Comments from Jeff Snipes

Core principles of learning in turbulent times from Jeff Snipes of PDI Nineth House shared during the Day of Learning 2008 included:

• Open Communication and Inclusion (appreciative inquiry is one method of doing this)
• Employee engagement (invite participation)
• Fiscal discipline and innovation (use technology in a heart based way)
• Organizational alignment

Jeff’s recommendation’s included:

• Find models in the organization of the leadership behavior. Then market it so it becomes pervasive and apart of the culture.
• Take ownership and engage yourself.
• Maximize sustainable aspects of the culture and process.

In conclusion one of the key ideas Jeff shared was that of the Burning Barn Syndrome. In short this syndrome in organizations is analogous with horses that are in a burning barn. They refuse to leave the barn as it burns. They are simply paralyzed by the fire around them unable to think and take action to save themselves and others. If led with a blanket on over their eyes the horse can walk to safety. Change at different levels of the organization is essential for survival.

Social Learning: Why, What, and How

Earlier this month Dave Wilkins, Senior Director of Social Learning Solutions, at Mzinga shared several great concepts that generated more light around Social Learning. The information that follows conveys some of the primary concepts Dave conveyed.

WHY
Beginning with a historical review learning occurred primarily through one on one relationships up until the early 1900’s. This journeyman or apprentice relationship still remains in a few select disciplines today. As the industrial era took hold along with mass production learning and classrooms filled. This model of one to many places an expert at the head of the class. Today these former models are still in use yet social learning is gaining important ground as a many to many model for learning.
1:1
1:Many
Many:Many
An estimated 13-30% of work place learning occurs in the classroom or one to many model. On the other hand as much as 87% of actual learning occurs in the less formal social network. In summary information and skills are increasingly complex and require faster, more dynamic, and responsive methods for learning. Social Learning is the primary response to this need.

WHAT
Wikipedia, Blogs, Social Networking… When one compares the 80,000 articles in Britannica with the 2,500,000 articles in Wikipedia the value of social learning becomes more obvious. Granted the error rate in Wikipedia is higher with 5-6 mistakes per article versus the 3-4 mistakes per article in Britannica. So depending on the need the balance point of accuracy, scale and depth may more often be found with a Social Learning mechanism.Learning includes a very broad range of delivery mechanisms. If plotted on a continuum from the most casual to the more formal the list might look something like: User comments and ratings Discussions Blogs Simulations Web Conferencing/Webinars Documents Courses Curricula Licenses/Certifications Educational Degrees

HOW
Informal networks exist everywhere and are a natural outcome of social beings in most any formal organization. These informal networks often contain and exchange operational information essential to the organization’s daily operations and future. Tapping in that network without destroying it is the balancing act for the learning professional. Consider overlaying the formal organizational chart with the social learning network…Amazon Books has created a Model with social learning (comments, user ratings…) around learning resources. Perhaps the ideal is to embed those types of behaviors into a community that includes the formal organization along with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders.The challenge for the Learning Professional in this dynamic perhaps requires more of a change in role. Rather than being the expert or sage on the stage learning professionals need to be the professional that helps the experts share their knowledge and experience.In conclusion Dave shared a lot of great perspective and insight. Remember all things are relative to remember: training is apart of learning, which is a part of any viable community, which is a part of any collaboration, which is a part of any sustained performance. Where do you fit? Do you lead the learning and are you nurturing community?

Additional References: Growing Up Digital; Ning; Media Wiki

Outsourcing & Insourcing

Lou Bonaiuto was another speaker at the 2008 Day of Learning. He provided a nice recap of the major issues that come in to play when an organization makes the commitment to outsource a service or to insource a service.

Given the colorful backdrop of the move Lou led to help one of our ‘local’ banks outsource their learning. Then in a few years he was asked to bring learning back in house. Lou is clearly an expert in the challenges either change can bring.

