HR and L&D Start-Up Competition
Do you have an innovative HR or L&D solution that is going to change the way we work? Want the chance to demo your product in front of South Africa’s fastest-growing HR and L&D community? We want to hear from you. We are hosting a start-up competition for HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest 2019. This is your chance to get your product in front of 350 HR and L&D professionals as well as international thought leaders and workplace tech vendors. You’ll receive a free pass to the event in Johannesburg from the 26th to 27th August 2019 and the opportunity to demo your product to our community. If you tick the following boxes, we want to hear from you: You’ve created a kick-ass piece of HR or L&D solution Your company has less than 10 employees You can be in Johannesburg from 26th to 27th August 2019 Email Emma Buitendag on emma.buitendag@theeventfulgroup.com if you think your technology needs to be seen! Tell her why your technology should be featured at HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest’s start-up showcase. One winner who will be chosen to showcase their technology at the event. The judges’ decision is final and no negotiations or correspondence with entrants will be entered into. Flights and accommodation will be at your own expense.
How Adidas is Using Sports Psychology to Sharpen Employee Performance
Adidas is on a mission to evolve to a performance culture – establishing a fast-paced, feedback-driven performance management approach that has more in common with the elite athletes that they sponsor than their corporate competitors Nike and Puma. This signals a significant shift for Adidas in their performance strategy which previously conformed to the traditional PM model. “In the past, we followed the traditional approach of annual reviews at the end of the year. We were always looking back and that really wasn’t in line with our vision for a future-focused performance culture,” said Andy Longley, Global Senior Director of Talent. Andy tells us about Adidas’ new performance and development approach, dubbed “My Best”, which borrows elements of sports psychology and techniques from elite sportspeople and applies them to monitor the performance of their 55,000 people. “We’re using this new performance development approach to accelerate our culture change so we can focus on the two culture shifts we’re trying to drive: 1. Playing to win: promoting healthy competition against our competitors as well as internally; and 2. Evolving to a performance culture: constantly try to improve what we do at the individual level, at the team level and a macro level.” Coaching, Detail and Regularity The foundation of Adidas’ new performance development approach is coaching, with an emphasis on detail and regularity, something that was missing in their existing approach. “For an athlete to become the champion of their own development, whether that be an Olympian or a team sport athlete, they need regular feedback from coaches, teammates, nutritionists and analysts. This regular, real-time information is essential for creating self-awareness in the athletes and helps them iterate on improving their performance every day. “That’s one of the foundational tenets of what we’re trying to do in ‘My Best’. Creating more awareness within ourselves, as employees and leaders, building more coaching into our muscle memory, to help create performance-driven habits in our people every day, just like athletes do.” Their feedback-focused performance development strategy has four key elements which Longley outlines here: 1. Monthly Touch Base “The monthly touch base is a conversation between an employee and their line manager that is focused on performance and development only. It’s not an operational catch-up. We’ve created this space for these coaching conversations to happen more frequently and it’s the glue that holds a lot of the other elements of our performance strategy together.” 2. 90 Day Plan “Very rarely do athletes focus on the end of the season; they’d normally focus on their next game if it’s a team sport, or their next event if it’s an individual athlete. They’re looking to try to achieve a personal best or land a team structure which often requires a frequently-changing strategy. We’ve brought that shorter-term focus into our performance strategy with our 90-day plans. “The 90-day plans give a shorter-term focus on our objectives and mean we can adapt our objectives for that quarter against the business needs. It means we are agile enough to be able to pivot according to the business conditions or environment e.g. if we get a new competitor, or if we have a macroeconomic situation like we are currently experiencing in Latin America with devaluations of some of the currency, that has a big impact. This shorter-term focus on our objectives means we’re able to iterate more regularly.” 3. Technology Driven Feedback “Just like an athlete would use biometrics such as GPS tracking to measure how many kilometres they run in a match, we wanted to use technology to bring in feedback from multiple sources, so that each employee could see how they were tracking in real-time. We’ve built an app which is able to collect feedback from stakeholders, colleagues, or team members if you’re a leader, to help you evaluate and drive your performance.” 4. Quarterly Performance Conversations “The final element of our performance strategy was changing the frequency of our formal performance conversations from annually to quarterly. These more frequent reviews allow employees to get feedback in time to be able to digest it and adjust their work accordingly. Just as athletes would review footage of their last game to improve their technique for their next match, we’re helping our people do the same rather than waiting till the end of the year.” Plan Ahead to Avoid Stalling The program was formally launched in Q1 2018, but the culture change piece started almost two years before, and this is a key factor in the program’s success says Longley. “I advise to give yourself at least a year to plan when it comes to culture change, otherwise you can have some early struggles. A year seems like a long time for an organisation to wait, especially smaller ones, but it’s not a long time in a culture change and planning before you lead is incredibly important. “For this program to work, we knew we needed to get a head start on building up our leadership capabilities so they were able to have effective coaching conversations and be able to give challenging feedback. Throughout 2017 we worked with our leaders to foster these skills and then when we launched the program in 2018 we were confident they were in a much better place to be playing a role of coach, rather than the more traditional role of giving instructions.” As for organisations who are looking to embark on a similar transformation, Longley has two more pieces of valuable advice: Find a way to remove an individual’s financial compensation from what you’re trying to do with culture change. “When an individual’s bonus is tied to trying to change their performance, and you’re also trying to execute a cultural change, there can be mixed messages. Individuals are always thinking around their bonus, especially the extrinsically-motivated individuals, so if you really want your culture change to land, disentangle your individual compensation from it and you’ll get traction much sooner. You can always introduce it back in once your culture change has landed. That’s something we would have done earlier if we’d known.” Establish leadership groups to bring culture change to life. “It was important to us that “My Best” was not an HR-driven initiative. The program is CEO-launched and driven, but we also created two leadership groups which are really our primary way of driving the cultural change. “The first is our core leadership group made up of 22 of the most senior leaders in the organisation. They