https://staging.management.org/businesswriting/index.htm
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
Training and development — or “learning and development” as many
refer to it now — is one of the most important aspects of our lives and our
work. In our culture, we highly value learning. Yet, despite our having attended
many years of schooling, many of us have no idea how to design an approach to
training and development. This topic in the Library provides an extensive range
of information about training and development, including to depict how the many
aspects of training and development relate to each other. Also, this topic explains
how training and development can be used, informally or formally, to meet the
nature and needs of the learner.
What is Learning? Training? Development?
Reasons and Benefits Regarding T&D
How Adults Learn – Principles and Theories
Roles of Management and Learners in T&D
Different Designs
Numerous Types of Activities
Recent Movements in Organizational T&D
Systematic Designs of T&D
Guidelines to Design T&D Program
Examples of Programs in the Workplace
Suggestions to Enrich the Activities of Learning
and Development
Assessments: What Need to Learn?
Designs: How Learn It?
Development: What Resources Needed?
Implementation: Conduct Training
Evaluation: Desired Results Achieved?
Various Practitioners in T&D
Starting a Training Business
General Resources
Library’s Blogs Related to Training and Development
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Training and Development. Scan down the blog’s page
to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in
the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post
in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Library’s Career
Management Blog
Library’s Human Resources
Blog
Library’s Leadership Blog
Library’s Supervision
Blog
Library’s
Training and Development Blog
It’s amazing how so many of us go through so many years of schooling, but have
such little understanding of T&D. Before reading about the many aspects
of T&D in this topic in the Library, it’s best to start with a basic understanding
of T&D is and how to best benefit from it.
Traditionally, learning is viewed as new knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA).
Knowledge is gleaned by organizing information. Typically, information evolves
to knowledge by the learner’s gaining context, perspective and scope about the
information. Skills are applying knowledge in an effective and efficient manner
to get something done. One notices skills in an employee by their behaviors.
Abilities result from applying the skills to the extent that the applications
become natural or intuitive to do. Some professionals view learning as enhancing
one’s capacity to perform.
It’s important to note that learning is more than collecting information —
more than collecting unreferenced books on a shelf. Ideally, the skills are
applied to the most appropriate tasks and practices in the organization, thereby
producing performance — results needed by the organization. Here’s another perspective.
This term is often interpreted as the activity when an expert and learner work
together to effectively transfer useful information from the expert to the learner
(to enhance a learner’s knowledge, skills and abilities) so the learner can
better perform a current task or job. A trainer might use a variety of methods
to enhance a learner’s learning, including other- or self-directed, and formal
or informal. Here’s another perspective.
This term is often viewed as a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities
(training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another
threshold of performance. This development often includes a wide variety of
methods, e.g., orienting about a role, training in a wide variety of areas,
ongoing training on the job, coaching, mentoring and forms of self-development.
Some view development as a life-long goal and experience. Here’s another
perspective.
Here are more definitions of terms in T&D.
Employment
Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits
We often think that the biggest benefit of learning is that we get a diploma
or credential. As we get wiser, we realize there are so many more benefits than
that. Knowing the benefits will help motivate you to design your own training
plans and programs, and to motivate others to participate as well. Perhaps one
of the biggest benefits is the appreciation that you can be learning all the
time, even if you are not in a formal training program.
Employment
Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits
If you will be doing training and development with yourself (and almost every
adult will be at some time in their lives) or with others, you should know the
differences between training children and teens versus training adults. Adults
have very different natures and needs in training.
Principles
of — and Myths About — Adult Learning
When designing trainings, it helps to consider the influences that might be
causing the learning to occur. That’s where theories of learning can be useful.
A theory is a set of highly integrated ideas meant to explain how something
works. Thus, a theory of learning is meant to explain how a person or group
attains new knowledge, skills and abilities.
Overview
of Learning Theories
Theories
of Learning and Development
Learning
Theories
Five
Educational Learning Theories
Six
Learning Theories for Mobile Learning
Research suggests that each person has a style of learning that best suits
their nature. Educators and parents are encouraged to learn the style of their
students and children and to adapt their educational activities to the nature
of the learner.
Overview
of Learning Styles
Your
Guide to Understanding and Adapting To Different Learning Styles
The
Learning Styles Controversy – Arguments For and Against
A person or group will not learn unless they want to learn, regardless of how
well the training was planned and how well the trainers do their jobs.
Role
of Learners in Training and Development
Although the learning is primarily up to the learners to accomplish, the role
of management is critical in the support and continuation of learning. That
includes executives, managers and supervisors.
Role
of Management in Learning and Development
In larger organizations with sufficient resources to operate a carefully designed
and managed T&D program, it is useful to have a Chief Learning Officer.
Role
of Chief Learning Officers
There are different, major forms of designs of training and development activities.
We’re most familiar with formal and other-directed forms of learning and development
that include the strong attention to the systematic structure and evaluation
of the learning and development, especially as used in schooling. That is somewhat
ironic because the most common forms are informal and self-directed — they
occur without strong attention to a systematic design and evaluation and without
many experts guiding us through those experiences.
Ways to Look at Training
and Development Processes: Informal/Formal and Self-Directed/Other-Directed
There are many approaches to learning and development and many types of activities
that can be undertaken to learn. An awareness of these other types will broaden
your possibilities for intentional learning and for designing training for yourself
and others.
Numerous Ideas
for Learning Activities
The field (or many would argue, the profession) of training and development
has undergone dramatic improvements, especially with the inclusion of computer-
and Web-based technologies. We’re also expanding the concept of learning beyond
the learning of individuals — we’re thinking that groups and organizations
can learn, too. (Although the topics of the learning organization and knowledge
management are fairly recent and still popular, many people would disagree that
they’re actually learning and development programs — those people might assert
that they’re actually forms of organizational performance management. However,
the two topics still seem to be so broad and changing, that they’re referred
to here as movements.)
Learning Organization
Knowledge Management
Instructional system design (ISD) is the activities to ensure that the design
of training is very successful in achieving the goals of the training. One of
the most common ISD models is ADDIE, which is an acronym for assessment, design,
development, implementation and evaluation — you can discern from the acronym
that ADDIES is a systematic design of training.
Formal
Training Processes — Instructional Systems Design (ISD) and ADDIE
Formal approaches to learning and development often have the highest likelihood
of transfer of training. A formal approach to learning and development usually
follows a systematic and consistent framework. Systematic means that the framework
is designed to guide learners to achieve an overall set of goals — goals to
address a need or situation, then associates objectives and activities to achieve
those overall goals, and evaluates the activities and results to be sure the
goals were achieved.
Guidelines to Design T&D Programs
Before this Library topic goes on to explaining how to design and develop training
programs, it’s useful to get a quick impression of various types of training
programs. A training program is an intentionally designed,
(hopefully) highly integrated set of activities that are aligned to accomplish
a certain set of results among learners. Many of us might not be used to thinking
of the following as programs in the workplace, but they are.
