A lot of tasks that academicians need to go through, may simply be outsourced, if one approaches it through the prism of convenience. But this misses the very point of academics, which is to train the next set of talent. Managers who find delivering corporate training a chore, need to get back to the class room, but as teachers, not trainers. This is because while the latter emphasizes a lot on delegating, teaching is about imparting of necessary skills. Mere delegating often gives employees the faulty image that they are incapable of some work themselves. One way to start off, is to gauge who all in the team are ambitious enough to go up. Managers who take personal care in the development of the next level, end up learning a lot more about the work themselves.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/10/how-to-stop-delegating-and-start-teaching?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter

Uploaded Date:20 May 2019

When long- serving corporate leaders depart, they and their colleagues often want them to pass along as much information as possible to the next generation of employees. Ed Catmull who long held the top- spot at Pixar, served a lesson in how this wisdom can best be passed on. He ensured that on his last working day, all of the management training sessions would be as inclusive as possible. The talks were intimate, so it touched upon every one. Instead of merely answering questions that were posed to him, he would ask questions. This showed a sense of inquisitiveness till the last. Such show of undiminished curiosity is widely appreciated. Space must be created for others to air their views as well.

Source:https://hbr.org/2019/04/how-departing-leaders-can-pass-along-their-wisdom-to-employees?utm_campaign=hbr&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Uploaded Date:13 May 2019

Engineering grads are expected to solve a number of complex problems. But their studies do not always stress on real- world issues. Creative problem- solving often eludes them. That is where there is the need to build divergent thinking in them. To solve this, several companies have now started management training exercises aimed at building mindfulness. The likes of Google, Cisco, Facebook and P&G are among those to have started such programmes. Meditation too is useful as it helps improve the abilities at idea generation. Engineering design tasks have been integrated with students and professionals undergoing such training. It has clearly resulted in a creative upturn.

Source:https://hbr.org/2019/01/how-mindfulness-can-help-engineers-solve-problems

Uploaded Date:13 May 2019

Human beings are a neotenic species, which makes them compelled to keep learning at every stage of life. This behaviour reflects at the workplace as well where beyond the work profile itself, the most important factor determining employee satisfaction, is the learning opportunities provided. To ensure that one keeps learning, employees need to be able to learn within the flow of work. Knowledge workers should especially be benefited by this as they spend a substantial amount of time in front of computers, gleaning through vast treasure troves of data. Google and YouTube are two such platforms that enable us to learn with the flow of work. Bottom- up learning can best be done through formal corporate training sessions organized for improving mindfulness and metacognition. A to- learn list needs to be maintained by the employees. Tech- enabled tips need to be utilized at work. A dedicated learning timeline needs to be incorporated within one’s calendar. A few hyper- relevant newsletters need to be subscribed to as they will provide pinpointed business intelligence. The best way to further expand one’s knowledge is to actively disseminate whatever one knows already. Top- down learning needs to be encouraged from the leadership, by liberally sharing content internally. A localized chat interface needs to be put in place. A channel within the internal communications software, needs to be dedicated towards learning.

Source:https://hbr.org/2019/02/making-learning-a-part-of-everyday-work

Uploaded Date:11 May 2019

Corporate training programmes often suffer due to over- generalization. When all kinds of employee personalities need to be trained together, it often becomes difficult for all parties concerned. Fortunately, there are ways in which this one- size fits all culture can be reversed. For that, first of all, all the developmental information on the employees, needs to be organized into a spreadsheet. These grids need to be revised periodically, based on newer data received. Proper data warehousing needs to be done on employee behaviour and patterns, for this grid to be rightly curated. Every quarter, a deeper introspection needs to be made on the data available, so the training sessions may be revised accordingly. There must be constant communication with the team members concerned. During the time of the annual performance evaluation, team leaders must duly consult these spreadsheets.

Source:https://hbr.org/2019/03/why-a-one-size-fits-all-approach-to-employee-development-doesnt-work

Uploaded Date:27/03/2019

Most working professionals have by now understood that their work will either get replaced by machines or augmented using some sort of human-machine interface. The replacement will be by robots in case of manual work, or by AI in case of cognitive nature of work. The World Economic Forum (WEF) helped in clarifying that soft skills such as creative thinking, collaboration, empathy and context sensing will be high in demand. This will be a difficult transition, as honing soft skills is not well understood, unlike the hard skills for which so much analysis is available. One of the major barriers to this transition is the fact that schools run a lot like factories, as the foundations have stayed solid since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. There are a lot of electronic gadgets for children growing up, as a result of which, the human interaction reduces. Work today is also highly stressful, which naturally leads to a reduction in empathy. Going ahead, schools need to eliminate the glorification of rote learning. Specific corporate training programmes need to be initiated which will help employees use technological innovations to hone soft skills, as done successfully by KFC. Certain wearable devices must be used which can reduce stress.

Source:https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-challenge-of-scaling-soft-skills/

Uploaded Date:21 November 2018

Irrespective of the job, sector or profile, all employees generally want to work with a senior from whom they can learn something. If this skill set can be built into team leaders, the company will gain a highly positive image in the market. This will make talent recruitment and the subsequent retention much easier. To begin with, team members’ goals need to be defined beforehand and communicated to them unambiguously. Corporate training sessions need to be introduced to build on the team members’ skills. But before that, the leader needs to first identify their skills in the first place. Opportunities must be created using which employees can grow. This includes the right feedback mechanism, challenging assignments and a positive work environment.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/09/great-employees-want-to-learn-great-managers-know-how-to-teach?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter

Uploaded Date:12 November 2018