On-the-Job Learning: Your Guide as a Manager

1. Insert your organization’s logo here On-the-Job Learning: Your Guide as a Manager

2. Why Should You Focus on On-the-Job Learning? Expose Your Direct Reports to High-Value Activities Enable Your Direct Reports toExtractLearning from Work Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn on the Job

3. Understand the Importance of On-the-Job Learning • On-the-job learning is more impactful in boosting performance and engagement than formal training programs. • On-the-job learning activities have three times more impact on employee performance than formal training programs. • Employees who are exposed to on-the-job learning activities are 2.6 times more likely to be highly engaged. • Other benefits of on-the-job learning include: reduced training expenses, reduced time-to-productivity, and increased sharing of best practices. Source: Learning and Development Roundtable research.

4. A Missed Opportunity for You • As a manager, you can have a significant impact on boosting learning from work when you play an active role. However, managers are currently ineffective at driving on-the-job learning. • Less than one in three employees are receiving effective support to learn on-the-job from their managers. • Impact of Manager Support for On-the-Job Learning on Application • Indexed Employees Reporting to Manager BWho is Very Effective at Supporting On-the-Job Learning Employees Reporting to Manager AWho is Ineffective at Supporting On-the-Job Learning 12% Improvement in Application Levels • Managers Currently Ineffective at Boosting On-the-Job Learning • Percentage of Employees Reporting High Levels of Effective Support from Managers Only 23% of Employees Report High Levels of Effective Support From Managers 23%

5. Two Levers to Help You Unlock the Value of On-the-Job Learning To help your direct reports learn on the job, you should: 1) Ensure your direct reports are exposed to the most valuable on-the-job learning activities. 2) Enable them to extract learning from work. Exposure Extraction Enable employees to extract learning by helping them become more intentional in learning from work and by activating their support network Expose employees to high-value on-the-job learning activities Increase in Performance How do I judge performance? “Application’ drives performance. ‘Application’ is the amount of what an employee learned from an activity that he or she has been able to use (i.e., put into action) in his work.

6. Why Should You Focus on On-the-Job Learning? Expose Your Direct Reports to High-Value Activities Enable Your Direct Reports toExtractLearning from Work Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn on the Job

7. Not all on-the-job activities are equal in boosting learning application. Therefore, it is important for you to work in collaboration with L&D to identify, and expose your direct reports to, high-value on-the-job activities. • The chart on the right displays six broad categories of on-the-job activities that you should look to expose your direct reports to. Know the Full Range of High-Value Activities

8. Understand What Makes For a High-Value Activity Use this guide as a tool to ensure that your direct reports are exposed to on-the-job activities with the highest value. Attributes of the Six-Types of On-the-Job Learning Activities 3 1 2 Change and Adversity—Capitalize on Turbulence: Employees should be involved in turbulent situations that build the flexibility to adapt to new situations. Access to Best Practice—Orient Around Demonstrated Success: Employees should engage in activities that clearly illustrate the right approach to a problem. Scope Expansion—The Power of Stepping Up: Employees should engage in activities that increase the scope of their responsibilities for more than a brief period. 4 5 6 Challenging Relationships—Drive Portable Interpersonal Skills: Employees should be involved in situations that develop widely-useful relationship building skills. Persuading and Teaching—Knowing Before Showing: Employees should engage in activities where active preparation is needed to successfully communicate their ideas. Making Difficult Decisions—Raise the Stakes: Employees should engage in decision-making activities where the cost of making mistakes forces deliberate reflection.

9. Select High-Value Activities for Your Direct Reports Use this checklist as a final litmus test to ensure that your selected activities are going to have the intended impact. Litmus Tests for Helping You Select On-the-Job Activities • Beyond the Comfort Zone: Does the activity force the employee to stretch herself beyond things she already does well? • Accountability: Does the activity require the employee to take responsibility for the outcomes of the activity, positive as well as negative? • Lesson Visibility: Does the activity contain lessons that will become clearly apparent to the employee? • Lesson Relevance: Does the activity result in lessons that are of significant importance to the employee?

