Learning and Development Programs
Learning and development will play a vital role in preparing for and thriving throughout the demographic shift, and we will cover this extensively in the next chapter. However, assessments play a vital role in learning and development, and we want to touch on that here before the deep dive in Chapter 15.
The reason assessments play a vital role in learning and development is because they reveal something, and they typically do so in a black-and-white (data analysis) kind of way. Learning and development is typically around “soft” skills such as communication and change management rather than technical skills such as programming capabilities. Therefore, being able to have data to work with provides both the learner and the learning facilitator with a tangible source of information to work with. We can tell you from experience that getting a bunch of engineers to work on their communication skills works a lot better when they have something tangible to work with. Assessments also reveal something about ourselves or others, and that is both interesting and helpful in the learning process. While assessments do not need to be included in every learning and development initiative, we definitely believe they should be included in some of them. In fact, we recommend that your organization choose a base assessment and make that a prerequisite for every other learning and development program. Having a “base” assessment aligns the organization, creating a common language that can be used for learning, performance evaluations, etc. It also prevents your organization from going with the flavor of the month as new people bring in new assessments. For this purpose, we recommend the Golden Personality Type Profiler™ or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) based on our own experience of its effectiveness, ease-of-use, extremely high reliability, and validity. Other tools that we have heard of being used in organizations as a base assessment are The Hogan Personality Inventory and DiSC® inventory. Regardless of which assessment is chosen, all other assessments are used to add additional information and should complement the base assessment. Here is an example of an assessment package that we would recommend to our clients:
• Base assessment and prerequisite to all other learning and development:
– Golden Personality Type Profiler
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
– Psychological Type Indicator™ (PTI)
• Communication
– DISCStyles™
– Golden Personality Type Profiler
– Insight Inventory®, Form B
– MBTI and Communication application
• Finance
– Business Simulation
– Advanced Numerical Reasoning Appraisal (ANRA)
– PREVUE®
• Operations
– Business Simulation
– PREVUE
– Raven’s Progressive Matrices
• Team building
– Golden Personality Type Profiler
– Insight Inventory®, Form A
– MBTI and Teams application
• Conflict management
– Dealing with Conflict Instrument (DCI)
– The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)
– Crucial Conversations®
• Sales and marketing
– Business Simulation, BTS
– Golden Personality Type Profiler
– MBTI and Selling application
– PREVUE®
• Decision making
– Watson-Glaser™ II Critical Thinking Appraisal
– Business Simulation
• Managing change
– Golden Personality Type Profiler
– MBTI and Change application
– Business Simulation
• Career development
– Strong Interest Inventory®
– PREVUE®
– Work/Life Values Checklist
– PS Leader™
• Performance management
– Golden Personality Type Profiler
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
– Strategic Leadership Type Indicator™ (SLTI)
– 360-Degree Survey
• Custom to the organization
• Leadership Effectiveness Survey® (LES), Executive Development Associates
• Benchmarks® and Skill Scope®
• PS Leader™
• The PROFILOR®
• Voices
Again there are over 2,700 tests and assessments, so this is simply a suggested list based on our experience, and these are just tools to aid the process. The real work begins when the learning begins. Let’s dive into learning and development and how it can improve our chances for success during the demographic and economic turbulence.
Note
1. Schinnerer, Ph.D., John. “Avoiding Legal Issues in Preemployment Testing.” Crimescreen.com. Web. 24 July 2010. http://crimescreen.com/newspage.htm.