NOVEMBER/DECEMBER2016
NEW TECHNOLOGY, BIG IMPACT | 16 Exploring Technologies to Develop Leaders ADAPTIVE LEARNING | 38
Keeping Pace to Empower Employee Learning MAKING LEARNING LEAN | 50
Trimming the Fat to Demonstrate Value BUSINESS
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PERSPECTIVES - K E N TAY LO R
THE CHOICES WE HAVE AVAILABLE TO US HAVE NEVER BEEN GREATER.
This is the time of year that our team at Training Industry reflects and takes inventory of the ideas that have impacted our industry over the past 12 months, and a look ahead to the trends that will impact our business moving forward. This year has been an exciting one in many ways. We have seen significant investment continue to pour into our industry, specifically in the form of acquisitions funding and roll-ups and primary funding for the development of education technologies. This is exciting news for learning leaders in that the choices we have available to us when designing a program have never been greater. With changes in the marketplace come challenges due to the additional complexity in the programs we develop and manage. And as the expectations of the learner continue to evolve, additional pressure is placed on us to provide the development opportunities they need to progress as a valued contributor to the company. Since we started an annual discussion of trends almost 10 years ago, there have been several organizations join us in publishing what they are seeing in the marketplace. We are happy to see the discussion of trends permeate the various publications that support our industry because it introduces
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new ideas and perspectives to all of us. Our focus in this edition of Training Industry Magazine is to collect a set of viewpoints that we can use to generate discussions and develop new strategies to improve workplace performance, which is at the heart of who we are at Training Industry. We hope to provide you with the catalyst for these conversations, and will continue to support the discussion through social media, our website and events throughout 2017. So, as I suggest every year, take a quick read through the various perspectives outlined in this issue, assemble a group of your team members, or even better, some of your peers and find a collection of reasons why these trends don’t apply to your organization. Through this discussion, take a few notes on the trends most difficult to discount and consider how they might change the way you were planning to manage one important initiative launching in 2017. I think every team should be able to find one useful idea. At least, that’s my perspective. As always, please feel free to reach out and let us know your thoughts. Ken Taylor is the president and editor in chief of Training Industry, Inc. Email Ken.
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CO N T E N TS
TA B L E O F VOLUME 10
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I
ISSUE 1
I
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016
F E AT U R E S
16 NEW TECHNOLOGY, BIG IMPACT
16 20 24 30 34 38 43 47 50
38 ADAPTIVE LEARNING
50 MAKING LEARNING LEAN
THE IMPACT OF NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT INDUSTRY By Stephen F. Young, Phillip W. Braddy & John W. Fleenor
It’s time to join the conversation on how new technologies can change the way we develop leaders. FOUR STEPS, TWO VOICES: NAVIGATING THE MANAGER-MILLENNIAL RELATIONSHIP By Kate Nugent & Drew Jacobs
Developing coaching skills are a necessity to successfully manage today’s millennial employees. KEY TRENDS FOR 2017: INNOVATION IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY By Doug Harward
With a focus on speed and efficiency, edtech companies are designing tools for the adult market. TREATING OUR LEARNERS AS CUSTOMERS By Keith Gibson
Help learners find the value in training by connecting learning goals with their individual needs. IF NOT LEARNING STYLES, THEN WHAT? By Rick Presley
Let business performance need drive the content and the most effective training delivery method. PACE: PRESCRIPTION FOR AN ADAPTIVE COURSE ENVIRONMENT By Steve Swink
The time is now for L&D to move from managing learning experiences to empowering them. IS MICOLEARNING ENOUGH? By Erin Boettge
The modern learner is overwhelmed and distracted, requiring a bite-sized training approach. LEARNING PORTFOLIO TRANSFORMATION By Pooja Singh Mehta
With an abundance of outdated, underutilized or duplicative courses, it’s time to consolidate. LEAN LEARNING: WHY YOU NEED TO CUT THE FAT TO DEMONSTRATE LEARNING VALUE By Ajay M. Pangarkar & Teresa Kirkwood
Organizations must continuously improve value-focused processes that drive sustainable results.
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THOUGHT LEADERS
03 09 11 13
PERSPECTIVES By Ken Taylor
As we enter a new year, the choices available have never been greater.
GUEST EDITOR By Dr. Sydney Savion
Learning is a powerful force that transcends all generations.
SCIENCE OF LEARNING By Srini Pillay, M.D.
We must train our employees to unleash the power of the unconscious.
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BUILDING LEADERS By Marshall Goldsmith & Sam Shriver
Drive engagement by allowing employees to own their own performance.
GEN WHY By Michelle Eggleston
Build a robust leadership pipeline by identifying leaders earlier in their careers.
TECH TALK By David Bainbridge
Technology should be viewed as an enabler, enhancing the human experience.
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION By Dr. Shawn Andrews
When it comes to bias, be honest with yourself about blind spots.
INFO EXCHANGE 54 I CASEBOOK
Nestlé set out on a learning effectiveness journey to demonstrate the true value of training.
56 I GLOBAL OUTLOOK
The ability to measure and improve offshore language skills requires a focus on performance.
58 I MEASURING IMPACT
Learning and development must clarify behavioral outcomes while identifying opportunities to improve.
64 I CLOSING DEALS
OpenSesame explores virtual reality with Series B funding to drive engagement and retention.
65 I COMPANY NEWS
Keep up with the latest in the training industry by reading news from the last quarter.
66 I WHAT’S ONLINE
Find additional articles, case studies and information available only on TrainingIndustry.com.
67 I TRAINING TALK
Review industry insights and poll results collected from learning leaders around the world.
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A B O U T OUR TEAM
STAFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DESIGNER
Doug Harward dharward@trainingindustry.com
Heather Schwendner hschwendner@trainingindustry.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT
ADVERTISING SALES
Ken Taylor ktaylor@trainingindustry.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Michelle Eggleston meggleston@trainingindustry.com
sales@trainingindustry.com East: Dan Weller dweller@trainingindustry.com West: Kristin Bolduc kbolduc@trainingindustry.com
EDITOR
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Taryn Oesch toesch@trainingindustry.com
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EDITORIAL BOARD Dr. Shawn Andrews Founder & CEO Andrews Research International Derek Cunard, LPC Chief People Officer Pinnacle Automotive Hospitality Services Vince Eugenio, Ph.D., HCS, CCMC Senior Leader, Talent Development Boys and Girls Clubs of America Carol Gajus, Ph.D. Director, Stores and Military Executive Development Programs Macy’s Corporate Nancy Gustafson Workforce Learning and Development Manager American Red Cross Lorna Hagen Vice President, People Operations OnDeck Laura Moraros Jeanette Harrison Vice President, Enterprise Learning & Development Pitney Bowes John Hovell Senior Manager, Learning Operations and Technology BAE Systems Kaliym Islam Vice President Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
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Barbara Jordan Vice President, Learning & Development Sims Metal Management Karen Kocher Chief Learning Officer Cigna Meredith Lubitz Vice President, Talent Management Dow Jones Laura Moraros Global Head of Sales Learning Facebook Scott Nutter General Manager, Research, AQP & Development Delta Air Lines Marc Ramos Head of Google Fiber Education Google Steve Sitek Head of Learning, Education & Communications, Ethics & Compliance Novartis Kee Meng Yeo Director, Enterprise Talent Development Amway
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MARK YOUR CALENDAR. April 11-13, 2017 RESERVE YOUR SEAT. Raleigh, NC When training leaders come together in Raleigh for the Training Industry Conference & Expo, they come for a unique information-sharing experience, one that can exist only when professionals in learning and development departments join with providers of training services to share ideas in an environment focused on teaching and sharing. The result of these conversations: insights and tools you’ll use to drive new results for your training organization and become an empowered learning leader.
YOU’RE INVITED TO BE A PART OF TICE. Take advantage of early registration discounts at www.TICE2017.com. TICE 2017 sessions will include topics like these:
Creative Communication Leveraging Video for Efficiency & Effectiveness
How to Tap into the Natural Power of Stories in Learning
Change Management for Effective Training
Wearable Learning Connecting People to Capability
Experiential Sales Training
Mindfulness for Trainers
THE LEADING LEARNING EVENT FOR THE LEARNING LEADER If your company would like to participate in TICE, email TICE@trainingindustry.com.
GUEST EDITOR
DR. SYDNEY SAVION
NAKED TRUTH: THE HALLMARKS OF LEARNING ARE GENERATION AGNOSTIC
In business, as in life, change is inevitable – from culture adaptations to technological advancements to the mediums that incubate and stimulate learning. With the fluidity of societal issues, political undercurrents and the demands of the marketplace, knowledge (hence learning) is emerging as a company’s greatest competitive asset. Still the question confronting many leaders today is: After wading through the media hysteria surrounding the convergence of three generational cohorts in the workplace, what’s the naked truth about how to promote effective learning and business impact?
THE ORGANIZATIONAL ECOSYSTEM MUST BE CENTERED ON REAL HUMAN NEEDS. Today, there are largely three generational cohorts that make up the workforce: baby boomers, GenerationXers and millennials. And it is widely known that generational cohort identity has a significant influence on how we view our lives, workplace and work, as well as on our learning and development as individuals. Across generations, there have been many influences that impinge on learning in life and the workplace. Two of the most influential are culture and technology. Culture is a hidden energy and social phenomena that surrounds us all the time through its artifacts, espoused values and underlying
assumptions. Technology advancements are moving at a rapid pace rendering geographic borders seemingly invisible. And the swell of views that claim only a certain generational cohort’s learning is affected by this is simply false.
connection and have direct relevance to their job or personal life. It is important to acknowledge prior knowledge and experiences of learners, including their ability to recognize their own skills as lifelong learners.
Much like Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs based on a theory of human motivation, adult learning is based on fundamental psychological needs. The organizational ecosystem must be centered on real human needs, fostering social existence and learning. There are five generation agnostic hallmarks that have proven to reliably promote effective learning.
4. Collaboration.
1. Self-direction. Adults desire to take the initiative and responsibility for diagnosing their own learning needs, creating learning goals and selecting the learning that best meets their needs. This contributes to business impact by driving an ondemand learning strategy that enables an individual to access knowledge content at the point of need 24/7.
2. Autonomy. Adults want learner autonomy – when individuals take charge and responsibility for decisions regarding their learning outcomes. This is an excellent approach for learning and development organizations to design and maintain learning ecosystems that foster learner autonomy along with the demands of the business.
3. Relevance. Adults are very interested in learning about subjects that have an emotional
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Adults want to share experiences and exchange constructive feedback to fuel learning. Within matrixed business structures this is a sound approach to boost team building, interactive and experiential learning. It empowers them to drive the change they desire to see.
5. Reflection. The brain is designed to forget; therefore, it needs time between learning interactions to reflect. This is a sure technique to build in time to influence self-exploration. Let’s face it; the change in generational demographics, prevailing societal issues, political undertows, and marketplace demands are a phenomenon that repeats itself. Today, training professionals can be encouraged that learning is a powerful force that transcends all generations. The naked truth is there are generation agnostic hallmarks that have proven to reliably promote effective learning and business impact. Dr. Sydney Savion is the head of the Center for Analytics, Performance & Information at Dell EMC Education Services, where she is charged with shaping the global learning strategy and aligning learning analytics and people development with the business goals of the organization. Email Sydney.
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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A CPTM? When you become a Certified Professional in Training Management (CPTM™), you earn access to a credential that validates your standing as a training leader and affirms your ability to apply the tools of the CPTM to create business value through strategic alignment. But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what CPTMs have to say, in their own words.
CPTM elevated me to the status of being a true learning leader. Enhanced my knowledge of the industry and improved my skills Real-world best practices that I can put to use immediately
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE
Want to learn more about becoming a CPTM™? Visit cptm.trainingindustry.com or call 866-298-4203.
SCIENCE OF LEARNING SRINI PILLAY, M.D.
Organizational learning professionals often emphasize concrete skills, practical strategies and businessrelevant competencies. After all, budgets need to be tied to some kind of business impact. Yet, as we learn more about the brain, it appears that there is a new trend on the horizon: 95 percent of brain activity is unconscious—and in order to tap into the full potential of our leaders and employees, we have to train them to unleash the power of the unconscious. Brain-based education can help them do this.
The What While conscious, practical and deliberate strategies can be helpful, they are not the bulk of what is going on in your brain. Rather, being able to identify unconscious blocks to learning, knowing how to engage and how to tap the hidden jewels of the unconscious will likely be essential for learners and employees of the future.
The Why With machine learning on the rise— from robots that can flip hamburgers faster than a line cook, to computers that can crunch data faster than the most brilliant actuary—linear thinking will become increasingly commoditized, leaving us with one precious attribute to rise above the machine: our unconscious mind. Those who learn to use this unconscious brain to become more agile, foster creativity and intuition, and adapt to fast-paced globalization will likely remain relevant.
The How Teaching employees to activate the unconscious may seem daunting at first.
How do we teach something that we are not aware of? Yet, when we reflect on the most recent findings in brain science, we see that this learning is not only possible, but in many instances, more productive. Consider these examples.
Unconscious obstructions to learning Fear is a major obstacle in the current atmosphere of economic volatility. Even when you feel no actual anxiety, fear may be wreaking havoc on your brain. By teaching employees how to identify clues to unconscious fear, and then how to change their brain blood flow when these clues are identified, they can more effectively deal with roadblocks in their thinking or even procrastination.
Knowing how to engage the unconscious There’s a reason that many companies provide pods for napping and games to play. Unfocus is every bit as important as focus. Extensive research shows that unfocus helps to re-energize the brain, re-activates caring, and also enhances creativity. There are also specific techniques such as positive constructive daydreaming that can be learned to help employees make more efficient use of their time.
Tapping into the hidden jewels of the unconscious Not all “simple” decisions are the same. Extensive brain research demonstrates that conscious, deliberate strategies like the decision to be more motivated are most effective when they arise from complexity and depth—that the value of the task, its relevance to you, and the conflicts it generates are most impactful on motivation.
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In 2013, Gartner predicted that the adoption of brain-based learning would increase from 1 percent in 2010, to 10 percent in 2016, and then to 25 percent in 2025. Brain-based insights can help us challenge old ways of thinking and provide fresh new perspectives on learning. The hesitation in adoption is that few people understand how to integrate this learning.
95 PERCENT OF BRAIN ACTIVITY IS UNCONSCIOUS. However, if we are to remain relevant and rise above the machine as a competitor, brain-based learning is a powerful path we must familiarize ourselves with. It can re-educate us about our deepest potential beyond the automaton mentality of the Industrial Revolution. When we tap into this by learning brain-based concepts and conversations, we will access the more “tasty” and powerful bits of our consciousness to lead more purposeful, rewarding and productive lives.
Dr. Srini Pillay is the CEO of NeuroBusiness Group. He is also assistant professor (part-time) at Harvard Medical School and teaches in the executive education programs at Harvard Business School and Duke CE. He has written multiple books including “Your Brain in Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders.” Email Srini.
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DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION DR. SHAWN ANDREWS
HIDDEN BIASES HINDER OUR SUCCESS
A trending and hot topic in the world of diversity and inclusion, D&I as its affectionately called, is unconscious bias. Research on unconscious bias is a recent and emerging field of social psychology, cognitive sciences and neurosciences. Just in the last few years, this topic has appeared on the radar of many corporations, including Google, Facebook, Broadcom, Genentech, and Pfizer, which have all invested in unconscious bias training for their employees.
is an unintended, subtle and completely unconscious expression of our biases which are unaddressed. It often comes in the form of almost imperceptible differences in opportunity. For example, an introduction not made, key information not shared, or an event invitation not given. If you are on the receiving end, these subtleties can have a tremendous impact on your ability to network with key stakeholders, acquire more customers, keep current on market opportunities, and succeed in your job.
