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A paradigm for HRD

Published in "Consulting for Corporate Restructuring" on Dec, 6th 1996

Introduction

The HRD movement has strong roots in our country. Companies are pouring large sums of money and even larger amounts of energy and time into human resources development. Virtually, every corporate entity worth its salt has established its own HRD infrastructure replete with fat training budgets plush training centers and well staffed HRD departments.

How effective are these massive investments? Are they contributing proportionately to making companies more competitive in the restructured Indian economy, which is beginning to sport seamless integration with the global economy? Is HRD confined to being a staff activity relegated to off-line training? One's suspicion is that the answers to these questions is that there is much leeway to be made in the field.

Inadequacies of Traditional training

Entire generations of executives and managers have been brought up on what one would categorize as traditional training methodology. By this it means a formal classroom environment, in which the trainer is actually the teacher and therefore the source of not only knowledge but also power and authority. Class strength is variable; however the objective is to maximize the number of trainees in every class (subject to a ceiling). This concern is particularly visible amongst organizations with a well-developed HRD infrastructure including training budgets and dedicated training centers.

The focus of training in such organizations is to maximize the number of employees who attend training programs while at the same time eliminating seat wastage in each program. Seat wastage is a serious concern because of its adverse implications for cost per seat, and therefore, for sub-optimization of the training budget. A typical example is the case of scheduled commercial banks that allocate huge resources to training.

Unfortunately, the value these organizations derive from resources invested in traditional training methodology is minimal given the changing business and economic environment. Training is perceived at best, an opportunity to be exposed to new ideas, and at worst, a welcome break from the stress of daily management. The prime reason lies in the weakness of the methodology itself. Classroom teaching has lost most of its relevance to managers because it is perceived as dull, unexciting and mostly theoretical and therefore inapplicable to the work environment. Of course, outstanding teachers can still make a quantum difference but they are extremely rare, and not of much utility in the problem related environment.

Results from traditional training methodology are therefore trainer specific to a large extent. Further, these results have a very short half-life: retention drops off rapidly with elapse of time. This is mainly due to the fact that trainees are unable to transfer classroom learning to their work life. Invariably, trainees soon revert to their original habits, attitudes and behavior thus vindicating the self-fulfilling prophecy that training is just a welcome diversion from the rush and bustle of day-to-day operations.

Efficacy of Learning Teams

Our experience in training, over many years, has revealed that people can learn from each other very effectively. This has been proven from the design and implementation of the methodology for computer training, for instance. Our experience with establishing and managing growth of the Cochin and Trichur centers of NIIT has clearly demonstrated that students in groups of two are able to master concepts during¹ hands on training on computers. Much of this learning occurs in the process of two-way communication between the students when they are able to articulate their thoughts and doubts freely.

Applying this lesson, one would advocate the formulation of what one call Learning Teams².These are defined as a group of individuals united in the pursuit of learning a particular attitude, skill, concept, procedure, technology or subject. The Learning Team is a group of heterogeneous individuals who share a common goal: learning something of specific use in their business, professional or personal life.

Learning Teams ensure that learning is complete because all angles of the subject matter are explored, understood and assimilated. In addition, relationships are established and individuals unconsciously develop the ability to give, take, share and respect others. As a result, the ability to work in a team is a valuable spin-off that is also developed. Interestingly, we have observed that these relationships remain strong even after many years. Evidently, the relationship that evolved within the Learning Team continues to be a source of comfort to the members of the team over a long period of time.

Partnership Practice: An Upgraded Methodology

From the foregoing experiences resulting from the hundreds of executives that we have trained, we have constructed a methodology that we call Partnership Practice³.

