation, which allows us to build knowledge; built knowledge allows for new learning to take place. This type of learning happens when our brains are allowed to be peaceful and focused. As we see in the video clip, memory consolidation and learning is becoming more challenging as our technology-driven brains crave the external stimulus of constant interruptions.

From a training and development perspective, the challenge for the Human Resources practitioner is to create the conditions and the space that enable effective learning to happen.

We need to work hard to figure out how to do this — but first, one more cute kitten video.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How much time per day do you give yourself for quiet contemplation, with no external distractions?
  2. Thinking of your own learning patterns. How much information have you retained from yesterday’s Internet searches?
  3. Are your work or study patterns focused on single-tasking or multi-tasking? Which pattern is easier? Why?

Lonely At The Top?

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Doidam 10/Shutterstock

It does not have to be!

One of the unspoken challenges that comes with the ascension into a senior leadership role is that there is no one to talk to.  When a leader takes on the role of the Chief Executive Officer, they are perceived as having the competencies and the abilities to enact all organizational decisions and strategies on their own.  As the leader of others, the CEO does not need to have a leader for themselves.  It is as if once the leader has assumed the role, they are fully formed and no longer need further development from others.

This view of a leadership practice flies in the face of the principles of life-long learning and the on-going development of a learning organization.  Leaders are human.  Humans are innately drawn to the need for constant development and continuous learning.  While the organizational leader may no longer need to have the same kind of formal professional development plans that they learned from as they moved into more senior leadership roles, once they are in the top position, the leader does need to continue learning and growing, just like everyone else.

Mentorship provides one of the most effective forms of leadership training and learning to those that move into the organizational leadership role.  The role of the leadership mentor is explored in a recent article in the Financial Post.

Click here to read the article.

The mentorship relationship can have a powerful effect, not only on the CEO, but on the organization as a whole.  When the leader is healthy, the organization is also healthy, as noted in the article.  A leader who has a mentor is able to shape and share ideas to problem solve in a safe environment that respects the leadership function and understands the challenges that come with the mantle of the organizational leader.  The mentor may be one of the few people who can hold the mirror up to the leader for healthy self-critique and continuation of personal and professional development.

We all need someone to talk to who understands and can support us, especially when we must face difficult or challenging decisions.  As with any type of relationship, the key to successful mentoring is to ensure that both the mentor and mentee understand their roles and respect each other’s boundaries.

The leader who keeps learning is a positive role model for the rest of us.

Discussion Questions:

  1. As a Training and Development specialist, how would you develop a mentorship program for the CEO of your organization?
  2. Why would a CEO resist having a formal mentor as part of their personal leadership development plan?
  3. Identify three key characteristics of someone who has been a mentor for you. What made the mentoring relationship work for you?

Measuring What is Needed

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Image of young businesswoman sitting on chair under spot of light
Sergey Nivens/Shutterstock

The Human Resources professional’s role is not always in the organizational spotlight. That space is reserved for the organizational leader. Once in the spotlight, all of the characteristics of the leader are highlighted, from both a positive and a negative perspective. In either case, there is increased focus on the need for the leader to improve upon any perceived negative leadership traits in order to increase the level of positive leadership.

 

Where then should the focus be in order to support positive leadership development?

We need to let the statistics do the talking.

As noted in a recent article provided by the Society for Human Resource Management, there is an alarming rate of leadership development programs resulting in failure for the very leaders these programs are intended to assist.

Why? The statistics seem to indicate that the professional development being provided is not in line with the practical needs of the leader. What is needed by the leader is not what is evaluated by the organization. Evaluation comes with measuring real results and adjusting the organizational course when it is clear that those results do not meet organizational needs.

Click here to read the article.

The article raises an important distinction between ‘edu-trainment’ and true learning based on objective measures for the development of sustainable leadership capabilities. The Human Resources role is integral in maintaining learning programs where results are intentional, observable and measurable, ensuring the right kind of leadership development programs for all leadership roles within the organization.

As Human Resources professionals, we have the capacity to observe what is needed outside of the glare of the spotlight. From that perspective, we can see what is real; where the problems are; discern the difference between insipid inspiration and true leadership competencies; and establish learning outcomes for leaders that are measurable and sustainable. The Human Resources professional has the capacity and the obligation to ensure that valid organizational metrics are established. These should evaluate leadership development through a direct connection to the performance of employees and the results of the organization that the leader serves.