Lou pointed out that outsourcing the learning function in general has met with mixed results. In my mind this may in part be due to the need for organizations to ‘own’ their learning/change/growth. You can’t ask a consultant to prioritize you day. Yet they can help you implement and work through the challenges you choose to address.Cost, capacity, unique skill sets, politics and culture are all reasons to do either outsource or insource.

Some of the insight I found most valuable from Lou’s remarks included the philosophical considerations of service level expectations, balance of control, and ownership of the assets and intellectual capital. Another lesson from his experience is to plan on insourcing when you plan to outsource. In other words hope for the best but give some consideration to how you would make changes if the partnerships don’t work as well as everyone would like.View Lou’s presentation on line at the LearningWiki.

Measuring Business Impact

During the 2008 Day of Learning Gene Pease, CEO, Capital Analytics, Inc. spoke about the innovative approach they are using with success to demonstrate business impact of learning initiatives. Rather than getting stalled out on Kirkpatrick’s levels Gene and company have simply gone after the golden prize of business impact and optimization of human capital interventions. Their approach builds on the long established methodology of General Linear Modeling (a complex statistical approach). This is the same methodology used in complex clinical trials where a host of variables are changing in different ways. Depending on the availability of internal data human capital initiatives can now measure their impact on sales volume, customer satisfaction and employee retention.

In the most basic terms the Business Impact Analyses approach is:

1. Conduct a learning/human capital intervention
2. Compile the data
3. Analyze the data
4. Report on the results

Note that Bellevue University is also involved with Capital Analystics in the development of this methodology. Finaly, another component of the process is performance mapping which Gene described as task anlysis on steriods.

Thoughts from Elliot Massie

As promised I wanted to begin to share some thoughts from the Day of Learning. Elliot Masie was the keynote speaker and he delivered! What follows are some paraphrased thoughts I wanted to pass along.

Learning is not an Island. Learning continues to be proportionately impacted by the economic challenges.

Learning is the core of organizations that survive & thrive due to change. Learning will change in the next 3 years. Here are some predictions:

• Context will be melded in with content. There is a thirst for context. This might be provided in a sidebar or through some other mechanism.
• Video is a rapidly growing media format. New tools will continue to develop this trend.
• Learning on demand will support performance.
• Coaching may be in real time whether via an ear bud or otherwise.
• The big surprise or application to hit the Learning Industry will actually be neither. It is more likely to be micro resources prepared and selected by Learning Professionals and Learners in an environment were learning is transparent and natural.
• Linking learning with readiness and what is the change between here and now and where you need to be.
• Small Tools will be the wave of the future (read mobile phone learning apps).

Well if you want more from Elliot please buy his book and or at least visit him online at The MASIE Center.

Day of Learning 2008

December 3rd of 2008 a Day of Learning conference was held at the International Trade Center Charlotte, NC. This event was co-hosted by the Charlotte Area Chapter of ASTD and Bank of America. The opening key-note speaker was Elliot Masie. The subsequent sessions were filled with eager participants and engaging presenters.
Of course this event would not have been possible without the generous support of many. Day of Learning Sponsors which included:
http://www.berkeleytraining.com/
http://www.calleaglewings.com/
http://www.learn.com/
http://www.ninthhouse.com/
http://www.mzinga.com/
http://www.nexlearn.com/
http://www.skillsoft.com/
http://www.questionmark.com/
http://www.sumtotalsystems.com/
http://www.vangent-hcm.com/
http://www.elementk.com/
http://www.training-pros.com/
http://www.enspire.com/
http://www.povec.com/
http://www.trainingfolks.com/
http://www.trpnet.com/
http://www.visioncor.com/
http://www.handshaw.com/
http://www.webex.com/
http://www.josephbeth.com/
http://www.brainshark.com/
http://www.saba.com/

The finale to this day was a panel discussion with area Chief Learning Officers (CLO) from Wachovia, Bank of America, Lowe’s Home Improvement and others.
I will share more substance from this great event in subsequent posts.

Training

Most people that reach higher and push themselves farther end up in some sort of training program… If you’d like to do something big get a plan and stick to it!