Holistic Advancement

A committee of colleges, led by Benjamin Bloom, identified three domains/categories of educational activities:

· Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude/beliefs) - heart

These three domains are often referred to as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude), while we have called it Head, Heart and Hands. This classification of learning behaviours can be thought of as "the goals of the training process." That is, after the training session, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes, which if put into practice will make them more productive.

Cognitive Learning

The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major categories, ranging from the simplest behaviour to the most complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first one must be mastered before the next one can take place.

Psychomotor Learning

The psychomotor domain includes physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution.

Affective Learning

This domain includes the manner in which we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and attitudes. There are five major categories.

Traditionally, most training and development initiatives have focused on the Cognitive and Psychomotor arenas, as they are the ones that are visible and easiest to “test”.

Affective learning (below the surface of the visible) has been the area touched least by traditional training initiatives because it is the most difficult to help people understand and develope.

One of our points of difference, and also one of our primary strengths, is our ability to tap into the affective learning domain—and to do so in an engaging, relevant way. Our core offerings, of various experiential learning interventions/tools, are what we sometimes refer to as “awareness-based”, that is, they primarily target the Affective learning domain.

The interventions are structured (rules, experience, debrief) so that the debrief serves as the affective learning “classroom”. In the debrief, the participants can consciously learn more about what their own beliefs are. For example they may learn about their beliefs with regards to maximizing productivity—what they believe about decision making, planning, goal setting, resource management, etc.

So how do we get people to consciously learn about their own belief system, that murky arena that usually lives in the depths “below the surface”?

In the debrief, through the process of reflecting, examining and questioning situations, decisions, and consequences, this usually hidden area of beliefs is made visible.

The methodology of the facilitation process to ‘mine for affective learning gold’ works from the conscious level (what happened in our experience) to the depths of the affective learning domain, where our most deeply held (and often unconscious) beliefs live. With the growth in their affective learning domain, the participant is much more likely to make their unconscious beliefs and behaviours conscious. With this newfound awareness, they can consciously align their beliefs to their skills and knowledge to accelerate achieving the result they want.

When we learn to integrate the Affective with the Cognitive and Psychomotor domains, we can make great changes.

There has been a surge of board and computer based simulations that are being used to address affective learning. T&D magazine quotes, “Simulation is the current method of choice for learning products dealing with particular subjects in the affective learning domains.” Our “simulations or games” (as they are sometimes called) have been dealing with affective learning for years!

The question to be asked is, “If you are trying to develop your people’s learning about human (affective) issues, wouldn’t it make sense to use a human-based methodology to do so?”

Our “simulations” are real time, real world, human interactive experiences which deal with the “human factor” of complexity relating to affective learning issues. Computer-based simulations can only address this “human factor” in a virtual environment, whereas we work in the highly creative world of analogous, real-life experiences.

Using Bloom’s taxonomy, you can introduce the concept that what we know (cognitively) is often in conflict with what we believe (affective). You can then explore this conflict and help find new ways to align head and heart, by first meeting the heart where it is at, and building from there.

We “know” that when we take time upfront to plan, we can make better decisions. However, if our belief is that if everyone else is busy, or always in activity mode, we have to operate in the same way. Hence, belief (we have to go/do something) trumps head knowledge (planning is important).

We know that we are better served when we get information from another source, but we believe that there is not enough time to do so and still get our “work” done. Here again, belief (I don’t have time to consult) trumps head knowledge (getting information helps).

Our beliefs drive what we know and what we do. In essence, this means that “heart learning” is the primary foundation on which to build “head learning” and “hand learning”.

“Head, Heart and Hands” learning not only makes sound common sense, but has been academically verified in Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning Domains. Bloom’s model provides a simple yet brilliant context to demonstrate the value of our unique experiential learning interventions.

Brian Kleinsmith is the MD of Holistic Advancement, a 100% black owned, operated and accredited, Human Resource Practice using the experiential learning methodology, to assist participants build capacity, acquire critical skills and become work ready as part of Learning & Development, one of the services they offer.

Productivity Fast Tracked.

The question that needs to be asked is how well do our current employees, learners who have completed learnerships and graduates cope within an ever-changing environment where the way they perform their tasks today will be different from yesterday and tomorrow.

