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    The Synolic Manager: Getting It All Together
    The Synolic Manager: Getting It All Together
    The Synolic Manager: Getting It All Together
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    The Synolic Manager: Getting It All Together

    By Alan M. Barratt and D. Patrick Georges

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    About this ebook

    In their 30-year business experience the authors faced a continuous need to develop people. They found that managers and training professionals encountered difficulties in efforts to critically examine performance improvement opportunities and in exploring the ingredients of individual performance.

    Traditional approaches such as skills training, even when based on the findings of job analyses and job knowledge surveys, often failed to significantly affect individual performance. Facing questions such as "why do competent and motivated managers sometimes fail to achieve certain realistic and well-planned objectives?" the authors felt the need for a more comprehensive approach to human resource development (HRD). Such an approach would include a set of factors that, seen as related to spirituality in the workplace, traditionally were largely ignored. These were personal factors, such as beliefs and self-image, which did not allow some people to utilize new skills taught at traditional training courses.

    Following academic and field research the authors developed a new HRD model for which they coined the term Synolic from the Greek "synolos," meaning complete or all together. The new model was presented in an article entitled "The Synolic Approach to Human Resource Development," published in the British management journal Executive Development (Vol. 8, No. 2, 1995).

    This book represents the authors effort to respond to requests for how-to techniques for utilizing the Synolic model. They opted to write it in allegory form to make it easier to read after a hard day at work. It tells the story of a promising and ambitious young human resources professional who is frustrated by the reluctance of a crusty marketing manager to utilize her impeccable HRD services. In search of answers, our heroine travels from New Jersey to London and returns ready to abandon her traditional HRD role and instead serve as performance consultant to the business units. As a narrative nonfiction book The Synolic Manager may be read as an introduction to the concept of a comprehensive approach to development of self or others. The Appendix may be used as a workbook for specific performance improvement and for career or retirement planning.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateMar 3, 1999
    ISBN9781462814527
    The Synolic Manager: Getting It All Together

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      Book preview

      The Synolic Manager - Alan M. Barratt

      THE

      SYNOLIC

      MANAGER

      Getting It All Together

      Alan M. Barratt

      and

      D. Patrick Georges

      Copyright © 1998 by Alan M. Barratt and D. Patrick Georges.

      Front cover art: Copyright © 1997 Corel Corporation.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      This book was printed in the United States of America.

      To order additional copies of this book, contact:

      Xlibris Corporation

      1-888-7-XLIBRIS

      www.Xlibris.com

      Orders@Xlibris.com

      LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

      1. Role Clarity

      2. The Original Performance Improvement Model

      3. Work Preferences

      4. The Team Management Wheel

      5. A Synolic Approach to Human Resource Development

      TO IRENE AND LILY WITH LOVE

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      To all our colleagues past and present who shared their experiences of work and life over the years, and in particular to Dr. Charles Margerison, who influenced us both in performance management, and to Dimitri Tsitos in Greece, who was an early Synolic Pioneer to promote the concept.

      PREFACE

      THE NEED FOR GETTING IT

      ALL TOGETHER

      During our 30-year business experience, initially as managers and later as training and development consultants, we faced a continuous need to develop managers and other professional staff. We found that managers and training personnel in general encountered difficulties in efforts to critically examine performance improvement opportunities and in exploring the ingredients of individual performance. Traditional approaches such as skills training, even when based on the findings of job analyses and job knowledge surveys, often fail to significantly affect individual performance.

      Feeling the need for a more comprehensive approach, in 1982, Alan came up with the Barratt Performance Improvement (BARR-IMP) model (Figure 2), which was based on his own experience and research. It represented an effort to provide easy-to-follow guidelines for those who wanted to improve individual work performance. Though it was mainly intended for working individuals, Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals were invited to try it also. The model’s major addition to the traditional areas of desirable qualifications (knowledge, skills, experience, credentials and motivation) was the need for role clarity.

      Alan shared the model with a circle of HRD professionals—mostly within Mobil Oil Corporation’s worldwide operations—including Patrick. We decided to get together occasionally to share our experience in using the BARR-IMP model. Those idea exchanges led us to realize that the components of the model were all work related. There was another set of factors that traditionally were largely ignored. These were personal factors, including the reasons for which some people did not utilize new skills taught at traditional training courses.

      In an effort to answer legitimate performance management questions—such as „why do competent and motivated managers sometimes fail to achieve certain realistic and well-planned objectives?"—we started putting the pieces together and came up with an enhanced model. To emphasize the special approach of the new model, we coined a new term, Synolic, from the Greek synolos, meaning complete or all together.

      The Synolic model represents a hyper-comprehensive approach to human resource development. It examines critically not only factors lying within conscious control, but also ways of influencing unconscious decisions that account for much of human behavior. The new model was presented in an article entitled The Synolic Approach to Human Resource Development, which was published in the British management journal Executive Development (Vol. 8, No. 2, 1995). Since publication of the article, we have received requests for how-to techniques for utilizing the Synolic model on the job. We decided that the best way to provide such information would be in the form of a practical applications guide such as this book.

      We opted to write The Synolic Manager in allegory form, so that it may be easier to read after a hard day at work. It tells the story of a promising and ambitious young human resources professional who is frustrated by the reluctance of a crusty marketing manager to utilize her impeccable HRD services. In search of answers, our heroine travels from New Jersey to London and returns ready to abandon her traditional role and instead serve as HRD consultant to the business units.

      This book may be read as an introduction to the concept of a hyper-comprehensive approach to HRD, while the Appendix may be used as a workbook for specific performance improvement of self or others.

      A. M. B. and D. P. G.

      1. BELIEF CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS

      When Cheryl entered, Melanie right away knew that something was wrong. She could read her right-hand woman’s face like a book.

      Melanie had held the job of Human Resources Manager for just over two years. She had joined the company’s Central New Jersey Head Office as HRD assistant five years before. In human resources jargon HRD stands for human resource development. Thanks to her high performance and blue-ribbon academic credentials—and the company’s aggressive diversity policy—she reached the top human resources job in just three years. It had taken her predecessor, Sidney Adams, a white male, over 25 years with the company to get to that job. She also had a bit of luck. She happened to be the right person, at the right place, at the right time. Adams, whose title had been Senior V P.—Human Resources, was lured to early retirement by an attractive separation package, also known in downsizing circles as a golden handshake.

      It was a win-win situation for all parties concerned, well, almost. The Company got rid of a highly paid job, added a star to its diversity program at much less cost, the ex-Senior V. P. was free to graze in the greener pastures of golf and Melanie got a promotion that made her head spin. She had harbored thoughts of getting the same pay and perks as the old man, but that was far from being part of the Company‘s game plan. After flying high, then shot down, she heeded the advice of experienced friends and relatives. She put her nose to the grindstone hoping that through hard work she would get her predecessor‘s status and perks; perhaps she would even become the Company‘s CEO one day.

      Cheryl placed a folder on Melanie‘s desk.

      „What is it, Cheryl?"

      „I‘ve completed my training needs project for next year. Here are the results."

      „Okay, let me have it straight."

      „This year I managed to get all the answers back in time to prepare our training budget and schedule of training opportunities. Some Division Heads who failed to respond in the past apparently changed their mind this year. They told their staff to give me their full cooperation. All except one, of course."

      „Don‘t tell me. Let me guess: Alex?"

      „You got it. As he did last year, and the year before, he sent us the training questionnaires back with a sentence

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