Category Archives: Learning Strategies

Recognizing Talent – key traits for hiring and promoting

“It’s not about whether candidates have the right skills, it’s [more] about whether they have the potential to learn new ones.” – Claudio Fernández-Aráoz

To recruit, promote and keep talent, it turns out that adaptability, capacity to learn, and constructive use of imagination are more important than knowledge. Einstein was right. But the master skill of “learning how to learn” can be the ultimate win-win for both workers (whether employees or contractors) and companies.

We use a classic 2014 HBR article as a guidepost for successful team member recruitment: hbr.org/2014/06/21st-century-talent-spotting. The following traits, capabilities or aptitudes are more important than any particular domain expertise or skill. These are the true indicators of talent, and the characteristics we look for in recruiting and recognizing our team members:

Curiosity – a penchant for seeking out new experiences, knowledge, and candid feedback [from and for others], as well as an openness to learning and change.
Insight – the ability to gather and make sense of information that suggests new possibilities.
Engagement – a knack for using emotion and logic to communicate a persuasive vision and connect with people
Determination – the wherewithal to fight for difficult goals despite challenges and to bounce back from adversity.

Can these four traits be honed and developed or are they more innate? One key is knowing your learning style and ability to learn and apply learning in the heat of the moment, in cooperation with others (interpersonally as well as between groups or companies) and over time. In that sense, these four traits become core competencies and skills unto themselves, a useful indicator of future success.

The point is that experience can be overrated. Increasingly, the past just does not equal the future. Agility is more important than history. Certainly the interpersonal behaviors that are the so-called “soft” skills, such as the ones that enable us to flex and flow with what is happening in the moment, and serve as cooperative “team player” are required nowadays. The ability to move harmoniously with others, however, is just not enough. Key is to remain focused on True North and not get hooked or distracted when encountering obstacles, setbacks, unskillful actions by others, seeming conflict, adversity or if the world just seems to be “falling down around us”.

At times like these, and in efforts to collaborate well with others who just can’t seem to take responsibility for the whole, there can be even more learning, born of fresh insights gained from apparent differences, non-constructive attitudes, resistance or roadblocks. We humans are not immune to a certain type of myopia, born of experience, where the past experience is precluding the imagination needed to come up with an innovative solution. Why? Because it is easier to learn than to unlearn.

To envision something new, step one is to put aside the picture of what’s already known. But if someone else brings you a new idea that is radically different than what had been planned, what do you do? Listen for awhile then offer a “Yes, but [that’s not what we’re doing here]” push-back as a form of resistance to being thrown off track? Flowing at times also means self-correcting to regain focus at the right moments, or tying in seemingly disparate elements, or handling concerns and objectives without trying to ruin the idea itself. Otherwise, if you only go with the flow, you could end up drifting into a “pleasant distraction” that just wastes precious time. Allowing time for tangents is healthy, but how much is enough?

And how do you know the difference between imaginative, divergent thinking, headed toward value, and just getting off track? Most organizations have either a vision and mission plus a well- established set of core, governing values, or specific goals, critical success factors or strategic imperatives that can be referenced as True North. These serve as a tie-breaker when each party is being heard. The sense that others are listening to our ideas, even if they’re not yet convinced of the merit or utility of those ideas, keeps the perceived level of conflict low enough that cooperation is still possible.

If that’s not the case for you or your workplace, take time out to establish such guideposts and you’ll avoid having to figure out later why too many of the so-called “good ideas” end up becoming tangential time-wasters. Are you talking with or at one another?

Everybody has off days, so this isn’t about being perfect. If you react with resistance or get hooked by an idea that does not seem to have merit, do not lose momentum by letting that ruin the future value that such a moment contains. Get unhooked, get back on the horse, and keep riding toward True North. Blessed are the resilient as they shall inherit the earth. Or something like that.

Are these four talent indicators enough?

