Early education and the modern learner

In the last seven years as a learning professional, I've encountered many obstacles to training implementation. Early on, lack of technology hampered the distribution of the cooler stuff we wanted to produce. More recently, time challenges the learning organization. Who has time? Nearly every strategic communication contains the message "do more with less". Oh sure, very few are jumping up and down on the podium saying, "Work harder, faster and longer for the same pay and benefits!" Or are they? Yet when trainers and learning managers try to address the skill or knowledge gap with a training solution, the organization gives a collective groan and replies, "There isn't enough time."

I blame this on our formative years of schooling. We spend 12 years slogging through classes, day in and day out. That experience created a deep-seated stereotype of all education experiences. We immediately form a mental image of being whipped by bad slides, being lectured at, and playing silly trainer games. As adult learners, sitting in a class being subjected to content without context creates a sense of dread.

In this economic recession, much of the talent management literature focuses on developing the people you have. We read about the importance of:

• Preparing your people to take advantage of the market when things improve
• Developing your people to outperform the competition
• Retaining and developing your top performers to ensure they can deliver on your long term strategies

Blended learning solutions, when properly created and marketed to the organization, answer these needs. What does properly created and marketed look like?

Generate buzz by setting context and creating WIIFMs. In a blended learning design, take the opportunity to show participants the road map of where the instruction will go. More importantly, show them how the content builds and how each piece will have an impact on their own performance. Illustrate the connections between what will be learned and the organizational objectives. Early touchpoints in a design also provide opportunities to create shared buy-in between participants and their managers.

Make learning chunks small enough to be consumed in short periods of time. Most of us learn like this already. We scan news online, or read an article, and then continue with our daily work. Make learning fit into the work process the same way. Avoid linear paths when possible so learners can pick up the pieces of interest as needed. Some learners may want to sit and learn from "start to finish." Small chunks of learning don't eliminate this learning style, in fact, it gives them even more control over how much to consume in a single sitting.

Provide consistent reinforcement of the learning. Skill and knowledge application only occur if we give participants the chance to try out the learning and receive feedback. Let the learners come together to share success and, dare we say it, failures. This kind of sharing continues to shape the application of skills and make them concrete. Groups can be formed in many ways: classrooms, virtual meetings, blogs, forums, etc. Learning managers facilitate sharing, gather success stories, document best practices and share the results with the organization via newsletters, email, company meetings and many other vehicles.

Celebrate learning. I viewed a webinar recently called Best Practice Blended Learning Designs, presented by Dr. Vicki Halsey of the Ken Blanchard Company (available here). The presentation was full of great ideas. The idea that resonated with me the most was that of celebrating learning. On the surface, it sounds simplistic and maybe too "warm and fuzzy." In this case, and this is the part I love, celebration equals assessment. By assessing what participants have learned we are celebrating the knowledge and skills gained! I have to say, as a true-believer in the importance of managing the learner's experience, positioning assessments as celebrations deeply alters the perception of what assessing learning is all about.

Okay, so maybe high school wasn't all bad. We certainly had some great teachers, many of whom inspired us to become educators and gave us a passion for learning. High school prepared us (hopefully) to problem solve and analyze information. Our early schooling gave us a shared experience and the ability to apply past learning to new problems. Our courses were spread out over time and we learned progressively, applying old information to new problems which created new learning. Our best teachers helped us understand how the content was relevant to our lives.

The bottom line? To create powerful, blended, learning interventions we need to build shared experiences, show relevance to performance, make the content available as needed, reinforce it regularly and celebrate how much the learner has gained from the experience.