Taking an Artistic Approach

I had a boss once who loved to draw on the white board. It became something of a joke on his team, that at the beginning of a meeting we would hide the dry erase markers before he came into the room. It never stopped him; he started carrying them around. Only recently do I truly appreciate his approach.

Sidebar for a personal story: My daughter’s soccer team recently ended their season and part of my end of season gift was a coloring book and crayons and the missive that it was something to help me reduce my stress (something of a gag gift). At home after the party, I sat down with the coloring book and colored a picture. I took the time to work slowly and carefully, experimenting with different colors and used shading to highlight areas. It took me back to a calmer time: I worked on the image for me, not for my boss, or my kids, or for the executive committee – just for me. I loved it.

I am known among my peers as the visual learning guy. I push hard on the team to use fewer words and more pictures in both the training materials we produce and the presentations we create. If an image is worth a thousand words then we should we be creating voluminous training in images, not pages of text. Too often, the push back is, “I can’t draw” or “I’m not creative.” Let me say now that everyone can take this approach give some processes and tools.

1.       Take some time to tap into your creative side. A quick search on Google yields a plethora of sites on coloring to relieve stress. I’m not saying you should make it a daily habit, but why not take a few minutes once in a while to doodle? It unlocks a thinking habit that thrives on free association and random connections that you might not have considered. Those links are the foundations of innovation and might lead to bigger and better ideas.

2.       Incorporate a process for thinking differently. The Six Thinking Hats framework developed by Edward de Bono is a wonderful starting point for organizing meetings and encouraging a style of thinking. Assign the role of Green Hat to various team members and have them work at being the creative, “blue sky” thinker. By assigning the role to a person you give permission for ideas to flow and remove limitations.

3.       Encourage mind-mapping as a technique for organizing information. On many occasions I find myself in meetings struggling to grasp how all the parts of a program or initiative are tied together. The various stakeholders have input into the problem and the resulting maelstrom can be hard to decode. A mind map can help illustrate the interconnectedness of all the ideas and make concrete the linkages that the entire team needs to see.

4.       Seek out visual representations of complex ideas. I have two sites I visit regularly to keep my mindset firmly planted in a visual approach. One is the RSA.org channel on YouTube. This British think tank does a fabulous job of linking thought leaders to artistic displays of the concepts. The images drawn in the videos make the presentations so much more vivid. Another is visual.ly a web site that shows how information can be presented visually and, in my opinion, more memorably.

Finally, let me say that visuals don’t have to be high end art work to be effective. A very simple visual can speak volumes to the reader and communicate at more levels than a paragraph of text. Visuals are great for learning, meeting management, brainstorming, even project management (what’s a WBS but a visual of all the tasks in a project?). Don’t fear the creative side, embrace it and take your projects and work into a different, better, more holistic place.

How are you using and visuals and creativity to work more efficiently in your role? If you aren’t using them now, how could you?

Running Fast Into the Dark

This morning was a very good run. The morning run after trick or treat is always dicey because

a. I've probably consumed too much sugar that I swiped from my kids' bags, and
b. I've had to unwind from herding hyper kids throughout the neighborhood with a couple of cold adult beverages.

This morning started pretty smoothly though and as I started to loosen up and get into my stride, I started to notice how dark it was. It seemed like there was very little moonlight this morning and as my dogs dragged me along our course I started thinking about how badly injured I could become running in the dark. The dogs have only two speeds: stop and fast and I started getting nervous about my potential to lose my footing. I also started contemplating how often training and development feels like wandering through the dark.

We often get approached with an "opportunity" or an "issue" or (my favorite) a "mission critical" need for training. There is usually an expectation that we take off at full speed into that space and start developing immediately. I'm all about responding to the needs of the business and will often (guilty as charged) start thinking about a brilliant training solution before I've researched the problem.

But, just like my morning run, I have some infrastructure that keeps me on course and makes for a quality outing.

