Stop rushing, start learning

Retention of qualified staff is becoming more of a focus as employers struggle with ongoing skill shortages, particularly in middle management.

As retention becomes more important, so does the ongoing development of people's capabilities in the workplace - and not just technical or hard skills involving how you think (IQ) and what you do.

A person's emotional intelligence (EI) - their awareness of their feelings and behaviours - is now often considered critical given that it can impact hugely on how they handle relationships, situations and issues, explains Una Ryan, of Una Ryan & Associates.

"Our EI makes us the people we are. What happens over our life and how we respond to life determines our level of EI. Sadly, it is easier to destroy than create but the good news is that we absolutely can create it when people are motivated to make more positive use of their emotions."

Ryan says employers recruit people into positions for the decisions they will make, and sound decisions involve a person's heart as well as their heads.

"Because of this, people need to be resourced to keep improving all their skills," she says.

People's soft skills are absolutely critical to maintaining a culture with creative heart and energy, says Anna Walker, general manager of branding company DNA.

"We place as much focus on developing people's personal attributes as we do on their skill capabilities," says Walker.

Yet, says Quantum Shift consultant John Wenger, many people assume that soft skills are innate.

"Our experience and training disproves that. You carry on learning until the day you die."

Wenger and business partner Arohanui Grace take an action method approach - role training based on real life situations - to create change in people and their workplace.

"It isn't about teaching technical skills, like operating a machine better," says Grace. "It is about learning the attributes of leadership and the capabilities being developed are different for every person."

This involves exercises such as re-enacting a real life situation from your point of view, then seeing it from other people's.

For example, says Grace, one client felt her time management was bad because she never got through her daily list of tasks.

"Yet, we found her time management skills were good. It was her approach to her colleagues that caused problems.

"Her manner got up their noses so they were reluctant to cooperate with her. By re-enacting that real life situation, she saw herself as others saw her and became aware of how her behaviour affected her colleagues negatively."

Grace says this caused a shift of behaviour that then created a shift in her colleagues' attitudes as well.

It is different when you see yourself as others see you, explains Wenger.

"Using people's own real life situations makes a big difference because you're not pretending to be someone else but revisiting a situation you have already experienced. So you are responding, not reacting or acting."

Quantum Shift also does a systems analysis of the organisation before they begin to see where the "quantum shift" is required.

"Systems thinking looks at how everything in the system is interconnected - change one person and everything changes," says Grace.

Their approach works, says Cambridge Clothing Company human resources manager Judy Chappell. Quantum Shift has been working with 15 factory floor team leaders to improve their supervisory effectiveness.

"They work together more to resolve issues and have a stronger understanding of the bigger picture and where they fit."

Production manager Angela Vale says the 15 have high knowledge and technical skill levels, but lacked confidence to back themselves when under pressure. They struggled to deal with issues such as staying calm in a tricky situation, challenging another employee on a production matter or asking for help.

Role training of real life situations is the key, says Vale. "By walking in each other's shoes and sharing each other's viewpoints the team leaders are developing the soft skills or EI they need to deal confidently with relationship issues affecting their workplace."

She now sees team leaders asking each other for suggestions before dealing with situations at work; at times even role playing through ideas.

The team leaders also set individual capability goals.

"These can be private. The ones I know about commonly involve skills such as staying calm, solving problems rather than walking away and feeling okay about asking for help," explains Vale.

The approach does require follow up to consolidate the changes.

"If someone starts to revert to old behaviour, we take them aside and ask them to think about their training and how they could deal with the issue in a different way. The response is very positive."

DNA has also had staff work with Quantum Shift. Walker says an important element was that the process was ongoing, starting with a full day session followed by four morning sessions over a four month period.

Actual change isn't a given with training courses in EI, says Chappell.

"It takes time and follow up to be effective. Yet plenty of courses say they can teach it in a day, but all they do is lecture people and tell them what EI is, how to be emotionally intelligent and how to feel empathy or appear to feel it."

Ryan has similar thoughts.

"For learning to be effective it needs to be customised to match the client's needs and be transferable to a person's work life. Something off the shelf is often an inadequate solution," says Ryan, who worked for Vodafone as head of culture and capability for four years.

She suggests organisations looking for an effective learning programme need to continually ask themselves - how is this going to meet our needs and will the change we require occur as a result?

"It's important consultants ensure the client has identified what the specific gaps in behaviours or performance are, and that they discuss, design and agree on ways it can be overcome.

To do that they have to ask smart questions that pinpoint specifics. It is also important they offer a transferable learning experience; one that is practical and experiential. Otherwise it isn't a learning experience; it's more of a lecture."

Return business is a great indicator of a consultant who can more than deliver to the outcomes offered to the client, suggests Ryan. "A learning intervention that is effective and efficient both in the short and longer term spells success."

But, she adds, a healthy culture that fosters and encourages positive change is also essential. In so many organisations the culture and values that are espoused are not what is always being modelled, particularly by some people in leadership/power positions.

"If you have a senior manager bullying their way through situations, and making themselves exempt from any challenges to their behaviour, it makes it harder for others to feel like changing, and that conflict can have a very negative impact on progress."