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May 07, 2012 - by Deborah Busser  

Significant shifts in the workplace are under way. Here's what to expect in the coming year. 

Some fundamental shifts are occurring in the workplace. Though it appears that little has changed—as employees who haven't yet

been laid off hunker down, try not to get noticed, and wait things out—in fact, the workplace continues to evolve. Shifts are

happening below what is visible on the surface. New trends are emerging and some old ones are coming back, too.

The past few years have been difficult all around. The recession has affected all aspects of our lives. The Occupy Wall Street

movement has brought attention to many of the ways our current systems and structures no longer work. There is pent-up

frustration with many aspects of our modern society, and the traditional model of the workplace is no exception. Some employees

are resigned to making less and doing more, while others are drawing the line on what they will and will not accept—and you may

be surprised to find that it is the latter group you most want in your organization. In addition, new research and changing

demographics continue to exert influence on how the workplace is evolving.

The following nine trends are among those emerging or returning in 2012.

Expect to see real movement from management principles to leadership values. Employees are savvy, and although they have

been relatively quiet as they wait for the return to normal following the recession or almost-recession, they've been carefully

watching. Employees know when an organization's walk doesn't fit the talk, and they are getting impatient with following managers

who are less self-aware than they are.

New 360 assessment tools strive to measure leadership agility and learning agility, which by definition require a more conscious,

aware, and, dare I say it, spiritually connected leader. The leader as an expert with a command-and-control style is out. The leader

as a visionary who facilitates creativity, collaboration, true empowerment, and shared purpose is in. Leaders in the evolving

workplace engage their employees' hearts as well as their minds, and seek to draw out the leader inherent in every member of their

workforce.

As the Baby Boomers work their way up Maslow's hierarchy of needs to self -actualization, many are searching for deeper meaning.

No one wants to feel like a sell -out at work, yet in the past employees have rationalized or tolerated less than optimal work situations

because their families needed their income, and "going along to get along" seemed like the only choice they had. But underneath

they've been yearning for a deeper connection, and they are aware that the clock is ticking.

Employees want to know that their time and how they spend it have meaning and purpose, and they are tired of compartmentalizing

their work life and their personal life. In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink discusses employees'

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needs for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Expect the evolving workforce to insist on living their values at work, as well as the

organization's values.

Expect to see a focus on workplace culture as a means to grow the business. Some of the best organizations (for example, Whole

Foods, Panera Bread, SAS, and Google) spend little on marketing, yet put time, energy, and resources into making sure they have

a sustainable culture.

When your company is perceived to be an organization that really cares about its employees, this can be some of the best PR you

can get. Customers patronize businesses that care about their employees, and they will even pay more if they believe you share

their values.

Management often is blamed for workplace cultures that are less than optimal, and though they often do need to take the lead, in

great workplaces everyone is brought into and shares ownership for the culture they collectively create. Ron Shaich, founder and

chairman of Panera Bread, remarked at a recent Conscious Capitalism Conference that "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."

Remember back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when organizations had departments devoted to fostering diversity? Diversity is

back. There are new reasons for valuing diversity, and yet again it has to do with the customer—and with shareholders.

From a customer relations perspective, companies need people inside their organizations who are representative of the customers

they are trying to attract. And though it doesn't feel like it now, there will be a shortage of skilled talent in the not-too-distant future as

Baby Boomers leave the workplace in increasing numbers.

Demographics alone make clear that those companies that will effectively compete are those that have created organizations where

they can harness all of the talent the marketplace has to offer. And let's not forget diversity of perspectives and thinking. The best

companies embrace diversity of thinking, believing a nonhomogeneous workforce results in greater innovation, faster. Diversity may

become the new "green" or "sustainable."

You have heard all of the statistics about women "opting out" once they reach a certain rung on the ladder. This is true, and there

are myriad reasons for it. However, what also is true is that the greater the representation of women in senior executive roles and at

the board level, the more profitable those organizations tend to be.

Recent research from McKinsey & Company and ION show a correlation between having more women on corporate boards of

directors and higher company earnings. Grassroots campaigns such as 2020 Women on Boards, and professional organizations

such as ION and The Boston Club were created with the expressed mission of increasing female representation on boards. They

are drawing attention to those firms who are doing well or making progress, and those who are not. And in light of recent legislation

mandating greater board diversity in Europe, many American companies are looking to more proactively get ahead of the curve.

