Workplace Education

Education in the workplace is of critical importance - now -more than ever, due to changes in technology and development and process methodologies. Employees minds must be kept sharp in order to adapt to fast changing demands.

Too often employees lose sight of the point and purpose of what they are doing within an organisation. They go through the motions instead of taking a critical look at what they are doing -  and how they can be improve things. Such a critical perspective can only be achieved if a good understanding of the core concepts of the role and business surrounding it is achieved. Yes, there is ‘learning on the job’, but that has its limitations. In the face of tight deadlines we usually only learn all that is required to get the job done quick. Therefore time need to be taken to educate the workforce - at all levels

Workplace education usually means taking days off for training on or off-site. This type of training is expensive in terms of time and money - unless the skills are actually used.

Such formal training though is invaluable in many circumstances but it not nimble enough to cater for smaller but fast changing requirements. To meet such requirements training material should be created by the team in the form of examinations (multiple choice, short question and scenarios) and quizzes. The masses of (usually un-read) documentation generated by the team would be revision material. This would be a simple and effect way of ensuring internally generated knowledge is understood by all and not wasted. I would predict it would have the effect of strengthening core competencies and increasing productivity - How? The information would be memorised and understood. A quiz with a valuable prize would be an ideal way of encouraging a team to brush up on theory behind the work they actually doing.

Hash Relational Mapping

Or HashRelMap is a java-based database mapping mechanism  I have developed which uses multi-dimensional hash-maps to store the results of join queries. For those familiar with ORM such as Hibernate and JPA queries are stored in Pojo object.  With this method queries are stored in multi-dimensional hash-maps. More details to follow.

Business Process and Culture 2

Fantastic article from the fastcompany website. This relates to what was written in my previous post on 'Business culture and process'.

No matter what new systems or processes are installed and implemented  in organisation, if the process or system is not aligned with the culture - it will not work as intended if at all. For example, integrated systems will fail to deliver any long-term benefit (at great expense) if there is a culture of little or no collaboration across teams.

Politics and process

Politics will always exist in the workplace - as ultimately it is an expression of power. It can become a powerful overriding force, leading to poor processes and all the ills which accompany it. Why? Limited team engagement, limited organisational engagement. Limited engagement around. Professionalism and Politics in the work place is inversely related. The higher the level of professionalism the lower the level of political influences and visa versa.


This subject of politics and process is something I will explore in future articles.

Sad day for music

Rest In Peace, Whitney Houston.

Automate the Science, Free the art

Many occupations and activities have been described as a combination of ‘ art and science ‘. I would assume the science part covers the implementation of processes in a methodical manner. The art part would cover everything else, such  the inception of the process, interacting with the environment, unexpected events, persuasion, etc .

Computers and machines are taking over the science part of the equation. Add rules and AI into the mix and its encroaching on some of the art as well.

The distance between creative thought and implementation is becoming smaller and smaller over time. This will lead to a new age of ‘interesting’ innovations and disruption in existing industries as the ‘expensive process’ barrier to entry shrinks.

Over 100 hit and counting

Thank you to all my reader I have achieved over 100 hits. Thanks also to linkedIn.com which has been the main source of that traffic. If anyone of my readers has learnt something useful from their visit - I will be more than happy. Thanks again.