Meditations on Mediation

I received in the mail recently information about a mediation training seminar scheduled in my area. Until I received the advertisement I had never really given much thought to mediation. I always relegated mediation to the purview of attorneys.  After performing a little research into mediation and mediation training I now realize that I can safely say virtually everyone in the field of human resources has used mediation techniques at some point: when investigating harassment or discrimination complaints, resolving disputes between employees, counseling employees for performance-related issues, and even in managing professional relationships. Most of us have had little or no training in mediation - we just simply use our business acumen and common sense. Training in mediation develops a skill set to facilitate a structured formal process that takes under consideration the needs and goals of all parties involved.

Whether you decide to seek training from an outside provider or develop an in-house training program, training your managers and human resource professionals in mediation can provide the following benefits:

1. enhancement of conflict resolution skills
2. improvement in negotiation styles
3. adaptation of communication styles to the situation
4. reduction in escalation of disputes to litigation level
5. allows for quick, mutually satisfactory resolutions
6. fostering of mutual respect among participating parties

Want more information? Start your own research by reading this article from UK's HR Review titled Mediation: It Really Works.

For the Culturally Refined

As part of their requirements toward earning ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) certification, our instructors on the standard ESOL Endorsement track  must take a course entitled "Cross-Cultural Communication and Understanding". The course covers theories related to the effect of culture in learning and achievement for individuals from diverse backgrounds. The content of the course is designed to assist instructors in identifying and understanding the nature and role of culture, cultural groups, and individual cultural identities. I was reviewing the course content recently and thought how applicable the content was to business as well as education.   

Maybe we all should be required to complete  such a course? There is no doubt that the culture we each identify with has tremendous influence on our learning, communication styles, belief systems, value orientations, and patterns of thinking and behaving. All of these play a part in our roles within the organization.

What about the dangers inherent with ignoring the effect cultural differences have on all of the above? All employees in any organization would benefit from lessons in honoring diversity and caution to the dangers of stereotyping and the over generalization of  any specific population.

Dr. Deborah Swallow, an international speaker and seminar leader in the areas of cultural diversity, intercultural communication, and international business practices, has created a blog of her own with some very useful content. Check out her blog topics related to cross-culture here.

The Three "D's" of Training

Let's face it. Budgets are tight and the outlook, judging by the swirl surrounding the debt ceiling agreement and Wall Street's reaction, is not promising relief in the short run. If your organization is not one of the few flush with cash reserves (okay, if your organization isn't Apple) then your organization is not likely placing hiring at the top of the priority list. What should, however, be at the top of the priority list is employee development. The ongoing development of your employees is key to the continued success and growth of your business. Concentrating efforts on developing employees provides both short-term and long-term benefits like:

• aids in succession planning initiatives
• enables cross-training
• allows for lateral movement (crucial at a time where positions are being consolidated or moved due to restructuring)
• creates greater employee job satisfaction through greater autonomy and a sense of value to the organization

My organization has a separate department that is devoted to the development of our employees. The department offers in-house training, which is termed "in-service training". Employees can sign-up for either a mandated or self-initiated training via a self-service system that is web based. This is a vast improvement from our previous method - printing and distributing hard copy booklets listing all training offerings. Due to training and development having such importance now more than ever, I began to research how other companies transformed their employee development. I came across a video for a presentation by Martha Soehren, Chief Learning Officer of Comcast, who spoke about how Comcast transformed the design, development, and delivery (hence, the three "D's") of their program. I have included a link to the video Consolidating Multiple Technology Platforms to Bolster Learning Capabilities at Comcast Cable should you want to take a look. Here is a bit of what I took from the video (with my notes added):

1. Perform a task analysis of your present system, including a look at trainers' functions. Are trainers performing administrative tasks? How much time are trainers able to devote to actual training rather than administrative tasks?
2. Define your goals. Ensure the goals are quantitative as well as qualitative.
3. Create realistic timelines. Build in checkpoints and points where you will readdress components that are not working.
4. Train the trainers. This is an integral piece to any successful training program. How many of the trainers in your organization have received training on offering instruction?
5. Review tasks assigned to supervisors. These are your coaches and act as support for the new skills being practiced by employees. Are supervisors spending an inordinate amount of time mired in administrative tasks?

An additional point comes from a recommendation by the American Society for Training and Development: trainer to participant ratio should be at approximately 1:250. Remember, though, this is a guideline and may need to be adapted based your organization's particular needs. In the same respect class size will be dictated by training content and participant composition.

Of Psychopaths and CEOs

Bloomberg Businessweek recently ran an article discussing a book by Jon Ronson titled The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry. The book is based upon the research of Robert Hare, a psychologist who authored the psychopath test known as the PCL-R. Apparently, as a result of Hare's research findings and Ronson's extrapolation of data, there are quite a few psychopaths in the CEO echelon. What attracted my eye in the article was this paragraph:

 "Agonized intellectuals full of sympathy for the common man aren't meant for the corner office. Such persons would be useless making repetitive decisions about whom to fire and whom to give raises and how much to spend on marketing to children. Human resource executives have known this for a long time..."

Can that be true - meaning both the indication that to make a good CEO one must have a singular focus on what is best for the organization without regard for the affects on the human resources of the organization and of human resources, that human resource professionals of worth know this (and, dare I say) support this?

According to Academy of Chief Executives (whose title also includes the amusing statement "Meet the board you could never afford") blog contributor Joe Adams, CEO of Adams & Associates and director of the Executive Association of Great Britain and one of the chairmen of the Academy for Chief Executives, the ingredients for a good CEO include:

Inspirational Leadership

Recognition and Reward

Personality

Mentors

From the concise list above I am not reading psychopath. In fact, much of what I see in the ingredients lead to a CEO who is aware that it takes a strong team to make anything happen in an organization. How do you make strong teams that work cohesively? You ensure they have the tools needed, coach/mentor (another ingredient), build in check points for projects, recognize and reward (yet another ingredient). Not sounding like a ruthless CEO here either. It makes you wonder how would CEOs you are in contact with do on the PCL-R?