are the ones who really drive and champion leadership as a differentiator in performance culture. The second group is an extended leadership group which comprises 150 of our most driven and passionate executives. These two groups are the way we bring the culture change to life. They role model the performance culture and our purpose of ‘changing lives through sport’. A Marathon, Not a Sprint The program has received incredible support from Adidas’ employees who are loving the one-on-one feedback and career coaching. This is reflected in the completion rates of performance conversations which is currently sitting at an incredible 95%. A more challenging aspect of the My Best program has been the time commitment expected from senior leaders, but it’s all part of the growing pains of a new program says Longley. “If you’ve got a team of 12 people which you’re mentoring for an hour every month, in addition to your day job, and being part of a leadership group which needs to attend leadership activation events every quarter, that all takes a lot of time. So helping support the executive level in that has been the challenging part. But that’s where of course having your CEO and your board as the champion endorsers – and not your CHRO which many organisations have for a program like this – has meant we’re able to move through that with support.” About the Author Andy Longley is Global Senior Director of Talent at Adidas. Before joining Adidas, Andy was Head of Recruitment at Emirates, responsible for attracting and selecting international pilots. He has an MSc in Applied Psychology and his extensive experience includes organisational psychology, talent acquisition, talent management, executive and employee coaching, diversity & inclusion, strategy and workforce planning. In 2010/11 he spent a year as a volunteer for the UN, monitoring international peace agreements in the Middle East. This post originally appeared on the HR Innovation & Tech Fest New Zealand blog.
The 3 Essential “How’s” of Learning & Development Tech in South Africa
Somewhere in South Africa, an L&D Manager is sitting on her couch, wine glass and tablet in hand. She devours yet another video of the awe-inspiring training tech mushrooming up around the globe. And sighs. These inventions are the elixirs to our unique educational problems, but we are yet to discover a way to bottle it in our digitally deprived state. How would she describe the impact that technology is having on L&D endeavours at her organisation? This was one of the main questions asked in The Eventful Group’s 2019 research report* into L&D Innovation in South Africa: a third of our companies reported no impact at all, and almost 10% confessed to a negative effect. The reason for our country’s lag in adopting L&D technology is not a mystery. It is the perfect storm brewed up by deficient digital infrastructure, government policies that fail to bring revolutionary change in education, and legacy learning models that are not keeping up with global research. However, thanks to the passionate, can-do attitude of our local L&D community, those doom and gloom sighs are promptly replaced by a glance at the horizon: How can we adapt and thrive digitally? How exactly is technology changing Learning and Development? How do we keep the best of both worlds: our humanity and progress? When The Eventful Group unearthed these questions in their research, they boosted the representation of Learning and Development at their annual HR conference to introduce the first-ever HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest. Here’s a sneak preview of how their impressive selection of industry-leading, award-winning speakers will be tackling these questions in Rosebank on 26 and 27 August 2019. How Can South Africa’s L&D Adapt and Thrive Digitally? “If you do not understand and embrace digitalization as an L&D Exec, then you risk becoming irrelevant,” warns Shaun Dippnall, CEO of EXPLORE Software, in his talk on day 1. With stories of his 7-year journey and compelling case studies, he sheds light on the difficulties and rewards of becoming a digital-first Learning and Development company. On day 2, Wayne Mott, Senior Advisor at Agilite Consulting in Australia, challenges what we believe about our own L&D digitalisation: “Is it really turning the principles of learning on its head?”; and point rookies in the right direction, “What do you need to do right now? Where do you invest?”. He’ll probe the role of machine learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realm of training, and urges us to “act now, or we will be left behind.” How Exactly is Technology Changing Learning and Development? Statista, one of the most successful statistics databases in the world, recently delved into learning technologies used by L&D departments worldwide – specifically the growth of various channels between 2018 and 2019. Video learning showed the biggest jump of 28%, followed by a 16% increase in games and learning simulations. How would South Africa stack up? Rob Bothma is a Strategic Business Solution Engineer at Oracle. On the second day of the conference, he’ll tell us how employees use gamification, artificial intelligence and chatbots to design their own learning journeys based on their unique career goals and through “flexible hybrid learning paths with content accessible on their cell phones.” Speaking of mobiles, remember the Pokémon GO craze of 2017? Then you need no introduction to Augmented Reality (AR). Sometimes confused with Virtual Reality (VR) that exists solely in digital form, AR superimposes digital content on the real world through screens or AR goggles. Statista revealed that AR users increased from 60 million in 2013 to 200 million in 2018. Using AR in training and development gives new meaning to the phrase “hands-on learning”: its engaging and experiential nature has revolutionized medical education and is making training in the manufacturing industry exceedingly safer. On home soil, Anglo American Platinum introduced AR into their in-house HR and training programme, Manning for Success (M4S) in 2017. Senior Functional Specialist and AR ideas guru Hugo Coetzee shares their journey on the same day. How Do We Keep The Best of Both Worlds: Our Humanity and Progress? “The robot is the new sabre-toothed tiger,” says Tricia Jones, Capacity Builder at Innovative Capacity Building Solutions, on day 2. She explains how our perception of threat sends us into survivalist mode where we “cling even tighter to traditional ideas about jobs and one-size-fits-all people practices.” But she also shows us another way – one that will re-awaken the power of human potential. Elmarie Grant from Webber Wentzel points out an all-too-common dilemma for L&D managers like herself: “How do we navigate the tightrope between the relentless drive for technology and innovation and our ingrained human resistance to change?” Find out on day 1 if she believes there are benefits to remaining human as AI becomes an integral part of employee training. Interested in joining your forward-looking L&D community members at the first HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest? You can ogle the full agenda here. *The Eventful Group’s 2019 L&D Innovation Research Report – get your copy here. Get Your Tickets If you’re reading this before or on 2 August, you’re in luck – the Early Bird tickets are still available at R12,995 excl. VAT (standard tickets are R14,995 excl. VAT). You’ll dine like the king or queen you are and get the (electronic) keys to all the content and full participant contact list. About The Author Ilse de Vries is a human-development zealot and hopelessly excited about learning and development, in South Africa and in its digital incarnation. She is also an adventurous content strategist and content creator. Over the last two decades, she has honed her skills as a learning and marketing specialist in the UK, Japan and South Africa.
