Poor Learning Costs Money by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

At Grand Hyatt Hotel- Singapore on May 4,5,6, 2011.
Jolito Ortizo Padilla as a Resource Speaker

The key question in today's climate is not how much can we save on training but how much will it cost us if we stop learning. This is a business critical factor- not just to survive but to thrive , claims Jolito Ortizo Padilla.

Organizational learning is not one of those issues that Chief Executives tend to get excited about. It is often seen as an academic concept that one should nod sagely about before quietly ignoring. But if you stop for a moment and consider your organization's top five successes and failures, it will become pretty obvious that many of the component of success have to be learned , and many a failure could have been prevented or minimized by better organizational learning. Achieving more of the former , and avoiding the latter, is precisely what what Chief Executives do get excited about.

In some respects organizational learning is like individual learning but on a grander scale. It is about acquiring , storing and using the right knowledge to make the best decisions. It is about building and deploying the right skills to make those decisions. And it is about connecting people and ideas in ways that generate innovation, unleash talent and extend organizational capability.

Mechanisms and systems can be created to help embed this into organizational practice . Some organizations have a knowledge capture process when someone leaves a key position. They also have post-project reviews so that lessons can be captured and held ready for next time. But getting learning into the fabric of how you do business , into the culture, is a more complex challenge.

Interested in how that would work in my own organization, I set out to do some detailed qualitative research. What emerged was quite striking. Some of the most valuable learning was spread across the organization through informal conversations. These conversations were not just about passing on facts, they also expanded the learning, generating new ideas and possibilities. Structured communications, training and IT systems all had a part to play; but far and away the biggest factor was the propagation of knowledge by staff-through casual conversations, often over a coffee-and these were neither planned nor coordinated by the organization itself. It is cheap, fast,allows people to access the subtler aspects of learning and is inherently stimulating to the people involved. Unfortunately; on its own, it is not sufficiently reliable and robust for us to sit back and do nothing else.

In bigger organizations, especially those geographically distributed, it is not easy to know what, much less to access it informally. Yet, incredible knowledge, experience and hidden skills exist within every organization. A number of organizations use knowledge sharing tools to spread good practices across internal boundaries. Getting "the rest up to the standard of the best" has to be a prime business imperative. This is fairly universal issue. Undoubtedly; the character of how  you share knowledge may vary from culture to culture . I know from my own work in Singapore, China and Hongkong, for example that factors like deferring to authority play an important role. But I also know that the pragmatic desire to improve is also a potent force wherever you are in the world.

Understanding the psychological dimension of organizational learning is vital if you are to find effective ways to enable it to flourish. What you really need is to have a "CLUE":
  - Culture: a culture of curiosity, a spirit of collaborations and critical mass of people who can make connections;
  - Leadership: leaders that learn and share  learning; actively demonstrating that this is a strength and not a weaknesses;
 - Understanding: a shared understanding of the importance of learning , how best to share  it, recycle it and exploit it; and
 - Engagement: the energy , commitment and concern for others that embodies great employee engagement; going the extra mile in learning as well as performance.

It is not just the academic research that suggests these human factors need to be in place -experience at the front line of operations confirms it. Try this simple test; take a walk around your office or factory just listening and observing. Look to spot when learning is happening organically and when knowledge is being sought and shared.I bet that what  you will see and hear is human interaction.  And, even without being telepathic. I bet that you will pick up many of the factors shown above. I bet you won't spot a centrally contrived process or system. The more you can learn about what happens naturally, the more you can work with the energy and flow that already exist.

That said, really substantial organizational learning often needs a critical impetus and mechanisms to embed it in the organizational memory.

The consequence of learning ,or not learning , can have a profound effect on individuals, communities and the economy as well as organizations. In the current economic climate, most businesses are looking to access whatever resources they can in order to keep their foothold in the marketplace and survive. What is great about organizational learning is that it is often already there; latent , but ready to be harvested. And it is an asset that holds its value when times are good as well as when  they are tough. And I said: "Learning is the only sustainable source of competitive advantage.

Leadership and Change- A Presentation to the Professors and Students of the University of Malaya....... .March 15, 2010...

GA Business and Management Consultancy
The Real Best in Asia

In that presentation, I said, " Just when we thought we were adjusting to the rush of change, the technological revolution has been revved up and turbocharged by an information revolution- a development that confounds us at times but also opens up new doors for us... and these technological changes are plunging us heading into realms that we could only have dreamed of not long ago.

I pointed out that, " It's our responsibility as the champions of quality improvement to embrace change that lead us to new potential and achieves the vision. It's been said that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things, but as Robert Kennedy told us, " Only those who dare to fail can ever achieve greatly...."