1. I always stop to stretch. Stretching after a half mile or so allows me to loosen up the muscles once they've gotten warm and keeps me injury free. Likewise, when provided an opportunity to bring a training solution to my client, I usually let my creativity run a bit and then rein it in to consider the situation and look at other solutions that that would be more effective.
2. I usually run in the same general area. I prefer running on the street or on sidewalk. I have a history of ankle injuries so protect them at all costs. Because I run on the same streets and go pretty much the same way every time, my dogs are used to the course and are able to lead pretty effectively. By having a consistent process by which we analyze a situation, design solutions, develop using templates and evaluate coursework, our training team can navigate the muddy waters of operations training and keep on course with sound designs and solutions.
3. I pay attention to the signs my body is sending me. Is that a knee twinge? Is my calf tightening up? Why is the bottom of my foot hurting? Being in tune with those signals allows me to make adjustments along the way and complete a workout. Maybe not as fast or as far as I had planned, but mostly injury free. Training projects also have signs for how things are progressing. Your analysis uncovers mitigating factors, your clients give you feedback on the design, and your target population informs the implementation plan. Pay attention to those signs and respond accordingly and you'll keep the project on track.

Running is a microcosm of life; I find metaphor in running for the things I do everyday. If work is supposed to be like play then why shouldn't it have comparison in the things we do for fun? Yet even in the things we do for fun we have routines and processes that keep it fun and rewarding. What are things you do in your role that keep your training programs on track and make them rewarding for your organization?

Charge That Hill!

I am a runner and I love it. I enjoy the challenge of speedwork Thursdays and my long run on Sunday mornings. It is hard to describe the sense of accomplishment you feel after completing a good run; a feeling like you have really conquered something. Then again, maybe it’s just runner’s high.


Back in my high school teaching days I coached Cross Country and I used to take my team to a particular part of town for a hill workout. I knew that by having the kids train on hills they would be better prepared to deal with them in races. In fact, they would have the confidence and endurance to “charge the hill”; they would pass runners on the hill and leave them behind.


Maybe that’s why I include hills and speedwork into my weekly workouts. I want the challenge and I want to build the muscle memory and confidence for whatever I might face down the road.

Learning organizations often find themselves in a rut. Requests come in and are summarily processed. Courses are developed and posted in the curriculum library. We use the same tools, the same process, the same format, every single time. My challenge for you today is to work in some new routines to your “training workout” and see how it enhances your performance.

Try something new

Occasionally it’s nice to add in a new twist to my workout. I’ll run the last half mile at race pace (which isn’t that fast, don’t get too excited). Or I’ll decide to chart a new running path and explore parts of the community I’ve never been in. I always learn something new on these runs, usually about myself.

As learning professionals, we need to be ready to model the most important part of our title: learning. That means getting out of the comfort zone and trying a new technique, testing a new process, delivering a new topic or designing a new tool. It doesn’t mean you have to do it forever, just long enough to give yourself some perspective.

Take a longer-term view

This week I’ll be running a measly 24 miles. For many runners, that’s half their weekly mileage (for optimists like me, that’s double some people’s mileage!) but I have some longer term goals. My goal is to complete a triathlon and maybe a half marathon in the next year. That means I’ll need to continue to build my weekly mileage to reach that longer distance.


As learning professionals, we add value by encouraging our clients to take a longer-term view of the business and consider how this intervention will affect performance today as well as performance down the road. How will the solution be used in the future? How well does it fit in the larger curriculum? How do we build connections between existing learning? How can we keep the solution from becoming irrelevant? With these answers in hand, you have a view to create training that accomplishes today’s goals and tomorrow’s.

Overcome an obstacle

There are plenty of days that I wake up and don’t want to run, much less run uphill. But I know that if I challenge myself, I improve my chances of completing the task in the future. Succeed or fail, I will have learned something about myself and about running hills. By learning I am better prepared for the next hill and have increased confidence overall.