Where you are geographically or on the organizational chart is less important than who you know. Although the downside of instant-

access technology gadgets make employees feel on call 24/7, the upside is that all of that technology, as well as social media

platforms such LinkedIn and Facebook, make it easier to maintain relationships with both current and past co-workers.

Greater amounts of information and expertise are shared and used as an advantage, and employees become known for who they

know and can access, rather than how much time they log in the office. This will be important as aging Baby Boomers stay in the

workforce longer than planned but demand more flexibility in where, when, and how they work.

Job titles and hierarchies are less important than the work and the team. In a similar vein, instant-access technology means that

employees are not as dependent on the hierarchies of the past for information. And corporate downsizings already have winnowed

down many layers of management. Employees realize that to be successful they need their co-workers, but they are less interested

in where people's names are on the org chart than in what they know.

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With these developments, a new definition of teamwork emerges. Rather than everyone on the team "playing their positions," the

effective teams of the future believe that everyone chips in and does what is needed. Savvy employers are staffing the work, not the

 jobs, by creating more flexible work arrangements that allow them to scale and take advantage of talent that is less interested in a

traditional 9-to-5 model of work.

McKinsey & Company released "The War for Talent" in the late 1990s, which described an ongoing, constant, and costly battle for

the best and the brightest. It predicted that organizations would have to be more creative in attracting talent and would have to work

even harder to keep it.

Even in this economy with record unemployment, employers still say they can't find qualified employees. The most sought-after

talent are fast-moving, independent thinkers who have adapted to the new free agency reality. They view their permanent jobs as

long-term assignments, use the skills and talents they bring, and don't worry if what they most want to accomplish in life doesn't

seem to fit within the confines of work.

If they are getting their greatest needs met, they also are likely to make their strongest contributions at work; it is not a zero-sum

game. The hottest talents value their freedom, know their value, and are with you because they choose to be, not because they

don't see any other options. Realize that they are likely to be ready to leave you before you are ready for them to go, and eliminate

as many reasons for them to leave as you can.

Larger corporations and more elite universities know how to partner well and have established strong internship and recruiting

programs that let them attract and identify top emerging talent. However, there are more opportunities than ever to partner with

community colleges.

One of the effects of the ever-rising costs of both private and public universities is increased enrollment at community colleges, with

many colleges forced to add classes late at night and early in the morning to meet demand. In addition, many two-year colleges are

under scrutiny by state officials to make sure they are truly educating the future workforce. State governments are looking for better

community college completion rates, as well as specialized and targeted curriculum that prepares graduates to truly contribute to the

local economy. Expect to see an increase in private-public partnerships between local employers and the two-year institutions in

their neighborhoods.

Despite the recession, significant shifts in the workplace are under way. Organizations must address these trends to ensure that

they are well positioned for sustainability and growth.

Forward-thinking companies will be proactive in facing these challenges and opportunities head-on.

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May 07, 2012 - by M.S. Rao  

The concept of soft skills is still an evolving discipline surrounded by myths that must be busted. 

"The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world." —Lao Tzu

The learning and development (L&D) function has undergone a tremendous change in the 21st century. Gone are the days where

all sectors underscore technical skills alone. Currently there is a change in the mindset of companies to highlight both hard skills and

soft skills. However, there are several myths associated with soft skills.

For L&D staff to perform effectively in the workplace, they must know the truths about soft skills. The mere acquisition of hard skills

alone is not sufficient for employees to survive in the corporate world. In fact, what is needed is the perfect blend of both hard and

soft skills to excel as successful professionals. It's important to know the differentiations between the two types of skills, as well as

bust the myths about soft skills.

Soft skills are the abilities required in the workplace for professional success. They are the polite and pleasing way of presenting to

others and are mostly related to personality, attitude, and behavior. They are a collection of several skills and abilities related to the

execution of such tasks as communicating, managing time, negotiating, writing, listening, reading, presenting, problem solving, and

decision making. They are essential at every level of an organization if it is to function smoothly and successfully.

Hard skills are technical competencies and domain knowledge, while soft skills are a combination of people skills, interpersonal

skills, communication skills, and emotional intelligence. Companies search for a blend of both soft and hard skills among their

employees to deliver goods and services effectively to their clients. It is rightly said that people rise in organizations because of their

hard skills and fall due to a dearth of soft skills.

Here are 12 myths about soft skills that are running around in the minds of professionals. It is natural for these myths to exist since

the concept of soft skills is still an evolving discipline. However, it is time to bust these myths with truths.

Soft skills are inborn qualities. Soft skills are not traits and qualities people acquire through heredity. As the term indicates, these

are skills and abilities that can be acquired through observation, reading, teaching, training, experience, practice, and from other

sources.

