TVRLS Skill-shops

What is a Skill-shop

The term skill-shop is similar to work-shop. In the skill-shop the focus is on developing specific skills to carry out a given task or activity with some level of proficiency. For example you learn about a KRA or KPA (Key Performance Area) theoretically first in a knowledge session while you actually learn  and set a KPA or plan your own key performance areas (KPAs) in a skills shop. In a skillshop the focus is on doing while in a knowledge session the focus is on listening, reading, learning, understanding. I am giving below illustrations of two skills shops we have designed. One is meant for any line Manager or a beginner in HRD and the second one is meant from those who like to develop various  skills in Performance Management. 

In a skill shop the participant actually carries out a task under the guidance of a facilitator and gains expertise at a basic level. For example after going through the following skillshop for about 12 to 15 hours or two days it is expected that every participant will be able to plan his/her performance for the next one year, accounting for 2000 hours of time, maximising the utilisation of his/her competencies, identifies his/her competency gaps, prepares a development plan, reviews performance of him/herself  using the performance equation and undertakes a Performance conversation or PRD with his/her boss. The skillshop proides the required skills to do all these activities. Note that these activities or skills are broken down into various skills under each session. The skillshop provides a guided practice. the participant may work on actual situations bringing reality into the classroom.  

Note that each skill based session starts with a review of basic knwoeldge and cocnepts. The conceptual understanding stregthens the skill development as skills normally stand on knowledge. Other wise it is building a hosue without strong foundation. It is possible to build skills without knowledge but it is desirable to build on a strong foundation.

 TVRLS “SKILL-SHOP” on PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Session Schedule: PMS Skill-shop (22nd and 23rd June, 2015)

 Facilitators:

Dr. T V Rao, Dr. Raju Rao, Ms. Himanshi Shah

Day 1
2.5 hours Session	Content/skill Theme	Guided Activity for skill development
Session 1	Plan your own Performance	Review Basics Formulate KPA/KRA’s and Plan your performance to maximize Talent utilization and account for 2000 to 2500 hours. Get it reviewed by your seniors after getting it wetted by facilitator
Session 2	Give Effective Performance Feedback?	Review Basics Prepare a series of scripted feedbacks after identifying the nature of feedback you like to give for any select five individuals
Session 3	Conducting good Performance Conversations and Review Discussions	Review Basics Role play in Performance coaching using cases given in the workbook or alternately try an actual PRD with a junior you have in mind
Session 4	Identify Developmental Needs and Preparing IDP’s (Individual Development Plan)	Review Basics Identify your own developmental needs or those of a team of your employees from their Performance plans through role play dialogue or actual dialogue. For actual dialogue you will be required to have a telecom.
Session 5	Reduce biases in Performance Ratings	Review Basics Analyze your own or any one of your juniors performance for the last one year and rate him objectively and discuss with the team how objective you had been.
Session 6	Any other skill of your choice	Example:  Redesign your PMS and prepare an implementation plan to enhance its impact
Session	closing

TVRLS “SKILL-SHOP” on HRD for LINE MANAGERSSession Schedule: Skill-shop (15th & 16th June, 2015, Ahmedabad)

Facilitators:

Dr. T V Rao, Dr. Raju Rao, Ms. Himanshi Shah

Day 1
2 hour Session	Content/skill Theme	Guided Activity for skill development
Session 1	Recruitment	Review Basics Identify competency profile and  Design (i) an advertisement, (ii) application blank, (iii) interview schedule, (iv) psychometric tests or (v) a recruitment strategy for a specific role
Session 2	On Boarding	Review Basics Design an on-boarding plan for a new entrant or for a lateral entrant using principles of assimilation and integration. The plan should contain on-boarding at various levels: individual, role, team/department and the organization
Session 3	Learning & development	Review Basics Design a L&D or capacity building strategy or plan for a series of roles starting with need identification, awareness creation, L&D or capacity building plan, ownership creation, execution, and evaluation
Day 2
Session 4	Succession Management	Review Basics Design a succession management plan for a given set of critical roles
Session 5	Performance Management	Review Basics Critically examine your system and prepare a plan for improvements in any one or more of the following: Performance planning through KPAs/KRAs and goal setting, Competency development, Performance analysis, performance conversations and PRDs. Alternately write a case of a difficult employee or an average junior and practice PRD skills using other participants.
Session 6	Employee Engagement	Review Basics Design an employee engagement survey questionnaire to be administered back home along with an analysis and utilization plan
Session	closing

Online Education: What is the most useful format for Asian Countries

Prof. T. V. Rao

Many organizations are these days talking about Online Education. MOOCs seem to be quite popular. I like to share some of my thoughts on this for Asian minds.