UNDERSTANDING BIAS Let’s define bias. Bias is a prejudice in favor of or against a person, thing or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair. Common types of biases in the workplace include gender, race, ethnicity, age, height, weight, religion, culture, sexual orientation, personality type, disability, pregnancy/children, socio-economic status, and even introverts.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF ABOUT BLIND SPOTS. You may have heard the terms conscious and unconscious bias. Conscious bias, also referred to as explicit or overt bias, is an outward expression of our biases that we are aware of. We don’t see as much of this type of bias in the workplace as we did 20 or 30 years ago, such as blatant racism or sexism comments and behaviors. Unconscious bias, also referred to as implicit or hidden bias,
The problem with unconscious bias in today’s workplace is that it affects how welcoming and open a workplace is to different people and ideas, and affects how we interpret information and make a whole host of decisions—including recruiting and hiring, promotion and succession planning, performance evaluations and compensation, team and project assignments, budget decisions, client or customer service, and openness to new sources of ideas and innovation. Given that our world, and thus our workplaces, are becoming more diverse every day, unconscious bias stands as one of the biggest threats to a company’s ability to compete successfully.
improve individual decisions. You can also collaborate with your leadership teams and human resources to implement programs and policies to take bias out of organizational processes. For instance, use joint and structured interviewing to ensure that you make decisions collectively. Create objective standards for evaluating performance and assigning new opportunities. Or, measure and collect diversity data at both the individual and group level. Individually, when it comes to bias, it’s important to be honest with yourself about blind spots. Do you hold any biases that are inconsistent with your personal values? Question your first impression about others and take a minute to allow your unconscious thoughts to become conscious. Be aware of the words and physical reactions that surface in your daily interactions. Finally, make a conscious effort to seek and learn from others different from you— and you’ll likely need to disrupt your normal process to do this. There may be someone down the hall from you that you’ve never spoken with that has the answer to your problem. The knowledge and insight you’ll gain from others, and about others, will be well worth the extra effort.
STRATEGIES TO MINIMIZE BIAS As a training professional, there are many organizational and individual strategies to help you minimize bias and create an environment where others can fully contribute. From an organizational standpoint, you can initiate training programs that create awareness of hidden biases, and that help employees
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Dr. Shawn Andrews has 23 years of biopharmaceutical leadership experience. Her dissertation research focused on leadership, emotional intelligence, gender and unconscious bias in the workplace. She is CEO of Andrews Research International. Email Shawn.
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CONGRATULATIONS
TOP 20 GAMIFICATION COMPANIES
Check Out Our 2016 Gamification Watch List The Top 20 Gamification Companies are a service provided by Training Industry, Inc. Due to the diversity of services offered, no attempt is made to rank the “Top 20s.”
BUILDING LEADERS
SAM SHRIVER & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
THREELEADERSHIP LESSONS
Every now and then you are lucky enough in our line of work to come across a leader who not only understands and appreciates the art/science of effective influence, but they redefine it. For us, Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford Motor Company, is such a leader. In a world that seems to be increasingly dominated by business executives orchestrating financial crisis for personal gain or political debates that rival The Jerry Springer Show (no offense to Jerry Springer), we find in Alan a leader who serves as a positive role model for us all. We were honored in that regard to collaborate with Alan on recent projects. Here are three leadership lessons we learned from Alan that underscore his principles and practices of working together. THE FACTS WILL SET YOU FREE Quite often we recognize leadership as a function of vision and motivation (i.e., the charismatic figure who sees the world differently and gets people excited about it). But vision and motivation in the absence of tangible and meaningful progress leave us in a wake of fads or "flashes in the pan." Leaders add value by producing tangible results while positively impacting the commitment of the people who are actually producing them. To truly lead, you have to be an “execution animal." You have to be driven by metrics that
objectively track your progress or signal you have somehow gotten off track. Who has access to those metrics? Anyone who is a stakeholder in your journey. ALLOW/ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES TO "OWN THEIR PERFORMANCE LEVEL" Employee engagement has been a hot topic for quite some time. Most organizations address engagement challenges by consuming and conducting research, then developing company-specific programs that primarily target senior leadership and all levels of management. So far, according to just about every study we have reviewed on the topic, worldwide levels of employee engagement are at an all-time low. This would lead us to conclude that perhaps engagement has far more to do with employees actually taking responsibility and ownership for their own contributions and morale. To effectively pull that off, employees (at all levels) need to: • Understand and be directly connected to business strategy. • Have the opportunity to assess their own performance level to perform against the established by that strategy. CELEBRATE TRANSPARENCY The only way employees at any level of an organization will ever “own their
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own performance level” is if they feel 100 percent safe in doing so. One way to create an environment where that sense of safety exists is to acknowledge and celebrate employees who transparently publicize challenges the same way you acknowledge and celebrate employees who publicize progress or positive migration.
CELEBRATE EMPLOYEES WHO TRANSPARENTLY PUBLICIZE CHALLENGES. If the consequence associated with transparently alerting your boss to a problem is a boss who directs his/her energy to help you find a solution, guess what you wind up with: A team full of people who transparently articulate reality, and a long list of challenges that are effectively resolved in a timely manner on the road to accomplishing results of significance. In closing, our advice would be to research independent accounts of Alan's many contributions. If you take us up on that suggestion, we think you will find a commonsense approach to leadership that unfortunately is anything but common. Marshall Goldsmith is the world authority in helping successful leaders get even better. Sam Shriver is the senior vice president of commercial operations and product development at The Center for Leadership Studies. Email Marshall and Sam.
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THE OF
NEW TECHNOLOGY ON THE BY STEPHEN F. YOUNG, PHILLIP W. BRADDY & JOHN W. FLEENOR
IF YOU’RE JOB HUNTING, YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT THE RECRUITING PROCESS HAS GONE DIGITAL IN SOME ORGANIZATIONS. INNOVATIVE TOOLS LIKE SMARTPHONE PROFILING APPS ARE BEING USED TO IDENTIFY CANDIDATES WITH THE RIGHT SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE.
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INDUSTRY This same digital revolution has also brought an array of tools that hold promise for leadership development. Among them: virtual simulations of real-life work experiences; the use of social media content to assess and predict personality type; and small wearable computers that record and store physiological data such as heart rate to give us an objective assessment of our stress state. Are these new technologies a fad, or can we expect them to become commonplace in the leadership development field? And if they do gain acceptance, how will we handle issues such as privacy and quality control?
We don’t have definitive answers to these questions today, but we can take a closer look at some of these new tools and how they could change the ways we assess and develop leaders in the future.
VIRTUAL SIMULATIONS We’ve recently seen an increase in the use of virtual simulations to train and assess leaders. The military has been using the technology for years, and the U.S. Army has invested in a virtual reality training center at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. While these high-tech, 3-D simulations
can be expensive to develop, the usage cost per person tends to be low. To increase motivation and retention, many of these sessions incorporate the same features that make video games so popular, including scorekeeping. With a higher level of engagement, leaders are better able to transfer the concepts and skills they learn in training to the work setting. The sessions also give leaders a safe environment for practicing the skills they need to be effective in their organizations. Consider a face-to-face coaching session with a problem employee. In a virtual
reality training session, the leader’s responses in the simulated meeting would be scored and then ranked compared to his or her peers. Participants in the training also receive developmental feedback based on their performance. Because of the benefits, virtual reality training shows real promise as a reliable tool in the leadership development field. But it may not be the best solution for every developmental need. Is 3-D virtual reality the best way to train leaders on giving feedback, for example, or are we recommending it because it’s trendy? In some cases, a more low-tech approach such
as reading a description of the situation online, listening to an audio presentation or watching a video may be sufficient.
SOCIAL MEDIA Did you know the information you share on social media could be used to determine your personality type? Several studies have shown that a linguistic analysis of content on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blog posts and other websites can predict or assess a person’s personality with a fair degree of accuracy. These analytic tools are not being used widely today, if at all, for leadership
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A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF CONTENT ON FACEBOOK, LINKEDIN AND TWITTER CAN PREDICT PERSONALITY TYPE WITH A FAIR DEGREE OF ACCURACY. development. But sites like www. crystalknows.com (see Social Analytics sidebar) could change that. Users can get detailed, freely available information about an individual’s personality as it relates to the Big Five traits: extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Leaders can then use this information in addition to 360-degree feedback reports in their coaching sessions. For people working on their own to improve their leadership skills, having a profile derived from their social media content could supplement the self-reporting tools commonly used today. As with other personality assessments, the information provided from these tools can help us understand why we engage in specific behaviors that are revealed through other means. Sites like www.crystalknows.com can also help leaders communicate and work more effectively with people across their organizations. Once they know an individual’s personality profile, they can get tips on the best way to deliver feedback, resolve conflicts, and provide mentoring or coaching. Because leaders can get the assessment data they need in real-time, they’re more likely to be successful in applying it on the job. Despite the benefits, however, using social media analytics for leadership development has potential drawbacks. Because some sites may use better
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algorithms for predicting personality than others, not all of the profiles generated will have the same degree of accuracy. With traditional personality assessment tools, the vendor shares details about the process used to determine an individual’s type and preferences. Similar information may not be available from tools that assimilate and analyze social media content. Using social media analytics for leadership development also raises ethical concerns. In traditional programs, individual personality assessments are confidential, and it’s up the individual to decide whether or not to share the results with others. When a report is automatically generated from online content, anyone can get the assessment without consent. Whether valid or not, the profile could
potentially be used against a leader in performance evaluations and hinder the chance for a promotion.
WEARABLE DEVICES We don’t plan to get stressed out. Stress can arrive unexpectedly in response to people and situations, and it can change over the course of minutes or even seconds. Now one of the newest products in the self-assessment arena – a wristband with multiple sensors – can monitor and record the changes that occur in our bodies in response to stress. The device’s sensors pick up multiple physiological signals, including skin temperature and heart rate, and an algorithm is used to interpret the signals as stress.
SOCIAL ANALYTICS APPLICATION EXAMPLE Personality profiles give us insight into our needs and preferences and why we behave the way we do. Now CrystalKnows.com can analyze the content on an individual’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites to assess and predict personality type.
Based on the analysis, the site provides specific suggestions on how to communicate with others in person or via email based, including key words and phrases that would be most effective. Users also get advice on how to build trust with the person, and how to
handle situations like asking for a raise or requesting attendance at an important meeting. When the site is allowed to mine a Gmail account, the user receives recommendations for future messages based on what has worked or not worked in past conversations.
Why is this important for leaders? Because these products can give us an objective measure of the unobservable – those internal or automatic processes that affect how we behave and can accelerate or impede leadership development (see Leadership Development Beyond Competencies: Moving to a Holistic Approach). The devices can show us if we’re stressed, or assess our degree of resiliency and level of engagement. Having a more objective lens for leader assessment can help us understand why we think, feel and act the way we do in certain situations and with specific people. While traditional workplace assessments like self-reporting and 360-degree feedback are useful for assessing leader and organizational challenges at a high level, the feedback is nonetheless subjective. We all have biases that affect how we see ourselves and others. Our biases are part of what makes us human, but they can cause us to make incorrect assumptions about people and situations. These mistakes in judgment can lead to poor decision-making and affect a leader’s performance. By incorporating both subjective and objective methods in our development programs, we can help more leaders identify and manage blind spots in themselves and others. Using these tools together also helps us answer these types of questions with greater accuracy: • What causes leaders to be stressed? • What makes leaders resilient? • How do effective leaders manage their emotions? • How do we best engage leaders? But there are downsides with these new wearable devices. High-quality products that provide accurate assessments
are cost-prohibitive for many people and organizations today. But as more models are designed and introduced to the market, we need to be prepared to use them appropriately for leadership development. As with social media content, privacy issues are the primary concern. We don’t have agreed-upon standards for using these tools in an organizational setting (see WSJ article), but allowing organizations to view individual data is never recommended. Leaders who wear the devices should be able to act on the feedback in a safe environment that allows them to experiment with new skills. As practitioners, we have an opportunity to advance leadership development by helping organizations better understand how new assessment and training tools can be used most effectively. But we can’t do it alone. The skills needed for product development and training span multiple disciplines – from neuroscience and computer programming to game design and data science. We also need experts who can create the best possible user experience – one that generates reliable feedback leaders can use to achieve their developmental goals. Because psychologists have experience studying and assessing people based on an accepted code of ethics and research standards, they too have an important role in deciding how best to use these new tools. It is time to join the conversation. Stephen F. Young, Ph.D., is a research scientist with the Leadership Insights and Analytics group at the Center for Creative Leadership. Phillip W. Braddy, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist with the Research Horizons group at the Center for Creative Leadership. John W. Fleenor, Ph.D., is a senior research faculty with the Innovation and Commercialization group at the Center for Creative Leadership. Email the authors.
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TAKEAWAYS How will the digital revolution change the way we assess and train our leaders? • We’re already seeing how video game technology is being used to simulate real-world situations that leaders face on the job. • Personality profiles, a standard tool used in the leadership development industry, can now be derived from the content a person shares on social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and blog posts. • Other entrepreneurs are advancing the technology used in fitness trackers to monitor and record more detailed physiological data, giving wearers instant feedback about their stress level and emotional state. Which of these approaches will pass the test for training effectiveness while also meeting the leadership development industry’s ethical standards, especially when it comes to privacy? Stay tuned.
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FOUR STEPS
TWO VOICES NAVIGATING THE MANAGER-MILLENNIAL RELATIONSHIP
BY KATE NUGENT & DREW JACOBS
As of last year, there are 53.5 million millennials in the workforce, followed by 52.7 million Gen Xers, 44.6 million baby boomers and 3.7 million from the Silent Generation. This means millennials make up one-third of the workforce, and that number is growing. According to Deloitte’s 2016 Millennial Survey, 44 percent of millennials would like to leave their current employers in the next two years due to “a perceived lack of leadership-skill development and feelings for being overlooked.” That’s over 23 million people wanting to leave their current organization in the next two years. Faced with this reality, many managers are not equipped with crucial coaching
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skills, and the pressure to develop this group can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to essential “softer skills” such as building self-awareness, showing up on brand, contributing appropriately and accepting constructive feedback with grace. As companies look to managers to identify, shape and engage next gen leaders, managers need to be empowered with the knowledge, practice and coaching frameworks to be successful.
To illustrate this manager-millennial relationship and how a coaching framework can help both parties succeed, we would like to share our unique perspective (as manager and millennial) through a real-life dialogue.
» MANAGER “These kids don’t want to pay their dues.” “They’re practically asking for a raise every week!”“Where is their discretionary effort?” As a leadership trainer, I hear some flavor of these statements all the time. But what do millennials need from us, their managers? Millennials need to know what skills they need to demonstrate, such as being aware of how they’re showing up in the workplace, considering their audience when giving a project status update, and forming a personal brand that is aligned with the organization. It’s our job as managers to help them develop these competencies. I am very fortunate to have a millennial on my team who is a lifelong learner and wants to grow into her role, and is willing to put in the sweat equity to do so. She has high expectations of herself and others, and wants the career mobility that her generation expects. But she’s willing to wait and do the work, and working in a small company, she has needed to do just that.
» MILLENNIAL On my end, I feel fortunate to be in a position where I am being provided the most in-demand request from the millennial population: regular feedback. Harvard Business Review found that the average population is comfortable with receiving feedback on a quarterly basis from their manager, while millennials would prefer it to be at least once a month if not more. And I am a self-proclaimed “lucky one” who receives consistent coaching and mentoring.
» MANAGER I’m glad to hear you say that, and from what I’ve heard, I don’t think we’re the norm. A few months ago I was speaking with a senior leader in a global pharma company. As head of organizational development for the entire company, her biggest challenge is that millennials want to be coached and mentored, but managers don’t take the time to coach them, or don’t even know how. A recent survey shows that 71 percent of millennials who are likely to leave their organizations in the next two years are currently unhappy with how their leadership skills are being developed. How can we “coach the coach?” It’s not an intuitive skill. It is very different from the triage we managers need to do in order to get the job done through other people. We get paid to strategize, break big tasks into manageable steps and then delegate. Where do we even begin?
