Competitive advantages With Management models -3rd Roundtable 16/03/2023
The key points that emerged during this session have raised concerns about upskilling, re-skilling, and general training for Employees and Managers and how to boost competitive advantages to get better performances.
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How can I choose the type of training?
The first point that emerged is: “ok, I can accept that people need training, but what are the criteria to specifically identify needs? “
This concern is understandable: everybody accepted that it is not immediately obvious. The majority doubted that current methods, like skills inventory (the most well-known), based on standard topics for upgrading skills, may not be enough. My question “Are we speaking about skills or dynamic capabilities?” raised some perplexity about the differences between the two. The distinction is, in fact, that Dynamic capabilities are those personal and professional abilities to surf future changes in the business environment.
·What are some examples of typical future dynamic capabilities?
This being a less familiar concept, guests expressed their understanding with the following ideas:
- Capability to change without burning out.
- Understanding other possible new markets with or without new products
- Adapting to new technology related to AI (timely topical and buzzword simultaneously). This last point was welcomed more as a curiosity than a critical consideration of being employed in a short timeframe.
How must this training be delivered to be effective?
There was a general feeling of disorientation about the ways of training. This is because technology brings little clarity as to how to change or transform towards digital or agility.
Furthermore, a risk of change fatigue was acknowledged as well as the question of timelines – whether training to upskill or re-skill employees should be done before, during or after transformation. These are legit questions to be answered in the following posts.
Can a hybrid approach to change reduce resistance and change fatigue?
I proposed an increased autonomy for employees and middle managers driven by a hybrid approach (strategies from the top and implementation from the bottom with trust and independence). The reaction was that the risk of lack of control and possible resistance from the higher levels of the organisation was too high. However, guests agreed that the experience and knowledge of middle managers and employees could make the journey smoother regarding the change process.
·Competitive advantages: how can we set performance expectations, and how can we evaluate them?
A guest asked why I mentioned competitive advantages for this round table. Below is the infographic that inspired this round table series.
Further discussion revealed that it is not immediately possible to assess improvements from any transformation. Why? Because it is difficult to set exact criteria to measure the results of new management approaches vs the expected transformation benefits.
I summarised some elements that cover all classic indicators and those that involve some new matrixes, for example, those that connect operational activities, such as lead time, with cultural factors, such as employee engagement and performance. But I agree that this point needs more clarification for executives.
Thank you to all the participants!