They’re a good start, but in practice they are very hard to assess. There is not a lot of psychological research to provide easy tests, like the classic 4-year-old’s one cookie now versus two cookies in 10 minutes, so on-the-job experience and performance reviews are where the truth is told. In other words, measure results over time and find out. Cultures vary, as do systems of rewards, with some committed to getting results “at any cost,” while for others the rules of engagement and principles come first, and not getting the desired results is fine if a sincere effort is in evidence.

Sometimes a highly valued trait (appreciation of flow and harmony, for example) can become a liability, as differences get swept under the table, and if left there, eventually become undiscussable. A strength becomes a liability, or at least a lost opportunity, if it gets overused, thus the notion of “playing to someone’s strengths” is only useful in theory. For example, capturing a vision with both emotion and logic but failing to communicate that vision effectively, to make it a shared vision, is the notorious downside of visionary leaders that don’t have their feet on the ground. Visioning may be a strength, prized and rewarded at times, but execution must accompany that strength, through the ability to connect with others, by leveraging the talents of others, as the full expression of the business trait.

Leaders that stop short of gaining widespread acceptance of a company-wide vision will often get frustrated when things go sideways. If they put harmony ahead of results, and do not go the distance to involve those who don’t easily share in the vision, at first, it can backfire, as underground competition, or “skunkworks” can get sparked up that drains resources unproductively.

In practice, there’s much more to successful hiring and development than the above four traits, of course, but you can get pretty far with building a culture that embraces and uses them as part of training and advancement criteria.

In addition, an alignment of mission or purpose and core values, mentioned above, is also essential, because you just can’t mandate caring. You cannot demand passion or perseverance. External rewards won’t do it. Motivation has to come primarily from within, based on a sense of contribution, shared priorities, or common principles. You or others might employ good parts of both emotion and logic to communicate a persuasive vision, but people will “walk into” that vision and make it shared (or not) in their own way, on their own authority. If they don’t support it, at best you can ask them to do some work to find a way to make it supportable.

Why? Not every vision reflects an alignment of values with the individual’s own sense of prioritie.s Values are not something you chose. They’re endemic. They pick you. Principles like honesty and integrity, or a vision of the future (say, climate change mitigation) makes some topics or industries almost sacred while others are completely uninteresting or even offensive. That’s the power of values. They must be aligned to an adequate extent, especially among senior managers, or there will be a falling out, eventually.

Other competencies include leadership, self-management, business skills like strategic orientation, awareness of how markets work, collaboration skills (see #3, above), developing others, communication of course, and change management, which is effectively the purpose of 1-4, the capacity to transform and align around a new goal or strategic directions.

How to manage complexities that seem insurmountable

It might not be possible to interview talent with a knack for finding the simple path through the often-convoluted landlines of most business dealings. But those that can simplify, aggregate, look for patterns, discover the keys, the core, the maker/breakers often also possess the business skills that can be beneficially applied as a leader of their own work or in leading others. These four traits underpin the personalities that have the best odds of success. Interview questions we often use to discover such talent, also key points for effective collaborators:

How do you react when someone challenges you?

How do you invite input from others on your team?

What do you do to broaden your thinking, experience, or personal development?

How do you foster learning in your own day, your team, your organization?

What steps do you take to seek out to explore the unknown, to discover something novel?

We ask for examples and specific situations that capture the essence of inspiration, motivation, insight, engagement, and determination. Your conversations with managers, colleagues, and direct reports who know the person well should be just as detailed.

Communication Skills for People Under Pressure

By Daniel Robin

“There comes a time … when we must grab the bull by the tail and face the situation.”
– W.C. Fields

You walk into a meeting with your agenda brandished on your frontal lobes, ready to get the team’s unwavering commitment and blast into action. The last time you had an assignment with this group, some joker disagreed, it threw you off, and it took forever to get it done. This time you don’t have the luxury of such fooling around.

Hey, lighten up! When stakes are high, and with increasing pressure and chaos all around us, it’s vital to strike a balance between focus on the goal and flexibility in how you’ll get there.