Overviews
of Various Formal Training Processes
Orienting
New Employees (New Hires, On-Boarding)
Corporate
Universities
It might help to broaden your understanding of how learning and development
is applied in life and organizations by considering various forms of development.
Development is often referred to as the activities to raise the performance
of a person, team, process or organization to another level. Development include
a wide variety of forms of learning and development. The following links are
to a wide variety of forms of development in people and organizations.
Board Development
Leadership
Development
Management
Development
Supervisoral
Development
Team Development
Personal
Development
Sales Training
Training
Solutions for the “Dumbest Management Concepts of All Time”
Now we’ll tie the many guidelines together into a set of suggestions that will
be useful, especially when undergoing or designing training programs for yourself
and others. The second link is to a guide you could consider when designing
a training program.
Suggestions to Enrich
Learning Any Training and Development Plans
What overall results or outcomes should be accomplished by learners? Those
outcomes usually are identified from the results of assessments, or measurements,
of what a person or workplace needs to accomplish in order to achieve some desired
level of performance. An outcome might be the ability to perform a complex job.
Training
Needs Assessment and Analysis: Identifying Training Goals
Preparation
for Conducting Needs Assessment
Overall
Purpose of Training Assessment and Analysis
One
Approach — Four Steps to Conducting a Needs Assessment
Another
Approach to Needs Assessment to Determine Your Overall Training Goals
More
Resources for Training Needs Assessment and Analysis
Also see
Basic
Business Research Methods
Strategic
Action Plans and Alignment
What learning objectives must be accomplished by learners in order to achieve
the overall outcomes, and what activities must be undertaken by trainers and
learners to accomplish those objectives? The integration of the overall outcomes,
objectives and activities and also how they will be evaluated comprise the design
of the learning and development program. Learning objectives often are described
in terms of new learning — new knowledge, skills and competencies.
Designing
Training Plans and Learning Objectives
Preparation
for Designing Your Training Plan
Design
Your Learning Objectives
Analyze
Your Learning Objectives for Relevance, Alignment, Sequence and Testability
Designing
Training Rooms (Classrooms)
Additional
Information About Designing Training
Various
Ideas for Ways to Learn (including distance and online learning)
Also see
Use
of Technology in Training: Pros and Cons
Beginners Guide to Massive
Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
Learning
Management Systems
One of the biggest concerns of trainers — and those paying for training —
is whether the learners will indeed understand and apply the new information
and materials from the learning and development activities, that is, whether
the new information and materials will transfer to the learners. The following
link is to many resources with guidelines to increase the likelihood of transfer
of training.
How
to Ensure Transfer of Training — How to Reinforce Learning
Now it’s important to get even more clear on what resources must be obtained
and developed in order to undertake the activities to achieve the objectives.
Resource might include certain expertise, facilities and technologies. Development
might include several trainers and learners reviewing the design of the training
to ensure it meets their nature and needs.
Developing
Training Activities and Materials
Preparation
for Developing Your Training Activities and Materials
Key
Considerations to Develop Your Training Activities and Materials
Critical
Consideration — Selecting a Trainer
Many
Possible Types of Training Activities
Additional
Resources to Develop Your Training Activities and Materials
Now you’re ready to have trainers and learners participate in the program,
to undertake the activities and evaluations of learning. Implementation often
results in refining the original design of the training program.
Implementing
Training: Conducting the Training with Learners
Preparation
for Implementing Your Training Plan
Key
Considerations During Implementation
Wise
Advice for Any Trainer
Additional
Resources to Guide Implementation of Your Training Plan
Also see
All About
Group and Team Facilitation
How to Know When to Facilitate, Train or Coach
How
to Improve Your Communications Skills
Tips and
Tools for Trainers and Teachers
How
to Do Public Speaking and Presentations
As trainers and learners participate in the program, evaluation should occur
of the quality of the activities and the extent of achievement of the objectives.
After the program, evaluation should occur to assess the extent of achievement
of the overall goals of the program. Evaluation might focus on short-term, intermediate
and long-term outcomes.
Evaluating
Training and Results (ROI of Training)
Preparation
for Evaluating Training Activities and Results
Perspective
on Evaluating Training
Suggestions
for Evaluating Training
One
Approach to Calculate Return on Investment (ROI) of Training
Additional
Resources to Guide Evaluation of Your Training
Also see
Evaluation
Activities in Organizations
The following links are to numerous types of positions that often have official
responsibility for various forms of learning and development.
Chief
Learning Officers
Coaches
Facilitators
Human
Performance Technologists
Human Resource
Specialists
Overview
of the Field of Organization Development
Popular
Education for Learning and Development and Social Change
Performance
Consultants
Trainers (Corporate
Trainers) (includes guidelines about training)
Do You Need An Instructional Design Degree?
The
Best Performance Enhancer�
This topic assumes that you already have some expertise in
training and are thinking about starting a business to be a professional
trainer. The guidelines in this topic are focused on helping you
to start a new organization, expand a current organization, or
start a new service. If you do not yet have expertise in training,
you should review much of the contents of the topic Training and Development, and then certainly
practice training in a variety of venues, including with evaluation
from other trainers and participants in your trainings.
How to Start a Training Business
Online Resources for Training and Development
Online Educational Directories
Free Training
Programs
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
Training and development — or “learning and development” as many refer to it now — is one of the most important aspects of our lives and our work. In our culture, we highly value learning. Yet, despite our having attended many years of schooling, many of us have no idea how to design an approach to training and development. This topic in the Library provides an extensive range of information about training and development, including to depict how the many aspects of training and development relate to each other. Also, this topic explains how training and development can be used, informally or formally, to meet the nature and needs of the learner.
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Training Services and Development. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
It’s amazing how so many of us go through so many years of schooling, but have such little understanding of T&D. Before reading about the many aspects of T&D in this topic in the Library, it’s best to start with a basic understanding of T&D is and how to best benefit from it.
Traditionally, learning is viewed as new knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA). Knowledge is gleaned by organizing information. Typically, information evolves to knowledge by the learner’s gaining context, perspective and scope about the information. Skills are applying knowledge in an effective and efficient manner to get something done. One notices skills in an employee by their behaviors. Abilities result from applying the skills to the extent that the applications become natural or intuitive to do. Some professionals view learning as enhancing one’s capacity to perform.
It’s important to note that learning is more than collecting information — more than collecting unreferenced books on a shelf. Ideally, the skills are applied to the most appropriate tasks and practices in the organization, thereby producing performance — results needed by the organization. Here’s another perspective.
This term is often interpreted as the activity when an expert and learner work together to effectively transfer useful information from the expert to the learner (to enhance a learner’s knowledge, skills and abilities) so the learner can better perform a current task or job. A trainer might use a variety of methods to enhance a learner’s learning, including other- or self-directed, and formal or informal. Here’s another perspective.