I’ll bet there is someone you dread having to work with. Maybe that dread is felt for an entire team or function unit (“Oh %$*^,” you’ll say when assigned the project. “I hate working with them.”) The challenge is to examine why and look for ways to overcome it. When you do, you will learn more about them and that can only help you serve them in the future (and you will have to again at some point). You will learn more about yourself and why you react to them the way you do. By tackling the obstacle head on, you demonstrate leadership to peers and supervisors. By demonstrating leadership, you build the credibility of your organization.


I love learning and I love running. Running is a metaphor for life. By the simple act of getting out of bed in the morning and strapping on my shoes I prove to myself and the world that I can face up to the challenge of the day. When I take in every run as a chance to learn and grow, I return home healthier, stronger, smarter, and more confident and not the least bit tired.

How Is Your Organization Perceived?

Wow – I now understand what writers mean when they say that to be a writer you have to approach it as a job. I have fallen way behind.

Not long ago my daughter had one of her friends over for play time. Since they were forced to include my son (the dreaded “little brother”) they had chosen a game they could all participate in, called “School.” As you might guess, one person plays the teacher and the other two are the students. Mostly it’s an excuse to show how much more education the girls have over my son – they are in third grade, he is “merely” a first grader. On this day I was shocked at how mean the “teacher” was portrayed:

“Sit down!”
“Back to work!”
“Do that again and you’ll have extra math problems to do!”

It made me wonder if this was normal for the school day and so I asked about it as innocently as I could. I was informed that lots of teachers are mean but you get used to it.

That got me thinking about how training departments are perceived. I’ve been in several training organizations that have been seen as obstacles to implementation. Much the way teachers my daughter and her friend have experienced, these organizations meant well and were dealing with their own constraints.

Learning organizations often find themselves caught serving two masters: they want to deliver only the best, most effective training interventions that have ROI impact. They also have Operators and Leadership telling them to “put together a course on….” Often the latter will not deliver on the former. The training manager tries to influence, coach, and persuade the organization to see things differently, to see the value of a different approach or to acknowledge issues of system failure or bad performance management.

The challenge is being seen as the team that helps the organization reach its goals in the best manner possible. By focusing on the desired behavior, we can usually offer our clients and stakeholders solutions that meet the need and get results by giving them the choice of options and showing them the ROI.

1. Always provide a good / better / best menu of choices with price points. Even the staunchest client has the good of the organization in mind. Faced with having to diminish his or her own results based on training cost, they will often choose the solution that makes the most sense. This is particularly effective if your organization requires the project owner to pay for the training rather than drawing from the L&D well.
2. Stay focused on the desired behavior. Clients love to talk about all the things they know that learners should also know to do the job. Unfortunately, all that extra knowledge might be getting in the way. Document the desired behavior, run the task analysis and return with sound data to make your case.
3. Get outside your own comfort zone. The best solution might be a simple communication piece or policy update that your organization is typically not responsible for creating. Look at that as an opportunity to collaborate across the organization and influence others to think about performance. If you drive the change, you can be seen as an organization that “gets things done.”
   

It is important for the success of your organization that you be seen as the group that says “yes.” You can’t afford to say yes to everything, but make sure that you are seen as the provider of quality solutions and not a barrier to success. You want clients and stakeholders to look forward to interacting with your team, not dreading it.

Now go out and create some great solutions or I’ll be posting differential equations!

Gooooooo Dawgs! ....Building Season.

I am a proud University of Georgia alumnus and support the Red and Black year in and year out. This has been a frustrating season as our results on the football field have been lackluster (though other programs are doing very well). Back in my college days when the team went through a rough patch here and there my friends and I joked that it was “building season.”

This year I initially complained that this was Mark Richt’s fault. Obviously he didn’t develop a successor for Matthew Stafford. Hasn’t he ever heard of bench strength? Where’s the succession planning? I realize that often these phrases are used in a corporate context but doesn’t it still apply?