Of course , these thoughts seem fairly tame today. Anyone who has tried to hold on to the status quo over the  past 15 years probably has been run over by change! Many of the factors we speculated would be increasingly important not to the workplace back then are not only everyday realities now, but actually were surpassed by changes we couldn't even imagine at that time.

Jean- Baptiste Alphone Karr, the French critic, journalist and novelist , wrote the epigram that usually is translated, "The more things change , the more they stay the same." You may think that leadership is a fairly constant concept, but this issue makes it clear that even leadership is not immune to the effects of changing world. In fact, the more appropriate quotation for today's world probably is, "Nothing endures but change," as Heraclitus, the Greek Philosopher noted.

The global economy and multinational work force are part of every organization's landscape today, and they require new thinking and practices from leaders. Corporate social responsibility isn't a theoretical term; it's a requirement described in an international standard and demanded by stakeholders. Lapses in ethical leadership are subject to governmental and private investigations, litigation, and fines- and they cost companies their reputations and in some cases, their survival.

One of friends recently said, "Leadership in corporate Asia is not for the fain hearted." It's difficult to argue with that perspective, yet there are still many people who aspire to leadership roles, and fortunately, there are many with the capability to succeed. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "The greatest waste in the world is the difference between what we are and what we could ultimately be."

On the Lighter Side::: English Quote and Endpiece written at CHANGI AIRPORT to NAIA AIRPORT...

QUOTE:
The English language is amazing -its ability to express complex ideas, perhaps to clarify them, perhaps (often) to confuse; its daft spelling and intricate grammar. yet it is today the premier means of communication in the world. Nobody, not even the Oxford English Dictionary , knows accurately how many words there are in the language. But we have found puzzle word ( to which we will give you the answer as we go along):

What fairly common English word is nine letters long, and each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word?
STARTLING                                   This is the word remove L and we get--
STARTING                                      now remove one T and we get---
STARING                                        now remove A and we get...
STRING                                           now remove R and we get..
STING                                             now remove the other T and we get...
SING                                               now we remove G and we get...
SIN                                                  now we remove S and we get...
IN                                                    finally remove N, and we are left with....
I                                                      a real important word in itself

And, of course, all the shorter words as we remove letters are real, usable dictionary words. Our starting word may not be unique: perhaps you would like to try to find a similar one?

PIECE:
Most of us have words that we find difficult to spell properly. English language spelling is a problem: English is, no doubt about it, daft. It has so many illogicalities that it almost defies rules; there are some, but they are often broken.

Unfortunately, however, correct spelling is important-especially in business. You can probably get away with schoolboy howlers in writing to a friend and, of course, texting knows no spelling rules.

But when writing we presumably intend to be understood , so an accepted formulation of letters into words is probably best. Even if your spelling is a bit erratic, it needs to make sense. For example , if you spell enough-"enuff"- it isn't OK, bit it could still be understood. Such spelling will not really bring you much credibility in a business letter. En"ough" is a sound: the same letters can be pronounced in speaking as: "off" (cough), "ow" (plough), "aw" (naught), "o" (dough); it's no wonder that we are confused sometimes.

We get irritated when we find spelling mistake in a book, or a business document; it's careless. If in doubt, look the word up in dictionary. Poor spelling creates a poor impression of the writer to the reader.

Alphabetical writing was perhaps the most significant invention of our civilization. Turning the sounds into words in formal letter patterns has gradually , over centuries, becomes codified into spelling. This has enabled us to communicate , not just face -to face- (we don't need spelling when we speak to each other), but over distances and in documents of all kinds. The fact that you are reading this piece, even though I've used a lot of long words is wonderful-I hope it is all spelled korrectly!

ENDPIECE:
I went to a debate recently; the topic was: "Is television debasing our society". A pretty broad proposition , and the discussion was lively. The upshot was that television was not absolutely debasing us, but it wasn't giving us much moral uplift either. A fairly predictable result, but it got me thinking.

While watching TV, or in the cinema for that matter, we are passive participants; we don't do much, we just watch. Maybe we have some reaction of agreement or disagreement , pleasure or perhaps disgust at something shocking-but we don't really do anything. It is this mental and physical inertia that perplexes me. Even, say playing cards , or a simple or complex board game, there is some movement, interaction, conversation. Watching TV , even in company , seems to be a solitary occupation with little or no interaction; is there also no brain action?

Another solitary occupation is reading. I don't mean reading just for study purposes , I mean reading for pleasure. So are you sitting comfortably? Then you can begin and slip into a world of your own imagination, not something manufactured for you by someone else. That's the important point about reading, you can stop where you want and use your imagination to think about the characters, or the situation. You are not pushed on by screenplay into the next shot, without having had time to digest what is going on.

