Staff Development

1. Staff Development Thomas P. Holland, Ph.D., Professor Institute for Nonprofit Organizations

2. When should staff development be done? • Performance evaluations indicate improvement is needed (reduce performance gaps) • As part of an overall professional development program • To help employees or volunteers prepare for planned change in organizational roles (fill growth gaps) • To train about a specific topic, such as • Communications • Computer skills • Client/customer service • Diversity • Ethics • Human relations • Safety • Discrimination, harassment

3. Performance Diagnostic Questions • Mission/goals: Are the mission and goals of the individual congruent with those of the organization? • System design: Do individuals face obstacles that impede their job performance? • Capacity: Does individual have the mental, physical, and emotional capacity to learn? • Motivation: Does individual want to perform well? • Expertise: Does individual have the knowledge, skills, and experience to perform well?

4. Needs Analysis • For whole organization: What knowledge and skills are required for organization to meet its goals? Should we hire or recruit volunteers for needed competencies or train existing staff or volunteers? • For projects: What demands will this project place on our staff? What gaps exist between current competencies and those required by project? • For individuals: What is needed for this person to improve work performance (in existing role or in new one)?

5. Web sites for Training Needs Assessments • http://humanresources.about.com/od/trainingneedsassessment/ht/training_needs.htm • www.csc.noaa.gov/needs • www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/training/archives/page10072.cfm • www-group.slac.stanford.edu/esh/…/trainingProcedAssessment.pdf • Search for other resources by putting “training needs assessment” in Google search site.

6. Common forms of Development • On-the-job experience • Formal or informal learning • Apprenticeships, internships • Career counseling • Coaching, mentoring • Continuing education • Professional conferences • Job rotations, cross-training • Peer learning, feedback

7. Forms of Learning for Individuals • Training: helping person learn specific knowledge or skills. • Coaching: guidance on mastering skills or solving interpersonal problems (using, for example, 360 assessments, Johari’s window, Myers-Briggs, stress management techniques) • Goal setting: helping people formulate goals and priorities for improving their own effectiveness • Performance appraisal: modifying ways of assessing employee performance more carefully and using feedback to improve. • Job descriptions: useful when job duties are ambiguous and expected results unclear. • Cross-training: rotating individual to other positions in organization • Career planning: for individuals who have outgrown their roles and want new skills and challenges. • Procedures manual: formalizing the approved methods for handing common problems in work. • Process improvement: steps to improve the effectiveness of ways people do their work and interact.

8. Addresses current, real-world problem Person highly motivated to solve current problem Involves actual applying new ideas and materials Exchange ongoing feedback about trial experiences Self-directed, learner centered Based on competence and trust Addresses pre-formulated problems External motivations by rewards and penalties Involves applying ideas already provided Periodic feedback via tests Learner is dependent on the teacher Based on power and control Andragogy vs Pedagogy

9. Requirements of Adult Learners • Must be willing to grow, take risks, face new experiences • Openness to ongoing feedback from trials of new ideas • Trust instincts, engage in self-directed learning • Requires high internal motivation to pursue growth, mastery of new skills, self-improvement

10. Phases of Adult Learning • Adults engage in determining their own learning needs based on their goals, based on experiences and feedback. • Adults want to create and implement their own learning processes. • Adults try/test their own earning in work (or outside) to evaluate its usefulness.

11. Phases of Adult Learning • Adults engage in determining their own learning needs based on their goals, based on experiences and feedback. • Adults want to create and implement their own learning processes. • Adults try/test their own earning in work (or outside) to evaluate its usefulness.

12. Requirements of Supervisors • Include learners in development planning to build engagement and ownership • Schedule regular times to discuss progress and concerns • Provide ongoing feedback and support • Maximize opportunities for feedback focused on successful applications of new ideas

13. How Supervisors Help Staff Learn • Help person identify needed improvements in performance • Encourage person to see knowledge as contextual, created together • Create partnership via learning contract • Foster atmosphere of trust, openness • Offer ideas about inquiry, critical thinking, making decisions, personal choice, self-assessment • Recognize individual learning styles • Use job experiences as opportunities to learn • Promote learning networks, learning exchanges

14. Coaching focuses on a specific job skill Agenda set by supervisor Short-term engagement Provides specific feedback to improve skill Tell person how to do task Watch as she tries Give feedback to fine-tune Person tries until she gets it right Mentoring focuses on overall career development Agenda set by mentee Long-term engagement Provides more general, non-directive interactions Explore work issues together Discuss options, possible consequences Offer suggestions, support, encouragement Roles of Coach and Mentor

15. Kinds of Learning • Single-loop learning: following the rules • Double-loop learning: changing the rules. Requires thinking beyond instructions, understanding why one solution works better than another to achieve a goal • Triple-loop learning: learning about learning. Understanding our own patterns of learning how to deal with problems

16. Styles of Learning • People have different approaches to learning, such as • Visual, auditory, tactile • Reflective, experiential • Explore the differences by searching the Internet for “learning style.” Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory is very useful. • Make use of several of the questionnaires to identify your own style and to understand those of others. • Identify the implications of these differences for the performance of work teams. • Identify approaches to staff development activities that would take into account the differences among participants.

