building a learning culture in your firm

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Building a Learning Culture In Your Firm

Presented by

Michelle BacaConvergenceCoaching, LLC

January 13, 2011



Our Objectives and Agenda

• To develop an appreciation for continuous learning and explore:– Creating an environment that embraces continuous

formal and informal learning – Identifying diverse learning styles and interests – Developing a systemized approach to providing your

people with the soft skills, business process, and technical support they need



What Is A Learning Environment?• One that:

– Values learning and invests the time, money, and resources to prove it

– Believes in a life-long learning concept (versus “early in life learning”) and models this behavior from the top down

– Manages the learning function to ensure a variety of learning opportunities are offered all year, to all people in the firm

– Measures learning functions and processes and hold the leadership team accountable for the firm’s performance in this area



What is the Payoff?

• We invest in learning to:– Transform behavior– Enhance performance– Expand capacity – increase the number of people

who can do certain tasks– Increase efficiency– Enhance employee satisfaction and retention– Enhance client satisfaction and retention



Poll #1

• What is the most accurate description of the one reason you feel you need to develop a learning culture? – Continuous market place changes– Competitors are doing it– Need to develop people faster– Our people value learning, so we have to offer

it– Other



Human Resources Today • We have recently emerged from one of the toughest periods

of recruiting in our profession’s history• Things have been loosening, but only temporarily!

– 76 million Baby Boomers all plan to retire over the next 10-15 years– There are only 41 million Gen Xer’s to succeed them– Younger CPAs with talent can find employment anywhere or start

their own practices with so many retirees willing to transition their books

• We will all be back in that fight for people in the next 12-18 months– It may even be later this year

• We have to be creative and caring as we manage our HR initiatives and people development programs to maintain the health of our current eco-system and position us well for the future



A Word About Individual Motivators• In their work, all people value:

– Acknowledgement and respect– Increased responsibility and challenge– Flexibility and time off– Compensation– Camaraderie and fun– Personal development

• Each person in your firm values these motivators differently• In other words, your commitment to a learning culture will be

a big “turn on” to some and less so to others– It isn’t the only way to motivate your team but because you’re in the

knowledge business, it’s one of the most important



Leadership Development and Career Pathing



8 Steps to Creating a Learning Culture

1 - Model a Top-Down Commitment to Learning

2 - Define Learning Roles and Assign Ownership

3 - Create a Learning Initiative Plan and Measures of Success

4 - Create a Firm-Wide Learning Matrix

5 -Ensure that the 4 Types of Learning Skill-Sets are Represented

6 - Include a Variety of Instructional Methods

7 - Create Individual Learning Roadmaps

8 - Establish Accountability and Tracking Methods



Step 1 - Model a Top-Down Commitment to Learning



Modeling Learning

• Your 1st step is to make sure that you do not have a “do as I say, not as I do” learning system

• Your partners and executive leaders HAVE TO model a life-long learning commitment and be clear that even they can and do learn new things daily– This isn’t just a verbal commitment– You have to show up at learning functions, pay attention, focus,

ask questions, and stay for the entire event– Your people will take their queues from you!



Step 2 - Define Learning Roles and Objectives



It Starts With Leadership• Start with the assignment of learning “ownership” in

your firm. Some possible learning roles include:– The Executive or Partner Sponsor

• Makes sure that learning is part of the firm’s mission, vision, values, and core strategies each year

• Represents learning at the partner table– The Learning “Manager”

• Drives learning initiatives in the practice• Responsible for managing all aspects of learning activities –

planning, resourcing/delivering, measuring, and reporting



More Learning Roles– The Facilitators

• Those with specialized knowledge in knowledge transfer and skills development in particular areas – either within your firm or external

• They work with your Executive Sponsor and/or Learning Manager to develop the appropriate learning opportunities in a variety of subjects and delivery methods

– The Learners• Initiates and owns their own learning experiences – called “Learner