» MILLENNIAL Well, what I think makes our relationship most successful is the ability to understand each other’s values. And that is a key element in job retention. In fact, 56 percent of the global millennial population have “ruled out ever working for a particular organization because of its values or standard of conduct.” Because you have made the consistent effort to connect with me on that level, it leaves me feeling understood and motivated to complete tasks that we would both be pleased with. You also have a delicate and deliberate way of delivering feedback. Sometimes I don’t even realize it. I’ll be sitting at my desk working on something after a meeting, and it would hit me, “Oh! That was feedback!” – and I had already put it into action. The coaching structure that you have set up, comes from a place of valuing our relationship and leveraging my strengths so I can be more open to understanding my challenges.
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PWC AND GE, AMONG OTHER FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES, HAVE DITCHED THE ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW IN FAVOR OF IN-THEMOMENT FEEDBACK. ANNUAL PERFORMANCE REVIEWS ARE A DRAIN ON TIME, RESOURCES AND ARE DREADED BY MANAGERS AND THEIR DIRECT REPORTS. » MANAGER Hearing that inspires me to point out “endorsement” as a powerful coaching tool. The stereotype of the millennial professional is that they have a wall full of participation trophies in their childhood bedroom. They’ve been coddled within an inch of their lives and this is the real world, darn it, we don’t walk around telling you how great you are all the time. That reasoning doesn’t really hold up. What Gallup has discovered is that people who know and leverage their strengths tend to be better performers. Recognizing the strengths of your employees leads to higher performance, lower turnover and increased profitability. In my organization we have adopted the practice of endorsing people in the moment (or shortly thereafter) and not saving it for their performance review. You see, feedback as-you-go is a model that millennials are more comfortable with, as it echoes the way they were mentored as youth. Regular encouragement paired with an absence of hierarchy makes for an athlete/student/employee who knows where she stands. Make sure that
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1 | Be Present. Be fully present for your employee (e.g., eye contact, put away distractions, non-verbal cues that indicate you are with them). 2 | Be Caring. Endorse strengths, listening carefully and empathizing with their question or issue.
BY THE YEAR 2020, TWO OUT OF EVERY THREE MILLENNIALS IN THE WORKPLACE HOPE TO BE AT ANOTHER ORGANIZATION THAN THE ONE THEY’RE CURRENTLY IN, OR SEEK AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT CAREER PATH ALTOGETHER. IT’S VERY COMMON TO HEAR IN AN EXIT INTERVIEW THAT THEY “JUST NEEDED A CHANGE.” THE DELOITTE MILLENNIAL SURVEY 2016
endorsement stands alone at least half the time, and not as a way to grease the wheels of criticism. Be specific. “Great job” is OK, but if you tell a direct report, “The data you presented in that report was well-organized and shows that you are thinking about the big picture,” not only will they continue to leverage those skills, but they will be more open to critical feedback later.
» MILLENNIAL Hey! For the record, I earned every one of those trophies! But yes, the more specific you are, the more it helps me focus in on my work. And being involuntarily labeled as the ADD generation, that’s something I really appreciate — along with shiny objects!
» MANAGER And I’ll take it a step further – I’ve got a four-step model of behaviors that I follow when I’m providing feedback face-to-face or Skype-to-Skype with a member of my team:
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3 | Be Inspiring. Tell stories of your successes and challenges, model an authentic connection to what we are trying to do as an organization. 4 | Be Rigorous. Ask questions. Give specific, actionable feedback to help people get better, and keep them accountable for their work. But don’t just be rigorous, be present, caring and inspiring, too.
» MILLENNIAL And I totally agree with your approach. So much, in fact, that I’d like to take it a step further for those times when you have to provide weightier, more serious feedback, like when there’s an ongoing issue. Here’s a four-step process of how to deliver kind, yet firm feedback: 1 | Enter with Generosity When kicking off the conversation, keep an open mind and assume positive intent from the get go. Try to clear your expectations of how the feedback will land. Be curious, look them in the eye and allow your direct report to feel welcome in the space. Be aware of your posture and facial expressions, because your expression is a powerful tool for setting the tone for a meeting. 2 | Expressing Truth with Empathy While you may be the one delivering the message, start off by checking in with your direct report; ask, “How do you feel the meeting with our client went?” and allow them to share their experience. This will help you connect with where they’re coming from first, rather than ripping off the feedback band-aid. You may discover they were fully aware of the struggle as well. Use “I” language instead of “you” and check in to see if your message is
understood. Make sure the impact of your communication matches your intention. Do you want your millennial to take this feedback and put it into action? Think about how you want them to feel when they leave the room and use your words, face, voice, body and tone to focus those words into action. 3 | Envision a Win-Win You both want this conversation to be a success, so how can you both exit feeling empowered? Maintain a positive attitude and be explicit about your intent. Perhaps brainstorm and collaborate on ideas to use in the future, or come up with common goals. Chart or write them down so your millennial knows that you value their action steps. 4 | Exit Aligned Create accountability by assigning next steps, as well as owners and deadlines (yourself included). Restate what you both set to do, and make sure you’re both agreed. Debrief the conversation with them, asking how they felt it went. This provides opportunity for clarity as you exit the conversation.
» MANAGER Great thoughts. So with some empathy and understanding on both sides, and by taking a closer look at legacy policies like annual reviews, you can avoid or eliminate many of the issues between managers and millennials.
» MILLENNIAL Works for me. That was very inspiring.
» MANAGER Works for me, too. I do believe we just exited aligned. Kate Nugent is the director of product and training at The Ariel Group. She is a trained actor and comedian, and an expert in leadership presence. Drew Jacobs is a training manager at The Ariel Group, a trained actor, a lifelong learner, and a millennial managed by Kate. Email Kate and Drew.
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LEARNING TECHNOLOGY
INNOVATION IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY BY DOUG HARWARD
For several years now, innovations in educational technologies (edtech) have impacted how business professionals want to learn. Edtechs such as virtual classrooms, mobile devices, digital readers, ondemand video, online gaming, and cloud-based LMSs have fed a market that has been, and continues to be hungry for innovation. Traditionally, most investment for product innovation in edtech was focused on the higher education market. But recently, investors have looked across the traditional market boundaries beyond higher education and toward corporate training. A key driver for innovation is the adoption rate of new technologies by the millennial community. Millennials entering the job market bring a new set of expectations on how to learn and collaborate. They are teaching leaders of training organizations that learning is best achieved in small ongoing increments, over time, accessed on-demand, using multiple devices, over multiple forms of media. The greatest lesson millennials have taught us is we need to focus on speed and how to make learning efficient and effective. Because of these changes, investment is flowing into the edtech market at an unprecedented level. Entrepreneurs and established edtech companies are recognizing the opportunity to leverage innovative products across market boundaries and are designing tools for the “adult� market, instead of education versus corporate. The key trends for 2017 reflect how the training industry continues to evolve. And the trends we see are not those which are flash in the pan, short term, hot applications – but rather, changes to the market that will have a lasting impact for years to come.
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THE UBIQUIT Y OF LEARNING LIBRARIES With the influx of mobile devices and the demand for short, object-based content increasing, learning libraries have grown rapidly. This rapid growth means that learners have access to virtually any type of learning content they want any time they want it; on virtually any device they choose. Having this abundance of information available can be a positive thing for learners, but training professionals must have a strategy in place to ensure learners are consuming the content designed specifically for their job requirements. The good news is training professionals can more easily meet the needs of learners through learning libraries for roles with competencies that are more market generic. The training leaders challenge is to better manage the content that is proprietary to the corporation to fill the gaps from ubiquitous learning libraries.
INVESTMENT IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES CONTINUES TO INCREASE Fueled by the learner’s ability and need to consume content fast, when and how they want it, investment in educational technologies is translating into a level of innovation we’ve never seen in corporate training. Tools for content development and delivery, digital readers, virtual delivery, reinforcement, content libraries, gaming and cloudbased administration systems, all are bringing a level of innovation that is at an all-time high for corporate training. Much of the investment is coming from companies that have traditionally invested in public and post-secondary education but are now shifting their focus to the corporate market. The main reason for this shift is best practices for developing and consuming knowledge-based content transcends age levels, as well as market boundaries for adult education and corporate training.
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ADOPTING CAMPAIGN MARKETING TO ENHANCE LEARNER ENGAGEMENT Training professionals have the unique responsibility of supporting the needs of the business while understanding the needs of the learner, and bringing both together to improve performance. This responsibility is similar to that of marketing. Marketing must understand customer and client needs, while marketing products and services that meet those needs. Adopting a marketing-based approach to understand the needs of learners by using analytics and demandgeneration strategies allows the training organization to target competency-based content directly to those who need it. Training organizations can then develop, promote and implement learning initiatives based on a profound understanding of learners’ needs and can help training organizations brand themselves and engage their learners more effectively. This is not about marketing the availability of courseware for the purpose of increasing the consumption of content. It is about using analytical data and intelligence about the learner’s needs to better target content directly to the learner who needs it.
BURST TRAINING CAMPAIGNS GROWING FOR SOURCING ENGAGEMENTS As the outsourcing market for large scale, comprehensive BPO deals are declining, we are seeing more growth in project, mission or initiative-based training engagements. We refer to these as “burst” engagements. A training “burst” is where the supplier is contracted to manage any or all processes associated with a defined training initiative – such as a product launch, technology implementation or change management initiative. When the initiative is completed, the supplier engagement ends. The primary difference of this from traditional BPO engagements is those are “process” oriented. Burst engagements are project based, and the terms of the contract are more directed at the deliverables related to completing the initiative. Burst engagements provide an innovative option to the training leader and substantially reduces the risks of traditional process outsourcing engagements.
ADAPTIVE LEARNING Identifying ways to improve the learning experience while minimizing the impact on employee downtime have been challenges across the industry. Adaptive learning is about personalizing the learning experience. By using adaptive learning techniques, we can reduce the time it takes learners to become proficient, eliminating the need to cover content they already understand. This improves the effectiveness of our programs because the learner only focuses on what is absolutely needed. Traditional approaches to content design involved developing courseware in a one-size-fits-all approach and then expecting the learner to consume the content. Adaptive learning is about adapting the content to the learner’s needs. For many years, the training function has been interested in personalizing the experience, but now they can accomplish this objective by letting the platform adjust information based on a learner’s previous responses. The future success of adaptive learning is not only in the design of the technology, but in the design of content. Content must be shortened and modified into learning objects, so it can be consumed based only on what the learner needs.
MULTIMODAL LEARNING
SHIFTING TO A CULTURE OF COACHING
Research related to the science of learning has taught us that one of the most effective techniques for increasing retention and application is to reinforce content over an extended period. Extending the learning experience preand post-training requires multiple touches throughout the learning experience. Technology is changing the way content is accessed and consumed, and changing how training leaders look to design learning experiences. In a 2016 study, 79 percent of training leaders told us that offering alternatives for training modalities is vital to their success. From mobile apps and e-learning, to job aids and simulations, employees need multiple touches and ways to consume information and drive behavior change. Essentially, these multiple touches transform training from an event into an extended learning experience.
As the workplace continues to evolve with the emergence of new generations and technologies, there has been a gradual shift toward developing a more inclusive learning culture. One where companies value the internal development of future leaders, and where institutional knowledge is passed on to up and coming talent. One of the most effective ways to transfer proprietary knowledge is through mentoring and coaching. And the old saying holds true, that the best way to learn something new is to teach it. Mentoring not only develops the ones who follow in the footsteps, but it is also a wonderful way to develop current talent for leadership roles. The challenge is we haven’t done as much as we should to develop structured ways to develop the mentors. Cultures that value coaching are ones that emphasize the value of the talent, and provides a systematic approach to developing mentors and a culture for coaching.
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EVOLUTION OF GAMING THEORY AND MECHANICS Game-based learning enhances motivation, engagement and knowledge retention. Early implementation of gaming focused on replacing the classroom experience with a game. The next evolutionary step in gaming saw us learning how to embed gaming programs within the learning program. We are now learning that at the heart of every engaging game (e.g., video games) lies an enticing story that pulls players in, appealing to their motivations and emotions. The evolution of gaming theory has found that using the principle of storytelling and engagement is key to appealing to learner emotions while enhancing learner engagement and recall.
INSOURCED SPEND INCREASING
SMALLER CLASS SIZES As virtual delivery platforms and online training programs have increased in popularity and adoption, average class enrollments continue to reduce in size. In the days of traditional classrooms, the objective was often to increase class sizes to amortize the fixed costs associated with an instructor and classroom across multiple students. There was always a conflict with the notion that smaller class sizes were better for students; while larger class sizes were more efficient for the business. Now the business’ needs and learners’ needs are aligned with the idea that training is becoming more affordable to deliver in smaller groups.
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Driven by a performing economy, buy-side companies are hiring more internal staff for training than in previous years. This is driving up their mix of internal to external spend. Just a few years ago, the average spend for buy-side companies was around 58 percent for internal resources and 42 percent for external. Our most recent study showed that over the last two years companies have moved the balance to more of a 60/40 or an expected 61/39 split in 2016. So while the overall corporate training market is still growing, we are seeing a relatively flat spend occurring with suppliers, especially with large scale BPO engagements. This trend may be short lived depending on the future global economy. Our experience has shown that as the economy improves, companies tend to hire more staff for training. As the economy declines, companies tend to move fulltime resources to variable resources. Doug Harward is CEO of Training Industry, Inc. and a former learning leader in the high-tech industry. Email Doug.
TREATING OUR LEARNERS AS Photo by Bob Jagendorf
CUSTOMERS BY KEITH GIBSON
Metaphors can be very powerful, and they are useful (even necessary) in helping us understand and think through new issues. But when a metaphor takes us down the wrong track, we can sometimes be pretty far down that road before we realize the mistakes we’re making.
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CUSTOMERS MAKE AN INVESTMENT AND ARE INTERESTED IN MAXIMIZING THAT INVESTMENT.
Corporate trainers often refer to their audience as “learners,” and, as a single term, this isn’t a metaphor: they are, in fact, learning (we hope). The problem with this designation, however, is that it leads us into a broader school metaphor in which we see employees as students waiting to receive instruction from those who can give it to them. (As a former educator, I feel compelled to point out that this is not a terribly effective idea of school, either, but that’s a subject for another article.) In theory, the courses are presented, and our main task is to get people in the room (physical or virtual), with the idea that if they’re there, learning happens.
likely to produce training that actually gets through and changes behavior.
We see the results of this in compliance training with mandatory seat times and LMSs that present completion rates as quantitative evidence of success. But we know better. I suspect everyone reading this article has taken mandatory training with their eyes glazed over, hearing little and learning less. We can do better. Our learners need to see why learning matters to them, why it will make their lives better. They need to believe the course will improve something they value. In short, they need to be sold.
It’s not just that we should see our learners as customers; we want them to be customers. We want them to know enough about the training to understand its value. To paraphrase the old Cheap Trick song, we want them to want the training. It will make them not just engaged but excited. They will participate more fully, they will complete it more enthusiastically, and they will apply it more thoroughly. Let’s get to know our learners so we understand their values, and let’s build training that connects the company’s needs with our employees’ values. Then we will be able to sell the idea of the training to them, and they’ll want to buy it.