I am not a college football expert. Frankly, I have no idea what I’m talking about regarding Richt’s decisions. Overall, I like him as a coach and a leader and I hope he stays a long time. I do know a thing or two about training and bench planning. Regardless of your stand on Georgia football, the context can help us think about planning in your organization.

1. It isn’t enough to coach and develop current leaders. Candidates need time and opportunity to experience real life situations. Once you identify the back-up quarterback, this up and coming leader needs a chance to get on the field. It isn’t enough to put them in when you’re up by 30; future leaders need the chance to experience the normal pressure of the role. This is easier to do in the office than on the football field…or is it?
2. Play to the strength of the successor. Don’t expect that a successor will be exactly like your current leader. The current leader leveraged a set of skills and leadership characteristics to be successful. The successor may have the experience to do the job tasks and have different leadership characteristics that can impact how the job gets done.
3. Never stop developing bench strength. Just because you have a replacement lined up doesn’t mean you can’t prepare a second replacement or start cross-training leaders across functions. This is critical to building a well-rounded, engaged team.
4. Give up and coming leaders the opportunity to actually lead the team not just be the voice of the team. Being the go-to person while you are on vacation is a nice pat-on-the-back for your successor. Unless you empower your stand-in the right way, it hardly puts them in a position to be a decision-maker or to hold the team and other leaders accountable to organizational goals.
   

The challenge is to make all these things happen within a learning culture and to build formal and informal systems that will support old and new leaders. Some ideas include:

• Classroom experiences - Great for best practice sharing and leader networking.
• Wikis and blogs - Useful for capturing ideas that team leaders and managers can search later.
• Just-in-time tools: Provide questions that any leader could access to help them facilitate a book or article review, meeting agendas, short instructional videos, podcasts, audiobooks, etc.
• E-learning – Distribute training that communicates the leadership platform provides consistency across the organization and the opportunity to learn at one’s own pace.
• Mentoring programs – These should be learning opportunities for mentors and mentees so be ready to help both sides prepare for the relationship.
• Blended programs – Well sure, why would you only choose one way when multiple means have the best chance of ensuring execution?
  

My Dawgs will come out of their slump (soon I hope) and at least we beat Georgia Tech. Your business has the chance to avoid dips in performance by making sure leaders are in the wings and engaged in the business rather than feeling ignored and constantly put off. By continuing to develop future leaders and keep them engaged in the growth of the organization, you can keep your business growing and thriving.

Dad, can I have a "do over"?

Remember those? The "do over" is a childhood standard, practiced on playgrounds and classrooms, at friends' houses and on the street. It is a universal code that erases the prior result, without erasing prior learning.

How great would it be if we could bring that forward to adulthood? I find it interesting that as we get older we often disagree with that idea. You hear things like, "You have to pay for your mistakes," or "You should've known better, now live with it." But we certainly don't wish that on our younger selves, and we all learned and improved via the "do over."

The forward thinking learning organization creates training that allows learners the chance to practice and fail. I can't think of anyone that learned to ride a bike without ever falling. No one learned to read without stumbling over words. No one learned playground games without a practice round in which feedback was delivered (often in a non-constructive manner).

Likewise, as trainers, we should create learning experiences that provide an opportunity for people to fail and then try again. Not just a chance to hit the "reset" button. Give learners the time to try, contemplate, reflect, discuss, process, plan, and then try again.

Some of you may be asking, "I don't have that kind of time in these economically challenging times." I'm glad you brought that up because it gives me a chance to refer back to some of my earlier posts on blended learning, failing and informal learning. The learning experience might be a computer based simulation, followed by a web seminar, social sharing sites, classroom sessions and several outside readings. It then closes with another web based engagement.