10. When looking to identify activities for your direct reports, many activities can be found within existing work; you don’t have to wait for the more exclusive, and rare activities to come along. Consider State Farm’s ‘Learning Experience Continuum’ which illustrates tangible opportunities for development in work, ranging from a task an employee is currently responsible for to the addition of a new set of responsibilities. Think about how you can mine existing developmental opportunities rather than searching for “big” experiences such as work rotations or regional assignments. Mine Existing Work for Development Activities State Farms’ Learning Experience Continuum Case-in-Point: Constructing Development Opportunities in Work Illustrative Situation Kathy needs to improve her oral communication skills. Assessment Root-cause analysis reveals that Kathy’s main challenge is influencing and persuading others in small group settings. Development Actions Step 1: Kathy provides a five-minute presentation to her direct manager every week to discuss the progress of one of her major projects. (Feedback and Addition of Stretch) Step 2: Kathy provides the same five-minute presentation to her peers who are not as familiar with her formal presentation. (Feedback and Addition of Stretch) Step 3: Kathy provides the same five-minute presentation to managers and peers in other teams. New Job New Role New Project New Task Current Project Current Task Current Job

11. Use this simple assessment tool to help your direct reports determine the extent to which activities within their current role are providing learning and development. (See how to interpret your results on the follow page.) Assess You Direct Reports’ Jobs for Development ’How Much Is Your Job Developing You?’ Tool Instructions: Mark an X next to the statements that describe your current job. Each X counts as one point. Learning from Results _____ I am expected to meet clearly-defined standards for success in my job. _____ I regularly receive feedback on how well I am doing at my job from my manager and peers. _____ Apart from the feedback received from other people, the nature of my job gives me a good sense of how well I am doing. _____ Within my job, there are structured moments for me to reflect on the successes and failures I have had. Managing the Work _____I often work with internal and external stakeholders. _____My job requires me to collaborate with different stakeholders who often have competing agendas. _____I often have to work against challenging deadlines as part of my job. _____The environment in which I work changes rapidly. _____I have to accomplish tasks which are outside my area of expertise. _____I sometimes have to make risky decisions that could have significant negative consequences. _____I sometimes have to handle major crises that arise at work. _____I sometimes teach (either formally or informally) co-workers of mine how to do a part of their jobs in which I have experience. Stepping Up _____I feel challenged by my job. _____This job stretches me to accomplish tasks expected of someone at a higher level than me in the organization _____The outputs of my job are highly visible, so my success or failure will be obvious to others. _____If my team does not meet its performance targets, I will be held (at least partly) responsible. _____In order to fulfill my responsibilities, I have to accomplish tasks through individuals over whom I have no authority. _____When I first started in this role, I had to immediately solve problems that my role had inherited. _____I sometimes have to fill in for my manager temporarily, either doing some of his/her work or representing him/her at meetings. Drawing on Others _____My manager provides me a with great deal of autonomy to get things done and seems to trust me. _____When I am faced with difficult problems or issues at work, I can turn to people inside or outside work who can support me. _____I often have to collaborate with people who are difficult to work with to achieve the things I need to get done. _____I regularly have to work with senior colleagues and/or employees who are recognized as experts in their field of work. _____I regularly have to work with people from other business units, functions, and countries. _____I sometimes have to persuade my senior managers to take difficult actions. Your Total Score (sum of items marked) __________

12. Use the results key to determine your direct report’s score. It will indicate whether you need to be increasing – or reducing – the amount of stretch and development provided by their current role. Assess You Direct Reports’ Jobs for Development (Continued) Assessment Results Key

13. Why Should You Focus on On-the-Job Learning? Expose Your Direct Reports to High-Value Activities Create an Environment Conducive to Learning on the Job Enable Your Direct Reports to Extract Learning from Work Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Individual-Based Learning Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Group-Based Learning Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn on the Job

14. Step 1: Create an Environment Conducive to Learning on the Job Understand Your Potential in Boosting Learning Extraction • Beyond ensuring that existing work provides stretch, you need to enable your direct reports to extract learning from the work experiences that they are exposed to. • You can boost your direct report’s extraction and application of learning from work by creating a team environment that encourages learning and by being a learning facilitator.

