Sabrina Zolkifi finds out how Dr Will Thomas applies what he learnt on the front lines to the office today.

Before Dr. Will Thomas, executive advisor of the corporate leadership council at the Corporate Executive Board, pulled rank in the corporate world, he served as a strategic planner with the US military.

“When I was serving in Iraq in 2004, we were developing the Iraqi security forces, and that was obviously a huge change from a dictatorship to a free country,” Thomas says.

“The way we measured the effectiveness of the Iraqi military was how many people went through basic training. It had nothing to do with how skilled they were when they graduated, or whether we were teaching them the right skills to create a more peaceful environment.

“It did not account for all the people who left the military after basic training and either went back to their families or to join the insurgent forces.”

He shares that because they only measured the input and not the output, it slowed down the process in Iraq significantly, but was “ultimately overcome by addressing the effects rather than the input”.

So how does this relate to HR?

“If you are going through change that requires training on processes or techniques to get people ready for a new environment, what you need to look at is not how many people have gone through the course, but what they are able to do with those skills coming out of it,” Thomas says.

“If all you are looking at is who has graduated from that training, you will not get a sense of how appropriate that is or how prepared your workforce is for the new environment.”

Lessons from Iraq

Sabrina Zolkifi finds out how Dr Will Thomas applies what he learnt on the front lines to the office today.

Before Dr. Will Thomas, executive advisor of the corporate leadership council at the Corporate Executive Board, pulled rank in the corporate world, he served as a strategic planner with the US military.

“When I was serving in Iraq in 2004, we were developing the Iraqi security forces, and that was obviously a huge change from a dictatorship to a free country,” Thomas says.

“The way we measured the effectiveness of the Iraqi military was how many people went through basic training. It had nothing to do with how skilled they were when they graduated, or whether we were teaching them the right skills to create a more peaceful environment.

“It did not account for all the people who left the military after basic training and either went back to their families or to join the insurgent forces.”

He shares that because they only measured the input and not the output, it slowed down the process in Iraq significantly, but was “ultimately overcome by addressing the effects rather than the input”.

So how does this relate to HR?

“If you are going through change that requires training on processes or techniques to get people ready for a new environment, what you need to look at is not how many people have gone through the course, but what they are able to do with those skills coming out of it,” Thomas says.

“If all you are looking at is who has graduated from that training, you will not get a sense of how appropriate that is or how prepared your workforce is for the new environment.”