SHIFTING MINDSETS A change in how we think of our learners can lead to a change in how we present our learning and development offerings. Specifically, we should treat our audience as customers rather than learners. If we truly believe we are dealing with consumers, we will be confronted with (at least) three differences in how we view our audience: • Learners are students who have to sit in class; customers are free agents who have choices about where to spend their time and money • Learners are subordinate to those with knowledge; customers are equal to those with a product • Learners may or may not be interested/ engaged; customers make an investment and are interested in maximizing that investment Simply put, education is not compulsory. We can require attendance, and we can require completion, but we must inspire learning. If we treat our learners as potential customers who have to be sold on the value of a product, we are more T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - TRENDS20 1 7 I WWW.TRAI NINGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE
A view of learners as customers will change both the way we produce (and market) training and the way our learners receive it. First, we will produce training that does more than simply check a box or fulfill a compliance requirement. We will build training that respects our learners’ time, piques their interest, and inspires them to action. And our learners will strive to improve their job performance, know where to find new information, and create momentum for training throughout the organization.
Let’s consider an example. A large manufacturing company is concerned with the way its employees treat and use the brand. Up-front analysis demonstrated that there was a need for brand training, but, even more importantly, their employees didn’t understand the effect each of them could have on the brand. The company employs more than 50,000 people around the world; many of those individuals believed there was no impact a single person could have on the brand. Building a typical brand training for this audience would not have been effective; they already valued the company, and a course that gave tips on how to present the brand could have been dismissed by those who believed such positioning was only important to people on the sales and marketing teams. Instead, training was developed that helped the team members understand that when they post parodies of the company logo on their Facebook pages, it has a real effect on the future of the company. They were able to see that through their interactions in the workplace, at home, and on social media,
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WE CAN REQUIRE ATTENDANCE, AND WE CAN REQUIRE COMPLETION, BUT WE MUST INSPIRE LEARNING. each employee influences the way tens of thousands of people see the brand.
ENGAGEMENT MATTERS One of the ways this new approach will manifest itself is in the way we think about engagement. This has been one of our industry’s most popular buzzwords lately and for good reason: it’s obvious that our training will be more effective if the learners are actually paying attention, and we know quite a bit about how to increase engagement in the training. We know we need interactivity, and recent research suggests multi-sensory interactivity is most effective; the presence of voiceovers in particular significantly enhanced engagement. We know engagement is increased when we tie learning to real-life problems, and the more a learner can identify with the details of the problems, the more engaged they’ll be. And we know social ties are a central component of engagement; recent research on brand engagement indicates that “interaction, participation, dialogue, co-creation, and sharing of brand-related values” with a social group dramatically increases feelings of engagement with the brand. But if we are thinking of our learners as customers, we know the relationship can begin long before the event starts, and one of the most important aspects of this relationship is generating interest before the training starts. Marketers understand the importance of this because there is a natural barrier to entry for any consumer experience.
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Take movies, for example. Movies are expensive and loud and all the way across town and it’s not socially acceptable to wear my pajamas to the theater; in short, there are a lot of reasons for me to not go see a movie. Movie trailers come to me, and the best of them are so compelling that I can’t wait for the chance to put on real pants, drive across town, and pay my $12. Trailers get us engaged weeks or months before a movie opens, so, by the time the theater darkens, we are paying full attention. We deal with similar barriers to entry for learning and development. We can eliminate many of them with pre-training engagement, but this approach is not as common as it should be. A recent survey shows that L&D teams do a very good job at what we might call “reactive engagement”: using data about the training to improve it and increase learner response. Training consumption trends and scores on learning assessments are used by almost half of those surveyed to increase engagement. Much more rare are tactics that serve to increase engagement before the training starts: promotional videos are used by one-third of respondents and training incentives are used by less than one-fourth. There are risks and expenses to working to build engagement before training, but the upside is enormous. The first advantage is helping our learners understand how the training will benefit them. First impressions are key, and finding out about a new compliance training through a oneline company email can be disheartening to say the least. A promotional campaign in which we explain that better adherence to policies will increase efficiency and save jobs could make the 30-minute course seem like a reasonable investment in the company. A small gift card for participation can show your team that you value their time and are not simply forcing them to click through an e-learning course. These simple measures can significantly improve employee attitudes to training, and research has shown the importance of positive employee attitudes toward change management initiatives. For example, let’s consider the development of a large-scale systems training for a
multi-billion dollar financial institution. Learning a new system can be challenging for employees who have been with an organization for some time and grown used to previous work methods, and resistance to this type of training can be high. To promote engagement, motion graphics and infographics were produced and rolled out prior to the systems training. These pre-training engagement pieces directly address how the new system will help the employees be more successful and gives them an overview of the training to come, reducing the psychological barriers to entry for the full training.
MOVING FORWARD There are many advantages to treating our learners as customers. Understanding that they need to be sold on the value of training will help us connect the goals of the training to their interests, and that re-examination can help us craft more effective approaches. Showing our team members the value of the training before it begins will reduce barriers to entry and increase engagement from the outset. Training is valuable, for the company and the individual. If we do a better job selling our learners on that value, our training goals will be much easier to achieve. Keith Gibson is the vice president of client development at Allen Communication Learning Services. Email Keith.
TAKEAWAYS By training learners as customers, corporate learning and development can be more successful. If we treat our learners as potential customers who have to be sold on the value of the information, we are more likely to produce training that actually connects with them and changes behavior. • We must persuade learners to engage with training; we can’t just demand that they learn. • To convince them, we must connect our goals with theirs and show them how the training can help them achieve things they value. • To accomplish this, we must understand what our team members value and respect that it may not always be the same thing the CEO values.
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IF NOT LEARNING STYLES, THEN WHAT? BY RICK PRESLEY
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The instructional design blogosphere is all abuzz with the debunking of “learning styles.” Most of us know that there really is no such thing as visual learners, auditory learners and kinesthetic learners. More accurately, if such learning style preferences really do exist, there is no research that demonstrates an improvement when training is designed for a particular learning style. The conventional wisdom that “learners learn best when teaching styles are matched to learning styles” has been thoroughly put to rest by everyone from Will Thalheimer, Cathy Moore and Peter DeWitt to Wired Magazine. Ruth Clark wrote in 2012 that we need to “Stop Wasting Resources on Learning Styles” while The Onion spoofed learning styles as far back as 2000.
of training. Learning success (as measured by task performance) is not related to a preferred learning style, but rather what the learner is expected to do as a result of the training.
This leaves us with the question: If we don’t need to worry about learning styles, then what should we use to improve the learning experience? What is the most effective way to transfer knowledge from instructor to learner if we don’t tweak the training to fit learning styles? Rather than answer the question directly, let’s reflect on a learning experience and see what insights we discover.
Consider the skill of parallel parking. At minimum, it consists of a “kinesthetic” lesson, usually in a parking lot with traffic cones outlining the parking space. It is usually accompanied by videos, lectures, explanations and diagrams. No competent teacher would say to a “visual learner” that all they have to do in order to succeed at parallel parking is to watch an expert performance of the task and they are good to go. Neither would an instructor seriously consider that a set of verbal instructions are all that’s required for “auditory learners” to acquire the necessary skills to park successfully.
What is the most effective portion of a Driver’s Education class? Is it the classroom instruction that teaches the rules of the road? Is it the horrifying videos that provided lessons on the disastrous consequences of unsafe driving? Or is it the time spent in the parking lot navigating those traffic cones and traveling on the road operating a vehicle in the live environment?
You might argue the point that parallel parking is a complex activity and it cannot be confined to presentation in a single learning style. In this, you would be entirely correct. In reality, almost all the tasks we train are complex activities requiring multiple skills. Instead of relying on learning styles to achieve educational success, we need an alternative. That alternative is task-based design.
If you had a hard time settling on a single answer, then you understand the futility of applying “learning styles” to the reality
LEARNING SUCCESS IS DETERMINED BY WHAT THE LEARNER IS EXPECTED TO DO AS A RESULT OF THE TRAINING.
TASK-BASED DESIGN Evaluate the task or skill that you want the learners to acquire and train them in
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the matter that best reflects or mimics the actual performance of the task. Once you determine the target audience, the next question of good instructional design is, “What do we want the learner to do at the end of the training that they are not doing now?” The answers can be as varied as: » Juggling three tennis balls for five minutes without dropping any of them » Listing the 50 states and their capitals in alphabetical order » Playing a piece of new music accurately on a violin the first time through » Evaluating marketing advertising copy for the greatest desired impact on magazine subscribers » Resolving an angry customer’s complaint in a way that results in a positive outcome for both the customer and the business All of these tasks have varying degrees of involvement in the three areas of learning, the cognitive domain, psychomotor domain, and affective domain, or to put it more simply, knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA’s).
After identifying the desired learning outcome, evaluate what is lacking in each of the learning domains that prevents individuals from succeeding at the task. Ask these simple questions to get started: » What do learners need to know or understand in order to accomplish this task successfully? (Knowledge component) » What do learners need to be able to do in order to accomplish this task successfully? (Skill component) » What do learners need to feel or believe in order to accomplish this task successfully? (Attitude component) This last question is often missing in much of instructional design, but is essential to mastering high level “soft skills” and many areas of compliance training. Learners may not need to have a deep emotional commitment or strong set of beliefs in order to list the 50 states and their capitals in alphabetical order, but if we want them to successfully resolve customer complaints in a mutually satisfactory way every time, they will need the emotional intelligence that comes with empathy and a belief in the value of individuals.
PUTTING THE TASK INTO ACTION
LEARNING STYLES VS. TASK-BASED DESIGN Learning styles begin with the question, “How do learners like to learn?” and seek to adapt the content to the learner’s preferred method of receiving information. Task-based design begins with the question, “What will leaners need to do?” and designs the training based on the behavioral outcomes dictated by the business need. Often the business performance need drives the content and, as a consequence, the most effective training method.
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Once we have identified the audience, the task we want them to accomplish and the necessary KSA’s to achieve success, we are ready to begin the serious business of instructional design. At this point, we should be guided not by the myth of learning styles, but by the reality of how the task will be performed in the live environment. Our goal as designers is to create meaningful practice that closely simulates the live performance of the task as much as possible. If the task is complex, we break the learning into progressive steps that allow learners to acquire the skills gradually until they can complete the whole task. In teaching juggling, we would start with one ball and have the learner practice
tossing it up and catching it in one hand, then from hand to hand. Next, we would have them practice tossing two balls with one hand until they got good at that. Then switch to the other hand. Then they would toss the two balls from hand to hand. Finally, we would have them practice with two balls in one hand and one ball in the other and begin tossing them back and forth. We can apply the same design methodology to any of the other skills listed in our examples. The main thing is to design learning to take place in the closest approximation of the live environment as possible. E-Learning instructional designers recognize that some tasks are not suited to online learning such as juggling tennis balls. On the other hand, there are countless YouTube videos tutoring people on this very skill. Is a video sufficient to produce a skilled juggler? On its own, probably not, but with sufficient practice, it’s a good start. As e-learning instructional designers, we shouldn’t sell ourselves short by concluding, “You can’t do that in e-learning.” We may not be able to duplicate the live environment every time, but we can provide sufficient guidance and simulated practice situations that allow learners to succeed in a wide variety of tasks. The good news is that we don’t have to make sure we include activities that speak to auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners. Rick Presley is a senior consultant for e-learning and instructional design at Sequent Consulting International. Email Rick.
As
the workforce becomes more diverse, not only from a generational perspective, but also bringing with it an array of educational, technical and anecdotal backgrounds, course designers and instructors face more challenges than ever to craft and deliver relevant, current and compelling content in a timely and dynamic manner. The Future of Work is already here. So declares Josh Bersin in a September 2016 article in Forbes. While the article says executives should not be intimidated by this revelation, today’s workplace does present challenges for the talent development industry. So how does “Future Now” impact learning and development professionals? The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that the average baby boomer will change jobs 11.7 times over the course of their career, while Guy Berger’s LinkedIn blog predicts millennials will change jobs every two years or less. Compounding a workforce that is in an increasing state of flux, many more workers are now working on a contingency basis with upstarts like Lyft, TaskRabbit, and Uber. Automation and robotics also continue to gnaw away at traditional job roles, creating concern over professional drivers losing their jobs to autonomous vehicles. The Internet has empowered corporate learners to seek out information on their own, whether inside or outside corporate boundaries. According to research from Degreed, about 47 percent of workers search the Internet, while only 28 percent search their employers’ learning systems. With the increasing pace of job turnover, plus perhaps an even faster pace of role
changes and relationships between employers and employees changing both within and tangential to organizations, timely, relevant and current information delivery to the workforce becomes even more vital.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS If businesses were expecting to see exponential increases in productivity due to more technology and automation, they may be disappointed. According to a U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics study, productivity began to flatten while smartphone sales grew steadily. This paradox does not mean that L&D professionals cannot leverage technology to move learning experiences from a series of mind-numbing tasks to a truly engaging and consumer-like experience. Technology just needs to be leveraged in a different way. Kurt Marko introduces the term omnichannel in an April 2016 article from Forbes on leveraging big data and machine learning to enrich customer experiences. Successful and effective instructional designers and instructors consider their learners as customers and can leverage this omnichannel approach to constantly connected learners who, as a result of their experiences as consumers, have come to expect anytime, anywhere learning.
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These consumer experiences, along with the “there’s an app for that” mentality have also set expectations for relevant, timely and intuitive learning experiences. And, based on their experiences with many retailers, today’s corporate content consumer also expects the ability to rate, review and share the learning information to which they have been exposed. Recent YouTube statistics cite the average viewing time on mobile devices is now over 40 minutes. With smartphones putting video production capabilities in the hands of virtually everyone and consumers going to sites like YouTube or Vimeo for “inthe-moment” video vignettes of how-to instruction on everything from household and automotive repairs to cooking and learning new personal interest skills, this consumer-enabled technology is already having a seismic impact on the roles of instructional designers, learning architects, subject matter experts and instructors. Video is not the entire picture, however. There is still a place for both formal instruction and face-to-face coaching.
In a classic prediction from the end of the last century, The ClueTrain Manifesto still rings true today. Consumer markets are now better informed, smarter and more demanding of business organizations. These markets are conversations in which customers are humans and not simply demographics. Today’s corporate learners are no different. They no longer wait for learning to be pushed to them. With the ubiquity of information (or misinformation), the corporate learning consumer no longer relies on, or even necessarily trusts, the “official” learning materials that are thrust in front of, and sometimes force-fed to them. The Degreed study suggests that while workers have more options, they still want guidance. By leveraging big data in ways Marko suggests, L&D stakeholders can personalize learning experiences, thus making them more engaging and effective.
TODAY’S CORPORATE CONTENT CONSUMER EXPECTS THE ABILITY TO RATE, REVIEW AND SHARE LEARNING INFORMATION.
In virtually all workplaces since the beginning of time, employees have always relied on the tried and true experts in the
CITIZENS OF THE ENABLED LEARNING COMMUNITY In today’s hectic world, everyone moves from one role to another in both lives and careers. This same scenario holds true in today’s enabled and interconnected learning community. When L&D leaders proactively enable and appropriately empower the “citizens,” the knowledge, skills and performance of the entire community will grow by LEAPs and bounds. Consider the following roles and how you and those in your learning community might easily and seamlessly morph from one to another. Creator Typically, an instructional designer, courseware developer, learning architect or a similar role. They apply and adapt validated learning and knowledge transfer methods.
Conductor These are the individuals who enable the face-toface, virtual, synchronous and asynchronous learning experiences – traditionally known as instructors, facilitators or trainers.
Contributor Individuals who submit materials and ideas to be shared with the community or cohort. These can include consumers, curators, conductors and cultivators.
Curator A course owner or manager, and/or subject matter expert. Individuals in this role drive adjustments and updates to the current base of resources leveraged in the learning experience.
Consumer The ultimate beneficiary of the collective efforts of the community. Historically called students, users, attendees or participants.
Cultivator Traditionally referred to as an executive sponsor, this can be any key stakeholder responsible for ensuring the resources needed are in place, removing barriers and cheering on the rest of the community.
