TM - May 2008 - (Page 35) The Path to Specialization Health Care Service Corp. devised a new approach to workforce enablement — beyond formal learning — that could advance people more quickly on a path to specialization. First, the organization had to think more rigorously about skills progression for a given job or role. Specifically, what does it mean to achieve deeper skills, and how do you know when a person has attained new levels of capability? The specifics will vary. Some business skills will be nearly universal across workforces, while others will vary depending on whether the person is managing an ERP systems integration project, a complex HR outsourcing deal or a consulting program in CRM or sales. However, it is possible to construct a general, consistent viewpoint of the progression people make as their skills in an area deepen and become more specialized. When a person begins a new job, takes on a new role or learns a new work domain, he or she may go through numerous levels on the developmental path. At the novice stage, employees begin with minimal understanding of their performance goals or how they are supposed to reach them. Mistakes are common. Through a combination of training and practice, they rise to a level of proficiency. At that point, they understand what they are doing and, for the most part, why — but often their performance is inefficient and may require a great deal of oversight. Workers who advance to the independent stage can be productive with minimal guidance from a supervisor. When employees attain the advanced and expert levels, they are no longer simply following set paths. Further, they may occasionally reinvent those paths, creating ideas for new products and services and devising business strategies with the potential to redefine an industry along the way. The Right Kinds of Enablers Formal learning is an important piece on the development path toward specialization and deeper expertise, but it is limited in its ability to create experts. To advance workers beyond proficiency to advanced or expert status in a particular domain, companies should consider creating programs in two additional areas: • Guided experience: Feedback and guidance, both reinforcing and corrective, that one receives from a coach and/or mentor, or in other ways in the course of performing job tasks. • Collaboration: Learning that occurs in the process of completing tasks as part of a team. Jim Demme, program manager for the Learning Center at Grainger, a leading distributor of facilities and maintenance supplies, said both formal and experiential learning opportunities are important because, taken together, they more faithfully reflect the real work environment. In Grainger’s case, a combination of enablers helped sales and service employees develop more specialized capabilities. “We can sit our people down in a classroom, but until they actually go on-site to a customer’s location and implement one of our solutions, it’s all theoretical to them,” Demme said. “When we teach employees in the classroom about inventory management systems, for example, we can tell them they’ll be going into the customer’s tool crib to help get things organized. But the employee’s visualization of what that tool crib looks like will be quite different from the real environment at the customer’s location. They have to experience it.” May 2008 LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT continued on page 52 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 35 http://www.TalentMgt.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - May 2008 Talent Management - May 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take The Four Pillars of Managing Performance Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential TM - May 2008 TM - May 2008 - (Page Intro) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 3) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 4) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 5) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 6) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 7) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 8) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 9) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 10) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 11) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 12) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 13) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 14) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 15) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 16) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 17) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 18) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 19) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 20) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 21) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 22) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 23) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 24) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 25) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 26) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 27) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 28) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 29) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 30) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 31) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 32) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 33) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 34) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 35) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 36) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 37) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 38) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 39) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 40) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 41) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 42) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 43) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 44) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 45) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 46) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 47) TM - May 2008 - American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie (Page 48) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 49) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 50) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 51) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 52) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover3) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover4)
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