How Effective Are Corporate Training Programs?

I think I have covered this issue before but I would like to share something that I came across some time ago.

James Eison in his chapter in the book Academic Leadership (Edited by Robert M. Diamond) listed the following 10 characteristics of what he considers as learning:


1. Learning is fundamentally about making and maintaining connections
2. Learning is enhanced by taking place in the context of a compelling situation
3. Learning is an active search for meaning
4. Learning is developmental, a cumulative process involving the whole person
5. Learning is done by individuals who are intrinsically tied to others as social beings
6. Learning is strongly affected by the educational climate
7. Learning requires frequent feedback if it is to be sustained, practice if it is to be nourished, and opportunities to use what has been learned
8. Much learning takes place informally and incidentally
9. Learning is grounded in particular contexts and individual experiences
10. Learning involves the ability of individuals to monitor their own learning


Most corporate trainers/consultants would have had the question : "How effective is your training" thrown at them. I suppose it is a valid question although I sometimes wish the party asking that question rephrase it into maybe : "What new things will we learn from your program?"

You see, to answer "how effective is your training" puts a corporate trainer or consultant at a no-win situation as what he/she is going to deliver is only as good as the minds that are going to receive it and the environment that is going to allow the new knowledge to flourish. Training at the essence of it is learning and if we take the above 10 characteristics of what constitutes as learning, I think we now should have a good benchmark on whether a training program has been effective or otherwise.

I believe it was Reg Revans who once said that "Learning must be equal to or greater than the rate of change". How is it in your organization? Are you learning enough to face the changes? Are you learning more than you need? Sometimes in my programs, I come across managers who become uncomfortable when they come to realize that they are learning more than what they thought they needed from the program. Their excuse : I can't use all these new knowledge in my present company....its just not ready for this". I think most of you readers would have already seen through the fallacy of this argument.

For any learning to be effective, a host of factors must fall into place. So, how effective are my training programs. Well, they are all ALWAYS effectively developed and delivered. You got to ask the learners for the rest!

The Flattening of International Higher Education

In recent times, there has been a great flattener in the world of international higher education. In one of my previous entries, I talked about how Friedman's the World is Flat assertion has become a catch-phrase in major board rooms of the corporate world. However, the flattening of the world has been going on for quite some time. A good example of this is in the arena of higher education.

It is suffice to say that the idea and concept of the University was born prior to modern times. The Italians, British, French and the Egyptians all claim to be the originator of the University. Going by strict definition, the Indians are probably the the first to have the first tell-tale signs of organised knowldge dissemination (what a univerity is really all about) through the concept of ashram.

Nevertheless for the purpose of this particular discussion, I am going to refer to 'University' as to mean the modern University as per what we are all accustomed to now which is a model created and popularised by the Anglo-Saxons. Enter the world of Cambdrige, Oxford and Havard!

In the beginning (as any Cambridge historian will tell you), there was no University of Cambridge. There was however, a group of colleges that later became known collectively as the Univerity of Cambridge. The same applies to Oxford. While these and many more Universities have been in existence for almost a thousand years, the explosion of Universities around the world took place only after World War 2. In the United States itself, the mushrooming of unversities and adult education coincided with th return of US servicemen from the trenches of Europe. At the same time, many nations gained their independence from their colonial masters. This happened right from 1940s and all the way to 1970s. Countries in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world all scrambled to assert thier nationhood by establishing their national universities. Ironically, this assertion of new found nationhood was modelled after what was existent in the land of the colonial master themselves. Hence, one will hear nationalistic statements of educational freedom vis a vis national freedom and such from an Asian or African university BUT their entire academic and administrative structure will be a carbon copy from the Oxfords and Cambridges of the Anglo-Saxon world. Soon, this model became the only model for what a University should be. In porpular parlance, it was known as the brick & mortar university

The brick & motar Universities held sway throughtout the world and like many things in human history, anything that is often repeated becomes the truth; sometimes the only truth.

Then, the Internet age arrived in the 1980s. Since then, the concept of University has gone through more changes than what it has been accustomed to in the previous 1000 years. As the Internet prompted people to ask questions about their traditional way of doing business, it also encouraged people from the academia to question the traditional way of disseminating knowledge. For the first time, the possibility of providing University education without the need for physical brick & mortar campuses was explored. Hence, the birth of distance education which later morphed into on-line universities.