15. Use these tips for creating a more effective team learning environment by improving collective learning opportunities for your direct reports to learn from one another. Improve Collective Learning Opportunities for Your Direct Reports Consider the following when thinking about the natural opportunities available for employees to learn from one another: • Think about the day-to-day work your employees perform. Which activities are relationship-based and, as such, provide an opportunity for employees to collaborate and learn from one another (e.g., meetings, group projects, informal discussions)? • What are the dynamics of your team? What are the communication barriers preventing your employees from collaborating? What soft skills can be used to improve team dynamics and prevent communication barriers? • How can you provide a degree of structure to both formal and informal collective learning opportunities in order to support peer collaboration and learning?

16. Why Should You Focus on On-The-Job Learning? Expose Your Direct Reports to High-Value Activities Create an Environment Conducive to Learning on the Job Enable Your Direct Reports to Extract Learning from Work Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Individual-Based Learning Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Group-Based Learning Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn on the Job

17. Step 2: Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning You can also enable your direct reports to extract learning from work by helping them become more intentional about learning from work; that is, demonstrate active anticipation and deliberate reflection. Enable Your Direct Reports to Actively Anticipate and Deliberately Reflect “Deliberate Reflection” After an activity, the employee thinks about what he/she has learned and how he/she could best use it. “Application” Employees who show high levels anticipation and reflection, apply 24% more of what they learn on-the-job to their day-to-day work. “Active Anticipation” Before an activity, the employee thinks about what he/she wants to learn from the activity.

18. Step 2: Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Individual-Based Learning As a first step in helping employees become more intentional about learning from work, you should ensure your direct reports know what it means to be intentional. Equip your direct reports with this checklist to help them understand what kinds of behaviors help drive intentional learning from work. Teach Your Direct Reports Which Behaviors Drive Learning from Work Checklist of Behaviors That Drive Learning from Work To learn from work, the most effective behaviors you can engage in are detailed below. You’ll notice that they orient around being deliberate and intentional in learning from work. Directions: Use this checklist to identify which behaviors you do not currently engage in, and therefore which you should consider adopting. Before Beginning a Task/Activity Set learning goals and targets for yourself. Plan how to accomplish the task, project, or assignment before beginning it. Identify, ahead of time, potential solutions to problems you think you might encounter as you carry out the task. Think about what you have learned from similar work experiences in the past and how that learning might impact your approach this time. Build relationships with coworkers who can help you accomplish your task and learn from it. Identify the resources that you will need and work with your manager to ensure those resources will be available to you when you need them. After Finishing a Task/Activity Identify the lessons learned from the experience.1 Ask your manager for his/her feedback on how you did the work. Ask your coworkers and team members for their feedback on how you did the work. Share what you have learned from the experience with coworkers to boost their learning also. Look for opportunities to teach others (For example, are any of your colleagues struggling with a task where your experience could assist them? Of what the experience taught you, offer to share what might be relevant to them).

19. Step 2: Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Individual-Based Learning As employees engage in experiences with development potential in their work on an individual basis, you can help them extract learning from those experiences by equipping them with key questions to ask themselves at critical points. Use State Farm’s template of questions to ask at key points of an on-the-job learning experiences to maximize development. For a customizable version of the template please refer to the appendix. Instill a More Intentional Approach to Development in Work State Farm’s Components of a Powerful Learning Experience Questions to Address Before, During, and After Developmental Experiences

20. De-Brief With Your Direct Reports to Move Them from Action to Reflection You can further support your direct reports by holding a de-brief session following a developmental experience to reinforce the reflection on lessons learned. Use State Farm’s list of debrief questions to facilitate constructive reflection on key lessons learned from developmental experiences. Encourage your direct reports to review these questions prior to having a debriefing session you. Increasing Leaders’“Action to Reflection” Ratio

