In today's economy, many organizations are looking for ways to reduce their expenses and to do more with less. Embracing that idea, I'm creating a series of self-help tools for organizations to use to diagnose challenges and opportunities and to begin to plan how to overcome the challenges and to take advantage of the opportunities.
This isn't a "quick fix" situation--I need to work with the tools and to make sure that people can understand them. As a working prototype is developed, I am marketing it on eBay. I'm sure the marketplace will give me feedback on how to improve the tools--and the services that complement the tools for those who want more than self-help.
Selling the tools on an eBay auction seems to be a first step. I shared the DrM-Business Improvement Survey yesterday and today have released the DrM-Business Snapshot tool. The DrM-Workforce Training Needs Survey is now available.
I've had feedback from some professional friends that I need to change the vocabulary in my questions. At the same time, I have been developing the tools based on 40 years of experience in working with organizations in the area of development and change. Sometimes the tools are "just right" for certain circumstances.
CBS is starting a new "reality TV" series called Undercover Boss (on Sunday nights). I would be interested to see how these bosses could use the tools I am creating to help their organizations after their "undercover" experiences.
Showing posts with label support tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label support tools. Show all posts
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Monday, November 9, 2009
Developing Professional Competence for the 21st Century--Consultants, Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Pizza Chefs
"For a boy with a shinny new hammer, all the world looks like a nail." "If we have only one tool in our toolkit, while we may find creative new applications for that tool, we won't be able to do what we could if we had more appropriate tools for the requirements of the job."
In the early days of America, shortly before the Revolutionary war of 1776, many jobs were based on the master-apprentice model prevalent in Europe. A boy would be apprenticed to a trade. The owner would be a "master" craftsman and there would be other stages including journeyman and down to the level of apprentice. Variations on this model still exist today, including a popular concept of an "internship."
One of the purposes of such a model for acquiring professional skill over time was to have a wide variety of work experience allowing the learner to develop a repetoire of skills and tools with which to approach the professional challenges the learner would experience. The apprenticeship model also allowed people to move through the personal performance change curve (see slide 8).
In sales, many people rely on scripts developed to allow more junior sales personnell to cover key aspects of a sales transaction. When someone is obvious in using a script when trying to make a sale, the person who may be buying may be put off by the script. On the other hand, in professional management training, checklists are often used to make sure that managers follow the key steps in managing the appropriate interaction. While some employees may not like that their manager follows a script, others have claimed in the past, "Please follow the checklist. You are a much better manager now that you have one to follow."
That could be true for sales people and sales scripts as well.
Consultants, doctors, lawyers, teachers, pizza chefs, and many other professionals are expected to develop by practicing over time and by becoming reflective practitioners (learning by reflecting on their experience and improving their performance and outcomes).
Often someone comes up with a good idea that everyone likes and trys to implement. Peter Senge and the Fifth Discipline had a major impact on the consulting world. Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) and Michael Gerber (eMyth Revisited) are both popular authors whose books have inspired many consultants and many follow-up ideas. Eliyahu Goldratt (The Goal, Critical Chain) has developed a series of books and concepts and teaches consultants to work with a Process of Ongoing Improvement ("Poogi").
Professional consultants can benefit from all of these authors and need to integrate relevant tools into their professional toolkits so that they can bring out the most appropriate tool for the situation in which they find themselves.
A problem with consulting firms with massive teams of consultants is that most of the consultants were university trained and focus on relatively low-complexity tasks. The firm brings a wide variety of resources with multiple consultants with varying seniority to meet the challenges of their clients.
When someone works with a smaller consulting firm, the consultant needs to be more flexible, with a solid background of expertise and a network of professional contacts who can be called on to supplement the consultant's skills and tools as needed.
LinkedIn is a good social network for consultants to connect with peers. Sometimes consultants with websites provide links to others in their personal network and sometimes contracts are written so that networked consultants can be brought-in on appropriate pieces of client work.
These ideas are all part of evolving the concept of developing professional competence in the 21st Century.
In the early days of America, shortly before the Revolutionary war of 1776, many jobs were based on the master-apprentice model prevalent in Europe. A boy would be apprenticed to a trade. The owner would be a "master" craftsman and there would be other stages including journeyman and down to the level of apprentice. Variations on this model still exist today, including a popular concept of an "internship."
One of the purposes of such a model for acquiring professional skill over time was to have a wide variety of work experience allowing the learner to develop a repetoire of skills and tools with which to approach the professional challenges the learner would experience. The apprenticeship model also allowed people to move through the personal performance change curve (see slide 8).
In sales, many people rely on scripts developed to allow more junior sales personnell to cover key aspects of a sales transaction. When someone is obvious in using a script when trying to make a sale, the person who may be buying may be put off by the script. On the other hand, in professional management training, checklists are often used to make sure that managers follow the key steps in managing the appropriate interaction. While some employees may not like that their manager follows a script, others have claimed in the past, "Please follow the checklist. You are a much better manager now that you have one to follow."
That could be true for sales people and sales scripts as well.
Consultants, doctors, lawyers, teachers, pizza chefs, and many other professionals are expected to develop by practicing over time and by becoming reflective practitioners (learning by reflecting on their experience and improving their performance and outcomes).