How To Create Your L&D Mission Statement
For sale: baby shoes, never worn. The greatest short story ever told. Ostensibly written by Ernest Hemingway. Perfectly punctuated for effect. Drawing you in. A challenge to connect the dots. Every word, a purpose. “Writing really is a technology for clear thinking.” Someone said to me in conversation a few days ago. There is an almost spiritual but certainly useful value one gets when pen is put to paper. The ultimate act of introspection. An exercise in authenticity. Stripping away the decorations. Revealing the true essence of the path you are on. As Learning & Development (L&D) professionals you are the custodians of the story of human potential within your organisation. When the right story is in place it lights the way for decision making. To galvanise individuals and teams it is your most important tool. Infusing itself into the fabric of every structure and interaction. And like all good stories crafted it all started with… a bit of spaghetti. 6 Steps To Finding & Writing A L&D Mission Statement Step 1: Throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. The goal here is to let go of all assumptions. All formal habits. Free yourself of the little voice in your head that tells you this is how it should be done. Take a piece of paper. Find a notebook. And just start writing. Unrestrained. Free-hand. Preferably fully written-out sentences. Think of it as a journal entry. Let the words and sentences flow. Make it personal. “I feel” “I want to” “I think”. Positive or negative. Optimistic or pessimistic. Don’t know where to start? Write down “I don’t know what to write.”. Trust me, the rest will take care of itself. Don’t share it with anyone. Don’t judge. Just write. Personally, I like to do this every morning for 20 mins, for a week. Start noticing some of the themes that are revealing themselves. Words, phrases and sentences that intuitively grab you. Highlight them. Step 2: Let it marinate. The goal here is to refine your thinking. One of the many beautiful outcomes of free-hand writing is that it forces your brain to look closer. A process that continues sub-consciously as you are jogging, sitting in traffic, making coffee – continuing with your day to day activities. A bit of time forces your brain to act as a filter. It auto-stress-tests your ideas. A day or two and you will find yourself eager to start translating your free-thoughts into something concrete. Step 3: Pose scenarios that you want to see play out. Take this example: “A man sets out to build a robot.” A passive action with no motivation. Then consider: “A man sets out to build a robot to win back the love of his life.” Now we have a story! A clear way to benchmark whether success was achieved or not. The best mission statements can almost be read as active characters in a story, on a journey towards achieving a goal. Inviting you to see how it plays out. Nike sets out to “bring inspiration and innovation to every active person in the world.” Lego is on a journey to “inspire and develop children to think creatively and experience endless human possibility.” Yuppiechef is on a journey to “test and source the best quality products for people who really care about cooking.” Write down 5-6 potential scenarios you’d like to see realised. A single sentence. Put your L&D programme on a journey, an adventure, a quest to do something great. Step 4: Strip it down. We all have it: Verbose-illitis. The tendency to use 10 words when 5 will do. Okay, that is a made-up word. But you get the picture. The goal here is to remove any and all redundancies. Take this classic writing example: I also have a habit of being very critical with the number of words I use in each sentence. Challenge yourself to remove four words from each of your scenarios above. Not an easy exercise. Trust that the reader will get it. Step 5: Share it, with friends. The time has come. You have 5-6 strong statements. Born out of authenticity. Crafted with care. The goal now is to identify the one. When sharing you want to avoid getting discouraged or get lead down a new path. The work you’ve done is good. Trust the process. Trust yourself. Approach two or three close friends or colleagues. Sit with them, face to face. See which statements they just get. No explanation needed. You’ll quickly be able to remove two or three that aren’t hitting the mark. Don’t be surprised that you immediately and instinctively know which ones to remove seconds before they’ve even started reading. Your writing intuition is well in place by now. When ready, start sharing your shortlist with more people. Slow bursts though. Throw one or two into an informal conversation. Your confidence is growing, so you’ll know when feedback is valuable and when it can be ignored. Step 6: Hit the corridors. In my experience, this is the most difficult part of the process. It’s the “Sell me this pen”-moment. You have a mission statement. Now you have to package it and get internal buy-in. An entirely new article can be written on this section alone, but the most important thing to remember is the Story. Like any juicy urban legend, framing your statement in a story format makes it exponentially easier for others to connect with it and share it with others. Take the example of an entrepreneur education company I’m a partner in. “A client once told us ‘I never trust a skinny chef’. This set us on a path to taste test the ingredients of entrepreneurship and launch Heavy Chef to celebrate those that ‘do’.” The Heavy Chef story has been told consistently for almost 11 years now and to this day is the company’s most powerful marketing tool. About the Author Where knowledge is shared, wonder deepens. This philosophy underpins Louis Janse Van Rensburg’s work as an investor, entrepreneur and researcher at the intersection of education and technology. Louis is the CEO of education investment fund, Glengarry Capital, Chairman of entrepreneur learning initiative, The Heavy Chef Foundation and a PhD researcher on non-formal learning. Creative, optimistic and pragmatic, Louis weaves storytelling with empirical data to challenge us to reimagine the way humans learn.
