Learning and Change--Action Steps for Teams and Organizations

Teams and organizations are created for different purposes.  In general, they have goals and intend to work together somehow to achieve these goals.    This post is a continuation of yesterday's post on Learning and Change.  There is a follow-up post focusing on individual learning and change.

Sometimes teams are more successful than at other times in achieving their goals.  Over time meta-models have been created that help explain what is going on in the groups and teams that make some more successful that others.

The Team Tracking Tool (see slide 12) is reproduced below.  Notice the "Do Not Enter" sign at the top.  Many teams and organizations think they can go immediately from inputs to outputs without moving through the process steps required.  Almost 100% of the time this spells disaster and the team or organization has to undo or redo everything--as well as recover the lost trust that failure promotes.  Note the trust building elements of the tool.  Blake and Mouton developed a Managerial Grid explaining the different focuses of people and production in teams.  (A variation of that grid is reproduced below the Team Tracking Tool and a link to Blake and Mouton's model is also provided here.)

(Click on the picture to see it separately and completely.)

Blake and Mouton created a management grid to explain the relationship of people (maintenance) focus and production (task) focus.  The grid is reproduced on Wikipedia.

(Click on the picture to view it separately and completely.)

 Both task and maintenance functions are critical to the successful progress of teams and organizations.  Over emphasis on one or the other delays the development of trust and the effectiveness of teams.  In my early career in Change Management, I learned to make people my task--thus ensuring that both task and maintenance functions were completed.  Trust is the bonding that allows teams to function well and is a critical maintenance function.

(Click on the picture to see it separately and completely.) (See slide 11.)

 If trust is not allowed to develop, synergy--the energy that allows the output to be greater than what could be produced by the sum of its parts (people) will be missing.  As new people are added to a team, group, or organization and as the vision changes, building blocks of trust need to be revisited to allow for the group energy to move freely to the next area.

Challenge of Learning and Change--Shifting Comfort Zones

Learning and change are challenging.  Comfort zones need to shift and most of us are highly resistant to changing our comfort zones, especially with regard to things we think of as security.  See the post from February 16, 2010, on Change--Learning--Training--Innovation and the New Economy.

Several years ago I developed two meta-models to explain learning and change on the individual and organizational levels. The  Personal Performance Change Curve and the Organizational Performance Change Curve--See slides 8 and 9.  (I have reproduced them below to be part of this post.)

For years I have worked with people at levels in their organizations where they do not feel they can influence change.  We can change ourselves and our response to our surroundings.  Once we do that and adjust our own comfort zones accordingly, we may have more influence on those around us--even to the organizational level.

Awareness--Acceptance--Action are key requirements for change and are part of these two meta-models.  We need to go through those steps--frequently with someone who can assist us in the process--in order for learning and change to take place and anchor for something new to happen.

(Click on the pictures to see them separately and completely.)

(Click on the pictures to see them separately and completely.)

While these two meta-models go a long way to explain and guide change for individuals and organizations, they can usually be understood better if someone can walk people through the models with experiences from their own lives.

To help businesses focus on areas for improvement and change, I have made available a series of business survey tools on eBay.

On the DrM-Resources Services web page, check out these surveys: Business Snapshot-DrM, the Business Improvement Survey-DrM, and the Workforce Training Needs Survey-DrM.

This post is continued in the post on Learning and Change for February 21, 2010.

Making a Positive Difference--Leaving a Mark

Why are we here (on the planet)?  To learn from our experiences, to make a positive difference, to leave a mark that we made a contribution.

We revisit why we are here many times during our lives.  Sometimes our sense of purpose changes and sometimes it becomes better clarified.

Skype, Go to Meeting, Google--Video Conference Options

Video conferences--one-on-one, multiple users, with and without presentation graphics--there are many options available today, some free, some at a cost.

Skype is very interesting.  With today's built-in webcams, it is almost automatic once a user has downloaded and installed the free Skype software.  It is a little tricky to share presentations using Skype and it is certainly possible.  A chat (message) window can be open during video or audio chat on Skype.  Go to Meeting is another software which has a cost after a 30-day free trial period.  It supports video, graphics, and audio exchange.  Google has a new offering of video conferencing.

Internal and External Reference Points for Learning and Change

Each of us works with our own experience and thought in unique ways, though like noses, while each is different, there are many similarities.  Inductive and deductive reasoning serve to illustrate the point.  Deductive reasoning starts with something that exists and uses logic to break it down to its components.  Many mystery stories rely on deductive reasoning to solve the crimes.  Inductive reasoning starts with intuition and builds rather than breaking things down.  The connections need to be validated and inferences need to be checked out.

Some of us rely on external reference points to guide us.  We make the opinions of others a key factor in our own decisions and responses.  Others rely on internal reference points, "marching to the tune of our own drummer."

In the end, each of us is responsible for ourselves.  While we can make use of mirrors and feedback, we still need to make our own choices and deal with the consequences of these choices.

Change--Learning--Training--Innovation and the "New Economy"

Change requires learning and learning requires change.  It's one of the cycles that are intimately intertwined.  In "the new economy" many organizations (large and small) are not funding professional support for the changes and the learning they need to make to survive.

One of the approaches I have taken to support organizations with this problem is to create a series of business tools supporting change and making them available on eBay.  These tools can be self-help tools or can be the focus for a DrM-Resources Service.

Contract recruiters have been approaching me for support in utilizing social networking services as a support for both collaboration and knowledge management.  There are many ways to use these services to support sharing and knowledge management for organizations with all levels of numbers of employees and large and small budgets.

What characteristics of the "new economy" signal that most organizations need to learn and to change?  For starters, we have close to 10% unemployment across the USA.  Millions of jobs have been lost and President Obama, in speaking about job creation, has not focused on high end jobs which have been sacrificed when organizations have had to cut back on their employees.

As in previous times, companies need to do more with less.  What is not like previous times is that the customers and providers that companies have relied on are no longer there--or are no longer there with the same resources they once were.  How many companies do you know who are living on their reserves and waiting for the economy to "recover."  We have heard that we are experiencing a "jobless recovery" in our economy.  To be honest, I'm not really sure what that is supposed to mean.

Organizations and individuals and families need income to cover their expenses--now and for the future and the past (debt).  Jobs were the way most families generated the income.  Unemployment insurance and lower-paying jobs don't generate the income needed for expenses.  While social security payments did not go up this year, expenses have continued to climb.

Organizations, families, and individuals now need to "reinvent" themselves to succeed in the "new economy."  Reinvention requires learning and change.  We are back to the beginning of this post.  It is a cycle and organizations, families, and individuals can benefit from support while going through this cycle of learning and change.

(See the follow-up posts about Learning and Change from February 20, 2010, and February 21, 2010.)

President's Day

While President's Day (Washington's Birthday) is celebrated on the third Monday of February, his real birthday was on February 22.  The celebrations date back to 1885, though celebration on Mondays was tied to legislation passed in 1971.

All Federal offices are closed and the day is celebrated in many states.  The U.S. Post Office was closed as were banks.  UPS delivered today.

It is good to think of the contributions made by all U.S. Presidents on this day--starting with George Washington and moving through the line of Presidents to the present.  We have an amazing history and Presidents have had--and continue to have--real impact on our history and our lives.