Human Resources will have its time in the spotlight when it is needed. In the meantime, there is always leadership work to be designed and done.

Discussion Questions:

  1. From your reading of the article, why do you think the author recommends that we ‘stop chasing inspiration’ as part of leadership development?
  2. Identify five specific metrics that an organization should implement that measure leadership development and provide a connection to organizational impact.
  3. Do you agree that HR is able to design programs that leadership development in a positive way? Why or why not?

Learning to Unlearn

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Business Man with Ball and Chain
Source: Vibe Images/Shutterstock

Nothing kills a moment of corporate creativity more than this phrase:  “That’s not the way we do things around here.” Once it is issued, it ensures that the status quo, no matter how bad that may be, will remain untouched and, most importantly, unchanged. It is a phrase that is usually uttered by those working within a specific power-brokering segment of an organization.

How is this a power play?

When one part of an organization refuses to move, it ensures that the rest of the organization remains anchored in the past, is resistant to change, and presents no opportunity for creativity or new learning.

How can true learning organizations respond to this type of resistance?

They need to unlearn and let go of that which is holding them back.

According to Vijay Govindarajan, the Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a Marvin Bower Fellow at Harvard Business School, organizations must divest themselves of old ideas and methodologies even though these may be the very things that made the organization great in the first place. In order to move forward, Govindarajan states that organizations must let go of what has been learned in the past.

Click Here to Read the Article

From a Human Resources perspective, Govindarajan’s concept can create great organizational learning opportunities if the Human Resources function has a leadership role.  Human Resources must lead with powerful impact, in order to push the change agenda both forward and throughout the entire organization.

Click Here to Read the Article

Not only must the Human Resources professional be able to provide incentives that pull people forward into change, we must also be vigilant in stopping what is sometimes a cultural and entrenched longing for both the past and not so recent past by helping people to let go of that huge anchor which is represented by the status quo.  We can do well to observe the past, but we must leave it behind and let it go in order to move forward and learn what is new and uncomfortable and create a future that does not yet exist.

To do this, the Human Resources professional needs to be brave.

The brave Human Resources professional will be the leader who will help to break the chain of the status quo, discard the anchor to the past, and set forward, freely, into an uncharted future full of greatness and new learning.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is the difference between ‘unlearning’ and forgetting in the context of employee training and development?
  2. Do you agree with Vijay Govindarajan’s perspective that creativity comes by having to unlearn what was learned in the past? Why or why not?
  3. What do you perceive as the biggest barriers to bringing new learning, creativity, and fresh ideas into an organization from a Human Resources perspective?
  4. Have you worked with someone who was resistant to learning something new? What was that experience like for you? How did it influence your own work and learning experiences?

Mentoring for Mutual Gains

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Two heads graphic
Source: igor kisselev/Shutterstock

What does it take to be a mentor in this generation-defined age of boomers, gen-xes, gen-ys, and millennials?  Typically, we hear of the gaps that exist from one generation’s understanding of the next.  These gaps are often created by negative perceptions of each other, resulting in a premise that the younger generation must adapt and learn from their elders. From this, we end up with traditional mentoring models that have a one-sided mentor-mentee flow. There is heavy emphasis on the mentee being on the receiving end of that flow as sage wisdom pours down from the more experienced and mature mentor.

The traditional mentoring model has definite benefits.  However, it does not have to be a one-way learning or training relationship.  A recent article from Forbes.com offers an expansion of the mentor-mentee relationship that includes mutual benefits to both parties.

Click Here to Read the Article.

This article identifies the modern mentor as one who is willing to step up and participate in the mentor-mentee relationship as an exchange.  Through active participation the modern mentor should be able to change that one-way flow to a two-way transfer of ideas, new learnings, and growth that provide mutual benefits to both parties in the mentoring relationship.   When we change the direction of the flow to a two-way exchange there is clear evidence that both parties will benefit, their respective generation will benefit, and the organization will benefit as a whole.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What learning, skills, and experience would you bring to a mentor-mentee relationship if you were the mentor?
  2. What benefits would you bring to a mentor-mentee relationship if you were the mentee?
  3. What perceptions do you have of the baby boomer generation?
  4. How do you think you are perceived as a member of a particular generation based group? Do you agree with this perception?