Partnership Practice is defined as:

The practice of learning a particular attitude, skill, concept, procedure, technology or subject within a Learning Team. This means that every single participant and the faculty are Partnership in Learning⁴ . Implicit in the definition are the following:

Every person in the Learning Team is accepted as equal in every respect by every other person; in other words, differences in age, experience, sex, income, language competency, educational, other qualifications or position in any hierarchy are not inhibitors to participation.
Every such difference is recognized as a source of additional perspective which contributes to a more complete, balanced and thorough learning; differences are valued and seen as adding depth and perspective to the Learning Team thereby enabling the team to view and understand whatever is being learnt from every conceivable point angle; this translates into the active seeking of participation and contributions from every partner.
Every partner's contribution is valued equally irrespective of its relevance or context; if relevance or contexts are asynchronous with the team's objectives or current priority, they are merely accepted and filed for future discussion or action.
Whatever is being learnt is continuously practiced within the team by offering every PARTNER⁵ the opportunity to present his/her learning to the team and obtain feedback that helps to correct, enhance, modify and accelerate his or her learning
The team evolves its own methodology to provide practice opportunities to every partner; this includes presentations, written summaries, leading discussions, summarization, recaps, team feedback analyses and sharing reading material.

The faculty's role becomes crucial in such a Partnership in Learning approach. The teacher-role is replaced with leadership; in effect therefore, the faculty becomes the leader of the Learning Team. As with every other leadership role, the faculty's real objective is to create the conditions necessary for partners to maximize their learning. Essentially, the partners learn from themselves with course corrections and thinking input from the faculty. Team discipline has to emerge from the team; violators are penalized by the team and not by the leader. Wherever possible, objective measurements⁶ are made of actual learning; this enables quicker and more focused learning. In addition, measurable scores make improvements immediately visible and this operates as a strong motivator for the team. Visible improvements are crucial to the team's movement on an upward spiral.

Trust based Nurturing Relationship (TBNR)

The foundation of Partnership Practice is trust. It is the very basis of the entire learning experience. Relationships within the team therefore have to be built on this premise. It is not however necessary that a significant efflux of time is needed before trust can be generated. It has been our experience that in the very first few minutes of the program a huge step⁷ can be taken in this direction. It is here that the faculty makes the most important contribution.

To start with, the faculty has, perforce, to be trustworthy, open and non-threatening. Equally important is the way he/she is perceived. The perception by the partners that the faculty is trustworthy has to be engineered by constant, frank and honest communication strongly underpinned by thought and action. Action is especially important in proving trustworthiness. Since the leader is under scrutiny every second, partners pay intense attention to every nuance in the faculty's behavior.

There is absolutely no substitute for the faculty being really trustworthy and honest in every aspect of his life. Anything less will immediately be spotted by the partners; dissonance between action and words will be noted and translated immediately into covert negative perceptions that will impinge on learning. In a real work situation, such dissonances are most often the root cause behind the lack of credibility of leaders.

If trust is the foundation of Partnership Practice, nurturing is the latticework. Every partner has to be treated with the utmost concern with every other partner. Therefore, contributions from everyone are to be accepted without denigration or scorn. Again, the faculty's role is crucial since his/her response to contributions will be modeled by the partners. Partners are bound to have difficulties in learning; some partners are definite to be slower learners. It is these partners who will need to be protected indirectly from attack from the faster learners. The faculty will have to be alert to the possibility of such skirmishes and will have to step in quickly and skillfully to prevent the confidence of the slower learners from being eroded.

Under the model responses of the faculty, the faster partners tend to help the slower partners overcome their problems. A loose mentoring system takes hold in the team. Breakthroughs occur when the mentoring system finds strong roots in the team. This phenomenon happens because the partners are united in their objective: to attain a measurable improvement in learning. Since the partners are all aligned⁸ in this direction, nurturing becomes the normal approach to dealing with aberrations in individual performance.

It is under this kind of nurturing protection that the team as a whole can post dramatic results.

The trust based nurturing relationships within the team moves partners into what we call the Absolute Comfort Zone⁹ (ACZ). Specific aspects of the Absolute Comfort Zone are as follows:

Feedback is given and taken:

With total sincerity
In a candid manner
Only with the intention of improvement (especially improvement of measurable parameters)
With clarity, directness and frankness
Without ulterior or game motives
Without being vicious or hurtful
Without being grounded in feelings or emotions

As a result of which Individuals perceive no threat to their self-image

The goal of creating trust based nurturing relationships within the Partnership Practice methodology is to move every partner into the Absolute Comfort Zone so that the ultimate objective of maximum effective learning is achieved. It has been our experience that the Absolute Comfort Zone is actually quite portable: individuals can carry it back to their daily environment. As a result, they are much more open to feedback, other points of view and new ideas. Inevitably, their interpersonal relationships improve and this in turn exerts a positive influence on their work performance. These are the important spin-off benefits of the methodology.