This term is often viewed as a broad, ongoing multi-faceted set of activities (training activities among them) to bring someone or an organization up to another threshold of performance. This development often includes a wide variety of methods, e.g., orienting about a role, training in a wide variety of areas,
ongoing training on the job, coaching, mentoring and forms of self-development. Some view development as a life-long goal and experience. Here’s another perspective.
Here are more definitions of terms in T&D.
Employment Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits
We often think that the biggest benefit of learning is that we get a diploma or credential. As we get wiser, we realize there are so many more benefits than that. Knowing the benefits will help motivate you to design your own training plans and programs, and to motivate others to participate as well. Perhaps one of the biggest benefits is the appreciation that you can be learning all the time, even if you are not in a formal training program.
Employment Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits
If you will be doing training and development with yourself (and almost every adult will be at some time in their lives) or with others, you should know the differences between training children and teens versus training adults. Adults have very different natures and needs in training.
Principles of — and Myths About — Adult Learning
When designing trainings, it helps to consider the influences that might be causing the learning to occur. That’s where theories of learning can be useful. A theory is a set of highly integrated ideas meant to explain how something works. Thus, a theory of learning is meant to explain how a person or group attains new knowledge, skills and abilities.
Research suggests that each person has a style of learning that best suits their nature. Educators and parents are encouraged to learn the style of their students and children and to adapt their educational activities to the nature of the learner.
A person or group will not learn unless they want to learn, regardless of how well the training was planned and how well the trainers do their jobs.
Role of Learners in Training and Development
Although the learning is primarily up to the learners to accomplish, the role of management is critical in the support and continuation of learning. That includes executives, managers and supervisors.
Role of Management in Learning and Development
In larger organizations with sufficient resources to operate a carefully designed and managed T&D program, it is useful to have a Chief Learning Officer.
Role of Chief Learning Officers
There are different, major forms of designs of training and development activities. We’re most familiar with formal and other-directed forms of learning and development that include the strong attention to the systematic structure and evaluation of the learning and development, especially as used in schooling. That is somewhat ironic because the most common forms are informal and self-directed — they occur without strong attention to a systematic design and evaluation and without many experts guiding us through those experiences.
Ways to Look at Training and Development Processes: Informal/Formal and Self-Directed/Other-Directed
There are many approaches to learning and development and many types of activities that can be undertaken to learn. An awareness of these other types will broaden your possibilities for intentional learning and for designing training for yourself and others.
Numerous Ideas for Learning Activities
The field (or many would argue, the profession) of training and development has undergone dramatic improvements, especially with the inclusion of computer-and Web-based technologies. We’re also expanding the concept of learning beyond the learning of individuals — we’re thinking that groups and organizations can learn, too.
(Although the topics of the learning organization and knowledge management are fairly recent and still popular, many people would disagree that they’re actually learning and development programs — those people might assert that they’re actually forms of organizational performance management. However, the two topics still seem to be so broad and changing, that they’re referred to here as movements.)
Instructional system design (ISD) is the activities to ensure that the design of training is very successful in achieving the goals of the training. One of the most common ISD models is ADDIE, which is an acronym for assessment, design, development, implementation and evaluation — you can discern from the acronym that ADDIES is a systematic design of training.
Formal Training Processes — Instructional Systems Design (ISD) and ADDIE
Formal approaches to learning and development often have the highest likelihood of transfer of training. A formal approach to learning and development usually follows a systematic and consistent framework. Systematic means that the framework is designed to guide learners to achieve an overall set of goals — goals to address a need or situation, then associates objectives and activities to achieve those overall goals, and evaluates the activities and results to be sure the goals were achieved.
Guidelines to Design T&D Programs
Before this Library topic goes on to explaining how to design and develop training programs, it’s useful to get a quick impression of various types of training programs. A training program is an intentionally designed, (hopefully) highly integrated set of activities that are aligned to accomplish a certain set of results among learners. Many of us might not be used to thinking of the following as programs in the workplace, but they are.
It might help to broaden your understanding of how learning and development is applied in life and organizations by considering various forms of development. Development is often referred to as the activities to raise the performance of a person, team, process or organization to another level. Development include a wide variety of forms of learning and development. The following links are to a wide variety of forms of development in people and organizations.
Now we’ll tie the many guidelines together into a set of suggestions that will be useful, especially when undergoing or designing training programs for yourself and others. The second link is to a guide you could consider when designing a training program.
Suggestions to Enrich Learning Any Training and Development Plans
What overall results or outcomes should be accomplished by learners? Those outcomes usually are identified from the results of assessments, or measurements, of what a person or workplace needs to accomplish in order to achieve some desired level of performance. An outcome might be the ability to perform a complex job.
Also see
Phase 2 — Design: How Do You Want to Learn It?
What learning objectives must be accomplished by learners in order to achieve the overall outcomes, and what activities must be undertaken by trainers and learners to accomplish those objectives? The integration of the overall outcomes, objectives and activities and also how they will be evaluated comprise the design of the learning and development program. Learning objectives often are described in terms of new learning — new knowledge, skills and competencies.
Also see
One of the biggest concerns of trainers — and those paying for training — is whether the learners will indeed understand and apply the new information and materials from the learning and development activities, that is, whether the new information and materials will transfer to the learners. The following link is to many resources with guidelines to increase the likelihood of transfer of training.
How to Ensure Transfer of Training — How to Reinforce Learning
Now it’s important to get even more clear on what resources must be obtained and developed in order to undertake the activities to achieve the objectives. Resource might include certain expertise, facilities and technologies. Development might include several trainers and learners reviewing the design of the training to ensure it meets their nature and needs.
Now you’re ready to have trainers and learners participate in the program, to undertake the activities and evaluations of learning. Implementation often results in refining the original design of the training program.
Also see
As trainers and learners participate in the program, evaluation should occur of the quality of the activities and the extent of achievement of the objectives. After the program, evaluation should occur to assess the extent of achievement of the overall goals of the program. Evaluation might focus on short-term, intermediate and long-term outcomes.
Also see
Evaluation Activities in Organizations
The following links are to numerous types of positions that often have official
responsibility for various forms of learning and development.
This topic assumes that you already have some expertise in training and are thinking about starting a business to be a professional trainer. The guidelines in this topic are focused on helping you to start a new organization, expand a current organization, or start a new service. If you do not yet have expertise in training, you should review much of the contents of the topic Training and Development, and then certainly practice training in a variety of venues, including with evaluation from other trainers and participants in your trainings.
How to Start a Training Business
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Also consider
Related Library Topics
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Employee Orientation and On-Boarding. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Planning an orientation to employees should be as carefully done as planning a systematic approach to training. For example, there should be overall goals that you want to accomplish with the orientation. There should be carefully chosen activities and materials used in the orientation to achieve the goals. Participants should produce certain tangible results that can be referenced to evaluate the orientation both during and after the orientation.
