Manager
of Organizational Brainpower
Training
professionals have typically focused on developing brainpower more
than managing it. Neuhaser and colleagues (2000), in a book that
focuses on the culture of knoweldge work, define knowledge management
as "managing people's brain power and the company's collective
memory." That is exactly the point here. Training professionals
must claim a leadership role in managing the wealth of intellectual
resources extant in the organization. While that endeavor includes
training events, of course, it is also much more than any
event or product.Table
9.1 highlights the distinctions between training and KM.
Performance
Consultant
Trainers
may retain their familiar titles, or take on new perfomance handles.
It matters not. What matters is the approach to the work. In Beyond
the Podium, we are urging an approach that focuses on worthy
results, searching analysis, and tailored systems that might
or might not include training.
A
professional who embraces performance may indeed call herself a
trainer and buy, build, deliver buckets of training, online or within
four walls. What we are concerned about is that she conceived that
effort systematically, and that she grounds and supports it within
the organization. If training is one element in a performance concert,
where many elements further the message and meaning, that trainer
is incorporating performance perspectives. If she's playing a training
solo, relying perhaps on great platform skills, or a spiffy web
site with animated dancing pandas, then performance is not yet her
orientation.
- Resources
to help a trainer move toward performance are presented in Table
5.2
E-Learning
Leader
No
human resources, training or performance professional can afford
to ignore e-learning. It isn't going away. And it, in all its manifestations,
has much to offer us and the people and organizations we serve.
In this limited space we provide a cautionary voice directing you
to the book for more of the very good news about technology for
learning and performance support.
- Table
7.1 outlines concerns that training and development people
should consider.
- Table
7.3 offers questions one might ask if determining whether
their organization is ready for the web.
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