I have been personally associated with developing programmed instruction material much before the IT and other technological developments of recent times. I was trained and certified in  Self- Instructional material in 1968-69 by NCERT at the beginning of my carrier. We have trained number of trainers in organizations like State Bank of India in late sixties. I also developed programmed Instructional materials for topics research methods. A large part of the self-instructional material being developed today is based on B F Skinner's work on learning theories (The art of teaching and science of Learning) and “Teaching Machines”.

However we did not pursue this method much in those days, as after some time it was felt that self-instructional material are for subjects like Science and Mathematics-as a lot of complex information has to be broken down and presented in a simple way for people to understand. It was felt humanities and social sciences don't need such self instructional material as they are not concepts and equations to follow. At times it was also felt that programmed instruction is meant for less intelligent people with comprehension challenges.

However, late eighties and nineties have popularized the auto-instructional or self-learning material thanks to the need for multiplying IT professionals of different kinds. So, online education with self-instructional material has become popular with IT professionals in the last decade and a half. Many IT companies started buying packages of on line materials to teach soft skills like negotiation communication, leadership, sales etc. Other organizations followed due its low cost and conveniences for the learner both in terms of the pace and venue.

In the early 80s, Professor Udai Pareek and I wrote a book on Education Methods including distance education and reviewed experiences of various countries and suggested some methodologies. It was published as a ‘Handbook of training for education managers” in 1982 by UNESCO, Bangkok and later republished by Macmillan in India (http://jainbookagency.com/booksearch.aspx?aname=Prof.%20Udai%20Pareek%20&%20Prof.%20T.V.Rao).

With the many advantages found in auto instructional materials it has become popular atleast in many of the developed countries. Now it is also spreading to other countries like India, China, Malaysia, Thailand etc. However they are yet to become popular like other skills based classroom exercises. 

When I was associated with the IGNOU Board, we made efforts to start diploma programs. At the Academy of HRD in Ahmadabad we started a diploma in HRD through distance learning. It was a grand success. It had the following components:

• ·         Each course was divided into small units of 15 to 20 modules.
• ·         Each candidate had to learn one module per week at his workplace.
• ·         Each module had a question based exercise and an application based activity which the candidate had to complete and mail to AHRD. For example for a module on performance planning the candidate should answer a few questions and also take an exercise giving a performance plan of his own work or the work of one of his juniors.
• ·         We conducted contact sessions at the end of the modules at the convenient place of learners.

So content, test and application were components of this distance education. Since last 15 years, we have been following the same principle at TVRLS for our Certification Programs on Competency Mapping, PMS, HRD Audit, ADCs etc.

After I started TVRLS in 1996, we used a similar technology in offering a three to four month based distance learning cum contact sessions. For example our certificates in Competency Mapping, Assessment and development centers, 360 Degree feedback, HRD Audit

Performance management etc. all had the following components:

• 1.      Distance education by mailed material
• 2.      Exercises to be done while reading the material and mailing to instructors
• 3.      Contact sessions, and
• 4.      Project work.

We found that knowledge can be passed on online or by other distance education mode but skills can be better developed only during contact programs. Learning from each other in a dynamic way and from the Instructor are critical. Instructors or facilitators carry a lot of experience with them which they can’t always put in a print or ppt form. Some experiences get shared with emotions better in contact. Hence we decided to offer online programs with a difference- incorporating emotions and experience sharing which we think is more suitable for Asian learners.

Thus, with the popularity of on line learning materials and with a view to reach a larger number of people we decided to try OLEPs with a difference at TVRLS. (see: http://www.tvrls.com/online_education.php)

Experience our OLEPs with a difference:

1.     1.  A facilitator to present content and handle participant queries on the web.

2.    2.   Use of multiple delivery methods: We will be conducting webinar presentations using Ppt and will also be mailing the participants supplementary reading material.

3.      3. Only 25 participants in each batch to ensure individual attention and better quality learning.

4.      4. Our instructors are highly experienced with more than two decades of corporate and academic experience and have authored several books, papers and are board members on various organization councils. Dr. Rao and many of his esteemed colleagues from reputed B-schools like IIM-A, XLRI, ISB will be a part of the team.

5.     5. The programs will be offered at 3 levels: Knowledge, Skill (through contact workshop) and Application (through project work)

TVRLS Online Education Programs for Managers: TVRLS launches Online Education Programs

TVRLS Online Education Programs for Managers: TVRLS launches Online Education Programs: TVRLS On-Line Education Programs TVRLS prides itself as the only HR & OB consulting company with its own books, manuals and other pu...