I know that there is all sorts of technology that allow you to backtrack, but with a book you can go back and re-read a sentence, a page , a chapter even -in your own time. And somehow a remote control isn't as comfortable in the hand as a good book. Go on- try it.

Learn How to Learn by Jolito ortizo Padilla



The book is available in IPad , Playbook, Sharp Galapagos-tablet reader, Sony e-book and Samsung Galaxy e-reader

 I once described training as "polishing goldfish". Training often starts with a shiny, happy participant, eager to learn-so why doesn't the shine last? The newly trained person is, at first, all shiny energy, excited about applying the new skills and knowledge. But soon the murky waters of the organization start to scuff their shininess. The person becomes disheartened. And this seems particularly the case for training in people skills such as management and leadership.

WHY DOESN'T THE SHINE LAST?
People can learn a lot about what to do, and even how to do it, through effective training. But do they learn from experiences in the real world, as they happen? Do they find out how they can make the most of life's experiences?

Few training sesions have components on:
- How to distinguish process (how to do it) from content (what it is), and how to manage each:
- How to identify and best use one's learning style: or
- How to "learn how to learn" from work and life experiences.
Are participants ever asked: "Do you know how you learn best?" or "How do you learn at work, from your successes and failures?" or what activities do you have in place to build your competence?"

I believe that one of the biggest payoffs participants can get from training is an understanding of how they"learn how to learn".

PROCESS OR CONTENT?
People need to develop a set of expert skills that they can apply across situations, contexts and functions-process skills.
They need to:
- Identify when they are using the various skills , models and theories in their actual situations at work, so that they can apply them again and again;
- Assess their level of performance in terms of these skills in current work issues;
- Learn the skills and processes that are transferable from one situation to another and those that are not;
- Most important, build their own model of leadership"-something that is unique to each person.

LEARNING STYLES
People learn in a variety of ways. Some of you reading this article will have read every word (and be starting to question some of them); others will have skipped over much of it, picking out just the main points. Some might be looking for the pictures , diagrams or models that are not here. Others will have not read this article but merely heard some of the points discussed by colleagues.

LEARNING TO LEARN-THE REAL PAYOFF
Once people understand their own learning style, the next step is to apply this knowledge. We learn from our experiences that we learn most from. We miss many of the learning points that slip under the radar when everything is going well.

A good format for the learning process is:
- Begin with the past-what did I learn and how?
- Proceed to the present- what does this mean for me now? How is it impacting on my thoughts and feelings?
- Consider the process , the subject matter and the future-what worked for me, what didn't? How will I apply this?
- Build in review -when and how will I review my learning?

There are many different outcomes, but the great thing about all these processes is that people are consciously learning where they learn best: in the real world.

 

What Jolito Ortizo say about Empowerment and Core Competencies

In this second selection in our  series " Management Ideas", we  focus on some important human resource management issues:  "Empowerment" and "Core Competencies". These are techniques that  students  employ to better understand the capacities of business environment.

Management Ideas was conceptualized during my stint in the  Middle East. These are valuable ideas that all students need to be aware and, where appropriate , act upon.

Empowerment is a feel -good idea that " an organization is most productive when all its employees are empowered to make  and take decisions on their own". Authority is devolved down to all levels of the organization ; it seems to prove what all sensitive , liberal folk believe should be the case.

The idea is most closely associated with Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School professor who argued that large companies need to liberate employees from rigid hierarchies if they are going to be able to manage in the fast changing future.  She believed that "powerless people live in a different world and may use oppressive power." She left that women were particularly in need of empowerment because traditionally they had been allocated low status jobs.

Ten years after Kanter's ideas were published , another Harvard Business school professor, Chris Argyris, said, more or less: " Nice idea: shame about the results". Employees were often unprepared or unwilling to assume the new responsibilties that it entails.

To understand why it was not working. Argyris set empowerment in the context of an individual's commitment to his or her place of work. He said there are two types of commitment:
- External commitment or contractual compliance. This is the sort of commitment that employees display under the command -and-control type of structure, when they have little control ovet their own destiny and little idea of how to change things;and
- Internal commitment. This is something that occurs when employees are committed to a particular project or person for their own individual reasons. Internal commitment , said Argyris, is closely allied with empowerment.

Argyris argued that many corporate programs designed to encourage empowerment sent out mixed message, such as "do your own thing- but do it the way we tell you." The result was that employee felt little responsibility for the program, and people throughout the organization felt less empowered.

He suggested that companies should recognize that empowerment has its limits. It should not be a goal in itself but a means to the ultimate goal of superior performance. Organizations should establish working conditions that will encourage their employees' internal commitment and make clear how this differs from the external variety.