A progressive view of orientation is that of “on-boarding.” On-boarding works from the perspective that the organization must do all it can to fully equip the employee for maximum performance for the organization — and for maximum fulfillment of the employee. Some organizations have on-boarding programs that last up to a year, where the employee experiences a several-day orientation program, which includes, not only the orientation to the facilities and personnel, but also various self-assessments for the employee to get clear on what he or she wants from employment in the organization. The employee might be placed in a peer group of fellow, new employees who share advice and other feedback to learn more about the company and other roles in the organization.
While the approach to on-boarding is usually quite unique to the nature and needs of an organization, here’s a checklist that can be used to orient an employee to an organization. The following activities should be conducted by the employee’s supervisor. The checklist is relevant to the activities that should occur after the employee has received a job offer.
Verify the exact starting date and also provide a copy of the employee policies and procedures manual. Note that you’ll dedicate time for them to review the manual later. Do not specify the terms of salary and compensation — that should have been included in the job offer.
All employees deserve explanation of what is expected from them. A job description, which explains duties and responsibilities, often is not enough. Therefore, suggest some additional areas of focus, ideally in the context of performance goals for the employee to address especially during the first year of employment. Make it clear that you will discuss these with the employee soon.
Explain how they will be trained, introduce them to staff, give them keys, get them to sign any needed benefit and tax forms, explain the time-recording system (if applicable), and provide them copies of important documents (an organization chart, last year’s final report, the strategic plan, this year’s budget, and the employee’s policies and procedure manual if they did not get one already.
Show them the layout of offices, bathrooms, storage areas, kitchen use, copy and fax systems, computer configuration and procedures, telephone usage and any special billing procedures for use of office systems. Review any Policies and/or procedures about use of facilities.
Include training about the most frequently used software applications. Be sure the employees learn any security procedures for computer information, including careful use of passwords, overview of location of manuals and other useful documentation, location and use of computer networks and other peripherals, and where to go to get questions answered.
This is extremely important. Identify another employee, other than you (the supervisor), that the employee might quickly establish rapport with, to pose any questions that the employee is not comfortable posing to the supervisor. The buddy can invite the new employee to various social functions undertaken by other employees.
Use this opportunity to be with them in other than a work setting. Don’t talk about work. Ask them about their family and share some information about yourself.
Take just a few minutes to ask if they have any questions or any needs they’d like to talk about. Remind them that you or their buddy is there if they have any questions or needs.
Review the job description again. Remind them to review the employee manual and sign a form indicating they have reviewed the manual and will comply with its contents. Review any specific performance goals for the position. In the same meeting, explain the performance review procedure and provide them a copy of the performance review document.
One of the biggest mistakes of new supervisors is to meet with direct reports only when there are problems. That sends the message “I’m only here if you have a problem, and you better not have any problems.” Instead, meet to discuss the new employee’s transition into the organization, get status on
work activities, hear any pending issues or needs, and establish a working relationship with the new employee.
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Go to main Training and Development page.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
https://staging.management.org/personaldevelopment/thinking/index.htm
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
Guidelines for analyzing and improving systems are included in the books Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development and Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development with Nonprofits.
Three of the biggest breakthroughs in how we understand and successfully guide changes in ourselves, others and organizations are systems theory, systems thinking and systems tools. To understand how they are used, we first must understand the concept of a system.
Many of us have an intuitive understanding of the concept. However, we need to make that intuition even more explicit in order to use systems thinking and systems tools.
|
Much of the content
of this topic came from this book:  |
Also see
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Systems Theory, Chaos Theory and Systems Thinking. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development: Collaborative and Systems Approach to Performance Change and Learning.
One of the biggest breakthroughs in how we understand and guide change in organizations is systems theory and systems thinking. To understand how they are used in organizations, we first must understand a system. Many of us have an intuitive understanding of the term. However, we need to make the understanding explicit in order to use systems thinking and systems tools in organizations.
Simply put, a system is an organized collection of parts (or subsystems) that are highly integrated to accomplish an overall goal. The system has various inputs, which go through certain processes to produce certain outputs, which together, accomplish the overall desired goal for the system. So a system is usually
made up of many smaller systems, or subsystems. For example, an organization is made up of many administrative and management functions, products, services, groups and individuals. If one part of the system is changed, the nature of the overall system is often changed, as well — by definition then, the system is systemic, meaning relating to, or affecting, the entire system.
(This is not to be confused with systematic, which can mean merely that something is methodological. Thus, methodological thinking — systematic thinking — does not necessarily mean systems thinking.)
Systems range from simple to complex. There are numerous types of systems. For example, there are biological systems (for example, the heart), mechanical systems (for example, a thermostat), human/mechanical systems (for example, riding a bicycle), ecological systems (for example, predator/prey) and social systems (for example, groups, supply and demand and also friendship).
Complex systems, such as social systems, are comprised of numerous subsystems, as well. These subsystems are arranged in hierarchies, and integrated to accomplish the overall goal of the overall system. Each subsystem has its own boundaries of sorts, and includes various inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes geared to accomplish an overall goal for the subsystem. Complex systems usually interact with their environments and are, thus, open systems.
A high-functioning system continually exchanges feedback among its various parts to ensure that they remain closely aligned and focused on achieving the goal of the system. If any of the parts or activities in the system seems weakened or misaligned, the system makes necessary adjustments to more effectively achieve its goals.
A pile of sand is not a system. If you remove a sand particle, you have still got a pile of sand. However, a functioning car is a system. Remove the carburetor and you no longer have a working car.
Peter Senge wrote a seminal book about systems thinking, The Fifth Discipline (Doubleday, 1990). In his book, he suggested five disciplines necessary to cultivate systems thinking in an effort or organization. In addition to the discipline of systems thinking, he suggests the following four disciplines, as well.
Senge describes personal mastery as “continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively” (The Fifth Discipline, Doubleday, 1990, p. 7).
Senge explains “Mental models are deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, or even pictures or images that influence how we understand the world and how we take action” (p. 8).
Also see
Senge notes “If any one idea about leadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, it’s the capacity to hold a shared picture of the future we seek to create” (p. 9).
Also see
Senge asks “How can a team of committed managers with individual IQs above 120 have a collective IQ of 63?” (p. 9.).He adds “Team learning is vital because teams, not individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations” (p. 10).
Systems theory has evolved to another level called chaos theory. In this context, chaos does not mean total confusion. Chaos refers to the dynamics of a system that apparently has no, or little, order, but in which there really is an underlying order. In these systems, small changes can cause complex changes in the overall system.
(In technical terms, chaos theory applies to complex non-linear dynamics systems.) Chaos theory has introduced new perspectives and tools to study complex systems, such as biological, human, groups, weather, population growth and the solar system.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
The World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland
Commission), in its report “Our Common Future” (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1987), defines sustainable development:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
- the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of
the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given;- and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology
and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet
present and future needs.”
