** I believe the virtual community of preservation needs a water cooler,
and that BP serves the purpose **

_Forget the Formal Training. Try Chatting at the Water Cooler._
NY Times, Sunday 5/10/98, By SUSAN J. WELLS

Some bosses say productive work can occur only if employees toil away in
their work stations or cubicles –- and with few distractions. Casual
strategizing in chance meetings in the hallway or banter over coffee
can't measure up, they say.

** a similar argument can be made for productivity only occurring as a
result of serious conversation without banter – following are examples
of the productive value of informal relationships **

At Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution in Wendell, N.C., a unit
of Siemens, the big German manufacturer, it is just the opposite.

Management removed the plant's time clocks and expanded the cafeteria,
putting in pens, pencils, markers, paper, flip charts -- even overhead
projectors -- to encourage lingering lunch breaks, more talk and thus,
more training.

** lingering lunch breaks understood as productive sessions **

"It's a good, relaxed atmosphere, to be in," said Joshua Gifford, who
maintains computers, software and the help desk as a Siemens
work-station specialist. "There's no role-playing there -- it's not the
boss's office. Your opinion is just as important as anyone else's."

** equalization of all participants, to a degree, as long as the boss is
not present? **

Effective on-the-job training has always been a challenge in the
workplace. Indeed, American companies with 50 or more employees spend
$56 billion annually on formal training, according to the American
Society for Training and Development in Alexandria, Va. Of the $500
spent on each employee in this group of companies, 67 percent went
toward paying in-house trainers or outside professionals, the society
reported.

** $56 billion may exceed the annual income of ALL preservationeers
combined, let alone the amount that is expended on training – I wonder
what the American Society for Training and Development would have to say
about BP? **

But the typical corporate response may overlook the greatest
opportunities, recent research has shown. "Companies are spending all,
this money, while the informal learning gold mine is largely ignored,"
said Monika Aring, director of the Center for Workforce Development, a
research organization in Newton, Mass.

** so we have the virtual water cooler in BP **

In a two-year study whose findings were released earlier this year, the
center sent groups of 20 psychologists, economists and anthropologists
around the country to observe, survey and dissect company cultures and
learning patterns at seven manufacturing corporations. Researchers found
that during a typical workweek, more than 70 percent of worksite
training took place informally, with employees sharing information with
one another.

** the server for BP is sponsored by the psychology department at St.
John’s University - what percent of informal training relationships are
you able to maintain? how many BP preservationeers work in isolation,
without partners, as single-owner entities, or without a large office
pool to chat with? or are you locked in by mental midgets? **

Fifty-five percent of the respondents said they asked co-workers, not
supervisors, for advice. Over all, informal training was found to be
continuous, if often unrecognized; instead of being a drain on
productivity, so-called idle chatter was actually good for business.
Elizabeth Denton, an organizational psychologist and business consultant
in New York, said the findings reflected her own experience. "In every
single company I have done an organizational assessment of, employees
have said they need more information and more open communication to do
their jobs better," said Dr. Denton, who has worked with more than 100
corporations. "It's something that many haven't been paying attention
to. The most excitement, interest and true dialogue tends to happen in
the off hours, or when people are sitting around shooting the breeze."
At some corporations, informal learning initiatives have their roots in
the concepts of teaming, which many companies adopted more than a decade
ago, and, more recently, of mentoring. In the team approach, management
sets the goals, and workers decide the membership of each team and its
methods.

** co-workers… are we co-workers? Though we have individual differences,
and different takes on preservation of the natural and built
environment, in an office culture we would also develop relationships
with co-workers who may have differing interests and roles than our own
within the context of a larger organization – informal training as
continuous if often unrecognized – idle chatter was actually good for
business RIGHT ON! – on BP we can emulate the team approach of a more
formal organization – can we do our jobs better? I think, in part, we
can be more sane for supporting each other, and in turn we can do our
individual jobs much better knowing that somewhere there is someone that
we can joke with, complain to, and seek guidance from their experience –
despite silliness on BP, whenever anyone has really been down I think
the common action has been to provide support – how often have you heard
comments about signal:noise ratio at the water cooler? **

Informal learning goes a step further by leaving it to the workers to
teach and set goals themselves - handing over much more responsibility
for their own training. At Data Instruments, a 500-employee manufacturer
of electronic instruments in Acton, Mass., managers were surprised at
how much informal learning was going on at the plant. "It was easily
twice what I ever imagined," said Bruce MacDonald, director of human
resources.

