A Project Report On

Effective Managers are Continuous Learners

Submitted To:
Dr. Mousumi. S. Bhattacharya
Submitted By: Group 02
Abhishek Kumar Dutta – 02
Avinash Chandra Srivastava – 12
Lagnajeeta Biswal – 22
Paulomi Chaudhuri– 32
Samim Ahamed Sarkar– 42
Sucharita Mandal – 52
Yogesh Manoharan Nair – 62

INDEX
INDEX

INSTITUTE OF FINANCE AND INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT

PGDM : 2008-2010
SECTION : A
DATE OF SUBMISSION : 21TH NOVEMBER 2008
 Page no.

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Continuous learning and Effective Management……………………………………………… 5

Requirements for Continuous Learning……………………………………………………….. 6

New Mindset in Continuous Learning and Project Management……………………………… 7

Learning is a process that results in Change…………………………………………………… 8

How the Best Managers Learn…………………………………………………………………. 8

Do project managers learn from experience?................................................................................ 9
Characteristics of a Effective Manager………………………………………………………… 10

How Does Manager Know That They Have Accomplished Continuous Learning?................... 13

Ideas for Developing Continuous learning at individual level………………………………… 14

Continuous Learning in Organizations………………………………………………………… 15

Towards a Learning Organization…………………………………………………………….. 15

The impact of continuous / lifelong learning on organisational development.......................... 16

* Employee perspective
* The employer perspective

Continuous Development: Challenge For Managers………………………………………... 18

Why Continuous Development? ……………………………………………………………. 20

From Self Development to Continuous Development……………………………………….. 21

Competency Development…………………………………………………………………… 22

The impact of learning………………………………………………………………………. 31

The Relationship between Intelligent Learning and Leadership……………………………. 32

High achievers are Continuous Learners…………………………………………………….. 40
Continuous learning gives executives business edge ………………………………………. 41
Examples of Continuous Learning in Organizations……………………………………….. 43

Primary Data ………………………………………………………………………………… 50

Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………… 56

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………. 57

ACKNOWLEDEMENT
 We would like to thank Dr. Mousumi S. Bhattacharya, for her able guidance, constant
inspiration, valuable suggestions and constructive criticism at every stage of our project preparation.

We would like to thank Mr. Sivasis Ganguly (Branch Manager ICICI Bank), Imtiaj
Ahamed (Grand Hyatt Dubai ), Raj Kumar Chatterjee (Project manager Infosys Technology)
for their valuable opinion and suggestions

We are also thankful to our friends and team mates, for their constant cooperation and vivacious
encouragement

Abhishek Kumar Dutta (02)

Avinash Chandra Srivastava (12)
Lagnajeeta Biswal (22)
Paulomi Chaudhuri (32)
Samim Ahamed Sarkar (42)
Sucharita Mandal (52)
Yogesh M Nair (62)

PGDM 08-10
SECTION –A
 INTRODUCTION

Creativity, courage, commitment, responsibility and learning on a continuous basis are at the heart of every
great achievement. Success is not always easy. People may be in your way. One may face discouragement.
Problems may appear. But by learning how to be responsible, one will find solutions that others won't think of.
One will find the courage to change your life and commit to excellence.Continuous learning is used by
employees to improve their current, or future, employment prospects and by employers as a way of improving
their organisational performance.High achievers are lifelong learners who subscribe to the process of
continuous improvement. They view mistakes as learning opportunities. "There is no failure, only feedback"
is always their motto. They know they need to improve, take risks, make mistakes and view these mistakes as
opportunities to bounce back.

In the changing business scenario, companies are struggling to achieve significant breakthrough
in terms of improved product and service offerings. Latest techniques such as Total Quality Management and
Business Process Re-engineering have taken the business world by storm. However, a robust intellectual
capital is an essential prerequisite for these new tools to yield the desired results. It is in this connection that the
concept of a learning organization is picking up. Such organizations empower their employees through
mechanisms, systems and processes that enhance their capability to continuously adapt to changing parameters.
Those who lack confidence resist learning unless it is very much on their own terms. Much of what managers
learn is through direct experience, trying to solve a problem, experimenting, making mistakes and trying
something different. Managers who lack confidence, however, often fail to learn from their mistakes because
they blame circumstances or other people for their errors. As a result, they fail to learn from their own bad
decisions .It does not take a lot of observation to know that life is dynamic, and so life is about change. Yet
sometimes we resist and are not comfortable with change even though we know there is nothing constant in life
except probably CHANGE, Taxes, and Death. Some say that under the sun there is nothing constant but
Change; be it Change through Evolution, Revolution, and Big-bang.

The business environment is ever changing and unpredictable. Continuous learning seems to be the only option
to thrive in a dynamic business climate. Every organization therefore invests in training programs to update the
knowledge levels of its employees. A learning organization goes beyond merely imparting training to its
employees to help them perform better. A fundamental shift in the perspective from process orientation to
futuristic thinking distinguishes learning organizations from the conventional ones

Be flexible to adopt, adjust, and adapt. To change and not learn may mean that your strategy is reactive and
short sighted and you will find that when you do want your people to start learning again (and if you survive
the change) you will have to overcome momentum as people start to ‘turn on’ to learning again. To survive in a
fast changing world, the best managers develop themselves constantly, using their own unique learning style.
Learn, Re-learn, and as required Unlearn those that have become irrelevant and obsolete over time.

Be clear & fast, know what we want, how we want it, and take action
Embark on Continuous learning as CONTINUOUS LEARNING IS CONTINUOUS EARNING.
Continuous learning has to be seen from two perspectives, both employers and employees who are engaged in
continuous learning. The employee perspective reflects employees' approaches to their own learning and self
development. The employer perspective reflects the motivations of employers in promoting continuous
learning opportunities, by way of engagement in courses, to their staff in order to improve the organisation's
effectiveness..
 Continuous learning and Effective Management
Continuous learning is NOT about continually taking courses -- it's about developing skills in
reflection and inquiry -- it's about learning how to learn so that your life's experiences become your
own learning lab. The concept of continuous learning has become quite prominent over the past five
years. Organizations are changing rapidly. Therefore, it's difficult to find any approach to doing
anything in organizations that doesn't soon become outdated. The concept of continuous learning has
become important because it places priority on noticing, adapting and learning from change. .

Continuous learning is a lifelong process comprised of the sum of training, development, and
learning. A learning organization is built around people, their knowledge, know-how and ability to
innovate. It is characterized by continual improvement through new ideas, knowledge and insights
which it uses to constantly anticipate innovate and find new and better ways to fulfill its mission.
Managers traditionally, make assignments based on the skills of the individual and/or team. These are
called skill assignments. In a continuous learning organization, managers make learning assignments
as well as skill assignments1. The learning assignments approach works best when managers and
supervisors also function as coaches; and when managers and supervisors leverage off the knowledge
that already resides in the organization.

The principle of synergy has been long understood throughout industry and government--the sums of
the parts are greater than the whole. Industry has found the establishment of Communities of Practice
(CoP) as a tremendous benefit and stimulus for learning organizations and knowledge management.
Learning Organizations fosters people evolving together, using collaborative methodologies in
dealing with: Government, productivity, best practices/processes, leadership and decision making,
customer satisfaction, competitive advantage/market differentiation, innovation, collaboration,
learning, social capital, human capital and structural capital. Other characteristics of a learning
organization are:

• People are involved in doing something that matters.

• Every individual in the organization is a contributor and is growing or enhancing his/her
capacity to create.
• The organization continually becomes more aware of tacit knowledge.
• Employees are invited to learn what is going on at every level of the organization, so they can
understand how their actions influence others. This is critical, in that without learning about
the mission, as well as their own tasks, employees cannot make the contributions they are
capable of. This requires dramatic learning efforts, both for the employees who must learn to
act in the interest of the whole enterprise, and for senior leadership who must learn how to
extend knowledge throughout the organization.

The revolutions that are currently changing the workplace are also changing the way people learn,
placing increasing expectations on employees to remain current by taking advantage of new ways of
learning. Distributed learning (DL) technologies, experiential learning and other non-traditional
approaches to education and training are rapidly supplementing the traditional classroom
student/instructor approach.

Source:- www.managementhelp.org/trng_dev/
 Basic Definition
Simply put, continuous learning is the ability to learn to learn. Learning need not be a linear event
where a learner goes to a formal learning program, gains areas of knowledge and skills about a
process, and then the learning ceases. If the learner can view life (including work) as a "learning
program", then the learner can continue to learn from almost everything in life. As a result, the learner
continues to expand his or her capacity for living, including working.

Source:-www.citehr.com

Requirements for Continuous Learning

Peter Senge, noted systems theorist, explains that continual learning and personal mastery are very
similar. In continuous learning, the learner continues to:

1. Recognizes priorities or overall values about themselves and how they want to live and work
-- they have a personal vision
2. Takes an active role in the world and work
3. Continues to reflect on their experiences in the world and work/LI>
4. Seeks ongoing feedback about the world (including work) and their activities in it (which is
why working in teams, using 360-degree appraisals, etc., are so important in organizations)
5. Remains as open as possible to the feedback (which requires a fair degree of personal
maturity)
6. Makes ongoing adjustments, based on ongoing feedback, to the way they live their lives and
conduct their work in order to more closely meet their priorities and values

Thus, important aspects of continuous learning are

1. Having some basic values in your life or priorities in your work

2. Doing something in the world, applying new information and skills
3. Taking the time to inquire and reflect about your life and experiences
4. Getting up-to-date feedback, that is, understood and useful information about yourself and
your experiences
5. Removing personal obstacles to your accepting and understand the feedback
6. Having the courage and humility to change

Source:- www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi

What Continuous Learning is Not

Continuous learning is a way of being in the world. It is not staying busy by continuing to attend one
course after another, gathering more and more information. Someone once said that neurosis is doing
the same thing over and over again, expecting to get a different result each time. (Those of us who
have thousands of books in our library might think more seriously about this definition.)

Source:- www.allbusiness.com/reports-reviews-sections/book/
New Mindset in Continuous Learning and Project Management
It does not take a lot of observation to know that life is dynamic, and so life is about change. Yet sometimes we
resist and are not comfortable with change even though we know there is nothing constant in life except
probably CHANGE, Taxes, and Death. Some say that under the sun there is nothing constant but Change; be it
Change through Evolution, Revolution, and Big-bang!

CHANGE IS NOT AN OPTION. I am afraid we cannot shut ourselves from the world even if we choose to
live in isolation in Timbuktu. As much as we refuse to change there, all things around us including ourselves
will change over time. Besides, life is guaranteed boring without change. Change is continual, and this is a
given.

I can also say this for sure: CHANGE TAKES PLACE FASTER OVER TIME – making shorter life cycles for
a lot of things in life. Changes make things obsolete. I used to say that what is good now may not be good in a
century to come. Now I find it is no longer applicable, instead WHAT IS GOOD NOW MAY NOT BE GOOD
IN MONTHS TO COME.

IT revolution and globalization and the changes they have broughtν about into our lives, be it in the way we
live, how we do business, in information processing and dissemination, in the entertainment world, in the way
we talk, call, and communicate to others, and many more.

IT revolutionν and globalization has brought about massive changes in life, in how we work, or the work
processes we use. This in turn creates KNOWLEDGE BASED SOCIETY & COMPANIES.

These changes bring about more and more competitive world. Companies are driven to change the way they
operate to be more CUSTOMERS CENTRIC or to lose out in competition.

Professionals of today face multi challenges of staying current and up-to-date in their field and remaining
competitive in the workplace. So do the project management professionals of today as well. The constantly
emerging information technology, the era of globalization, the knowledge based society we are in, and the
more and faster changes created make it imperative that all professionals, fresh graduates, new comers in the
industry, as well as those more experienced practitioners to continually update their skill, expertise, and know-
how both for themselves for their personal growths and for the performance of the organizations where they
work. These conditions have compelled us to:

ν Accept changes with open mind

Be flexible to adopt, adjust, and adaptν
ν Learn, Re-learn, and as required Unlearn those that have become irrelevant and obsolete over time
Be clearν & fast, know what we want, how we want it, and take action
Embark on Continuous learning as CONTINUOUS LEARNING ISν CONTINUOUS EARNING

Project management is the most critical business skill and competency of today that forms the basic building
block of knowledge based company for businesses. As more and more companies and government agencies are
adopting and making Project Management their strategic competency, experienced project management
practitioners as well as newer comers in the industry are challenged to adopt the latest sound project
management knowledge and the best practices in order to meet the demands of both the customer and their
own organization in delivering projects on time, within budget and within scope. This need makes it imperative
that all project management professionals, fresh graduates, new comers in the industry, as well as those more
experienced practitioners to continually refresh and update their skill, expertise, and know-how both for
themselves for their personal growths and for the performance of the organizations where they work.
Continuous learning will go beyond the adage of continuous earning as the sound project management
knowledge, skills, and the latest best practices will enable project managers to perform better in estimate,
planning, implementation, and monitoring of the project. Take a look at how this site
www.Projectmanagement-Mentoring.com may help you achieve your objectives.

