What next? How IBM supports career development

Training and Development, May 2005, A new shade of Big Blue, pg. 36 (sidebar)

Hot Skills a Hot Topic
As part of its workforce leadership development efforts, IBM is developing a "hot skills index." Part roadmap, part marketing tool, the index is designed to help information-age workers understand what skills they will need to develop to stay competitive in the 21st century labor market. IBM will track past and present data to sniff out trends that indicate the market demand for a wide variety of technical and professional skills. As planned, the index will also serve as a forecasting device for job seekers and hiring companies alike. The effort may include a group of external experts and advisors who would help validate and corroborate what IBM calls "critical expertise."

Training and Development, May 2005, A new shade of Big Blue, pg. 42

The company has launched a tool called Opportunity Marketplace where employees are able to look at job opportunities across the company. Every day, they can look at what's hot at IBM.

"We can also take that a step further, and this is where technology can make a difference," says Riley. "I can understand the skills profile that underlies a job and then drill down to see if I have the skills."

If the IBMer doesn't have the requisite skills, he can look at career road maps, requirements, and the learning that are needed to position him to go after one of those jobs in the future.

"The integrated training, and development [combined] with the idea of talent management is the next frontier in training and learning," predicts Riley. "it is not a disconnected event. Now, there is an understanding that if I want to learn in a hot area of the business-an area in which there are a lot of requirements and a business that has a future-I can understand what it will take to do that work.

"Then, I can drill down and create an individual learning plan for myself that will allow me to take advantage of courses, programs, and job experiences that prepare me to compete for one of those job roles."

It's an end-to-end integration that connects the hot areas with direction on what it takes to prepare for one of those careers. "and, all of it is being enabled by technology," Riley says. "It's huge."

Where do I go next?

How does career pathing working in a rapidly changing environment?

Nuggets: Competent Jerks, Likable Fools

One of my interests is the formation of cultural norms, so I read this article looking for clues. Instead, it is a great overview of social psychological research on attraction and teamwork, with down-to-earth tips on promoting effective informal networks thus creating outstanding teams.

I initially found it surprising that people would choose to work with the likable fool rather than the competent jerk, but Casciaro and Lobo's development of both scenarios brought up some vivid memories and made the finding intuitive.

The weakest point of the article was the section on team building. They mention Sherif, but do not discuss his findings. In order to build a cohesive team,

1. participants must have equal status
2. they must engage in cooperative interaction; it helps if everybody has something of value to contribute
3. common goals must be set
4. the company or institution should support the project and the interaction
5. there must be frequent contacts (not just a one-time interaction)

I would also add that the examples typically used by researchers like Sherif, the goals were meaningful to the participants in groups that have successfully fostered bonding in the real world, e.g. jigsaw classrooms, integrated military units.

The product management team is a great example of using these criteria to help eliminate conflict or help promote liking. Unfortunately, they only mention the product management team idea in the section on "familiarity."

In the section on "fostering bonding," where the Sherif study is cited, they mention Outward Bound-type activities as an example, albeit a poor one. As we know, a positive participant reaction does not mean that learning will transfer from the class to the job, but a negative participant reaction will guarantee that participants won't use the learned skills on the job. An Outward Bound-type activity does fulfill many of the team-building criteria, but is not very meaningful to most of the participants and may be met with cynicism and scepticism because it does feel "trite or manufactured".

Also, in my experience, I don't typically dislike my least-favored coworkers as people, it's the way they work that I can't stand. A ropes course may strengthen my liking for the "jerks" and the "fools" that I work with, but I'd still breathe a sigh of relief if they left the job. On the other hand, working on a product team or other project would motivate me to learn how to minimize the impact of their failings while maximizing their strengths and expertise. If the project was successful, these skills might cause me to like the "jerks" and "fools" more, because I'd have learned to minimize their interpersonal or knowledge gaps. I'd also see how their insights contributed to a successful project, maybe proving that they were less abrasive or foolish then I'd thought.

Overall, I thought the article was marvelously written: clear, concise and in layman's terms. I just wish that they'd refered to the product team example or something similar in the "fostering bonding." They are correct in saying that "The challenge for managers, therefore, is to constantly find new ways to take advantage of this old concept." I'd say, specifically, that the main challeng would be to find a project that the company cares about, takes full advantage of each worker's strength and has a high chance of success.

If a=b and b=c then what? - a funny

This is too rich not to share (it's hard to believe that this really happened):

A fellow designer received a "multiple choice" question from a SME. I've changed the content to protect the innocent, but you'll see what I mean.

Question:
Why is the sky blue?

a) Because "blue" light has the shortest wavelength and there is a lot of it, so that's what our eye perceives

b) Because the blue is reflected from the oceans and lakes

c) Only a

d) Only b

e) a and b

Supplies: BingoMaker

My problem:

• Create a game to review the typical misconceptions about a product and provide the correct facts.
• 23 Misconceptions (I requested 2 additional misconceptions to complete the 5X5 grid)
• 100 participants in a room divided into 10 tables of 10 participants

After a few days of mulling over the problem, the idea of a BINGO style game popped into my head. Instead of numbers, product facts would be listed on each card. We would present the misconception and have the participants match this with the fact on the card.

To make this more simple, each misconception would be labeled with a BINGO letter and a number (1-5). This means that they would only have 5 possible answers to each misconception. If they made a match, they would cover the fact with a square marked with the appropriate number. Thus, when checking for a correct BINGO win, the question would be easily identified by naming the column letter and the square number (Question B1).

This created an additional problem: each one of the 100 participants would need a unique BINGO board. There was no way I could handmake them, so I googled and found BingoMaker. It wasn't all I wanted: I wanted to have the "free" square indicated with a corporate icon and the headers aren't outstanding. On the other hand, you can choose unique headers - so instead of BINGO; you can have five categories of items, or your favorite 4 or 5 letter acronym.

Other features:

• The board is configurable to 4X4 or 5X5
• The free square can be in the center, appear randomly or be turned off
• Answers can be randomized within a column category or randomized throughout the board
• Call sheet is randomized; and can be printed as a table, as flashcard, or as questions with the answers in parands
• Font and font size is customizable