| Plexus Consulting Group | Success Stories | ||
| Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) |
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Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)
Plexus Consulting Group, LLC |
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Vital Stats: SAE's mission is to: advance the mobility community to serve humanity; improve the processes and systems for mobility product life cycles with a focus on total life cycle; and maintain a culture that fosters innovation, creativity, timely response to change, social responsibility, and user satisfaction with a focus on a better natural environment for the benefit of future generations. The Challenge | The Solution | The Process | Unintended Consequences | Measurements & Results | Lessons Learned How to help newly hired engineers and engineers in transition become productive more quickly? SAE had identified a gap between the level of knowledge that engineers
have coming into the workforce straight from college and the practical
knowledge that they need in order to become productive in their new
corporate roles. Transforming acquired academic knowledge into practical
working knowledge poses a significant challenge to engineering professionals
and their employers. How could SAE work to bridge the gap and make
more engineers more productive more quickly?
SAE created the award-winning Vehicle Noise Engineering Academies Program to bridge the gap that engineers too frequently encounter in transforming their "book learning" into practical working knowledge. Over the years, SAE had found that typical on-the-job training was
not sufficient to bring new engineers and engineers in transition
up to speed to address the practical challenges posed in a hands-on
corporate rather than a theoretical, academic environment. To address
the challenge, the association pioneered an intensive, practical training
program that leverages the Internet to take participants straight
into the heart of their new business experience. Development of SAE's Vehicle Noise Engineering Academies Program, which won ASAE's Education Excellence Award in 1999 and accommodates anywhere from 25 to a maximum of 30 participants, proceeded in the following phases. The pilot academy required about a year of development time to complete:
In order to provide adequate, practical training to meet industry needs, SAE determined that participants would have to spend at least a week immersed in the professional education program. By looking at conference attendance and publication sales patterns, surveying members' tolerance toward intensive study programs, and convening a focus group of 12 vehicle noise experts to ask for their input, SAE decided to pioneer an intensive professional education program on the topic of vehicle noise engineering. Industry Experts Planning, Design & Format Development: At this stage, SAE developed the conceptual framework for a three-part academy comprising the following elements:
The pre-academy gives participants an opportunity to prepare for the intensive training program using an asynchronous, online calendar tool that enables them to work on a series of preparatory assignments. Pre-academy assignments enable participants to learn to use the online tool, to introduce themselves to each other using the bulletin board feature and to use the online tools to describe what it is they hope to gain from the program. As a result, they are able to establish camaraderie prior to beginning the academy. In addition, the lead instructor uses this opportunity to develop activities that build a common knowledge base among academy participants. An online test is administered at this stage to gauge participants' respective levels of competency so that everyone can be brought up to the same speed when the academy begins. During the Academy, which involved significant logistical efforts and program coordination by SAE staff, participants gathered at Michigan's centrally located Eagle Crest Conference Center, where they were "well-fed and well-caffeineated" for a week of 12-14 hour days. During the Post-academy case study, participants work through a "real life" case study drawn from the course material presented at the Academy. The participants, who come from a variety of different locations, work together on these cases as a virtual team. Upon completion, the cases are delivered in writing to the instructor pool and discussed via conference call. Upon completion, informal evaluations are issued. Curriculum Development Vendor Sourcing Practical Content Marketing, Promotion and Facilitation
First, on completion of the live, one-week "classroom" segment, participants are asked to complete a questionnaire with qualitative and quantitative questions about the overall experience. They are also asked to evaluate the individual instructors. At the conclusion of the Post-academy case, they are asked to complete another evaluation, which focuses on the case problem, distance learning tools, pre-academy and post-academy experience, and seeks to identify whatever technical issues may have emerged, such as firewall problems, etc. Six months following the completion of the academy program, SAE sends a questionnaire to the supervisors of all participants to assess job performance improvement. The purpose of this last evaluation phase is to show how well students are applying their newfound knowledge in practice. Amazingly, 95% of participants complete the post-academy case, which requires significant time and self-motivation. Those few participants who have scheduling constraints and are unable to complete the case inform the instructors, so there have been no 'deserters' to date. The two academies held to date have received high praise from both corporate managers and staff engineers. The industry recognizes this award-winning professional development program as a premier product. Currently, SAE is working on the development of its fifth academy within a four-year period:
The entrepreneurial mindset enabled SHRM to tap creative energies that a stagnant planning process would never have accommodated. For example, management found during one strategic planning session that 50% of the organization's accomplishments went successfully beyond the original budget. As a testament to this strong performance, the 230-person organization, which moved into a new, 80,000 square-foot building in July 1997, is working on completing its second 80,000 square-foot building. Other key indicators of SHRM's success are:
SHRM's top strategic priority focused on membership growth, not as
an end in itself but as a tool to achieve the vision of serving as
the premier voice of the human resource profession worldwide. In order
to manage growth, it had to be measured, and monthly budgetary discipline
was integrated across all levels of the organization to ensure consistency
of focus to meet this priority goal. "We do surveys. We ask, listen and respond." SHRM tracks and measures its programs using:
Initially, it was a challenge to develop spreadsheets to adequately measure the success of new program initiatives. Prior to 1990, budget and program disciplines were relegated to member "care and feeding." The focus had been to "keep the train running" and not to determine whether it was running in the right direction. SHRM management introduced metrics and financial analyses to measure the organization's efficiency. The new, results-oriented culture of financial discipline, as difficult as it was to implement at first, made all the difference. Surveys have shown that members are pleased with the quality of SHRM's
services and that the value of the $160 membership well exceeds the
cost. Surveys show SHRM's recruitment and retention programs are working.
More members join by "word of mouth" than by any other means.
"People hear about us because members are happy."
The lesson that stands out most prominently from SAE's experience in developing the Noise Academy Program is that presentation is everything. Participants were somewhat bored by introductory presentations that focused on fundamental knowledge of "the basics" and wanted to jump right into the hands-on training piece. By moving the "exciting stuff" from day three to day one of the live session, SAE was able to energize the audience without losing any of the educational content. Beginning the course with practical, real-world applications made all the difference.
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