Source:- www.allbusiness.com/reports-reviews-sections/book/

Learning is a process that results in Change

Change is often viewed as a process not as an outcome, it is of course both. Though we could simplify
this by suggesting that learning is the process and change is the outcome. Most people I know are less
likely to be resistant to learning as it is more involving and engaging than change. Learning is open
and continuous whereas change is often decided elsewhere so appears closed and discrete. Senge’s
‘learning organisation’ continually changes as learning is applied at all levels.

To change and not learn may mean that your strategy is reactive and short sighted and you will find
that when you do want your people to start learning again (and if you survive the change) you will
have to overcome momentum as people start to ‘turn on’ to learning again.

Source:- www.workpsychologyarena.com/books/

How the Best Managers Learn

To survive in a fast changing world, the best managers develop themselves constantly, using their own
unique learning style. But some are less interested in personal development than others.
A quick way to measure your interest in learning is to take the Myers-Briggs type indicator. 'Intuitive
thinkers' (NT), place a premium on competence, are more focused on future possibilities and value
change. They pride themselves on keeping abreast of the latest developments in their field. Those who
prefer 'sensing' and 'judging' (SJ) value efficiency and prefer to apply existing skills rather than learn
new ones. They excel in following complex procedures and get things done in an organized manner,
but need more time to learn new skills and adapt to change. Oddly, however, it is these latter types
who often excel as managers simply because business is most interested in the short term and making
an immediate profit. Business desperately needs change agents to create better futures. Organizations
that hope to have prosperous long term future strive to balance the profiles of their management
population.
Those who lack confidence resist learning unless it is very much on their own terms. Much of what
managers learn is through direct experience, trying to solve a problem, experimenting, making
mistakes and trying something different. Managers who lack confidence, however, often fail to learn
from their mistakes because they blame circumstances or other people for their errors. As a result,
they fail to learn from their own bad decisions.
If you want to learn faster, there are a couple of steps to take. First, ask yourself what is your comfort
zone? How long have you been in broadly the same function? When was the last time you tried
something completely different, taken on some totally new responsibilities. It is well known that the
most innovative people are those who are either very young or who are new to a field because they
came into it with a fresh perspective.
The second thing to do is to enlist the help of those around you – your boss, team members and
colleagues. You might agree to help them learn faster in exchange. Get them to ask you challenging
questions regularly, to question your decisions to force you to consider other angles. Don't forget to
thank people for tearing your pet ideas apart. They won't give you feedback a second time if you
argue with them.

According to the research, managers' concepts of learning seemed to fall within four main categories:
 • learning as a process;
• learning as an acquisition;
• learning as embodying change; and
• Learning as a growth in understanding.

Managers were found to learn in many different ways, both formal and informal. They learn from: job
or role changes; others, either implicitly when they act as role models or explicitly in a "coaching" or
"mentoring" relationship; formal courses; or with the support of colleagues or peers.

The surprising factor, says the study, is not the variety of learning methods but rather that most of the
managers acknowledged that they are not conscious learners. Most, it would seem, "fell over" major
learning experiences and remembered and learnt from them precisely because they were so
unavoidable. For most this experience had to be "big" enough to "hit them between the eyes" and was
often seen as synonymous with being unpleasant - for example, a huge mistake, a personal tragedy or
failing to cope. In order to learn from these experiences in a less traumatic manner, the authors argue
that some structure and support are required.

Source:- www.albany.edu/sph/Hoff_learning/

Do project managers learn from experience?

Do managers learn from their experiences? One might think the answer is a pretty obvious, “Yes.”
However in a Harvard Business Review article entitled, The Experience Trap, Kishore Sengupta,
Tarek Abdel-Hamid and Luk Van Wassenhove suggest the answer may be a negative, especially on
complex projects.

A study was conducted in which several hundred experienced project managers were asked
to manage a simulated software project with specified goals and constraints. Most participants failed
miserably: their deliverables were late, over-budget and defect ridden. This despite the fact that
most of them acknowledged that the problems encountered on the simulations were reflective of those
they had previously seen on real projects. This indicates problems with the way project managers
learn from experience. Specifically:

• When making decisions, managers do not take into account consequences of prior actions.
• Project managers don’t change their approach, even when it is evident that it doesn’t work.

There may be three causes for this breakdown in learning:

• Time lags between cause and effect: In complex projects, the link between causes and effects are not
immediately apparent. The main reason for this is that there can be significant delays between the two -
e.g. something done today might affect the project only after a month. The participants were asked to
make hiring decisions at specified intervals in the project, based on their anticipated staffing
requirements. The results showed that the ability of the participants to make good hiring decisions
deteriorated as the arrival lag (time between hiring and arrival) or assimilation lag (time between
arrival and assimilation) increased. This shows that project managers find it hard to make causal
connections when delays between causes and effects are large.
• Incorrect estimates: It is well established that software projects are notoriously hard to estimate.
Studies were conducted on how project managers handle incorrect estimates. This, again, was done
through a simulation. What they found was participants tended to be overly conservative when
providing estimates even when things were actually going quite well. This is an indication that project
managers attempt to game the system to get more resources (or time), regardless of what the project
data tells them.
• Initial goal bias: Through yet another simulation, it was studied what happens as project goals change
with time. The simulation started out with a well-defined initial scope which was then changed some
time after the project started. Participants were not required to reevaluate goals as scope changed, but
that avenue was open to them. The researchers found that none of the participants readjusted their
 goals in response to the change, thus indicating that unless explicitly required to reevaluate objectives,
project managers tend to stick to their original targets.

After discussing the above barriers to learning, the following were deduced:

• Provide cognitive feedback: A good way to understand causal relationships in complex processes is to
provide cognitive feedback - i.e. feedback that clarifies the connection between important variables. In
the simulation exercise involving arrival / assimilation delays, participants who were provided with
such feedback (basically graphical displays of number of defects detected vs. time) were able to make
better (i.e. more timely) staffing decisions.
• Use calibrated model-based tools and guidelines: Use decision support and forecasting tools
to guide project decision-making. These tools should be calibrated to the specific industry and
environment.
• Set goals based on behaviors rather than performance: Most project managers are assessed on their
performance - i.e. The success of their projects. Instead, goals should be set that promote specific
behaviors. An example of such a goal might be the reduction of team attrition. Such a goal
would ensure that project managers focus on things such as promoting learning within the team,
protecting their team from schedule pressure etc. This, the logic goes, will lead to better team cohesion
and morale, ultimately resulting in better project outcomes.
• Use project simulators: Project simulations provide a safe environment for project managers to hone
their skills and learn new ones.

Source:- www.ingentaconnect.com/content

Characteristics of a Effective Manager

The managers interviewed had learned many things from their learning experiences, which were
clustered into the following main categories: knowledge; technical skills; management skills;
increased understanding of their organization; increased understanding of their impact on others; and
increased understanding of themselves.

The report makes it clear that what individuals learn is strongly influenced by how they learn: "Those
managers who had learned through formal taught courses had acquired knowledge and technical
skills, those who had learned through networking with others, either within their organization or from
other organizations, had learned much more about their organization, its structure, processes and
culture. Those who had undergone a learning experience that involved personal feedback were much
more likely to have learned something about themselves and their impact on others."

The complexities of modern business cannot be reduced to a few glib formulas. Yet there are certain
principles of sound management that can and should be emphasized in your day-to-day efforts. Here
are seven of them.

Communicate. Before a problem can be solved, it must be defined. This requires good
communications—up and down the line. Speed this process by holding regular management meetings
that put problems on the table for all to see, understand and analyze. Make "reporting by exception" a
habit so that important matters are not blurred by low-priority discussions. And never hide a major
problem within a seemingly routine report. If the problem is serious, get it to the decision-making
level as fast as possible.

Question. Some managers consider company policies and practices inviolable. They’re mistaken. A
company’s policies and practices should constantly be tested in the marketplace and in the daily
interaction among employees. When a situation is obviously out of line, "policy" should never be a
refuge for inaction. The "book" is full of rules that supplanted others and may, in turn, be due for
revision. None of them is so sacred that it cannot be questioned.
Plan. To manage without plans is to manage by crisis. There is nothing academic about planning
ahead. Just ask the manager who has neglected the habit.

Delegate. You develop people by challenging them with responsibility. The manager who denies his
people a substantive role in solving problems and moving projects ahead is cheating them and the
company. In the long run, he is damaging his own career progress by failing to train a successor.

Anticipate. As a manager, you must understand and welcome change. No company and no job within
a company that remains the same can be thought of as a success. The very moment you feel you have
mastered every nuance of your position is the moment to question whether you haven’t outgrown it.
With this attitude, you can instill the feeling in people that change is to be welcomed, even sought out.

Pinpoint priorities. We’re all busy. To be effective, we must search out the priorities and act on them.
What do we do today? What decision should be made first? What do we communicate down? Up? We
must be organized to weed out the routine. And concentrate on the important things—in order of their
importance.

Set high standards. Any reputation for excellence has been shaped by sustained performance over
the years. Each time you are content with merely "going through the motions," you risk damaging that
reputation. The best that is in you must be tapped every day. A manager sets the standards for his
people. Unless they are high, the potential of those who work for him may be stunted, perhaps
permanently.

Look beyond your company. By joining outside organizations, a manager broadens his interests and
his knowledge. He gets to know himself better and the depth and range of his personality. Whether it’s
in civic or professional activities, the community gets to know him as a responsible, concerned citizen
who also works for the ABC Company. The association does the firm no harm. And the public-
spirited manager, by his example, may well instill similar attitudes in his people.

Ten Manager "Failure Factors"

When major companies were polled to pinpoint the reasons for letting certain managers go, the most
often cited reasons were the following. If you suspect that you may be guilty of any, it’s not too late to
resolve to improve.

1. Lack of planning ability—time utilization—poor work habits.

2. Lack of industriousness, drive.
3. Lack of resourcefulness.
4. Lack of vision
5. Lack of self-development.
6. Lack of self-confidence, enthusiasm. Too easily discouraged.
7. Lack of ambition, desire to succeed.
8. Lack of communication skills.
9. Slow, uncreative thinking.
10. Emotional instability—jealousy, anger, suspicion of others.

Ways to Improve Employee Morale

1. Demonstrate to your people that you are genuinely interested in them and would be glad to
have their ideas on how working conditions might be improved.
2. Treat your people as individuals; never deal with them as impersonal variables in a working
unit.
3. Accept the fact that others may not see things as you do.
4. Respect differences of opinion.
5. Insofar as possible, explain manage-ment actions.
6. Provide information and guidance on matters affecting employees’ security.
 7. Make reasonable efforts to keep jobs interesting by occasionally adding new responsibilities,
new challenges, or new authority.
8. Express appreciation publicly for jobs well done.
9. Keep your people up-to-date on all business matters affecting them and quell rumors with
correct information.
10. Be fair.

How To Get Noticed

"Modesty," someone once said, "is a fine jewel, but many who wear it die beggars." It’s true. People
who get ahead today have mastered—among other things—the deli-cate art of calling attention to
themselves.

Need some publicity yourself? Here are four techniques that frequently work.

Speak Up. Information has a way of "per-colating" up and outwards. In your day-to-day contacts, you
undoubtedly talk to some people who, in turn, pass along part of what you say in their day-to-day
contacts. Since you never can tell where this "chain of talk" will end, forge as many links as possible.
Got an idea you’d like to call to the attention of higher-ups? Without going into details (after all, you
want the credit), mention it to your colleagues. Sooner or later, Mr. (or Ms.) Right will hear about it.
Opportunities for sowing this conversational seed: during coffee breaks…lunch…traveling to and
from work…on the job.

Get Yourself Talked About. This technique is as old as gossip and as new as tomorrow’s headlines.
By becoming the subject of others’ conversations, you create in effect a corps of publicity agents for
yourself. Talk to the "influential’s" in your life, those people who can help you get noticed. They will
vary according to your needs, but generally will include community leaders, your superiors, people
who know your superiors, customers or clients and so on. Have an idea for a civic project? Talk it
over with your local banker.

Got a pet peeve? Tell the editor of your hometown newspaper. Know how to increase good will for
your company? Tell your boss. Things get around.

Write. To newspapers. To magazines in your field. To associations. There are literally hundreds of
occasions for sitting down at a computer; to pass along news or ideas…ask for information or advice
(thereby transforming the recipient into an "expert")...seek an appointment to discuss some matter of
mutual advantage…go on record as approving or disapproving some contemplated course of
action...take a "survey"...comment on trends in your profession or industry.

Participate. By taking part in various activities, you will soon become a familiar figure in those
circles interested in what you are doing. Get in on company, industry or professional projects—trade
shows publicity campaigns, conventions. Be a joiner—you can often meet otherwise unreachable
people in civic, fraternal and veteran organizations. Volunteer your services—as a Boy Scout leader,
an unpaid fireman, member of a charity drive, head of a church bazaar.

Oscar Wilde said it. You remember it: "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being
talked about!"