Since the 1990s, the concept and practice of University went through another dramatic change through the establishment of Transnational Universities which have incorporated the best methods and processes of traditional and non-traditional universities. The distinguishing characteristics of a Transnational University are : 1) Provides its services/products in 3 or more national territories, 2) Multi-ethnic faculty, 3) Distributed decision making, 4) Centalised quality control, 5) 3 or more international affiliations, 6) One Vision and Mission, 7) Non-governmental and/or political.

Like any change, the tansformation of the University and what it should mean to the 21st century knowledge seeker has received much resistence from those affected by the change in the status-quo.

I anticipate more exciting things to come from these Transnational Universities.

Oh My! It's a Flat World!

The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman was one of the best books that I have read in a long time. It's futurist and realist at the same time as while he wrote it before many of the things that he described became common knowledge, yet by the time you pick up the book from the shelves, those things wold have indeed become common knowledge. Innovation at the speed of writing I suppose!

I am going to take this opportunity to provide some of the most current business practises to support his notion of a flat world. However, unlike Mr. Friedman who writes from the point of view if converging technology, I am going to give examples of how desperate businesses and corporations have become precisely for the reason that the world is flat and with it competition has coming knocking on their doors at a speed and from directions that they never dreamt off.


EXAMPLE 1

Southwest Airlines : It has a Chief Apology Officer (not his official title, thank God!) whose job is to go to the ground and find out from passengers about what went wrong on a particular flight and shooting off a very personalized letter of apology to each and everyone. The reason : Apologize before some other airline grabs the disgruntled passenger. I hope somebody from Malaysia Airlines is reading this!

Example 2

Ford Motor company is using brain scans to literally watch on computer screens what turns on its potential customers. A new car model is rolled out in front of sample target customer groups and by varying its colour etc, Ford researchers are able to identify the parts of our brain, called the Reward Circuit, which will light up when we anticipate something pleasurable. In other words, the automotive industry has become so competitive that the traditional giants of the industry are no longer relying on traditional methods. They are using every possible tool at their disposal to the beat the competitor. What more, today their competitors are not only European, Japanese or Korean models but also Indian and Chinese made cars. So cut short the process! Why ask the customer what he likes when you can ask his brain?

Example 3

Samsung is building huge showrooms which will be stocked with all its latest offering. Each show room will be able to accommodate hundreds of customers at any one time. The catch : They can't buy any of the products showcased but they can use them! You are thinking of buying a new oven? Take a walk into the showroom, bake your biscuits. If you like the oven, you can buy it at their regular outlets. You want to know how a new Samsung handset will feel if you are calling your teenage son half way across the world? Use any of the handset displayed, make that long distance call at no charge and if you like it, you know what to do!

Example 4

There was a time when thousands of eager Indian students trooped into American universities to gain their much sought after MBAs. Today, American and European sudents are applying into Indian universities. It will intreresting to see the American universities' next course action.


Well, I am going to keep out for more flattening experience! Its a exciting world!

Why We Need to Keep Learning?

On the 20th and 21st I was with a room full of managers from SIHAT Sdn Bhd. Not only did I have the managers with me, I also had the CEO of the company, Datuk Venu. I was totally humbled by the experience. Here is a man, much more senior to me, willing to sit down with his managers for 2 full days to listen to what I have to say. The thing that left me amazed was the fact that he was so excited about the program and the various issues brought up and suggestions made by his managers during the program that I could see the glee in his eyes for having the opportunity to be there with them. What more, he was able to recall some of the key ideas that I presented and gave his own take on them. Simply put, here is a man who 'has seen that, been there, done that' but yet so hungry for new knowledge and ideas regardless from where it comes from.

I have often said in my programs that a manager/leader needs to keep learning. I said the same thing on the 26th with yet another group of managers from Uniqema Sdn. Bhd. I say it often because I truly believe in it. In fact I am absolutely convinced that an individual's leadership and managerial skills develop proportionately with his/her appetite for learning. The moment learning stops, performance hits a plateau and soon after, deteriorates. A manager who keeps learning, keeps improving. A manager who keeps learning, keeps cynicism and pessimism at bay.

Although rare, there are times when I hear somebody say " I don't know.... I am not sure whether that will work in my organization". I often spend most of the break time with this individual as I really need to understand the reasons for the pessimism as that is a clear sign that learning has come to a stop for him or her. For me, that's a real pity as learning makes a man. It definitely makes a leader!

Learning Organizations? What is THAT?