CASE:

Application of the PP-TBNR Methodology-Public Speaking Skills for Executives

The Partnership Practice - trust based nurturing methodology has been applied to a training program entitled Public Speaking Skills for Executives¹⁰ (also for business people). The program was designed after a detailed analysis of the needs of the target group.

The target group comprised successful executives and business people with an average age of 37, occupying middle - senior positions in their organizations. Typically, everyone had to play an important leadership role in his/her organization.

The program adopted the PP _ TBNR methodology by entrusting the responsibility for learning to every individual. To facilitate this process, a detailed system of daily routines was designed and implemented. Every session featured clear objectives and comprised a reading - discussion part and a practice part. The reading-discussion was centered around course material and attendant worksheets. Practice was centered on the concepts and techniques covered in the reading discussion part of the session.

Extensive video recording was used during every practice iteration. The practice iteration included partners performing session summaries, recaps, discussion leading as well as speeches. Every partner kept a video record of his/her practice iteration; this was viewed by the entire learning team.

Every partner received feedback from the team along quantitative parameters for every iteration. Feedback scores for every partner were processed by computer and the team score was computed for every session. Further, every partner received a score for specific aspects of his or her performance in every iteration. Reports were available on every partner's daily progress as well as the team's daily progress. The objective was to move the team score to a target score during every session. The team score could move upward only if every partner moved upward; therefore, partners were all in perfect alignment with the team objective.

The results¹¹ were:

Dramatic increases in individual and team scores signifying improvements in public speaking skills
Strong long term relationships¹² between partners that persists long after the program (resulting in mutual business associations in many cases)
Increased self-confidence and self worth
More openness to feedback and new ideas
More tolerance to dissent/differences
Increased commitment to learning and self development

New Paradigm in HRD: Transferring PP - TBNR to the Workplace

It is now indisputable that people, like organizations, can never find safety in merely maintaining the status quo. Given the speed and scope of change in every environment, to remain unmoved and unchanged is to die. As Peter Senge points out, "through learning we recreate ourselves"¹³ and therefore have within ourselves the ability to not only map the future but also to realize it.

So too do organizations have the wherewithal. According to Senge, "this then is the basic meaning of a learning organization - an organization that is continually expanding its capacity to create its future"¹⁴. The capacity to create and to produce results is what Stephen Covey refers to as production capacity, something that is basic to personal and organizational effectiveness¹⁵. Ultimately, those who excel in learning will emerge as the natural leaders of learning organizations¹⁶ which will be the only organizations that survive and profit in the 21st century.

In fact, management experts around the world are unanimous that standards and requirements for success worldwide are converging. This is increasingly manifested in the "global mindset" which mandates the following "six new mindsets that are necessary for success in the 21st century":

Driving for bigger, broader picture
Balancing paradoxes
Trusting process over structure
Valuing differences
Managing change
Seeking lifelong learning¹⁷

In many organizations, learning is limited, just as creativity and initiative are stifled. Past experience is often the culprit for this dangerous trend. People learn improperly, incorrectly and most lethal of all, inappropriately. HRD specialist Stephen Rhinesmith asserts that "Organizations are filled with people who don't do things, just because they have been hurt once"¹⁸.

When individuals get hurt they take steps to ensure that they never repeat the action or behavior; something even remotely similar to this behavior is avoided scrupulously. They frame rules, methods and policies that will protect them against getting hurt again.

Organizations aggregate the trauma of the individuals and translate them into organizational rules, policies and procedures that guarantee that problems or organizational hurts do not recur ever again. But the guarantee never works in a foolproof manner; problems and trauma recur. Unfortunately the response of people and their organizations is thoroughly inadequate. Predictably, downward spirals intensify with each succeeding difficulty.

It is therefore clear that the quality of learning has a vital bearing on the fortunes of not just people but also organizations. As Jennifer J. Laabs points out, "the keys will be empowerment and ease of knowledge transference"¹⁹.

So, an effective learning methodology could be of great relevance to organizations that are restructuring or even re-orienting themselves to face the challenges of the future.