TVRLS launches Online Education Programs

TVRLS On-Line Education Programs

TVRLS prides itself as the only HR & OB consulting company with its own books, manuals and other publications. The work at TVRLS is based on the knowledge and experience  generated by its Founder Dr. T. V. Rao since the time he along with  Dr. Udai Pareek at IIMA were instrumental in starting the first dedicated HRD Department and initiated a new HR function. Over the last four decades Dr. Rao and Dr. Pareek and in recent times his colleagues at TVRLS have mastered and disseminated various concepts, skills and practices in HR & OB across India and other countries. There is abundance of knowledge and experience at TVRLS and with those who are associated with it in different ways. TVRLS has its own publications like Designing HR Systems, HR Audit, HRD Score Card, Performance Management, 360 Degree Feedback, Leadership Development, OD, Behavioural Sciences, Psychometric tools, Assessment & Development Centres etc. The publications also include experiences of various leaders in these fields.

To make this knowledge available and prepare future generation of effective managers including HR Managers and managers of various other functions in a variety of sectors, TVRLS is launching a series of on-line programs. These are on-line programs with a difference. They are offered at three levels: Level 1: (Knowledge) which is purely distance and on line reading and learning. Level 2 :( Skills) based on contact workshops to be lead by Dr. Rao himself and his experienced colleagues. Level 3: (Application) based on the application of the concepts learnt through a project work.  

They are priced to be accessible to those who wish to self finance. We hope many mangers (line & HR), faculty, trainers, students and other interested learners from various sectors will go through these programs and benefit from them.  

We are beginning with two programs now and eventually wish to offer many more. The programs we plan to offer are listed below.

Sr No.	Program Title	Objectives and content	Registration
1	HRD for ALL.	Introduction to Basic concept of HRD, HRD systems and processes, Role of HRD Departments, Linkages between Personnel and HRD, Competency requirements of HRD Project: Critique a given case and suggest improvements	Open
2	Performance Management for All	Introduction to basics of Performance Management: Objectives and components of Good PMS, KPAs- KRAs and KPIs; Target setting, coaching and mentoring; Objectivity in ratings, using PMS data, PMS and HRD, Developmental needs etc.  Project: Review your own PMS or KPAs of a select set of roles.	Open
3	Competency based Interviewing	Introduction to the concepts of BEI and develops interview skills on line. Project : Conduct a BEI and code for competencies	Open
4	Managerial Effectiveness	Introduction to basics of Personal effectiveness; Self discovery, emotional intelligence, Johari window, Personal and Interpersonal Effectiveness, Team effectiveness, Role effectiveness, Critical personality variables for managerial effectiveness. Project:  A self assessment report using around 10 different psychometric tests taken.	Open
5	Leadership Competence : A 360 Degree Feedback Experience	Helps you gain insights into how well you are performing various leadership and managerial roles, your styles of managing, and your impact on others. Provides an experience of 360 Degree Feedback, helps you to prepare development plans to leverage your strengths and work on improvements. Project: Development plans based on one’s own feedback	Open
6	Performance Coaching & feedback	Fundamentals of coaching and Feedback and gives skills in giving and receiving Feedback for Development. Project: Give Feedback and coach a given candidate	September 2016
7	Survey Feedback and OD	Introduction to the concepts of Organizational Diagnosis, OD and various OD interventions. Includes  diagnostic tools, organizational climate surveys, employee engagement surveys, Gallup, great place to work and how to use the surveys for Development Project: Design a Diagnostics process for a given organization	September 2016
8	Insights into Leadership	Concepts and theories of Leadership, Leadership qualities, styles and their impact, Leadership insights into self using 360 Degree feedback and self assessment on various tools. Project: Prepare a biographical analysis of any leader applying theories learnt.	September 2016
All programs are offered across a four month period and cover all 3 levels. Workshop at the end of 3 months and project work to be completed by the end of the fourth month.
Learning Methodology: (i) e-mailing of PPTs, conceptual readings case studies and illustrative lessons;  (ii) supplemented by books and manuals where available, (iii) Skype sessions or CDs or material put up on TVRLS portal; (iv) tele-conversations by experienced Instructors and facilitators.  Certification is strictly on completion of the workshop, project work and passing the test during the workshop.
Fee: Enrol any time in the first Month of program commencement by registering and making an online payment on TVRLS website. The mailing will begin within two weeks of registration. Video/Skype/Tele-conversation sessions are on four Saturdays for each program. Contact workshops will be indicated as we reach a critical number of participants and will be on completion of at least 75% of the e-course content. Participants are required to make their own arrangements for stay at Ahmedabad/Bangalore or any other city.
Faculty for Contact Sessions: Besides Dr. T. V. Rao & Dr Raju Rao, other Well qualified Trained and experienced staff and consultants of TVRLS. Contact: For details write to: associates@tvrao.com TVRLS, 603, Parshwa Building, SG Road, Bodakdev, Ahmedabad, 380015, India Web site: www.tvrls.com and www.hrdaudit.org; Blogs: http://tvraoblogs.blogspot.com Tel: 91-79-26872718, 26870312. Mobile: +91-9824072603