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IT’S UP TO FORWARD-THINKING L&D PROFESSIONALS TO MOVE FROM MANAGING LEARNING EXPERIENCES TO INSTEAD ENABLING AND EMPOWERING THEM.
field. Yet much of this knowledge has remained uncaptured and invalidated. Technology has empowered and enabled both expert and novice alike. It’s up to forward-thinking L&D professionals to move from managing learning experiences to instead enabling and empowering them.
A LEAP FORWARD Enter the notion of the Learning Enablement and Action Platform, or LEAP. As employers and learning software vendors strive to harness and validate the massive amounts of informal learning taking place beneath the radar, a mindshift has begun to codify itself, in which traditional, rigid and static roles across the learning ecosystem are becoming more blurred. The learning experience has become democratized and the role an individual may play can vary from experience to experience, and even within a single experience itself. (See “Citizens of the Enabled Learning Community” sidebar on page 40.) To fully leverage and embrace this democratized dynamic, learning systems need to recognize and accommodate the fluid roles of today’s corporate knowledge and skills consumer. Many learning management systems allow for the review and rating of learning resources by consumers. This is a critical component of keeping the community active and engaged and helps “police” the relevance of the materials to the consumers’ job role. Finally, the learning platform should also seamlessly integrate with HR systems to allow for better insights in identifying performance gaps and prescribing solutions to close those gaps.
SETTING THE PACE So, with individuals continuously moving from one role and set of expectations to another, how can professionals in the L&D industry keep a handle on all the dynamics without inhibiting the free flow and transfer of accurate and relevant information? Once the foundations of a Learning Enablement and Action Platform have been established, one possible solution might be to follow a four-step PACE (Process, Activate, Curate, Everywhere) strategy.
Process for Pertinence With virtually everyone having a video camera in the palm of their hand, enthusiastic Contributors might be apt to contribute irrelevant or potentially inaccurate information. It will be up to the Curators to ensure the validity and significance of contributed content. Establishing clear expectations around quality, accuracy and sourcing of contributed materials will better enable the initial filtering and placement practices. The instructional designers or learning architects (Creators) play a key role in prepping the raw material for inclusion in a learning experience.
Activate & Advertise Once contributed or sourced material has been appropriately vetted and refined, content should be loaded into the system and promoted via both the learning platform and social media. Leverage user ratings and reviews while touting the popularity of key content Contributors. Conductors (instructors and facilitators) should also play an active role in marketing new and expanded offerings.
Curate for Currency Curators, whether they be subject matter experts or other individuals
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with appropriate expertise, should be continually monitoring content for the most up-to-date and relevant materials while culling out expired information. Creators (instructional designers, etc.) also play a role in ensuring the information is presented in a way that best ensures learning transfer.
Everywhere and Anywhere Today’s technology and consumer experiences have today’s corporate learning Consumers expecting to receive learning by whichever method and whatever device best suits their needs. Cultivators will work with Creators to ensure a consistent and effective learning experience, whether in the classroom, via a web conference, discussion board or interacting on a mobile device.
BACK TO THE FUTURE So perhaps the future has indeed arrived, but does it pose threats or opportunities for the talent development industry? While the introduction of smartphones, social media and other connectivity resources has not yielded the levels of productivity some may have hoped for, it has enabled the workforce to connect to learning resources on an as needed basis. While some L&D professionals may view the empowerment given to the learning consumer as a threat to their careers, visionary executives and specialists in the industry will seize upon the opportunity these new circumstances present to take their learners to new levels of achievement. Steve Swink has been in the training and talent development industry for over 23 years. He is also a speaker and author. Email Steve.
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“Microlearning” is the employee training buzzword you’ve probably seen popping up all over the place. But is it really just a buzzword, or does it have the staying power to be more than that? Whether you’re an L&D or an HR professional, you’ve probably been told that if you’re not using microlearning at your organization then you’re doing training all wrong. Is there any truth to this statement? Well, yes and no. While microlearning should be a critical part of your training mix, it’s not the only thing. In fact, it’s possible to be using microlearning, but doing it wrong.
WHAT IS MICROLEARNING?
In case you haven’t heard, microlearning is a style of video-based learning, usually between four to seven minutes that delivers content in a way that holds the learner’s attention and can be fit into their busy schedules. If a topic is more comprehensive than a seven-minute video can accommodate, then a series of short videos would be created to fill that need. This way learners train on their own time and since anyone can focus for four minutes, they’ll actually pay attention to what they learn. In fact, according to eMarketer.com, adults in the U.S. spend an average of five hours and 31 minutes watching video each day. Microlearning is based on the principle that video is how we learn,
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and short video is even more effective. YouTube has been the guinea pig in testing this philosophy followed quickly by employee training platforms. WHY IS MICROLEARNING EFFECTIVE?
Studies show that short-form video is how people learn. In fact, four to seven minutes together may be all the time the modern learner has in a row to focus. Research shows that today’s modern learner is interrupted every five minutes and two-third of workers complain that they don’t have enough time to even complete their jobs, much less complete training. According to a Bersin by Deloitte study, the modern learner is overwhelmed, distracted and impatient.
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“NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU INVEST INTO TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, NEARLY EVERYTHING YOU TEACH YOUR EMPLOYEES WILL BE FORGOTTEN. INDEED, ALTHOUGH CORPORATIONS SPEND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR ON TRAINING, THIS INVESTMENT IS LIKE PUMPING GAS INTO A CAR THAT HAS A HOLE IN THE TANK. ALL OF YOUR HARD WORK SIMPLY DRAINS AWAY.” ART KOHN, PH.D
Professor, Author and Consultant
Gone are the days of the archaic click and advance e-learning slides, studies show that this method is just as boring and ineffective as its predecessor, classroom learning. So how much more effective is microlearning really? According to a recent study by Aberdeen, best-in-class companies are nearly twice as likely to use microlearning as part of their training mix, and nearly twice as likely to measure employee learning gains and calculate ROI based on microlearning. These companies are thought leaders and financial leaders in their industries. Think of it this way – if your garbage disposal breaks and you’re looking to save a little money you might think, “I’ll just learn how to fix it myself.” And where do you go? Probably Google, probably YouTube. You’re going to find a video
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of someone fixing the same model of garbage disposal you have and you’re going to quickly learn how to do it yourself. Microlearning has carried that same concept over to the workplace. Why? Because it works, because it’s how the modern learner absorbs information.
1 | Break it down. According to Cognitive Load Theory, the brain can only process a certain amount of information at a time or its “mental bandwidth” gets overloaded. Taking large amounts of training content and
ORGANIZATIONS AND THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING
Microlearning seems like the perfect solution, the best delivery system for justin-time training. And while that might be true, it has one major flaw – people forget. When busy people are fitting fastpaced training into their jam packed lives, things fall through the cracks. Organizations in the U.S. are spending somewhere between 60 and 160 billion dollars a year on formal training, but here’s the scary part – according to scientific research, employees are forgetting 70 percent of what they learned one day after training is completed. Within 30 days, that number jumps to 90 percent. This has staggering implications on the ROI for training. So how do we solve the two basic problems, train our people and get them to remember what they learned. Spoiler alert, there is a light at the end of this tunnel.
breaking it down into small bite-sized chunks can help to relieve cognitive load. Microlearning is already broken down and ready to be consumed and fit into employees' busy schedules. 2 | Space it out. Remember “cramming” for tests during high school and college? How much of that information did you actually remember and apply afterward? Cramming is effective when you only want to engage your short-term memory, not when you want to affect an organizational change. You want your employees to remember things over the long haul, not just long enough to take a test. So space out the information you provide to employees.
WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
There are several steps you can take at your organization to increase learning retention and take back your ROI, and you’ve already taken the first step – awareness. You’re educating yourself on the science of learning and realizing that microlearning, while important, may not be enough on its own. Using research already done by renowned scientists and researchers Dr. Eduardo Salas, Dr. Henry Roedeger, and Dr. Art Kohn, here are six ways you can use science to improve your employee training program.
3 | Test knowledge. Testing is not just a way to gauge the amount of knowledge a learner has, its more effective purpose is to actively help learners remember the information they've taken in. Testing, or effortful retrieval as it’s called in the neuroscience world, increases learning retention more than any other study method. In fact, the long-term memory is activated when testing is applied, causing the brain to store information for later use.
4 | Use “interleaving.” You may have heard of the traditional employee training method of “blocking” – teaching one skill at a time and building on each one. We’re proposing “interleaving” – teaching related skills together and
effortful retrieval and let your learners' brains know that the information you provided them is important. So what constitutes a “boost?” A boost is anything that makes a learner think critically about information they’ve learned.
real behavioral change and optimal ROI, you’ll need to enter into the world of posttraining reinforcement. Microlearning on its own is not enough. Microlearning plus post-training reinforcement is a match made in employee training heaven.
BY MAKING OUR BRAINS WORK HARDER, LEARNING AND RETENTION IS INCREASED. forming a pattern. Growing research on the subject indicates that “interleaving” often outperforms “blocking” when it comes to effectiveness. 5 | Make it hard. The research shows that making training programs more challenging improves long-term retention. The more difficult the training, the harder your brain has to work to understand and the longer and more effectively it will retain this information. 6 | Write it down. This could mean taking notes, although note-taking in and of itself doesn’t actually increase the amount of information we remember. However, it does help the brain organize that information in a way that makes retrieval easier. Another way to “write it down” is to include essay questions in your testing. Let learners summarize key takeaways in their own words. POST-TRAINING REINFORCEMENT: USING BOOSTS TO INCREASE ROI
All six steps we just listed are extremely important to retaining training information, but ultimately it comes down to post-training reinforcement. What are you doing to reinforce the training you’ve already provided and drive it deeper into your learners' brains? You’ll need to use repetition in the form of “boosts” to force
It could be quiz questions that are multiple choice or true or false, it could be asking them to summarize key takeaways, it could be having them watch a video or read an article related to a topic and then answer a question based on that. Anything that gets them thinking will help them remember. Research shows that the learner doesn’t even have to get the question correct in order for them to remember, they just have to be thinking about the information. When it comes to “boosts,” timing is also important. Science says that as we get farther away from the time of the original training, we should increase the amount of time between repetitions. This increases the difficulty, but also, by making our brains work harder, learning and retention is increased. Our optimal recommendation for “boost” intervals was developed by Dr. Art Kohn. He recommends learning “boosts” two days, two weeks and then two months following training to maximize ROI. Try using a learning technology platform which is designed to do this easily. SO IS MICROLEARNING ENOUGH?
When it comes to the initial training needed to transfer information, yes, microlearning can meet that need. However, when it comes to achieving maximum learning retention,
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Erin Boettge is the marketing content manager at BizLibrary, where she is responsible for all aspects of content development including research and development of e-books, how-to guides, infographics, webinars and more. Email Erin.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES The Complete Guide to MicroLearning and Post-Training Reinforcement By BizLibrary How Much Do People Forget? By Will Thalheimer Information Impact and Factors Affecting Recall By Ralph Burns Are You Ready for Burst and Boost Training? By BizLibrary Meet the Modern Learner Bersin by Deloitte
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BY POOJA SINGH MEHTA
LEARNING PORTFOLIO
TRANSFORMATION
MANY COMPANIES BUILD LARGE COLLECTIONS OF TRAINING CONTENT THAT REST INSIDE CURRICULA, CATALOGS AND LMSS. AT ANY POINT IN TIME, SOME OF THESE PROGRAMS HAVE VERY TARGETED FUNCTIONAL AND BUSINESS PURPOSES, AND SOME ARE REQUIRED FOR EXTERNAL LEGAL OR INTERNAL POLICY COMPLIANCE. SOME MAY BE LIBRARIES OR COLLECTIONS OF PROFESSIONAL AND TECHNICAL SKILLS COURSES WITH NO SPECIFIC BUSINESS OBJECTIVE BUT AVAILABLE GENERALLY TO SUPPORT ONGOING EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT. OTHERS, HOWEVER, ARE OUT OF DATE, HAVE NO OR LOW UTILIZATION, OR ARE DUPLICATIVE (SIMILAR CONTENT FROM DIFFERENT VENDORS OR AVAILABLE IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE ORGANIZATION).
While most companies capture some measure of participant satisfaction with the programs they offer, as well as various other measures, such as courses completed or participants trained, very few can account for the effectiveness of training programs in terms of meaningful business measures. It is widely reported that there is a lack of strong alignment between training programs and the current strategic and operating priorities of the business. Given the spread of global businesses, there is also often a lack of standardization of learning experience across geographies. On the one hand, strategic and operating priorities may not be getting the L&D attention they need. On the other hand, the expected business impact of the current collection of programs is unclear. Ensuring that learning portfolios are relevant, linked to the business, and deemed effective and efficient requires organizations to engage in a learning portfolio transformation exercise. This exercise should be followed by a continuous governance process to ensure that the portfolios remain optimized.
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DRIVING LEARNING PORTFOLIO TRANSFORMATION We approach learning portfolio transformation as a six-stage process (see Figure 1 on page 48). While Stage 1 is the table stake for initiating portfolio transformation, the sequence of Stages 2, 3 and 4 can be altered depending on the characteristics of the portfolio in consideration. STAGE 1 CONSOLIDATE Integral to portfolio transformation is an enterprise-wide view of all training that makes up the portfolio. This means having visibility of all the programs, vendors, spend incurred, usage, instructional elements and learning objectives. Depending on how the content is organized for the learning portfolio, the time, investment and resources required during this stage differs. For learning portfolios where training is managed centrally with an LMS, consolidation could be as easy as pulling and interpreting the relevant reports from the LMS. For organizations where learning is decentralized, federated,
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managed by multiple stakeholders and/or tracked using different tools, gathering all the data may be challenging and take significant effort. Regardless, consolidation is a critically important step in the transformation process, as it defines the current state, which is the basis of driving transformation.
During this stage, all third-party courses are analyzed to determine course-specific opportunities for rationalization. The opportunities are evaluated and translated into an implementation roadmap. The key objective at this stage is to make the portfolio more efficient.
incurs additional administration costs. Reducing the number of courses and vendors provides a manageable view of the learning spend. With higher volumes per vendor, it also helps leverage the buying power to negotiate a better price or better terms with the vendor.
Key Activities
Key Activities
1. Eliminate redundancy.
STAGE 3 OPTIMIZE THIRD-PARTY COURSES
1. Map stakeholders and current processes.
2. Consolidate vendors and programs.
2. Gather historical data. 3. Create a demand plan. The scope of the data consolidated at this stage depends on the configuration of the portfolio. Ideally, historical data and demand projection for the coming year together create a comprehensive picture. However, it is often difficult for organizations to provide both historical and projected views. The output of this stage is an initial hypothesis of the potential transformation. In this way, Step 1 also works as a stage gate and helps determine if it is useful to continue the portfolio transformation. STAGE 2 RATIONALIZE THIRD-PARTY COURSES The data gathered in Stage 1 is separated into third-party and in-house courses.
3. Replace with better vendors and programs, where applicable. 4. Implement vendor performance metrics. Program duplication often results from local procurement and the belief that the various departments and programs of the organization have unique content needs. Also, many organizations do not have a robust process for retiring courses that have become redundant. As a result, these courses continue to live in the learning catalog. Often, when analyzing L&D data, we find instances of different business entities purchasing from the same vendor, sometimes with their own negotiated rates. Given the relatively small value of the individual orders, the vendors sometimes do not understand the big picture. This situation leads to a bulky curriculum that
The primary objective of this phase is to enhance the effectiveness and business alignment of third-party training. Typically, third-party programs are more generic and less contextual, so there is a high probability of a gap between what the business wants and what the programs deliver. Most business leaders understand that competence development is critical to achieve desired business results. However, fewer than 25 percent are satisfied with the overall effectiveness of learning programs, according to research conducted by CEB. It is important that the learning programs are linked to business objectives. Key Activities 1. Eliminate redundancy. 2. Test for effectiveness and usage. 3. Balance learning investments with the organization’s strategic direction. 4. Restructure delivery mode.