17. Kolb’s Learning Styles • Accommodator: feeling and doing • Strengths: getting things done, leading and risk-taking • Weaknesses: impractical, staying focused • Diverger: feeling and watching • Strengths: imagining, brainstorming • Weaknesses: seeing opportunities, generating ideas • Converger: thinking and doing • Strengths: making decisions, solving problems • Weaknesses: focusing, assessing ideas • Assimilator: thinking and watching • Strengths: making plans, creating models • Weaknesses: learning from experience, seeing the big picture

18. Formal vs Informal Learning • Informal: Occurs naturally as people deal with issues of work. Tends to be experiential, unstructured, no specific goals, casual assessments. Depends on individual motivations. • Formal: Based on standards, including • Explicit goals and objectives • Variety of learning methods • Systematic assessment of accomplishments • Guided by supervisor

19. Steps in formal, systematic staff development • Assessing what knowledge, skills, abilities are needed by learners • Designing the learning activities, including goals and objectives, methods for implementation, and criteria for evaluation • Developing the training methods, materials, schedule, budget • Implementing them • Evaluating whether goals and objectives have been reached (and may address the quality of the training itself)

20. Self vs Other Directed • Self-directed development: learner decides about goals, what experiences are to be sought, and how to do so • Other-directed: Supervisor responsible for setting goals, planning activities, applying criteria. • Mixes are common.

21. Combinations • Formal, other-directed: typical courses, focused on instructor as expert • Formal, self-directed: learner voluntarily follows pre-formulated plan • Informal, other-directed: instructor identifies goals and tasks while learner sets own pace, explores other resources • Informal, self-directed: casual learning through work experiences

22. Planning for Staff Development • Determine goals, based on assessments, gaps in performance or job requirements, participants’ interests • Identify competencies needed, set goals • Specify knowledge, skills needed to reach goals; formulate each into learning objectives • Identify resources, activities, methods, and persons needed to complete each objective • Formulate learning activities for learning styles of participants • Specify criteria and procedures for assessing completion of each goal and objective • Set out the sequence steps for implementation, timetable • Identify the costs for each step; formulate into budget

23. Implementation Principles I • Test out the plan with participants, incorporate their expectations • Design seating to encourage discussions, eye contact • Test out audio-visual materials and equipment in advance • Be clear about expectations; invite formulation of some “ground rules” • Keep participants involved, energized, contributing • Use stories, examples, practical applications • Encourage participants to collaborate, share, give feedback

24. Implementation Principles II • Challenge and support participants, give constructive, non-judgmental feedback, encourage others to do so too • Keep the structure informal, keep climate open • Let things unfold naturally without heavy control • Use open-ended questions and demonstrations; avoid lecturing at length or giving uninvited advice • Call on everyone; don’t let a few dominate discussions or avoid discussions • Build flexibility and free time into agenda • Review and summarize at end of each section • Ask for (and use) evaluative feedback often, monitor the climate, pay attention to nonverbal cues, invite ideas for mid-course corrections

25. Design Options by Learning Style • Accommodators: coaching, debate, demonstration, games, being on panels, practice, behavior modeling, dialogue, role playing, leading • Divergers: watching demonstrations, listening to panels, listening to stories, field trips, imagining possibilities • Convergers: case studies, projects, discussions, programmed instruction, solving problems • Assimilators: lectures, developing plans, quizzes, reading, study guides, analysis of problems, reflections, examining polarities, Q & A, creating models or theories

26. Aspects of Training to be EvaluatedIn order of difficulty • Reactions: how does learner feel about the training? • Learning: what facts, knowledge did the learner gain? • Behaviors: what skills did the learner develop? • Results or effectiveness: how well did the learner apply new skills to work and what results are seen in productivity?

27. Times and Ways of Evaluation • Before training: What evidence is there that identified methods will really result in participants’ mastery of needed knowledge and skills? • During implementation (formative): monitor engagement; collect feedback from participants; use short tests • After completion (summative): compare current skills with prior levels; supervisor observes work performance; use outside expert evaluators

28. Examples of Assessment Tools • www.washington.edu/oea/services/course_eval/index.html • www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/resource.htm • www.businessballs.com/freeonlineresources.htm • www.ifrc.org/docs/pubs/health/psycholog/pspmanual_evalution.pdf • Search internet for other tools for evaluating staff development programs.

29. Discussion Exercise • Let’s assume that this course is a staff development program. • What ideas about learning have you seen • Demonstrated • Missing • What suggestions do you have for making the course more effective/productive for you?