Learning pyramids, KPIs and Happiness - Meeting Notes

Hey,

I hope you are safe and well. Happy Monday and welcome to this week’s Meeting Notes. I was incredibly busy last week sorting out the tech stack and platforms I use for my business.

I let things get out of control and ended up with WAY too many tools to get stuff done.

I like to experiment and try new writing and knowledge management tools, but ultimately end up confusing myself with information all over the place. There’s a lesson there somewhere. So, I'm simplifying.

Anyhow, this week’s newsletter has a learning vibe to it. Let's go.

For those new to the Meeting Notes newsletter, welcome, I’m Rob, Chief Happiness Officer at Cultivated Management. This newsletter is about mastering the art of communication and creativity - and creating a bright future of work. Let's work together.

The Learning Pyramid

Found this wonderful model that really sums up my own experience, insights and knowledge about learning.

The pyramid shows the effectiveness percentage of each learning approach or method. And yes, I know my horizontal lines in the triangle are wonky.

Sure, it's likely not scientific but it does articulate the power of learning in different ways.

Of course, many of these approaches will blend and morph into each other too, overlapping, complimenting and supporting as a hybrid learning approach.

This ties directly with the two learning approaches I use in work and life. It also reinforces my strong belief that on-the-job training is essential. Also leisure time spent in discussion is a powerful way to learn too.

Interestingly, I found this pyramid after I'd finished the first draft of my new Workshop Mastery book, coming out very soon. I cover much of this in the guide - especially why teaching others is the most powerful way to learn your subject more deeply.

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KPIs, confusion and blending of measures and metrics

One of the perennial challenges many people face in work is measures and metrics. There's confusing terminology about OKRs, KPIs, Management Objectives blah blah blah.

We're the masters at confusing ourselves in work. We also often only associate certain labels with certain activities. It's not uncommon to find people using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for products and platforms but not for people or money.

Anyhow, I try, where possible, to help clients simplify this. All measures and metrics can be classed as KPIs. And, be cautious as qualitative (i.e. not numbers) are perfectly good measures too.

Key Performance Indicators are merely metrics and measures that matter. They give us insight into making the business better. They help us make decisions. They help us track we're doing the right things. Anything could be a KPI.

I tend to bucket them into four categories (and yes, most people miss people when they do this sort of activity):

1. Value and Cost.
   1. Value is created outside of the business. Always. So, you'll need some way of measuring external value being created.
   2. Sales, customers, Revenue etc
   3. Costs are everything inside the business. Cost of production are all of the costs associated with creating value. Let's hope it's less than the value generated.
   4. Track these over time - trends matter.
2. Products and Services.
   1. You're likely building and selling something, so measure how "good" that thing is.
   2. Reliability, availability, ease of use, scale, mean time to recover, ratings etc
   3. Track these over time - trends matter.
3. People.
   1. People are the engine of success, yet SO many people forget to measure anything to do with cultivating a workplace that enriches the lives of all who work in it.
   2. Track qualitative team spirit and morale.
   3. Track time to hire, retention, performance, growth, abilities.
   4. Track these over time - trends matter.
4. Delivery.
   1. Most people focus here and conflate these numbers with 1 and 2 above.
   2. Delivery numbers are essentially project management numbers.
   3. How quickly and smoothly are you delivering value?
   4. How effective is the process? Are you on time? Are there delays?
   5. Cycle Time is a powerful measure here.
   6. Track these over time - trends matter.

None of these should be used for control. Instead, the test of a good measure is that is provides insights that help you make the business better and make decisions. If it doesn't do this, it's waste. There's a cost to creating measures and metrics; definition, creation, tracking, storing, reporting, cleansing.

Just because we can "measure" everything, doesn't mean we should.

And yes, trends are very important.

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Friendly reminder:

"In thinking about such comparisons, of course, remember that happiness is not a competition. Authentic happiness derives from raising the bar for yourself, not rating yourself against others."

Authentic Happiness - Martin Seligman

You are not your job

I was riffling through my old YouTube notebook when I discovered these notes about you not being your job.

Although I didn't end up making this video, it did heavily influence my book Take A Day Off (which is available as a digital download now!).

The essence is that we have skills and competencies in work, and we also have them out of work. We are not our job.

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The essence of business improvement

We often overcomplicate our business worlds with initiatives, governance, theories and methodologies, without questioning whether they have utility (as in, do they work?) and whether they ultimately bring more value to customers.

Whenever you are faced with new initiatives ask whether it's helping you get better at delivering value, or whether it's waste.

It's worth remembering what Taichi Ono said about Toyota:

"All we are doing is looking at the time line from the moment the customer gives us an order to the point when we collect the cash. And we are reducing that time line by removing the non-value-added wastes. (Ohno, 1988)"

The Toyota Way - Jeffrey Liker

Learners must use what they learn in context

As I draw to the close of my new Workshop Mastery book, I must admit I'm very happy with it. I know it will help anyone looking to run workshops and teach others. It's been a joy to write also.

One of the challenges with writing a book packed full of useful guidance is that I don't get to see people put it into practice. I hear from students of the Superpower Communication Workshop and reader of Zero To Keynote, who are using what I share - and that's super joyful, but I rarely get to see it.

With all of my courses and books, I always make it clear that readers and students must put information into action to create knowledge. Information alone is helpful but it's incomplete.

I was speaking with someone the other day who wanted to create a plethora of training courses for her team, so I suggested she does that but ensures three things happen:

1. There is a really clear outcome/goal known to the student (shift in behaviour, new skill)
2. The student must put into action what they are learning in the workplace itself, around real work
3. The workplace context must be adapted to aid the learner (as in, everyone in work must be aware someone is learning something new - ideally someone will support with on-the-job training)

You may recognise this as the Activity Model of learning.

Remember the pyramid above - one of the best ways to learn how to be better in work is to learn in the work itself - by doing it - task acquisition. There's a place for classroom learning, but what is to be learned must be practiced in the work itself.

And then of course, teach others.

This newsletter is a labour of love and will always be free, but it's not free to create it - if you’d like to support my work please consider:

1. Sharing this content with others you feel would get value from it.
2. Downloading the free ebook 10 Behaviours of effective employees.
3. Buying a copy of Zero to Keynote
4. Sitting the online Communication Super Power Workshop to develop your super power in work

It means a lot. Thank you.

Until next time. Have a great week.

Rob..