FIGURE 1. CONSOLIDATE
RATIONALIZE 3rd PARTY COURSES
OPTIMIZE 3rd PARTY COURSES
OPTIMIZE INHOUSE COURSES
SET UP GOVERNANCE
MANAGE CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
M ap stakeholders
Eliminate redundancy
Eliminate scrap
Eliminate scrap
Test for effectiveness and usage
Test for effectiveness and usage
Record expected benefits
Gather historical data
Consolidate vendors and programs
Define the governance model
Replace with better vendors and programs
Balance learning investments
Balance learning investments
Set up the governance organization
Measure impact against planned
Implement vendor performance metrics
Restructure delivery mode
Restructure delivery mode
Define processes and templates
Review and revisit the levers identified Assess maturity
Optimize volume and consumption
Re-evaluate build vs. buy
Create dashboards and allocate responsibilities for analysis
Create an enterprise-wide view
and current processes
Create a demand plan
Conduct spend and use analysis
Ensure business alignment
Ensure business alignment
Optimize volume and consumption
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Prevent transformations from rolling back
Define new course approval and current course sunset workflows
Carry on the process of transformation
Review approvals of transformations that were not approved earlier Measure portfolio effectiveness
THERE IS A LACK OF STRONG ALIGNMENT BETWEEN TRAINING PROGRAMS AND THE CURRENT STRATEGIC AND OPERATING PRIORITIES OF THE BUSINESS.
5. Re-evaluate build versus buy. 6. Optimize volume and consumption. Reviewing each course for its business alignment forms the basis of this stage of portfolio transformation. The assessment criteria at this stage include: • Is the content optimal? • Is the learning effective and retained? • Is the learning realistic and applicable to the work context? • Are there any learning gaps that the course does not address? • Is there a method to measure whether the business objectives of this program are being attained? • Are the business objectives of this program being attained?
rationalization step is not required, and we can instead jump right into optimization.
Effective governance models have the following four components:
Key Activities
• Governance organization
The activities during this stage are similar to Stage 3. However, the focus is on inhouse courses.
• Processes and templates
STAGE 5 FORMULATE GOVERNANCE PROCESS What makes portfolio transformation “transformational” is the insertion of a wedge that ensures that the improvements do not slide back over time. The objective of Stage 5 is to define for the organization a set of processes and structures to ensure that the portfolio does not become suboptimal. This goal is accomplished by creating a documented, shared, agreed upon and staffed governance model that enables the organization to maintain a transformed learning portfolio.
Once the business relevance of a course is confirmed, the next step is to determine ways to make it more effective and efficient, which can be through levers such as changing delivery modality, optimizing volume and consumption, and reviewing delivery time.
Governance Model
STAGE 4 OPTIMIZE IN-HOUSE COURSES
Here are three guidelines when designing and setting up a governance model:
The objective of this stage is also to drive stronger business alignment and value. However, the focus is now on the in-house courses. Unlike third-party courses, the
• It should be non-bureaucratic.
Governance models fail to deliver their promised value when they are bureaucratic, complex and time consuming. A governance model with these characteristics will drive the business to find its own alternate methods of providing training.
• It should be simple to implement and use. • It should be responsive to business needs.
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• Dashboards • Workflows STAGE 6 CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT To commit to continuous improvement, review the rationalized and optimized learning portfolio once every two years to identify opportunities for further rationalization or optimization. Key Activities • Document long-term improvement goals. • Track and review progress against the goals. • Identify and manage any new transformation opportunities. From time to time, there may be big changes in business strategy; a new, large organization; or a new business launch that may require the organization to repeat the portfolio transformation process in full or in part. Pooja Singh Mehta is the regional vice president of consulting and advisory services at NIIT. Email Pooja.
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CMA RKAR, CTDP, CPA, BY AJAY M. PANGA CTDP OOD, & TERESA KIRKW
UE
ING VAL N R A E L E T A R T S N T TO DEMO A F E H T T U C O T D E
WHY YOU NE
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FROM THE DAWN OF CIVILIZATION, HUMANS HAVE SOUGHT OPPORTUNITIES TO BECOME BETTER AND FASTER WHILE MAXIMIZING USE OF LIMITED RESOURCES. THIS IS A BUSINESS REALITY, LEADING EVERY LEADER TO ADOPT THE MANTRA: DO MORE WITH LESS. SOME PEOPLE REFER TO THIS AS EFFICIENCY, BUT IT’S MUCH MORE THAN THAT. IT’S APPLYING LONG-TERM STRATEGIC JUDGEMENT FOR THE DECISIONS RELATING TO ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES. YES, DOING MORE WITH LESS IS ABOUT EFFICIENCY BUT BEING “LEAN” IS ABOUT APPROPRIATELY ALLOCATING FUTURE RESOURCES FOR STRATEGIC GROWTH. LEAN IS NOTHING NEW TO BUSINESS, BUT IT IS SOMETHING VERY NEW FOR L&D. Naturally, leaders expect to maximize value within every business process while minimizing waste. But lean thinking strives to continuously improve value-focused processes that drive sustainable results. Successfully implementing lean for any process is far from a one-time occurrence. It’s an iterative process most effective when driven by the organization’s culture. Toyota is an infamous example of a company successfully implementing lean into its manufacturing processes, cultivating a reputation for reliability and quality far exceeding competitors. This is the power of lean. But there is more to every “Toyota-type” success story than simply cutting process costs in the right areas and getting people to buy-in. The focus should be on integrative and continuous learning. Regretfully, even lean methodology rarely acknowledges learning’s relevance and significance to increasing value of primary business performance. You may be saying, “This is a nice story for large multinationals but how does this apply to us small guys?” Actually, lean processes and lean learning is exceptionally more pronounced within small organizations
because of effective resource utilization and an edge on speed. This implies that small organizations are organically lean and that learning is organic and unstructured. There are also greater risks for knowledge flight, misapplication or misappropriation that should drive value and ultimately, profits. Missing key learning opportunities can result in stunted business growth. This is how essential L&D is for growing organizations.
A SHIFT TO LEAN LEARNING Without realizing it, L&D is rapidly moving toward lean learning. For learning professionals, however, lean and creativity appear at opposite ends of the business spectrum. Learning professionals often believe that it’s ineffective to restrict resources when attempting to effect actual learning while leaders demand L&D become more efficient and effective. With lean, it’s both, not one or the other. Business leaders expect learning efforts to deliver impactful results while minimizing disruptions to key processes. This is not an unusual or an unreasonable expectation as L&D is a business activity and faithfully respects the lean concept, or in this specific case, lean learning.
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If you’re unconvinced that you’re moving toward lean learning, then consider what learning methodologies and delivery tools you are currently applying. Chances are you are increasing learning accessibility through the organization’s technology infrastructure. Learning approaches such as e-learning, web-based, mobile, gamification and microlearning are all examples of learning tools that are lean. It’s not, however, just technology-based learning approaches. Even traditional instructor-led learning is evolving toward what many refer to as blended learning. It’s not about the learning method or type of tool that determines whether learning is lean. It’s about how you apply and utilize available resources to deliver and derive the most learning value. Lean learning is conceptual and not mutually exclusive from the overall lean process. Also, don’t look for a lean learning framework or template because it doesn’t exist. Lean learning environments are unique to each organization’s intent and expectation. How learning is lean within one organization is never identical to another. Fundamentally, developing a lean learning environment requires you to build a proper business case. Building an effective business case encompasses the following criteria:
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1) Be Integrative and Seamless
2) Minimize Process Disruption
Effective lean learning professionals never view their learning efforts as events, but rather, as a process that occurs naturally and organically. From this perspective, learning becomes an integrative component within a business process.
Lean learning professionals assess two elements prior to implementing any type of learning initiative: minimizing business disruption and employee learning cycle time. Both correlate closely.
Further, because lean learning professionals seek out learning opportunities within processes, they strive for non-intrusive and seamless learning interactions. In this way, they are able to leverage employee expectations and have them become active learning participants, directly contributing to their roles. This has two immediate benefits: 1) L&D has direct on the job and business impact (Kirkpatrick Levels 3 & 4) and, 2) Rather than pushing learning to employees, they can actively pull required learning when, where and how they need it. This integrative approach stimulates a lateral “learn sharing” culture throughout the process stream as well as vertically within the hierarchy, providing business leaders with real-time insight on the areas to continually improve. Essentially, it returns to fostering an organically supportive environment for each job role and promotes sharing among various job interactions.
First, business leaders do not like process disruptions, especially if the activity directly affects revenue and profit generation. Leaders refer to disruptions as “downtime” and it costs the business money, more precisely, lost revenue and profits. Even though lean learning professionals attempt to fully integrate, they recognize that this isn’t realistic. But rather than convincing leaders to accept downtime by promising possible unverifiable benefits for business activities, they develop strategies that minimize possible work or process flow disruptions. They seek out downtime moments within the process flow to conduct the learning interventions to reduce business disruption. They capitalize on business or economic cycle timing and leverage tools that integrate within the role of the employees’ responsibility. Second, lean learning professionals focus on reducing learning cycle time. Their objective is ensuring that relevant learning occurs, when and where it’s needed and, more importantly, that employees consistently apply new knowledge to ensure improving performance. Lean learning is about the application of knowledge, not acquisition (the focus is on Kirkpatrick Level 3, not Level 2). Again, leaders want to limit disruptive activities so this is where learning professionals would apply integrative learning tools and methodologies. Today’s learning practitioners have access to a wide variety of learning tools that facilitate skills application and integrate well to minimize process disruptions. Many practitioners implicitly jump to finding “tools” but lean learning professionals never put the cart before the horse. It’s always about methodology first, then the tools. Lean learning professionals work closely with employees and leaders to directly map every employee's knowledge
development to current roles, future role needs, and internal career direction. They recognize that learning efforts must align with specific performance expectations.
3) Become a Valued Business Partner Lean learning professionals are not passive. They refuse to wait for a need, but rather, become proactive seeking out opportunities that contribute to the continuous improvement process. They discover potential learning opportunities by first understanding the businessperformance relationship. Lean learning professionals investigate their organization’s strategic goals beginning with the mission and vision. They follow the flow of performance objectives cascading from the mission through to each primary
LEARNING'S MORTAL ENEMY: DISRUPTIONS Money is not a leader’s preoccupation. Leaders are concerned with how supporting business roles, like L&D, integrate into primary, profit-driven activities. This is about ensuring that learning efforts minimize process disruptions. Technological advances allow L&D to drive high-impact learning with minimal process disruptions. Applying technology to any learning effort, however, is more than shoving a square peg into a round hole and hoping it works. You must adapt lean learning thinking by: Being Relevant Employees don’t need to know everything. Drop all of the fluff and get to the point. Lean learning identifies only relevant learning content and matches relevant skills with learner needs. Being Real-Time Constant change is a reality, and employees and leaders must adapt to demands quickly. Lean learning is about selecting and applying appropriate technology to deliver precise learning in a timely and efficient manner. Being Ready Lean learning is a proactive process. Learning professionals actively investigate where their efforts offer the most business value, and they never turn their back on past process. Rather, they actively revisit existing learning applications to discover opportunities to improve.
operational activity. Lean learning professionals identify key performance indicators (KPIs), accessing, studying and leveraging their organization’s performance framework. Then by speaking with business unit managers, they focus on the performance pain points among those KPIs. These steps identify cause and effect performance relationships, ensuring that the learning approach they apply correlates to improving performance and managing internal change. Effectively, lean learning professionals become an operationally proactive business partner rather than remaining functionally passive.
4) Identify and Leverage Existing Processes Lean learning professionals never purposefully reinvent the wheel. They recognize that their best efforts occur through identifying what works and leverages these activities and experiences toward other possible business applications. Lean learning is truly about resourceful innovativeness and adaptation. Traditional learning professionals often claim that they already do this. But what many don’t realize is that it’s more than simply taking a learning intervention for one process and applying it to another. This traditional learning approach may capitalize on economies of scale but it remains highly ineffective. It is also the approach that business leaders view disparagingly because it lacks business impact and relevance. Learning professionals may champion that their efforts are efficient doing this but driving down cost per participant for a learning activity is not lean. Lean learning professionals deliberately do things to ensure learning efforts provide relevant process results while maximizing existing resources. They actively monitor current offerings to determine what is effective and identify areas of improvement. They then map how to adapt existing offerings to new process applications, improving upon the previous iteration.
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NEXT LEAN LEARNING STEPS The manifestation of lean learning methodologies is recent and something that business leaders consider essential to organizational sustainability. Lean learning is not well documented, primarily because leaders don’t see learning in isolation but rather as an integral component to the lean process. Your journey toward lean learning is to stop being learning myopic and open up to business. Before your learning efforts can contribute to business objectives, you must know what the business is about. Become business and operationally literate. The next step is learning about the lean process. Discover that lean is not simply about eliminating waste, but rather, creating processes that require less human effort and time to make products and services, reducing costs and with fewer defects, compared to traditional business systems. From this simple description it is abundantly clear that lean offers L&D a leading role and many opportunities to drive change and improve operational performance. L&D’s time is now. Don’t miss your business calling.
Ajay M. Pangarkar, CTDP, CPA, CMA, and Teresa Kirkwood, CTDP, are founders of CentralKnowledge.com and LearningSourceonline.com. They are renowned employee performance management experts and three-time authors most recently publishing, “The Trainer’s Balanced Scorecard.” Email Ajay and Teresa.
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CASEBOOK
NESTLÉ'S JOURNEY TOWARD
LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS By Vanessa Blewitt
What is the value of training? This simple question heralded the start of Nestlé’s learning effectiveness journey. That’s not to say there had not been considerable efforts to demonstrate the value of training and learning before 2014, when this question was asked. Indeed, training and learning had always diligently reported Kirkpatrick Level 1 (reaction) with some Level 2 (learning) measures. While there is no doubt that such measures were valuable in delivering engaging learning experiences, this learner-centric, event-focused view no longer satisfied the business. STARTING WITH A HIGH-VALUE PILOT
REPOSITION LEARNING AS A BUSINESS ENABLER, NOT A TRAINING TICK BOX OR WAY TO REWARD AND RETAIN PEOPLE.
Overlooking Lake Geneva is Rive Reine, Nestlé’s International Learning & Development Centre. Being a participant in a Rive Reine program is a high-profile, high-value, sought-after opportunity. Learners are exposed to executive board members and make connections and establish networks that span the entire organization and their careers. For these reasons, Nestlé selected a Rive Reine program for the learning effectiveness pilot early in 2015. The pilot was comprised of a dashboard of effectiveness-focused training and learning measures: • Competency Gaps • Relevance • Engagement • Net Promoter Score This dashboard and supplementary report were well received by senior leaders. However, reporting was still essentially focused on events. The next challenge was to provide insights beyond this level. Was learning applied on the job or did it become scrap learning? To
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what extent were competency gaps closed? FINDING COMMON GROUND WITH A COMMON DEFINITION Nestlé was starting to talk about learning effectiveness. But did this term mean the same thing to everyone? It needed to mean more than learner reactions and assessing events … but what? Learning effectiveness came to be known as learning that delivers tangible business value. This definition repositions learning as a business enabler, not a training tick box or way to reward and retain people. TANGIBLE BUSINESS VALUE NEEDS MORE THAN A DASHBOARD The learning effectiveness initiative was now anchored and driven by a clear “why.” A workshop of business and training and learning stakeholders explored the what, how, when and who. Key workshop outcomes included: • A definition of the learning effectiveness framework • A definition of a 100-day learning journey based on the framework • Tools • Roles and responsibilities • Measures • “ What” measures: gaps, gap closure and learning application on the job • “ Why” measures: opportunities, obstacles to applying learning and action plan status • “Aha!” Moments: • Learning effectiveness requires the right business context and conditions.