Packaging learning and development in a way that allows participants to try, fail, and try again is critical to long term behavioral change. Desired behavior is never created by magic wand, or dunking in the waters of the latest model. Long term change is created by constantly creating context, providing opportunities to process and reflect and the chance to practice and get feedback to become more successful.

2 Minute Drill

Just a few quick hits while I work on some other postings:

1. I knew my teaching experience should count for management experience. Check out Steven DeMaio's post at the Harvard Business School website : Obama: Principal-In-Chief.

Relate it to your organization: Is the leadership in your organization supporting and developing you to do a better job meeting the needs of your customers? Is your leadership building your credibility or working around, possibly acting to keep their own risk lower?

I won't dwell on this, but if you read it, please forward it to your friends who don't appreciate the importance of school principals as leaders. I've been saying for awhile that principals need more leadership and management training before being handed the keys to the building.

2. Technology moves pretty quickly. Keep up with the ever-changing tech landscape and think about ways to use it for learning and organizational development.


3. Things won't always be this bad. Just the other night I saw how 7-11 is expanding, taking advantage of real estate that has become available. I'm wondering what kind of leaders they are preparing right now to handle that kind of growth?

How are you preparing leaders to handle your future growth and future challenges? When was the last time you checked out your leadership curriculum to make sure it was still relevant?


Enjoy these topics. Throw one on the table at your next meeting and see where the discussion goes. Let me know what you and your teams think.

Just in Case You Aren't on the Blended Learning Bandwagon

Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.
Daniel J. Boorstin

Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.
John W. Gardner


Most folks I work with know that I spent my early years in the education and training field as a high school teacher. I learned early on that you can’t just drop theory and content on kids via lecture sessions and expect them to have those “a-ha” moments that are so rewarding. When I moved into the realm of corporate training and recently leadership development, I discovered that too often training departments fall back on that style of training. Guess what? Adults don’t respond to it either.

I recently came across a white paper on trends in learning in the workplace, http://www.skillsoft.com/infocenter/whitepapers/documents/Learning_at_work_2008.pdf, published by the Chartered Management Institute in October of 2008. There is plenty of great data around the value of blending learning solutions. I enjoyed the paper for several reasons.

It provides a definition of blended learning right up front. Often in this field we use different terms to describe the same thing. It’s nice to have a point of reference. It provides lots of data around the trends based on survey results from over 1,000 managers. Plenty of good feedback about what works and what doesn’t. It proves the case for blended learning as a better way to learn not just beneficial for cost savings or efficiency.

I also find it interesting that several organizations saw the benefit of a blended approach as a way to make learning something that happens every day. Think about that for a moment: learning should happen every day. How much more powerful would learning be if the workforce could access it and glean valuable information every day? That’s the point where learners start to discover “what they don’t know” and start wanting to close the gap. I’m not talking about simple performance support tools or job aids. Rather, I’m referring to independent study as well as social interactions that improve retention and impact the business.

Often training organizations fall into the trap of justifying the work on the basis of student enrollment, course completions and dollars saved using blended (read as: online) solutions. The true value in blended learning is the ease of accessibility for users and therefore the value they bring back to the job.

Finally, if you’re looking at ways to improve your blended offerings, check out the “Practical Recommendations” at the end of the paper. It lists eight very good tips for making the leap to more blended learning.

Lessons Learned from the PGA

Shame on me for not keeping up with these posts. I truly enjoy doing it but when I finally landed a new job I let this fall to the bottom of the priority list. I’ll work harder to keep up.

Today my thoughts turn to the PGA Championship. For those of you who are not golf fans, the number one player in the world, Tiger Woods, was upset by the number 110 player, Y.E. Yang. It was a stunning round of golf and pointed out that anything can happen.

You’re likely thinking, “Great news recap buddy, what’s the point? What does that have to do with training?” I’m glad you asked. I think it forces us to ask ourselves if we have assumed too much. Everyone assumed that Tiger would win the tournament. After all, he had won 14 of 14 when he had the lead after 54 holes. He had led the entire tournament. He was on a roll, having won the previous week. Who bets against that?

