You’ve probably heard the story about the employees who were riding bicycles with squaretires. While they wereworking incredibly hard to gobump-bump-bumpdown the way, someoneranalongside themand said:“Hey, Ihaveround wheels. Can you stop a moment and try them?”The employees kept pedaling and answered, “No, we’re too busy pedaling.”
Lots of times this anecdote is told simply to illustrate a lack of openness to innovation. Ithink itisalsovaluable to considerit from an employee learning perspective.
The employees pedaling bicycles with square wheels can be of any age—young people coming out of college or longtime staff members. They have a certain set of skills and are willingto work hard to put those skills to work.But they don’t have thetechnicalskillsto help them dothenextjobthat will be needed tomove theircompany along—they have noskills in riding with roundtires.Theyalso lackthe soft skillsneededtorespondwellto the changing world around them—to be open to different tires or to lead their team to change tires.
This points to the difference between training anddevelopment.Training simply teaches skills team members need right now to do their current jobs. Training would teach the bicycle riders “how to pedal hard with square tires.” In contrast, an overall staff development effortwouldalso to prepare employees to move into new jobs and excel at them.It would teach “how to pedal a bike with round tires” and also “how to identify when adopting a new business tool is a worthwhile move” and “how to lead your team throughchange.”
In credit union terms, developing your team members meansnot justteachingthemthehow-todetails of credit union compliance or lending.It alsomeansteachingsuchsoft skillsaschangemanagement, strategic planning and good governance. While trainingis focused on helpingpeople succeed today,a program to develop your talentis designed to helpthem succeed tomorrow—a great thing to think about inNovember,which is National Career Development Month!
The beststaffdevelopmentinitiativesinclude bothtechnical skills training(such asthat offered atCUES’ business lending schools)and leadership learning(such asthe content covered atCEO InstituteandonCUES Learning Portal).(Also read this pastcolumn,whichtalks about the importance of both technical and leadership training.)
In this time of rapid change,allmembersof the workforce, from the front lines to the C-suite, need to continually expand or augmenttheirskills. As you plan to be a learning organization in 2020, considerhowmembership in CUEScan help.