The profession of management is increasingly interested in
sustainable development as today’s organizations confront the
realities of managing limited resources, many of which were previously
considered to be unlimited in scope. For example, sustainable
development was the main topic of the national Organization Development
Network’s 2003 conference. Sustainable development often looks
at three major aspects of development, including sociological,
ecological and economic. The information in this topic is by no
means complete. However, like so many other topics in the Library,
there’s enough in this topic to get you started.
Introduction and Basics
General Resources and Organizations
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Related Library Topics
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Sustainable Development. Scan down the blog’s page
to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in
the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post
in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Library’s
Leadership Blog
Library’s
Strategic Planning Blog
Library’s Supervision Blog
NOTE: If you were looking for guidelines to
ensure that your organization remains sustainable, then see the
topic
Organizational
Sustainability. If you were looking for guidelines about business
development, in general, see
Business
Development.
The Top 10 Green Business Stories of 2010
Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility
The Road Less Traveled: Funders’ Advice on the Path to Nonprofit Sustainability
International
Network for Trade and Sustainable Development
United
Nations for Sustainable Development
World
Wide Web Virtual Library on Sustainable Development
World Business Council for Sustainable Development
Institute
for Sustainable Enterprise, Fairleigh Dickenson University
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
|
Comprehensive, practical book by Carter McNamara
 |
The guidelines and resources in this topic are not sufficient to develop strong competencies in supervision. Those competencies come from extensive experience in applying that information.
Also consider
Related Library Topics
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to Supervision. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
Supervision is a widely misunderstood term. Many people believe it applies only to people who oversee the productivity and development of entry-level workers. That’s not true.
The term “supervisor” typically refers to one’s immediate superior in the workplace, that is, the person whom you report directly to in the organization. For example, a middle manager’s supervisor typically
would be a top manager. A first-line manager’s supervisor would be a middle manager. A worker’s supervisor typically would be a first-line manager.
Supervisors typically are responsible for their direct reports’ progress and productivity in the organization. Supervision often includes conducting basic management skills (decision making, problem solving, planning, delegation and meeting management), organizing teams, noticing the need for and designing
new job roles in the group, hiring new employees, training new employees, employee performance management (setting goals, observing and giving feedback, addressing performance issues, firing employees, etc.) and ensuring conformance to personnel policies and other internal regulations. Supervisors typically have strong working knowledge of the activities in their group, e.g., how to develop their product, carry out their service, etc.
NOTE: Many people also use the term “supervisor” to designate the managerial position that is responsible for a major function in the organization, for example, Supervisor of Customer Service. This topic in the Library does not address that context of supervision, but rather addresses the context described in the above paragraphs.
Without knowing about organizations in general, your role as a supervisor will be extremely limited. For example, perhaps the greatest affect on how you work and the success of your department is the culture of the organization. Supervisors should fully understand the mission and strategic goals of the organization.
Also, the expectations, resources and influences to do your job usually come from other parts of the organization, whether it comes from the management levels above you or other departments that you serve.
Collaboration between other departments in the organization is often one of the most effective ways for the departments to do their job. Your employees’ questions are often about other parts of the organization, as well. The likelihood of your promotion depends on how well you understand the rest of the organization. See Organizational Structures and Design
Traditionally, management is interpreted as be an integration of planning, organizing, leading and coordinating resources. The role of supervision is essentially a management role.
For example, you are planning your department’s goals, how to reach those goals, the resources that you will need, and who will doing what and by when to achieve those goals. You will be organizing resources, including jobs, people, funding and facilities. You will be leading individuals and teams in your department. You will be continually coordinating your department’s activities to make sure that activities are being conducted as planned.
You will take measures to get things back on track when needed. Therefore, it is very important that you understand best practices in management. Those practices are often quite similar across the organization, but just of a different scope and impact. See What is Management? How Do I Manage?
Simply put, leadership is the set of activities to clarify direction and priorities, and influence people toward those. Leadership is a strong component in a supervisor’s overall activities of management. You are responsible for leading other individuals, teams and your department and — perhaps most important — leading yourself.
Especially for first-time supervisors, the role can be quite stressful because they are now faced with responsibilities they have never had before — they are leading people, not just activities that usually have clear-cut and routine tasks. Therefore, it is extremely important for supervisors — especially first-time supervisors — to understand principles and various styles of leadership, including which style to use and when. See What is Leadership? How Do I Lead?
The job of a supervisor is a very dynamic one, depending on the culture of the organization, complexity of the department’s goals, access to sufficient resources and expertise of the people in the department, and especially on the supervisor’s ability to successfully delegate to their direct reports. A supervisor might play different roles even in the same day.
The supervisor is often responsible to represent the employee’s requests and to management, along with also representing the employee’s case for deserving a reward. For example, if an employee deserves a promotion, the supervisor often must justify the case for promotion to the supervisor’s supervisor, as well.
If the employee has a rather unique personal situation that warrants special consideration by the rest of management, the supervisor must explain this situation and how it can be handled.
The supervisor is also responsible to advocate for upper management when it wants all employees to understand and embrace a major management decision. It’s not unusual for employees to sometimes see the supervisor as part of “management” while at other times seeing the supervisor as a personal friend.
There are many different names for leaders in organizations and how they are viewed. However, the most conventional term and the most widely understood is that of boss. The supervisor is deemed to be the boss when people in the department are ultimately looking for direction and guidance in their jobs. The ways that a supervisor carries out that role can vary from strong direction, advice and deadlines to consensus-based decisions, thoughtful questioning and adaptive deadlines.
The term coach has taken on an entirely new meaning with the recent growth of the field of personal and professional coaching. Coaches in that field are experts at supporting others to bring out and apply their own wisdom. Often, they pose thoughtful questions to help that happen. Still, supervisors might guide their employees to increased performance and satisfaction in a variety of ways ranging from useful advice and feedback to thoughtful questions and support.
The job of a facilitator is to support a group of people to clarify their desired results and achieve their results by working with each other. The nature of how facilitators do their job ranges from rather directive advice (especially when the group is getting started) to thoughtful questions, paraphrasing and summarizing. Thus, with an established team, a facilitator works much like a coach.
A mentor is a person who helps another (a mentee) to develop in their job and career. The mentor may have officially accepted that role, for example, as part of an overall mentoring program, or informally accepted the role based on a mutual relationship. The mentee sees themselves as being able to count on the mentor for help. The mentor might use a variety of methods to help the mentee ranging from advice and materials to thoughtful questions and guidelines.
The supervisor is often the first person who is considered when a new employee needs to learn the job or when an employee is struggling to improve performance in the job. Employees also often turn to the supervisor to ask about personnel policies. Progressive employees might ask about the organization’s culture.
The supervisor is responsible to ensure that training occurs, and might do the training themselves or arrange it through a subject matter expert. Training could be done in a variety of ways ranging from ongoing on-the-job advice to participating in a formal, systematic training program.