The Rise of Humans: How Robots Will Reawaken the Power of Human Potential
Some say the robot is the new sabre-toothed tiger; its presence threatens our existence as humans. This idea can send us into a fear-driven state, where we begin to behave in a survivalist mode, imagining the worst possible outcomes as we scramble to protect that which makes us feel safe, stable and reassured. As a result, we cling even tighter to traditional ideas about jobs, to one-size-fits-all people practices, to the tried and tested in the hopes that these things will keep us safe. But what if the real threat is not outside of us, but rather within us? What if I could show you how the robots will reawaken the power of the human potential? Design thinking is a critical 4th Industrial Revolution skill. It is a process for creative problem-solving. Design thinking utilizes elements from the designer’s toolkit like empathy and experimentation to arrive at innovative solutions. So, if we consider that artificial intelligence (AI) is, in fact, a result of our ability to innovatively problem-solve, then we will be able to appreciate that we really are capable of so much more than what we confine ourselves to through the rudimentary tasks we call ‘work’. Often, when the term ‘design thinking’ is heard, it is assumed that you must be an artist or designer to be able to do it. In truth, it is for anyone working on complex problems or looking to improve on their complex problem-solving ability. Design thinking is a human-centred approach to problem-solving. Within our AI and automated driven world, this mindset provides a way of looking at problems and finding creative solutions that may have been missed through a purely analytical problem-solving approach. Acts of Empathy Another factor that makes us inherently human, is our ability to empathise with other living beings. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to use emotions effectively. One of the most important applications of EQ is helping leaders foster a workplace climate conducive to high performance. These workplaces yield significantly higher productivity, retention, and profitability, and emotional intelligence appears key to this competitive advantage. According to the study, The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence, “companies have demonstrated that using EQ in training and organisational change initiatives can reduce costs associated with turnover, absenteeism, and low performance. Business examples of this include the following: At PepsiCo, executives selected for EQ competencies generated 10% more productivity; high EQ salespeople at L’Oreal brought in $2.5 million more in sales, and an EQ initiative at Sheraton helped increase market share by 24%. These case studies are indicative of the paramount importance of EQ in the employment sphere. EQ is still not coded for AI, which leaves us with another area where humans can once again rise to the top of the food chain. While many people fear that AI will take over the world in a Terminator scenario, there are also many who see the opportunity for collective intelligence where AI and humans collaborate to counterbalance the strengths and weaknesses of each other. A Special Species If we as humans are going to evolve further and find ways to counteract the self-imposed harm we’ve done to ourselves and our planet, we are going to have to come up with some innovative solutions based on empathy. These are the things that make us human; the things that separate us from other species. We owe it to ourselves and the planet to rise up and reawaken ourselves to our potential and our natural ability to realise it. This is why we should choose to see the potential of having artificial AI perform the transactional, tactical and operational functions of our business, freeing us up to tap into the very essence of what makes us human: our ability to dream and envision a future, our ability to creatively problem-solve, to empathise with other living beings and in doing so, be moved to find ways to improve everyone’s quality of life. If you find this topic interesting, join me at the HR + L&D Innovation and Tech Fest, taking place on the 26th and 27th of August 2019. During my sessions, I’ll elaborate on this topic and share tools and processes, which will focus on the employee experience aimed at achieving strategic business goals through enabling high performance. About the Author Tricia Jones is Founder and Managing Member of a people-development and coaching business, Capacity Builder. She is as passionate about people personally, as she is about their development professionally. For Tricia, it’s not about lectures, death-by-PowerPoint presentations, and a one-size-fits-all solution. It’s about insight and inspiration and empowering each person who crosses her path to overcome challenges and achieve their dreams.