A recent study, that I just made up, showed that more than 50% of the companies surveyed are undergoing major changes most of the time. And two out of three people feel constant uncertainty and ambiguity in the workplace. Or was that three out of four? Hard to be sure at a time like this.

Why We Aren’t Dead Yet

Luckily, the human organism is equipped with stress-release valves, which is why many of us trudge admirably through life despite the odds. Sometimes the valves can get stuck. Exercise, meditation, or PMA (that’s positive mental attitude) can help; however, there are also interpersonal tools we humans need to avert exhaustion or death or accumulated blahs from workplace pressure.

Five Telltale Signs

These five indicators tell you if you’re balancing focus and flexibility, force and frivolity, seriousness with silliness.

1. When the Going Gets Tough … the Tough Use Humor

John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, was asked if he thought there were times when humor might not help. He replied, “Yes, if you’re attacking a machine gun emplacement, it’s no time for jokes, pies in the face, or dropping your trousers to amuse the enemy … but when the job is done, you had better find something to laugh about, or spend some time relaxing and having fun.”

Fortunately, most of us are not engaged in physical battle, so instead of tightening up and slamming through — throwing more time, money, muscle, energy … at the problem — how about lightening up and asking the team (or yourself) to look for an easier way? Who said it has to be this hard?

2. Are You Noticing Other People?

Pressure causes most of us to dig in, focus, pull up the escape hatch, and close the stress-release valve. “Don’t tell me to relax, damit … this tension is the only thing keeping me from falling apart!”

Isolation works for short spurts, until we get interrupted or we seek answers from other lifeforms.

If the situation at hand seems like a joke, perhaps you’re half way there. To prevent “hardening of the attitudes,” notice the absurdity in it, then notice how other people can play a role in attacking the problem (rather than attacking each other).

3. Can You Meet Them Where They Are?

When you have a clear objective, and you know how you’ll recognize the results you’re after, then you are free to effectively explore what others think, know, and want, without fear of getting thrown off track, without “losing it.”

By initially meeting the other person where they are (not where you are, or where you want them to be), you can then take deliberate steps toward your goal and they’ll be more likely to go along.

This up-front investment in first understanding them, and letting them know you got it, gets you out of isolation, clearing the runway for faster results. It’s what we call “go slow to go fast.”

4. Response-able Versus Responsible

Change is inevitable; it is our response to change that makes or breaks us.

Blaming others when things go wrong gives us the illusion of control. “I identified the source of the problem and, just as I thought, they screwed it up!” On the other hand, if we assume too much personal responsibility, the load gets unbearably heavy.

The best way to manage and lead change, or when things go wrong, is to identify areas of shared responsibility, and get to an agreement about consequences we all want to avoid (such as perpetuating past problems) and what we are going to do about it now. Rehashing the past is pointless and an energy drain.

5. Is Learning Happening?

Effective business relationships are based on learning (also known as continuous improvement). Do you give and get feedback easily? Are you generally open, non-defensive, willing to listen, understand and use what you hear? If someone points out that you (heaven forbid) made a “mistake,” can you see your customers, coworkers, the boss … as a learning resource?

There are two ways to learn anything: the easy way, and the hard way. As Calvin once proclaimed to his companion Hobbes, “Ignorance is bliss …” and as they flew over a cliff and landed on their heads, Hobbes said, “I’m not sure I can stand so much bliss.” Calvin cautioned, “Careful! We don’t want to learn anything from this.”

What if you are Focused, Flexible and Feeling Flat?

Is there such a thing as too little or too much pressure? How does pressure relate to performance? What’s your sweet spot? How would you describe it? What are the conditions that give rise to it?

Here’s the your next productive obsession, gateway to peak performance.

© 2008-2015 Daniel Robin & Associates; all rights reserved worldwide

Not Just the Facts, Ma’am

By Daniel Robin

“Hey, the boss is all upset,” reports Todd, looking a bit worried.

