Friday, September 2, 2011

"Have 'em put their names on it"



A Sea Story about the Nature of Recognition

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This little incident illustrates for me the true nature of recognition. It’s not so much a matter of providing praise or rewards or awards but more a matter of letting someone’s contributions to the organization be known and recognized as such. In this case, it was simply a matter of letting “pride of authorship” take its natural course.


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One of my assignments was as head of the Navy’s Programmed Instruction Writers course, a unit of the Navy Instructor School at the Service School Command (SSC). SSC was in turn part of the Naval Training Center (NTC) out on Rosecrans Avenue in San Diego, California. During my tour there I redesigned the PI Writers course. Instead of the participants being taught how to develop PI materials they were taught how to evaluate them. The premise was that if they could correctly evaluate such materials they could produce them too. The assumption proved valid; the trainees were in fact able to evaluate and thus produce high-quality PI materials. A few years later I learned that I had made the right decision on the wrong theoretical basis. My assumption at the time of the rewrite of the PI course was based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of the cognitive domain which held that the then highest level, evaluation, subsumed all other levels. What I later learned is that the theory that accounts for the success of the rewrite is in fact Perceptual Control Theory (PCT). Anyway, that’s another story and I digress. Back to this little sea story.

My next tour of duty was at the Navy’s Human Resources Management Project (HRMP). It was located right down the street from the Instructor School. My C.O. at the HRMP, a four-striper by the name of Gerry Bradford, was reassigned as the C.O. of the Service School Command. A while after he took command of SSC I got a call asking me to report to his office. When I showed up we exchanged some pleasantries and then got down to business.

He told me he remembered that I had headed up the PI Writers course and he wanted to ask my advice about a related matter. He said it had come to his attention that the PI Materials being produced at the various schools which were part of SSC were of less than sterling quality. He came straight to the point: He wanted to know what could be done about it.

As it happened, I was aware of the problem, too. And I thought I knew the reason behind it. At any rate, here’s the advice I gave my former Skipper.

“Skipper,” I said, “I know about that problem and I think I know what’s behind it. When I was running the PI Writers course, we made sure the developers put their names on the materials they developed. We also made sure they put their names front and center on the cover page. What I understand to be the case now is that they are forbidden from putting their names on the materials. As a result no one knows who developed the materials and the people who develop them probably don’t care near as much as they would if their names were on them.”

“So what would you have me do?” asked my former Skipper.

“Have ‘em put their names on the materials, right on the cover page,” I replied. “Restore their pride of authorship.”

“Thanks, Nick,” said Captain Bradford. With that we shook hands and I returned to the HRMP.


Epilogue

A few months later I heard that the developers’ names were in fact being put on the materials, in a prominent place although not on the front cover. I also heard that the quality of the materials being developed had improved considerably. I also learned that Captain Bradford considered the problem solved.

3 comments:

  1. You make a very useful point, Fred. Thank you!

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  2. I agree. I have Master Performers/SMEs names listed on the cover of the Analysis Reports and Design Documents - and I tell them about what (warn them about that) when we first meet. I also had the Developers and their Development Teams' names go on all Pilot-Test version of training materials - as well as had the Developers co-facilitate, or at least be up in the front of the room with the Facilitator for ILT sessions - and just had their names on the Pilot-Test materials for other media/modes.

    It always gave everyone a sense of ownership - and a reason to do their best!

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  3. Related to this point Fred is what I recommend people who facilitate/chair meetings do, that is ask at the end if this was a productive meeting and if not, why not. It certainly requires the facilitator/chair to think about making the meeting a good one.

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