Soft skills are closely connected with the English language. Soft skills are in no way connected with any specific language.

People often think that those who speak fluent English have strong soft skills. Especially in such countries as India, where educators

with English educational backgrounds impart soft skills training, people assume that English is associated with soft skills. Soft skills

deal with how you speak, not in which language you speak.

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Soft skills are synonymous with communication skills. The truth is that communication skills are both the cornerstone of soft

skills and a subset of soft skills. People often emphasize that those who are good at communicating with others both in written and

unwritten forms are experts in soft skills.

However, soft skills are broader in nature and go beyond communication skills. There are other skills—such as interpersonal skills,

team building skills, negotiation skills, etiquette, motivation, time management, and critical thinking—that constitute soft skills.

Emotional intelligence alone encompasses soft skills. Emotional intelligence is an integral part of soft skills, but doesn't

represent the totality of what soft skills are. People who have high emotional intelligence are effective in managing their emotions,

thus displaying a mature mindset. They can be better at people skills because they can discover, motivate, and manage their

emotions, as well as discover and motivate the emotions of others. Being aware of emotional intelligence helps people to bring out

behavioral changes, thus promoting soft skills.

Soft skills are interpersonal skills. Although interpersonal skills promote soft skills, soft skills are not synonymous with

interpersonal skills. However, effective interpersonal skills promote better relations with others by minimizing the differences and

promoting similarities among individuals. Hence, interpersonal skills pave the way for soft skills.

Soft skills symbolize the softness of people. The truth is that soft skills are not connected with the external appearances of

people. They represent how politely and pleasingly people get the message across to others without hurting them. Soft skills are

more about how you communicate than how you appear externally.

Soft skills are synonymous with listening skills. People who are good listeners have good soft skills. Research reveals that only

5 percent of people are good listeners; the remaining 95 percent are average or poor listeners. It is rightly said that leaders are good

listeners. Listening skills not only denote leadership ability, but also signify having good soft skills. Frances Hasselbein has this to

say about listening: "[I]t's called respect, it's called appreciation, it's called anticipation, and it's called leadership."

Soft skills are employability skills. Soft skills pave the way for employment and are regarded as employability skills, especially in

countries such as India where candidates have unemployability and unemployment problems. When candidates have educational

eligibility, suitability, and capability but don't have employment opportunities, that is known as unemployment. In contrast, when

candidates have educational eligibility but not suitability and capability to grab employment opportunities despite having employment

opportunities, that is known as unemployability. In this context, soft skills are known as employability skills because they enhance

employability for candidates. However, it cannot be concluded that soft skills are synonymous with employability skills.

Soft skills alone help ensure professional success and career advancement. People who don't have any knowledge and aresimply good at communicating with others demonstrate chinks in their armors, and thus will fall f lat professionally. What is needed is

the combination of soft and hard skills to ensure quick growth in one's career. Hard skills are the basis for professional survival.

There are instances in which employees have strong hard skills but fail to survive because they lack soft skills that enable them to

gel well with superiors, peers, and subordinates in the workplace.

Women have better soft skills and men have better hard skills. This is the biggest myth of all. Soft skills are not gender specific.

Soft skills are not transferable. There are three types of skills— job related, self-management, and transferable—that are essential

for L&D professionals. Job-related skills are related to hard skills; self-management skills are related to the individual; and

transferable skills can be used across multiple professions irrespective of industries. Hence, it is a myth to conclude that soft skills

are not transferable. In fact, soft skills are the transferable skills that are needed in all professions, from peon to principal and from

 janitor to CEO.

Frontline employees are better at hard skills, while support staff are better at soft skills. Every employee must possess both

soft and hard skills for professional success. Although frontline staff, such as faculty members in a business school, play a crucial

role in organizational excellence and effectiveness, the role of support staff, such as HR personnel, accountants, and librarians,

cannot be ignored because they also are crucial to the success of the organization.

It is unfortunate that people often take lightly the significance of soft skills. In fact, the concept of soft skills is an evolving domain

that people must take seriously; people have to be educated about them.

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Whenever a new discipline surfaces, people resist and mostly don't respect it because there is no strong research to substantiate its

relevance. However, over a period of time people start accepting and respecting the discipline. For example, there were many

people who initially did not take management as a discipline seriously, and expressed their reservations. Today, management as a

discipline is a reality, now having a sacred and respectable position like many other disciplines in the world. Similarly, soft skills will

evolve as a discipline during the course of time when more research is done.