• Creating context and conditions requires business accountability and action.
As of 2016, all Rive Reine learners undertake a learning journey that starts before the formal learning event and formally concludes 100 days afterward. Reaching this milestone has been characterized by three main areas of change and challenge.
When it comes to delivery, new measures provide a new level of transparency, which in turn has raised some concerns. For example, if reporting provided by training and learning shows low application of learning, who is responsible? Will training and learning be tasked with “fixing the problem”? To address this challenge, measures are reported as actionable insights, combining measures of what happened and why it happened alongside suggested follow-up activities.
1 | Redefining the Roles of Training and Learning and Business
2| P lacing Learners and Their Managers at the Heart of Learning Journeys
• Events
Understanding learners’ “what’s in it for me?” (WiiFM) is training 101. Without learner motivation, there is unlikely to be learner action. Without learners acting to apply their learning, training cannot deliver value of any kind. Satisfying WiiFM requires tacit support from managers.
• Reporting requirements
FROM WORKSHOP TO WORKPLACE
Training and learning has always worked hard to deliver meaningful and engaging learning events based on their best understanding of business requirements, but the training organization has worked without much involvement from the business. Training and learning has typically had little to no visibility or influence over what happens before or after learning events. The learning effectiveness initiative necessitates that training become copilots throughout learning journeys, engaging the business stakeholders from design through on-the-job application and behavior change. With the value of learning now denoted by a business perspective, business sign- off of learning is not enough; they must buy in. It has taken time to find and ask business stakeholders the right questions in the right way. It’s critical to be flexible in the medium and to leave space for reflection and context-specific thought. Design collaboration activities range from short workshops to forms and conversations asking questions focused on tangible business value: • Why this learning experience? What does success look like? • Six months from now, when you are asked if this learning has delivered tangible business value, what will you consider before answering (KPIs, feedback, etc.)? • What opportunities and challenges are learners likely to experience on the job? This approach is leading to increased business engagement and sponsorship. Business input has been invaluable to creating holistic, pragmatic, 70:20:10 learning based on success in the real world.
When asked, learners and their managers almost unanimously agree that clear expectations and focused application of learning is necessary. However, sampling shows that Nestlé is in line with industry research: Only one in 10 learners arrives at events having discussed expected outcomes with their manager. More help is needed with the “how.” Enablers are used at key points throughout the learning journey: pre-, during and post-learning for both learners and their line managers. These tools are designed to engage, enable and foster ownership by creating clear, specific context. Language is deliberately first-person and learnercentric to encourage personal reflection and foster accountability for action. Learners indicate that knowing there will be a follow-up prompts action and therefore reduces scrap learning. Follow-up also drives engagement and ownership by demonstrating that learning is important and valued. In line with the chief human resources officers’ calls for increased “human touch” from all HR personnel, communications are becoming personalized, sent from high-profile sponsors. Technology such as videos with familiar, important or inspirational faces help bring the messages to life.
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However, it is imperative that learning effectiveness activities are neither arduous nor lengthy. The best of intentions do not always result in action, especially since learners and their managers continue to be as busy as ever.
3| Managing Data to Create Meaningful Insights The combination, variety and volume of: • Learners • Line managers • Facilitators • Data collection points • Reporting stakeholders …has significantly challenged technical and processing capabilities. Neither the current LMS nor survey tools can fully meet requirements. A significant amount of work is required to download and process data and prepare reports in Excel. EARLY RESULTS ARE POSITIVE • Steady increase in completion rates pre-, during and post-event • Exponential increase in expectation setting • Low scrap learning rate • Business buy-in for design continues for both new and existing programs • Business buy-in for delivery continues, with leaders acting on their newly acquired insights to influence learning outcomes • Pull for extension of the learning effectiveness initiative beyond Rive Reine LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS IS A NEVER-ENDING JOURNEY Tools, process and measures have been reviewed and refined throughout 2016 and will offer improved clarity and accessibility in 2017. As it turns out, the simple question “What is the value of training?” does not have a simple answer. However, as Nestlé’s journey toward learning effectiveness continues, we are finding ways to ensure that learning delivers tangible business value. Vanessa Blewitt is the learning effectiveness lead for corporate training and learning at Nestlé. Email Vanessa.
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G L O B A L OUTLOOK
HOW TO ASSESS FOR SUCCESS IN OFFSHORE ENGLISH SKILLS BY DR. JANE LOCKWOOD
A high standard of spoken English is a key commodity in contact centers and shared services, but achieving this standard can be a challenge in offshore operations, where customer service representatives (CSRs) speak English as a second or even third language.
IT IS LANGUAGE PERFORMANCE THAT DIRECTLY IMPACTS QUALITY SALES CRITERIA.
Did you know that: • O ver two million CSRs are employed in English-speaking contact centers in India and the Philippines alone? • CSRs mostly deal with customers in USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand – all English-speaking countries. • English communications training and assessment costs are estimated at more than $300 per employee per year. These large investments are intended to measure and improve the language skills of this CSR workforce, but most organizations have no way to tell if the tools and processes they use actually impact business performance.
• I nteract on the phone with a wide variety of business customers worldwide • Explain a business product or process clearly and logically on the phone • I ntegrate business knowledge and skills seamlessly into the service exchange Grammar and pronunciation can measure language proficiency but not language performance. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) distinguishes these two measures and defines language performance as the combined effect of interpersonal, interpretive and presentation skills. It is language performance that directly impacts quality criteria, including: • Average handling time (AHT) • First-time resolution (FTR) • Voice of the customer (VOC) and net promoter score (NPS) • Sales targets
CAUSES OF COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWNS IN CONTACT CENTERS Businesses still believe that grammar accuracy and accent neutralization will result in great CSR communication when serving English-speaking customers globally. However, studies have shown that this is not the case. The causes of breakdown relate to the ability to:
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An effective assessment therefore must include performance criteria. SELECTING A COMMUNICATIONS MEASUREMENT TOOL Business communication measurement is a fairly new area of academic research, since the offshore industry itself is a recent phenomenon. However, there is now a
body of research that applies a linguistic approach and best practices in language testing to identify what really matters in communication measurement and how to implement it in business. There are three main principles:
1| G iven the central importance of spoken English communication, its measurement needs to be both summative (providing an overall score that benchmarks a candidate for employment and appraisal) and formative (providing an analytical diagnosis of the strengths and weaknesses of the CSR’s communication skills) so that training and coaching can be targeted effectively. 2| A measurement tool needs to be: • Valid: The test relates to the performance required. For example, giving a written grammar test to candidates will not demonstrate whether they can communicate well on the phone.
measurement tool comprised of key criteria related to business success and a set of competency levels that define the spoken communication ability of the CSR. These criteria are normally presented in a table, and each criterion and level has its own descriptor. For call centers, the key performance criteria relate to: • Content completion of the calls: Were the business knowledge and process communicated accurately and comprehensively? • Control of the call flow: Was the CSR able to manage the call professionally, explaining business issues clearly, logically and coherently? • Customer relationship-building: Was the CSR able to develop a good customer relationship by, for example, listening, empathizing and apologizing?
• Reliable: Assessment personnel will understand and interpret the measurement tool in the same way, leading to consistent scores.
• Overall English vocabulary, grammar and phonological choices: Was the CSR able to make appropriate and accurate choices while being globally comprehensible?
• Practical: The test is cost- and timeeffective compared to its value to the user organization.
PROOF OF CONCEPT: TESTING A RESEARCH-BASED ASSESSMENT TOOL
3 | T he washback of a good communications assessment rubric ensures that coaching support will be comprehensive and relevant. Washback means that the assessment criteria and the training and coaching are consistent and aligned. Because English communication is the core skill for contact center employees, the business should make summative and formative assessments every day. In recruitment departments, for example, large numbers of applicants are assessed on a daily basis, with typically fewer than 10 percent making it to employment. Developing these new employees through training and coaching ensures high-quality customer service, and this training requires formative, or diagnostic, assessment and feedback. Both these summative and formative functions require a common rubric, a
A number of projects have looked at the validity of this linguistically informed assessment approach and tool both in its summative usage in recruitment and in its formative usage in coaching.
Recruitment Are the assessment scores in proficiency and performance domains good predictors of successful performance? To answer this question, a study was carried out in a large outsourcing contact center in Manila. Researchers selected a representative sample of 31 high performers, middle performers and low performers and measured the correlation between their performance and their proficiency and performance assessment scores at recruitment. CSRs who scored higher in the performance domains at recruitment were significantly better performers on actual service calls, while
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the proficiency-only assessment had no statistically significant predictive value.
On-the-Job Assessment, Diagnosis and Coaching Support Does this approach to measurement and washback impact business performance? In a study in a financial shared service company in India, communications coaches were trained to use this research-based approach over a twomonth period in their regular coaching sessions. The study compared pilot group CSRs who received this coaching with another group who received the usual form of coaching. The researchers compared the groups based on the business’ key performance indicators (KPIs): AHT, hold time, quality scorecard results, sales targets and VOC. The pilot group showed strong progression from pre-coaching results to post-coaching results, with improvement in all KPIs. The biggest improvement was in sales. The control group, however, showed no significant improvement in the same period. For that group, some metrics (VOC, hold time) had minor improvement, while others (sales, AHT) had a drop in performance. These results demonstrated strong quantitative evidence that the approach succeeded. From a qualitative viewpoint, surveys and focus group discussions showed that the coaches preferred this approach to the previous scorecardbased coaching, saying that the approach was more “fair, systematic and objective.” Testing proficiency alone provides a snapshot in time and it makes it very difficult to develop call center CSRs effectively. With more research focusing on workplace language testing and linguistics, there are opportunities to use these approaches to make our organizations – and our jobs – better. Dr. Jane Lockwood is an associate professor in the Department of English at the City University of Hong Kong, where she has published extensively in workplace training and measurement. She co-founded FuturePerfect, a communications and assessment consultancy. Email Jane.
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MEASURING I M P A C T
MOVING FROM EVENTS TO JOURNEYS TO GET DEMO N ST R A B LE R E S U LTS BY CHIP CLEARY
Getting demonstrable results has long been the “holy grail” for training and development departments. But maybe we should think of it more as our Achilles’ heel. Study after study shows that business leaders doubt (and are often outright skeptical of ) the effectiveness of training. When business leaders seek to evaluate investments in training, T&D teams are often unable to provide helpful insight. An evaluation method we’ve been using recently with our client partners has delivered useful insight. We have found that this method, the Performance Journey Funnel, provides clarity about the outcomes business leaders seek (summative results) while also pointing to how to optimize those outcomes (formative results). BUSINESS LEADERS FOCUS ON BUSINESS RESULTS BEFORE INVESTING Most evaluation frameworks focus first on business results (e.g., Kirkpatrick Level 4). Of course, it goes without saying that investments in training should generate business results. However, our experience shows that, perhaps counterintuitively, business leaders rarely want to evaluate T&D’s impact on business results after the fact. Rather, they want to project those results before they make an investment. For example, imagine that the head of operations at a rapidly growing manufacturing organization hires a cadre of new line operators only to see her error rates go through the
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roof. Working with T&D, she explores ways to reduce errors: training every operator on every operation (too expensive!), training every operator on a few key operations (too limited!) and training supervisors on how to coach operators (this is promising!). Given this analysis by T&D, the operations department decides to move forward on this last idea. Each time quality personnel report an error, a supervisor will coach the operator on how to avoid that error going forward. They know that for this program to work, supervisors will need stronger coaching skills, so they also launch a targeted coaching program. In short, the head of operations values T&D’s help upfront in analyzing the performance issues, brainstorming solutions and projecting each solution’s business results. She uses the analysis to choose a path forward. But what about evaluating impact after training? BUSINESS LEADERS RARELY WANT HELP EVALUATING BUSINESS RESULTS Why do business leaders rarely want T&D to evaluate results after making an investment? For starters, they usually already have the data. Furthermore, T&D often focuses narrowly on the specific contribution of the learning solution. However, business leaders often launch multiple interventions to meet a goal. Each intervention contributes to each other as well as to the business result, and business leaders recognize that it’s often not feasible to portion credit.
BUSINESS LEADERS WANT TO PROJECT T&D’S IMPACT ON BUSINESS RESULTS BEFORE INVESTING.
For instance, to reduce errors, the head of operations might ask engineering to simplify an error-prone operation and ask recruiting to select candidates who pay better attention to detail and ask T&D to improve coaching. Better attention to detail makes operators easier to coach, while better coaching helps them better focus on the details worth noticing. Why bother teasing it all out? At the end of the quarter, if errors fall within target, the business leaders move on. BUSINESS LEADERS DO WANT HELP EVALUATING BEHAVIOR RESULTS When business leaders invest in T&D, they do want to see whether training delivers on its stated promise for its stated cost (Kirkpatrick Level 3). The head of operations “bought” coaching. She would love to know how often supervisors actually coach after errors in the field and how well they do it. Unfortunately, T&D rarely provides such visibility. More often, we provide a Kirkpatrick Level 2 proxy: Can the audience perform the behaviors in a training environment? Business leaders recognize that there’s many a slip between cup and lip, so they don’t put much faith in such proxies. When we actually do answer this question, business leaders often return to ask, “How will we make it faster/ better/cheaper next year?” T&D teams answer this question even less often. INSIGHTS FROM MARKETING Let’s look to marketing for some ideas. For example, let’s say a product manager wants to sign up 500 early adopters. Working with marketing, he might decide to implement a content marketing
campaign. Marketing might project that it can generate 500 appointments per week at a cost of $100 per appointment. So far, this is just like how the head of operations decided to invest in coaching. What happens next differs: Marketing provides clear visibility into both the targeted outcome and the step-by-step process that leads to it. The key tool that marketing uses is a funnel that tracks the steps through which individuals pass on their journey to the outcome, from seeing a white paper advertised on LinkedIn and clicking through to a landing page to downloading the white paper, receiving a call and making an appointment. Marketing makes this funnel visible. Two weeks into the campaign, they might report that they finished well under their goal for appointments (50 instead of 500) but also under their goal for cost per appointment ($85 instead of $100). They support that end result with data from the funnel (number of views, clicks, downloads and appointments). Seeing the funnel helps optimize results. Here, for instance, given the strong conversion rates inside the funnel, marketing would probably focus on generating more initial views. A FUNNEL FOR T&D To find out whether T&D delivers on our stated promise for our stated cost, we can define our own funnel. A key insight is to recognize that, as Brinkerhoff and Apking point out in their book “High Impact Learning,” for all the fuss we make about getting our moments of training just right, it’s actually the preparation before and reinforcement after training that matter most to outcomes. Looking at our own funnel forces us to look beyond the
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training event to see how well we address the full journey to performance. The marketing funnel spotlights the steps toward a sales appointment. Similarly, the Performance Journey Funnel spotlights the steps toward putting a skill to use on the job. We track five steps: 1 | I engage: I commit to working on the skill. 2 | I prepare: I explore my current capabilities and decide on specific goals. 3 | I learn: I execute the skill in a training environment (i.e., Kirkpatrick’s Level 2). 4 | I practice: I experiment by applying the skill in the field. 5 | I perform: I routinely perform the skill on the job. Using this funnel to track the development of management skills, we’ve been able to report summative results (“72 percent of participants apply the skills on the job”) while uncovering key issues along the way through formative results (“18 percent of participants think they are already strong in the skill” and “24 percent of those who learn fail to practice within a week”). In T&D, we are used to creating great moments of training, but we often focus less on how participants prepare for and apply training. The Performance Journey Funnel enables us to clarify the behavioral outcomes that business leaders want to evaluate while identifying opportunities to improve. Business leaders can therefore use the Performance Journey Funnel to manage their investments in T&D programs as tightly as they manage investments in marketing. Chip Cleary is vice president of design, solutions and consulting at Kineo. Email Chip.