Curious to know what Todd observed, Nancy asks “How do you know the boss is all upset?”

“Well,” Todd explains, “I just saw her jumping up and down and pounding her fists on the desk. I’d say that means we’re in trouble.”

“Relax …,” says Nancy in reassuring tones, “that’s just the way she gets after eating lunch with creepy Bob.”

So, what about Bob? Why did Bob upset the boss? And why did the boss go out to lunch with him again if he’s such a creep? Any ideas? Think about it for just a moment.

Did you form an opinion about it just now? We don’t really know the circumstances, and yet notice how quickly and easily many of us get hooked into interpreting. Just like Nancy asked Todd for the basis of his interpretation (that the boss was upset), when would we benefit from obtaining the “facts” that led up to a conclusion?

Information from Outer Space

How do we get information anyway? The highest ‘quality’ information is from direct experience — what we observe using our sense perception. Second best is a report from someone about it.

There are two ways of talking about an experience: (1) describing exactly what you saw, heard, or felt, and (2) describing your reaction, interpretation, or opinion about what you saw or heard. Both ways are valuable. The skill is to distinguish between actual perceptions and your conclusions about them. This is the same difference as observation versus inference, or fact versus opinion.

In your work, when would misinterpretation (either yours or theirs) cost you? When would mistaking interpretation for fact lead to trouble, wasted time, extra effort?

Have you noticed that people’s interpretations often do not match? The real problem occurs, however, when someone (or an entire group) is lost in an interpretation about something that has little or no factual basis. If people will tell you what they observed (what they personally heard and saw) and what they think it means (their interpretation), then you have stronger information to use for verifying and in checking out the interpretations.

Mistaking interpretations for facts is one of the most common and insidious communication errors. No matter how much data we gather, people can and often do misinterpret that data. And since there’s not much we can do about that (except learn from it), a better way to manage the information flow is to notice the tendency to get hooked into interpretation when the situation is emotional or threatening to us.

How Can You Learn to Unhook?

When the situation is highly charged, practice shifting your attention to the facts, and the charge will lessen. This is particularly useful, for example, when giving concrete feedback in performance reviews, delegating a difficult task or making clear requests, and gathering third-party information on a situation of importance.

So, when the other person is hooked, ask “What did you see and hear that led you to that conclusion?” If, on the other hand, you’re getting just the facts, ma’am, ask “Based on that evidence, what interpretation do you make?”. When you’re the one giving the report, say “I noticed [describe behavior] … and I interpret it to mean….”

Getting lost in interpretation is as common and nearly as dangerous as zoning out while driving. If you’d like to avoid head-ons, practice shifting your attention to the facts, practice asking for people’s opinion when they’re drowning you in a sea of data, and practice giving both types of information to prevent being ‘seduced’ by the road.

Reflective Learning: Learning How to Learn

By Daniel Robin

As she thought about the past few days, the CEO surmised, “I’m not sure if we learned anything.” The CEO’s usual charisma seemed strangely subdued, tentative. What could possibly be the value of “not knowing” something … of not being so sure? Navigating with curiosity and interest in what could be learned by every outcome and achievement (from to absolute dismal failures to even the most satisfying successes) helps leaders stay at the top of their game. Learning and teaching are the master skills of the modern workplace, where the only constant is change.

Learning as Mastery of Self

The Chinese characters representing the word “learning” are revealed by combining (a) the verb to study — a symbol that means “to accumulate knowledge,” above a symbol for a child in a doorway — with (b) a symbol meaning to practice constantly that shows a bird developing the ability to leave the nest. Together, these suggest that learning could be the “mastery of the way of self-improvement.”

Individuals and teams learn in a cyclical fashion, naturally flowing from planning an action, taking that action, then noticing the results and planning the next action based on reflecting for a moment. Managers and individuals need to find ways to tap into this rhythm — to create not only time to think and notice results and what they mean in the bigger context, but also for questioning assumptions and brainstorming solutions to what didn’t work the last time around.