How To Be Decisive
No matter what your position, you must choose between alternative courses of action hundreds of
times each year. Reluctance to make a choice sabotages action and, therefore, achievement. To
acquire the habit of decisiveness, follow these rules:

• Decide the small things promptly. By getting them out of the way, you give yourself more
time to think through the things that really count.
• Select your choices firmly. It will put iron into your resolve.
 • Abandon all alternatives. Once your mind is made up, forget the other possibilities. They are
history. "What could have been" thinking is unproductive.
• Act upon your decision. Nothing really happens until you do something. So if you truly want
to be decisive, you must carry out your decision through action. Don’t be afraid to make a
mistake. J. P. Morgan once defined a successful man as "a fellow who is right fifty-one times
out of one hundred." Right or wrong, come to a decision promptly after weighing all pertinent
factors. Whichever it is, it is almost always better than no decision at all.

Source:- www.autofieldguide.com

How Does Manager Know That They Have Accomplished

Continuous Learning?
Managers know better than anyone whether they have achieved continuous learning or not. No one
of.can tell them if and when they have achieved continuous learning or not. Identifying the "learning
objectives" alone would be like trying to define the requirements for the "the good life". Philosophers
have argued about this for at least 2,500 years.

Managers could measure the rate of change of some indicator over a period of time. For example, did
their company's profit rate rise at some determined rate for some determined number of months? Did
their salary rise at some determined rate for some determined number of years?

Perhaps Kahlil Gibran explains it best. In The Prophet, he wrote:

And a man said, Speak to us of Self-Knowledge.

And he [Almustafa!] answered, saying:
Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and nights.
But your ears thirst for the sound of your heart's knowledge.
You would know in words that which you have always known in thought.
You would touch your fingers the naked body of your dreams.

And it is well you should.

The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.

But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;

And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.

Source:- https://www.alibris.com/
 Ideas for Developing Continuous learning at individual level

Subscribe to a publication that covers an area of which you have not had previous exposure or
experience.

Take on a special assignment that will challenge you.

Arrange a detail in another part of the organization or another agency or non-profit organization to
gain experience.

Try a new skill in a volunteer organization.

Serve as a mentor, advisor, or trainer for new employees.

Teach someone or a group something you just learned or in which you have expertise.

Spend time with experts, model others who are competent at a skill you are interested in acquiring.

Read books, articles and manuals.

Conduct research; seek information from others.

Try to learn something new every day. Find time to reflect on what you have learned.

Keep a journal of what you learn every day.

Conduct interviews with professionals in unfamiliar disciplines to gain knowledge.

Go out lunch with someone different.

Complete the Leadership Needs Assessment Tool.

Ask others how they would like feedback.

Get regular feedback from a variety of people on a regular basis to learn how you are doing in a
particular skill area, track your progress.

Source: www.futureu.com/business

Continuous Learning in Organizations

Organizations can establish structures and processes that cultivate continuous learning. For example,
management can support a climate where feedback is freely exchanged. Employees have a clear,
shared vision of the organization's goals and values. Organization members get time to inquire and
reflect about what they are doing and why.

Planning is a form of learning. Goals are established. Strategies, or approaches to reaching goals, are
implemented. Action plans identify who will be doing what and when. During implementation, the
plan is monitored and modified as needed. Of course, plans can become ends in themselves,
ultimately constricting progress of the organizations. However, when plans are seen as guides that can
be changed, a great deal of learning can occur.
Source:- www.futureu.com/business

Towards a Learning Organisation

Any organisation committed to future success must become a learning organisation. To compete and
survive today commands continuous improvement. But any organisation is only as good as its people
and continuous improvement in business is all about the development of people and therefore creating
a learning culture.

Indeed, if continuous development is to be seen as a viable way of improving performance and

effectiveness in an organisation there needs to exist a culture in which it is valued and
encouraged. Organisational barriers to learning as, for example, lack of information and access; lack
of coaching and support; lack of real value for learning and lack of reward and recognition need to be
removed. Learning organisations are those best skilled at creating, acquiring and transferring
knowledge and at modifying behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights.

“Organisations learn only through individuals who learn. Individual learning does not guarantee
organisational learning. But without it no organisational learning occurs.”

(Senge, 1990)

References to learning organisations appear in the work of Garratt (1990), who looks at organisational
development and learning, specifically at senior manager level in large organisations. A narrower
view is given by Schein (1977) and Burgoyne (1988), who discuss implications for career planning.

Kolb’s (1974) work relating to the concept of the ‘learning cycle’ - whose key stages are experience;
reflection on that experience; analysis of learning points arising from it and the testing of implications
of concepts in new situations - also has links with the learning organisation. Truly, the philosophies
of a learning organisation necessitates that members not only develop learning abilities as individuals
and work and learn as teams but also having the sort of climate and processes that an organisation to
learn. This concept has emerged as an important objective for training managers and has gained wide
experience as an expression of the desired or ideal state for human resource development in the
organisation. It is apparent that the idea of the ‘learning organisation’ has strong links and even goes
beyond the third stage - the focused approach of the Ashridge Model.

Mayo (1995) asserts that to be better at individual, team and organisational levels, learning needs to
be the key to competitiveness and the achievement of organisational strategy. In this regard the
‘learning organisation’ may be viewed as “a journey not a destination” with the whole organisation
becoming a vehicle for the learning and growth of people. This is the ideal supportive climate which
can enable an organisation harness the full brainpower and experience available to it, in order to
evolve continually for the benefit of all its stakeholders. Indeed, it is now widely accepted that a real
source of competitive advantage lies within the ability of both individuals and organisations to learn
and share knowledge - constantly expanding on its capacity to create its future.

As Senge (1990) quoting Arie De Geus of Royal Dutch/Shell asserts:

“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive
advantage.”

(Senge 1990)

Post heroic leadership places facilitation skills above intelligence. Gone is the heroic individual with
the wisdom to cut through complexity single-handedly.
How important is it for a leader to be intelligent? The short answer is that it depends on how
leadership is defined. If being a CEO means being a leader, the answer to the question is probably
“yes.” But if leadership is defined in a different way, then the answer might be “no.”

Source:- kmi.open.ac.uk/

The impact of continuous / lifelong learning on organisational

development
Continuous learning has to be seen from two perspectives, both employers and employees who are
engaged in continuous learning. The employee perspective reflects employees' approaches to their
own learning and self development. The employer perspective reflects the motivations of employers
in promoting continuous learning opportunities, by way of engagement in courses, to their staff in
order to improve the organisation's effectiveness.

Continuous learning is used by employees to improve their current, or future, employment prospects
and by employers as a way of improving their organisational performance.

Source:- www.hrmcanada.com

Employee perspective
Here learning is regarded as a personal investment in the future, encouraging personal growth and
developing potential, possibly to ensure continued employment. This can be regarded as the model of
employee, continuous learning where the employees take responsibility for their own learning in
relation to their own employability.

Employees have a number of motivations for learning. These include intrinsic pressure, external
pressure, the quality of provisions available to them, specific drives and personality factors.
Employees' intrinsic motivation, engagement with learning opportunities, is relevant to the course to
their future career, their personal interests, social needs and domestic circumstances. Whilst
extrinsically they are motivated to study they may also be concerned with the value of the underlying
qualification, and that it will be recognised by their current, or future, employers.

The figure illustrates the model of employee continuous learning where people engage in learning
opportunities to maintain, or improve, their employability.
The employer perspective
There are number of areas where organisations might expect to find positive results from employees
being involved in learning, and or developmental experiences. They include cost savings, time
savings, new work habits, and improved working climate, which would be evidenced by low, or
reduced, turnover, staff commitment and satisfaction.

Continuous learning can be seen as a form of economic investment. Organisational learning is an

investment in survival; employers improving organisational effectiveness by creating and sustaining
learning in order that those employees are empowered to cope with a changing external environment.
This can be regarded as reflecting the employer perspective of continuous learning as it provides the
business with skilled workers whose skills and knowledge are used to promote organisational
competitiveness.

“Organisations learn only through individuals who learn.” The source of competitive advantage is an
organisation's ability to learn, to promote continuous learning in its employees, and to react more
quickly than its competitors. Individual learning does not guarantee organisational learning but
without the former, the latter cannot occur. The employer’s perspective is reflected in the following
figure.
Source:- www.managementhelp.org

Continuous Development: Challenge For Managers

The philosophy of ‘continuous development’ (CD) referred to in Europe as ‘permanent education’
also poses a major challenge to traditional practices - acknowledging that self-directed learning has
become a pre-requisite for individual and organisational development.

The traditional philosophy of training seems to be given place to the continuous development concept
and that there is a growing recognition that more effective training is often achieved when less
emphasis is placed on formal instruction and trainees are given responsibility for their own learning.
Flexible learning, open access learning centres, or computer-based training are excellent examples.

“CD philosophy as it has emerged is essentially a commentary on how business and management has
naturally evolved...particularly over the last dozen years: from stability to dynamism, from
descriptions to objectives, from systemization to creativity, from management command to
participative decision, from teaching to learning. To summarize, from training alongside work to
learning within it.”

(Wood, 1988, p.17)

For example, the aim of the Continuing Professional Development process promulgated by the UK
Institute of Personnel and Development (IPD) is to enable individuals themselves to identify learning
opportunities and to decide how best to exploit them. Continuing Professional Development means
constantly updating our professional knowledge throughout our working life. This requires self
direction, self management and responsiveness to the development opportunities offered by our real
work experience.

Indeed, professionals have long recognized that traditional professional education and training cannot
fully meet the needs of individuals or organizations in a rapidly changing world. Studying for the
award of a professional qualification at the beginning of a career provides a valuable base. It cannot,
 however, do more than ensure the acquisition of expertise which is relevant at the time the
qualification is obtained. Our professional development is a unique and personal journey.

Qualification studies will still have an important role to play but as part of a wider learning and
development process. This process needs to be ‘owned’ by the individual utilising a much wider
range of learning opportunities than formal, off-the-job training. Continuous Development is not self
development (although it may include self development). Rather, it is self-directed learning which is
evident when a ‘focused’ approach by organisations is adopted towards employee development as
suggested by the Ashridge Management Research Group (1988).

Following a literature review and a study of leading-edge UK companies, this research group
presented findings in an important report: “Management for the Future” distinguishing between three
approaches:

1. The fragmented 2. The formalised approach-training 3. The focused approach-training and

approach-training is:
• A cost not an investment •
• Not linked to organisational
goals
• Perceived as a luxury
• Directive
• In the training department
• Knowledge-based courses
• About training not
development
is: development are:
Systematic - part of planned career • A continuous learning process
development
• Essential for business survival
• Linked to human resource needs
• A competitive weapon
• Linked to appraisal - individual needs
• Linked to organisational strategy and
• Knowledge-based courses plus focus individual goals
on skills
• On-the-job plus specialist courses
• Linked to career development
• Self-selected
• Carried out by trainers and line
managers • Usually non directive, novel methods
• Linked to job by pre- or post-course• Line manager’s responsibility
work
• Tolerant

Figure The Ashridge Model ‘Management for the Future’

(Source: Osterweil, 1992, p.31)

The report gave insight into the attitudes of organisations towards training and development
suggesting a move from a ‘fragmented’ approach, where human resource development interventions
are seen as peripheral activities via a more systematic or ‘formalised’ approach, towards the ‘focused’
end of the spectrum, where development is seen as a continuous learning process, linked to
individual and organisational goals.

Source:- books.google.com

Why Continuous Development?

Few organisations can afford the volume of off-the-job training which would be needed to keep all
their staff completely up to date on all aspects of their current and potential work activities. Much
more is involved than just updated a body of knowledge. The development of personal competence
and skills is of equal importance.

People differ significantly in the ways in which they learn best. It is difficult for formal training,
which handles people in groups, to address these individual differences in learning styles. Besides, a
large proportion of effective learning takes place within the work environment. We all learn by doing,
by our successes and mistakes. Development should be continuous in the sense that the professional
should always be actively seeking improved performance.

Traditional training tended to treat the trainee as the passive recipient of material delivered by the
trainer. The concept is now being reversed by encouraging people to take responsibility for their own
learning and development. The trainer or rather, the learning facilitator, now provides support to the
active learner with development being owned and managed by the individual learner. Learning
objectives should be clear and wherever possible should serve organisational needs as well as
individual goals.

“Training does not necessarily equal learning. Training is something that can be done unto others but
learning is something individuals have to choose for themselves.”

(Chapman, 1992)

The growing awareness of the potential of continuous development is to some extent, prompted by
companies committing themselves to ideas such as empowerment. There is also growing interest in
the entire idea of management competencies - the skills which managers will require to manage in the
future, particularly flexibility and adaptability. When they are actually given the time, resources and
support to look at their own development, managers can quickly become excited, realising that there
are opportunities rather than obstacles. For many it is an entirely new experience.

Continuous development is an active process involving the individual in decisions about growth and
change. It is concerned with attainable realities - the difference between what the individual currently
does and how and what he or she can realistically achieve. It focuses on an attainable and viable role
in which the job offers increased challenge, demands and ultimate satisfaction and rewards.