For the last 2 weeks, I have been trying to subscribe to a particular service. As it happens today, this particular service provider has engaged vendors to provide the final link between itself and the end customer. In other words, the vendor will be the guy who will, at the end of the day deliver the service/product that I have signed up for.

I was told that the whole process should not take longer than 3 working days and yet I waited 1 week 4 days before a vendor finally arrived and told me that he is not sure why the sales people failed to tell me that the particular service that I have signed up for was not available at my area of residence. In summary, he is telling me politely that I can't have the service that I had been waiting for almost 2 weeks. Looking at it differently, I have been tyring desperately to become a customer of this service provider for almost 2 weeks and it all came to nothing!

In our short conversation he said something that caught my attention. He said something like " That's the problem with the sales people. When we call them to come for our own training to familiarize with the products and services they don't turn up... they have no idea of the finer aspects of the products and services"!

There you go friends! This particular organization has a long way to go before it can become even remotely a learning organization.

Becoming a learning organization, as I often point out in my programs, is not about technology alone. Yes, technology facilitates the learning process of an organization but it is just that...a facilitator. To truly become a learning organization and to be able to use each learning to add value to products and services and ultimately to add value to the customers' experience of that product or service , an organization must look at all the learning opportunities already available around it. Vendors, suppliers, employees, customers and other direct and indirect stakeholders are a gold mind of learning resources. There are much to learn from these simple and available resources and yet many organizations insist on technology first, learning later.

Recently, I was told about a company that is involved in developing complicated medical instruments and support systems. Every year, it organizes a get-together-session with selected patients from all over the world to share with the employees of this organization how its products have saved their lives. Most often than not, these employees break down in tears when they hear these stories as they realize how important their work is. They learn that what they do is important. They learn to take responsibility for their work. Now, this is what in my mind, a learning organization should do.

As for my desperate attempt to become a customer, I guess I will have to try again in two weeks time, as I will be back with the good people of Maybank for the final stages of my Personal Mastery Program for them.

I would also like to take this opportunity to convey my condolences to every one at Maybank for the loss of your dear friend and colleague, Mr. Francis. My condolences to the family of Mr. Francis. In the little time that I had with him during the program, I found him to be a man of passion and zest for life and a man deeply devoted to God and family. Rest in peace my friend for that is what we would have become if we had more time.

Brain, Thinking, Personality and Living

The model that I have used to deliver my program on Personal Mastery flows along the following lines : The way our brain is structured (created for some) influences our ability to think which then influences our mind which in turn affects our decision making. Add to this two other closely linked elements of the Self : personality and value systems, we have indeed an extremely complicated organism called the Human Being. I believe the trail to Personal Mastery begins in the brain.

The brain is the tool that most of us have to view the world and give meaning to it. I say most of us because there is a group of people who don't rely too much on the brain but rather on their 'heart'. Of course heart here is used figuratively. But more on that later.

Fundamentally, the brain's weakness are related to 3 factors : 1. The brain is at the end of the day, a biological-mechanical thing. All mechanical things have limitations. 2. The brain can't differentiate between fact and fantasy. 3. The brain's basic function is to keep the body alive and stress free.

With all our scientific advancement, we have only yet scratched the surface as far as deciphering the human brain is concerned. One of the key sentences that I often repeat in the program is : "Our brain is the most powerful tool that we have AND it is also our weakest". The human brain can think of the cosmos, produce great works of art and command nature to serve its needs but it can't eliminate prejudice, it can't stop ego-centric thinking nor can it easily accept ideas and opinions contrary to its pre-set belief system.

Allow me to illustrate this further. There was a recent article in a Malaysian daily which talked about how the Ford motor company uses the knowledge of reward-circuit in the human brain to plan and execute its A&P campaign for its latest models. In short, the reward circuit is the part of our brain that lights-up ( literally not figuratively!) when we anticipate something pleasant be it a desirable car, the possibility of chatting up a member of the opposite sex or waiting to be served a refreshing iced lemon tea on a hot afternoon. In other words, Ford is not asking us what we like in its cars. Its asking our brain directly. Why go through the hassle of asking us when our answers are bound to be coloured by so many 'irrelevant' factors that have got nothing to do to with selling cars?!

Ever noticed how our mouth waters when you think of a pleasant food. In my program I illustrate this by describing a fresh green lime and lime juice. There are research reports from NASA which describes how astronauts in its training facilities are able to produce bodily readings that are only possible if they are actually on the moon. They do this by intense imagination. In other words, they imagine it so vividly that the brain actually believes that its on the moon and accordingly instructs bodily functions to adapt to conditions on the moon.

