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1.
Who Is This Website For?
This website -
www.spontaneousdevelopment.com
- is especially targeted at people who desire
to learn how they can take advantage of the
virtually limitless opportunities for self-determination,
accessible through diligent application of
proven self-development techniques in conjunction
with technology and The Internet.
Spontaneous
Development Dot Com is home to Self-Development
Academy Limited on the World Wide Web. We
offer New Ideas, Information, Articles, True
Stories, Strategies and Services for Career
Development, Performance Enhancement, Small
Business Best Practice, Spreadsheet Automation,
Professional Web Design, Copy writing, Freelance
Writing and more. Spontaneous Development
Dot Com is a dynamic online resource for ANY
individual, group or organisation passionately
driven to continually function at their best
in whatever they do.
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2.
What Can It Do For You?
This site's
primary objective is to offer useful, real-world relevant
information, and education, that shows people what
they can do by themselves for themselves to achieve
their set goals - with minimal trial and error. Articles,
books(print
and electronic), learning events(talks,
seminars, workshops) based on practical experience
are available. In addition, the Self-Development Academy's
Business
Support Services and Custom
Excel Software can help you increase your profits
by enabling you to do what you do at less cost, in
less time and using less resources/effort are showcased
on this site, for purchase at affordable rates. |
3.
Why The Focus On Information And Education?
"..the
biggest challenge facing most African nations is to
creatively adapt ideas to their unique environment."
- Mr. Patrick Boateng, Adviser for
Africa, US Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
at the African Internet Summit and Exhibition(AFRINET)
2002, held in Abuja, Nigeria.
In the October
20, 2000 edition of Newsweek magazine, Tim Berners-Lee,
inventor of the World Wide Web(NOT the Internet, which
was created 20 years before the web) in an interview
expressed his belief that the Internet presents a
"real chance" of integrating the Third World
with the rest of the world.
He narrated a story(told to
him by someone who had been a missionary in Africa)
about a woman who had taught herself English through
the Bible, and subsequently began earning a living
by translating documents received in English over
the net into the local dialect. As Tim put it, Internet
access can enable a person earn income in a way that
would not have been possible before, and can even
benefit an entire village. He added that there are
numerous jobs which are just "information-in,
information-out" that anyone anywhere in the
world can do if they are given access to the Internet.
(SDAc invites you to visit www.freelanceworkexchange.com
to see countless examples).
The SDAc, through
this website aims to demonstrate practically, specific
ways any individual or group can successfully utilise
self-development, in conjunction with technology and
the Internet, to empower themselves economically,
socially and politically. We will provide real-world
relevant information and education that will equip
our target audience with competencies they need to
more frequently achieve authentic personal successes,
and also show them how they can help others like themselves,
achieve similar successes. |
4.
Business Profit Making Combined With Social Development
"I want
to be part of a South Africa and Africa sending out
a new message to the world, of taking responsibility
for our own challenges. The world has got used to
a picture of Africa asking for support, with cupped
hands. It's time we create a new image of Africa.
It's time that we ourselves start giving and assert
our sense of dignity. We deserve respect. It is time
we stop apologizing for ourselves and acknowledge
our achievements".
- Graça Machel -Mandela
Even though we
are engaged in people development and empowerment,
the SDA is NOT - and has no intention of becoming
- a Non-Governmental Organisation(NGO). We maintain
a profit making focus, and believe that by so doing,
we will be better able to empower our target audience
with income-generating skills than if we ourselves
depended on grants and other unearned income sources
to fund our operations. Click
here to learn more about the Self-Development
Academy Limited. |
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Do
You Have A Self-Managed Development Guide™(SMDG™)?
Do newly promoted or redeployed
employees find it easy to quickly grasp the essential requirements
for succeeding in higher positions in your company? Have you
had instances when hurried handovers from predecessor to successor
later led to expensive, yet avoidable on the job errors? This
article describes an unprecedented solution that can make
these and more the least of your worries as an employer or
decision maker, once you have it in place. Does not matter
if you are a big employer or a small one. This tool will help
you boost the capability of your employees to deliver desired
productivity that you pay them for, on a more frequent basis.
It's called the Self-Managed Development Guide(SMDG)™.
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(This article is one of twenty-five(25)
contained in Tayo Solagbade’s Ebook titled "25
Articles/True Stories On Self-Development, Entrepeneuring
& Web Marketing To Help You Succeed More Often")
The
Self-Managed Development (SMD) Guide™?
Is a customized learning tool that
can be developed based on workplace requirements of a specific
organization, in which an employee is expected to perform
his/her duties.
Purpose
Of The SMDG: To outline key - mostly practical - learning
points for employees to follow in order to become fully competent
- and also stay continually relevant - on their jobs.