Core Competence
Core competencies are the collective learning in the organization, especially how to coordinate diverse production skills and integrate multiple streams of technologies; core competence is communication, involvement and a deep commitment to working across organizational boundaries ;core competence does not dminish with use. Unlike physical assets, which do deteriorate over time, competencies are enhanced as they are applied and shared. There are three tests to be applied to determine whether  something is a core competence:
- First , a core competence provides potential access to a wide variety of markets,
- Second, a core competence makes a significant contribution to the perceived customer benefits of the end product; and
- Third, a core competence is difficult for competitors to imitate because it is a complex harmonization of individual technologies and production skills.

The core competence idea is useful to managers for focusing on the essentials, and also for identifying those things that are not"at the core". Why, management might ask, are these non-essential things being allowed to consume valuable resources?

The drive to identify core competencies has moved in line with the growing popularity of outsourcing. Companies are able to outsource almost any process. But they need to know what the hard core of activities is that make no sense for them to hand over to a third party. In some cases the answer is:very few.

The idea spreads from core competencies to core processes, core business-everything that constituted the essence of what company is and does. Companies are encouraged to focus on their core as a source and untapped potential in a time of rapid change and unpredictability.

Project Governance by Jolito Ortizo Padilla

Governance is the framework of processes that allows power to be employed in a way that exercises the organization's legal rights and ensure that obkigations are fulfilled. Organizations need governance in projects for three reasons.

First, modern organizations invest heavily in project- based work. This is often future focused and relates to future prospects. Corporate governance rules therefore require the organization to ensure that governance extends to their projects, so the tight projects are chosen and controlled.

Second, each project will have a business opportunity to address and good governance and delegation protocols will set the direction for the project. A business case will define the opportunity risks, benefits , resources and budget. This is supported by appropriate checks and governance reviews.

Third, the governance processes internal to the project ensure management of resources is used to address the work efficiently as possible while maximizing effectiveness. These may be supported by defined project management methods and support from associated disciplines.

Good governance will recognize the difference between projects and normal processes. To support both business and project teams there needs to be a framework of delegation, planning , risk management, reporting and review. If the organization runs many projects , efficiency can be increased and communication improved by repeating a defined project management process.

The behaviors that are seen when governance is working may seem unremarkable:
- Work to be done is well defined and carefully communicated to the team
- Roles and authority are defined.
- Budgets/accounts and risk profiles are up to date, reflected in plans and available for assurance reviews
- Progress reports are accurate and timely
- Management is actively deciding whether to continue the project at each milestone and assigning appropriate resources
- Priorities assigned to different projects in the portfolio are used in decision making.

However, when these are directly visible within normal governance structures, the organization has a governance system that is capable of controlling its portfolio of projects and has an indication of its future prospects. Few organizations have achieved this fully.

The pressure on project teams to "get it done" can often lead to short cuts that lead to issues. Some clues that this happening are the planning documents are not up to date, project reviews become meetings with little purpose, riskd and issues are identified but there are no actions taken and no changes to the plan are made, and quality actions associated with completed products are unfinished.

The recognition of the need for good governance of project management and within projects has increased in the current economic climate. The governance best project group has published two guides under the title  Directing Challenge designed for those who wish to review the robustness of their governance arrangement. Guidelines are shown in my book Strategic Management: Building Competitive Advantage, 2nd edition.

Anecdotes written with my Sony Bloogie Pocket Camcorder

Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you.But those who  hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Subic, Olongapo, Philippines

Family in Distress

Fire is mostly an ordinary scenario in the Philippines-Poverty is the root cause.

Spending happy days in Subic, Olongapo  to some fortunate people

Be Healthy 

We experience moments when our eyes seem to sparkle, when we feel that even our skin seems to dazzle. There are usually moments when we are in love or appreciated and recognized. Call them Aha!, experiences are spiritual highs. Suddenly everything becomes clear, and anything seems possible. Suddenly God becomes real, faith becomes important, life looks bright and everything seems fall in place. Do not just wait for these moments. Look for them. Find your destiny . Claim your faith. Live your life.

There is time for everything.Let us reflect in our lives. Is there really joy in our hearts? Do we have peace of mind? Do we have time to thank the Lord for the flowers, the air we breath, our health, our families and for the gift of life? Do we complain every moment of our lives about everything? Or do we find enjoyment in habitually and frequently criticizing, maligning or slandering others? Let us assess the quality of our lives.

With our riches are in Christ, our relationship with loved ones become strong, we have peace in our heart, we have confidence in facing people because we are real as we can be. This is for me is what true riches are all about.

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