Continuous development opportunities arise from formal structured learning, such as courses and
conferences, but they can also arise from informal unplanned opportunities, self directed learning and
other professional activities as for example, networking, project management, and work groups.
Regular investment of time in learning should be seen as an essential part of professional life, not as
an optional extra. More importantly, whilst these experiences can be very valuable, they need to be
recognised by individuals and organisations, if learning outcomes are to serve for further development
opportunities and organisational action plans. In this manner, simultaneous improvement in the
performance of employees and organisations can be achieved effectively.

Source:- www.expertmagazine.com

From Self Development to Continuous Development

Over the past fifteen years, self-development has moved from being a fringe pursuit, to a position in
the mainstream of management and business development. According to Pedler (1990) the growth
(actually a re-emergence) of self-development is attributed to a response to the limitations of
systematic and analytical training.

Faced with complexity, variety and change, systematic training can be far too prescriptive and trainer
cantered. Moreover, with regards to management development, quite often when managers are
thought to need a particular skill they are speedily dispatched on the appropriate course, with the
result that as their careers progress, they assemble an impressive list of ‘attended’ courses. In many
companies, training and development is still regarded in these terms.

The problem is that the skills needed by today’s and tomorrow’s managers are so broad ranging that
“picking off” skills is no longer enough. Managers have to be more selective and focused when it
comes to development. Indeed, there is a growing trend of managers who are realizing that
developing managerial skills and techniques is not simply the responsibility of the
organization. Managers too have a role to play in being proactive and identifying areas in which they
need to develop - examining their strengths and weaknesses to develop the skills necessary for the
future. Rather than having their development mapped out for them, effective managers are managing
it for themselves.

The self development philosophy therefore underlines the notion that the individual takes
responsibility for learning and choosing the methods and place, to pursue goal-oriented learning
activities, whether on-the-job (tasks themselves are highly effective instruments for development) or
off-the-job. Self development also means that individuals must be motivated - feeling strongly about
developing, growing and taking action.

It is suggested that the process of self-development enables the attainment of an ability “to learn how
to learn” (Megginson and Pedler, 1992), “a continuing openness to experience” (Rogers, 1969), and to
utilize this “learning edge” (Wick and Leon, 1993) to increase change management skills: flexibility
and adaptability.

Furthermore, encouraging and empowering subordinates to take charge of their own learning can
motivate managers to increase their willingness to continue their own development. Wick and Leon
claim that:

“In companies across the country, the ability to learn is becoming a condition for employment, one
that requires every successful manager’s deliberate attention and commitment”.

According to Wick and Leon (1993)

Indeed, schools of thought from Scientific Management through Human Relations and Organizational
Psychology, particularly the latter, have emphasized the generalized and changing nature of
managerial work. Yet, as self-development is a less visible and tangible process than training there
are various constraints:

“Self development presupposes an enormous amount of commitment and motivation on the part of
the self-developer. To succeed they need help and support from the organization within which they
are developing”.

According to Critten (1993)

Besides, as some might argue, why should managers develop themselves when their company offers
little in the way of support or rewards? The creation of the right sort of climate for self-development
is very important - repressive climates in organizations will block the individual’s development
(Temporal, 1981). Moreover, self-development activities may be more orientated towards the
individual’s requirements rather than the organisation’s needs. This is quite often an area of debate
with some organizations e.g., Ford’s (UK) Employee Assistance and Development Programme
(EADP) scheme providing special funding for any type of adult learning programmes, whilst other
organizations restrict the learning only to the relating to its needs and budgeted training expenditure.

Megginson and Pedler, promoters of the self development movement, argue:

“But who is the organization and what are its needs?....in these new days of skills shortages, to what
extent do senior managers have the power to define in what direction you and I should develop? Self-
development...recognizes the increasing power of the ‘knowledge worker’ who may have a personal
or professional career loyalty first and an organisational loyalty second”.

Perhaps it is when self developers seek a ‘trade-off’ - pursuing learning paths which benefit
themselves and the organization, that this can truly result in a feeling of mutual benefit, fostering a
climate of continuous development as a route to effective work and organisational
performance. (Megginson and Pedler, 1992)

Source:- www.clemmer.net

Competency Development
Development and support of the technology needed for today's operational environment relies on
knowledge workers with specialized training and education. Organizations must treat people as
critical assets and invest in them at the enterprise and individual level to increase organizational
performance and productivity. Competency development is required to ensure that people have the
right knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors needed to meet the technology, information, and
knowledge requirements of now and in the future.

Types of Competencies
There are different types of competencies that form the foundation of high performing organization.
Functional competencies relate to actual job performance, professional competencies are the core
behaviors possessed by all employees regardless of their job function, and integrative competencies
enhance other competencies, whether functional or professional. Integrative competencies have a
multiplier affect through their capacity to enrich an individual's cognitive abilities and enable
connectivity and integration of other competencies, leading to improved understanding, performance
and decisions. Integrative competencies can address functional "white space" and can improve an
individual's ability to learn. These competencies include Information Literacy, Knowing, Knowledge
Management, Systems Thinking, and Organizational Learning.

Instructional Media Design Model

Identify Goals. The first step in the model is to determine what it is that students should be able to do
upon completion of the course.

Develop Learning Objectives. After identifying the goal, an analysis will be completed to determine
what type of learning is required. The analysis will result in the identification of skills and behaviors
with specific statements (learning objectives) of what it is the learners will be able to do upon
completion of the instruction.

Develop Criterion-Referenced Test Items. Based on the objectives, an assessment that parallels to
and measures the learner's ability to achieve what is described in the objectives must be completed.

Develop Instructional Strategy. In this step an instructional strategy is developed to achieve the
stated objectives. The strategy will include pre-instructional activities, presentation of information,
practice and feedback, testing, and follow-through activities. The strategy is a key step and takes into
consideration research, technology, learning theories, content considerations, learner needs, and other
areas that could impact the instruction.

Develop/Select Instructional M

aterials. Based upon the strategy the instruction materials are identified and produced. This typically
includes a learner's manual, instructional materials, tests, and an instructor's guide.

Design Evaluation Materials. After the material is produced, feedback is used to evaluate and
improve the instruction. There are three types of formative evaluation that include one-on-one
evaluation, small-group evaluation, and field evaluation. Each type of evaluation provides the
designer with a different type of information that can be used to improve the instruction. The final
part of this process is to revise the instruction based on this evaluation.

Design and Conduct Feedback. Feedback is used for a summative evaluation of the effectiveness of
the instruction. It is an evaluation of the absolute and/or relative value or worth of the instruction, and
occurs only after the instruction has been formatively evaluated and sufficiently revised to meet the
stated learning objectives. This step is not considered an integral part of the actual instructional design
process since it usually involves an independent evaluation. This final step of the model is critical for
ensuring effective instruction.

This model is not intended for curriculum design, which requires many more steps. The model
described begins when the instructor is able to identify a specific instructional goal and is used in
curriculum development projects after the instructional goal has been derived.

Standards of Quality for Learning Strategies and Implementation

• Be at least as rigorous as similar courses delivered by more traditional means.

• Meet accreditation standards.
• Have content that is relevant, accurate, meets state and local standards, and is subject to the
normal processes of collegial decision making.
• Meet the objectives and requirements outlined in the official course description.
• Have student/faculty ratios that ensure the active engagement of students and high academic
achievement.
 • Have appropriate procedures mutually agreed upon by the instructor and the institution for
evaluation and verification that the student is submitting his/her own work.
• Have instructors whose qualifications are the same as those of instructors teaching in
traditional classes and who are prepared specifically and comprehensively to teach in this
environment.
• Be integrated into the mission and consistent with the overall offerings of the institution.

Provide fair use exemptions for participants' access to copyrighted material for educational purposes.

Learning in a Learning Environment

We learn new ideas and skills by connecting them to what we already know. In order to fully
understand a new concept we must somehow relate it to something we have previously learned. In
many ways, learning is like building a house. One must have a basic foundation of knowledge in
which to build a bigger framework of ideas and skills. From the framework, we attach new concepts
and more specific skills to build the walls. The more we learn, the bigger the house becomes. For
instance, a student learning Calculus must have a basic foundation as well as a framework of other
mathematical and analytical skills in order to successfully learn the abstract concepts of the subject.
Gradually he or she will connect the new knowledge to the framework of her mathematical
knowledge that is already in place.

When placing students and employees in a Learning environment, it is equally important to assess
what they already know in order to add to the framework. This might require a pre-assessment in
which the instructor determines if the students have fundamental skills to actually learn new content.
If students demonstrate a lack of proficiency in these skills, then the instructor knows that she or he
must back up to the point in which she can catch all the students and bring them to a common point of
understanding. It is important to remember that if students do not have a point of reference in which
to connect new knowledge, the new knowledge will be lost and the implemented training ineffective.

Another essential teaching strategy for a Learning environment is the repetition of new information in
various forms. All students have strengths and weaknesses in terms of learning styles; therefore,
presenting material in more than one-way appeals to more students and reinforces new knowledge.
Also, when information is repeated, it is retained longer because students perceive it as important.

Perhaps the most important Learning strategy is connecting new knowledge to outside "real world"
experience. Often, new knowledge is lost when not put to practical use. If a student is never ask to
apply what they have learned, the chances of fully understanding new kills or concepts are slim.
Application of knowledge can be demonstrated in assessments, such as tests and papers, but a more
effective assessment would be a real world project in which the new skills are used and students can
reflect on how well they comprehended the material. Learning does not happen in an environment
when students are asked to spit back information they have recently learned. Examples of this include
pure memorization of facts without understanding how the facts fit into a larger context. Students
must be given a forum in which to demonstrate that they either do or do not understand the practical
application of new material.

Because Learning is often used to teach specific skills or information that will increase job
performance, an instructor should give assignments that directly utilize the students work experience.
The necessity of applying new knowledge to practical experience is in direct correlation with the idea
that students learn best in situations where they can discuss new material and ideas with other
students who share similar experiences. By communicating ideas and "trying them out" with fellow
employees or students, people internalize the material and use it more successfully in job related
activities.
Content Presentation and Learning Activities

Along with considering the process of learning, instructors must also consider how to present
material. Taking into account the attention span and reading ability of her or his students, instructors
should very carefully design how the content is visually organized. Lectures should be posted along
with a list of its highlights so that students can take note of the most important points to remember.
Lectures should be as short as possible and include practical examples of how new content fits into a
larger scheme. If an instructor chooses a lecture format, there should also be time set aside for
students to ask questions and comment on the material. If the instructor posts an article or excerpts
from a text, there should also be a forum in which students can address confusions and concerns.

Source:- wiki.nasa.gov

Organizational impact
Trying to determine the effect that training and development has on an organisation was found to be
difficult, especially when the development activities concerned are designed to have an impact on the
"soft" "people skills" of managers. The report does not purport to prove that the management
development programmes studied have changed the organisations concerned. Yet the authors did
observe, in the organisations that were studied, "organisational change that was culturally consistent
with the style of the development activity. Thus these organisations had on the whole become more
democratic, more open, less hierarchical, less patriarchal in their style and their interactions."

What are the solutions?

The report argues that much management development fails to make managers significantly better at
their jobs because the real problem is that much management development is knowledge-based and
does not touch individual behaviour. Linda Barber, IES research fellow and co-author of the study,
commented that: "What is needed is management development that makes individuals look at
themselves differently, that makes them examine their interactions with others and the effect that they
have on people, and learn to do things differently and more effectively. All too often management
development does not make the difference that is hoped for it, but some management development
does work. There are key characteristics of successful management development programmes that
demonstrate that change is possible."

Managers, it is stated, need to learn about themselves and the way they interact with others and deal
with the problems they encounter. The greatest impact on managerial behaviour comes through "soft
skills" - managers' ways of communicating and relating to others. Examples given include:

• improving self-knowledge - "let others tell you";

• recognising the impact of behaviour on others;
• reflecting on normal reactions under pressure;
• identifying techniques to overcome reluctance to deal with conflict; and
• accepting feedback and "taking it on board".

Much management development is said to focus on the external world and the development of
knowledge and skills that are "out there" - such as understanding budgets, where business strategy
comes from or what a good appraisal process should look like. Really effective management
development, it is claimed, places considerable emphasis on "the internal world". This focuses on
both knowledge and skills - identifying strengths and weaknesses, examining reactions when put
under pressure, or analysing techniques that can be used to overcome a reluctance to deal with
conflict.
There are two processes that appear to be essential if individuals are to develop greater internal skills
and knowledge - feedback opportunities and support mechanisms. Those managers that have received
structured feedback within a "supportive and trusting" environment have used this to change
themselves for the better, becoming more "proactive", more self-confident and more empathic in their
dealings with others. Feedback can play a positive role in enhancing self-esteem through increasing
self-knowledge:

However, feedback is not always welcomed, states the report. In an unsupported environment,
feedback can be perceived as threatening when it tells individuals something they did not know about
themselves, and are not ready to integrate into their self-knowledge. In these circumstances, a vicious
circle is set up. Unfortunately, the more senior the manager the less likely they are to experience
feedback, or to be able to find the time for reflection.