Using competencies defined as requisite
for optimal performance within that environment, this kind
of guide can be produced - for any workplace. This will help
the relevant employee(s) quickly and successfully settle into
their roles - to the benefit of both employer and employee.
The SMD guide will give new entrants
into an organization(or position/job), a sense of direction
in terms of what they should be doing, and what they are expected
to know – or be able to do - at the end of their training(or
induction).
Specific Benefits Of Having A SMDG™
(a)
Makes clear to employee ALL that s/he is expected to know/be
able to do in order to perform well on the job.
(b) Encourages
employee to take timely, personal action toward developing
specified competencies to do job better.
(c)
Helps your company cut costs on formal training.
(d)
Results in continuous improvement in workplace performance
of your staff = better delivery = improved customer satisfaction.
(e)
Requires employees to create Learning Logs that document actual
learning experienced - which in future become invaluable reference
materials or aide-memoir.
I developed this concept of a customizable
SMD guide in September 2001, drawing inspiration from Jim
Stewart’s Speed Training System. Then I used it for
Trainee Engineering Tradesmen who reported to me, while I
was Technical Training and Development Manager(TTDM), Guinness
Nigeria Plc, Benin Brewery. Read the full story of how(and
why) I did this, in an excerpt from my Ten
Ways self-help manual in the box below.
| As Training and Technical Development
Manager, while in Guinness, I had also played this coaching
and people development role with the same passion. It
is the same reason why today I am a Self-Development/Performance
Enhancement Specialist.
In 2001, due to a large number of capital intensive
and high priority projects going on in the brewery when
about five(5) young trainee engineering tradesmen men
joined us, myself and the Training Instructors who reported
to me, were unable to devote as much time as would have
been adequate to help the trainees really learn all
they needed.
After watching the young men move around for some weeks
without much sense of purpose, I made out time to put
together – with extensive input from the instructors
- what I called a “Self-Managed Development Guide™”
document. This document contained ALL the learning points
to be studied (theoretically and practically) by each
individual trainee in order to be fully ready for deployment
to a department within the duration of the training
programme.
Basically, it was an instrument that empowered the
trainee to manage his training, and move at his own
pace(recall Peter Drucker’s admonition). For instance,
the guide contained references to everything the trainee
needed to read up, or become physically familiar with
- including plants, equipments, skills and names of
designated resources persons across the site who could
help with learning about them.
Each trainee therefore only needed to decide when and
where he wished to acquire the new learning, and use
the Learning Log(provided in the guide document) to
record actual learning achieved. Then he would report
periodically to me or the available Training Instructor
to review his progress against the set goals. During
this interaction, and without compromising our commitment
to the brewery projects, I and the Instructors were
able to conduct short practical tests, and quizzes to
assess the true progress of the trainee.
Did it work you ask? Did the trainees demonstrate good
performance when eventually posted out to departments?
Yes they did. As a matter of fact, one day, not long
after they had been posted out, they returned to my
office as a group to present me with a gift. One of
them then spoke on behalf of the others that during
the training period, they had complained among themselves
about how I always kept pushing them to learn more etc.
But since they arrived at their various departments,
they had found themselves treated with respect because
of the performances they delivered on the job –
and also the unusual proficiency they demonstrated in
the use of technology(e.g. Computers) that the older
hands still struggled to master(I had spent some weekends
giving them practical Computer and Internet Training,
especially how to use Search Engines to find useful
engineering, and problem solving information).
Today, preparation of a Self-Managed Development Guide
document for use in large or small organizations is
now one of the many unique services I offer as a Self-Development/
Performance Enhancement Specialist. I can do this, because
I know it works – having seen the results of its
proper use myself.
You can also try and influence the development of a
similar instrument in your workplace. It would certainly
take a lot of work out of the process of helping new
employees or trainees settle into their new jobs. You
would then be able to simply work with them to check
off their achieved learnings, and continue as necessary,
providing useful corrective feedback as appropriate.
A person in paid employment who wants to experience
rapid career advancement must make out time to coach
and develop others. Only by so doing can she increase
the chances of moving up when the opportunity comes.
I like to ask people this question: "How can you
get promoted from your current position if no one else
has the competence to do fill it?".
And how will anyone else learn how to do that job quickly
enough, if YOU don't make the effort to coach those
around you to the required competence level? You are
in the best position to know what is needed to do YOUR
job as well as you do it. That means you will be best
placed to develop others - subordinates, colleagues
etc to do it whenever you have to go away on leave,
secondment - or when you get promoted! |
Since starting my business, I have
gone further to develop this guide into customizable
templates that can be modified - on request - for use
by trainees/new recruits or re-deployed/promoted employees
in any organization.
You Can Do It Yourself
It is important to note here that you
can even use resource persons within your organisation(or
yourself!), to study what I have said here about the SMDG™
document and produce a tool that will deliver similar results
for your business.
