Skip to main content

Learning and development 2

A typical coordinatosaurus response to the nature of their work is, “Hey, but I manage many senior business relations – or I am into relationship management”.
What is relationship management, especially in the context of service groups like Learning and Development? For a lot of people, their understanding of relationship management is that of a cargo cult science. It means, to drop by someone’s desk, chat a little, asking how things are going and then go underground until the next meeting. It could mean, once in a while, meeting them for tea, taking their opinion on world events or recipes or vacation spots (sarcasm alert).
I once met a Business Unit head who told me quite candidly, “Can you ask your team to stop setting meetings with me. I see no value out of them. Just do the work with the assigned coordinator and let me know when you have achieved something. Don't wait for my permission, get going on a business problem and let me know when you have solved it. At that time, I would be happy to meet.”
That was an a-ha moment for me – coming as I did from the school of thought that believes that relationship is an outcome – it is earned, not gifted for free. What he said was music to my ears.
A lot of times, relationship building ends up being all about meeting the highest paid person (usually the head of a group), taking approvals and using that stick to beat up those who do not comply (and that passes off as Learning and Development). It is a bit like wandering around with a t-shirt that says, “By order - Management”. Not many business leaders are as candid as the above person, but what he is said is true. Business leaders have a limited amount of time. So, unless your meeting adds value to them – don't meet. How would you know that? Your meeting gets moved. Or cancelled. Isnt that signal enough?
The question to ask is not why am I not getting to meet them.
Ask yourself how you can add value and those meetings will magically happen.
Instead of setting up time to ask how things are going – go with a problem and a potential solution. Go with a problem and seek a deeper understanding. Go with a question that keeps them awake at night (to use a proverbial corporate phrase) and then see if you can help resolve it. Go with the solution of a problem you have solved for that group. Seek out problems. Find out those who are passionate about solving them. And help them solve it.
And then watch how relationships get built automatically. Or as an outcome! Sure, schmooze all you like, but this is a surefire route to relationship building. Each time, I see a group that I don't have a relationship with, metaphorically speaking, I ask myself what work did I do for them? What problem did I solve for them? And mostly, I see that we have delivered ordinary day to day work or that we have not solved any business problem for them.
This is happening in other areas as well, including sales, where traditionally relationship building was all about lunches and networking and knowing people. While that is useful, the one who wins is the one who has solved or is solving your burning problem.  
 (Crossposted on People Matters)
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Be Civil. Make nice!

Popular posts from this blog

Zero to One

Zero to One by Peter Thiel is a nice read. (Yes - if I sit down to write a book review - the book has to be worth it - and usually good - so most of my book reviews are about good books.You can stop here if that's the information you seek.) Where this book scores is in contrarian thoughts and contrarian questions that make you think. It starts with a four big lessons learned from the 90s dot-com crash that is, Make incremental advances, Stay lean and flexible, Improve on the competition and Focus on product, not sales. Just as you warm up to it, he says, the opposite rules are more correct - which are: It is better to risk boldness than triviality. A bad plan is better than no plan. Competitive markets destroy profits. Sales matters just as much as products. And finally leaves with a simple definition of contrarianism - it is not to oppose the crowd (or follow a smaller or newer or older crowd) but to think for yourself. "All happy companies are different"...
Post a Comment
Read more

The man who saved Pumpelsdrop

This was a story we had in college if I am not mistaken. Perhaps it was in school, but a delightful story it was. The story goes somewhat like this ( reproduced from here ), but the college version we had was slightly different from this.  I t was a dull, gloomy and a depressing morning in a town named Pumpelsdrop in northern England. The Great Depression had brought all the businesses to a standstill. The bored automobile dealer was spending time alone, as usual. But, this seems to be an unusual morning as an odd entity (customer) appeared on the horizon. A man in a bright suit walks up to the dealer and says, "I need to buy a Rolls Royce Phantom II. We have a business conference coming up and I need to impress my customers". Then proceeds to pay 10% of the deal with a single check for 2000 pounds. The rest he says will pay when he takes the delivery.   The auto dealer was stunned. He was delighted to hear that someone is holding a business conference of some kind and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Anti networking year

I dont usually go out of my way to network. But over the last few years, I ensured that I spend some time creating new connections. It is a small fragment of my time that goes into it, but what I realised was that some of those networking events were not really working out. I also took time to post about the things I do (mostly on Linkedin) and here (nobody reads this - this is more of a note to myself).  It seemed to be the same set of people saying the same set of things. So, this year I have decided to step back.  Unless it is a truly unique event, I wont be going to any event - and thats how the unconference happened.  Unless it is a really significant update, I wont be posting about it.  And spend time creating and doing the things I like to do. Perhaps read more. Or write more. It is April now and I have done well so far.  Managed to read a few books. Actively working on a few creations. And then some. Lets see.  So for all I know, I might write less ...
Post a Comment
Read more