It is often difficult to quantify soft skills (unlike hard skills), but soft skills are both intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies that

determine a person's ability to gel well with others and excel in the corporate world. Penelope Tobin said, "Soft skills are the traits

and abilities of attitude and behavior rather than of knowledge or technical aptitude."

Robert Katz outlined three skills needed at each level of management: technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills. The so-

called human skills can be replaced by soft skills, and the need for these skills remains constant at each level of management, even

though there is variation in other skills from one level of management to another. There is decreased significance in technical (hard)

skills, and increased importance in conceptual skills for all employees. In addition, Ram Charan unveiled the need for technical and

business acumen for leaders at all levels.

Soft skills are very much needed in this present world where complexity and uncertainty have become the hallmarks of businesses.

They are required of all employees, from the bottom to the top level, to ensure professional success and enhance employee

productivity and performance.

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May 07, 2012 - by Sarah Wakefield  

The technical training enigma is tough to crack, but here are a few tips that can help ease you along the way as you

develop a program. 

I once worked on a technical training course for a product line that had more than 315 different abbreviations associated with it. At

first I didn't believe there could be that many—until I sat down one day and counted all 13 pages of them. It is not uncommon for

technical topics to have a language of their own; in fact, this is part of what makes technical training development so ... special.

Technical training is not easily classified. Whereas nontechnical content often can apply across the board, technical content is

specialized to each topic. Other characteristics that make technical training development unique include scarce or confusing

information, constantly changing technology, the status quo of previous (ineffective) courses, and—most important—reliance on

subject matter experts (SMEs). Effective developers must juggle all these factors while still producing a technical course that is truly

valuable to the organization.

Although difficult to maneuver, technical training can be achieved. Here are a few tips that can help ease you along the way.

For technical training, it is extremely important that the right people are in the right roles. There is one important person that you

cannot afford to have miscast: your main SME.

A good SME is needed as a guide and a resource throughout the project. The SME should have extensive experience with the topic

and, if asked, should intimately understand what the areas of focus need to be for the target audience. Additionally, you should look

for the following characteristics.

An ideal SME should have enough time to devote to the project. This can end up being a challenge because good SMEs

usually have many responsibilities since they are good at what they do.

An effective SME should have numerous contacts and resources. Contacts are important so that the SME can point you to

another person if an answer is unclear. The resources the SME has available (either electronically or in hard form) allow you to save

time and avoid duplicating efforts.

The SME should be able to communicate. For most situations the SME should not be a person who tends to be too general or too

detailed. For example, if the SME tends to give information that is too general, it can be hard to make the class challenging, and

general statements can leave room for errors. Being too detailed becomes a problem when it paralyzes a perfectionist SME and heis not able to continue on with the project because it is not absolutely perfect.

Now, the question you may be asking is: Where do I find this person? It usually is not hard to find a good SME if you know for what

you are looking.

When considering a possible candidate, ask a few questions about the technical topic and judge the quality of the response in terms

of understandability, length, voice tone (exasperated at the onset is not a good sign), and length of time to answer (if asking a

question via email or a survey, for example). Try to gain a grasp on the business impact your course will have. If your SME also is a

stakeholder in the outcome of the project, you may have more luck.

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Don't be afraid to look around. If the original SME who you were assigned to or who you found is not the ideal person to work with,

ask around for a different one. Be honest with the original SME; she may be able to point you to someone else who would be better

suited to help out with the project.

Although it can be helpful to work closely with one or two SMEs, it is important that you still gain a broad perspective by talking to

multiple people. Remember that different locations and countries have different norms, rules, and laws regarding the way work gets

done.

When training a global audience, find out what employees face in all locations, not just one. It is easy when developing training to

get caught up in the practices of one world view. In a multinational economy, however, this won't work.

To be relevant on a global scale, try to secure a list of what products are used and what services are used and performed in

different places. Talk to stakeholders in various locations. Allow time for many dif ferent people with different perspectives and

situations to review material. Consider offering a baseline training module with additional add-on modules that can be tailored

depending on the location.

Adults learn when they are able to share experiences and be involved in their own learning. It is no secret that active learning is

necessary to achieve acceptable retention levels.

Yet many organizations fail to use these principles in their technical classroom training. One reason may be that organizations are

not aware of existing research and have been content with the status quo of just telling students what they need to know through a

lecture.

Another reason may be that it can be more difficult to develop technical training and, for whatever reason, when subjects are highly

technical it can be more challenging to build interactivity into a classroom course.