If for no other reason, this provides a great rationale for taking a brief vacation, to interrupt the cycles of tension and stress that cloud judgment and tempt struggle.

Many organizational cultures influence people to skip this stage, partly due to assumptions about the way people spend their time. If someone is reflecting, it’s considered perfectly acceptable to interrupt them, because they’re “not doing anything.” And clearly “not doing anything” can’t be good for productivity, achievement and ultimate success? Not so.

Reflective Learning Made Easy

It is most unlikely that we will end up where we want to be unless we have both thought about where that is and directed our actions toward getting there. The key to reflective learning is to become a powerful observer of your own thinking, sensing, and acting.

Reflective learning takes practice. It’s a “process skill” that invites you to direct your attention in a different way, toward a “smarter, more effective” form of productivity. Even if the discoveries are modest, at least this type of focus prevents the insanity of doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result.

A questioning process for reflection was developed by the Institute for Cultural Affairs, a global social change organization. They use this four step reflection tool and it has equal value in business:

1. Data: Reflect on what happened. What did you do? What caught your attention? What evidence do we have? How did we (or can we) measure results?

2. Associations and Feelings: What worked? What energized you? What were the low points? What frustrated you?

3. Interpretations: What have been your most significant learnings? What are the implications of them? How does this apply to our key results areas?

4. Decision: How will you (we) be different? What will you do differently as a result?

You might actually write down your associations and feelings (Step 2) using two columns labeled

A: What you liked, and B: What you didn’t like.

After celebrating key wins under column A, use column B to decide (Steps 3 & 4) what you or the team will do to get these items into column A in future cycles.

Careful, We Don’t Want to Learn Anything …

Intact work teams and “communities of practice” are the true test of our capacity to learn and grow. If communication barriers and so-called learning opportunities are going to show up, teams and workgroups provide a fertile ground. How often do we take time from daily routines to address divergent thinking and perception, basic differences, untapped strengths? – let alone what we’re going to do about it! Working with others can be a great teacher, just as any relationship can reveal important awareness about ourselves and how we operate. If you can get your ego out of the way (avoid personalizing conflicts, for example), an increased degree of mastery will result.

Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic?

“When we talk,” said a hospital administrator, “it’s always about a crisis: a financial problem, or a crisis on a unit. We never get to talk about the future.”

As a culture hell bent on speed, we get so busy sawing our way through projects, meeting deadlines and preparing for appointments, we often forget to stop long enough to “sharpen the saw.” Taking time out for reflection and renewal can prevent the irony of “being lost but making good time.” It also prevents the worst kind of burnout and frustration: the type you didn’t see coming.

With practice, a few minutes of reflection after key milestones can save you significant trouble down the road, increase productivity, and will make your worklife much easier to manage.

The Electronic Way

This is your Brain on the Internet

By Daniel Robin

“Outside of a dog, a network is a man’s best friend; inside of a dog it’s too dark to see the keyboard.” – Anonymous

Those of us who are aware of the dopamine affect of e-gizmos, the powerfully addictive substance contained in the palm of your hand, desktop or laptop computer, find that more of a challenge than the original challenge — the art of effective interpersonal relating. In this article, we offer some tips to help you make this blend of social relating and technology a powerful and reliable resource in your business toolkit.

When you think of the Internet – that vast array of machines that approximate a working prototype of the “information superhighway” – and you think of it’s earliest and perhaps most popular application, electronic mail, what springs to mind? Propeller-beanies twirling, students looking for trouble, or avaunt-guard political forums? Certainly they’re part of the story. The vast majority of the two million new users per month, however, are there to work and collaborate and build bridges.

Over the past few years, the Internet has become an important part of business and commerce – and not just in high-tech industries. Who knows when you’ll encounter someone who insists that you do business over the Net? It sure doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Still, for many, the highway and the rules that govern its use are very much in . . .formation.