Employee Training and Development: Reasons and Benefits
Various experts would disagree on what skills and practices should be required for supervisors. Various roles and skills are listed throughout the next sections in this topic. However, it would be difficult to undertake them without having the following core skills.
Also consider
Suggested Core Competencies to Lead in Any Situation
NOTE: Many of the following staffing activities are designed by a Human Resource Department (HR) if an organization has that type of department. Still, the activities are best carried out in collaboration with the supervisor who brings strong knowledge of the needed skills in the department. Organizations without an HR Department usually rely on the supervisor to conduct the activities, hopefully in accordance with up-to-date personnel policies.
The activities of supervision should always be respectful, fair and equitable and should always conform to relevant laws, rules and regulations. The best way to make sure that those conditions will continue to exist is to work from up-to-date personnel policies. Thus, staffing activities usually start by ensuring the personnel policies are up to date. Supervisors should be acquainted with all of the relevant policies as well as to make sure that the employees are, as well.
Especially in today’s highly diverse organizations, the ability to work with people having diverse values and cultures is extremely important. An organization’s culture is driven by the values throughout that organization. Employees need to feel included — that their values are being recognized, understood and respected.
They need to feel that their ideas and concerns are being heard. Those conditions create strong motivation and momentum for strong satisfaction and performance in their jobs. Personnel policies should include guidelines to ensure a workforce is diverse and inclusive.
Diversity and Inclusion
There are several occasions when a job role needs to be created or updated. For example, supervisors would be designing a new role when there is sufficient evidence that enough new tasks that a new role was required. Another occasion would be if a current job needed to be updated. Ideally, planning for a new role is done during strategic planning or when a new product or service is added to the organization.
When designing a new job role, it should be associated with a suitable salary range that ensures sufficient compensation and benefits for the types of responsibilities needed in the role.
Compensation includes topics in regard to wage and/or salary programs and structures, for example, salary ranges for job descriptions, merit-based programs, bonus-based programs, commission-based programs, etc. Employee benefits typically refers to retirement plans, health life insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, vacation, employee stock ownership plans, etc.
Employee Benefits and Compensation (Employee Pay)
After the job role has been specified and approved by management, the supervisor is ready to recruit job candidates who might fill the job role. There are a wide variety of ways to recruit job candidates. The best methods are those that are most likely to reach out to the most suitable candidates.
How to Find and Recruit the Best Job Candidates
The thoroughness and professionalism you use to interview candidates can make a strong, positive impression on candidates. It also conveys to them that you expect the same from them if they are hired by your organization.
In an effort to mitigate the risk of a bad hiring decision, companies can use multiple tools in their hiring strategy. One of those, background screening, can help identify if your candidate is included in the 56% of applicants that provide false information on their resume.
Hiring employees involves a variety of tasks, any of which if not done effectively, could result in a mismatch between the needs of the department and that of the new hire. Thus, one of the most important tasks of a supervisor is hiring highly suitable employees. That includes going to as many sources as possible for finding good candidates, screening the candidates’ resumes and conducting interviews, and then coordinating the activities to making — and accepting — a formal offer for employment.
A new employee should be sufficiently oriented to the organization and its employees so that the employee feels familiar enough to begin doing a good job in the role. Planning an orientation to employees should be as carefully done as planning a systematic approach to training. For example, there should be overall goals that you want to accomplish with the orientation. There should be carefully chosen activities and materials used in the orientation to achieve the goals.
Employee Orientation
One of the most expensive labor costs is the replacement of employees. Fortunately, there are many things a supervisor can do to increase the likelihood that good employees will remain. The supervisor can ensure the employee understands the job, is fully oriented and trained to do it, has suitable compensation, is effectively led, has a job design that helps the employee to be motivated, shares useful
feedback, and supports the employee’s career development.
How to Retain Your
Best Employees
There are a variety of ways for a supervisor to reward employees for the quality
of the work they do in the workplace. For example, rewards can be in the form
of money, benefits, time off from work, acknowledgement for work well done,
affiliation with other workers or a sense of accomplishment from finishing a
major task.
Rewarding Employee Performance
Employee performance management includes the activities to ensure that all employees are effectively and efficiently working toward the departmental goals that are assigned to them. That means assigning appropriate goals to the employee, ensuring the employee is sufficiently equipped to achieve the goal, monitoring and measuring the employee’s activities and accomplishments, and rewarding the employee for accomplishments or addressing situations where goals are not being achieved in a high-quality and timely manner.
How to Ensure Strong Employee Performance Management
There are a variety of different styles in implementing a performance management process.
Performance Management: Traditional and Progressive Approaches
Goals can be established for a variety of reasons, for example, to overcome performance problems, qualify for future jobs and roles, take advantage of sudden opportunities that arise and/or give direction to training plans. Goals provide clear direction to both supervisor and employee. They form a common frame of reference around which the supervisor and employee can effectively communicate.
They clearly indicate success, and can facilitate strong sense of fulfillment for employee and supervisor. Also they help clarify the roles of the supervisor and employee.
Goal Setting With Employees
Effective training includes clarifying the goals that are to be achieved by the employee, assessing the gap between the employee’s current capabilities and those needed to achieve the goals, and then ensuring suitable training to close those gap. High-quality training also ensures that gap has been closed over time. The supervisor might conduct the training or arrange it to come from another source. Training could range from on-the-job advice to more formal training programs.
Supervisors provide ongoing guidance and support to their employees in a variety of ways to suit the nature and needs of both the supervisor and employees. Good leadership involves providing the right context for each employee to motivate themselves. Delegation involves clarifying the result desired by the supervisor and encouraging the employee to decide how best to achieve the result.
Coaching might be used to bring out the employee’s own wisdom to address a current situation. Mentoring involves ongoing advice and coaching to help an employee to develop in their jobs and careers.
A major function of supervisors is to support the motivation of their employees. Different people can have quite different motivators, for example, by more money, more recognition, time off from work, promotions, opportunities for learning, or opportunities for socializing and relationships. Therefore, when attempting to help motivate people, it’s important to identify what motivates each of them. Ultimately, though, long-term motivation comes from people motivating themselves.
Helping People to Motivate Themselves and Others
The “life’s blood” of successful supervision is the continued and effective feedback between the supervisor and employee. Feedback to employees is information regarding their performance and also is information they can act on. Feedback must be shared in a manner that is understandable to them and is perceived by them as being provided in a highly respectful manner. Sharing feedback involves skills in effective listening, verbal and non-verbal communications, and working in multi-cultural environments.
How to Give Useful Feedback and Advice
Regular performance reviews are critical. Performance reviews help supervisors feel more honest in their relationships with their employees and feel better about themselves in their supervisorial roles. Employees are assured clear understanding of what’s expected from them, their own personal strengths and areas for development and a solid sense of their relationship with their supervisor.
Conducting Performance Appraisals/Reviews
Supervisors should promptly respond to occasions where an employee’s performance is not acceptable. Performance issues on the actual behaviors of the employee, whether they were insufficient for the job or inappropriate in the workplace. Any special circumstances that caused those behaviors should be understood. The supervisor should carefully document the notification in the employee’s file.