I can give many other scientific evidences on the limitations of the human brain but what does it have to do with leadership and managing people? The answer is EVERYTHING! It should make all leaders and managers sit up and think about their thinking. The so called logical and rational decision making that they do may not be that logical and rational after all. Its all mechanical.

The greatest of leaders and the best among the Human race have always known that they had a brain. For the rest, the brain had them. Now, is it a wonder why we have always searched for somehing higher than the brain. We give it fancy names like EQ and EI but the truth is, humans have known all along that the brain is not a tool to be entirely trusted. There are others. More on that the next time.

The Essence of Management

The great irony of today's world of management is that while managers and business leaders say that people are the true and real asset of their organizations, they also seem to forget that they too are the people of the organization. As managers decide on the next mind-shift their people need to ensure the success of the next wave of change, competition, product innovation, etc, they tend to forget that they too need to refresh, revitalize , rediscover and reinvent themselves. Look, lets not pretend for a second that management is an exact science. Its not and it will never be. It is a human endeavour so full of human successes and failures. As such, I believe we can increase the odds of successful management by paying a little bit more attention to the Self. The managers' battered Self.

Managers send their people for corporate coaching and training programs that imparts every conceivable knowledge and skills known; from effective communication skills to EQ at the work place. This is not to mention technical job-content skills and knowledge. How about the managers themselves? What should they go for? The same maybe or something more? I was told of an organization that requires its employees to read one magazine a month that has absolutely nothing to do with their IT related work. The reason : Creative juices flow when we give the mind a rest. The best way to give the mind a rest is by forcing it to think about something other than what it struggles to think about at any given moment. By dwelling into non-related areas the mind has a wondrous ability to make previously unconnected factors coherent, see the interrelationship of multiple ideas and make meanings where there were none before. Just ask the guys at Google who came up with the Google Map idea!

The point is this: I would suggest that managers and business leaders eagerly seek out opportunities to attend talks, seminars and programs that will help them give their minds a rest. Don't go for endless management development or leadership programs. Go for programs that talk about the Self for a change. Understand how the mind works and how it influences our world-view. Understand how conscious and unconscious thinking patterns affect us every moment of our waking life. Understand a little bit of human psychology. Gain an insight into religious psychology. Share, exchange views, let go of managerial pretensions. Let the mind rest. Allow the soul, the self to bloom. Trust me, you will feel rejuvenated.

I am glad to say that the managers of Maybank Fortis-MNI-Takaful Nasional who through the wisdom of their leaders are attending my workshop on Personal Mastery. 5 groups of wonderful men and women have come and shared their vision, mission and aspirations while at the same time leave the workshop with a little bit more understanding on how their minds will be a useful tool to take them towards their Personal Mastery. 7 more groups to go and I can't wait to meet each group as it is so refreshing to take them on a journey of Self mastery as more than anything else, that's what they will need to achieve their peak performance.

The essence of management is the people. The essence of people is the Self.

Change : The Expected and the Unexpected Kind

Its good to be back. Have not been writing much these last few weeks due to a combination of factors. The earthquake in Taiwan which disrupted the Internet lines in the region really tested my patience as it took ages to download even a one page word document. Almost immediately after my return from Jakarta, I had the opportunity to conduct a program on one of my favourite subject matter : Effective Problem Solving & Decision Making for the good people of Maju Holdings Sdn Bhd. Immediately after that, I began to deliver my program on Personal Mastery for Maybank Fortis - MNI - Takaful Nasional. This program will go on until the 2nd week of March. So, I will try my very best to put up new stuff as much as time allows.

Conducting a program for 4 days in a stretch is extremely fulfilling as I have the opportunity to get an intimate understanding of the challenges faced by my participants who are currently undergoing a change process. I hope with the sharing and discussion that takes place in the program, the participants will be well equipped to face the challenges ahead and to capitalize on the opportunities that will surely come their way in the months and years ahead.

On a more sombre note, I feel saddened by the continuous flooding of Johor. The first round of flooding was bad enough but to have to go through it again must be heart wrenching for the people down south. In the midst of all these, there are reports of looting and other criminal activities. It is a trying period for those affected and I reckon the spillover effects on the Malaysian economy, politics and society will be greater and will become clearer in the coming months. Malaysians need to dig deep into their selves to come out of this. As I have been telling my participants in Personal Mastery : The only way to manage expected and unexpected change is by taking control of it. Anything less will be disastrous.