The focus of both government and private enterprise over the past few years on maximising productivity, has led us to produce a workforce who have built up the skills and competence that are focused on the task and the execution of small activities to achieve results.

The ever-changing environment in which we live and work, however, has made it somewhat difficult for learners to attain, all, the skills they need to perform the tasks on the job. While the focus is on attaining the functional skills, that are critical and necessary, to carry out the work to the prescribed standard, we somehow lose sight of the fact that there is a necessity to equip the learners with the critical skills e.g.: communication, planning, working in teams, conflict management, risk management etc.

It has become more important than ever to be focussing on the more stable elements of the individual to ensure they can deal with the new demands that change brings. What is required, is a shift towards growing and developing more holistic individuals. There is a definite need for individuals to be competent in the critical skills, in addition to the task-based skills in order to maximise productivity.

It has been stated - “that most secondary & tertiary institutions do not provide an environment where these skills can be developed. This means, new entrants into the workplace are faced with the added pressure of delivering to their job expectations as well as having to develop critical skills that are required to successfully function within any workplace”.

The solution would be, to ensure that, all current employees, learners on learnerships and graduates have the opportunity to be exposed and practice these skills in a safe, non-threatening environment. This will go a long way in making our current employees more productive, fairly quickly, and will equip our learners and graduates coming into our organisations with the skills to be “work ready” and therefore productive in a short space of time.

Holistic Advancement, an accredited Human Resource Practice believes they have come up with a new and exciting way to address this need. The solution is an experiential learning framework across all levels of the organisation, which fosters an environment of accelerated learning, through self-discovery and participation. Using a structured experience, designed to accurately reflect situations in the workplace, participants learn by doing and then further their understanding by examining ways to be more effective on the job.

Brian Kleinsmith, Managing Director, says “Together with our Canadian associates we are offering clients a unique experiential learning programme (learn by doing) called Gold of the Desert KingsTM. The main objective of the programme is to maximise productivity, by helping participants reflect on their experience, examine their behaviours and their results and then apply the learnings to their jobs and/or personal lives. The programme challenges participants to come up with their own solutions to problems, rather than being shown what to do in a safe, fun, non-threatening environment”

“The pressures and anxiety experienced on the programme are similar to that experienced daily in a hectic work schedule. Participants are placed in circumstances with limited time and resources and must rely on their team to achieve their goals. They contend with deadlines, a perceived lack of resources, others points of view and the pressure to just do something while trying to accomplish objectives”.

Kleinsmith says that the response from those who have been on the programme supports the view that it will add value to any organization. Its applicability allows for client specific objectives to be addressed fairly quickly, the learnings can immediately be incorporated into the organisational structures, its success can be measured and very importantly, the cost can be recouped from the skill’s levy.

Skills shortage: Scarce and Critical

The month of July, for whatever reason, has prompted a number of articles referring to probably, one of the most talked about issues across all sectors, the subject of skills, and the shortage or lack thereof in South Africa.

It is commonly believed that skills are the most important attributes and the biggest training priorities. Often they are not. Usually lifting beliefs and changing attitudes have a far greater impact on individual performance and organisational effectiveness.

The point for discussion is that while a certain skill level is necessary to do a job, the fact is that attitude determines whether the job is done well, and whether the job holder makes a real difference to their organisation, colleagues and environment.

When we speak of a lack or shortage of skills we need to classify skills into two categories:

While a lot of good work is being done to address the “scarce skills” through the SETAS, business and other role players, not enough is being done to address the “critical skills” which is part of the reason we have such a high number of unemployed graduates.

This however is not only a South African phenomena but a global one and therefore going to India to hire engineers is not necessary going to solve our problem.

Countries like India, Malaysia and Brazil have recognised the fact that producing graduates that are unemployable because of a deficiency in the critical skills is courting disaster in a service driven economy. In India a country once regarded as a bottomless well of ‘ready-to-work’ engineers a shortage looms, not because of technical incompetence, but a critical skills deficiency.

What is required is a shift towards growing and developing more holistic individuals. There is a definite need for individuals to be competent in these critical skills, in addition to the task-based skills in order to maximise productivity and improve service delivery.