How to Address Employee Performance Problems
As with the other activities in staffing and employee performance management, the termination of an employee should be done in accordance with the procedure described in the personnel policies. The policies might specify, for example, that the supervisor first issues a verbal warning to the employee and then a written warning before the formal action to terminate an employee.
How to Effectively Fire an Employee
The activities in team performance management are very similar to those of employee performance management, as listed above. Team performance management refers to the cycle of activities to enhance the performance of a team. The activities to first develop the team are often referred to as team building.
The activities to manage each meeting are about meeting management. The activities to guide and support the members’ activities during a meeting are referred to as facilitation.
High-quality teams need strong and trusting relationships between members. However, they also need a firm foundation of structures, including a clear purpose and goals, sufficient resource, adaptable guidelines for assigning and changing leadership, reliable means to sustain continual communications among members and the organization, and means to make group decisions and solve problems.
All About Team Building
After a team has been built, it needs ongoing direction, guidance and support from upper management for the team to continue to be successful in achieving its goals. Help from the supervisor can range from strong involvement with ongoing directives to a more indirect and supportive role.
This is the initial phase in team performance management where the supervisor works with the team to specify the goals to be accomplished by the team and by when. The supervisor explains how the goals are directly aligned with achieving the strategic goals of the organization. The supervisor and team might associate specific and measurable milestones toward those team goals. They document the results of their planning into an overall team performance plan.
Team Performance Management: Performance Planning Phase
In a progressive approach, this phase could be done in a highly collaborative approach between the supervisor and members of the team.
Performance Management: Traditional and Progressive Approaches
During this phase, the supervisor conducts ongoing observations and monitoring to assess how well the team goals are being achieved. The supervisor decides if the quality of the team’s performance has exceeded or met expectations and decides how to reward the team accordingly. This phase could be done in a highly collaborative manner between the supervisor and members of the team.
Team Performance Management: Performance Appraisal / Evaluation Phase
During this phase, a plan is developed for how the team could improve its performance to more effectively achieve or exceed the team goals. The plan might suggest further training, providing more resources or adjusting the goals to be more realistic.
Team Performance Management: Development (Improvement) Planning Phase
The job of supervisor, especially for new supervisors, can be one of the most confusing, frustrating and stressful jobs in an organization. Many times, a person is promoted to a supervisor role, not because the person has already shown strong skills in supervising people, but because the employee continued to do a high-quality job that was much more technical in nature than leading people. Thus, after the person is promoted, it can be an entirely new situation for the employee. There are several more reasons for this, including:
By Marcia Zidle
Here are insights from years of working with managers, teams, and new leaders on the realities of supervision. For some of you it may be “old hat”; for others an “ah’ha”. In either case, know that the moment you start taking things for granted, you stop being effective. So what can you learn from these seven supervisory principles.
1. There is no routine to management work. Changes are that your old job came with a familiar routine. You performed the tasks assigned to you and you did them in a prescribed order. Some things had to be done by noon, while others had to be completed before you left for the day. As a rule, when the day’s
work was done, your day was over. But for managers, there’s no such thing as “the day’s work,” so bid a fond farewell to routine.
2. People and issues arrive un-prioritized. As a manager, you now have more people and issues to deal with. It’s your job to filter them for urgency and importance, and help employees stay focused by doing the same.
3. People start acting differently towards you. You’re still the same person, but you’re in a different role. Some people withdraw from you; others want to get closer. Ultimately, your employees are dealing with managerial change in their own way and trying to figure out what kind of manager you really are.
4. You have to give up your old job. You have a new job so don’t hang on to your old one. This can be hard. After all, it’s because of your previous success that you’ve been promoted. But failure to let go of your old job causes more problems for first-time managers than anything else.
5. Guard against the perception that certain people are your favorites. Yesterday you had co-workers; today you have employees. While it’s only natural to like some individuals more than others you no longer have that luxury as manager. Employees are keenly aware of who has direct access to you. In the
past, you had coffee or lunch with the same people every day, but if you keep this up, your employees will earmark these people as “your favorites.”
6. Employees want their manager to manage them. Friendly behavior is great, but it shouldn’t be a substitute for good managing. Your employees expect you to deal with poor performers at work. You need to demonstrate that you won’t tolerate poor performance. If you’re fair and decisive, your good performers will give you their hard-earned respect and best effort.
7. Don’t hold on to information, rather communicate, communicate, communicate. When you’re on an airplane and it encounters turbulence or the flight is delayed, you want to know what’s happening. Not knowing makes you nervous. Employees also want to know what’s happening — what’s causing the bumpy ride. If people don’t understand, then anxiety mounts, trust declines and rumors fly. The next thing you see is morale plummeting and work not getting done. That’s why ongoing communication is so important.
Management Success Tip
Understand your role had changed. You are now in charge tasked with getting work done through others. You must move from doing to delegating; from being liked to being respected; from holding on to letting go; from knowing all the answers to getting input from others.
The job can be stressful and it can be tempting to continue to focus on the job and your employees. However, there is an old saying that you can’t effectively lead others, unless you can first effectively lead yourself. That means:
You can improve your skills in a rather informal approach or in a carefully designed and systematic approach. The latter is often referred to as a supervisor development program. Here are guidelines for either approach.
How to Design Your Supervisor Development Program
Here is a link to a complete, well-organized set of guidelines for the basic functions in supervision. The guidelines comprise a basic guidebook, which can be printed.
Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision (html format)
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision in Business
and Field Guide to Leadership and Supervision for Nonprofit Staff.
Also consider
Related Library Topics
In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Supervision. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
(This page is referenced from Basic Overview of Supervision.)
Often, employees are promoted to supervision because of their strong technical expertise — expertise in building a product or providing a service. Suddenly, the new supervisor is now charged with a whole new range of responsibilities, many of which have little to do with technical expertise.
Managers often deal with great deal of paperwork and people. Although paperwork is usually the most tedious, it’s often the most predictable. People aren’t predictable. They have moods, illnesses, career expectations, crises in their family lives, etc. The supervisor’s technical expertise is often useless when it comes to supervising people.
The new supervisor is suddenly faced with a wide range of rules and regulations — each of which the supervisor is responsible to enforce. The supervisor is responsible for signing time cards, authorizing overtime, granting compensation time, dealing with performance problems, developing job descriptions, following hiring procedures, dealing with grievances, conforming to a complicated pay system, and the list goes on. It can be quite difficult to conform to today’s wide range of employee laws, rules and regulations — and at the same time, produce a product or service.
No matter how many courses or degrees a new supervisor has completed, they’re often surprised that management activities are so hectic and demanding. No matter how thorough the planning, managers rarely get to spend much time on any one activity. The role of most managers, whether new supervisors or executives, is interspersed with frequent interruptions. Any surprise in the work or lives of employees is a sudden demand on supervisors.