Enlist your SME's help to identify ways to make a particular section interactive. If you can get your SME to understand what you

seek, his intimate knowledge of the topic can add a breadth and depth to the exercise that you might not have been able to generate

on your own.

Also, when in doubt, keep the exercises simple. An easy way to add interactivity to a class is to ask students to write down all that

they know about a topic before you begin discussing it. Talking about these items can help steer you around topics already

understood and toward topics that need more detail for that particular group of students.

Specifically tie the training to a job, task, or case scenario whenever possible. Even with complicated topics, a good SME should be

able to walk you through the basic process of the job and pinpoint major portions that should be clarified and emphasized.

If you are not deeply familiar with the topic at hand, it can be challenging with technical training to determine what is "nice to know"

and what is "need to know." As a developer you will have to be on the lookout for determining whether the material you are including

really has a point. Often there is a relative scarcity in text regarding highly specialized technical products or operations.

When a developer does find some text, there is the temptation to use it even if it diverts a little too far away from the main objective

of the module. Maintain discipline and eliminate content that is not related to the objective of the section.

If you suspect your SME is gearing off in a wayward direction with course content that does not match previously agreed-upon

objectives, quiz her on it. Asking "How does this help meet our course objective?" is a simple way for you to figure out how the

information fits.

If the information does not fit nicely, ask why. Course objectives were set at the beginning of a project for a reason: they were

labeled as priorities. Don't be afraid to question why course content defers from objectives.

However, this also is an important area in which to practice tact. It is possible that seemingly wayward content is, in fact, crucial to

the course objectives, but it is not obvious to you because of a lack of understanding of the concept on your part.

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Keep that in mind, and also remember that while you should strive to keep to your previously agreed-upon objectives, you also

shouldn't be strictly confined to them. It is possible that objectives may change slightly as you get deeper into the material and the

SME realizes that certain facts were originally overlooked.

It is no fun to put together a course that will promptly be obsolete. Ideally, we want our courses to enjoy a long shelf life while still

being relevant. You won't always know if a product or service you are training on is going to go away, but you can at least p rotect

yourself by asking as many questions as you can about the future of the product line.

In this rapidly changing marketplace, it is important that training staff are clued into what tools or services the business plans to

emphasize and which ones it plans to phase out. Ask about these matters in an email to management, engineering, or operations to

gauge the future of that product line, which will save you time, resources, and money in the long run.

Breaking the technical training enigma is not easy. Still, whether it is finding a good SME, making the course applicable to all

locations, incorporating interactivity, keeping the main point of the course in focus, staying up-to-date with changes in the business,

or even simply learning the extensive abbreviations of the technology, there are strategies available to assist you in development.

With focus and preparation, you can develop your own technical training effectively.

For many organizations, technical training is necessary on a global scale. Taking training on the road can be a rewardingexperience and quite valuable, but to be effective, there are some factors to remember when developing or delivering technical

training for different cultures.

Plan your strategy. Do your homework and know your audience. If your training plan or tone differs from the cultural norms of the

location you are training, recognize this and provide rationale to your learners. For example, let’s say you wish to have an informal

classroom where everyone is free to ask questions and discovery learning is encouraged. However, you happen to be training a

culture that expects the classroom to be a formal place, where even raising a hand to ask the instructor a question is considered

rude or even a challenge to authority. In this situation, you might plan to begin the learning event by setting expectations and

explaining that you will be diverging from the norm, but that this is planned and it is OK. You might also plan for activities that allow

students to respond as a group rather than individually. Accommodate the culture when you can and explain yourself when you

diverge.

Double-check your communication choices. This means little considerations such as analyzing the words you choose to explain

a concept. It means avoiding abbreviations (or at least spelling them out at first use or providing an abbreviation quick reference

guide). It also means establishing a numbering system. For example, will you use the imperial or metric (or Canadian metric!)

system in your course? How will you use commas and periods when expressing numbers? (For example 123.120 could also be

123,120 or 123 120 depending on where you are in the world.) To ensure success, clarify these at the beginning of your learning

event.

Plan for language barriers. Have a plan in place for what you will do if there are language barriers. Will you write key words on the

board? Will you provide a glossary of terms? Will you stop every five or 10 minutes for a comprehension check? You also can plan

to maximize the use of images. Pictures, graphics, and animations can explain concepts that words can muddle—especially with

translation issues. A picture just might be worth two thousand words when language barriers are present.

Mind your manners. You are not expected to be perfect, but you always should err on the side of politeness when dealing with

other cultures.