Measuring Productivity in the 4th Industrial Revolution
Frederick Taylor pioneered the concept of Time and Motion studies in the early 1900s. This was right in the middle of the Second Industrial Revolution. He was a qualified Mechanical Engineer and became one of the first professional Management Consultants. Taylor focused on improving industrial efficiency by bringing science into the field of productivity. He introduced the concepts of selecting, training and developing individuals to accomplish simple tasks instead of expecting them to learn passively through observation and supervision. He also encouraged employers to divide work equally between managers and workers, while establishing the concepts of budgeting and performance management. Taylor inspired James McKinsey, who founded the global consulting firm bearing his name. Their thinking helped with the design of efficient workplaces that allowed production to run smoothly along carefully designed assembly lines. This would eventually lead to lean manufacturing methods that were adopted by Japanese and US vehicle manufacturers to further improve efficiency, productivity and significantly reduce waste and production defects. From Doing Things Right to Doing the Right Things Over the years, mechanisation and robotics have automated many of these manual and repetitive tasks, leading to the Third Industrial Revolution. Employers could now ensure greater efficiency and quality, requiring fewer blue-collar workers. This shifted the requirements of productivity from doing things right, to doing the right things. As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this shift becomes even more profound. Our employees are no longer expected to focus on applying technical skills and displaying their physical abilities and prowess. They now need to be creative, solve complex problems and rely on social and networking skills to accomplish vague targets where success is not clear or defined. Productivity is not measured by counting widgets the way Taylor and his consultants did 100 years ago. Customers have different demands and expectations now. They want an experience, not just a product. Social media, online shops and the Internet of Things are slowly transforming the way that we buy and sell almost everything. From groceries and insurance to banking, holidays and transportation. The fastest growing corporations are no longer selling products, they are providing services online. Amazon, Facebook, Nvidia, Paycom, and Arista to name but a few. Artificial Intelligence and Going to Mars The dawn of Artificial Intelligence brings exciting new opportunities for employers and employees. Flexible working arrangements, cloud technology, education, medical care, nutrition and provision of energy. NASA envisioned us populating Mars by 1988. This did not happen, but thanks to one remarkable South African entrepreneur, the sights are now set on 2030 – perhaps even sooner than that. What will we do on Mars? To start with, learn to produce our own food and water, find new energy sources and materials on the planet to build and power up the habitation complexes. But then the focus will shift to scientific discovery and technological breakthrough. Mars will start exporting knowledge to Earthlings – not raw materials. Not manufactured goods. But ideas, concepts and technological solutions. This significantly transforms the way we measure success and productivity. Forget trying to identify leading and lagging indicators. Success will depend completely on thinking, no longer on doing. Productivity will not be based on what you can produce but on intangible measures such as contributing novel ideas, collaboratively solving complicated problems and strategic decision-making based on predictions and analytics. Managing performance must be ongoing and feedback cannot be limited to annual engagement surveys and appraisals. Where to for South Africa? What does this mean for South Africa? Data and ISP fees need to drop (significantly) so that we can enter the virtual world without any hindrances. Our education system needs to be overhauled to allow for rapid adoption of new technology and exposure to online content. If we fail, we will fall further and further behind the technological wave and risk becoming stuck in the backwaters and political quagmire with other developing countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Indonesia. Russia, China and India have embraced technological advancement to drive better productivity and this has shown a consistent improvement in their Capital ratios over the last few decades. George will be speaking on identifying talent by triangulating results of performance reviews, psychometric assessments and Microsoft Office behaviour at this year’s HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest. You can grab your ticket for this year’s event here. About the Author George Honiball is the Talent Manager at Rand Mutual Assurance. He is an Industrial Psychologist with over 25 years of experience as a Senior Manager and Business Consultant with companies based in South Africa as well as the United Kingdom. He has two children, is a published author and brews his own beer.
No Longer HR’s Sidekick: 7 Ways This Conference Will Make You An L&D Superhero
Learning and Development has come a long way after it signed up as an ardent sidekick to HR (its Big Daddy) 25 years ago. 45% of leadership now views the L&D department as “an important business function” in South Africa*, and on 26 and 27 August 2019 it joins the already popular HR Innovation & Tech Fest as a fully represented entity, creating the first ever HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest in Rosebank. With an ambitious mandate to combat unemployment, poverty and the economic downturn, the passion and dedication of the L&D community come as no surprise. Superhero status is the next step – here are the 7 ways this conference will transform your L&D career with timely, thought-provoking talks by influential local and international speakers. So, let’s power up! Craft a Robust, Realistic L&D Strategy Your L&D strategy has to get “the big 5” all in one shot: Attract and retain talent. Develop people capabilities. Create a values-based culture. Build an employer brand. Motivate and engage employees. – McKinsey For this, you must brave new terrain, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or hunt alone. Move closer to the inner circle of influential L&D veterans who have done battle and lived to tell their tales: “First ask how people learn,” cautions Zolani Lugawe from SA Taxi Development Finance, then craft your digital strategy, and only then go shopping for an LMS. Louis Janse van Rensburg, CEO of Glengarry Capita, challenges us to think like an investor by asking, “Can you communicate your L&D strategy in less than 3 minutes?” Pick the Perfect Learning Management System (LMS) The weight on the L&D leader’s shoulders to get this right is colossal. At times, it might feel a bit like choosing a life partner: Which one will I love now and forever? How do I create a relationship with a provider that will blossom and strengthen over time? What if things go wrong – do I need a prenup? Why not get advice from the best? Bruce Walker brewed up the eLearning platform of Distell, and Tanith Mohale brought Sasol’s Learning Technology Ecosystem to life with a creed of “fit-for-now, fit-for-purpose, fit-for-future”. You can even speed-date software with two showcasing sessions. Don’t miss out on Lesson Desk’s interactive demo; their “Content Crew” also help develop material from scratch to digitalization, which brings us to the next