New supervisors often expect to have complete knowledge of everything that goes on in their group. They don’t want to encounter any surprises. So they spend more time reading, thinking, planning, communicating with employees — new supervisors often spend 60 hours a week on the job. Still, they don’t feel they have enough time to do the job right.
Each manager has a unique role in the organization. Each organization is unique. Usually there are no clear procedures for dealing with the numerous challenges that suddenly face management. Ultimately, it’s up to each manager to get through the day. Faced with a great deal of pressure, little time and continuing demands from other people, the new supervisor can feel quite alone.
The supervisor is responsible to be an advocate for the organization and an advocate for the employee. For example, if the organization implements an unpopular new policy, the supervisor is often responsible to communicate and justify that new policy to the employee. In this case, management expects the supervisor to present and support the new policy, and the employee vents his or her frustration to the supervisor. However, if the supervisor wants to promote the employee or present some other reward, he or she is now representing the employee’s case to the rest of management. The supervisor is often alone, stuck in the middle.
The new supervisor wants to come across as having deserved their promotion, as being in control of the situation. It’s difficult to seek help from others in the organization. Even when there is someone there to talk to, it’s difficult to fully explain the situation — the new supervisor sometimes doesn’t know how things got so hectic and confusing.
The new supervisor is responsible, often for the first time, for the activities of another employee. The supervisor must ensure the employee knows his or her job, has the resources to do the job and does the job as effectively as possible.
Until a new supervisor develops a “feeling for the territory”, they often deal with the stresses of supervision by working harder, rather than smarter. They miss the comfort and predictability of their previous job.
The stress and loneliness in the role of new supervisor can bring out the worst in a person. If they deal with stress by retreating, they’ll retreat to their offices and close the door. If they deal with frustration, they’ll become angry and unreasonable with their employees. If they are used to getting strong praise and high grades, they’ll work harder and harder until their jobs become their lives.
Courses in supervision, delegation, time management, stress management, etc., are not enough. New supervisors need ongoing coaching and support. They need someone whom they can confide in. Ideally, they have a mentor in the organization who remembers what it’s like to be a first-time supervisor, someone who makes themselves available.
If the experience of first-time supervision is successful — it’s challenging, but fulfilling — the supervisor goes on to become a progressive, supportive manager.
Return to Basic Overview of Supervision
In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs that have posts related to this topic. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog. The blog also links to numerous free related resources.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.
Adapted from the Field Guide to Nonprofit Strategic Planning and Facilitation.
This activity is usually conducted near the overall process of strategic planning. Therefore, the reader might best be served to first read the information in the topic Strategic Planning.
Also consider
Related Library Topics
In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Writing and Communicating the Strategic Plan. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
1. Have a small number of people write the first draft of the plan. An outside facilitator (someone hired from outside of the organization to facilitate the planning process) should not be the one who writes the plan.
2. Don’t worry about having every last detail in the first draft.
3. The draft should be presented to the board of directors (if applicable) and upper management for review and approval. It’s not unusual for the board and/or top management of large organizations to provide major input primarily to the contents in the body of the document, that is, the mission and vision and values statements, and the goals and strategies. Employees and other staff often provide the major input to the action planning portion, including the objectives, responsibilities and timelines for completion of objectives.
Note that it’s wise to distribute copies of the plan to major stakeholders (investors/funders, trade associations, etc.). Therefore, you should organize the format of the plan such that the body of the plan can be sent outside of the organization and the appendices can include the more confidential and detail-oriented documents — documents which also tend to change a lot. The format of the plan should fit the culture and preferences of the organization.
(The following sections might be viewed as the “body” of the plan document.)
1) Executive Summary — This is written to the scope and level of content that an “outsider” can read the summary and grasp the mission of the organization, its overall major issues and goals, and key strategies to reach the goals
2) Authorization — This page includes all of the necessary signatures from the board of directors (if applicable) and other top management designating that they approve the contents of, and support implementation of, the plan
3) Organizational Description — This section describes, for example, the beginnings and history of the organization, its major products and services, highlights and accomplishments during the history of organization, etc.
4) Mission, Vision and Values Statements — These statements describe the strategic “philosophy” of the organization
5) Goals and Strategies — Lists all of the major strategic goals and associated strategies identified during the strategic planning process.
(The appendices often include information that is somewhat confidential, detail-oriented and/or tends to change a lot.)
A) Action Planning — Specifies objectives, responsibilities and timelines for completion of objectives
B) Description of Strategic Planning Process Used — Describes the process used to develop the plan, who was involved, the number of meetings, any major lessons learned to improve planning the next time around, etc.
C) Strategic Analysis Data — Includes information generated during the external analysis (for example, environmental scan) and internal analysis (for example, SWOT analysis), and includes listing of strategic issues identified during these analyses.
D) Goals for Board and Chief Executive Officer — Goals of the board and CEO should be directly aligned with goals identified during strategic planning. This appendix will list goals for the board and can include recommendations for redesigning board committees to be associated with strategic goals. The appendix also lists goals for the CEO goals — these can be used (along with the CEO job description) to form the basis for performance evaluations of the CEO.
E) Budget Planning — Depicts the resources and funding needed to obtain and use the resources needed to achieve the strategic goals. Budgets are often depicted for each year of the term of the strategic plan
F) Operating Plan — Describes the major goals and activities to be accomplished over the coming fiscal year.
G) Financial Reports — Includes last year’s budget (with estimated expenses and the actual amounts spent), this year’s current budget (again with estimated amounts and actual amounts spent), a balance sheet (or in the case of nonprofits, a statement of financial position), income statement (or in the case of nonprofit, a statement of financial activities), etc.
H) Monitoring and Evaluation of Plan — Include criteria for monitoring and evaluation, and the responsibilities and frequencies of monitoring the implementation of the plan
I) Communication of Plan — Describe the actions that will be taken to communicate the plan and/or portions of it, and to whom
Note that certain groups of stakeholders might get complete copies of the plan, including appendices, while other groups (usually outside of the organization) might receive only the body of the plan without its appendices.
1. Every board member and member of management should get a copy of the plan.
2. Consider distributing all (or highlights from) the plan to everyone in the organization. It’s amazing how even the newest staff member gains quick context, appreciation, and meaning from review of the strategic plan.
3. Post your mission and vision and values statements on the walls of your main offices. Consider giving each employee a card with the statements (or highlights from them) on the card.
4. Publish portions of your plan in your regular newsletter, and advertising and marketing materials (brochures, ads, etc.).
5. Train board members and employees on portions of the plan during orientations.
6. Include portions of the plan in policies and procedures, including the employee manual.
7. Consider copies of the plan for major stakeholders, for example, funders/investors, trade associations, potential collaborators, vendors/suppliers, etc.
Also consider
General Recommendations for Improving Communications
Return to the topic Strategic Planning.
To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.
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