My prayers for the people of Johor.

Career Transition and Management in a Changing Business Environment (2)

In many of my programs, I have emphasized the importance of acquiring emotional management skills. It is a truism to say that when everything being equal, the one who manages better or leads more effectively is the one who is better able to hold the reins of his emotions. The Hindu epic, Mahabaratha illustrates this well through the use of 5 horses that pulls the chariot of Arjuna on which is also Krishna, his teacher. The 5 horses represents the 5 senses of Man and Krishna spends quite a bit of time trying to convince Arjuna to control his senses so that.... here is the beauty of it all.... he can control his emotions which is in turmoil as his enemies on the other side of the battle field is none other than his own flesh and blood.

Having the most powerful being in the universe (Krishna) was no guarantee for success as Arjuna still had to manage his own emotional turmoil. Similarly having the most sophisticated skills and knowledge will only take an individual so far in today's changing business environment. This is especially so when the individual is expected to pick up the pieces after a strategic change in the organization.

Emotional management, EQ, EI or whatever one prefers to call it, is simply the ability to use one's emotional energy towards something positive; towards the direction which will bring the best results in the long run. The first step in this is the willingness to be aware of how our emotions, more than our intelligence, influences our actions. I say 'willingness' because for most of us, being up-front about emotions is considered a sign of weakness. Being able to do this will probably make the difference between success and failure in this unpredictable business environment.

Donald Trump once told the audience of his Apprentice that " He has to go.... I don't want to end up managing his emotions for him"!

Career Transition and Management in a Changing Business Environment (1)

From the 5th to 8th of December I was in the vibrant city of Jakarta conducting a Career Transition program as an Associate Consultant to Right Management Consultants.

One of the key skills that I think, young graduates entering the job market should have is the ability to plan out, direct and manage their career. Life time employment and cradle to grave benefits and protection will become a universal thing-of-the-past in the near future. Managers and business leaders at all levels must also be equipped with the right skills to assist their subordinates on how to manage their career development. Of course, managers too need to manage their own career development!

As organizations the world over has slowly managed to educate their work-force that a guranteed life-time employment is no longer feasible, the least they can do for their employees is to have a structured and well designed approach towards imparting career management skills to them. As what many companies are doing, such things are also best left to the experts as business is business and the focus should not be diverted to anything else.

In a world of change where asking people to leave after years of service has become 'corporate re-engineering' and where people turn-up as usual at the office in the morning only to be told that they have been 'right-sized' have become a norm, I suppose preparing employees to be able to pick up the pieces should be part of the Corporate Social Responsibility mantra. To truly have an impact on society and to gain true loyalty and goodwill of the people, organizations must look into ways of not only training and developing their employees in leadership, management and technical skills but also on how their employees are prepared for drastic changes which inevitably also affect their career development.

I hope to share more on this in my next few postings.

Business Defense Has Landed on Our Shores!

This morning I had an excellent meeting with Mr. Ronald Simon of the Handal Group. I say excellent for two reasons : 1. It is always nice to talk to those who are passionate about their work. Mr. Ronald is definitely one of them. 2. It was an eye opener for me on a new area (at least for me) of management education.

For about 2 hours, Mr. Simon took me into the exciting world of Business Defense which involves everything from business fraud detection & prevention to industrial espionage! With more than 20 years of experience (with a license from the Ministry of Internal Security, Malaysia), the Handal Group is at the cutting edge of this industry. Mr. Ronald is probably one of the few individuals in the country who are trying to 'professionalize' the whole aspect of Business Defense as a viable career choice. More importantly, he is hoping to make organizations in Malaysia see the need for their managers and leaders from all levels be equipped with some knowledge on Business Defense. That is of course if we are not waiting for a Malaysian version of Enron to happen first!

Business Defense is definitely an area where our current managers need to pay more attention to and it is definitely a new career path for our young people to consider.

Personality Differences at the Work Place

The following are some additional thoughts especially for the 42 wonderful people at Menara Maybank, Bangsar who spent the better part of their Friday evening on 24th November with me for their weekly MyTalk session on the topic of Personality Differences at the Work Place.

It was a pleasure answering all your questions as they definitely showed your keen sense of understanding and deep interest in the subject matter.

