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Learning through the classroom is not enough

Technology - Features

Tuesday, 19 December 2006

Training courses will always have a place in the development of knowledge and skills of team members. But John Fisher of Xansa Education and Training explains why organisations need to move away from traditional thinking and implement simple learning programmes.

In my experience of developing training programmes for organisations the benefits are clear. Those that adopt a wider view of learning see greater results in both the individual and the team.

The traditional view of learning through attending courses needs to be supported by learning about and adapting to the ever-changing organisation and the people you work with. In doing so the results can be dramatic, instilling within the team a competitive edge, a feeling of ownership and a desire to better meet customer needs. All of which leads to greater productivity, efficiency and ultimately financial rewards.

In his book Future Shock, Alvin Toffler describes the rapid obsolescence of knowledge in organisations and life in general means that the skills learnt yesterday are unlikely to remain relevant for tomorrow[1]. Therefore traditional classroom-based training will always be required to satisfy an individual's training needs.

However, when we look at the traditional approach to learning it is clear that if we want to develop our teams, we need to adopt a new approach that covers a range of competencies, encourages teamwork and develops trust.

Understanding what's important

The key to developing a wider range of learning is to remain focused on what John Adair has described as the three key areas for teamwork - that is, what is important for the individual, for the team and for the task to be completed[2].

The traditional approach

Each year each team member has an appraisal. One of the discussion points is career development. Typically some formal classroom training will be offered to address a skills shortfall.

The team member:

Has to wait many months for the event;
Is given no pre-course briefing by the manager;
Attends a generic event that sort of meets their requirements;
Has no opportunity to apply the skills gained on the course as their
organisation 'does it differently'.

At the next appraisal, success is measured on whether the course was attended, not on the skills learnt and applied or improvements in performance as a result.

Most organisations use training courses to try to improve performance for the individual on the technical aspects of work. This can be an essential way of providing knowledge and improving the required skills to undertake a role, but this fails to address how people work within a team and the impact of the organisational environment on their achievement of day-to-day work tasks.

Addressing barriers to performance can have dramatic effects on a team. Studies have reported:

A desire to become more competitive;
Feelings of ownership;
A desire to better meet customer needs;
An improvement in the quality of the end product.

Team and organisational issues

Most departmental teams delivering products or services to other teams in the organisation suffer from a range of issues which, over time, become barriers to performance:

Poor communication with internal and external customers;
Poor understanding of the business environment;
Lack of understanding of organisational processes (particularly project management and quality);
Team members have a very narrow focus of expertise and consequently a lack of understanding of each others' roles.

All of which leads to greater productivity, efficiency and ultimately financial rewards.

To achieve these benefits, managers need to implement simple strategies that will enable staff to better understand the people they work with and the environment in which they work.

Task training

One approach to developing this greater understanding is to view your team as a system. All systems transform one or more inputs into outputs using resources. A department of specialists is no different. Understanding your team in this way will:

Identify information and products coming into the team;
Consider the information and resources required to develop and manage the production of your products and services;
Look at rules both inside your team and organisationally that impact the teams work;
Identify all the outputs you produce.

This information can then be used to identify and gain an understanding of the environment in which the team operates and the key stakeholders they interfacing with.

Seek first to understand

In his insightful book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr Stephen Covey writes: "One of the principles of effective communication is to 'Seek first to understand, then be understood'."

All too often we have a tendency to rush in, to fix things without first diagnosing the problem.

Developing this common understanding has been shown to have significant results in improving both relationships and communications between the two parties.

There are many ways to gain this deeper understanding. Some examples include:

Workshops presented by the customer;
Work shadow - spending a day with the customer helping to do their job;
Work shadow - allowing the customer to spend a day helping with your job.

Improving team understanding

When it comes to understanding how the team works and interacts together, there are several areas that need to be considered:

The knowledge, experience and skills required to perform each of the roles;
The way each team member interacts and behaves in the team context;
The demands placed on the team (the things they have to do);
The constraints placed upon the team (the things they cannot do).

Using workshops to gain understanding

In one IT department of software developers, relationships between the team and the business project managers were never that good. A monthly two-hour project management workshop was created in which all developers attended. Each month a business project manager would present to the team on a project management topic - planning one month, risk the next and so on. The workshops covered:

Theory;
Practice in the organisation;
Issues developers had with the processes or information demands - this was the largest part of the workshop.

Developers gained a better understanding of why information was needed. Project managers gained an understanding of problems providing it. The result: both parties learned by understanding each other better.

Performing an analysis of how the team interacts can, if approached correctly, be a fun way of learning about yourself and each other. There are many approaches to perform this including psychometric testing and learning style questionnaires. All of these can have merit in developing an understanding of team behaviour.

Team roles

Meredith Belbin deserves much of the credit for developing the understanding of the basic building blocks for successful teams. His first-hand observations of team games over many years at Henley Management College led to the identification of nine archetypal functions that go to make up an ideal team. These categories have proven to be robust and are widely used in many organisations[4].

Having an understanding of each other in a team is one step towards building a better team. Other steps to achieve this can also include:

Running regular master classes where each team member presents on their specialist subject;
Coaching - informal 'at the desk' education sessions by experienced or knowledgeable colleagues;
Shadowing - accompanying and observing a more experienced colleague carrying out tasks.

Conclusion

In a short article it is not possible to fully explore the benefits of an integrated approach to learning. The article has however, highlighted some key points for consideration:

Classroom-based training will always have a place in the development of knowledge and skills of team members;
Organisations need to move away
from traditional thinking of training courses and implement simple learning programmes that encourage an understanding of the customer and develop teamwork.
In my experience of developing training programmes for organisations the benefits are clear. Those that adopt a wider view of learning see greater results in both the individual and the team.

Socialising and networking

Consumption of alcohol is rightly frowned upon in nearly all organisations today. However the demise of the Friday lunch team drink with fellow team members has come at a price.

The ability to socialise and network with team members is critical to developing a team bond. Managers need to create opportunities for a team social event at regular intervals.

References

1. Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, 1970, p368

2. John Adair, Effective Team Building, 1986

3. Dr Stephen R Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, 2002

4. Meredith Belbin, Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail, 1984

Biography

John Fisher's experience in developing learning solutions has been gained through many years in a variety of public and private sector organisations delivering a varied mixture of consultancy and training in the fields of Project Management and Consultancy Skills. John is the author of People Issues and PRINCE2, published by The Stationery Office.