Sometimes, Learning and Development organizations find themselves rolling along quite safely in the larger organization. They produce solid products that meet the need of clients and stakeholders. They have a seat at the operations table. They have aligned curriculum around performance and organizational competencies.

I would challenge the leader of that organization to look around and see who the upstarts are. Examine the market place and even their organization for new ideas. I’m not suggesting sweeping changes every few months. I am suggesting that success can be the mother of complacency and while there is still spoken homage to the bottom line and ROI, there might be a lack of innovation.

In the world of golf, no one is going to say that Tiger is done with the game, that this somehow signals his demise. He will surely recover from this loss, and he’ll probably be a stronger player for it. The successful L&D organization will also survive a mediocre program or worse, a failure. The question is how do they recover?

I’ll suggest two things for learning leaders to consider:

1. Never stop innovating. Ask the question, are we really operating at our best? Be mindful of the design ruts into which we all find ourselves and challenge your team to get out of them. Look for the best way to deliver learning rather than deliver learning the way you work best.
2. Be prepared to fail. Failure is one of the best ways to learn. No one plans to fail. Great leaders and great learners, model behavior that acknowledges failure, owns up to it and plans forward.

Much like golf, learning and development is an occupation that requires its practitioners to be analytical, creative, knowledgeable, patient, focused and competitive. I’m sure there are more adjectives we could add. The point is that, like golf, external factors also challenge our performance and we must be constantly focused on not only improving the performance of the organization but also challenging ourselves to operate at the top of our game.

Learning is a beach

I was doing some work for a client in Florida during my family’s annual sojourn to the beach so the timing was perfect to combine work with pleasure. I spent many hours working but found some time to enjoy sand and surf with my kids, building sand castles and boogie boarding. While waiting for that “perfect wave” I had a thought about how training organizations function.

Boogie boarding is not hard which is why I do it. It’s a fun activity for my kids and I to share that doesn’t require too much fancy equipment. I find myself constantly telling them to wait for the “right” wave and to be patient. Here lies the connection to training.

Often training professionals spend too much time waiting for the perfect moment to unleash their solutions on the organization. We bog down in “economic times”, “operations initiatives”, and “strategic focus” and don’t act when we know that we have solid solutions that would improve the organization. We find ourselves trapped because training is considered an add-on to the day-to-day events.

By shifting from training to learning, the learning organization can release its solutions and all members can avail themselves of the knowledge as needed. Of course, this only happens when the training department has built credibility and the business respects the output of the training department. In other words:

1. The training department has to be clued in to the business.
2. The solutions created have proven to have impact on results.
3. The training department has to have a seat at the operations table.

By incorporating more on demand solutions in the form of performance support tools, job aids, and social media, learners utilize learning tools when they need it, rather than when it’s convenient to roll them out.

At the same time, there is something to be said for “striking when the iron is hot.” Just like waiting for the perfect wave, sometimes the training department needs to be patient and wait for that perfect opportunity to launch a learning tool or program. When the conditions are right, that kind of launch will allow for a cool ride rather than a short spurt that doesn’t provide that needed rush of enthusiasm.

The demand for training often emulates the ebb and flow of the tide. If we just relax and watch for the right moment, we can catch that perfect wave and ride it into quality learning. At the same time, like a ship at sea, we have to adjust to the motion and make the best use of the resources at hand to keep the ship and crew on course.

Virtual Leadership

A bit of a personal note to start. Recently I was hired to do some project work for a colleague I knew from a previous organization. As I am new to independent consulting, this is my first "job" and I am very excited about the opportunity. My client is several states away and I am working more independently than ever. It got me thinking about the virtual work force and how management has to be different.

In today's increasingly virtual world, the remote worker is becoming the norm. The only reason to have people in offices is to appeal to our conventional sense of workplace community. For many people, the face-to-face is the best part of the job. There are plenty of times I wish I could lean over the wall to my buddy and bounce ideas around. My dogs are great listeners, but they aren't too quick with ideas.