In order to turn self-knowledge from a very uncomfortable experience into a positive one, the
following are advised by the study:

• feedback opportunities must be established, in an atmosphere of trust;

• support mechanisms can turn instinctive defensive reactions into improved self-knowledge; and
• feedback should become valuable and desirable.

Source:- www.citehr.com

Blended Learning
What Is Blended Learning?
In a white paper for the American Management Association titled “Blended Learning
Opportunities,” Rebecca Vaughn Frazee and I wrote that blended learning integrates seemingly
opposite approaches,
such as formal and informal learning, face-to-face and online experiences, directed paths and
reliance on
self-direction, and digital references and collegial connections, in order to achieve
individual and organizational goals. (To read the white paper, visit
www.amanet.org/blended.)

From the learning executive’s perspective, blended learning is about improving performance
and achieving business objectives with employees spending more time where they are most
needed—at
work. From the employees’ perspective, blending allows them to answer questions and develop
at a time and place more of their choosing.

Blended learning must communicate with employees and encourage smart choices. In the past,
the decision was simple: Commit to this class at this time and this place, or do not. With
blending, there are many and persistent choices to be made:

Do I do this e-learning module now, later or perhaps not at all?

Will I be active in my online community? Do I want to add an entry to the blog?
Where do I find somebody to talk to about this?
Should I take this self-assessment and use it to point me to resources?
Which class should I attend? Why attend any class at all?
I downloaded seven podcasts. How do I find time to listen to them?
Do I want to read this book or the other one that my e-coach recommended?
Can I get back to headquarters for the lunch chat that my manager scheduled?
What is available to me in the databases, reference manuals, templates and checklists?
Why Consider a Move Toward Blended Learning?
Blended learning has a growing presence in workforce learning and performance. A 2005 survey
by
Kyong-Jee Kim , Curtis Bonk and TingTing Zeng of 200 training professionals in the United
States found that respondents anticipated an increase in the use of blended learning in their
organizations.

That others are doing it is interesting, but not conclusive. Far more compelling are experiences
and
studies that suggest that blended learning makes a difference. What might blended learning do
for you?

Capitalize on the resident smarts in your organization: Blended learning presses

people and organizations to find, store, stir and share what they know. A database might
help salespeople re- use parts of proposals. Far-flung hotel administrators can “ask the
experts” through FAQs, e-mail, phone calls or live video streams. Employees may turn to
their supervisors to practice a skill or explore an idea. Learning experiences are paired with
knowledge available on demand.

Converge learning and work: Instructors and managers have good

reasons to worry about
transfer when employees go to training and return to work. This is less
worrying in a blended situation because blending insinuates learning,
information and support into the workplace. Got a question? You can look
it up online. Got a problem? Chat with your manager or share it with an
online community. Eager to get better at personnel management? There is
a course you can take and a pre-assessment that will make certain you are
ready for that course.
Promote connections and conversations: Blended learning
encourages the organization to extend lessons and conversations
beyond the classroom and into the workplace through coaching, e-
coaching and online communities. A salesperson who has learned
about a new
product can chat with more experienced colleagues attempting to bring
that product to Asia. An
executive can reach out for expert views from a trusted e-coach. A
researcher can reflect with others on the investment team about how a
natural disaster should influence their purchases and sales.
Provide consistent and updated messages: Instructors are a great
resource during training, but their messages sometimes differ and their
smarts and enthusiasm depart after class. Technology, on the other
hand, can deliver standardized messages consistently, tirelessly,
swiftly, repeatedly, patiently, around the globe. Online modules,
knowledge bases and archived
presentations do not get jet lag.
Nurture independent habits: Employees in blended programs can
participate in online communities, seek out lessons and answers as
needed, and enjoy interaction, guidance and encouragement from
peers, experts, supervisors and coaches. For those who are reluctant to
turn exclusively to independent learning, blending anchored in the
classroom can pave the way.
Improve performance and control costs: Studies have reported
increased cost-effectiveness and productivity for those using a blended
 approach as opposed to e-learning alone. Other studies have reported
enhanced employee retention and reduced training time for blended
approaches. In addition, online resources can be easier and cheaper to
update and distribute.

How Does Blending Change What Everybody Does?

Blended learning redefines roles. As we move from instructors in classrooms
to many kinds of assets everywhere work gets done, participation and results
transfer into the hands of employees and their managers.

Blended learning shifts responsibility for learning from the instructor to the
employee. For many, this is not
an easy transition. They like what they know—classroom experiences led by
instructors—and are often uncomfortable and not particularly adept at learning
more independently and online.

Provide useful, clear guidance systems that link to work and career paths. Help
employees consider their readiness to learn continuously and independently.
Engage managers in helping them find time and motivation to learn. Nudge
employees to reflect on their readiness, with questions such as:

Are you eager to know more about this topic? Is this top-of-mind?
Do you know what’s involved in blended learning and how it will
affect what you do at work?
Do you know how to navigate the technology?
Are you ready to assess your skills and knowledge, and to make choices
based on skill gaps?
Do you seek more responsibility for your own learning and
development?
Would you prefer to find an answer or take a class on your schedule
when a need arises?
Do you like to talk and read about ways of doing your job better?
Do you know how to manage time and distractions?
Do you know what might get in your way? Do you have ideas about
how to mitigate obstacles?
Do you know your department’s priorities and how development in
this area relates to those priorities?
Do your supervisors support this growth?
Are you willing to seek help from a peer or mentor?
Because it often occurs in the workplace, blended learning depends on an active supervisor
or manager.
When blended learning is in place, managers and supervisors must coach, guide, track,
motivate and encourage. To learn about managerial readiness, ask:

Do managers know what blended learning is?

Do managers understand how blended learning expands their roles?
Do they know why they are needed?
Do they know how to help employees stay involved in blended learning?
Can they picture what their participation and support might look like?
Are meaningful incentives in place for managers to be active within the blend?
Are participation and support in the blended learning program part of managers’ job
descriptions and performance reviews?
Do managers have the skills and knowledge to tackle these new responsibilities?
Are there cases, examples and templates to help managers know what to say and do
within the blend?

In a blended learning system, teaching is important, but not sufficient. Instructors will do
more than stand and deliver when a blend is in place. Through online systems, they might
monitor and nudge employees’ progress and persistence, moderate a discussion board,
coach managers, enliven online communities,
offer feedback on a group or individual task, analyze workplace readiness and post answers to
frequently
asked questions.

For example, at Defense Acquisition University, instructors are growing into coaches and
performance consultants. They tailor services to needs and are measured in part by the
satisfaction of the people they serve in these new ways.

In Kim, Bonk and Zeng’s survey of training professionals, a majority of respondents said
that by 2010, online facilitation or moderation would be a vital skill for online trainers
and instructors. Other key skills included online mentoring, lecturing and evaluating or
assessing skills.

The executive’s role in blended learning is to ensure that the culture is active, collaborative
and cross- functional, with each employee, manager and supervisor keen on continuous
learning and aware of what
to do to advance it.

Before embarking on BL, executives should examine where they stand:

Do executives see the link between this blended learning and their strategy? Can
they describe how this program furthers organizational goals? Will they actively do
29
 that?
Do executives know what blended learning is and what benefits the approach
brings?
Do executives know how blended learning programs typically fail?
Have executives worked with workforce learning professionals and line managers
to consider what might get in the way as their organization moves to blended
learning?
Where obstacles are anticipated, what mitigation is put in place?
Have the executives worked with management to nurture a learning culture?
Are the executives engaged in the effort to redefine the roles of employees and
supervisors to encourage continuous learning and support?
Are the executives working with the learning organization to redefine the measures
associated
with their success in ways that link to continuous engagement, participation and
strategic results?
Have executives worked with the individuals involved with blended learning
to ensure that evaluation will happen and that the program will be continuously
improved?

Blending, of course, also means changes for workforce learning professionals and their
leaders. There
are obvious matters such as acquisition, creation and update of diverse assets, some familiar
and some not familiar at all; the press to leverage technologies and keep track of individual
participation in diverse
experiences that happen everywhere; and orchestration of many programs, people and
relationships, not just classes. And then there are those changes that are more subtle. Ask
about those changes as they apply to the work and priorities of the CLO:

Does the learning executive know what blended learning is and what benefits
the approach brings?
Can the CLO describe how blended learning changes priorities and efforts for the
CLO and for others?
Has the CLO examined the learning unit and determined where colleagues need
development and which processes will require reengineering in order to advance
blended learning? What about the health of hardware and software for blended
learning?
Does the CLO know how blended learning programs typically fail? Where
obstacles are anticipated, what mitigation is in place?
Has the learning executive worked with line executives to define and advance
their roles as coaches and guides?
Has the learning executive endeavored to redefine what line managers will do?
How will line managers be recognized for their efforts?
Has the CLO pressed learning specialists to develop assets that help line managers
engage with employees in active and ongoing ways?
Is the learning executive advocating for assets and programs that will compel
employee attention and loyalty?
30
 Has the CLO experienced a blend? What lessons does that blend bring to the
organization?
Is the CLO attentive to concerns about employee satisfaction, engagement and
persistence? To concerns about technology infrastructure?
Has the CLO pressed for development and communication of guidance
systems that help employees find what they need when they need it?
Has the CLO found ways to gather data and use that data to improve the blend and
individual assets, and to inform participants and managers about progress?
Is the learning executive engaged in selecting “sweet spots” for blending—topics
and initiatives most likely to benefit from concerted attention over time and place?
Is the CLO working with organizational leaders to alter the metrics for his or her unit
in light of the changes inherent in blended learning?

How Do We Get Smarter About Blended Learning?

The shift to blended learning demands thought, planning and new commitments from us and
from others
in our organization. No silver bullets here.

What kinds of assets are typical in a blend? How does blended learning alter how we use
instructors and classrooms? Where does technology fit in? What forms do blends take, and
when would we use these different forms? What about blends for smaller groups of
employees? For large numbers that are spread around the world? For employees who do not
embrace the topic? How does blending alter familiar approaches to evaluation?

Allison Rossett, professor of educational technology at San Diego State University, is the
author of many books and articles about workforce learning, technology and performance
improvement. A free, comprehensive white paper about blended learning authored by Allison
and Rebecca Frazee, and sponsored by the American Management Association, is available at
http://www.amanet.org/blended/.

Source :- (Media Tec Publishing)

The impact of learning

The report attempts to establish whether learning had an effect on individual behaviour in some
way, arguing that "learning that remains hidden within the individual, that is not used to do the
job differently, or to impact on management style, cannot affect the organisation or others within
it".

The researchers highlight some clear examples of changing behaviours and styles of doing
things. As a result of their learning experiences, the managers showed change in a number of
personal and cognitive areas:

• strategic overview - a broader view of the business was often mentioned;

• thinking style - clearer and more informal in their thinking;
• action orientation - being more "proactive" and taking the initiative;
31
 • reflection - learning from mistakes and questioning the ways things are done;
• personal style - showing a more "sensitive caring side" of themselves that they had previously
kept hidden;
• self-awareness - toning down aggressive behaviour because of feedback about the impact it had
on others; and
• ways of dealing with others - being more honest, more of a teamworker and having to adopt to a
more human democratic management style.

These changes occurred frequently as a result of receiving feedback from peers and subordinates
which some described as being of "startling honesty". The authors argue that, through feedback,
managers had reconsidered what was "valued behaviour" and reassessed their responses to
others. The changes in the managers were fundamentally cultural in terms of changing their
attitude on issues which they previously associated with "internal censorship". They had either
learnt to relax an "internal censor" that stopped them behaving in certain ways because of a belief
that it was inappropriate, or to impose censorship on behaviour that had been shown to be
detrimental to them. An example would be a discontinuation of "macho" aggressive behaviour
and replacing it with a more "caring" side of their personalities.

Having noted these changes, however, subordinates were more negative about the impact of
formal courses than were the line managers of those who had participated or their immediate
"coaches". This was the case in all the organisations studied.

Source:- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

The Relationship Between Intelligent Learning and

Leadership

In the early years of studying leadership, the so-called “trait theory” took the view that there is a
set of traits that marks leaders from non-leaders. Early traits claimed to be characteristic of
leaders included intelligence, a drive to dominate others, being extroverted and having charisma.
Today, people often point to the importance of emotional intelligence, facilitative skills and
integrity. The trait theory implies that certain personal characteristics are necessary conditions for
leadership, or at least, effective leadership. In later thinking about leadership, this approach was
abandoned because it was felt that leadership effectiveness varied too much across situations and
types of people being led. The feeling was that there were no universally necessary traits to be a
leader.

More recently, trait thinking has been making a comeback. In particular, numerous studies
associate intelligence with leadership effectiveness. Some thinkers feel that the more senior the
executive the more important are general cognitive skills, the ability to grasp more and more
complex information to make informed decisions.

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The Move to Post Heroic Leadership

The work of Jim Collins, especially in his book, Good to Great, has helped to popularize a
facilitative style of leadership. He called his version of post heroic leadership “level 5
leadership.” Collins did extensive research on companies that had moved from average to
exceptional levels of performance over several years. He found the CEOs of such companies to
be humble, to feel that they did not have all the answers. Collins used the slogan “first who then
what” to explain how these CEOs worked. They got their best people together (first who) and
conducted brainstorming sessions with them to develop new strategies for the business (then
what). Collins used this slogan to contrast it with the more heroic leadership model where the
CEO decides what needs to be done and then gets people to execute the new strategy. Collins
expressed this style with the slogan “first what then who.”