The Partnership Practice - trust based nurturing relationship has proved to be an effective learning methodology. It is therefore logical that similar results can be generated if it is applied to the work place. How can such a transfer be accomplished? The short answer is actually a painstaking process: a process by which a new paradigm in HRD is built into the core of the organization.

What is the new paradigm in HRD? The new paradigm in HRD is to accept that Earning is Learning to Work²⁰.

At the individual level, every person has to make, as Peter Senge would put it, metanoia ²¹ (shift of mind). Individuals have an internalized set of assumptions and beliefs that they are employees. This paradigm has taken root over many years and has evolved over layers and layers of personal experience, each confirming and perpetuating the paradigm. Changing or even altering this paradigm is a Herculean task fraught with pitfalls, pain, frustration and disillusionment (though not necessarily a long period of time).

But change we, each one of us, must!

From the employee paradigm, people have to undergo a shift of mind to another set of assumptions and beliefs that are equally internalized: the paradigm that leads them to accept that they are a bundle of values that are employable for productive purposes. This means that they now think of themselves as their own business manager - managers of a combination of skills and attitudes that can deliver results to the organization.

Therefore, this bundle of values or production capacity has to be constantly maintained, updated and retooled if it is to continue to deliver results that are required by the organization. Maintenance, updating and retooling can only by this learning that results can be delivered. All said and done, only if results are delivered can earning be assured. Therefore, learning is the key to earning because it shows how to achieve results at work.

At the organizational level, change is equally challenging. From viewing human resources as employees or even assets, the paradigm has to shift to human resources as partners²² with diversity and different skills all of whom are aligned to corporate objectives. According to a recent study conducted by Coopers and Lybrand of 300 companies in the USA, " one of the most critical predictors of organizational success is the alignment of employees with the mission, values, and goals of the organization"²³ (the degree of alignment can be measured by developing an alignment tool) ²⁴. In an environment where alignment is high, hierarchy and rigid structures are unimportant; on the contrary, dilution of hierarchies can strengthen alignment²⁵.

Top-level executives will have to climb down from their pedestals and become true partners; instead of thinking of themselves as bosses, they will have to metamorphose into equals with a leadership role. Instead of being critical and taciturn, they will have to learn to be more tolerant, patient, open to criticism and diversity of thought, culture and behavior. In fact, they must encourage these differences and in the process, raise their own personal level of honesty by a factor of two.

Perhaps the most important aspect of this paradigm shift is that human resources are entitled to that most fundamental privilege of partners: total trust. There can be absolutely no us/them, management/employee dichotomy. The implication therefore is that complete information availability and transparency exists for partners and therefore, to human resources.

Besides, the concern that people have for each other must find frequent expression in action. Rather than altruism, mutual care contributes substantially to business success because, " to the extent that people feel cared about and supported, they will go to extremes to help those who help them"²⁶. In fact, "enlightened leaders operate with the knowledge that to the extent their people's needs and desires are fulfilled, they will go to extremes to serve the organization that supports them.²⁷

Undoubtedly, the leadership will have to own the process of transfer. "In our experience, the single most important determinant of success is strong, committed senior leadership in the earliest stages of change-hands down. Why? Because leadership is transformational. It is ground-breaking, ground clearing work. Senior leaders are the levers of change. In many cases, they are the only people articulating the organization's new vision. But as change progresses, it becomes more transactional. Other factors become more important".²⁸

They will have to assume the role of faculty. Here lies the difficulty. Many top-level executives are so locked into their own styles of leadership and behavior that any change is blocked out almost like a reflex action. We do not think that they now have a choice: the emerging Indian environment is not likely to accept the leadership (or lack of it) style that has been prevalent hitherto. The faculty role in the Partnership Practice - trust based nurturing relationship methodology seems to be the most appropriate and effective model around which leadership styles can evolve.

How can the new paradigm in HRD be implemented? : The key is to create an environment that makes learning fun, interactive, continuous and therefore effective. The Partnership Practice - trust based nurturing relationship methodology is one such approach.

