Interns and Value ~ Expectations, aspirations, realities in the non-Professional world

 

CONTENTS

  1 Introduction
  2 Interns vs Staff
  3    Where to go?
  4 A Program
  5    About their Aspirations
  6    Aspirational needs
  7    Aspirational values
  8    Program Framework
  9    Feedback
10 Points to Ponder
11 In conclusion

from "A medieval baker with his apprentice". The Bodleian Library, Oxford.*1

Introduction

Interns.
Internships.

Two honorable words sourced from the medical profession.
It's an upgrade on the apprenticeship model ~ “you’ve done your training, got your learner’s license, and in a year’s time you get your full drivers and then you can start practising.”

The dictionary definitions mirror this,

OED	Webster
The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification	An advanced student or graduate usually in a professional field (such as medicine or teaching) gaining supervised practical experience (as in a hospital or classroom)

but not so reflective of interns coming into non-professional positions in our economy today.

Sidebar! If your company is in the lowest common denominator, we can shrink OED to “The position of a student or trainee who works in an organization without pay to kick-start their cv’s” Then this post is not for you! Nothing to see here, moving on, moving on.

With that little bit of background. let’s talk interns and how to get the best out of them.

Interns vs Staff

When we look for staff, and/or look to be employed, our aspirations (and theirs) are a big part of the decision making process – obviously.

It’s a somewhat different look and feel when we talk interns, though.
Interns are on the threshold of their careers. This creates a very different dynamic.

Many companies have a clearly defined path for their interns, veering between cheap labour and talent spotting.

• In the former the role of oversight is dropped to the lowest common denominator in the existing work force. 
• The latter have an internship program which is designed to identify talent early, and then lock this into the organisation.

Neither are particularly interested in the aspirations of their interns, though. Both ends of this spectrum become to a greater or lesser degree exploitative. Of course, there are many well-thought out Internship programs in both the Public and private sectors, but they are no the focus of this post.

Because it’s unusual to ask the interns what their aspirations are, and hence to deduce their aspirational needs. I suggest you will limit the value derived from the interns, and so by the organizational and the team or area they are placed in.

Where does that put us

Now, If your company isn’t on the prowl for cheap labour or cornering the market for raw talent, what then?

•  Maybe you’re not big enough for a formal internship program.
•  You might also be thinking “we have all this additional work to do, we can’t afford a junior, but we can pull on board an intern and get the work done on the QT”.

The problem with these (and most other) approaches is easily highlighted: for work to be effective and valuable requires oversight. And having a warm body sit on a chair waiting for “the what to do” is boring and depressing for the intern, and irksome and time wasting for the manager.

Here is a program which might help you

(it always has for me)
Let’s start with putting ourselves in the intern’s shoes. Some really basic questions to kick off with, followed by a discussion on value, and finally some process. Addressing the intern(s):

 About their Aspirations

•  What do you aspire to be one day?
•  Do you have any thoughts on how you will become that?
•  What can you learn here which will be part of the foundation of that becoming?

Which leads to Aspirational needs

•  What skills do you (believe you) need to pick up in order to meet those aspirations?
•  What tools do you (believe you) need to learn to work with / about?
•  What things do you (believe you) need to know about in the industry (in general) and our company’s positioning (in particular)

Aspirational values: Tell them the following

The year that you will spend here will bring about a change in your life. We hope that this will bring you closer to your aspirations, maybe lay the groundwork for a career. While you are here, the level and quality of your work will contribute to our success. In doing your work, you will observe something of the effort, commitment, and time required to become a Professional in this industry; of our role in this community; the value it contributes; the quality expected; and the difficulties and issues it faces in remaining relevant. In other words, you will acquire something of our values, what we aspire to be, and this will help you to mould your own values in your chosen career.

Program a framework as part of their induction

1) Start by writing a short paragraph on your aspirations as above.
2) Think about, list and discuss the needs above. If you have additional bullet points to add, go ahead and do so.
3) What made you come to us?
4) What did you think the role of an intern is?
5) Discuss what you expect to do as an intern

•  Induction
•  Tasks
•  Oversight and feedback
•  Usefulness of the work

6) Which parts of the business do you expect to be exposed to? It’s also OK to say “I am happy to be guided by you” or “I'm not sure what to expect” if that’s the case
7) What kind of work did you expect to do? Again, if you aren't sure that’s also ok to say
8)  How do you expect your work to be measured?
9) What are the things that you have seen which makes you think that a career in this field is exciting and attainable for you?
10) How do you think your work will be valuable to the company? And to yourself?
11) Does your work might detract from the Value that the company tries to deliver?