Driven Learning”• Practiced in most schools today, the learner shares responsibility for

making their own learning happen– The Counselors

• Those who review performance and provide feedback to the Learners

• They act as career advisors or career managers, help Learners develop personal learning plan goals and a training plan that aligns with firm goals



Step 3 - Create A Learning Initiative Plan and Measures of Success



Create Your Learning Initiative Plan• Gather input from your leadership team and define

what you intend to accomplish• Include several potential objectives such as:

– Transforming behavior– Enhancing performance– Expanding capacity – Enhancing employee satisfaction and retention– Differentiating your firm in the recruiting process



Potential Short-term Measures• Did we complete a firm-wide learning plan?• Did we develop individual learning plans for each

person?• How many elements of each plan were completed?• What was the formal feedback from the learning

methods and activities we invested in?• What was the pass rate on CPE courses taken?• What is the pass rate on CPA exam for our new hires?



Longer Range Measures• How many people have we promoted from within this year?• Are we able to delegate more work with confidence?• Do we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right

position?• Were we able to make a smooth transition in our succession

process?• Engagement realization improvement• Profitability improvement• Increased client satisfaction• Increased staff retention



Hold Learning Owners Accountable• Your executive or partner sponsor, counselor, and learning

manager should be held accountable for short-term and longer range measures– Tying compensation or incentives to these will ensure a sustained focus

• All facilitators should be held accountable for their course pass rates, evaluation feedback ratings, and changes in behavior or skill levels that result from their learning methods

• Learners (including partners) should be held accountable for their successful completion of their learning plan in terms of meeting by-when dates and success measures



Step 4 - Create Your Firm-Wide Learning Matrix



Firm-Wide Learning Management Matrix

Title Field of Study

Professional Level Facilitator Availability

Prtnr Mgr Sen Assoc Admin All Company Dates

Marketing Planning

Marketing X X Outside Provider

5/1/10

Successful Lead Generation Activities

Marketing X Outside Provider

6/20/10

Developing Your Personal

Marketing Plan

Marketing X Outside Provider

6/1/10

Cross-Selling Strategies

Sales X X X Outside Provider

8/15/10

Building a Sales Culture in Your

Firm

Sales X X X Outside Provider

7/1/10

Business Writing Skills Marketing X

Internal/ Outside Provider

8/1/10



Develop A Firm-Wide Management Matrix• Create a matrix to provide a “master overview” of all

learning options across your various learning types and methods

• Your learning manager will use the matrix to communicate learning options for various staff levels to managers and mentors– This will help when developing individual learning plans



Step 5 - Ensure That the 4 types of Learning Skill-Sets are Represented



Poll #2

• Where do you spend the most training dollars or training hours in your firm?– Soft skills, such as leadership and business

development training– Business process training, such as employee

orientation and project management– Business model, such as utilization and budgeting– Technical skills training– Don’t know/unsure



Soft Skills Learning Examples• Leadership behaviors

and activities• Professional ethics• Communications• Conflict management• Business writing• Marketing• Networking

• Selling• Client service skills• Project management• Recruiting• People and

performance management

• Presentation skills• Facilitation



Business Process Learning Examples• Employee orientation

and administration• Time entry processes• Billing and collections• Proposal development• Sales and marketing

processes• Project management

• Product/service delivery methods

• Scheduling• Budgeting• Strategic planning in

your firm• Initiative management• Leader compensation

and performance measures



Business Model Learning Examples

• How time flows to cash• Engagement profitability factors

– Fees– Realization– Utilization– Leverage– Budget management

• How the firm is positioned compared to others – your competitive landscape

• Benchmarking against other firm’s best practices



Technical Skills Learning Examples• Audit preparation and client file setup• Trial balance set up• Creating and updating schedules including

calculations, analyses layout, and referencing • Vouching and tracing to and from client documents• Reconciling and rolling forward client balances• Updating financials