Ultimately, the new paradigm in HRD means converting the company into a learning organization in which partners form learning teams that address every facet of the company's operations. In other words, the HRD activity is indistinguishable from the company's operations; this is possible when all learning activity is designed from the outside - in. Training and learning will therefore flow from a continuous interaction with the market which will determine what knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies are needed to keep customers satisfaction at its zenith.

Designing the work force and its inventory of skills and competencies from the OUTSIDE-IN is a powerful way to ensure growth and profitability. This means looking carefully at the customers and what they need and then designing an entire organization dedicated to delivering those need satisfactions. Skill-competency inventories will therefore be totally determined by the requirements of customer need satisfaction.

Organizations now have a critical need for deep generalists²⁹: people who are versatile and nimble enough to succeed in the real-time world of real-time change but at the same time bring some unique ability, talent, skill experience that significantly enhances the profit potential of the organization. One way to create deep generalists is to set up a combination-mentoring³⁰ program in the organization that pairs a top manager with a much lower level executive or other employee. Both are partners in learning for a specific duration for a clearly defined learning objective that is outside their individual specialties. For example the mentor may learn to develop executives while the young executive can learn strategic thinking.

Conclusion

The time has come for companies in general and HRD departments in particular to move beyond incremental approaches to change. What is appropriate to today's on-line real-time global economy is quantum change. Internet and similar technologies have erased geographic boundaries to markets and information. We are now in a state of information abundance; this offers Indian companies the opportunity like never before, to compete successfully in the global market.

To convert this opportunity into bottom line results these companies will naturally have to subscribe to global standards. This in effect means that human resources in our companies will also have to attain global competence, skill and knowledge levels. Nothing short of a paradigm shift in HRD will accomplish such an increase in their capabilities. The Partnership Practice - trust based nurturing relationship methodology offers a solid platform to launch this quantum jump.

Reference

The author holds the franchise for NIIT's Cochin and Trichur centers: these centers have trained thousands of students and have almost 100 computers between them.
Concept terminology originally formulated by the author.
Concept and phrase designed originally by the author, based entirely on his experience as a management trainer and consultant.
To be understood welfare the context of Learning Team.
Every member of the Learning Team is referred to as a Partner to signify his/her equality and relationship with the others.
Implementation of objective measurement is described in the Case: Speaking Skills
The faculty can invite every partner to discuss his/her strengths and weakness; emphasis is to be laid as the weaknesses. When every one has aired their weakness an amazing bonding takes hold, waiting people in the knowledge that everybody is, after all, imperfect. The very act of publicly airing weaknesses creates trust between the partners party to this act of trust.
The author is currently, developing an Alignment Tool to study the degree of alignment of individuals to team objectives.
Formulated by the author is the course of his training programs noted by Public Speaking Skills for Executives
Training program designed and implemented by V.K.Madhav Mohan Associates
Observed from partner's evaluation of the program and analysis of scores
Also includes relationships developed between families
The Fifth Discipline, by Peter Senge, 1990, Century Business UK 1993, p.14
Ibid, p.14
Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
Peter Senge, op.cit., p.359
Open Door to a global Mindset by Stephen H. Blacksmith, raining & Development, May, 1995, p37:
Ibid. p.37
Evening Future HR Concerns by Jennifer Laabs published in Personnel Journal, Jan. 1996, p.36
Concept and Phrase originally constructed by author
Peter Serge C, op.cit., p.13
With the attendant implications for equality and inclusions
Engaging Organizational Survivors by Jim Clark and Richard Kong Training and Development, Aug 1995 p.23-30
Author can design a simple and easy to use alignment tool that measures the alignment of employees with the Objectives of the organization.
See Flat is In and Change Adapt or Die both articles authored by V.K. Madhav Mohan, published in The Week dated July 24 1994 and Oct.1992 respectively.
Enlightened Leadership by Ed. Oukley and Dong Krag C 1991, imon and Schuster, Eds. 1993. p.230
Ibid, p.231.
Bill Trahani and W. Warmer Burke in article entitled Traveling through Transitions, published in Training and Development, Feb.1996, p.41.
Described by Warren Bennis and quoted in Engaging Organizational Survivors by Jin Clark and Richard Koonz in Training and Development, Aug 1995, P.23-30.
Developed by the author as a Variation to the Mentoring Program used by Companies.

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