Alternatively you can contact me for
details about how a Templated Custom Self-Managed Development
Guide(SMDG)™ can be developed for your company, by
clicking here.
Why Any Good Manager Will Find
A Tool Like The SMDG™ Useful
I believe an important measure of
performance for managers and executives should be "People
Development". Some managers have subordinates
reporting to them for years who NEVER improve or become better
on their jobs.
Other managers would handle that same
group of reports for one year, and have them displaying dramatic
improvements in their abilities - even delivering superlative
workplace performances perpetually!
More often than not, the reason for
this kind of transformation is traceable to the willingness
of the manager to coach and develop his/her subordinates.
Confirmation of this is usually readily obtained from the
subordinates themselves, who will naturally hold the latter
type of manager in high esteem.
Think about what I've said above
with an open mind, and you'll find that it's true. Become
a coach and people developer. It's a sure way of achieving
sustainable success.
One relatively easy and painless
way you can effectively coach and develop people who report
to you (or that you are responsible for) is by developing
a customised SMDG™ for them - and getting them to use
it, under your close supervision.
Judging by the results I achieved(see
my story in the box above) by doing something similar in my
workplace, you can - apart from improving their competencies
- expect to enjoy the respect and admiration of those you
manage. In addition, you can look forward to earning recognition
for your ability to develop employee potentials to the benefit
of the company. Lastly, it would only be a matter of time
before such recognition translates to career advancement for
you.
If the above enumerated benefits appeal
to you, then I suggest you seriously
consider using the SMDG™ tool routinely in your coaching
and developing efforts from today. 
| FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SMDG™
What follows below is a
listing of Frequently Asked Questions about the
SMDG™ tool. The answers provided can be
used by decision makers to decide if they need
it.
1. WHO is the SMDG useful
for, and HOW can it be used?
Any company or organization
that has to periodically recruit new personnel(or
re-deploys, re-assigns or promotes employees)
can benefit from having this kind of guide customized
for its use. Through the use of this guide, any
employee can (mostly) through his/her own efforts,
systematically acquire knowledge, attitudes and
skills required to successfully fit into - and
effectively function in - any of the departments
in a company within a prescribed training/induction
period. Typically, both employer and employee
often want the training period to be as short
and rewarding as possible. The SMD Guide makes
that possible.
2. Is there really a need
for this kind of tool?
Yes there is. Many companies/organizations
regularly recruit new people(or transfer employees)
to join a team of often busy employees/members.
In most cases, after the first few weeks of welcoming
the newcomers, "older" employees gradually
return to focus fully on their demanding job routines.
As such, they are unable to give the level of
attention/assistance needed by new entrants at
crucial stages in the latter’s development.
The result is incomplete training/induction and
exposure of this "new" person(s). This
later manifests in form of ineptitude, low confidence,
inefficiency and (sometimes) costly mistakes on
the part of the affected new entrants.
To solve this problem,
other employees cannot be asked to focus less
on their own jobs. They can however be requested
to facilitate new entrants’ efforts at developing
themselves, in line with a company approved training/induction
programme built into a Self-Managed Development
Plan like the one being proposed here. Through
a customized SMD Guide, an outline of key learning
points for trainees/re-assigned(or promoted employees)
to follow at any level in an organization can
be developed. This will eliminate the earlier
described problem that frequently occurs today.
3. Will this guide replace
my Company’s existing Training Procedure?
No. This guide cannot be
used to replace an existing Training Procedure,
for the obvious reason that it would be inadequate.
It could however be used to supplement whatever
formal training/induction is given to new entrants.
It would be particularly useful as a means to
track – and record - their progress/prompt
them to follow-up and acquire any additional knowledge,
attitudes and skills relevant to their overall
development. The result would be that the new
entrants, post-training/induction, would be better
rounded and more capable of successfully performing
whatever roles their jobs require of them.
4. How practically relevant
is this guide or is it a “classroom”
focused system?
The guide favours the concept
of Learning by Doing(or Experiential learning)
especially for adults, who with advancement in
age become less disposed to classroom learning
situations. As such you will find that classroom
based learning though recommendable in specific
areas, is deliberately kept to a minimum in the
guide. Emphasis is instead placed on frequent
contact of the concerned employee with the workplace
processes/plants/operations - under the guidance
of experienced operators/staff or in-house trainers
in each section or department.
5. What will it take to
have a Customised SMD Guide developed for employees
in my company?
Depending on the nature
of your company’s workplace/training requirements
for new entrants/re-deployed or promoted personnel,
the process can take up to two weeks (or less).
Specific details of the requirements /implications
in terms of time, resources, costs etc can be
easily provided once a Formal
Consultation Meeting is arranged and Situation
Evaluation is done. Click
here to start the process now.
Alternatively, as has been
earlier suggested, you
can engage your own in-house resource persons
to produce a document that will give the same
results for your organisaton. |
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