The 'Hanging' Organizations

About four years ago, I quit my corporate job to begin as an independent HR consultant. In the course of this period I have interacted with the CEOs, Business  and HR heads of a number of companies for exploring business opportunities. Some of them have worked out, while some have not. I have categorized them as ‘Go’ and ‘No Go’ organizations. There is however a third category, that I call  ‘Hanging’ Organizations. One is never sure if you are in or out with them. And they never tell. It is almost as if informing you whether you will be working with them or not is violating some provision of the Official Secrets Act.

Each one of these organizations has a unique way of keeping you hanging. Ultimately there is closure. Either one just gives up and stops following up, or they will come around reluctantly to tell you, “Sorry we don’t have the budgets”, or “we have postponed the project to next year”…

However there is one experience which has become a case study in perseverance to see who will give up first. This organization is in a highly competitive industry in the IT sector. I am giving below a chronological sequence of events:

 Day 1

I get a call from the Training Manager of the company. He has got my reference from someone and wants to meet me in connection with a training project. We set up a meeting three days hence.

 Day 4

I meet the Training Manager. He tells me that the employee satisfaction survey has thrown up an issue regarding internal customer service. So they would like to initiate development program for support functions for improving internal customer service. We discuss the issues involved. I need to get back to them with a proposal and program design. They need it fast as they would like to launch the project by the next month.

 Week 2

I send the workshop design and proposal to the training manager.

 Week 3 & 4

No response

 Week 5

I call the training manager to check. I am told that he is trying to organize a meeting with the business HR Head, who is also the process owner for this project. He will call me as soon as the meeting is fixed.

 Week 6

No response

 Week 7

I get a call from the training manager. The meeting with the HR Head has been fixed for next week.

 Week 8

I meet the training manager and discuss the program design. We discuss the need to meet with some of the internal customers and service providers to get a deeper understanding of the issues involved. The training manager has to organize the meeting

 Week 9

No response

 Week 10

I get a call from the training manager. The meeting will now take place only with the service providers in the HR department.

 Week 11

I meet the service providers in the HR department. Based on the interactions, I send a revised program design. I am informed that someone from the purchase department will contact me for the price finalisation.

 Week 12

No response

 Week 13

I call the training manager to check about progress. I am told that the purchase department will get in touch shortly

 Week 14

I get a call from a person from the purchase department. The gist of the conversation between me and the purchase department representative (PDR) is given below:

 PDR: I understand that you are being considered as a vendor for a training program by us

Me: That’s right

PDR: I am looking at the rate that you have quoted. It’s too high.

Me: How do you decide if the rate is too high or not?

PDR: We have got quotes for training from other vendors and your quote is much higher.

Me: Have you got quotes for the same program for which I have given?

PDR: No but that should not matter. A training program is a training program.

Me; So you thing there is no difference between one program and another?

PDR: What difference? It’s like buying a printer. You have so many brands, but they do the same thing.

 I give up. What can I explain to the PDR? Explaining the difference between training programs would entail conducting a full fledged training workshop for him.

 Me: This is my final quote, and I cannot reduce it.

PDR: Then it will be difficult for me to give approval. But let me discuss this internally and we will get back to you.

 Week 15 & 16

No response. I conclude this is one of the ‘No Go’ interactions. How wrong I was.

Week 17

I get a call from the training manager. The quote has been approved. He will now finalise the dates and get back to me

 Week 18 & 19

No response

 Week 20

I call the training manager and am told I need to meet the Training Head. When I ask the reason for the meeting, I am told that this is a very important initiative and cannot happen unless approved by the training head.

 Week 21, 22 & 23

No response

 Week 25

I get to meet the training head. A brief meeting where I am told that I need to do a mock run of the program in front of a few people including the training head. It is only after this they will decide whether to work with me or not.

 Week 28

I do the mock run of the program. Attendees are the training head, the business HR head and one business head. At the end of it I am told that we are going ahead. The training manager will now finalise the dates.

 Week 29, 30, 31

No response

 Week 32

The training manager informs me that someone from purchase department will get in touch regarding issuance of a formal purchase order.

 Week 33 & 34

No response

 Week 35

I get a call from the Purchase Department Representative (PDR). The conversation goes like this:

 PDR: I understand that you are being considered as a vendor for a training program by us

Me: That’s right

PDR: I am looking at the rate that you have quoted. It’s too high.

 I am speechless for a moment.

 Me: But we had agreed upon the rates long time ago.

PDR: Yes more than six months ago

Me: So why are we re-opening the topic now?

PDR: Exactly for that reason. Six months is a long time. We have to renegotiate.

Me: I repeat what I said then. I will not change the quote.

PDR: Then I will have to speak internally and get back to you.

 Week 37

I call the training manager to ask about renegotiation of rates. “What can I say”, he says. “We have a new training head. This is a very important initiative and she wants to be involved in it.”

This probably means that we will go through the whole cycle all over. Who knows, by that time the training manager may quit.

 I should have given up on this project a long time ago. But I was curious. I want to see where it heads towards its logical ending.

I am sure more than 7 months ago someone had decided that this project was important for the business.  And I am equally sure that the same person must have forgotten all about it by now.

And then my fellow trainers wonder why their function does not get the respect it deserves in organizations.

Trainers or Enter-Trainers?

The sales head of our company sat next to me in the cafeteria during lunch break. “Nitin, we need your help. We need a training program for our frontline sales force”. A business head asking for assistance from the training function! A new experience… I forgot my lunch and perked up. “What kind of training?” “I don’t know”, he replied. “Anything… team building, customer service, leadership, it doesn’t matter. But it should not be for more than 2-3 hours.” I was perplexed. “What is the training need?” I asked. This got him upset. “Isn’t it your responsibility to provide development for the employees of this company?” he asked crossly.  “Yes, but I need to know what is it that I am supposed to develop.” “You figure that out. But we need a training program. Please let me know by tomorrow what you are going to do.”

