doHow

I got a very interesting insight last week as I remembered my German stay for almost 8 years. The majority of the society there demonstrates a self-driven desire to perfect whatever they are doing. In Brazil, where I stayed for 5 years, on the other hand one finds a way out through the “Jeitinho Brasileiro”. In India we talk about the “Jugad”.

In the colloquial day to day English in India, whenever we want to delegate writing a letter, we first ask “Do you know how to write a letter?” and then at times “Can you please write a letter? In Brazil one asks “Vôce sabe como escrever uma carta?” and then ask “Pode escrever uma carta por favor? Whereas in Germany one asks directly „Können sie einen Brief schreiben?” – no one asks „Wissen Sie einen  Brief schreiben?“, which is gramatically inappropriate.

In German the usage of the verb “Know” is grammatically inappropriate when it involves “Doing”!!! Whereas in the colloquial day to day English in India and in Brazil usage of the verb “Know” when “Doing” is involved is quite natural. This is when I realised that in almost all the trainings that we attend in India mainly Knowhow is imparted, in some programs with some simulations and exercises for the “doHow” though. However there is hardly any program where only the “doHow” training is done on the job.

Supporting this grammatical phenomenon, the vocational training in Germany and many European countries is quite matured and the focus is just the “doHow” with Knowhow being an obvious part of the “doHow”. Unfortunately in India even the Diploma institutes and Industrial Training Institutes generate graduates who have good knowhow but lack “doHow” resulting in the competency gap that one keeps discussing and debating in all forums.

 
With this insight when I thought of the way skills were imparted in the good olden days all over the world, it was quite insightful that the main focus was on the “doHow”.

On the other hand, I realised that in today’s world of extreme competition, free access to knowhow through internet and the drive to get quick returns, using mobile technology posing challenging questions that one can answer during the normal working can result in a “doHow” revolution.

Now my challenge is to start the “doHow” revolution and achieve Sustainable Profitable Growth. I will surely share my experience with “doHow”. 

Employee Performance and Competency Assessment

Recently I attended a NHRD event in Bengaluru – a panel discussion in groups on “What does it take to become a HR Head”. The program was very unique with the participants divided into groups of 8 to 10 including an accomplished HR Head in each group sharing his/her perspective followed by a short group discussion. The same was then repeated by exchanging the HR Head.

THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND, ADDRESS AND SPEAK THE BUSINESS LANGUAGE emerged as the core skill to become a HR Head almost in all groups. The main ability was to align all the people to the organization/business need both in good and bad times. One of the tools used to do this naturally is the annual appraisal of competencies and performance. I am sharing my views on how the rating can be done, so that on the one hand the need of force fitting the assessments to a normal curve becomes redundant due to the inherent robustness of the rating scale and on the other simplified.

It is sufficient to rate just the following 4 factors to assess the performance. I have seen that the gut feel each one of us develop of others is quite uniform when the number of factors are reduced!

1. On time in full delivery of commitments and tasks
2. Safety and quality of products/services and work done
3. Effective and systematic usage of resources (Finance, Space, Materials, Equipment, Machinery, Skills, Time and People)
4. Timely thorough response to requests

The rating scale however has a wider spread of 1 to 7 as explained in the exhibit below.

In a similar way it is sufficient to rate just the following 4 factors to assess the competence. Even in the case of the competency assessment normally the gut feel each one of us develop of others is quite uniform.

1. Self-awareness and self-management competence
2. Social-awareness and teamwork competence
3. Business, professional and functional competence
4. Product, services and organizational core competence

The rating scale even for the competency assessment is spread from 1 to 7. 

The same factors and scale can be used for both individual contributor roles and leadership roles. In the case of the leadership roles it is a common assessment of both the leader and the leader’s team as one entity. Subsequently the most effective way of L&D would be either as individuals or as teams (Leader + Team Members).

Irrespective of different perceptions and opinions, the foundation to get every employee contribute passionately is a uniform assessment from various people. The uniformity in the assessment will be additionally safeguarded by getting the assessor note down evidences for the rating of each factor. This magic is then created since all the employees perceive a very high degree of fairness in the organization.

Wishing you all the best in your excellence journey!