Step 6 - Include a Variety of Instructional Methods



Consider Individual Learning Styles

• Traditional styles – most people prefer one of these learning styles Adapted from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles– Auditory – learning by hearing spoken word – Kinesthetic -- learning by doing and interacting – Visual -- learning by reading, looking at pictures, maps, illustrations,

demonstrations, facial expressions, and body language– Tactile – learning by writing notes, drawing charts, and pictures

• Ideally, your learning plans will incorporate some of all four• Other potential learning styles can be identified using various

assessment tools including Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DISC, Kolbe’s Learning Styles Inventory



Various Learning Methods

• Classroom training, seminars, and workshops• Conference attendance• Web-based facilitated training (all of you can check

this one!)• Self-study courses (DVD, online, televised)• One-on-one training and discussion, mentoring• Reading – paper or online• Experiential – doing it• Individual problem solving• Other



Step 7 - Create Individual Learning Roadmaps



Learning Roadmaps for Everyone• Each position in your firm should have a learning

roadmap that outlines “required learning” for them in their current role

• To move into a more senior position, each person will complete their learning roadmap and be able to demonstrate the skills, knowledge and behavior in their plan

• Most firms view this as a daunting task – but it doesn’t have to be - you can start out simple by introducing “mini learning roadmaps” or checklists



Assess Your People

• Start during the interview screening process• Then regularly measure and assess your people

– Work with them to identify two or three behaviors they can commit to improve

– Identify the behaviors you’re committed not to have, too • Define the key skills, experience, and behaviors

expected of your partners– We encourage you to do this for all levels in your firm so

there is clear career progression– Use each of these levels to move up-and-comers through the

partner track and also to define expectations of existing partners



Identify Your Up-and-Comers • Regularly assess your team to identify your true stars

and potential partners• According to the AICPA PCPS Top Talent Survey, 69%

of top talent said their firms did not have a partner track or they did not know if their firm had one– Let your people know that you do have a clear path to

partner– Define your firm’s expectations of the skills, behaviors, and

responsibilities of a partner candidate and share this, in writing, with your promising people



Define Your Rising Star Attributes • You likely look for:

– Achievement of goals for their level – Professional image– Communication and people skills– Follow through – Honesty and integrity – Initiative and ownership of their assignments– Quality – Solutions oriented– Technical ability

• Document yours and then measure against it



Our Leadership Attribute List• Accountability• Commitment• Compassion• Confidence• Courage• Decisive• Fairness• Flexibility• Follow through • Honesty

• Integrity• Intuition• Listening• Ownership• Passion• Positivity• Responsibility• Trust• Vision• Vulnerability



Build Individual Learning Roadmaps• For each objective on the learning roadmap:

– Identify the priority – Determine the “by when” date – Identify who will assist the learner and act as the

facilitator for each objective– Define the method by which the learning will occur– Outline any resources available to the learner in this area

• Include professional texts, articles, web sites, databases, or manuals that may help them in their learning in each area



You Can Start Simple!• For a 1st year staff auditor, the learning roadmap may be:

– Professionalism and ethics – Organization and time management– Client service and communication– Time entry and other administrative expectations– Audit preparation and client file setup– Trial balance set up– Creating and updating schedules including calculations, analyses layout, and

referencing – Vouching and tracing to and from client documents– Reconciling and rolling forward client balances– Updating financials– Meeting audit standards



Develop Individual Development Plans

Title Field of Study

By When

Facilitator Learning Method

Resources Success Measure

Employee Orientation

Leadership 2/15/10 Internal - Susan Jones

Individual or Group

Employee manual

Signs completion form, completes quiz

Professionalism and Ethics

Ethics 3/15/10 Outside Provider Online, self-study with CPE

exam

True Professionalism

and CPA2Biz online Course

Pass CPE exam and oral Q&A with Tom

Smith

Organization and Time Management

Leadership 5/12/10 Outside Provider Classroom Leadership Workshop

Seven Habits by Steven R. Covey

Cubicle is organized, publishing weekly

work to do, reviews course learning with

Susan Jones

Client Service and Communication

Leadership 5/12/10 Outside Provider Classroom Leadership Workshop

Reviews course learning with Susan

Jones

Audit Preparation and Client Set Up

Audit 4/30/10 Internal - Tom Smith Review firm's audit manual

and procedures

Has completed prep and set up for two

client audits

Time Entry Processes

Business Process 2/28/10

Internal - Susan Jones

One-on-one with manager Online manual

Completes time entry for one week and

gains approval from manager



As you develop individual learning plans, be sure to prepare for upcoming retirements, too.



