Help! Our Company-Mandated Self-Improvement Isn't Doable

Dear Mike,??

The company I work for recently launched an initiative advocating "continuous learning and innovation." As part of this, everyone, regardless of their position, is expected to dedicate a set number of hours each week to personal growth and training. While I am all for development, this has led to a spike in workload. The hours I spend on training feel like hours taken away from the mounting tasks and deadlines.??

To add to this, as a department head, I'm not only managing my own time but also overseeing my team's progress. I'm caught in this constant tug-of-war between ensuring my department hits targets and adhering to this new mandate. The last thing I want is for my team to burn out or for our department's performance to dip.??

How can I effectively communicate my concerns to upper management? Is it possible to find a middle ground that values both productivity and personal growth without compromising on either???

Awaiting your insights,??

Detention Bound?

Dear Detention Bound,?

Let me be straight with you: It’s never going to feel like the right time for this kind of initiative – because there’s never going to be a time that you (and your team) are not overworked. At different points in your career, that will feel like an ugly truth or an odd kind of blessing, but the long and the short of it is that you’re always going to have more work than time.?

Given that it's existential impossibility to make more time or less work, try to find some comfort in striking a sustainable balance. You have to find a way to consistently prioritize your workload against your schedule. You might start by asking yourself some basic questions about the style of worker you are, and what conditions yield the best output from you and your team. Design a situation where you can flourish, and the work will feel better – if not easier or lighter.??

Do you work well in chaos or do you need organization? Do you want to be told what to do day to day or do you prefer to operate with more abstract supervision that leaves room for you to devise your own solutions? Only you can decide what sustainability looks like for you. And, because you sound like a good department head, you can probably help individual members of your team figure it out for themselves, too.??

You’re always going to have more work than time

If your company is mandating learning, they need to help manage it – whether by working directly with individual employees or by having department heads like you help lead this new charge. Either way, you’re right to be thinking both in terms of a) accomplishing what’s being asked of you effectively, and b) presenting constructive suggestions because you’ll bear some responsibility for ensuring this new mandate is successful. And so will everyone who takes part in it.?

The best thing you can do? Share your thoughts. A good starting point is to consider three things:?

1. How you learn?

1. How you contribute to the team?

1. How you manage your time?

Don’t be afraid to consult with your peers so you can work toward a collective situation that is tolerable for all (or most) people. After you’ve thought about this – whether as an individual, with your team, or as a department, it’s time to talk to leadership. A company so thoughtful as to invest in employees this way will likely be receptive to feedback that improves buy-in to the program, especially if you come with an alternate approach that your team is already on board with. Your suggestion might just permeate the rest of the organization or resonate with the leaders.??

Maybe the solution is simpler than you realize. You might be able to propose a meeting-free Friday, where everyone has a block of time for learning – kind of like study hall. Or maybe there needs to be a shift away from the mandatory model to something more like “professional extra credit,” where your yearly review is positively impacted if you’ve done a certain amount of upskilling. When my companies have done something similar, we’ve framed them as optional learning opportunities rather than mandated training, giving people the opportunity to pursue relevant, actionable skills in their own time.??

How many brownie points your company should get for instituting learning opportunities should depend on whether they put in the effort to make it successful

That the company is enlightened enough to invest in its people should be viewed as a net positive, not as a burden or more work. If you manage to get the logistics squared away, it might even be an opportunity for team building. If they follow through and assume responsibility for determining how to make this mandatory upskilling work, I’ll be the first to applaud them.??

But honestly, if they’re not willing to step up and do that, then this might be the kind of thing that sounded great when they thought it up but didn’t really translate into the real world. (Which happens! You think you’ve got a great thing, you put it in place, and then it doesn’t work for people.) How many brownie points your company should get for instituting learning opportunities should depend on whether they put in the effort to make it successful. And, if they don’t, your team should rest easy knowing they have a leader like you on their side who fought for them.?

Best of luck,

Mike

In today's business climate, most of us feel unsure at least a few times a week. If you have a question about a difficult workplace scenario, my inbox is always open. Message me here on LinkedIn or leave your questions for me anonymously. After 22 years as a serial fintech entrepreneur, I've averted my share of disasters. Let me help you outsmart yours.