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The Second Phase: Establishing A Formal Learning Program
The second phase of self-development is to establish a formal learning program, in which staff members:
- Are responsible for their own learning, coordinated with a mentor or coach.
- Have the right to determine how they will meet their own learning needs within available resources, timeframes, and set outcomes.
- Are responsible for evaluating and assessing their progress with their learning.
In parallel, staff coaches or mentors:
- Have the responsibility to frame the learning objectives so that they are consistent with agreed-upon individual weaknesses.
- Are responsible for providing access and support for staff.
- Must determine the extent of their involvement with mentoring and their commit to assisting staff members achieve stated outcomes.
- Are ultimately responsible for evaluation of individual's progress and success.
The above program must also have a formal process and structure. According to Mossman and Stewart (1988), formal programs called SML (Self-Managed Learning), need the following organization and materials:
1. Staff members should work in groups as opposed to on their own. This is a good opportunity to intermix IT and non-IT staff with similar issues and objectives. The size of these groups is typically from four to six members. Groups should meet every two to three weeks and should develop what is known as learning contracts. Learning contracts specifically state what the individual and management have agreed upon. Essentially, the structure of self-development allows staff members to experience communities of practice, which by their very nature will also introduce them to group learning and system-level thinking.
2. Mentors or coaches should reside over a group as opposed to residing over just one individual. There are two benefits to doing this: 1) there are simply economies of scale where managers cannot cover staff on an individual basis, and 2) facilitating a group with similar objectives benefits interaction among the members. Coaches obviously need to play an important role in defining the structure of the sessions, in offering ideas about how to begin the self-development process, and in providing general support.
3. Staff members need to have workbooks, films, courses, study guides, books, and specialists in the organization, all of which learners can use to help them accomplish their goals.
4. Typically learning contracts will state the assessment methods. However, assessment should not be limited to just individuals, but should also include group accomplishments as well.
An SML should be designed to ensure that the learning program for staff members represents a commitment by management to a formal process that can assist in the improvement of the project teams.
Next: The Third Phase Of Self-Development: Evaluation
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