superpower… Create Memorable, Meaningful Online Content You bought the Rolls Royce of LMS’s and you’re introducing it to the staff with a champagne party and a petting zoo for the kids… Crickets chirp. How do we get people exciting about learning? Just look over at what the content marketing industry has been doing right: their worth of $195.58bn in 2016 is estimated to catapult to $412bn by 2021. How? By obsessing over the audience. We need to obsess about the learner first and create learning content that fascinates and engages. “The sad reality is that most courses require learners to sit through a disappointing experience,” says Tim Slade, an award-winning eLearning designer from the US. Wayne Mott from Agilite Consulting in Australia warns that “the opportunity to engage learners in a digital world is growing smaller.” Fortunately for us, these two wizards will work their magic on day 1 and tell us exactly how to fix our online learning content and ecosystems. Use Data Correctly and Powerfully “Approximately 84% of digital transformation initiatives fail – how can data be leveraged to create a realistic transformation roadmap?” asks Liora Gross, Director at the Center for Creative Leadership, who will take the stage on day 1. In his product showcasing on day 2, Jurie Van Zyl demonstrates what cloud solutions like Skillogical bring to people development. Getting individual employee ROI in line with the overall company goals becomes a lot less challenging with a simple, dependable and intuitive system. He boldly promises to “give dashboards a whole new meaning”. Balance remains important though. In his insightful keynote “Are You Watering the Right Tree?” director and psychologist Gregory Bayne explores how we can harness data and technology and still nurture our people’s well-being. Ignite a Remarkable Learning Culture Thea Pelser had no idea what she was getting into. But it was what she walked out with that astounded her most: PwC’s learning culture had also completely transformed. In her talk, she shares her 4-year quest to adapt this multinational powerhouse’ training strategy for millennials, how vital the learning experience is, and how you too can infuse your company’s learning culture with passion and meaning. Liberty Group’s Masindi Hoppenbrouwers had a similar journey, but her road to the right LMS and revamped learning culture trailed through the often-murky waters of a restructuring. Her lessons will help all L&D leaders cultivate a comfortable relationship with the future. Know What’s Happening With L&D Tech What kind of tricks will technology play on L&D’s future? Throwing bones and gazing in crystal balls are all the rage now, but perhaps we should seek advice from an old-school prophet. Like Oracle’s Rob Bothma. “Flexible hybrid learning paths…” the wise man mutters. Then something about “gamification, artificial intelligence and chatbots” – make sure you join him after the coffee break on day 2. When you’re done digesting that, after lunch, Wayne Mott tells you what you absolutely need to know right now about digitalization and where to invest. He’ll also throw in some real-world advice on tackling obstacles. Alternatively, go explore augmented reality instead – Hugo Coetzee from Anglo American Platinum’s “AR in Action” falls in the same time slot. Dessert is served straight afterwards in Tricia Jones’s “The Rise of Humans: How Robots will Re-Awaken the Human Potential”. Be Ready for Disruptive Employment Models The 9-to-5, brick and mortar employee model has been turned on its head by the dual forces of technology and millennials (yes, those “kids with the selfies” that will make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025). Flexibility and accessibility are now currencies that L&D professionals also have to trade in. Susie Gleeson-Byrne is Uber’s Head of HR in Australia and New Zealand – who better to take us through the opportunities and challenges of the gig economy? This trend has infiltrated all employment levels – a Mavenlink study revealed that 63% of full-time executives would prefer to be a contractor. Flexibility and location-independence are the major drawcards for the virtual workforce, yet 70% of remote employees feel left out of the workplace. In his deliciously titled “Remote Success: How My Team Beats Your Team in Their Pajamas”, Chris Dyer points out the immense opportunities to cut costs and retain prize employees and tells us how he keeps his fully remote team engaged. Mingle With Flair, Cocktail in Hand Yes, I did say 7 ways – but your new superhero status absolutely compels you to strut around on the glamorous verandas of Rosebank’s Hyatt Regency after the first day and hang out with people who are as passionate as you are about learning and development (drinks are included of course). *The Eventful Group’s 2019 L&D Innovation Research Report – get your copy here. Get Your Tickets If you’re reading this before or on 2 August, you’re in luck – the Early Bird tickets are still available at R12,995 excl. VAT (standard tickets are R14,995 excl. VAT). You’ll dine like the king or queen you are and get the (electronic) keys to all the content and full participant contact list. About the Author Ilse de Vries is a human-development zealot and hopelessly excited about learning and development, in South Africa and in its digital incarnation. She is also an adventurous content strategist and content creator. Over the last two decades, she has honed her skills as a learning and marketing specialist in the UK, Japan and South Africa.
Hiring Remote Workers? Mindset Is Everything … and It’s Not What You Think
As CEO of a fully remote company, I’m often approached by job candidates who say, “I would love to work from home!”. That’s great – and part of my goal to hire for fit – but that’s only part of the “fit.” People who power a remote business must dovetail with three criteria: an affinity for company values; the talent to meet specific job requirements; and the ability to work without supervision, apart from the rest of the crew. Those abilities all have their beginnings in the mind, each stemming from different intellectual capacities. Let’s say that two workers are equally qualified in the first two areas. They’ve demonstrated that they’re aligned with the company’s mission and values, and they have the chops to do their jobs. If we hire on those benchmarks alone, though, we may still make the very wrong choice. For example: “Mia” does her job via Wi-Fi at the local Starbucks. As her focus shifts from her laptop to the patrons, baristas, and the delicious smell of coffee, she forgets to return emails and compiles her report in bits and pieces. By lunchtime, she still isn’t finished. She heads to the nearby McDonald’s to work through lunch, only to catch up with her friends on social media instead. Her report will be late. “Paul” built a compact office in a corner of his great room at home. He put in a glass door so he can see the kids when they come home from school—but he also hired a nanny to supervise them until dinnertime. Paul goes for a run in the morning, finishes his paperwork by noon, and enjoys a restful lunch hour. Coworkers never have to wait long for phone or email replies, and Paul still has time to prep for the next day’s agenda before quitting time. Sure, discipline exists in different supply in different people. But that’s only part of the remote equation. Dedicating our focus to our tasks—by creating a quiet workspace and managing time well—shows respect for the freedom and obligations that come with teleworking. That’s a plus for Paul, but Mia has another problem. She may love the idea of working from a chosen