Personality differences is one of the factors that we often take for granted in work place settings. This is unfortunate as I believe most of the work-place conflicts are related to communication breakdowns which in return are often closely tied to the different ways in which people interpret words which of course, is largely determined by their personality styles. Similarly, many managers have confided in me how they don't seem to be able to 'get through' to a particular staff or are unable to motivate a certain employee while facing no such problems with the others in the same department or organization. On further analysis, I often find that in such instances, the manager has actually come into contact with a personality style which is either similar to that of his own or totally the opposite. Allow me to explain.

One of the personality styles which I call as the Enterprise are those people who are so focused on the end result that they often forget that their means to reach there often make others feel frustrated, angry or down-right resentful. Their communication style are often 'strong' and lack in emotive words which are more pleasing to the hearts and minds of most people. They despise excuse-makers and will not take 'NO' for an answer. If anything needs to be done today, they want it to be done yesterday! The thing is that, Enterprisers don't even realize that they come across as too hard; that is until they meet their own kind! When this happens, they will resent that person for exactly the same reasons why many others resent them! In other words, they can taste the bitterness of their own medicine.

On the other hand, an Enterpriser may meet an Analyzer who is a careful and slow decision maker. In the eyes of the Enterpriser this is tardiness and sparks fly. Hence, personality differences may come to the fore when one is in close contact with the same or opposite personality style.

I often say to my participants that when a work team is being set up, a manager should not focus on only those who can see eye-to-eye. Rather, there should be a good mix of personality styles in the team to provide an effective check and balance. As much as a team needs members who can get along well with each other, there must also be those who don't see things as the others do or don't easily subscribe to team norms as these may very well be wrong.

The solution to this : The onus is on us who are in leadership,managerial or supervisory roles to acquire some knowledge and skills in personality analyses and interpretations so as to better able to manage our people. As Jim Catchart once said, and acorn is meant to be an oak tree. It is in its nature to do so. By understanding the personality style of our people, we will be able to provide the most accurate assistance and guidance to our people based on their natural states.

More on Adult Learning....

The most effective corporate training programs are those that incorporate meaningful activities for the participants. For many of them, these activities are as close as they get to actually experimenting the new skills and knowledge acquired in real-life situations. As much as these activities are not 100% real-life in nature; they do help in making the participants understand and internalize what has been delivered.

In my experience, the best type of activities are those that are not too rigidly structured and provide ample opportunity for the participants to bring their own interpretations and view-points. For example, in a recent training program that I conducted on Planning and Scheduling for Effective Management, an activity based on the Work Break-down Structure was made more effective by incorporating the Work Responsibility Chart. This unexpected innovation by the participants made the activity much more effective. Sometime ago, I conducted an activity with a group of Customer Service Executives using ropes which was supposed to illustrate the importance of team-work and speaking one language to the customers. I had initially allocated 10 minutes for the activity and another 10 minutes for the debriefing. However, the participants were so excited to share their own realizations from the activity that I had to allocate an extra 10 minutes. For me, it was time well spent.

Adult learning is an art and science.

Adult Learning - Lets Not Forget the Basics

I suppose as we become more sophisticated, we also tend to become more forgetful of the basics in life. While searching for the latest this and that or while propagating a new this and that, we fall into trap of loosing ourselves in our own hype.

I find this applicable in most corporate consulting/training today.

Yesterday I was with a group of 6 great ladies who were all involved in Human Resource areas in one way or another. My presentation covered 3 areas : How to Develop and Retain Peak Performers, Training & Development in HR and Preparing for the 21st Century HRM.

Usually I will be a little concerned when the group is small as there may not be adequate sharing of ideas among them but not with these ladies! They were full of passion for what they are doing. Two of them were quite new to the world of HRM but their questions and feedback were insightful. The day-long program went in a blink of an eye and I wished I had another day with them.

The recurring theme in their discussion with me was the fact that they did learn many new ideas and HR strategies yesterday but they know for a fact that when they return to their respective organizations, there will be no one to share their new knowledge with and no opportunity to experiment with it.

This is what I meant when I said earlier that we often forget the basics while we search for the new and exotic. Sending our people to the latest training/development program in town or bringing in a 'foreign expert' to share his experience with our people will be of little use if two fundamental conditions are not met :

1. Preparing a mechanism for every employee who has attended a training and development program to share his or her new-found knowledge and skills with the others in the organization or at least with those from the same department.
2. Creating the opportunity and space for that employee to experiment with that new-found knowledge and skills.

The reason for the above is quite simple really. All employee training/development programs are fundamentally Adult Learning Programs and the above two conditions are, in my mind, the prerequisites to ensure their success.

Syabas! The People of CityLink (M) Sdn.Bhd.

