Going Global?

Many of EPI’s clients are multinational organizations or are going global. I recently had conversations with colleagues and clients who attended a national conference where many of the sessions focused on globalization, but didn’t present how Human Resources (HR) can be strategic through the organizational changes. As globalization becomes a key strategy for growth, organizations struggle to adopt practices that work globally. Global HR requires a much broader perspective and must deal with issues of international taxation; relocation and orientation; administrative services for expatriates; selection, training, and appraising local and international employees; and managing host-government relations across the globe. Given this scope, HR professionals must implement a cultural inclusion program to expand cultural knowledge, skills and abilities across the organization. EPI continues to partner with our clients as they go global and are developing customized programs, while leveraging technology to help HR global leaders create one organizational culture across the globe.

Who Guides You?

Who in your field do you look to for inspiration and guidance? Someone asked me this the other day and it gave me pause. It’s not something I think about on a regular basis. The first name that popped into my head was John Dewey. He is well known for his philosophy of education and, although his seminal publication, Experience and Education, was published 72 years ago, Dewey’s theories and criteria for adult education (the foundation of corporate learning) are still relevant.

Take, for example, his idea that instructional strategies must take learners’ prior experience into account. He says that it’s our past experience which helps us propose new problems, apply new thoughts, and connect new learning so that it’s relevant to us today. Dewey doesn’t give instructions on how to do this, but he suggests that the best place to start when planning instruction – whether it’s online or face-to-face – is with learners’ unique experiences. “The beginning of instruction shall be made with the experience learners already have; that this experience and the capacities that have been developed during its course provide the starting point for all further learning” (p. 88).

This is easier said than done since we each have a plethora of varied life experiences to draw from. Indeed, “The field of experience is very wide and it varies in its contents from place to place and from time to time” (p. 95). How then do you begin to tap adults’ unique experiences and use them for quality, individualized learning purposes? This is perhaps easier to do in instructor-led classes. Instructional designers can incorporate activities that allow participants to reveal their personalities and bits of their past experience. Facilitators can elicit and then refer back to these experiences as they facilitate – and even tailor their instruction on-the-fly to be more relevant.

It’s more challenging in self-paced, asynchronous online training because there is no real-time feedback and sharing of experiences. One way to to tailor online instruction to participants’ experiences is to start with a thoughtful, thorough needs analysis (as you should do for any type of instruction). This will help you gain a better understanding of where participants are coming from and what’s important to them. You can then weave the results into the design of the instruction.

You can also incorporate reflection. “To reflect is to look back over what has been done so as to extract the net meanings which are the capital stock for intelligent dealing with further experiences. It is the heart of intellectual organization and the disciplined mind” (p. 110). Reflection in a self-paced computer-based training course might come in the form of a self-assessment. How do you incorporate learners’ prior experiences into relevant instruction? Who guides and inspires you?

Process

It can be said that true innovation only comes when there is a process in place. I used to think about processes as limiting but have come to understand that processes actually allow an organization the room to think about new ideas. It takes the brain damage out and enables companies to get down to the real work of work. I should clarify; this does not mean more red tape or bureaucracy. The intent with process is not so that staff has to invest more time getting something done, but less.

Here at EPI we talk strategy and have guidelines for success and from there are creating processes. Process brings intent to fruition, which can be half of the battle in reaching any goal.
Here are some things to think about if you are thinking of taking your organization or team to the next level:

1. Determine what strategies would benefit from a process. Why?
2. Create a simple process.
3. Practice the process, confirm that it works.
4. Rework the process if needed.
5. Follow-through and follow-up.

Like anything, there is no one size fits all answer for creating process in an organization and understanding your intention for process is the first step.

Boney Fingers

Following the tradition of writing great songs with goofy but profound titles and lyrics, the incomparable Hoyt Axton had a song called Boney Fingers: "Work your fingers to the bone, what do you get? Boney fingers, boney fingers." You couldn't exactly call it an anthem for the disenfranchised but, besides being catchy, it does resonate with me. After all, no one wants a job resulting in nothing but boney fingers.

We've all been there though: slogging through a job for mediocre pay, no recognition, and a joyless environment. EPI's vision, however, is "to enable organizations to create environments where employees both enjoy going to work and effectively contribute to bottom-line results." So if you're afraid your employees are singing Boney Fingers under their breath instead of whistling while they work, maybe it's time to think about recreating your company's environment.