12) As you continue with the internship, keep a journal of your experiences and motivate how best to make use of your role within the framework of the workload of the Senior people. In particular, journalise regularly on  9-11.

Use these Questions and their responses to

• Set expectations (up or down!)
• Determine a "fit"
• Decide on level of oversight, placement, position, work

Feedback

At regular intervals and at the end of the internship, measure how expectations are/were met by revisiting Questions 5 to 11. Add these:
13) What would you do differently if you were to run an internship program?
14) Think about your experiences to date, and suggest changes (where needed)

Points to Ponder

Young people go in one of two direction: self-indulgence or sleeves rolled up. The difference really comes down to motivation. Even innately lazy kids step up to the plate if they “get” your message.

Cautionary! It’s a mistake to make the internship “all about them”. They are with us first and foremost to work, and only through work, to learn. In many ways, an internship is partly an apprenticeship and partly a mentorship: they learn that their value comes from what they do, how well they do it, and by observing and listening, discover a model for their future careers.

With this in mind, I did these things especially with my interns:

•    I made real sure that they would understand how what they were doing was valuable, and how it released me to spend more time on the critical aspects of success. Without them, success was lower, with them, raised the bar. So work that might seem trivial is shown always to be, in its own way a critical part of overall success. But if done poorly, requiring re-work and too much oversight, pulled us back. To be in the team they had to work really hard, and with genuine enthusiasm.
•    At regular intervals we would do lessons learned. This was part of a promise to provide insight into the my job, and their contribution to my (hence the team’s) success. Regular isn’t a diary designated thing. It might be for instance, after an event over coffee discussing what worked and what didn’t, and how to improve. It might be a morning into a filing job, to see what was happening, what issues were coming up, and to give feedback on what is happening elsewhere. This is also a part of the promise to help them to learn and understand the industry.
•    Let them make mistakes and then work the mistakes out of them. High oversight to begin with, immediate (and sometimes quite abrupt) correction, but always with an eye to improving their performance and hence our output.
•    Provide positive feedback on the outcomes of their work e.g. “I would have battled to find that xxx if we hadn’t got it filed properly. Made a difference in getting yyy out on time”. That sort of thing.

In conclusion

When people feel valued, they perform miracles. Interns only feel valued if you make them work hard, value the results, and strictly build up their standards . . . They need to be turned into foot soldiers ready to go through fire and brimstone and rain, mud and slush for the cause, because they know that foot soldiers eventually climb up into the officer ranks.


*1: Public domain image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

Being Professional: a Manifesto

Integrating the concept of professionalism into your working life.

if I wish to be a Professional,
I must behave in a Professional way:

• towards my work discipline, 

• towards my colleagues and competitors, 

• within my community,

• in my social and family circle.

It's all encompassing, because it comes down to the values and the behaviours we exhibit towards our Professional Aspirations. So below I offer you two things:

• A set of four Aspirational Values to live your life by and briefly what that means (see part 1 and part 2 for elaboration)

• A complimentary set of Behaviours to practice which align to the values.

It's stated as a Manifesto, a Manifesto of Professionalism, if you will.

 

****

I am a Professional if

1. I make a Life Time Commitment to Learning (a personal undertaking to the discipline I work in and a commitment to continually keep myself up to standard independently of my employers)
2. I encourage and work towards Professional Autonomy in my discipline (Belonging to a community that sets and maintains the standards that encourages the community we serve to place its trust in us - including codes of conduct, process and framework standards, etc.)
3. I am driven by a Personal Ethic and Morality (Work is driven by Personal behaviour towards our stakeholders internal and external, acting out the ethic in an unbiased way)
4. I Have Goals that are Distinctive and close coupled to my roles in the Services I am a part of (For all of us, there must be a clear understanding of our role in the process, how we add value, how we lose value and what we must do to maintain and improve it)

As a Professional, I undertake always to:

• Keep pushing the boundaries of knowledge in my disciplines (value 1);

• Set, challenge and conform to the standards by which the community judges the work done in the work place and discipline (value 2);

• Behave in a manner that ensures everyone who works with them and with me is in a safe space (value 3); and

• Always know and can articulate how Value arises out of our actual work, thus incorporating the first 3 steps into a valuable working life (value 4)

This is part 3 of the series.
the image is in the public domain & taken from the Wikimedia Commons page "Oath of the Horatii "

Professionalism and You in the IT Industry

Being Professional

 Everyone and his dog (or her cat) claims to be a Professional these days.
 Every organisation likes to lay claim to that too.
 And most every product has a "Pro" version: For the Pros.

