Band Practice Development Proposal

Role: Lead, CS Strategy & Design
Timeline: 1 week building, 3 months (proposed pilot)
Tools: Google Workspace, Slack, ChatGPT, DallE
Stakeholders: CS Training, CS Knowledge & Process, (Eventually) CS Org
Problem: Tenured employees in the CS org have been asking for more growth opportunities, as well as more chances to work together and share skills/knowledge.
Outcome: I delivered this proposal and presented it to Senior Leadership with the intention of kicking off a pilot. However, the reduction in force took place just as I was kicking off development.

Prep

This proposal iterates on an effort I was already leading within my team, called Skills Labs. My team had been running quarterly Skills Labs with some consistency since the start of the pandemic. The brief was that someone could bring an idea to the team of a skill they had—or wanted to learn—and they (or someone else on the team) would lead a workshop on that topic. Very effective when you have a team of learning designers!

But when I started hearing repeated calls for more skill growth in org Town Halls, I started wondering what we could do to break down some of the existing silos within the CS org, and maybe get some knowledge sharing happening.

After meeting with a few members of leadership to get buy-in and to discuss potential pain points I’d need to address in a proposal, I developed this program and a plan to pilot it for Q1 of 2024.

Proposal

The opportunity:

Personal growth and development are trending opportunities in CS – and we know people want to stretch themselves, but often aren’t sure where to start. Within the “drive your own development” structure, it’s easy for these growth tasks to be pushed off until later when faced with more urgent deadlines and an endless to-do list.

What we can do:

Implement a strategic structure that’s still self-driven – with a bit more structure and support. I think we could test this with the shared services teams!

By creating an accountability structure (both peer-to-peer and between managers and their direct reports), we can get insight into what skills teammates are interested in, have better collaboration between peers/teams, and ultimately improve the advisor experience through skill cross-pollination.

What that looks like:

Using personal development time:

Skill development - probably the most obvious! This would be for working on practical skills, whether that’s acquiring new ones through things like LinkedIn Learning or GreenHouse workshops, or building on existing skills.
Innovation - We’ve heard from people that they sometimes feel like they don’t have the opportunity to slow down and try new things.
Industry trends & best practices - Using the time to review blogs, newsletters, YouTube videos, TikToks, etc., of industry news, in order to bring new concepts back to the business.
Shadowing - And reverse shadowing! Partnering with a buddy who has more advanced skills and working with them on a project in order to practice hands-on skills.
Org upskilling - Have a skill and see an opportunity? Create a skills lab and invite other teams to participate, and share it around!

Anticipated benefits:

Honestly, it’s several of the same things as above, slightly rephrased.

More robust team skill sets, as opposed to individuals
Better org psychological safety in a learning environment
Improved cross-team collaboration
More frequent innovation
Employee engagement

Potential blockers:

Time management - Are all employees able to effectively block their time and self-drive this process, or will people who already struggled to find time for personal growth continue to under this structure? How can we reach those people?
Lack of interest - What happens if no one else signs up? How do we drum up interest around the initial launch to build and keep momentum?
Bandwidth - There’s a lot going on in CS, all the time! How do we protect this time while also ensuring responsibilities are met and deliverables continue to move?
Impact - It might be hard to actually measure the impact of personal development time without a direct correlation to Tune In, which is quite far away!

Logistical FAQ:

Team members will likely naturally gravitate toward skills and interests that are in line with their role or wider team efforts. But even if they want to study hand puppetry, there’s probably a conversation to be had about their wider goals and interests!
Managers should have a conversation about what the team member wants to learn, and how they’ll apply that skill or knowledge within their day-to-day work (or to a specific project/effort).
For the initial pilot, just support from leadership and interest from the teams!
Managers should be following up on personal development time in regular 1:1s to discuss learnings and share wins. The buddy system for learning also doubles as an accountability feature.
It’d also be great to make this a standing item in team meetings, so people can demonstrate skills to the wider team if they’ve done something they’re proud of!
As mentioned above, there could be a natural cadence built into team meetings and 1:1s to share wins. But if the pilot program is successful, we could start sharing “Band Practice Demos” in the CS All Hands where we invite one or two people to quickly share what they learned during their dev time.
Long-term, I’d hope to see an improvement in our Tune In scores for growth and development!
During the pilot phase, we could implement a quick survey to gauge sentiment and success of the efforts in order to course-correct any pain points midway through (i.e, if people aren’t using the time due to bandwidth constraints, or there’s low attendance for live workshops).
The scale decision can be made using a post-pilot survey to gauge overall sentiment, satisfaction, and success of the efforts.
Opportunities in Echo are (primarily) growth opportunities within other teams through project or positional embeds, which are often more about reaching a deliverable goal than strategically learning a new skill, exploring industry trends and best practices, or pairing within your own organization!
Echo also supports 1:1 mentoring–which could overlap here if people develop closer relationships!–but that’s more formalized (and more 1:1) than this effort is meant to be.

Pilot & beyond plans: