SOME USEFUL – INTERESTING RESOURCES To help leaders and team members understand themselves and others and work together more effectively: The Social Styles Handbook – Wilson Learning Library PACE Palette – communication style assessment www.paceorg.com Predictive Index Assessment Tool – behavioral assessment www.piworldwide.com The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization – Peter M. Senge TMBC.com – Marcus Buckingham Focus of work is on leveraging individual strengths

On a mission to retain, manage and transfer knowledge and experience? This is often the starting – and sometimes the stopping point for organisations. This like any other goal for a business can not be addressed – at least not successfully --- in isolation.

Then, Now and the Future The physical environment The work The people Traditional structured cubicles The work Work and responsibilities narrow silos The people No true team structure or interaction Random social groups/connections The physical environment Open ‘pods’ based on geographic regions The work New ‘leveled’ roles The people Teams of 6 – 8 with a Team Leader Cross function, experience and generations Not change for change sake – change with purpose and intent! Physical changes – to help build teams, cooperation, information sharing, leverage the strengths of individuals in context to the team. Work changes – remove barriers of understanding… reflective of diversity of knowledge and understanding. Leveled roles provided progression via development and career progression = retention of staff People changes – create a broader base and disperse the knowledge of the department and for individuals. Create opportunities for individuals to grow and develop. Integration of the LEARNING ORGANISATION MODEL

The Goals Vision for a desired end state Improved ability to adapt to change Retain and transfer knowledge and experience Retain staff Not change for change sake – not ‘flavor of the day’ Connected and interdependent goals -- What did we want to improve as oppose to change?

What do you need to start with? Commitment up and down the organisational chart Learning organisation model (LO) Right people for the work and doing the right work for the people Without commitment up and down the org chart – limited success Integrate learning and continuous learning into the function of the team and the roles within the team. For new hires – right people for the work starts with the recruitment process. Screening interview Meet the team interview Profiling candidates – tools such as Predictive Index Re-meet the candidate interview For existing staff – doing the right work for the people. Helping them understand and adapt to change Create a working environment that is change and conflict resilient Ownership of personal development and growth

The LO Model The Goal Strategy Style (leadership) Skills Strengths Stakeholder Values Shared Value Systems (process) Structure The LO Model Training and Development Many different sources for this information available. It is a strong model to use as common goal or goals is a key element… everything drives to the same desired and understood outcomes.

Bridging, Transferring, and Sharing within a Multi-Faceted Work Environment “Team member bridges” created and supported by the work environment Work distribution and individual progression that requires and supports knowledge transfer and sharing Continuous adaptation leveraged through multi-faceted work teams Changes to the physical environment created bridges within the teams – shared and sharing knowledge and experience is an expectation regardless of role, seniority etc. Distribution of work and individual progression how work is distributed and individual progression are linked work/tasks are categorized based on complexity and roles follow the same model of degree of knowledge required to ensure that individuals can put all the pieces together as they progress through basic to more complex tasks. Leveraging diversity all the work belongs to the Sr. Specialists (3 levels) individuals were placed in the most appropriate corresponding role Representative Specialist Sr. Specialist -- Example: team members with less experience overall might have more experience in a specific level of work and would be able to be positioned to share/train individuals with longer service.

Bridging, Transferring, and Sharing Recruitment How Who On-boarding and integration into the team Retention “Leaders” and team builders Recruitment Only recruit new staff for the first/entry level position within the team Individuals with strong foundational skills and diverse knowledge – team centric and service oriented primary consideration integration into the team starts during the interview process and follows through to day 1 on the job Retention creation of an environment that allows individuals to leverage their strengths and opportunities for improvement even playing field for all – team leads to remove barriers and coach in addition to manage/lead progression in the hands of the individual – how quickly can they learn new tasks etc.

In a Nutshell Removed the physical barriers Removed the technology barriers Removed knowledge and experience barriers Physical barriers can and do keep individuals from interacting remove physical barriers that can create selective social groups remove reliance on limited individuals Technology barriers don’t always apply to the long term or ‘older’ employee comfort with new technology or adaptation to changes in technology is often associated with younger employees comfort with existing systems and ones that might be seen as ‘antiquated’ is most often associated with long term employees Knowledge and experience barriers will always exist determine how to level the playing field for newer staff leverage knowledge based on experience not years of service use a learning organisation model to entrench learning into the daily work for all staff