"I'm a professional"
"We do things professionally"
"Hi, I'm the Professional Services Manager"

Are they really professionals? Or is this just another manifestation of Fake News?
Let's do a little unpacking.
Webster has a range of definitions for the word, but the one that is most pertinent is
3: "following a line of conduct as though it were a profession"
which is about the behaviour of adherents in comparison with people in Professions.

But wait, there's more:
A person who is in a Profession gets to Profess (that's the root for all these words).
Webster, once again: Profess ... 4a: to practice or claim to be versed in (a calling or profession)

Maybe we need to look at some real Professionals for a bit of guidance. Those that the Law says are professional, and which has legal restrictions about who can, and who can't be in.

Professions are regulated

Literally regulated, you break the law if you claim to be a Medical doctor and aren't one!

 

Here is a quick list:

•     Doctors and Dentists
•     Lawyers & Attorneys
•     Chartered Accountants
•     Architects
•     Engineers
•     Religious Ministers (well, the law doesn't really apply there ~ but they seem to belong somehow)

These are people expected to know what they know . . .

and risk being criminalised if they don't!
To be in a Profession then, you are going to have some Education: High School is not enough.
Some Education? Oh no, no, no. Lots of education. In fact, a life time of it.
I hardly want to be treated by a Dentist who still believes in pliers and forceps!
Or give my tax returns to an Accountant who hasn't boned up on this year's regulations . . . .

In a Profession there is a deep commitment to formal knowledge, and skills, and continual and never-ending replenishment over time.

It doesn't stop there:

You know that I know what I know: Oversight, experience, practice.

Qualifying is not enough.
You don't get to be a doctor, or Engineer, or CA just by studying.
You have to serve some time.
Experience is built into the process.
Got a medical degree? Go onto an internship before you get your ticket.
Or Articled Clerk. etc.
There is an oversight process, and it's built in

 So what have we gleaned from people in Formal Professions so far?

• You need an education in the Discipline which is normalised across institutions;
• reinforced by ongoing and continual re-education and self-learning, also formal study, followed by 
• an internship with oversight from Practitioners leading up to minimum set of experience; and only then
• you qualify to be a Professional. 
• You become "One of Us. Accepted by the Medical Council; Or Institute of Engineers; etc. this is called

Professional autonomy

That's what you get when you are registered with a formal body and allowed to practice. It's a big deal, because only NOW can you call yourself a professional working in a real profession.

• It's this Professional Autonomy that gives you the initial Trust and Acceptance of the Community you will serve

The certificate on your wall means that they don't have to interrogate your qualifications or the right to provide them with services.

Welcome to the Trust Regime.

The community trusts you to do a good job.
And if you do a bad job, you get reported to the governing body which has extensive powers to reign you in, discipline you, kick you out, and even set the law loose on you.

The important thing though, is that the community grants you the right to practice largely unhindered and expects the profession to look after its own affairs. The basis of your expertise is not questioned.

Codes of Conduct: I do what I do

The governing body has a code of conduct which you must adhere to, and a clearly defined end goal in sight: "Mission" and "Vision" isn't some vague marketing con. It runs deep (witness the Hippocratic Oath). And people live it out in their lives. It drives them forward to long hours of sacrifice and hard work. And despite what many think, a lifetime commitment to your discipline demands long hours of study and catch-up, which isn't easy: personal life, family life, all live on its edges.

The hidden code: Morality and Ethics

Would you go to an unethical doctor?
Well, maybe a lawyer!
How do you feel about an unethical priest?
As I noted earlier, to belong to a Profession you also subscribe to its spiritual code of conduct, and this is as often as not unwritten.

Failure to hold a high moral standard is regarded as anathema, you can get drummed out for failing to behave in the way that the profession and the community expects.

The key Attributes of a Professional

can now be answered. Reading all of the above, we can arrive at four key characteristics which, if you adhere to, will give you the right to claim that you are acting and behaving as a Professional in your discipline

    A desire to gain and keep up specialized skills & knowledge

•     Tools, skills, education, process constantly keeping up with changing times

    Professional autonomy

•     Metrics, communication, delivery are not enough. A desire to be part of the wider community is needed, these replace that certificate on the wall.

    A Distinctive Goal

• Again, simply doing your job well isn't enough either. Your role is continually challenged, so that sense we give of adhering to a Personal or Academic or Corporate Code of Conduct which you are striving towards is a key attribute of your Professional competence.

    Value Realisation within and towards a Community

•     An Ethical Motivation 
•     Driven by our behaviour to each other and to the Community of colleagues, clients, and competitors.

Those four characteristics are more than merely items on a check list to be ticked off. They are a part of a value set that all Professionals worthy of the name would aspire to. They are, indeed, Aspirational Values, and they demand a set of Behaviours if they are to manifest in an individual. In you.

Coming next

In the third part of this 2-part series (*grin*) I will look at how these characteristics play out in our lives by offering a personal manifesto of aspirational values and their associated behaviours to live up to and keep.
You can also read Part 1 (the Conversation).

Putting profesional into "Professional Services" - Part 1. The Conversation

Professional did you say? Project Managers, Programmers, Business analysts? The rest of the pack of running wolves that make up the IT Industry?
Says who?

The late evening sunset chat

So we are sitting in the evening talking about this and that, and the conversation turns to doctors, lawyers and other professionals. The sun is slipping down and that’s OK, because generally that’s about the time that the kids have been tucked away and the non-PC stuff will soon come out: deep glasses with the remains of red wine make way for whiskey glasses, cigars and Port.

Professionals they are not, says Sarah. She has survived a greedy surgeons grasp, largely because her husband Tim insisted on a second opinion. And a third, who confirmed number 2's. Yes, says Keith. We nearly ended up paying for our attorney’s summer vacation. One by one the stories pop up, everyone has one, even if it is only second or third hand.

The Salesman

Several days later I am sitting in an office. A mid thirties man is giving me the Consultants con. Suited and tied, cuff linked and silver tongued. He’s from a big consulting firm, and they have just pitched for, and won, the outsourcing for entire IT department for the large firm my little one consult to. We are a professional company, he says. We won’t steal your staff, or terminate your contract. After all (and he gives a little chuckle) we are all in this together: not enough qualified people out there, after all: must work with folk like you.

He is lying through his gold plated teeth, of course. My ears prick up “We are a Professional organization” he’s saying, and before he can complete the sentence I butt in “what do you mean by that? Professional, that is. What does it mean, you’re ‘Professional’ ... ” I leave the dots hanging in the air. Last Sunday’s conversation has intervened between us, its there now, in the back of my head.
He’s nonplussed, but recovers himself quickly. Giving me a hard, careful look now, he repeats sections (no doubt memorized by heart) from the Corporate Brochure, while looking over my casual outfit, chinos and checked shirt. I can see that he does not rate me. I fleetingly regret not having come in more formally dressed, and I think to myself “We’re a damn sight more professional than your lot, Mr, with or without the fancy words.”

It’s the service that counts. After all, we sell “Professional Services” don’t we?
But while he didn't answer the question to my satisfaction, I didn’t have the answer myself. Well, not off pat, in any case. It needed some thinking.
That was some months ago: and having been on the mission, I think I might be able to answer the question. Its in part 2 of this mini series :) Part 3 is a manifesto to live by Of course, as in so many of these things, there is also a back story.

The Back Story.

Back in the early noughties, two things were going on. Someone I knew well had started a home cell to help the people in her church whose relationships were collapsing (or had collapsed), and concurrently I had been challenged by an MBA undergrad to justify the title of “Professional” when applied to non-professional disciplines, and in particular the IT discipline.

To answer the students was one challenge, to find some literature to help my sister was another. As so often happens, these two things coalesced and gave me the answers that I was struggling to articulate.
I was able to have a conversation with the undergrad while at the same time providing some guidancee to the home cell leader.

Coupled to my own experiences in life and work, a number of things informed my determination of what it meant, in practice and in theory, to be taken to be a professional in those other disciplines. They are, or were, the unwritten background to it all.

Chief amongst them work I was doing on the Theory of Constraints, Dr Edward Deming’s work on Systemic improvement, process control and quality and a book - “Ethics and Spiritual Care: A Guide for Pastors and Spiritual Directors” by Karen Lebacqz, Joseph D. Driskill. In the work place you may well know much more about than I do; but the book is a mandatory read if you are interested/concerned about the role of ethics in daily life (or you know someone who works in the space of spiritual guidance/leadership). you can get the value you need by turning the words towards yourself, and not as it's intended, as a primer to help others.

My Advice to Allan

Charting a way forward from the open door trap
So what should Allan do about his predicament?

• Is it all Doom and Gloom, or
• does he have any positives?
• Should he up and leave? (There's that should word again! . . . I'll talk to it one of these days) and
• if not, how does he behave going forward?
  
• and what about the company? What's all of this doing to the organization itself?

