Management and Coordination of Training and Development HPO’s & HRD Organizations as Systems Systems Thinking

The Process of Systems Thinking Look at a problem from a holistic perspective Identify & respond to changes quickly Resource: “Systems Thinking” ASTD; Info-line, March 1997. Issue 9703. Similar to HPO’s, High Performing Work Systems imply that all parts of an organization must work together as a whole to reach goals of an organization. Senge defines Organizational Learning as a process people of all levels individually and collectively are continually increasing their capacity to learn and produce results they care about. Brinkerhoff & Gill: Discuss issues related to today’s org structures that compatmentalize depts (admin, mkt, sales, pr, r&d) – Specializing of work and comparmentalizing business units separates work from the learning process. “People make things at work, learn things at school” Departmental structure of the Training function has the effect of seperating learning from work

Benefits of Systems Thinking Improves decision making through keen assessment Keen assessment leads to effective interventions These benefits have been attributed to systems thinking: Ask the right questions Involve stakeholders – implies an internal and external changing of goals and needs Shared understanding of the problem Big picture provides a competitive advantage

Characteristics of Systems Thinking Complex relationships and interdependencies Reframe an issue or problem See the entirety Discern patterns Question all underlying assumptions You are able to understand complex relationships and how they are interdependent upon each other (examples?) Application of Systems Thinking: No final or right answers – best place, highest leverage point Solutions require thoughtful consideration Behavior gets worse before it gets better There are limits in every system Foresight will benefit us in the long run

Perspectives of Systems Thinking Events Patterns Structures Moving from Events to Structures… Ways to view a problem – events (simply reacting to something), patterns – deeper into the problem Event: 3 trainers quit Patterns: how many times has something happened? In addition to trainers other employees have quit Structures – what underlying structures are producing patterns of behavior that we are seeing with this problem? Answer – key organizational decision made earlier was company was experiencing a decrease in financial returns and ceased publication of weekly performance update for employees. Stopped information flow and employees feared company was failing and as a result left. Now what are your thoughts about solutions? Once you decide to take action what ramifications will they have on an organization? (pg 4 of HO provides great questions).

Implementing Systems Thinking Group #1 – Stating the Problem, Telling the Story, identifying the key variables & ways to visualize a problem Group #2 – Creating loops (balancing, reinforcing, archetypes) Group #3 – Effective interventions & relevance to HRD Group #1: Chris, Sue Group #2 – Rick, et all Group 3: Stef, Matt & Kelly Walk through job aid

Tying it all together With your knowledge of systems thinking, high performing organizations, and HRD competencies develop a strategy and present it to key management Case study – hand out to each group

Best Team… Recall the “best team” experience Describe your experience Consensus Acknowledge Individually recall the best team experience you have ever been a part of (what was it about yourself, the situation, the task and others who made this a peak experience? Silently jot down thoughts about this. Maybe a sports team, work team, family / church etc. Each group member describes their experience – remainder of group asks ?’s of the focal person On basis of what you’ve just discussed, list and develop a consensus on the attributes of highly effective groups As a member of this newly formed group publicly acknowledge anything you saw others in your group that helped your group be more like the attributes…