Are executives investing wisely in the development of their organizations human capital?
Or maybe we should ask the question in a different way: Are executives making the right investment to emphasis organizational learning and enhanced financial performance?
The main difference in the two ways we asked this question is that answering the first question might result in a discussion with a focus on training and development.
On the other hand, the second question opens more discussions opportunities including:
Is the investment in training truly helps employees’ professional growth?
Does the training contribute to life-long learning?
Is the training, learning, and professional growth directly impact the bottom line by improving profitability or the value of services the organization offer?
As we can read, a simple question has two approaches for asking it and multiple paths for discussions.
What is the point?
The point is that we would like to offer our hypothesis based on our global and regional experience and observations in the professional service industry and our hypothesis is that: often enough some executives can significantly improve the return on investment in the area of professional development and need to consider some alternatives.
The challenge we see is that there is significant spending on “training” but not enough on life-long learning and not enough on measuring the effectiveness of learning and development programs; assuming they exist. Further, even if we invest in this area, the investment might not lead to enhancing organizational performance.
Why is that?
We propose that heavily investing in training is not the right answer and is not enough, at least in our domain of expertise, which is Project Management. We specialized in project management and the author has been in this domain for more than two decades. Why do we say that investing in training is not enough?
Domains, such as project management, are not like soft skills where a person can effectively apply the learning without the organizational support or infrastructure. Of course we all can use project management principles and thinking in our daily lives but the focus here is on the benefit to the organization along with the team members.
Many organizations have how to invest heavily into project management training and even have many of their staff achieving certifications such as the PMP® or PRINCE2® yet still did not realize any significant benefits and they still have challenged and failed projects.
Why?
Because, in our professional opinion, we have invested in training people on systems, processes, methodologies that are not adopted by the organization. So the team members train and may even become certified but they cannot readily apply the learning. It is like learning a new language but never having the chance to practice it – before long the learning will fade away like a mirage.
So what is the answer?
Invest wisely into an integrated solution that will serve the organizational performance for a long time. Invest into the project management system and processes – then build a professional development program that is based on the organizational infrastructure using the organizational language and not a totally foreign language. Build your system – have your people learn the system and continually improve it.
Until next time!
Mounir A. Ajam is an executive with more than twenty five years of professional global experience in project management, mostly in the petroleum industry and has provided services across various industries and sectors. Mounir experience is global and enriched in the United States, United Kingdom, South East Asia and West Asia. Mounir Ajam is the co-founder and CEO of SUKAD FZ-LLC a leading provider of Integrated Project Management Solutions that is based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
Mounir is an active community leader with various local, regional, and global volunteering roles. He has been a volunteer for professional organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI), the Global Project & Process Management Association, an organization he co-founded and led for many years.