The solution would be, to ensure that, all current employees, learners and graduates have the opportunity to be exposed and practice these critical skills in a safe, non-threatening environment. This will go a long way in making our current employees more productive, and will equip our learners and graduates with life skills that will enable them to achieve better results and become more employable or ‘work ready’ in a short space of time.

At Holistic Advancement, an accredited Human Resource Practice we believe we have come up with a new and exciting way to help address this need.

The solution is use of an experiential learning framework across all levels, which fosters an environment of accelerated learning, through self-discovery and participation. Using a structured experience, designed to accurately reflect situations in their daily lives, participants learn by doing, reflecting, translating and then further their understanding by examining ways to be more effective.

The experiential learning methodology is currently being used and promoted extensively in universities and colleges in India, Brazil and other countries to address the “critical skills” deficiency and improve the employability of graduates.

Brian Kleinsmith, Managing Director, says “Together with our Canadian associates, we are able to offer a number of unique interventions of which Gold of the Desert KingsTM. is one. It is an experiential learning programme, with the applicability to be used as a stand alone learning intervention, a platform for any current and/or future training and development, as a pre or post assessment tool, an opening or closing at your next conference/meeting. The intervention, when run, addresses client specific issues, which could include planning, high performance teams, decision making, communication, conflict, change etc. It has been used extensively, with great success because of the subtle learning and lasting impact on participants. It is also fun, safe, non-threatening and can be run for any number of learners from all ability levels at the same time”.

The pressures and anxiety experienced on the programme are similar to that experienced daily. Participants are placed in circumstances with limited time and resources and must rely on their team to achieve their goals. They contend with deadlines, a perceived lack of resources, others points of view and the pressure to just do something while trying to accomplish objectives.

“I believe the intervention compliments the skills development process, which is focussed on tasks and the execution of activities, by addressing the critical skills of problem solving, change, conflict, communication, leadership, planning, team building, creative thinking etc, in growing and developing more holistic individuals," said Kleinsmith.

"It also goes a long way in assisting individuals and organisations, in identifying and addressing performance and productivity, as the threads running throughout the entire programme relates to decision making, accountability, responsibility, utilisation of resources, amongst others”.

Its applicability allows for client specific objectives to be addressed fairly quickly. The learnings can immediately be incorporated into their personal lives and/or organisational structures, its success can be measured and the cost can be recouped from the skills levy.

Kleinsmith says “The feedback we have received from a wide range of participants in the public, private and academic sectors, confirm that the programme is applicable to any audience, does add value, is beneficial and has a positive and lasting impact on participants. The programme is endorsed by a number of FET colleges, and supported by South African Council for Educators.

• Brian Kleinsmith is Managing Director of Holistic Advancement, a 100% black owned, operated and accredited, Human Resource Practice using the experiential learning methodology, to assist participants to build capacity, acquire critical skills and become work ready as part of the Learning & Development service they offer. For more information go to www.holisticadvancement.co.za, e-mail brian@holisticadvancement.co.za or call 021 424 7713

Graduates need 'life skills as well as knowledge'.


Graduates 'need life skills as well as knowledge'
Sarah-Jane Bosch 28 July 2008 at 04h00

“Are employees, graduates and learners, who have completed learnerships, coping in an ever-changing environment where the way they perform tasks today will be different from yesterday and tomorrow?”, asks Brian Kleinsmith, managing director of Holistic Advancement, a human resource practice.

"Over the past few years, government, education and private enterprise have focused on maximising productivity, by producing a workforce that has built up skills and competencies by concentrating on specific tasks and the execution of small activities to achieve results," says Kleinsmith.

"With the current focus on attaining the functional skills that are required and necessary to carry out work to the prescribed standard, we lose sight of the fact that there is a need to equip learners with the 'critical skills' of decision-making, communication, planning, team work, conflict management, risk management, etc."

Kleinsmith says it has become more important than ever to ensure individuals can deal with the new demands that change brings to maximise productivity. This requires a shift towards growing and developing more holistic people, competent in the critical skills, in addition to the task-based skills.

He says most secondary and tertiary institutions do not provide an environment where these skills can be developed. This means new entrants to the workplace are faced with the pressure of delivering to job expectations and having to develop critical skills that are required to function successfully within any workplace.

