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Totally agreed. This was my policy with my staff. I straight up told them they can and should take a couple hours a week (tried to start small to make it ach

Totally agreed. This was my policy with my staff. I straight up told them they can and should take a couple hours a week (tried to start small to make it achievable) on personal development, whether that's reading books, taking courses, etc. I'd even try and brainstorm with them on ways to spend the time. Funny thing is, with one or two exceptions, few did it because they always felt something else was more urgent during the day...

sanderjd 3y ago
I think this is sort of like unlimited vacation time policies: if you really want people to take advantage of it because you really believe in its value, you actually have to constantly nudge many, maybe most, people to do it. In the case of training / education, a good solution may be to provide more structure. Get a group of people to sign up for an actual structured class (or run one yourself), and set the expectation that they actually go to the meetings and/or do the work for it. Just "figure out some time to read some books on your own" will work for some people, but lots of people thrive on more structure than that.
- BaseballPhysics 3y ago
  Another commenter also made a very good point: you've gotta let off the gas a bit. If everyone is going flat out, the surrounding pressures will cause people to prioritize being responsive to those pressures. But that requires a fundamental change in organizational productivity culture and means this kind of policy probably needs to be implemented -- and critically, measured -- at the corporate level so people collectively recognize that learning time is sacrosanct. No big deal!
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    Yep, and this is another way in which it reminds me of vacation policies. People have trouble imagining when they'll be able to take time off when the foot is always on the gas. So even if managers are truly bought in to the idea that time off is actually critical to a productive workforce (and I think most leadership I've worked for actually does buy this), it's still easy to create an environment where that doesn't happen.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I think a lot of employees also convince themselves that if they unplug for a long vacation (which used to be pretty much inevitable), their career will be hosed or the company will fall apart. I took a number of month long vacations before there was much in the way of internet and I had people come up to me and basically be in astonishment that I could do that.
ghaff 3y ago
The advantage of going to conferences, taking in-person courses, etc. (in addition to the hallway track) isn't so much that they're efficient--they're not really--or that they're something of a (relatively) cheap perk that a lot of employees appreciate, but that they really do immerse you in something that you might otherwise do glancingly "when you get around to it."

sanderjd 3y ago

I think this is sort of like unlimited vacation time policies: if you really want people to take advantage of it because you really believe in its value, you actually have to constantly nudge many, maybe most, people to do it. In the case of training / education, a good solution may be to provide more structure. Get a group of people to sign up for an actual structured class (or run one yourself), and set the expectation that they actually go to the meetings and/or do the work for it. Just "figure out some time to read some books on your own" will work for some people, but lots of people thrive on more structure than that.

BaseballPhysics 3y ago
Another commenter also made a very good point: you've gotta let off the gas a bit. If everyone is going flat out, the surrounding pressures will cause people to prioritize being responsive to those pressures. But that requires a fundamental change in organizational productivity culture and means this kind of policy probably needs to be implemented -- and critically, measured -- at the corporate level so people collectively recognize that learning time is sacrosanct. No big deal!
- sanderjd 3y ago
  Yep, and this is another way in which it reminds me of vacation policies. People have trouble imagining when they'll be able to take time off when the foot is always on the gas. So even if managers are truly bought in to the idea that time off is actually critical to a productive workforce (and I think most leadership I've worked for actually does buy this), it's still easy to create an environment where that doesn't happen.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I think a lot of employees also convince themselves that if they unplug for a long vacation (which used to be pretty much inevitable), their career will be hosed or the company will fall apart. I took a number of month long vacations before there was much in the way of internet and I had people come up to me and basically be in astonishment that I could do that.

ghaff 3y ago

The advantage of going to conferences, taking in-person courses, etc. (in addition to the hallway track) isn't so much that they're efficient--they're not really--or that they're something of a (relatively) cheap perk that a lot of employees appreciate, but that they really do immerse you in something that you might otherwise do glancingly "when you get around to it."