How well do you spell?

This is not a spelling bee competition invite. This is more of an opinion poll. Something I have been thinking about for a while and since my worst worries are being reconfirmed now by my fellow students and professors, it's high time we have a heart-to-heart on this.

I am a purist and a perfectionist when it comes to commas, hyphens, word order and, first and foremost, spelling. If you are producing a document that you are going to share with someone other than your mother, please make sure you proofread it and rid the text of any errors it might contain. I realize that minding your aposiopeses and chiasmi is maybe too much to be asking of, but basic grammar and correct spelling is a must. Or is it?

I was schooled in an old-fashioned way, when points were taken out in a Maths paper if you misspelt a word. Now that I am doing my MBA, professors preach that they do not care about grammar or spelling as long as the questions are answered and the points are addressed. I think that allowing this in an academic environment might send a message that back in the workplace it's even more OK. Am I being a pain in the neck going on about it? After all, nobody is shocked anymore at "donut", "thruput" or "cul8r". The question I am trying to contemplate is what a regular employee (let's assume, well-schooled) think of a boss who is struggling with the plain English language. I do not consider business English particularly creative or difficult - after you've come to terms with a few buzz words or phrases, you can be released into the wild without adult supervision. Still, I tend to get cross with people sending me e-mails or reports (or even worse - presentations) containing mistakes.

What's your take on this?

Timing the future

I have accidentally bumped into this video on time orientation and behind the easy and entertaining way of narration, there are actually some seriously concerning messages that are being conveyed to us. Besides the never-ending initiative to divide Italy into two parts (would be actually fun), my interest mainly lies in the generational changes, which many fail to account for. It is a fact that the educational and social systems are not keeping up with the speed of change. As a result, the kids who go to school nowadays feel at a loss since their brains are not wired in the same way as ours. Our brains were shaped a while ago, when virtual reality and interactive computer technologies were something from the realm of science fiction. Integration of new ways of absorbing information and traditional educational curricula is necessary. We are not ready for it as a society. Taking a narrower approach, how do we tailor standard corporate training programs to the changing needs of the new generations becoming active in the labor market. Do we create separate classrooms? Who needs to adapt? I don't think that it's the "adapt or die" dilemma here, but it's more of a "snooze and lose" type of a problem.

This is a fascinating video, and I am sure you will enjoy it:

Life is funny and full of coincidences. No sooner had my MBA classmate Federico sent out an e-mail to the entire intake about the IE HR Club initiative on peer capacity building, that McKinseyQuarterly published this article the excerpt from which I am copying below. The coincidences are:

• Federico and other HR Club members have come up with this initiative because building skills (particularly "softer" ones) is crucial in the MBA environment and very often can be overlooked because of the strict demands of the "core" MBA program;
• IE HR Club and McKinsey posted their learning & development concerns in the same week, and
• Federico works for McKinsey :)

A series of workshops and master classes will be scheduled shortly. They will be conducted by fellow students who have significant expertise in their respective areas and professional trainers. Everybody is welcome to contribute. I will be keeping you posted on the development.

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Putting a value on training

Training programs generate greater value for organizations when the curricula reflect key business performance metrics. Testing real-world outcomes is crucial.

JULY 2010 • Jenny Cermak and Monica McGurk

Source: Organization Practice

All organizations train their people, and most spend significant sums doing so. Yet they generally don’t have any idea whether they’re getting any business value from training. Beyond teaching new employees the specifics of their jobs, most companies train staff in areas such as leadership, communications, performance management, or lean operations. But they typically measure training’s impact by conducting surveys of attendees or counting how many employees complete courses rather than by assessing whether those employees learned anything that improved business performance.

This approach was, perhaps, acceptable when companies had money to spare. Now, most don’t. Yet more and more, organizations need highly capable employees—90 percent of the respondents to a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey said that building capabilities was a top-ten priority for their organizations. Only a quarter, though, said that their programs are effective at improving performance measurably, and only 8 percent track the programs’ return on investment.