"The solution would be to enable all employees, learners on learnerships and graduates to identify, acquire and practice these skills in a safe, non-threatening environment. This will go a long way towards making current employees more productive fairly quickly, and will equip learners and graduates coming into organisations with the skills to be 'work ready' and, therefore, productive in a short time," says Kleinsmith.

Holistic Advancement believes the solution is an experiential learning framework across all levels, which fosters an environment of accelerated learning, through self-discovery and participation. Using a structured experience designed to reflect situations in the "real world", participants learn by doing, and then further their understanding by examining ways to be more effective on the job.

The main objective of the experiential learning interventions are to maximise productivity by helping participants reflect on their experiences, examine their behaviours and their results and then apply what they have learnt to their jobs and/or personal lives.

"The interventions challenge participants to come up with their own solutions to problems, rather than being shown what to do, in a safe, fun, non-threatening environment. The pressures and anxiety experienced during the interventions are similar to those experienced daily in a hectic work schedule. Participants are placed in circumstances with limited time and resources and must rely on their team to achieve their goals. They contend with deadlines, a perceived lack of resources, different points of view and the pressure to do something while trying to accomplish objectives."

Kleinsmith says the response from a wide range of participants who have been exposed to this type of interventions supports the view that it will add value to any organisation.

"It is applicable to a wide range of situations and allows for client- specific objectives to be addressed fairly quickly. The skills learned can immediately be incorporated into the organisational structures and its success can be measured."

 For more information, visit www.holisticadvancement.co.za or phone 021 424 7713/23.

Attitudes

FEDHASA CAPE COMMERCIAL BREAK JANUARY 2010

ATTITUDES

The success of any business, more so the hospitality industry, is dependant on the attitude/behaviour of its employees towards the business, fellow employees and most importantly the customer.

In order for individuals to be able to change their attitudes/behaviour it is essential that they are competent in the “Critical Skills” of planning, communication, problem solving, responsibility, time management, team work, risk management, decision making, etc over and above the “task” based skills they are trained in for their particular job.

To ensure that, all current employees, learners on learnerships and graduates have the opportunity to attain and practice these skills in a safe, non-threatening environment we at Holistic Advancement, have developed an experiential learning framework across all levels of the organizations, which fosters an environment of accelerated learning, through self-discovery and participation.

Using a structured experience, designed to accurately reflect situations in the workplace, participants learn by doing and then further their understanding by examining ways to be more effective back on the job.

This will go a long way in making our current employees more productive, almost immediately, and will equip our learners and graduates coming into the industry with the skills, to be work ready, and therefore productive, in a relatively short space of time.

Our experiential learning intervention Gold of the Desert Kings has successfully been used to address this and other needs with a wide range of participants including staff and students in the hospitality industry. Some of our participants include staff and members of FEDHASA, hospitality students at Northlink College, staff at Table bay Hotel amongst others.

For more information please contact Holistic Advancement at +27 021 424 7713 or go to

www.holisticadvancement.co.za

Tel: 021-552 9870	Fax: 021-552 3466
Email: fedhasacape@fedhasa.co.za	Website: www.fedhasacape.co.za

“Are students ready to successfully make the transition from high school to an institution of further education?”

“Are graduates equipped with the necessary skills to find jobs after receiving their diplomas and degrees?”

These are questions being asked by, students, graduates, parents, educators, business and government with various levels of concern, to which the answer, in many more cases than not, to both these questions is an emphatic NO.

As we stand at the beginning of another year, re-crunched statistics will emerge highlighting the known facts that:
- the percentage of dropouts and failures of first year students at FET and HET institutions have probably increased.
- the number of graduates who will not find jobs is reaching alarming proportions.

One of the reasons for this situation is that both groups are not “ready” to take the next step into this ever-changing environment that we live in. First year students don’t know how to cope with their new -found freedom, they are not organised, they cannot manage their time and have no sense of responsibility. Skills, some of them, only come to realise they lack at the end of the academic year when it is too late.

On the other hand, graduates may have all the right technical skills and able to perform their tasks by the book, but still regarded as unemployable, because they are unable work in teams, solve problems, make decisions, think creatively, communicate, etc and therefore deemed not ‘work ready’.

The ever-changing environment in which we live and work, demands that besides the functional and technical skills we do require, we also need to be equipped with the ‘soft’ skills of, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, planning, working in teams, conflict management, risk management, etc, to be employable and productive.

In an initiative involving both education and business communities, Peter Eppig of New Hampshire asked the groups to answer two key questions. The first question, addressed by a group of educationists, was:

• What skills and dispositions are vitally important for students to have by the time they leave school in order to be successful in their lives?

• What skills and dispositions are currently lacking in the workforce that impedes individual and organisational success?

The two groups were deliberately kept apart to highlight the differences in perspective between the two sectors but when they reported back it was found that their recommendations were remarkably similar. They culminated in the lists of “Critical Skills” and “Fundamental Dispositions” below:

CRITICAL SKILLS • Problem solving • Decision making • Critical thinking • Creative thinking • Communication • Organisation • Management • Leadership

FUNDAMENTAL DISPOSITIONS • Owners of life-long learning • Self-direction • Internal model of quality • Integrity and ethical character • Collaboration • Curiosity and wonder • Community membership It has been stated - “that most secondary & tertiary institutions do not provide an environment where these skills can be developed”. This means that students and graduates are faced with the added pressure of delivering to expectations as well as having to develop critical skills that are required to successfully function within the ‘real world’.

At the 6th IAC International FET Conference held in Cape Town in June 2006, under the heading ‘Strategies for employability in a global economy’, problem solving, creative thinking, risk management, leadership, etc were identified as the “Critical Skills which individuals should possess for the 21st Century”.

The Commonwealth ministers, at the 16th CCEM conference held in Cape Town during December 2006, committed themselves among other things to implementing development programmes aimed at improving management and leadership skills in education.

Capacity building and critical skills, or lack thereof, are continuously being raised by the President, Deputy-President (addressed by AsgiSA and Jipsa), Ministers, Premiers, academics, business, and they all agree that these fundamentals have to be addressed in order to see ourselves as a country “moving from mediocre to successful”.

The focus of both government and private enterprise over the past few years on functional and technical skills to maximise productivity, has led to the creation of a workforce that has built up skills and competence that are task orientated.

Holistic Advancement, an accredited Human Resource Practice believes they have come up with a new and exciting way to help address this need. The solution is an experiential learning framework across all levels of the organisation, which fosters an environment of accelerated learning, through self-discovery and participation. Using a structured experience, designed to accurately reflect situations in their daily lives, participants learn by doing, reflecting, translating and then further their understanding by examining ways to be more effective.

The experiential learning methodology is currently being used and promoted extensively in universities and colleges in India and other countries to address the critical skills deficiency and improve the employability of graduates.

Brian Kleinsmith, Managing Director, says “Together with our associates, we are able to offer a unique intervention called Gold of the Desert KingsTM, which is an experiential learning programme, with the applicability to be used as a stand alone training programme, a platform for any current and/or future training and development, as an pre or post assessment tool, an opening or closing at your next conference. The programme, when run, addresses client specific issues, which could include planning, high performance teams, decision making, communication, conflict, change etc. It has been used extensively, with great success because of the subtle learning and lasting impact on participants. It is also fun, safe, non-threatening and can be run for any number of learners from all ability levels at the same time”.

“The pressures and anxiety experienced on the programme are similar to that experienced daily. Participants are placed in circumstances with limited time and resources and must rely on their team to achieve their goals. They contend with deadlines, a perceived lack of resources, others points of view and the pressure to just do something while trying to accomplish objectives”.

“I believe the programme compliments the skills development process, which is focussed on tasks and the execution of activities, by addressing the critical skills of problem solving, change, decision making, conflict, communication, leadership, planning, team building, creative thinking etc, in growing and developing more holistic individuals”.

It also goes a long way in assisting individuals and organisations, in identifying and addressing performance and productivity, as the threads running throughout the entire programme relates to decision making, accountability, responsibility, utilisation of resources, amongst others.

Kleinsmith says “The feedback we have received from a wide range of participants in the public, private and academic sectors, confirm that the programme is applicable to any audience, does add value, is beneficial and has a positive and lasting impact on participants. The programme is endorsed by two FET colleges namely Northlink College and the College of Cape Town and supported by S. A. Council for Educators.

For more information go to www.holisticadvancement.co.za or contact us at 021 424 7713 brian@holisticadvancement.co.za.

The Three Types of Learning.