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One of the reasons I got involved in 360-degree feedback technology fifteen years ago was the frustration I experienced as a management consultant. A typical assignment had me creating and presenting a customized leadership development program. I worked hard on these projects, conducted some first-rate training and was well paid for my efforts. The problem was, most of the time the courses had almost no impact. In a few weeks, most participants returned to their comfortable but ineffective habits. At first I blamed myself. Over time, however, I discovered that the problem wasn't me. It had to do with the very nature of "soft skills." In the world of work, “hard skills” are technical skills or skills related to an organization’s core business. These skills are typically easy to observe, quantify and measure. They're also easy to train, because most of the time no unlearning is involved. The skill sets are brand new to the learner. By contrast, “soft skills” (also called “people skills”) are typically hard to observe, quantify and measure. What's worse, people come to work with interpersonal behavior patterns already ingrained. People skills are needed for everyday life as much as they are for work. People get no instruction in any of these behavioral areas, so they pick up ways to deal with these challenges early on. By the time they get to a training room, they’ve worked hard for 30 or 40 years to reinforce their own ways of dealing with people. Each employee does it differently, and unfortunately these behaviors often create problems for others. Most people skills have to do with how employees relate to each other: doing your best, engaging in dialogue, listening, giving feedback, cooperating as a team member, solving problems, contributing in meetings and resolving conflict. Supervisors rely heavily on people skills, too: leading by example, teambuilding, facilitating meetings, planning, delegating, observing, coaching, encouraging and motivating. People skill training programs have the daunting task of getting people to change the way they relate to each other. Organizations spend billions of dollars annually for such programs. What decision-makers don’t understand is that most of this money (and time) is wasted. Here’s why - and what to do about it. Like all behavior patterns, interpersonal skills are “hard-wired” in the neuronal pathways of the cerebral cortex. Consequently, a program of lectures, group exercises and handouts—even a week-long course personally conducted by a world-famous celebrity author—cannot possibly provide enough reinforcement to establish the new pathways needed to change these patterns. The only thing that can do that is frequent reinforcement over the long term: a relentless effort by someone who desperately wants to change supported by a knowledgeable coach’s ongoing encouragement. People-skill training isn’t worthless; if done well, it can provide the “introduction” to the right way of doing things. But the all-important follow-up is almost never there. It’s extremely rare that a newly trained individual returns to a workplace where savvy supervisors and peers give ongoing feedback and encouragement. In the end, billions of dollars are wasted. What organizations need to do to is get a return on this investment.
Article Source: http://www.articledestination.com
Dennis E. Coates is CEO of Performance Support Systems, author of MindFrames, a brain-based personality assessment system (www.initforlife.com) and co-founder of the Train-to-Ingrain alliance (www.train-to-ingrain.com, info@train-to-ingrain.com, 800-488-6463), which delivers a reinforcement-centered approach to learning and development that achieves permanent, measurable improvements in workplace behavior and positive impacts on business results.
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