21. Why Should You Focus on On-the-Job Learning? Expose Your Direct Reports to High-Value Activities Create an Environment Conducive to Learning on the Job Enable Your Direct Reports to Extract Learning from Work Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Individual-Based Learning Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Group-Based Learning Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn on the Job

22. Step 2: Help Your Direct Reports Be Intentional About Learning: Group-Based Learning Beyond guidance on individual-based activities and behaviors, look to provide your teams with tips and guidance questions to help them become more intentional about extracting learning from project work. Draw on Scottish Enterprise’s model for equipping employees with suggested points of intentional anticipation and reflection during projects in their work, and guidance questions to aid the reflection. Build Learning into Project Work Share Scottish Enterprise’ Guidance Questions Below with Project Teams Learning During: Reflect on Progress and Learning Thus Far (Mid-Project) Learning Before: Feeding Existing Organizational Learning into New Projects Mid-project areas that require investigation are: • How is the project proceeding in relation to the objectives set? • Have the circumstances, which the project is designed to address, changed? • What can we learn from what we have done so far? • Are the objectives and the project plan still valid or do we need to adjust expected outputs, resources, and timescales? • Can others help us with any unexpected difficulties that have emerged? Has anyone done a similar project before (in our organization or elsewhere)? In preparing for a project, to leverage existing organizational learning, consider: • Can we learn lessons from other projects, maybe saving some of the development time, in order to concentrate on the aspects unique to this project? • Are the circumstances and objectives sufficiently comparable for the lesson to be valid to the new situation? • Do we know any of those involved in previous projects, who could talk through their experience and explore particular areas of difficulty, or validate the “official record?” • If we have partners, have we learned enough about their objectives, and ensured we have sufficient common ground and agreement to proceed?

23. Build Learning into Project Work (Continued) Share Scottish Enterprise’ Guidance Questions Below with Project Teams Sharing the Learning: Document and Share Findings to Boost Wider Organizational Learning and Performance Learning After: Conduct Post-Project Review to Identify Key Learnings from the Project Based on this experience, what advice should be given to future project teams? • What have we learned from this project that could be valuable to future projects? • How can we make the lessons specific enough to be useful, but general enough to be applied elsewhere? Create a record of the findings covering: • Guidelines for the future—clear recommendations up front, indicating whom these are intended for. • Names of people involved for future reference and contact and any key documents, project plans etc. Share your key findings to boost organizational learning and performance • Are there any priority areas, where the lessons need to be transferred without delay to achieve immediate benefits? Which people need to know most urgently? • Who is responsible for ensuring the lessons are transferred to others? • Where will the lessons be stored to be easily accessible to others? • Does this project raise policy issues that need to be passed on to senior management? Post-project, conduct a more in-depth review spanning the whole project life cycle. Areas to be investigated are: • How, and why, did the project outcome differ from the original objectives? • What did we set out to do (objectives/success factors) and what did we really achieve? • Review the expected timescales, cost, resourcing, and whether these expectations were met. • Revisit the project plan or process, comparing this with what actually happened, and identify any deviations from the plan. • With the team, construct a time chart of what happened, identifying the tasks, deliverables, and decision points. Individuals can indicate where they were involved in the project. Identify, or flag, the parts which went well (using yellow post-it notes), and the parts which went badly, or slowly, or were unclear (using blue post-it notes). • Given what we know now, what will we do differently in the future?

