In this month's Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Benefits Bulletin, the organization highlighted the professional development webinars that they offer to members. What I absolutely loved about the bulletin is that they recognized that people who have historically gone into electrical and electronics engineering tend to have wonderful technical skills and subject matter expertise, but may need assistance with handling the "soft skills" necessary to really excel in a corporation (and also might be introverts, who may need additional coaching to get out of their comfort zones to be able to successfully network).Just as the IEEE looked at the importance of professional networking for their members, and recognized the need to train their members to successfully adapt to this changed paradigm, what tools do the people in your organization need to change? What backgrounds, training, and/or certifications do your employees have, and are these sufficient to give them the skills to take on the change and move your company where it now needs to go?In a previous blog, I talked about Kirkpatrick's levels of training evaluation to ensure you have built the necessary training and development materials to help your organization make the change you are tasked with implementing (and ensuring you have put in place the mechanisms to measure that the change has happened). What I did not mention at the time is the fundamental question of whether your employee base has the fundamental training (either hard or soft skills) to be able to leverage the materials you are creating to take them to the next level.If not, then I suggest you work with your human resources and training departments to identify best in breed classes (perhaps industry webinars) to supplement the communication plan you develop. By focusing on setting your employees up for success, and showing that you are committed to giving them all the tools they need to adapt to the change, you will create an environment that incents your staff to take the leap and help make the change a reality.
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