Action learning

I had a very interesting week this week as I started training as an Action Learning coach.  I have attached a link to give you an overview of Action Learning.

Action Learning is not only an effective problem solving process but also it is of great value in growing learning for individuals as they work in teams.

Here is a  video from Michael Marquardt  that covers the six essential elements for successful action learning programs, explore the steps and processes of action learning, and have the opportunity of practicing action learning.

Some other resources around Action Learning are set out here.

• Wiki article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_learning 
• Explanation from on-line learning http://www.educ.utas.edu.au/users/ilwebb/Research/action_learning.htm
• World Institute for Action Learning - http://www.wial.org/ActionLearning/ 

I am happy to talk to you about how this process could be used to help you and your team.

Are You Too Pessimistic About Your Personality?

Go to PsychBlog (here is the link to the full article LINK )

When psychologists compare people's ratings of their own personality with those of others, they find something curious. There are consistent and reliable differences between how people, on average, see themselves and how those closest evaluate them.

Estonian psychologist Juri Allik and colleagues gathered personality tests on participants across Europe; from Belgium, The Czech Republic, Estonia and Germany (Allik et al., 2010). People were asked to fill out one personality questionnaire themselves, and get someone who knew them well to do the same.

Here are the five different dimensions into which personality is most often broken down, along with brief descriptions:

• Extraversion: assesses how outgoing you are, for example do you love or hate parties?
• Neuroticism: centers around the dark thoughts you might have about yourself and others.
• Openness to experience: measures how much you like trying out new ideas or activities.
• Agreeableness: looks at how easy-going you are.
• Conscientiousness: do you get things done or is your to-do list overflowing?

How to Commit to a Goal

From PsychBlog (go here for the full article - LINK )

The researchers divided 136 participants into three groups and gave them each a different way of thinking about how they wanted to solve a problem, in this case it was an interpersonal one.

1. Indulge: imagine a positive vision of the problem solved.
2. Dwell: think about the negative aspects of the current situation.
3. Contrast: first imagine a positive vision of the problem solved then think about the negative aspects of reality. With both in mind, participants were asked to carry out a 'reality check', comparing their fantasy with reality.

Talent Matters: How to Manage a Bad Manager

From the Corporate Executive Board - full article here http://cebviews.com/rtec/2011/01/25/talent-matters-how-to-manage-a-bad-manager/

I AM NOT SURE I AGREE WITH THE "BAD" USAGE - THINK IT IS MORE OF A BEHAVIOUR IN NEED OF IDENTIFICATION AND WORK.  THE KEY FAILURE I HAVE SEEN IS THE LACK OF UP FRON EXPECTATIONS AND FEEDBACK - REMEMBER YOU CAN LEARN FROM BOTH "GOOD" AND "BAD" EXPERIENCES AND ENSURE YOU SET UP EXPECTATIONS AND KEEPING SUPPORTING YOUR TEAM MEMBERS (Steve P)


If you have a bad boss working under you, you are probably well aware of it. You’ve likely heard complaints, or seen poor employee survey results, or simply noticed that her employees are not happy. Managing a bad manager is a particular challenge because poor performance directly affects, and can cause disengagement in, others.

Fortunately, like most bad habits or behaviors, being a bad boss is changeable. In fact, for many, being a people manager is not intuitive and they need to be taught or shown what it means to be good at it.
If you’re managing a bad boss, here are four things you can do:

1. Identify the bad behaviors. Understanding exactly what the manager is or is not doing will help you support them in getting better. Take the complaints you are receiving and identify patterns and consistent behaviors that are contributing to the problem. If there isn’t a lot of noise, but you know something is wrong with a manager, talk to his direct reports to get input. Ask for specific examples that you can share with the manager to illustrate the issue. Distinguish between poor management and misconduct, such as bullying or harassing. Misconduct should not be tolerated.
2. Provide tailored support. When any employee, manager or not, is failing to adequately perform, it’s your job to provide feedback, counseling, and support. Once you know what behaviors you want the manager to change, sit down with the manager to discuss the specifics of the situation. Ask for the manager’s perspective on what she thinks is going on. Her diagnosis will help identify the underlying issues and generate solutions that she can get behind. Since managing people is not a natural strength for some, you may need to provide her with training or coaching.
3. Make expectations clear. It may be that managers are unaware of their responsibilities for people development. Perhaps they are overly focused on achieving targets or snowed under with other tasks. Make it clear that managing his people well is an important part of the job. Be sure to put your measurement where your mouth is and incorporate assessment of management skills into the formal review process. Garden Ridge, a home decorating retail chain, uses a People Development Scorecard that distills employee survey results, associate interviews, store managers’ own perception of people development quality, and HR managers’ observations into a single performance score. HR uses the scorecard to guide individual store managers’ development as well as cross-company up-skilling initiatives.
4. Document progress. Make sure to keep a record of your conversation and confirm in writing with the manager what she has agreed to do and how you plan to help. Check in regularly and document any progress. Hopefully the situation will improve. If not, you will need a record of it to protect against any allegations of unfairness.

Welcome to new readers

I have commenced some coaching through nCompassHR and this has given me the opportunity to meet some great young executives working in a Government Department here in Canberra.  So two things - if those managers have just logged in thank you again for the recent session and I hope to hear from you as you access this blog.  Steve P

Keep your planning real - not just dreams

From Psyblog:

We often hear from self-help gurus that just this type of happy dreaming is a good source of motivation. If we can picture our future success then this will help motivate us.

Loosely speaking there is some truth to this: positive thinking about the future is broadly beneficial. But psychologists have found that visualization and fantasy can be tricky customers and research carried out by Oettingen and Mayer (2002) shows why.

Fantasy versus expectation

The researchers wanted to see how people cope with four different challenges that life throws at us: getting a job, finding a partner, doing well in an exam and undergoing surgery (hopefully not all at the same time).

Across four studies the researchers examined how people thought about each of these challenges. They measured how much they fantasised about a positive outcome and how much they expected a positive outcome.

The difference might sound relatively trivial, but it's not. Expectations are based on past experiences. You expect to do well in an exam because you've done well in previous exams, you expect to meet another partner because you managed to meet your last partner, and so on.

Fantasies, though, involve imagining something you hope will happen in the future, but experiencing it right now. This turns out to be problematic.
The researchers found that when trying to get a job, find a partner, pass an exam or get through surgery, those who spent more time entertaining positive fantasies did worse.

Take those looking for a job. Those who spent more time dreaming about getting a job, performed worse. Two years after leaving college the dreamers:

• had applied for fewer job,
• unsurprisingly had been offered fewer jobs,
• and, if they were in work, had lower salaries.

For the full article go here http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/01/success-why-expectations-beat-fantasies.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PsychologyBlog+%28PsyBlog%29

Willfull blindness

Good coverage on willfull blindness - think this also applies to us in our daily lives - what do you think.

Full article is at Bnet Link to Bnet article

It doesn’t matter whether the company is large or small, old or young, high tech or blue collar manufacturing. The reality is that no leader is fully informed of what is happening on his or her watch.


Ignorance Isn’t Bliss
Of course in theory, this shouldn’t happen. The chain of command should ensure that information reaches the top. Daily reports should flag critical issues. Balance sheets should indicate significant trends. And they all do - up to a point. The problem is that none of them works quite well enough.