Last week-end, I had a great time being with the amazing people from the Customer Service department of CityLink (M) Sdn.Bhd. Not only did they play an important role in making the 2-day program on Handling Difficult and Demanding Customers a great success, they also reestablished my faith in the future of customer service in Malaysia. As participants of the program, they eagerly immersed themselves in the new skills and knowledge that were presented to them and actively shared their own commitment to improve the delivery of their service to customers.

It was heartwarming for me to see how much effort they put in when practising the various new skills that were presented over an action packed 2-day program.

Syabas! to all of you and God bless.

A special thanks to Mr. Terence Mark for all the backroom assistance.

Living the Customer Service Code

The New Straits Times (Monday, November 6, 2006) published a reader's letter in which it was claimed that a staff of the 'ultra-moden' Rapid KL transport company insulted the reader and his mother for being too 'stupid' to understand the bus signs.

These are, fortunately, rare and extreme cases of service providers loosing-it in Malaysia. Yes, we have all heard some horror stories from the KL General Hospital, the Customs and even the National Registration Department. In fact even organizations that live and die by their service codes such as Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia have their share of service 'screw-ups'.

As much as these stories are exciting stuff to be sms and email fodder, what intrigues me more is the question : Why?... Why do these service collapse occurs among some of the most highly trained employees of organizations that mention the word 'world-class service' at every breath?

I would be inclined to say that the reason is that training and service-indoctrination has not been internalized by the target employees. You see, customer service must be declared and lived. By sending your people to such programs is your declaration of how important good customer service is for your organization. That's fine but the next step is, how are you going to measure whether the new knowledge and skills in relation to providing good customer service is being lived by your people? In essence, that's what it is all about: Living the Customer Service Code.

The 3 key questions that needs to be asked here are :
1. Did your people take away practical and implementable service ideas from such training programs?
2. Was there a proper analysis of what is the gap between your declaration and your actual living of that declaration
3. Have you built the right environment for your people to challenge the status-quo and experiment with new service ideas. As a good friend of mine often says, a Koy grows as big as the pond it is in allows it to.

Providing service (especially a service standard beyond the call of duty) is a psychological and emotional endeavour. The proof of the service is in living it.

Lets all live the famous Malaysian declaration of world class service standards!

Change When Times are Good! Please!

It seems that the mighty Microsoft Corp. is in trouble. It also seems that all is not well at GM. In fact, there are already rumblings of discontent at Sony Corp.

What? It can't be you might say. My question to you would be : Why not?

The biggest danger to an organization is when everything is going great. When you are as powerful as Microsoft, it is quite possible that you become complacent, slow to innovate and take your place under the sun for granted. That's why, the most successful organizations are those that are already looking out for new opportunities when there are seemingly no threat to their business or market share.

The worst threat does not always come from the outside. They often come from the inside. Ask Yahoo! they know this very well. Google is hitting them from all sides. Why? Yahoo! failed to translate their initial dominance into continuous improvement. As much as Total Quality Management is important, I believe that for today's organizations, Total Change Ability is also equally critical. Without the ability to change, today's success is a preparation to tomorrow's down-fall.

Malaysia Airlines, Proton and a host of other local players have and are still paying the price for this lack of change ability. Luckily, its never too late to change. More importantly, lets hope the other organizations are able to change before change is forced upon them.

The Corporation in a Civic Society

Sometime last year, Steve Balmer (CEO, Microsoft) was in Europe to negotiate a settlement of the anti-trust suit brought on by the Europeans on Microsoft. This was just after a prolonged battle between Microsoft and the US government over the same issue.

The legend says that, on the night of one of the most difficult days in the negotiation, Balmer received an urgent email from a group of his programmers demanding his quick action. The urgent issue : Microsoft's recently made public stand on its refusal to support a pro-gay legislation back home. Balmer then spent the whole night going through the issue. By the next morning, he has back-tracked his earlier decision after long-distance communication with his programmers.

This, for me, is beginning of the most powerful new global trend in which the Corporation will no longer be blind to the issues in the society. Corporations will make choices on what they support and what they do not. Their influence will grow in areas of legislation and they will increasingly flex their muscles in areas where traditionally the politicians held sway.

The influence of Corporations in playing back room politics is not new. They have been accused of even starting wars. However, by their sheer size and influence and the fact that Corporations will be increasingly manned by knowledge workers, it is inevitable that the issues of the community will be as actively debated in the board-room as the development of a new product.