I was really confused. I figure it out? How am I going to do that? It was his team. He would know best about the development needs of his team. And what was his team size? And three hours??!! I spent rest of the day mulling over the issue and finally before leaving for home, I went back to the Sales Head. “Look”, I said. “I have been wrestling with this issue for better part of the day and I cannot figure out what needs to be done. So please help me out”.

He was silent for a few moments then as if enlightenment had dawned upon him, he smiled. “Oh! I forgot you are new to this function. Ok, then let me explain. My sales team has been working hard to meet the targets for last quarter. I want to give them a break. I want to take them outstation for a night so they can party. But you know how the budget constraints are. No one will approve the expenses. But if I can call it a training workshop, then I will get the approval. But I don’t want too much work. That’s why I don’t want it to be for more than 2-3 hours. Make them play a few games. Give them a little gyan… They can have fun for rest of the time”.  

I should have been furious with this. But I was not. I was amused. A little upset perhaps, but more amused. So this is the role that the Training function has to play. The role of an entertainer, or rather enter-trainer. But I was not going to let it happen. At least not on my watch. So I refused. Very politely. “I am sorry but I will not be able to help you in this. If you have any development need in your people, where an intervention will help improve business then let’s talk. But not for this”.

The word got around. And people concluded that I am not a “Team Player”. The best part was when in my annual appraisal, someone mentioned in the peer review section that I needed development inputs in ‘team work’. Since peer review is  anonymous, it is not possible to find who it was. But I am quite sure it was our Sales Head.

A Tribute

My decision and that of many others like me, to make a career in Human Resources Management was largely influenced by the person who was my first boss. Technically he was not my direct boss, because when I joined as a management trainee, he was heading the function. But it was he who recruited me from campus and then in the first three months, spent a considerable amount of time shaping my thoughts and ideas about the function.

Mr. V.S. Mahesh, or Mahesh, as we all called him was way ahead of times. In a period when the function was largely recognized as a Personnel and Establishment department, Mahesh was able to visualize the critical role that the function would play in success of organizations. He was obsessed with the idea of all human beings having unlimited potential and worked extensively to discover ways of unlocking that potential. He put all his thoughts and ideas in the form of a book, Thresholds of Motivation, which was published nearly twenty five years ago. The concepts that he expounded were considered a bit revolutionary then, but have since been accepted as fundamentals of Human Resources development.

Among the various things that he talked about, there is one which has shaped my approach towards training and development:

“Any training or development initiative is actually a change management process. As a trainer or facilitator, it is your responsibility to facilitate change in your participants… A change in behaviour, attitude or skills. Your design and delivery should always focus on bringing about that change. When you start an initiative, think about it. What change are you going to bring about? How are you going to do it? How are you going to manage the natural resistance to change? If you are able to deal with these questions, your initiative will be successful. The difference between an average and a great trainer is the ability to bring about change.”

On 9^th February this year, Mahesh left for his Heavenly abode. To a guide, philosopher, teacher and mentor, I bow my head in gratitude.

Trainer Group Meeting - My First and the last

Time and again I would get invites from various trainer groups to become a member and attend their periodic meetings. There are quite a few in the city. For a long time I resisted. Mainly because I was still trying to come to terms with the function, and believed that being a rank amateur, I would actually be a misfit. But then there were a whole lot of questions that were piling up in my mind, and so I decided to attend one of them. Primarily, to see if my fellow professionals could help resolve some of these questions.

There were about 30 people who had come. The meeting was held in a conference room of a company whose training head was the president of this group. The meeting began with every one exchanging visiting cards. An effort at networking, you might say. Then one of my fellow trainers was invited to give a talk.

“Training function is a stepchild in most companies”, he began. “We are the least respected department. Whenever there are financial constraints, our budgets are the first to get axed. We never get invited to any strategy meetings. We have no say in the future of the organization…” It went on and on and finally concluded on a very sombre note, “Training departments in companies have the most useless people. It is high time that managements gave us the respect and importance that we deserve. After all we do play an important and useful role.” Everyone clapped. There was an indignant look on almost everyone’s face. How dare the management treat us like that! What ignorance! Don’t they realize the noble work that we are doing? The philistines!!

The moderator then asked if anyone had anything to add. I should have kept quiet, had my tea and gone back. They say fools rush where angels fear to tread. I guess I am the biggest  of them all. I rush where even other fools fear to tread. But then in my entire work life, no one had called me useless before.  And so I walked up to the head table and to say my piece.

“I am not a professional trainer. I come from HR background and all my previous experience has been in that function. Nothing to do with training. I didn’t volunteer to be transferred to this department. My company asked me to go there. So by your definition, my company decided that I am pretty useless to them. But my question is why would a company want to spend money on something that is useless? Why not just throw me out? No business organization exists for charity. At the end of the day all companies are looking for profits. You say management does not respect us. My question is, what have we done to earn that respect? No company that I know of has ever cut budgets when it comes to technical training. Maybe that’s because they can see a direct impact of that training on the bottom line. Maybe they have not been able to see the impact that behavioural training can make. Maybe we have not really made the effort to show that impact. Maybe we ourselves are not convinced that it does make an impact. No company or its management in its sound mind will ignore something that helps improve profits. So maybe we need to look inwards before we start blaming organizations and their management for our woes”.

I walked back to my seat. Needless to say, there was no clapping this time. Complete silence.,.

Networking is a great thing. The word must have gone around. I was never invited to any of these trainer group meetings again…