January 2015 - The FoCuSeD™ Facilitator eNewsletter
Buzzwords / Trends for 2015 | Gary Rush Facilitation
Sustaining Growth, Collaboration, and Employee Engagement – these are the buzzwords / trends for 2015. When you read articles about these trends, you’ll note that consensus through effective collaborative leadership and / or facilitation is essential, and most of the authors state that collaborative leaders are made – not born. How? Through training.
Training is Required
I don’t see any of these trends working without training and training is cost-effective. Organizations that invest $1500 per employee in training average 24% higher gross profit margins and 218% higher revenue per employee than organizations that invest only $125 per employee (Laurie J. Bassi, et al., “Profiting From Learning: Do Firms’ investments in Education and Training Pay Off?” American Society for Training and Development, 2000).
Engagement is Critical
While training speaks to sustaining growth, where does collaboration and employee engagement fit? According to Bill Liabotis in the Ivey Business Journal, “Three Strategies for Achieving and Sustaining Growth,” Acklands-Grainger, Inc., a Canadian industrial supply company, moved from 4% growth rate to a 20% growth rate in 12 months by engaging employees at all levels and defining processes to help refocus on the core business. Their engagement of the employees and their collaboration made the difference. So, how do you engage? Through effective Collaborative Leadership and / or Facilitation. The essence of both is the engagement of those involved. This also describes a new way of doing things – it’s no longer top-down, but all-inclusive. Sustaining growth is achieved through engaged employees who collaborate – not just work across silos.
Employees are your Greatest Asset
I have always known that investing in training employees is the most effective and least expensive way to improve productivity. Zig Ziglar, a motivational and sales speaker, said, “What’s worse than training your workers and losing them? Not training them and keeping them.” In this age of increased competition, internet-speed of change, and trends that come and go faster than fashion, the most effective strategy is investment in an organization’s greatest asset – its people. Effective training also improves morale and retention – employees want to feel good about their work and their contribution. Increased job satisfaction is achieved more readily through training and effective collaboration recognizes employee contributions.
What Next?
What is needed to sustain growth, encourage collaboration and engage employees is people and process skills. Effective people skills – skills that enable teams to form, enable collaboration, enable employee engagement, and develop leaders within an organization. These need to be taught alongside effective process skills – skills that enable the team to make decisions while guiding them to accomplish their work.
At MGR Consulting, Inc., we can create a FoCuSeD™ Organization developing Facilitators, Facilitation Skills, and Collaborative Leaders. Organizations work smarter when these skills are incorporated into their culture because groups develop better ideas that benefit the greater whole. 