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FIXING THE LEAKY
LEADERSHIP PIPELINE
The future of business is here. As senior leaders are making a mass exit toward retirement, millennials are rising through the ranks to claim leadership positions. Organizations may have the best of intentions to properly develop new leaders, but leadership programs are falling flat across the board. Despite the billions of dollars that companies spend each year on leadership development, 28 percent of companies reported weak or very weak leadership pipelines, according to a 2016 Global Human Capital Trends Report. In fact, only 7 percent of companies believe they are “excellent” at building millennial leaders. With only 14 percent of companies describing themselves as “strong” in succession planning throughout the business, it is clear that organizations are struggling to identify potential leaders and develop them. Even more alarming, 59 percent of survey respondents report little to no investment in diverse leaders, with similar findings for millennials (59 percent) and women (49 percent). IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM Leadership development may be one of the most important investments that a company makes in terms of its future. Without properly preparing leaders across the business, organizations are unknowingly preparing to fail. Organizations need to provide leaders with the tools and skills they need to navigate today’s complex and diverse business environment. And that includes training employees at all stages of their careers.
As organizations shift from a structured hierarchy to a more collaborative and team-centric dynamic, there is a growing demand for leaders at all levels. To remain competitive, companies must identify potential leaders much earlier in their careers and create a robust pipeline of new, more innovative leaders.
can help combat employee turnover. Learning and development needs to join the talent assessment discussion, and look for ways to support the shift in strategy. That will take collaboration with HR and talent management functions, but, more importantly, with the existing management structure within the company.
Companies must harness the strengths and skills of both younger and older leaders, creating a stronger culture that promotes differences and encourages collaboration. Today’s leaders need to be able to collaborate across geographies, generations and business units. Leveraging the strengths of leaders at all levels is not just a nice-to-have; it’s becoming a necessity to thrive in today’s business environment.
Leadership should no longer be viewed as top-down management. Building teams with multigenerational leadership can promote more diverse perspectives while leveraging the insight of both younger and older employees. This multigenerational think tank dynamic can maximize knowledge and give leadership experience to less seasoned employees.
The challenge facing many organizations is how to build a leadership pipeline in the face of high employee turnover. With the millennial generation notorious for jumping ship every few years, how can organizations build a pipeline for leaders to grow with the company?
A MULTIGENERATIONAL THINK TANK CAN MAXIMIZE KNOWLEDGE.
Developing a leadership succession plan is critical to the longevity of an organization. With so much at stake, companies must effectively identify and develop untapped leaders. But many organizations are lacking an environment that allows those leaders to emerge.
The times are indeed changing, and organizations need to adapt or risk being left behind. Companies need better strategies to develop leaders who are prepared to drive the business into a prosperous future. Identifying and building leaders earlier in their careers lies at the heart of this challenge. By creating a leadership strategy that targets millennials, organizations are taking the first step toward fixing the leaky leadership pipeline.
By creating a more inclusive culture that acknowledges and develops leaders at all levels, organizations
Michelle Eggleston is the editorial director for Training Industry, Inc. Email Michelle.
FINDING A SOLUTION
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CONGRATULATIONS
TOP 20 LEARNING PORTALS COMPANIES
Check Out Our 2016 Learning Portals Watch List The Top 20 Learning Portals Companies are a service provided by Training Industry, Inc. Due to the diversity of services offered, no attempt is made to rank the “Top 20s.”
TECH TALK
DAVID BAINBRIDGE
THE THREE C’S: MAKING TECHNOLOGY WORK IN CORPORATE TRAINING
Organizations must think carefully before investing in technology for workplace training. Technology is great – but it’s not the panacea. Blindly invest in technology and you risk losing the human element which makes the best training so engaging and motivating. And beyond that, when content and resources are so easily available online, training can diminish in value. And it’s possible that training companies’ very existence could be in doubt, unless they innovate and enhance the services they offer. So how can we stop the rot? The real value of training is in the experience. Putting the user first is essential. And in this world where personalization is key, technology should be viewed as an enabler – enhancing the human experience. It’s the means to an end, not the outcome itself. With this in mind, organizations need to properly harness the technology they use to achieve its full potential – to make teaching and learning better. So, let’s look at the three C’s for making technology work in corporate training. UNDERSTANDING THE CONSUMER We need to start with a mindset shift. Your employees are consumers and understanding them is vital. And just as the use of data in the commercial world has grown in the last five years to understand and serve customers better,
we now see the adoption of data and analytics in training. Used in the correct way, data can help trainers understand students’ learning behaviors, how they’re consuming training material and
TECHNOLOGY SHOULD BE VIEWED AS AN ENABLER, ENHANCING THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE. where they’re excelling or struggling. Harnessing data allows trainers to personalize learning and demonstrate added value. Timely intervention, based on data-led insight, helps improve results and, ultimately, demonstrates ROI on training spend. COLLABORATION IS KEY When people work together their performance is enhanced. Most trainers know this – of course – and encourage teamwork, both inside the training room and in a virtual learning environment. But comprehensive collaboration, or connected learning, is more than just bringing trainer feedback online and offering the right to reply. A 360 approach to connected learning combines peer-to-peer engagement, reciprocal teaching and delegate/trainer collaboration. It provides delegates with the ability to learn on their own terms, in their own way and gives trainers a better view of progress.
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CONTENT IS, AND HAS ALWAYS BEEN, KING It’s trite, but it’s true. The content we consume has the ability to educate, entertain and inspire. And the plethora of content available online, and from our broadcast industry, must be better harnessed for corporate training. To enable the use of relevant multimedia content in training, organizations can utilize content library platforms with curated educational video clips from reputed content producers from around the world. This means trainers don’t have to create the content themselves or figure out where to store it. It’s all nicely stored in the cloud through an easy-to-use interface. Organizations can also strategically select the videos in the learning library to align with individual roles and business goals. By understanding these three rules, learning and development can use technology to increase performance and productivity, while delivering a return on training dollars. We all know that the most pressing challenges for any company is to attract the best talent, and to keep them motivated and inspired when in employment. By delivering engaging, collaborative and, dare I say, entertaining training, organizations are taking a key step on the path to meeting these objectives. David Bainbridge is the founder and CEO of edtech company, Knowledgemotion. He has experience in marketing and sales within corporates and bringing new media products to market. Email David.
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CLOSING D E A L S
SCIENCE FICTION OR REALITY?
OPENSESAME EXPLORES VIRTUAL REALITY WITH SERIES B FUNDING - TARYN OESCH
Retention and application of learning are the ultimate goals of training programs. We want employees to be able to understand how what they’re learning will apply in their everyday lives and immediately start putting new skills to work on the job. To reach this goal, we come up with innovative ways to engage learners and make training more realistic through role plays, simulations and games. What if there were a way to actually put learners in real-life work situations during training and help them through those situations with skills they just learned? That’s where virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) come in, and that’s part of what OpenSesame is exploring with its Series B funding. The e-learning company closed the $9 million funding round in September and announced that it would be using the funds to “further accelerate sales and marketing efforts…continue global expansion and enhance product offerings in new training technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality,” according to the press release. “OpenSesame is continually looking to raise the bar in enterprise elearning,” said Josh Blank, OpenSesame general manager/co-founder, in an email to Training Industry Magazine. “Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) fits perfectly with that mission as we are able to bring together the foremost elearning course developers with businesses that are leaders in their approach to training and development of their employees.” OpenSesame’s existing library of over 20,000 online courses are offered in
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categories such as business skills, safety, compliance and technology through an on-demand subscription or per course. In an October blog post, OpenSesame pointed to three reasons VR is important in e-learning: • I t’s often easier to remember what you experience than to remember what you read or hear. • With Google Cardboard, a new mobile VR device, employees can learn on the go. • VR can spark learners’ interest in new topics. What exactly are VR and AR? VR is a three-dimensional virtual environment that essentially comes as close to actual reality as technology allows. AR, on the other hand, augments reality by providing some form of digital information on top of what the user is seeing (the most popular example being Pokémon Go). The possible learning applications for both VR and AR are obvious; what better way to train employees for reality than by imitating it in the (virtual or live) classroom? For instance, imagine the impact of VR on safety training. Rather than dropping workers in a potentially unsafe environment to learn crucial protective skills, trainers could use VR to simulate the environment and train workers there. Employees would physically learn the skills without actually being put at risk. Industries currently served by OpenSesame, such as construction, engineering, manufacturing, and oil and gas, could clearly benefit from incorporating virtual reality into the e-learning platform.
“The benefit of AV/VR to learners is really about user engagement and knowledge retention,” says Blank. “Today’s workforce isn’t going to be satisfied with courses made out of video from Power Point presentations 12 years ago. If organizations want to succeed in their training plans, learners need current content that is engaging.”
WHAT BETTER WAY TO TRAIN EMPLOYEES FOR REALITY THAN BY IMITATING IT IN THE CLASSROOM? Could this type of training extend to the “softer” skills training OpenSesame offers, like management, communication and bias reduction? The U.S. Army uses computer-generated characters for social simulations to train service men and women on counseling, crosscultural negotiation and dealing with stressful situations. One evaluation of the Army’s emergent leader immersive training environment found increased retention and application of new knowledge, confidence in using skills, and awareness of the importance of communication skills for leaders. Clearly, both virtual and augmented reality are a new frontier in training. There’s a lot we still don’t know and have yet to discover. But there’s only one way to find out what benefits VR/AR may have on learning and development – practice – and investments like OpenSesame’s are a step into the future. Taryn Oesch is an editor at Training Industry, Inc. Email Taryn.
C O M PA N Y N E W S
ACQ UIS I T I ON S A N D PA RTN E R SHIPS Cybrary, the world’s first and only nocost cybersecurity MOOC (massive open online course) provider, announced a partnership with the Information Technology Disaster Resource Center (ITDRC) to help train ITDRC’s IT and communication technical support staff on critical cybersecurity skills. ITDRC provides communities with the necessary technology resources to continue operations and recover from disaster. Career Step, LLC, a Denver-based private equity firm, has completed the acquisition of Medic-CE.com, LLC. The acquisition combines Medic-CE’s robust LMS, over 200 hours of online continuing education and record management with Career Step’s live online, instructor-led training. This combination of tools enables EMS and firefighting professionals to meet all of their continuing education requirements in one place.
NIIT, a global leader in skills and talent development, has acquired the business of Bangalore-based start-up Perceptron Learning Solutions Private Limited. The strategic acquisition will bring together complementary technology platforms and capabilities of NIIT and Perceptron, enabling NIIT to further accelerate its digital transformation initiatives. GP Strategies Corporation announced that it has completed its acquisition of Maverick Solutions, a leading provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) product training services. Maverick will operate as part of GP Strategies' Performance Readiness Solutions segment effective as of October 1, 2016. This acquisition will extend GP Strategies' ability to deliver ERP systems training and user adoption services to its healthcare customer base and expand into the higher education sector.
Caveo Learning, a consulting firm providing learning strategies and solutions to leading organizations, announces the acquisition of Ellegro, a preeminent developer of custom e-learning. The Ellegro acquisition expands Caveo’s e-learning, creative, and technical development capabilities, augmenting Caveo’s core areas of focus—learning strategy, instructional design, metrics and measurement, and performance improvement. BizLibrary announces WILL Interactive as a new content producer partner. The micro video-based content to be added to The BizLibrary Collection will initially include over 75 segments from WILL Interactive’s Cinario series, adding a new style of interactivity to the collection. This allows training programs the ability to further engage employees and create the development and behavior change that organizations are seeking through online training.
INDUST RY NE WS NEW APP BRINGS REAL-TIME FEEDBACK TO EXECUTIVE COACHING A new app designed to deliver behavioral reminders and coaching feedback to executives, in real-time, was announced by WJM Associates. The app allows organizations to quantify the effectiveness of coaching over time by aggregating and measuring the progress of all executives being coached. This enables companies to measure the impact of coaching. 53% OF UK POKEMON GO GAMERS PLAY AT WORK Qualtrics surveyed 500 British Pokemon Go players, revealing 53 percent of employees who play Pokemon Go
admit do so during working hours. Consumer technology may have a significant role to play in workplace L&D. Pokemon Go can be said to have merit in using a sense of fun with which to introduce the concept of augmented and virtual reality. VIRTUAL REALITY SOLUTION TO ADDRESS IMPLICIT BIAS Virtual reality startup SPACES Inc. has created an implicit bias VR program that can be used by both scientific researchers, corporate trainers and law-enforcement organizations. VR enables us to understand how implicit bias – measurable, objective attitudes and stereotypes that everyone carries – affects our views of the world and the way we work and interact with others.
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GUIDES TO SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATIONAL TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT Eagle's Flight announced it is publishing two guides aimed at helping companies build enthusiasm for training initiatives that change behavior and drive organizational growth. The new guides offer tips on how to implement organizational training and development initiatives that are embraced by all employees and result in long-term behavior change.
INTERESTED IN SUBMITTING COMPANY NEWS? PLEASE SEND TO EDITOR@TRAININGINDUSTRY.COM
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W H AT ’ S O N L I N E T R A I N I N G I N D U S T R Y. C O M
ARTICLES WHY MICROLEARNING IS A GREAT WORKFORCE TRAINING STRATEGY | By Natalie Smith Creating an online microlearning library can generate interest in the company and increase engagement. 6 WAYS NEW LEADERS CAN BE THE BOSS EVERYONE WANTS TO WORK FOR | By William Gentry New leaders need to receive training as they transition from superstar individual contributor to leader. TRAINING CONTENT FILTERS | By Mindy Jackson Distill your content to its essential elements and reveal the core of complex training problems by using filters. IMPLEMENTING E-LEARNING? WHAT STANDARDS SHOULD YOU CONSIDER? | By RK Prasad In the absence of clear standards, coordinating and integrating content could be laborious and costly.
BLOGS
RESEARCH
WEBINARS
TRAINING ON
THE NEXT GENERATION
DEPLOYING AN EFFECTIVE
SMARTPHONES: 5
CLASSROOM: VIRTUAL/HYBRID
TRAINING PROGRAM IN
QUESTIONS TO ASK By Evan Hackel
INSTRUCTOR-LED TRAINING By MicroTek and Training Industry, Inc.
A MULTIGENERATIONAL
HOW TO BALANCE
DIGITAL READINESS: HOW
OPTIMIZING YOUR
HARD SKILLS & SOFT
COMPANIES ARE PREPARING
CONTENT IN A DIGITAL
SKILLS TRAINING By Joan Tanner
THEIR WORKFORCE FOR
AND MOBILE WORLD
SALES ORGANIZATION
TOMORROW By Crossknowledge and Training Industry, Inc.
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TRAINING T A L K
6
INDUSTRY
PO
S
Which of the following competencies is the most important for a training manager to possess?
4%
12%
BENEFITS OF
ADAPTIVE LEARNING
15%
1| C REATES PERSONALIZED CONTENT
Adaptive learning modifies content based on individual need and skill level, creating a personalized learning experience. 2 | INCREASES RELEVANCY
Learners only receive information applicable to their job role and function. 3 | IMPROVES KNOWLEDGE RETENTION
By having the right content available at the right time, learners can quickly apply the information when needed.
25% N=123
Interpersonal skills Business acumen Project management Personnel management Technical literacy
What are the biggest challenges to implementing a big data initiative within your training department?
3%
4 | R EDUCES SCRAP LEARNING
Adaptive learning delivers content based on relevancy, eliminating unnecessary or redundant training.
44%
3% 5%
5 | LEVERAGES BIG DATA
L&D can evaluate learner progress and adapt employee learning paths automatically based on analytics.
89% N=120
6 | REDUCES COST
Less learner time is spent on subjects and content they have already mastered.
Lack of alignment across the organization Lack of analytic skills within training department Lack of availability of HR data Resistance to implications of learning and development analytics
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