Lets take these one at a time, and look at the advice I gave him.
What are his positives?Well, to begin with he has a case for constructive or wrongful dismissal in the future. Clearly, the employer has caused a number of unfair conditions to arise:

• He has been disintermediated in his functional role
• Time has passed to such an extent that he can no longer be held solely accountable for any further collapse in morale (if there was a morale problem!)
• Senior Management have behaved negligently towards its shareholders by allowing the situation to persist

The first two bullets are clearly prejudicial to him and if he ever is dismissed or disciplined on their account he will have a strong case to make against the company. He is fortunate in that he knows that the situation is unfolding, so he can do some things to protect himself from downstream troubles:

1. Keep a daily Journal
2. Maintain his professional conduct and behave scrupulously fairly to everyone in the team
3. Be fully transparent in all his dealings with the team and the client

Go or Stay?
Now that's a contextual question. To quote the shyster lawyer "it all depends".
My answer is Stay if a suitable combination of the following apply:

• he is persuaded in his own mind that he has retained the goodwill of the key influencers in the team
• its not personal (i.e. the attack is on the team, and he is merely the quickest target to bring the team down)
• he can continue to fulfill his role without damaging his cv
• he can maintain his personal integrity and keep his sense of injustice in check
• there is no succession plan to hand over his duties (start immediately to set that to rights!)
• he is approaching a milestone that will allow him to disengage gracefully

Otherwise, get out as fast and as gracefully as possible. Without recriminations. This is a time to resign without apology or explanation: serve notice and go. Its a small world out there, and one doesn't want to get into a "he said, I said, they did, I did" discussion.

How to behave if one stays
Over and above the three points above ~

1. Try to avoid one on one situations. That way one won't land in the "he said/she said" situations.
2. Do NOT try to double guess who your accuser is. There lies a pathway to madness which will surely undo one. Let go of all personal feelings in this matter. In many cases, people who push back hard are merely behaving in accordance with their natures: its not personal. It's easy to fall into the trap of believing that people who don't share one's opinions are necessarily working for one's downfall. "If you can't let go of your paranoia, then get out of the situation".
3. Observe my Grandmother's first Rule: "If it's not written down, it don't even exist". Confirm everything within the team in writing. This is a great rule to keep in any situation. Sometime in the future I will blog it.
4. Build a succession plan. Plan to get out of the project, by empowering Junior Management and handing over duties.
5. Build a collaborative structure. This is a great time to build a collaborative work structure, its the best defense against team mates who wish to undermine Management or the team. Its also the best defense if the project is under attack, rather than the individual.

And what about the Organization?
Well, now, the cliched quote goes that a fish rots from its head, not its tail. But, as Joseph Wambaugh noted, "the whole fish still goes bad". So this is a company that is headed in directions that no sane person would want to stay with. It appoints Managers, and then acts in ways that disempower them. It allows Kafkaesque situations to arise. It encourages a playground attitude. It's Senior Management is clearly immature and naive.

My long term advice to Allan is: Sooner or later, leave. You deserve better.

Trapped in an open door

or, how to turn your a Project into a Soapie

How an open door policy became a trap door for Middle Managers


Consider the plight of my friend Allan. He's a program manager with a bunch of people reporting to him. Up till now he has thought of them as "his team": and in fact, all things considered, they are.

His Manager is Bob, who reports to the Head Honcho Chris. You see, reporting and escalation should be as simple as ABC.
Except it isn't. We have to deal with that "should" word here.
Lets Pick two team members: Tom and Jerry.
Tom does not like the way Allan handled an incident that involved Jerry.

Several months later, he decides to escalate his concern.
Because all Managers have an open door policy, he goes straight to the Boss Chris.
Chris Listens, and goes to Bob. The conversation goes something like this:
Chris: "Someone has complained to me about Allan. He is not happy that Jerry's incident was handled right" Bob: "Ok, tell me who complained and I will set up a round table" Chris: "I can't. Then I would compromise the open door policy" Bob: "So what do you want me to do? I don't know who complained, I don't know what the complaint was, and Tom himself is OK with the outcome." Chris: "I am concerned about the Morale of the team ..."

So Bob Speaks to Allan, but since they don't know what to fix, or who to fix it with, Allan is told to "be more aware".

Thereafter, once a month, Chris confronts Bob with a demand to know "What you are doing about the morale issue". Discussions take place about how Allan behaved in this context or that context, but (of course) no-one discusses the substance with Allan, who continues to Manage with the cloud over his head, and the awareness that a "case" is open (and building) against him.
Kafka could not have scripted it better.
What has the Team learned from this?
Of course, the bush telegraph gets a hold of this. As the months go past, and nothing happens, beyond the obvious discomfort of the PMs, the team learns one important lesson:

We can make any accusation we like, and it won't be tested,
if we claim that it is done:
"in confidence, in the best interests of the Team/Company,
or if we might be "picked on" afterwards.

Which, dear friends, is a central theme for the plot of any Soapie ever written ...

As for Allan, he's looking for a new Assignment: and so would I.