How Prepared Are You? • Most firms are facing the retirement of someone key in the next three

years (or less) • Some firms still do not require the annual declaration of a planned

retirement date by partners, which really inhibits planning• Firms have to invest in leadership development, mentoring, and

shadowing to prepare their up-and-comers for succession and growth – Follow the learning culture ideas we just discussed!

• Firm leaders have to contemplate and then prepare for the ripple effect that succession will have

– Those affected are not just the person leaving and the person taking over their work

– When the main successor hands off to someone behind them, that person has to hand off to someone behind them, and so on

– Most firms DO NOT contemplate the ripple effect and fail to prepare people at all levels for what is sure to trickle down



Step 8 - Establish Accountability and Tracking Methods



Build In Accountability

• The learner “owns” the completion of their individual learning plan

• The learner’s mentor or career advisor should review the status and scheduling with the learner – Review the learning objectives during regular

check in meetings – Set new goals during the annual performance

review or as learning objectives are completed



Explore Learning Management Systems• Every firm develops a function to track CPE

requirements, CPE plans, evaluations, CPE certificates, and more– Consider investing in a learning management system (LMS)

to help you track your learning plans, your firm-wide learning matrix (sometimes called the “catalog”), and all of the administrative elements of CPE administration

– LMS examples are in the resources section of this presentation



Poll #3

• Where will you start?– Gain buy-in from your firm leaders and/or create an

initiative plan– Create your firm-wide learning matrix– Begin building individual learning roadmaps– Put systems in place to track learning progress– Other

–



Thank You!

• Contact me at any time!

Michelle Baca505.217.2094

[email protected] http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellebaca



Resources



ConvergenceCoaching Resources• ConvergenceCoaching’s web site includes articles and

tools on these topics – www.convergencecoaching.com

• Visit our blog for posts on leadership, business development, and HR topics: – http://blog.convergencecoaching.com

• Visit our Learning Center for self-study online courses, live training opportunities, and Leadership, Marketing, and Business Development Toolsets – www.convergencelearning.com

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Learning Culture Resources

• AICPA PCPS Human Capital Center Learning Section– www.aicpa.org/pcps

• Association of Accounting Administration site that allows members to access resources and exchange information about learning and other topics– www.cpaadmin.org

• CareerTrack– www.careertrack.com

• CPA2Biz - commercial products division of the AICPA, delivers a large number of learning offerings across a variety of learning methods– www.cpa2biz.com




• HR.com is an online resource that covers the entire scope of HR issues including learning management– www.hr.com

• Marlatt Crash Courseware - interactive CD-based programs, InCharge! and TakeCharge!, are designed to teach and assess accounting principles and concepts.– www.crashcourseware.com

• Practice What You Preach by David Maister.• “Seven Rules for a training/learning culture” by Gary Boomer

– www.macpa.org/content/23343.aspx




• Society for Human Resources Management– www.shrm.org

• SkillPath– www.skillpath.com

• Teach What You Know by Steve Trautman• Workforce Management - resources for recruiting, training,

HR management, compensation, and legal issues– www.workforce.com

• Your local Chamber of Commerce may be a resource for soft skills learning



Learning Management Systems

• Evolve Learning– www.evolvelearning.com

• FlexTraining– www.learning-management-systems.net

• Simplydigi– www.simplydigi.com

• Syberworks– www.syberworks.com

• Training Force– www.trainingforce.com

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