24. Why Should You Focus on On-The-Job Learning? Expose Your Direct Reports to High-Value Activities Enable Your Direct Reports toExtractLearning from Work Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn on the Job

25. Appendix: Additional Tools for Enabling Your Direct Reports to Learn On the Job Customize On-the-Job Activities by Role: An Example from the IT Function—26Instill aMore Intentional Approach to Development in Work (State Farm)—27Help Your Direct ReportBoost On-the-Job Learning—28

26. Customize On-the-Job Activities By Role:An Example from the IT Function • Access to Best Practices • Collaborate with more tenured IT business liaisons for feedback on IT architecture strategy developed for lines of business you support • Partner with a recognized IT expert to help you improve your ability to identify technology requirements • Shadow line managers to develop in-depth understanding of their day-to-day needs and challenges • 2. Scope Expansion • Serve on task force to update profile of critical skills for IT business liaisons and establish subsequent training and development strategy • Participate in cross-business unit IT project with peer IT business liaisons supporting different lines of business to develop a broader understanding of organizational IT needs • Monitor industry activity to get an understanding of IT trends in organizations of similar size or in the same industry • Work with business architects on process design and optimization questions • 3. Change and Adversity • Serve as a member of change management team during large-scale IT system overhaul • Participate on IT M&A team to integrate existing IT architecture/platforms of merging companies • 4. Challenging Relationships • Interview line managers to determine the business inputs most valuable for driving their business decisions • Collaborate with line managers to identify critical business priorities for the business unit and plan subsequent IT architecture strategies • 5. Persuading and Teaching • Create and present detailed, step-by-step plan to new line partners indicating how IT will deliver services • Develop and present business case to senior managers for a new IT project in a way that demonstrates compelling impact on business outcomes • Conduct and present a cost/benefit analysis of a major IT project to key stakeholders (e.g., IT management, line leaders) to persuade them on needed improvements or significant shift in project • Serve as a mentor to a new IT business liaison • 6. Making Difficult Decisions • Design solutions with different cost and functionality (silver/gold/platinum) • Lead or participate in ‘cost/functionality trade off’ conversations with business partners • Manage conflict between business partners and central IT (around project status, incident management, change management, etc.)

27. Use State Farm’s template for creating powerful on-the-job learning experiences to help your direct reports fully leverage development opportunities in their work Instill a More Intentional Approach to Development in Work State Farm’s Components of a Powerful Learning Experience Questions for Leaders to Address Before, During, and After Developmental Experiences

28. Direct reports can be a good source of learning on-the-job, however they often need to be specifically asked to play that upward coaching role. In order to ensure you are clearly communicating your desire to leverage your direct reports as a source of learning on-the-job, use this checklist of activities you can engage in to help your direct reports upward coach you to drive your own on-the-job learning. Help Your Direct Report Boost On-the-Job Learning Checklist for Helping Your Direct Report Boost On-the-Job Learning Directions: By engaging in the activities below, you can help your direct report become more comfortable with—and effective at—upward coaching you to boost your on-the-job learning. Work with your direct report to determine the most appropriate occasions for providing the forms of upward coaching detailed below. When trying to learn a skill, or improve your knowledge in a particular area, consider whether the skill or knowledge may be something your direct report possesses. If so, be proactive in soliciting their assistance in helping you develop that skill or knowledge. Consider your direct report’s experience to date. Is there anything they have had exposure to that you could learn from? Ask you direct report what the experience taught them. Select those non-sensitive, non-confidential issues and challenges you’re facing that you could share with your direct report. Their slightly removed perspective can make them a good sounding board. Encourage your direct report to be proactive in sharing with you where they: – Find themselves using particularly effective or efficient informal ways of getting things done. – Discover best practices, and solutions to address everyday problems. – Learn a new skill, concept, process, or procedure they think you may be unaware of. Make clear to your direct report that you are open to constructive informal feedback. Consider setting some boundaries around areas for such feedback by sharing performance issues you would like to work on and where you would appreciate feedback on your progress. Implementation Tips: Give your direct report a copy of the Learning and Development Roundtable’s “Direct Report Checklist For Helping Your Manager Learn On the Job.” In doing so you communicate that you are comfortable with them engaging in the activities indicated and are receptive to this form of upward coaching. Consider also setting aside time in any regular check-ins you might have with your direct reports to allow for this upward coaching.