location, but she doesn’t like to be alone. There are workarounds for that, such as shared office space with other remote workers. But that doesn’t mean Mia can hang around the water cooler all day and still perform her job. This isn’t a knock-on social people; it just means that working remotely takes a bit more effort at setting boundaries for ourselves. We don’t have the peer pressure of a coworker saying, “Well, we’d better get back to work,” after a chat in the break room. The remote meeting format is another protocol that virtual workers must embrace. People who are big talkers and poor listeners won’t cut it. Those who veer off topic or interrupt proceedings to attend to matters at home—or the coffee shop—won’t do, either. An active listener, respectful of who is speaking and of the time invested by colleagues, is a great communicator whom any remote operation would love to have. These are just the most obvious requirements of teleworkers. Running down details may take more effort from afar, so employees who follow up and follow through without having to be reminded are well suited to remote roles. Being technologically inclined or willing to learn is also a must unless the job is stuffing envelopes. Digital communication becomes more sophisticated every day, and staying connected is essential. There’s another need related to that—in the opposite direction. The ability to switch off and regenerate is something that remote workers must have and be able to do on their own. To help them, companies can strongly encourage or require that employees take breaks. Research shows that productivity depends on that. Poor Mia will always be underproductive because she never really hits her working stride amid all the distractions, so she tries to catch up by skipping breaks. At my company, one boost for productivity that teleworkers have is that they can get their work done whenever they are sharpest. If they’re morning people, they can get started early and finish early. If they’re night owls, they’re just finishing up when the morning folks rise. The only caveat is meeting fixed deadlines and mutual conferencing times, small concessions to gain additional freedoms. This brings us back around to the other two hiring-for-fit criteria: candidates who align with a company’s culture and who are qualified to do the assigned work. The best remote employees will be able to tie these things together with their brand of self-management. All three criteria, combined, actually strengthen one another when the hiring fit is right. So our HR process includes a peek into the mindset of job candidates. They take a personality test and are interviewed for their responses to our company’s business mission, core values, and work culture. We assess them for the skills we’re looking for and the capacity to learn new things. And when we get around to what it takes to work from a virtual office, we ask a trick question. We ask them where they get their coffee. Chris will be speaking at the 2019 HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest in Johannesburg on 26-27 August. About the Author Chris Dyer is a recognised performance expert. Constantly intrigued by what makes some businesses and individuals more successful, Chris has dedicated years of research to what drives productivity and profits. As a sought-after speaker and consultant, Chris works with organisations to help them transform their cultures. Chris is the author of The Power of Company Culture. He is also the Founder and CEO of PeopleG2, a company that has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list of the Fastest Growing Companies three times.
HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest: What’s New for 2019?
The Introduction of L&D Innovation & Tech Fest This year’s HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest is going to be the best one yet. Perhaps the biggest change will be that, for the first time ever, we’re combining the much-loved HR Innovation & Tech Fest with the brand-new L&D Innovation & Tech Fest. Two communities will come together to learn, connect and develop. We’ve built significantly on last year’s event, we’ll be going from three to five tracks of content this year. Last year we had 250 people, but with the addition of L&D Innovation & Tech Fest, we’re expecting close to 400 attendees. All in all, you can look forward to 50 sessions across the two days – a mix of case studies, panels, solution showcases and more. More International Thought-Leaders Than Ever Our event producers, Andrea Erasmus, Jane Simonsen and Emma Buitendag, have been scouring the globe over the last few months to find the most innovative HR and L&D thought-leaders and change-makers. They’ve put together this impressive agenda for the event on 26 and 27 August 2019. We have seven internationals from the USA, the UK, Australia and New Zealand coming to South Africa to share their insights and perspectives with us. One speaker you definitely won’t want to miss is Susie Gleeson-Byrne, Head of HR for Uber Australia and New Zealand, who will be speaking about the future of work and the gig economy, as well as learnings from Uber’s cultural journey. Cutting-Edge Local Customer Case Studies We haven’t forgotten about all the amazing innovation happening right here in South Africa. Distell’s People Development & Capability Manager, Bruce Walker, will be discussing how they developed an e-learning platform for a multibillion-rand company and its 470 sales representatives and Absa’s Lead of Transformation & Change, Riaz Patel, will take us on their rip-roaring voyage to digitise HR. We also have 10 other exciting local customer case studies on the agenda. Giving Start-Ups A Leg-Up This year, we’re hosting a very exciting competition for start-ups, where the winners will be given free tickets to the event, as well as the incredible opportunity to demo their innovative HR or L&D technology to South Africa’s biggest HR and L&D innovation and tech community. We’ll be announcing the competition guidelines soon, so keep an eye out if you, or someone you know, has created a ground-breaking piece of HR or L&D technology that deserves to be shared! A Greater Focus on Soft Skills This year, we’ve put more focus on soft skills such as leadership, change and people management. These topics often get the backseat in favour of topics such as data and analytics and the future of work but understanding the impact of softer topics will allow HR and L&D professionals to harness the best of their teams and enhance team dynamics. Leigh Bowden from Workspace Synergy will be discussing such topics in her session on “Compassion at Work”, and Gregory Bayne from Total Leader & Coach Solutions Australia will get into the key principles underpinning a culture of accountability in his session “Build a Culture of Accountability: Transforming Organisational Performance and Outperforming Your Competitors”. Bigger HR and L&D Tech Expo We often hear from our community that the exhibition area is one of the most useful aspects of the event. This year, the exhibition area has expanded to incorporate HR tech and L&D tech vendors, which is why we’ve moved to a bigger venue, the Hyatt Regency in Rosebank, Johannesburg. The latest in HR and L&D technology will be showcased to help you select the best products for your business. About the Author Andrea Erasmus is the Head of Production for HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest. She scours the globe for the most innovative HR and L&D teams, out-of-the-box thinkers, and inspiring change-makers and creates two incredible days of inspiring keynotes, interactive sessions and panel discussions.
