by Joe Lacroix
Wrong! The prevailing education and training paradigm may defeat initiatives
underway to improve the vitality of the Hampton Roads Workforce. People, especially
people in the education discipline, believe that if people knew the right way of
doing something, they'd do it correctly. People in the real world workforce know
that's rarely true. Work life culture prevails over the "right" behavior,
because it changes the very nature of what "right" is all about. Here's
an example:
People in a work environment often surrender what is "right"
for what will allow them to succeed in their relationships at work - boss, peer,
or even subordinate. In many cases, this is a lesson they learn in school, where
getting along has everything to do with conforming to the rules - both the written
and unwritten! It works the same way at work when people are on the job. However,
in the workplace the top boss may need a fresh out-of-the-box idea in order to succeed
against stiff competition and there will likely be stiff resistance to new suggestions
because of peer pressure from coworkers or influence from first line supervisors.
A
dramatic example of this arose when one person had been detailed to a week-long training
session designed to help improve the work life culture of her department. She was
excited that she had been selected for the assignment, and approached the learnings
with enthusiasm. But the day she returned to work she'd been informed that her situation
had changed. She had been taken off a visible and challenging assignment because
she "wasn't around" even though the project did not begin for another week
- she had missed nothing. The disappointment went further when she was informed
by her immediate supervisor that, "In the future, you'd do better to avoid going
off to training - all you need is on-the-job experience. Do you understand what
I'm talking about here?" She understood perfectly!
WorkLife Culture
versus Work-Life Programs.
At the outset I need to clarify the difference
between WorkLife and Work-Life. The distinction is subtle but critical. WorkLife
has to do with the rules that govern on-the-job relationships. The quality of those
relationships often determine job satisfaction attributes that are associated with
work. The previous paragraph describes a WorkLife issue. Work-Life programs are
different. They may provide flexible hours, job sharing arrangements, or even on-site
day care for working parents. Often Work-Life programs relieve the pressure associated
with potential conflict between working arrangements and the requirements of non-working
demands. Both are critical pieces of the worker satisfaction formula. The remainder
of this paper will focus on WorkLife issues.
Quality of WorkLife in the
Quality of Life Formula.
In the last few months I've read three articles listing
Quality of Life attributes as the rationale for business relocation. Hampton Roads
was not on any of those lists. The Quality of Life attributes mentioned in these
articles ought to have placed Hampton Roads high on the list. I believe we didn't
make these lists because our economic conditions are in decline. Further, and more
importantly, I believe our economic conditions are in decline because the quality
of WorkLife culture in Hampton Roads is far below what it ought to be. Economic
conditions will not improve until this vital core element has been corrected. That
cannot be done in the school systems, nor the churches, nor in the home. The only
place that worklife culture can be influenced is in the workplace.
The Virginia
Business Observer reported that Technical School graduates are seeking employment
elsewhere because wages and salaries are higher at other locations. The best of
our youth are going elsewhere for an improved quality of life and the economic advantages
that come with it. I serve on several regional and municipal councils that all agree
- business and Industry involvement is the answer. When business wants to reverse
this trend, it can do it.
Face it, Hampton Roads is declining in our ability
to keep and attract growth businesses. True, we do attract new manufacturing organizations
often under the mystique of being "high-tech" because we have an increasing
supply of lower-end wage earners, but is that what we really want to boast about?
I think not. Certainly we want to continue to expand employment opportunities for
our Region, but not at the expense of potential economic growth when the profits
don't even stay in this Region.
As long as we continue to supply cheap labor
for manufacturing, assembly, or call center workers we'll attract those industries
- and they will ultimately add to our problems by providing minimum opportunity for
advancement. Hampton Roads will never achieve its full potential by attracting this
type of low-end manufacturing and assembly business. This is especially true if
those businesses are principally owned and managed by out-of-towners that come here
for less expensive labor in order to increase profits.
WorkLife Fatigue.
WorkLife
fatigue emerges from a workforce that is fully and continuously engaged to satisfy
its external customers. Fatigue comes from not having a break from the "production
line." Peer and supervisory pressure is there to NOT serve on reinvention teams,
for example, where innovation is desperately needed. Peers often put pressure on
coworkers NOT to participate in these needed activities for a variety of reasons,
among them being that it may add work to those remaining. Fewer people in a work
group will have to do without while some ad hoc team is dreaming up new strategies
for success. Because of downsizing and rightsizing, the needed "slack time"
for critical revitalization activities may be gone. Many popular authors have studies
the adverse affects of a "lean and mean" organization structure on the
ability to innovate - the ability is clearly adversely impacted.
Gatekeepers
of WorkLife Culture.
The Hampton Roads Partnership has placed much of the
responsibility for a new way to make the 700,000 plus Hampton Roads workforce more
productive on pre-work education. This approach will not work. The influence new
graduates have on the current in-place workforce as they enter it is incalculably
small. Supervisors at the front line are not waiting for recent graduates to come
up with innovative ideas to "save" Hampton Roads from economic decline.
In fact, the opposite may be true.
Most of the front line supervisors I've
talked to recently are somewhat frustrated about the talent and attitude that comes
off the education assembly line as it is. The new Generation-X has a strike against
it before it even arrives at work on day one. There is a new work ethic among younger
workers that the current front line ranks resents, and probably would not listen
to seriously until those younger workers had been assimilated into the worklife culture
- a condition that takes years to achieve.
So, how do you change a worklife
culture that appears to be in decline? Definitely not through pre-employment education,
probably not through on-the-job-education either. The paradigm must be reversed
from education and training to organization learning - from a push system to a pull
system. The change emphasis must come from the most difficult level in an organization
to change, front line supervision supported by middle management. That won't occur
in an out-of-organization classroom. It must occur at work, while working! This
is a near reversal of our current or traditional learning context.
A More
Realistic Plan.
The following plan does not replace any process that would
improve the competency of workers before or after they join the workforce. The capacity
for innovation and growth does not come from competency alone. If that were so,
and it is not, than all innovations throughout history would have emerged only from
the most educated. Many natural attributes also enter the innovation and quality
of work life formula - like curiosity, common sense, a winning personality, lofty
dreams, commitment, tenacity, or ambition.
Four actions are required to
turn the workforce around toward one of innovation and attractiveness:
1.
Shift Innovation Boundaries to Provide a Channel for Continuous Improvement. Currently
front line supervisors and middle management are held accountable for production,
not for innovation. Until senior management finds a way to include these groups
in legitimate innovation projects, this group will continue to do as they have always
done - and it will be the death knell of growth and progress.
2. Provide
Meaningful Qualitative and Quantitative Feedback. The current system of appraisal
of work is archaic. It provides feedback to workers not about their work, but about
a senior's opinion of their work. As long as the opinion is more important than
the real work, current worklife culture will prevail. Meaningful metrics must be
found for every job and those metrics alone must comprise a worker's appraisal -
their ability to add value to the work demanded of them.
If you don't think
that numbers are your friends, think again! I'm advocating counting things that
are important - I'm not suggesting that you count everything. Focus on the few actions
that really make a difference between success and failure, and keep track of them.
Decide what numbers would offer proof of your success and keep edging toward those
numbers. When you attain those numbers, decide if a better number would offer an
opportunity to improve or if you need to sustain that level of performance while
you tackle the next priority. Organizations have just so much energy to go around
- don't waste it!
3. Focus on Work Force Capacity Development Priorities.
Focus on the priorities that will make a difference. Let everyone know what those
few things are that you are trying to achieve. Too many priorities mean that nothing
is a priority and everything gets done with an equal lack of luster. When determining
priorities, get as close to the "root" as possible so that your solution
will have the most profound impact. Spending valuable time wrestling a symptom to
the ground will not return much in the way of investment two months down the road.
Be sure the priorities are few in number, visible to the workforce, and lofty in
potential.
4. Insist on a Well documented and Publicized Learning Regimen.
This is not the normal kind of learning one thinks of obtaining in a classroom or
from a textbook. The kind of learning I'm talking about emerges from the common
dialog between people who work together to achieve a specific result. This dialog
ought to come immediately on the heals of a concrete work experience: What went well?
What could we improve? Everyone involved in the task needs an opportunity to learn
from it, either at the time or shortly thereafter. Examine everything you can about
the experience. Elevate the few broad items that can be urgently pursued, and envision
a new way of doing the activity you are examining.
Any large complex workforce,
whether in a single organization or spread out across a large region like Hampton
Roads, cannot be changed through pre-entry education and training. People will learn
from their experiences in an organization and modify what is "right" based
on the desire to maintain successful working relationships. The task ahead for Hampton
Roads can be undertaken only through an urgent application of a system like the one
outlined above that also includes education and training "off-the-job"
with realistic incentives for those who elect to participate. The alternative will
be to continue a dangerous decline that will affect those who live in this region
now and those who will be attracted to it in the future.
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