Level 5 leadership is just one model of what has become known as post heroic leadership. The
central theme running through all of such models of leadership is that the CEO needs to develop
new directions by drawing out the best thinking of the organization. This approach to deciding
strategic direction ties in the the “wisdom of crowds” idea, the view that groups make better
decisions than individuals. Here, the most important skill for the CEO is to be a good facilitator.
The need for intelligence in any one individual is not so strong if the best decisions are made by
groups.

So, if leadership means that CEOs should call the shots based on their own thinking then, given
the increasing complexity of today's world, they had better be quite intelligent. Conversely, if
leadership means being able to draw the best ideas out of others, then CEO intelligence is not as
important as facilitation skills.

Leadership Reinvented for a Digital Age

A totally different conception of leadership says that it has nothing to do with position. On this
view, being a CEO means being a manager. A CEO can show occasional leadership, but only
management is a role. By freeing leadership from position, it becomes clearer how all employees
can show some leadership. The essence of leadership now is that it is simply the successful
promotion of a better way, a new idea for a new direction. It can be shown by example when a
front-line employee works in a new way or promotes more efficient practices or new products. It
involves challenging the status quo. Such “thought leadership” can be very small scale and local.

The question of intelligence is very situational. It depends on the audience to which a person is
trying to show leadership. More intelligence will likely be necessary to influence an intelligent
audience. Such leadership is a matter of presenting hard evidence for a new product or strategy.
An intelligent audience needs to see the person trying to show leadership to them as credible and
technically sound in the business case being made. Conversely, an employee demonstrating a
better approach to serving customers in a retail store can show leadership without the same
degree of intelligence.

33
Crucially, however, major strategic decisions that take large, complex organizations in new
directions are most likely to be sound if made by a group. Where leadership is defined as
promoting new directions, the use of facilitation skills to help a group make good decisions can
be seen as a management technique. This means that CEOs who use such skills to develop new
strategies are wearing a managerial hat in so doing.

Thus, on two of our three ways of defining leadership, high intelligence is either not necessary or
only situationally important.

34
35
Architecture (Organizational and Individual)
Architecture in this model is defined as "an orderly arrangement of parts; structure." That means
making sure that every aspect from assessment to development is done in an orderly and
structured way. In the organizational assessment an architecture team is designed to assess the
readiness of both the organization and the individual for eLearning. The architecture section
looks at the customer that is affected by the learning initiative but simply from identifying them
and determining the sequence in which the customer will be affected. This section fits into the
individual assessment as a feedback means because the architecture team is the group that will
get the results of the anonymous assessment the individual fills out. Those results will be utilized
to tailor the specific eLearning initiative to ensure maximum success.

Access (Individual)
This section is specifically designed to determine the degree of expertise the individual has in
information technology and what their perception is to having access to computers with the
required elements to support eLearning. It is important to note that a manager may feel that one
PC to every five staff members is excellent access. The individual may feel that it is difficult for
them to get on a PC during the day. This is valuable to know since the eLearning initiative may
not be taken seriously if the staff feels they can't get on the PC to do it anyway. Remember,
management's perceptions might not reflect the perceptions of the staff and that is the purpose of
doing both assessments and filtering the results back to one team. A wide range of IT questions
are asked here that speak to access of hardware, software, the WWW, intra/internet, printers, etc,
by the individual.
36
Capacity (Individual)
Capacity within the A4C4 model is related to the ability of the organization to develop, deploy,
evaluate, provide feedback, and sustain the e-learning initiative. We are all very busy and in a
world where change is so rapid, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. It is important to determine how
the staff feels about their ability to do eLearning from a workload perspective. Remember, the
individual assessment is reserved for those people who are impacted by the eLearning initiative.
The questions are constructed in a manner to give the architecture team a feeling for how the
individuals affected can support the new initiative. They will use the results of this questionnaire
to determine the organizations ability to adequately support the new program. This is one of the
most important areas for the person filling out the questionnaire to be completely honest. If the
architecture team recommended moving forward on the eLearning initiative based on the results
of the questions completed and reality was that the support staff already felt overwhelmed with
daily duties, the entire eLearning agenda could be compromised as well as other competing
requirements.

Alliances (Individual)
The organizational relationship will be assessed between departments affected by the eLearning
initiative through the organizational assessment. The individual assessment speaks to how well
the person feels they are a team with the other department(s) and even within their own
department. This is very valuable information in making sure that organizational and individual
issues can be addressed that are hampering teamwork prior to the initiative and also processes
can be designed in the deployment of eLearning that will improve teamwork if it is determined a
problem exists. This section speaks specifically to how well people and sections work in teams…
how well they perceive they are part of the team.

Alignment (Individual)
Before an individual can feel aligned with an initiative they must first understand what the
initiative is and how they can contribute to the success. This requires communication. The
architecture team will need to know how individuals feel about communication within the
organization. Secondly, Labovitz and Rosansky (1997) state the need for managers to tie
performance measures and metrics to organizational goals. It will be important to get a feel from
the affected staff how focused they feel the organization is. Additionally, are initiatives started
and left to sustain while the organization moves to other issues without following up on the
success of the initiative? Lastly, what behavior is rewarded from an individual perspective? To
achieve alignment, the reward and recognition system must reward the organizational goals.
Schein (1992) states, "even casual remarks and questions that are consistently geared to a certain
area can be a potent and formal control mechanism and measurement." A telling story is to ask
individuals their belief about the above issues. It is often considerably different then the
impression of senior management and that is the value of doing the individual assessment on
alignment. If there is a general feeling that there is a continuous shift of focus on goals, lack of
knowledge of how success is measured, and awards don't exist for teams and are not focused on
organizational success, then the architecture team needs to know this. If this is the case, then
37
deploying eLearning may be met with resistance by the affected staff and many of the items
necessary to cause the organization to embrace eLearning will need to be carefully analyzed from
the organizational perspective.

Capability (Individual)
The alliance section is focused on the individual and if they feel like a contributing member to
the team. The capability section is more centered on knowledge and the sharing of knowledge
between individuals and teams. At the individual level the question is does the sharing of
knowledge occur as effectively as it can to improve corporate capability? Elearning is a
knowledge management initiative designed to improve individual and organizational knowledge.
How well the eLearning initiative improves knowledge is partially based on the effectiveness of
past initiatives and how the knowledge that is passed on is effectively utilized. As such, it is
important to determine if the individual feels that the corporate belief is that their employee's
knowledge is a valuable resource. In other words, are the full knowledge capabilities of the
individual utilized to make sure that the company reinvents itself by taking the feedback from the
individual (that person closest to the customer and/or processes) and changing as needed to
sustain competitive advantage? The perspective of the individual may be significantly different
than that of management.

Culture (Individual)
An important aspect of the individual assessment is the perception of the culture by the
individuals affected by the initiative. Very much like most aspects of the individual assessment,
how a person perceives culture can be very different than management's perception of the
culture. At the individual level to best create an environment for learning, there can't be a fear to
question the status quo. Also, there needs to be the ability to take risks without fear. There needs
to be necessity to have an open and experimental environment that encourages ingenuity and
creativity. What is the individual's feeling towards change? The feeling of change from the
individual is an essential part to assess culture. The key here is to discern between someone not
liking change and not liking to be changed. Those are two different aspects of the spectrum and
the focus here is to look at accepting change not being changed. Some of the other questions in
the individual assessment center on communication and those question results should be
analyzed since communication is essential to move a change initiative forward. The last element
of culture to look at from an individual nature is how supportive the culture is to share
knowledge.

Communication (Individual)
Communication assessment is critical for eLearning. How positive does this individual feel
management is embracing eLearning? Has the individual heard personally from management
why eLearning has chosen to be implemented at their organization and what is in it for the
individual? Does the individual know the members of the architecture team and those who will
be working specifically with them? As stated in the organizational assessment section, the key
will be for senior leadership to be facilitative and not directive in nature to achieve the greatest
benefits from e-learning. This section is the opportunity to get feedback on if in fact the

38
perception is that the eLearning initiative is being implemented through a facilitative process.
One of the best ways to assess communication for this section is to question about past change
initiatives and how well management assisted with the pre/post implementation stages.

Fostering the Learning Organization

Given that organizational learning is essential for keeping up with a changing environment and
responding to external threats and opportunities, the conditions under which organizational
learning takes place become a primary concern of knowledgeable leaders and managers. What
should their role be and what actions should they take to create an environment within which
group and organizational learning takes place in a natural and efficacious manner? In this section
we concentrate on the two primary processes that organizational learning takes place in most
organizations: Casual or deliberate social interactions and more formal group learning,
sometimes referred to as cooperative learning. Since these often occur within the organization's
spaces (physical or psychological), there are certain factors that are common to both.

As usual, senior leadership will significantly influence the tone, policies, values and attitudes
toward learning. Their words, behavior, rewards and resource allocations will indicate to
managers and employees throughout the organization whether they believe in and support
learning and its attendant cost in time, funds and risk. Are people talking at the coffee pot
wasting time or sharing knowledge? Do senior managers recognize that their own beliefs may
not be right in a new world? Will they really listen to counter thoughts? How would an intense
disagreement during a brainstorming session be viewed? As a disruption or an inquiry into the
truth. What happens to employees who suggest what they think is a great idea? Are managers
rewarded for their own knowledge or for the total performance of their department? Is being
wrong considered a mark of character or an error in judgment? The answer to these types of
questions and the handling of events arise every day in organizations and how they are handled
tells everyone what the leadership really thinks about learning on the job. Effective managers
deliberately support conditions and take actions that reward the sharing of information and
experience and encourage everyone to learn as part of their professional responsibilities. Meeting
spaces should be available for instant discussions. The infrastructure of computers, VTCs, white
boards, libraries, SME yellow pages, Communities of Practice and Interest, intranets and
knowledge repositories encourage and support many types of learning. While senior managers
can influence the environment through directives and events such as Knowledge Fairs, only the
supervisors and employees will have the final say in whether, and how much, learning takes
place. While rewards can encourage behavior, they do not determine it. Only when the
individual desires, or at least is willing to learn, will learning occur. Whether that motivation
comes from within the person or from cultural expectations, or from team-member
interdependencies or from a critical task need, is not as important as the learning that results from
the sharing of knowledge. The key to social learning is for supervisors, managers and the
informal leaders in the organization to support and participate in informal conversations that
swap stories about the organization, talk about lessons learned in critical situations and ask
questions that others may be able to answer. By modeling open and honest communications, an
environment of sharing and learning can be cultivated-one that will bear heavy rewards for the
39
future of the organization. Just as President Bush sought the help of all Citizens in regard to
Homeland Security, anyone that has a serious problem in the organization should feel free to seek
the help from any other employee. When this kind of "freedom to ask" exists, you have a
learning organization. With the Internet and intranets, the mechanism for the freedom to ask is
there, but is the cloud of culture that responds by "we just don't do that around here" still there.

Over the past decade more and more organizations are using communities, teams or groups to
solve problems, share knowledge and contribute to organizational learning. Communities are
discussed in Defining eLearning. To make teams and groups effective requires that a number of
context related conditions be implemented. While every organization is unique, team learning has
certain key success factors that must be recognized. Competent and socially mature team
members with a diversity of knowledge and experiences are desirable. A clear charter or
equivalent will spell out the teams task, responsibilities, and resources-thereby minimizing
disagreements and confusion later on. The goal of the team should be clear and the relations
among team members should make them dependent upon each other. These relationships should
be a balance among cooperative, competitive and individualistic. A little of each of these goes a
long way toward sharing, listening, learning, collaborating and achieving. Group rewards
coupled with individual recognition are often effective. Allocating tasks among team participants
and monitoring overall activities is conducive to teambuilding. Adequate facilities and
technological support are necessary for efficient performances. As the team learns, the results
need to be recorded for future lessons learned. In addition to the task accomplishment, there is
usually a great deal of individual learning and social relationship building that has the potential
for long term payoff through organizational performance. See Integrated Product Teams.

In summary, building and maintaining a learning organization is a difficult and long-term

process. Leadership, management, infrastructure, culture and employee motivation and attitudes
are all important parameters to consider. Although the challenge is an organizational one, no
individual can create a learning organization, the payoff includes every level, from the newest
employee to the entire organization.

Source:- wiki.nasa.gov

High achievers are Continuous Learners

High achievers are lifelong learners who subscribe to the process of continuous improvement.
They view mistakes as learning opportunities. "There is no failure, only feedback" is always their
motto. They know they need to improve, take risks, make mistakes and view these mistakes as
opportunities to bounce back.

High achievers know that they are 100% responsible for what's happening to them. They don't
blame anybody else. They look themselves in the mirror and say "You can do it, it's only up to
you dude!" You have the ability to respond in every situation you find yourself. Your response is
40
up to you.