NZ Rugby’s Head of People on the Power of Vulnerability in Leadership
For years, rugby has been a sport celebrated for its focus on teamwork, respect and promoting a fun and healthy lifestyle. However, in 2016 New Zealand Rugby found itself in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons: an end of season stripper scandal, a sexual misconduct charge, and an assault on a group of four civilians. New Zealand Rugby was heavily criticised at the time for its handling of the incidents as well as its lack of transparency. Richard Gilhooly, Head of People & Development at New Zealand Rugby, is part of the team that continues to work hard to rebuild the organisation and sport that had suffered immensely from the fallout of these scandals. He’ll be sharing his story at HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest in Johannesburg this August. Here, he tells us about the critical relationship between the Head of People and the CEO, and why showing vulnerability is a powerful way for leadership to unite people. Changing the Culture of Rugby from the Inside Out The back end of 2016 was challenging for New Zealand Rugby and a very demanding period for our leadership and people. The off-field issues called the culture of our sport into question. We were criticised for our handling of the investigations and it really hurt the organisation and our people. After a full review around the culture of our sport, including New Zealand Rugby as an organisation, we received the “Respect and Responsibility” report which included 91 recommendations for us to implement. While this was not an insignificant undertaking, it really did allow us to consider how we could make rugby a better sport for all involved and how we might take a leadership role in some of society’s more pressing issues. We have subsequently taken ownership of all 91 recommendations with close to 30 completed and a similar number underway. In a lot of ways, the report provided relief for our people; a way forward. But it was also quite confronting: What did this mean for them? How would it change their organisation? There was a general feeling that we were all here for rugby, so what’s all this other stuff? Actually, working through all that was quite challenging. The review really shone a spotlight on the current state of our organisation: were we structured in the right way to be able to bring about the change that was required for NZ Rugby to be successful moving forward? It became quite clear that there were some aspects of our organisation that needed to look different in order to do things in a really different way, and in 2018 we went through a significant restructure. For the first time in a long time, we made the incredibly difficult decision to disestablish roles which had serious impacts for some of our people. The Power of Vulnerability in Leadership The organisational change we went through really hurt many of our people – some mentioned that they felt like the ‘safety net’ they had was gone. They lost a lot of trust in the organisation and some of that was directed towards our CEO, Steve Tew. That was quite a big moment for us. We needed to figure out how to move people forward and regain that trust. Ahead of our annual staff get together, we asked our people for some real and unfettered feedback as to how they were feeling and how the change had impacted them. Some of the feedback we received was incredibly raw and quite direct. To be honest it was very challenging to read. When sharing it with Steve, you could see the impact it had and allowed him to make a decision to be more vulnerable with our people which ultimately really helped the healing process. At the annual staff get together, Steve made an incredibly open and honest speech where he shared with the staff how much the change and resulting impact on the organisation had hurt him too. While doing that, he reiterated the reasons why it was important and how leadership sometimes requires really tough decisions. The air in the room changed at that moment and for a lot of people, it was enough to allow a conversation about how we could move forward. That moment when our CEO stood up and showed his vulnerability actually helped us heal more than anything else we’ve done since. For the next hour we actually just got to the nub of it, figuring out what the organisation needed to do to regain trust and by lunch, on that first day, you could just see the weight lift off people’s shoulders. They felt like they had a chance to share their real feelings, and we started to get a clear picture of how to move forward. So that was incredibly powerful and a great reminder that vulnerability is so important in leadership. HR’s Crucial Role in Culture Change Steve’s a person who deeply cares about his people, but like many CEOs, he can be quite guarded by nature, especially in a high-profile sport like rugby and in New Zealand even more so. So sometimes just encouraging that vulnerability is a really important thing to do. I think the most important thing HR leaders can do for their CEO is encourage them to be brave and courageous. We were faced with some really hard decisions about where we needed to go and what we needed to do to get there. These decisions were going to have a real impact on many people, but ultimately, they still needed to be made. So that’s where I think the relationship between the Head of People and the CEO is so critical because you can take away that emotion a little bit and present different options and challenge their thinking. Be Courageous in Order to Rewrite your Culture For those organisations who are faced with similar challenges to us, or are looking at a big culture change, I think the best starting point is actually acknowledging the need for change. Often, organisations feel compelled to go through culture change or feel like it’s the thing that they have to do rather than want to do. I think it needs to be incredibly well understood and well-led from the top right from the get-go, otherwise, it will struggle for traction. I also think having that ability to be really bold and courageous is critical. When you’re looking at your culture, look at it hard and don’t be held back by anything. Ask yourself “If I had to rewrite the story, what would what would it look like?” In HR we often talk about best practice, but at New Zealand Rugby we like to follow the All Blacks lead who talk about “next practice”. You need to be looking forward to the things that aren’t so obvious. Finally, the ability to take your people with you is critical. Just because you think it’s a good idea doesn’t mean everybody else is going to. Make sure people are with you or at least understand why you are leading them down that particular path. That was one of our learnings in our culture change journey, we did a much better job of that once we made some of those hard decisions but we probably didn’t do that enough early on. Tell the story really well and tell it often. Hear more from Richard Gilhooly, Head of People & Development at New Zealand Rugby, at HR + L&D Innovation & Tech Fest, 26-27 August 2019, Johannesburg, South Africa. About the Author Richard Gilhooly is Head of People & Development at New Zealand Rugby. Richard’s team provides generalist HR support to the business as well as education and wellbeing support to the wider rugby fraternity. His role over the last couple of years has also had a particular focus on helping to drive culture change as a result of an independent review completed in 2017 and subsequent organisational change in 2018.