** what sort of training opportunities can be initiated on BP? **

The corporation has made a conscious effort to keep it going by
conducting focus groups for managers about how they supervise employees.
It is not unusual today to see a group of workers standing around
talking above a pallet of products, "and supervisors don't try to join
in these conversations unless they're asked for assistance," Mr.
MacDonald said. "We've cut out that over-the-wall snooping that goes on
at a lot of companies," he said. "To be honest, things often get done
faster and quicker without manager’s input."

Siemens spent years searching for the right approach by fostering a
variety of on-the-job and classroom training. But those plans had
limited success.

"Three years ago, there were a significant number of supervisors who
were suspicious of people congregating in the cafeteria," said Barry
Blystone, corporate manager of training and development. "The perception
was that if people weren't on the production line, then they weren't
working." The company had even walled off part of the cafeteria to deter
such chitchat.

** regulation to enforce serious discourse may actually hamper ANY
discourse **

When they took a closer look, though, Mr. Blystone and other Siemens
managers determined that these informal gatherings were productive.

"They weren't just talking about the basketball game last weekend over
Coca-Colas; they were doing a lot of problem-solving about work," he
said.

** if we share our problems, business or otherwise, on BP, and I know
this from experience with the e-mail media, then we can combine our
varied talents and years of experience to provide a forum of
problem-solving to the benefit of all subscribers – this is something
more of a function of service to the preservation industry than posting
an institutional notice for an internship **

The change has been noticed and appreciated by the work force.

** will we notice? **

"Employees used to be a little afraid to speak up when they had a
question or an idea," said Mr. Gifford, the work-station specialist.
"Now we're encouraged to speak out and take charge."

** another study is needed – how often has the clown at the water
fountain opened up the brainstorming to force a re-framing of the
problem and therefore resulting in innovative solutions? **

Mr. Gifford, 20, credits the company's new approach for his own rapid
success at the company. He started at Siemens as an assembly-line
worker, through an apprenticeship program while he was in high school.

** acceleration of learning through informal bullshit **

His move up, he said, was a result of having a personal mentor to speak
with and learn from informally. Mr. Gifford estimated that 90 percent of
the job skills he had mastered came from on-the-job training, versus 10
percent from formal classes.

** where are our mentors? **

A switch to informal on-the-job training can mean big changes in the way
a company does business. At Reflexite North America, a manufacturer of
reflective materials based in Avon, Conn., the study reinforced its move
in recent years to alter the work structure of its plant in nearby New
Britain.

In 1993, Reflexite was organized in much the same way as many other
manufacturers - workers' duties were rotated every couple of hours, and
they lined up outside the foreman's door for their next assignments,
never seeing a product to completion.
This arrangement left little chance for employees to learn how the
company worked as a whole, said Matt Guyer, Reflexite's president.

So the company reorganized three years ago into five work centers, one
for each product family. As a result, employees today work together on
one product line, cross-training one another in their tasks.

They also deal with a product from start to finish, from the customer
order to final inspection.
Reflexite also moved its customer service department to be near the shop
floor, in order to encourage workers from both areas to mingle and talk
about their jobs.

** mingle and talk about their jobs **

"We knew people learned 'a lot in the classroom training, but we came to
realize that a lot more learning was going on just through talking with
their peers," Mr. Guyer said. "In a lot of manufacturing operations,
departments don't really interact with each other.

Now everyone has regular contact. It makes a difference." Since the new
structure was put into place, Mr. Guyer says sales per employee have
risen and product returns have fallen considerably.

"A lot of this does seem like commonsense," Mr. Guyer said. "But it
really challenges the traditional notion of how a lot of companies
operate."
** it also appears to challenge how a lot of people perceive learning **



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][<en Follett
SOS Gab & Eti -- http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/5836