Creativity, courage, commitment, learning and responsibility are at the heart of every great
achievement. Success is not always easy. People may be in your way. One may face
discouragement. Problems may appear. But by learning how to be responsible, One will find
solutions that others won't think of. One will find the courage to change your life and commit to
excellence.

Source:- www.citehr.com

Continous learning gives executives business edge

Martha Reeves & Steve Hicks Continuous learning is becoming increasingly important for
success in a rapidly changing global business environment. Research in organizational behavior
indicates that personal development plays a key role in enhancing workforce productivity and
therefore organizational success. As Ari de Geus, former head of planning, Royal Dutch/Shell,
said, "The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive
advantage." One way to meet this challenge is by investing in your human capital by gaining the
skills and competencies to manage yourself and others more effectively. If you decide to invest in
your capabilities and competencies, what are your options? Where do you begin? First, consider
the direction of your company. Can you articulate a potential strategy and envision its
implications for you in your business environment? What are the range of possibilities — the
potential futures — for 2005? A clear strategy can help you focus your learning efforts and
provide you with the ability to set more accurate goals. The strategy will help position you to
take advantage of a range of possible futures. A group of leaders from a Global 100 firm recently
articulated these strategic challenges and their implications: Strategic challenges: potential crises,
rapid pace of change from new technologies, increased global market competition, high risks in
developing markets and organizational structural barriers. Implications for learning and
development: Increase cultural awareness, develop influence, negotiation, crises management
and language skills. Increase flexibility, capacity, resilience and work-life balance. A strategy
enables you to plan, prioritize, combine and focus efforts for your lifelong learning. With a
strategy in mind, you can set clear goals for learning just as you would for investing financial
capital. Research in the field of adult learning has helped us understand that people are most
successful in learning when focused on meaningful life- or job-related challenges. The alignment
of strategy to goals provides focus and intrinsic motivation. So how do you begin? Once you
have identified goals, you can chart a course and measure your progress in attaining them. You
need to assess your skills and competencies. An assessment gives an accurate starting point and
will help you measure improvements that you've made. Several self-assessment tools and multi-
rater instruments can help you understand your strengths and talents as well as opportunities for
improvement. Options for Learning Research in human resources development provides
evidence to support the effectiveness of the following learning and development strategies.
41
Which one or ones you choose will depend on your circumstances, resources, time, money and
the expertise within your organization. Job rotation and task force assignments: These
experiences provide "teachable moments" and lessons from one's actions, other's actions, and
about other parts of the organization or the world. Find opportunities to take a new and different
assignment, and then take the time to distill lessons from your experience. External education
and development programs: University business schools provide many opportunities to learn
from experts in both customized and open enrollment programs. Timing is important. Seek these
opportunities when you are facing significant problems or job transition challenges. Coaching
and mentoring: Many organizations use coaches or mentors to support individuals during the
change process. Coaches provide significant opportunities for individualized feedback.
Experience does not always guarantee learning, but coaches can help you sort through the
experience to extract the key lessons. Performance systems: These can be a great vehicle for
identifying developmental gaps. A robust process will include feedback and setting stretch goals,
and it will support ongoing learning with necessary resources. This is a fundamental leadership
— and managerial — task that supports continuous learning. Remember, bosses are the most
influential persons in your work life and they need to be involved in any development plan you
undertake. Simulations: Ask aircraft pilots how they spend most of their training time and you
will find they learn by using computer-based simulations. Simulations are effective learning tools
and are available for a variety of job contexts including leadership, project management and
decision-making. In the future, new technologies will provide realistic "practice fields" to
enhance learning from experience. Action learning: This involves a small group of people solving
a real business problem. The organization benefits from the group's tackling of a real business
issue; the individual benefits through shared learning, greater self-awareness and increased
confidence. Best practice: Periodicals and the popular business press can inform you about best
business practices. Talk to people inside and outside of your own industry to gain a new
perspective. Learning is about change and should be driven by the situation and the need for
action. Like performance, development and change require clear goals, opportunities for practice,
support, resources and timely feedback. A balance of expert-led classroom experiences,
combined with experiential learning such as coaching, can help accelerate leadership
development. Martha Reeves, Ph.D., and Steve Hicks, Ed.D., are program directors in Executive
Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Source:- Continuous Learning in Organizations By Valerie I. Sessa, Manuel London

Examples of Continuous Learning in Organizations

42
 Management’s Continuous learning Strategy and Development at
Avon
In this contribution from Best Practice Club, Valerie Cooke, Personal Development Advisor at
Avon Cosmetics, explains how establishing a culture of continuous learning and development is a
rewarding challenge for both the business and employees.

Avon UK has a £250 million turnover and is a household name thanks to the 'Avon Lady,' who
started selling cosmetics door-to-door in the UK in 1959. Avon Representatives are self-
employed and there are now 160,000 in the UK alone. Avon UK also employs 2,500 sales
managers throughout the UK, and has main offices in Corby and Northampton.

Creating and meeting the training and development needs is an ongoing process and a real
challenge. Like many international companies, Avon operates as several businesses in one -
Northampton is home to one of Avon's European manufacturing facilities alongside UK
Marketing, European Regional Marketing, global ITS to name but a few. The Customer Service
Centre at Corby has a call centre as well as warehousing, shipping and distribution, so there is a
wide variety of careers, specialist skills and professions to consider.

Avon has always enjoyed a strong company culture and employee loyalty to match - however, to
stay successful as a business it has to keep up with the times. Six years ago, Bronwen Curtis was
appointed Vice President of HR and set about a radical re-think of the HR function, so that it
could drive the cultural shift needed to support changing business needs. Her vision was to get
'people growth' as respected at board level as sales and profit growth.

She assigned three managers as a development team with the brief to design an HR function,
which would be an equal partner in the business and would lead the change to a continuous
learning and development culture. She also started to hire into her own team - people with
specific business skills and knowledge to work alongside the specialists.

How we created the change

After re-designing the HR function to align more closely to the different aspects of the business,
the development team created initiatives to deliver change. This was led by linking cascading
business goals to an appraisal process, which in turn has an element of performance-related pay.
There was also considerable emphasis on the management development needs, starting with the
concept of 'manager as coach'. This is easy to say but as an established business, which also has
large numbers of operational areas, neither of these initiatives is easy to do.

The concept of 'manager as coach' means that managers are trained to understand and develop
the complete needs of their staff. This does not stop at training; it means making sure that their
real learning needs are catered for. Management's job therefore includes encouraging the learning

43
of subjects that have no direct link with working at Avon. Bringing out the real person by
addressing their personal learning needs is what makes the Avon life long learning plan different.

Another key to success in the change process was something of a 'leap of faith'. Without a clear
business pay-back, Avon opened two Learning Resource Centres (LRC) and started to promote
self-managed learning opportunities. This is a very visible (and tangible) way of letting
employees at every level know that they can choose to work on their own personal development -
perhaps for possible job moves in the future.

The LRCs are an open door for employees who wish to take up any kind of learning initiative.
With information on recognised courses and exam programmes, this learning could be as
straightforward as picking up a couple of French phrases, or as exciting and challenging as
studying for a new qualification. Staffed by trained and enthusiastic Personal Development
Advisors, employees can gather all the information and resources they need to help them with
their chosen subject.

Not everyone has happy memories of education and Avon makes no apologies for showing what
fun learning as an adult can be. One of the LRC skills workshops is called 'Maths is Magical'.
Though it may be fun, the benefits to the individual - and therefore the business - are
considerable. Conquering maths in an enjoyable way has creates confidence and the motivation
to continue with other types of learning. Because it gives adults an understanding of the maths
children currently learn in schools, it also supports them if they are carers or parents.

Positive outcomes for the business

No modern manager can afford to think that training and development will encourage their best
people to leave - the talent war being what it is - they'll leave anyway. The tangible benefit of a
learning programme is that companies can grow their own talent, keeping staff for longer by
being able to offer them new and challenging jobs thanks to their improved skills base.

Employees at Avon have traditionally been very loyal, but that isn't taken for granted.
Increasingly employees assess personal development opportunities before joining or staying with
a company, and rightly so. People are Avon's asset, so it makes no sense to restrict their
development and keep them doing the same job - the business needs them to grow. Avon does
have opportunities for employees to change careers (from Finance to Sales, for example) and to
work in Europe or globally, so it makes good business sense to adopt this approach.

Continuous learning and development creates opportunities to increase manager's skills too. For
example, during the appraisal, managers are expected to coach employees to develop their own
SMART goals, to negotiate whether an employee has met the behavioural standards and what
overall rating they have achieved and offer the chance to discuss future aspirations.

At Avon, the value of continuous learning and development isn't restricted to managers and high
fliers. The Avon approach is to create an environment where everyone can aspire to be 'the best
they can be' and to take responsibility for their development. This means they meet their needs in

44
terms of job satisfaction and meet the company's need for maximum contribution from each
individual.

Top tips:

• An inspirational leader with staying power is a must, with a business case for change and
a process, not a shopping list of ideas.
• Manage expectations - it's a long haul if the culture change is considerable (3/5 years) and
it's an evolving process, so the job of development is never finished.
• Start the changes within HR and don't stop.
• Shop around for best practise examples, to save time and tears.
• You've got to really want to create change. It's not just an exercise in good personnel
management; you're actually impacting on the lives of the workforce.

Continuous learning opportunities motivate IT professionals in Tata

Consultancy Services
Opportunities for continuous learning at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) enabled employees to develop
their abilities in information technology industry that was growing rapidly worldwide.

According to Mr Padmanabhan Executive Vice-President, Global Human Resources, TCS. the company
had made direct investments in human resources to create a learning environment for its global workforce.
About 450 human resource personnel looked after those who worked for the company, which had planned
to recruit 30,500 employees in the coming year. It had already made 9,200 campus offers.

"Opportunities are dependent on competencies. If there is no training, everyone will leave in a

growth industry. The value of a company comes from its people and the more you do for people,
the more you are successful," he observed.

He said a learning environment motivated employees to make their curriculum vitae "better and
better every day", travel around the world on business and take up more responsibilities. Personal
development could take place through several channels and demand was high for online
certification testing. The company sponsored learning programmes and paid for those who
wanted to be certified and improve their qualifications.

Sharing views

Everyone was a learner though the method of learning might be different. Mr. Padmanabhan said
his learning experiences involved getting together with top officials of other companies every
month and sharing views. He personally attended benchmarking sessions.

45
He said TCS, which was 12th in terms of revenue among information technology companies, was
the ninth most profitable in the world and was in a "strong position" to make it to the `Top Ten'.
The aim now was to "increase the talent pool" and step up diversity by hiring people from
different backgrounds for various types of work within the organisation.

Another feature was that the company transferred knowledge back to institutions through
academic programmes that brought together professors and educational administrators. It was
building up relationships with universities in other countries to make the workforce global and
meet the expectations of customers, especially those who were looking for multi-language
support.

Mr. Padmanabhan said the company was keen to help employees maintain their work-life
balance. "Long hours are not just in the IT industry. It is the changing economic scenario of the
country and the race to be No. 1," he said.

Walmart with effective learning managers

Today's talent-intensive workforce demands continuous learning and training. Most organizations
have formalized their training activities, but only a handful has formalized the process of
continuous learning.
Continuous learning does not replace training. It has different aims and satisfies different goals.
In 1974, Peter E Drucker wrote:
“[Continuous learning] satisfies the need of the employee to contribute what he has learned in
improving his own performance to the improvement of his fellow workers’ performance, and
to a better, more effective, but also more rational way of working.”
Today, knowledge management gurus call Drucker’s crisp observation creating an informal
learning organization, a community of practice, internal knowledge transfer and sharing work
experiences and best practices.

Drucker said:
“The very fact that the knowledge worker, to be effective, has to be specialized creates a need
for continuous exposure to the experiences, problems and needs of others and in turn for a
continuous contribution of knowledge and information.
Whether the knowledge work be accounting or market research, planning or chemical
engineering, the work group has to be seen and has to see itself as a learning group.”
Welcome to the P2P Internal Knowledge Transfer Revolution

46
"Social media" technologies focus on sharing work-related experiences and best practices within
organizations, and these technologies are increasing exponentially.
Peer-to-peer communications within organizations has been facilitated by the advent of Web 2.0.
Instrustor-led training can be viewed as a "one-to-many" communications vehicle. Continuous
learning can be viewed as a "many-to-many" communications vehicle.
An example of continuous learning as a formal process is done by Wal-Mart, which, according to
the Boston Consulting Group, installed a video link that connects all its stores with corporate
headquarters and each other. This enables store managers to exchange information via video
conferences on new developments in discount merchandising, recent best sellers, flops and
successful or unsuccessful promotions.
Continuous learning can also be informal. A simple lunch-time gathering held in a conference
room with the expressed purpose of sharing success tactics among a telemarketing sales force
qualifies as continuous learning.
As mentioned, continuous learning can be formal or informal, but it must be organized.
Extracting and disseminating this knowledge is a key activity for all internal training groups.
Indeed, internal training organizations are ideally positioned to organize continuous learning.
Employee retention will go up. Individual and organizational productivity will improve
dramatically.

