Beyond Training – Building High Performing Accounting Firms

Charles Jennings Charles Jennings is a leading thinker and practitioner in innovative organisational performance improvement. He is particularly well known for his work with the [70:20:10] model, based on research that learning occurs as part of daily work and not through formal training. He has spent the past 45 years helping people and organisations make measurable improvements to their performance. Charles is a business school professor, Head of the UK national centre for networked learning and Chief Learning Officer for global companies. He also advises on boards for international learning, performance and business bodies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts (FRSA) and a Fellow of the Learning and Performance Institute (FLPI). Shownotes: Training alone is never enough to produce high performance in any field, particularly accountancy How the 70-70-10 model stopped Thomson Reuters from going under 70% of learning and development in an accounting firm is comes from experience, practice and reflection 20% of learning and development in an accounting firm comes from coaching, mentoring, support from peers and managers around and above us 10% of learning and development in an accounting firm comes from formal training, perhaps classroom or online based High performing accounting firms are those with agility that can respond rapidly to changes and can outperform others High performers out perform their peers in accountancy not by one or two times, but by multiples Many accounting firms see learning that happens to individuals, but it’s actually cultures and companies that shape learning Nobody in accounting achieves their learning or commercial objectives alone For many leaders, learning means schooling and measuring what’s been learned rather than performance How coachable and malleable are technically smart accountants compared to professionals in other industries? How good leadership and an understanding of learning and performance in Thomson Reuters more than doubled their stock price Every accounting manager has two responsibilities – operational excellence AND people development Managers who abdicate people development to HR or LandD will never see high performance in their team Bringing people into a room for face to face training can be very impactful to change behaviours and mindset Three brilliant post-training coaching questions to deepen learning and enhance behavioural change in accounting firms The definition of learning is behaviour change so training and learning needs to measure that The more identical the environment to the training, the more effective it is Transfer of skills and people’s performance in a learning environment doesn’t always transfer back into the workplace There is a lot more to coaching and mentoring in a professional firm than the standard approaches if you want high or exemplary performers It takes some time to develop coaching techniques and empathy but anyone can improve their coaching skills Warning for partners and leaders in accounting firms – giving advice from your own experience with those you coach is the 14th most effective way to improve others The vital role of ‘performance support’ with learning close to the point of application to be more effective Even though most people want to do a good job at work, there are things inhibiting them to perform at an optimum level No organisation performs at an optimal level – there is always a lot of head room. 'How coachable and malleable are technically smart #accountants compared to professionals in other industries?' Performance expert @charlesjennings answers on the #Accounting Influencers #Podcast with @therobbrown…...