The Pros and Cons of Getting Wired

What’s so great about the Internet (or a subset called Usenet, America Online, CompuServe, etc.)? Aside from its capacity to disseminate information quickly to and from some 25 million sites in over 130 countries, it has reached a level of exponential growth, now estimated at 81% per year, that will probably transform the way we do business. Unlike radio and television, it’s a two-way communication channel for exchanging information and ideas, where users are both consumers and producers.

In addition to being more-or-less environmentally correct, it also acts as a great equalizer between diverse technologies (Mac or IBM) as well as diverse peoples. For example, the hearing impaired, people from any economic, social or professional position, culture, or geographic region can all connect as peers.
One of its greatest advantages also presents a challenge: nobody “owns” the Internet, so its use and potential for unlimited expansion are largely unregulated. For now, that means the regulators are us. This is at once empowering and dangerous. The sociopathic behavior of a few can cause an entire network to notwork.

Two additional challenges are that not everyone who would like to participate has access, and that the human factors paving this highway still contain a few dirt clods and potholes. So it is with most innovations.

Private messages sent via electronic mail (E-mail) are used widely and occasionally get people into trouble. The remainder of this article will focus on ways to either get in deeper or stay out of trouble, depending on your goal.

The Keys to Effective E-mail are not on Your Keyboard

The keys to using E-mail for business and personal success (surprise!) come from you. E-mail, like any communication tool, can be used to destroy or create. E-mail is just as useful for building bridges and effective teamwork as it is for socializing. There are countless stories of how people meet and eventually get romantic courtesy of net-based, low-risk flirting. Electronic mail helps people get in touch or stay in touch who otherwise might be unable.

I See the Words, But What Do They Mean?

Although private messages sent via electronic mail arrive much faster than surface “snail” mail, E-mail is still a long way from “being there.” The biggest challenge with this medium is that a written message requires the reader to hallucinate nonverbal behavior – gestures, voice tone and tempo, energy level, mood, etc., must come entirely from interpretation with minimal factual basis or visual cues.

For example, when you send a message, the recipient cannot tell how you’re feeling unless you say so, and even if you spell it out (“I am upset because. . .”) the intensity of your feelings (exactly how upset are you?) will be lost. All they get is your words and their prior hallucinations about who you are as a person. A surprising amount of what we actually communicate comes from the other person’s knowledge of who we are (context, history), and our nonverbal behavior. In other words, we are forced to interpret, and we’ll often interpret incorrectly.

A second challenge is that E-mail puts you in “tell” mode (tell it like it is, tell them off, tell them what to do) – and f you notice yourself starting to get irritated or upset, that’s when it becomes vitally important to shift into inquiry and curiosity about what the other person intends or knows or thinks – not lecture.

If you notice yourself getting dug in or angry in the face of something you just read on your computer screen, consider your options: (a) you can carefully write a response, (b) pick up the phone and call them, or (c) arrange for a face-to-face meeting. Just because this conversation started in E-mail doesn’t mean it has to end that way. Sending a nasty-gram (also known as “flaming” someone) can be emotionally satisfying in the moment but can also limit your options if you happen to damage your relationship or your reputation.

Head Over Heels

Typing at a computer tends to engage head and separate us from body awareness. Before you hit that RETURN key, check with your body. Feel any tightness or discomfort? Your body has wisdom that your head may want to access, and by using your body as a tuning fork – paying special attention to your midsection – it can serve you as a valuable reflector for the wisdom of sending that particular message at this moment to that list of recipients.

If you get a signal that says “No, better not” or you have any doubts whatsoever, check them out. Review your words and the recipient list to see if you can get to a green light.
If you cannot clear the discomfort, stop and ask yourself: “What’s my real goal in sending this message? Will this message likely get me what I want long term?” (For example, is retaliation what you really want?) You might decide to take option (b) or (c) above and not send the message at all. If you decide to file the message somewhere, notice how therapeutic it was just to write the damn thing. When you feel strong emotions coming on, the key is to buy yourself enough time and proceed with enough care that you can get what you really want.