The separation of Church and State will not be the issue in the coming years. The issue will be how much will we allow Corporations to be the vanguard of a new civic society?

The Trust Factor

John O. Whitney in his 1996 book, The Economics of Trust (Originally published as the Trust Factor in 1994) asks the following question:

" If everyone in your organization knew what to do; why he was doing it--

what would the organization chart look like?

If everyone desired to do his job correctly, on time, and could be trusted

to act with integrity in support of the firm's aims and goals, what would

your organizational processes and control systems be like?"

To answer his own question, he proceeds to put forward the hypothesis (which I paraphrase here) that like the concept of 'original sin', the entire management philosophy as we know it today is based on the presupposition that people are inherently untrustworthy and they can't be relied on to do the right thing. To ensure the check and balance is in place at all times, organizations have developed a complicated hierarchial system whereby each level in the system presupposes the one above or below it self will 'screw up' at the first opportunity.

Of course, I am putting it crudely here but that is about sums it all up.

I must admit that when I first read Whitney's ideas almost a year ago, it caught me by surprise. I felt that he has been able to explore the fundamental psychology on why organizations do what they do and why employees behave the way they do.

Maybe because this idea has been germinating in the recesses of my mind, it seems that for the past 1 year I have been 'picking-up' instances where I can trace the root-cause of a management/people issue back to a lack of trust in the parties involved. And, as Whitney has pointed out in his book, this lack of trust has a financial cost to it. Surprised? Consider this : How many signatures must a leave application carry in your organization? How many approvals for a purchase agreement? How many layers of decision making to decide on a new office mineral water supplier? You get the picture?

Anyway, the Foreword for Economics of Trust was written by no less than W.Edwards Deming himself. He writes:

" We have reached the limits of the capability of our current philosophy

and resulting methods of management....We can emerge from this prison

only through knowledge that is not part of the present system".

There it is. Its time to re-think, re-create and re-mind ourselves with new knowledge paradigms. As is often quoted : Yesterday's Solutions Can't Solve Today's Problems!

The next time you make a management decision, maybe you should consider the Trust Factor.

Leaders, Leading and Leadership

Jay Conger in his foreword for Leaders Talk Leadership (Ashby, M.D & Miles, S.A; Oxford University Press, 2002) said that " One of the hallmarks of effective leadership in this century will be the capacity to learn and adapt quickly. Years of experience will no longer be enough and, in some cases, may prove a hindrance. The shelf life of knowledge today is simply too short. Instead, a winning characteristic of the new generation of leaders will be its commitment to personal learning and the ability to generate a 'buzz' about learning throughout their organizations. The photographer Walker Evans's advice to novice photographers - " stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop" - will prove sound counsel for today's business leaders"

As far as I am concerned, I see two major lines of thought here from Jay Conger. First, the quality needed in today's leaders is the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn AND ensure the whole organization does this. Second, leaders need to get they hands dirty. Revolutionary thoughts? No. Well accepted? Yes. Practised? Hardly.

I have always and still do find it difficult to accept a CEO or a GM's request to meet his 'Training Manager' or his 'HR Manager' to talk about training and development related matters. I agree that the training manager cum HR manager (as often is the case) do play a critical role in T&D. However, to relinquish the entire responsibility to these two individuals is tantamount to putting in place a road-map for the eventual failure of the organization's T&D initiatives. The reason is simple. Today, the CEO/Chairman/President IS the business. The organization is there to achieve HIS objectives vis a vis the people and resources. Even in a GLC which many people assume wrongly to be a shadow play of the government, a CEO is still the life-blood that will decide the success or failure of its strategies. In other words, the final say (and responsibility for) everything that happens in an organization should lie with its highest decision makers. That includes training and development. These key decision makers must take the time to get involved in determining the T&D needs of the organization. Better still, they must be (once in a while) part of training programs even though the program is for lower level employees. I was pleasantly surprised to facilitate a module in the Bullet Proof Manager program (which is a 12-month long program) for a company whereby the General Manager was also part of the program together with other mid-level managers. This GM, let me add, does not lack in knowledge yet he found the time to be there. I hope there will be more like him or at least there will be more who will at least take the time to bounce their ideas with trainers and learning partners like me.

No matter how big or small an organization is, I believe that T&D is far too important to become the sole domain of the training/HR manager.

In the final analyses, the people are trained and developed to achieve some salient objectives and these objectives will in the end be about the bottom-line. Hence, shouldn't the highest decision makers be actively involved in such an important task?