Often someone comes up with a good idea that everyone likes and trys to implement. Peter Senge and the Fifth Discipline had a major impact on the consulting world. Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers) and Michael Gerber (eMyth Revisited) are both popular authors whose books have inspired many consultants and many follow-up ideas. Eliyahu Goldratt (The Goal, Critical Chain) has developed a series of books and concepts and teaches consultants to work with a Process of Ongoing Improvement ("Poogi").
Professional consultants can benefit from all of these authors and need to integrate relevant tools into their professional toolkits so that they can bring out the most appropriate tool for the situation in which they find themselves.
A problem with consulting firms with massive teams of consultants is that most of the consultants were university trained and focus on relatively low-complexity tasks. The firm brings a wide variety of resources with multiple consultants with varying seniority to meet the challenges of their clients.
When someone works with a smaller consulting firm, the consultant needs to be more flexible, with a solid background of expertise and a network of professional contacts who can be called on to supplement the consultant's skills and tools as needed.
LinkedIn is a good social network for consultants to connect with peers. Sometimes consultants with websites provide links to others in their personal network and sometimes contracts are written so that networked consultants can be brought-in on appropriate pieces of client work.
These ideas are all part of evolving the concept of developing professional competence in the 21st Century.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Careers in the 24th Century--Support Tools and Reality Checks
In this 21st Century, research has indicated that people can expect to change careers 12 times and have many more jobs. Some of the same literature talks about the fact that jobs have not even been thought of yet while thousands are finishing bachelors and masters degrees to prepare them for jobs that are already obsolete. Shift Happens 2008 (Did You Know 2?) is an eye-opening sequel to Shift Happens (Did You Know) first released in 2007.
Not only are traditional job search and recruiting tools obsolete, so, too are many of the career preparation tools. One tool that I found useful in working with students in middle and high school is http://www.careercruising.com/. If you are interested to see what I did with it, visit the Footprints Project page of my wiki space for middle schools.
I completed the career skills questionnaire my students would be expected to complete (117 career-skill-related questions) and Career Cruising came up with a list of 40 careers (jobs) my choices matched to. I was doing this to test the validity of the software as a tool and was impressed that, of the 40 choices, in the course of my career I have worked in 14 of the jobs listed--and still I have always done the same thing (in a wide variety of ways).
What I do--I make a positive difference in the world by helping individuals and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future.
It's amazing to me that I've done that in 14 jobs already, and sometimes more than once in any given job. What's even more amazing is that I haven't had more employers in the course of 40+ years of working.
Reality Check: The order of careers was based on my preferences and I was amazed by how my experience in these careers was reflected in the questionnaire.
Change is Upon Us
When I went back to graduate school in 1985, I wanted to get a doctorate that would let me work with adults and organizations who needed to learn how to change. My doctorate (which I completed in 1992) did prepare me to help adults and organizations learn to change and my post-doctoral Master of Arts in Teaching (completed in 2008) prepared me to extend this service to children as well.
I invested about $200,000 in my doctorate degree in terms of tuition, books, and loss of income while a full-time students. Much of what I learned was timeless. I know this because in my dissertation research I tracked the origins of reflection on learning concepts to the time of Confucius--about 300BC. (For a full-text copy of the dissertation [ATT9229831] visit this link.)
Since earning my doctorate, I have worked with thousands of people and more than 60 organizations in helping each learn how to improve their quality of life. My investment was worth every penny.
My goal now is to find ways to share what I do with more people. Can you help? If so, contact me through my Wiki Project page.
Not only are traditional job search and recruiting tools obsolete, so, too are many of the career preparation tools. One tool that I found useful in working with students in middle and high school is http://www.careercruising.com/. If you are interested to see what I did with it, visit the Footprints Project page of my wiki space for middle schools.
I completed the career skills questionnaire my students would be expected to complete (117 career-skill-related questions) and Career Cruising came up with a list of 40 careers (jobs) my choices matched to. I was doing this to test the validity of the software as a tool and was impressed that, of the 40 choices, in the course of my career I have worked in 14 of the jobs listed--and still I have always done the same thing (in a wide variety of ways).
What I do--I make a positive difference in the world by helping individuals and organizations learn to change to improve their quality of (business) life now and for the future.
It's amazing to me that I've done that in 14 jobs already, and sometimes more than once in any given job. What's even more amazing is that I haven't had more employers in the course of 40+ years of working.
Reality Check: The order of careers was based on my preferences and I was amazed by how my experience in these careers was reflected in the questionnaire.
Change is Upon Us
When I went back to graduate school in 1985, I wanted to get a doctorate that would let me work with adults and organizations who needed to learn how to change. My doctorate (which I completed in 1992) did prepare me to help adults and organizations learn to change and my post-doctoral Master of Arts in Teaching (completed in 2008) prepared me to extend this service to children as well.
I invested about $200,000 in my doctorate degree in terms of tuition, books, and loss of income while a full-time students. Much of what I learned was timeless. I know this because in my dissertation research I tracked the origins of reflection on learning concepts to the time of Confucius--about 300BC. (For a full-text copy of the dissertation [ATT9229831] visit this link.)
Since earning my doctorate, I have worked with thousands of people and more than 60 organizations in helping each learn how to improve their quality of life. My investment was worth every penny.
My goal now is to find ways to share what I do with more people. Can you help? If so, contact me through my Wiki Project page.
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