Today's talent-intensive workforce demands continuous learning and training. Most organizations
have formalized their training activities, but only a handful has formalized the process of
continuous learning.

The case for continuous learning in Hindu mythology

In order to be a good manager, one should be able to learn continuously, otherwise one may face
the prospect of stagnation.

47
I know everything,” are the three most frightening words you could overhear in the corridors of a
management college. In a fast changing dynamic world can we really say we know everything?
Can we really say we have reached a stage where there is no need for us to learn or unlearn? The
answer is an emphatic NO.

Today, organisations are looking for managers who have the capacity to be learning managers;
who have the capacity to learn from their surroundings and continuously adapt themselves.
Organisations are looking for students who are like Arjuna in the modern day corporate
Mahabharata — managers who possess key skills like initiative, active learning, focus and
continuous learning.

Let me use a story from the Mahabharata to provide an insight as to how continuous learning
and active learning were highlighted even in some of our ancient texts. When Guru Dronacharya
was appointed the Commander-in-Chief of the Kuru army, he immediately announced the
formation of ‘chakravyu’. While discussing the same with Duryodhana, he asked that Arjuna’s
attention be diverted to another front so that he could capture Yudhistra, thus bringing the war to
an end as Arjuna was the only person, apart from Ashwathama, able to enter and exit the
‘chakravyu’. On hearing this, Dushassana flew into a rage and accused Dronacharya of being
partial and teaching Arjuna more than all the other pupils. The answer Guru Dronacharya gave
Dusshasana is also my case for continued learning from managers and students alike.
Dronacharya told Dushassana that the reason Arjuna was more capable than all the Pandavas and
Kauravas alike was not because he (Dronacharya) taught him more, but because he (Arjuna) was
an active learner and while everyone took his teaching as the end, Arjuna took his teaching as the
beginning and continued his quest for learning and hence was the only student of his who could
challenge him on the battlefield.

In order to be a good manager, one should be able to learn continuously, otherwise one may face
the prospect of stagnation; one would be like a ship that has come into the harbour and the only
thing that can now happen is stagnation leading to decay. Continuous learning allows one to be
creative in problem-solving while active learning, a keen desire to learn something new every
day, will differentiate managers and students from others.

One can do active and continuous learning if one takes the initiative and remains focused on
goals like Arjuna, who was the only student who took the initiative to go to Dronacharya and ask
him to teach him the skills required to enter and exit the ‘chakravyu’ and remained focused
throughout on his objective of being the greatest archer in the world.

Increasingly, students are being churned out by MBA institutes without any upgradation of the
skills they already possess. Students need to do a skills audit to find out what skills they had
while entering the course and what skills they possess at the time of exiting the course. And when
they enter the corporate arena, they must make sure they continue their quest for learning and
become like Arjuna who took Guru Dronacharya’s teachings as a beginning and not the end.
Otherwise the chance of being just a face in the crowd is very high.

48
Remember MBA is Masters in Business Administration not Mein Bhi Aaya. Thus, it is essential
for students to choose only those management schools which focus on inculcating the above
mentioned skills in students and prepare them for their role as corporate warriors.

Business schools that use the case studies approach to impart management education should be
preferred over those that follow the traditional method of imparting management education,
which only encourages learning by rote. The case studies approach inculcates logical and
analytical skills in managers of the future and improves the problem-solving skills of students
and allows them to logically approach practical problems faced by organisations.

Source :- (The writer is a member of the faculty of business at WLC College, Delhi Campus.)

Primary Data
Infosys Technology Ltd.
About The Company:

49
Infosys Technologies Ltd. (NASDAQ: INFY) was started in 1981 by seven people with US$ 250.
Today, we are a global leader in the "next generation" of IT and consulting with revenues of over
US$ 4 billion. Infosys defines designs and delivers technology-enabled business solutions that
help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World. Infosys also provides a complete range of
services by leveraging our domain and business expertise and strategic alliances with leading
technology providers.

Infosys' service offerings span business and technology consulting, application services, systems
integration, product engineering, custom software development, maintenance, re-engineering,
independent testing and validation services, IT infrastructure services and business process
outsourcing

.Infosys pioneered the Global Delivery Model (GDM), which emerged as a disruptive force in
the industry leading to the rise of offshore outsourcing. The GDM is based on the principle of
taking work to the location where the best talent is available, where it makes the best economic
sense, with the least amount of acceptable risk. Infosys has a global footprint with over 40 offices
and development centers in India, China, Australia, the Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada
and Japan. Infosys has over 91,000 employees. Infosys takes pride in building strategic long-term
client relationships. Over 97% of our revenues come from existing customers.
Interview of a employee from Infosys Technologies ltd. focusing on the role of manager as
continuous learners

1. Who according to you is an effective manager?

The key to being effective as a manager is to achieve your targets as efficiently as possible. In order to
achieve this, the manager needs to be organized, focused and a continuous learner.

2. Do you think continuous learning plays an important role in management?

Yes, definitely continuous learning plays an important role in management. Today, organizations are
looking for managers who have the capacity to be learning managers; who have the capacity to learn from
their surroundings and continuously adapt themselves.

3. Do you think continuous learning is very much essential in order to achieve your corporate
goals?

Yes, I think that continuous learning is very much essential in order to achieve corporate goals.
Professionals of today face multi challenges of staying current and up-to-date in their field and remaining
competitive in the workplace. So do the project management professionals of today as well. The
constantly emerging and changing information technology, the era of globalization, the knowledge based
society that we are in, and the more and faster changes created make it imperative that all professionals,
fresh graduates, new comers in the industry, as well as those more experienced practitioners to continually
50
update their skill, expertise, and know-how both for themselves for their personal growths and for the
performance of the organizations where they work. Thus corporate goals cannot be achieved without
continuous improvement by learning.

4. State a few instances when continuous learning has played an important role in achieving your
corporate goals.

As the IT industry is very dynamic, every IT professional including me have to keep myself updated with
whatever is going on in the industry. A mere training is not enough. It is very necessary to learn from your
past experiences instead of taking them for granted. I have done the same and made it a point to accept
changes with open mind. Moreover I have learnt and unlearnt as and when required. These abilities have
boosted up my performance, given me my well deserved promotion and have helped me to achieve my
corporate goals.

5. What role does your organization play in order to incorporate learning among its workers?

Infosys has always focused on inducting and educating the best and the brightest. With global
hiring practices, coupled with ever-expanding university programs such as Campus Connect and
development centers across the globe, Infosys is able to source and nurture talent while
delivering lasting value to clients.

Infosys U, which trains over 15,000 new recruits every year, is well prepared to win the battle for
top-notch talent. At the heart of this education program is a fully equipped $120 million facility
in Mysore, about 90 miles from Bangalore.

Apart from imparting training to its employees, Infosys also encourages continuous learning among its
employees. The management supports a climate where feedback is freely exchanged. Employees have a
clear, shared vision of the organization's goals and values. Organization members get time to inquire and
reflect about what they are doing and why.

Source: -Raj Kumar Chatterjee

Project manager (Infosys Technology)

ICICI BANK

ICICI Bank (formerly Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India) is India's
largest private sector bank in market capitalization and second largest overall in terms of assets.
ICICI Bank has total assets of about USD 100 Billion (end-Mar 2008), a network of over 1308
branches and offices, about 3954 ATMs, and 24 million customers (as of end July 2007). ICICI
Bank offers a wide range of banking products and financial services to corporate and retail
51
customers through a variety of delivery channels and through its specialized subsidiaries and
affiliates in the areas of investment banking, life and non-life insurance, venture capital and asset
management. But these data are dynamic. ICICI Bank is also the largest issuer of credit cards in
India. ICICI Bank has listed its equity shares on stock exchanges at Kolkata and Vadodara,
Mumbai and the National Stock Exchange of India Limited, and its ADRs on the New York
Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Interview of a employee from ICICI Bank focusing on the role of manager as continuous
learners

1. Who according to you is an effective manager?

Management is all about how effectively you can make people work for you. So an efficient manager is
one can make his employees work for him in an effective manner.

2. Do you think continuous learning plays an important role in management?

Yes, continuous learning does helps to a great extent to any manager in his work. Modern world is
changing at a very rapid pace, at this scenario of modern era it becomes very important for any manager
to continuously learn in order to survive in this corporate world.

3. Do you think continuous learning is very much essential in order to achieve your corporate
goals?

Continuous learning definitely plays a significant role in achieving the corporate`s goal because in order
to work efficiently towards achieving the objectives one needs to be updated with his knowledge and
skills. Employees in this banking sector have actually understood the importance of continuous learning
only recently when this entire sector was computerized and those not having the required skilled were
asked to quit the job. So if one wants to accomplish his career goals one needs to learn continuously.

4. State a few instances when continuous learning has played an important role in achieving your
corporate goals.

Being a bank employee I can say that, keeping me updated to the recent technology (especially in
computers) has helped me a lot at different times. I can perform with much more efficiency and accuracy.

5. What role does your organization play in order to incorporate learning among its workers?

ICICI gives us immense opportunity to learn and grow here. Managers are given special training
in order to perform better and be updated with their knowledge and technical skills. Frequent
meetings are held in regard of performance of employees as well as managers it helps us to
evaluate ourselves and work accordingly. ICICI gives a lot of emphasis on learning of employees
in the working environment.

Branch Manager
52
 Sivasis Ganguly

Kolkata

GRAND HYATT DUBAI

Prominently positioned by the edge of Dubai's historic creek area, the impressive Grand Hyatt
Dubai provides guests with a unique holiday experience. Situated on 37 acres of lush vegetation
and landscaped pools, the resort is only minutes from the city centre and International airport.
Grand Hyatt incorporates all the facilities of a 5 star resort into a well confined area that still has
the convenience of being close to the city centre.

All rooms are furnished to the luxurious standards that one would expect of a 5 star resort in
Dubai. Marble bathrooms, plush king sized beds and stunning views of Dubai's skyline make for
a truly unforgettable stay.

The resort features both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, tennis courts, fitness centre, Zen
inspired Grand spa and a unique jogging track with six exercise stations.

53
Grand Hyatt is a tropical Oasis right next to all the action of Dubai making it the perfect choice
for the travelers that wants to experience all Dubai has to offer.

1.Who according to you is an effective manager?

An effective manager is one who uses the available resources in the optimum manner.He must be able to
make his subordinates work in line with the organization’s goals in the best possible way.

2. Do you think continuous learning plays an important role in management?

Continuous learning definitely plays an important role in management because the more you learn the
more know and definitely knowledge in any form is a great source of power for any manager.

3. Do you think continuous learning is very much essential in order to achieve your corporate
goals?

Yes continuous learning is very much essential to achieve the organizational goal. To attain a goal by any
organization its employees must be updated with the modern technology that’s needed to remain in the cut
throat competition of the world. In the current scenario there is very less margin for any corporation to
make any kind of leniency in updating its employees and working system therefore it becomes even more
necessary for an organization to learn continuously and achieve its corporate goals.

4. State a few instances when continuous learning has played an important role in achieving your
corporate goals.

Well, hotel industry is an ever green industry. We work to maximize the satisfaction of our customers all
over the world for that we need to learn the customs and cultures of all the country which is not an easy
job. We work towards achievement of more and more satisfaction of our customers through continuously
learning about their cultures and preferences.

5. What role does your organization play in order to incorporate learning among its workers?

Hotel Oberios gives its employees a lot of opportunity to learn and work at the same time in the
hotel new employees are given on the job training in order to have a proper understanding of the
working culture of the hotel. Existing employees are also given training when they are promoted
to certain posts. It also facilitates learning in its own hotel management institute. Those
employees who need to be promoted and have the potential to go higher in this field are also
facilitated with the studies in this institute.

Source:- Imtiaj Ahamed

Dubai

54
 Conclusion
The business environment is ever changing and unpredictable. Continuous learning seems to be
the only option left for the managers to thrive in a dynamic business climate. Every organisation
therefore invests in training programmes to update the knowledge levels of its employees. A
learning organisation goes beyond merely imparting training to its employees to help them
perform better. A fundamental shift in the perspective from process orientation to futuristic
thinking distinguishes learning organisations from the conventional ones.

In the changing business scenario, companies are struggling to achieve significant breakthrough
in terms of improved product and service offerings. Latest techniques such as Total Quality
Management and Business Process Re-engineering have taken the business world by storm.
However, a robust intellectual capital is an essential prerequisite for these new tools to yield the
desired results. It is in this connection that the concept of a learning organisation is picking up.
Such organisations empower their managers and other employees through mechanisms, systems
and processes that enhance their capability to continuously adapt to changing parameters.

55
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Continuous Learning in Organizations
By Valerie I. Sessa, Manuel London
2.Management and Organizational Behavior
By Laurie J. Mullins
3. Enterprise Management and Organizational Behavior
By V. K. Dubey
4. Understanding Organizational Behavior
By Udai Parek
5. Successful Organizational Management

56
 By P.C. Tripathi

Referred Websites
www.citehr.com
www.managementhelp.org

books.google.co.in

www.allbusiness.com

www.albany.edu

www.1000ventures.com

www.daanassen.com

www.alibris.com

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