The Learning Link: Going Beyond the Happy Sheet

By William Spindloe

The few firms that gauge the results of their efforts often rely on “the happy sheet,” which is usually a questionnaire where the required responses are numbered one to five, five being very happy and one being very unhappy. The options are often illustrated by five faces in various states of happiness, but they don’t always result in meaningful feedback. William Spindloe, who has helped businesses throughout the world improve and measure their capabilities, provides best practices to align thinking throughout your organization to develop employees and achieve business objectives. His insights will help you: • determine where it makes sense to invest in the future; • calculate the return on investment on employee training and development; • establish an efficient process to train employees; and • employ technology to facilitate learning among employees. Grow your people and your business by mastering the lessons in The Learning Link.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: May 14, 2017
• ISBN: 9781483467061

Book preview

THE LEARNING

LINK

GOING BEYOND

THE HAPPY SHEET

How to Attract, Develop, and Retain Talent in Your Organization and Measure the Impact of the Investment You Make

WILLIAM SPINDLOE

Copyright © 2017 William Spindloe.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6707-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-6706-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904352

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 04/18/2017

CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 Once Upon A Time In An Hr Department Far, Far Away …

Chapter 2 Where Do We Start Anyway?

Needs Analysis

Chapter 3 The Business Drivers

Problems And Opportunities

Chapter 4 Desired Outcomes, Success Criteria, And Data Collection

Kirkpatrick/Phillips

Consequences

Intangibles

Chapter 5 Design And Align The Learning Methodology—Who, Where, What, When, And How

Scrap Learning

The Role Of Leadership

70:20:10

What About E-Learning?

Assessing Competence

Chapter 6 Final Thoughts

About The Author

PREFACE

I have purchased quite a few business and self-help books over the years. I was especially prolific during a period in my life I liked to call the Be Smarter Project—or, as my wife used to call it, the BS Project, which was probably a more appropriate title.

Prior to the Be Smarter Project, my peers were spending their lunchtimes reading the latest business best sellers, listening to tapes by Stephen Covey, and devouring Tom Peters and Marshall Goldsmith while I was scanning the football results on the back pages of the newspaper and following exploits of Garfield.

For years, the books that I had carefully sourced did not have the appearance of being well used—no broken or creased spines, no thumbed pages with notes, no highlighted paragraphs, and no tea stain rings. They sat there as pristine and untouched as they were the day I bought them.

For a while, a stack of these books sat beside my bed on the nightstand, as I had every intention of fulfilling the aims of my BS Project every night before I slept. After a while, the books were moved. My wife clearly felt that the project, like the books, needed to be shelved. There they remained, untouched over time, much like my rowing machine, dumbbells, and bread maker—packed away neatly, an embarrassing testament to my good but flawed intentions.

I had every intention of filling my brain with the knowledge, wisdom, and experience of authors like Covey, Peters, and Goldsmith. I imagined putting into practice the kinds of ideas and maxims for life they so eloquently laid out in their books whilst sculpting a body to be like an Olympic athlete and baking my own wholegrain, gluten-free bread.

Willpower, however, is not an infinite resource. I was young and just married, trying to furnish a home and all that comes with that. In spite of my good intentions, there just seemed to be more important things to do. As I found in later life, if you set too many tasks for yourself, and at the wrong time, all that will happen is you will drop things. I also found that having some of these books scattered around the house made me feel like a lesser human being for not applying the prescribed concepts contained therein.

Like so many of us who are involved in human resources and learning, I spent all my time trying to develop others. After a while, I felt that I was neglecting to sharpen my own saw, as the late Mr. Covey put it. I did not want to be the proverbial plumber whose home is the only one with leaking taps. Yet life and family happened as I continued to wrestle with my good intentions.

Today, I enjoy the works of authors like Covey, Peters, and Goldsmith. I am better able to find the time to work them into my life and take what I feel I need from them. Years after the BS Project, I started to realize that of course I was developing, though maybe not through books. It was happening as I helped others to develop themselves. My colleagues, staff, clients, friends, and family were shaping me and my career.

Now, twenty-seven years into my career, I firmly believe that it’s the people around me and the experiences I have that continue to develop me. I continue to be fascinated by people, and I have come to understand a great deal about how people learn and accept ideas. I wanted to write something using those experiences that could provoke thought and ultimately contain concepts that could be applied. Of course the very fact that I actually wrote this book is the ultimate irony, should you ask my wife.

As Albert Einstein said, "Learn from yesterday, live