Managers need to be taught how to manage a virtual workforce. The foundations of management: motivation, feedback, coaching, direction, setting expectations, follow-up, all still apply to the remote worker. The expectations of how work is accounted for is the difference. Managers need to change the way they look at how work gets done. The remote employee can't be managed by the time clock; instead they have to be managed by the work. There needs to be clear communication between supervisors and employees about how much work needs to be done and can be done. Feedback has to be more frequent and there needs to be trust and open dialogue. Managers need to push the limits and make sure employees are working at high capacity. If the work isn't getting done, then tough conversations need to take place.

Employees also need to be taught how to succeed in this arena. We'd all love to work from home in our pajamas, but that's not the reality. The benefit of being home to take the kids to school and help with the school play has to fit between the work or the trust is broken. Remote employees need to learn the art of self-management and personal accountability. I admit that instead of coffee breaks, I take laundry breaks. I enjoy the freedom of being able to take my kids to school and pick them up. At the same time, I put in very productive work hours between 8 pm and 11 pm when my house is relatively quiet. I also over communicate to my client and ask for feedback often to make sure that I am on track and meeting expectations.

Learning organizations can't continue to just teach management and leadership for the conventional office. Management programs need to address the fundamentals and then explore how they really happen on the shop floor, in the restaurant kitchen, between the cubicles and over the Internet. I propose that well designed management training mirrors the way management should operate. The design should be blended to include online learning, web enabled discussions, face-to-face time and communication by phone and email. Employees also need to be developed to work effectively and be encouraged to challenge themselves to continuously earn the benefit of working remotely.

A more virtual workforce can be a great thing for the environment, for families and for productivity. As usual, high performing organizations get that way by having a strong sense of purpose, solid values and managers that excel at shaping and guiding the organization. Learning professionals would be wise to embrace the trend and help leaders and workers adapt to the new age.

If you don't measure it, it doesn't matter

Josh Bersin recently reported some frightening numbers on the state of learning. It reminded me of something we made central to our leadership training in my last position: if you don't measure it, it doesn't matter. This became foundational to our management and leadership training and we encouraged managers to examine their own behavior. Managers soon discovered that their behavior and what they recognized drove the behavior of their team members.

The same is true of learning organizations. The courses and programs that get the most attention or are favored by the leadership team get grandfathered in (to use Bersin's phrase) or overlooked when programs are being cut. The real value lies in the data. As my old boss used to emphasize, "Make data driven decisions." Proper analysis goes a long way to making the case to keep programs or cut them and will help win the war at the budget table. More than simple level one or two analysis, quality program evaluation drives level three and four feedback (Kirkpatrick's model that we all know and love) and secures a place for the training department at the table in driving organizational performance.

Unfortunately, few organizations, under ten percent, are performing that level of measurement. Today's training department barely has the bandwidth to produce training to keep pace with demand. Detailed evaluation puts a strain on the available resources. Doing the analysis to make data driven decision about the existing curriculum seems too backward thinking and no one wants to look back. I would also bet that few organizations have systems that facilitate the gathering, analysis, and storage of the information required.

Measurement doesn't have to be a high tech solution, although there are some very good high tech solutions out there. Class surveys can be very effective, when well written, and can be delivered electronically or via pen and paper. Data entry is cheap in the short term. After the training, make sure to follow-up and gather data on job performance related to training impact. This is measured from participants and their peers, managers, and employees. Getting 360 data, 60 to 90 days after training, is invaluable in determining training effectiveness. Keep it up, make it a habit. You can continue to pay for labor to do data entry if necessary. Take the local Excel expert to lunch in exchange for doing some impromptu analysis. Eventually, the number of responses and the insights gained from the data will demand a high tech solution for data gathering and data mining.

When we coached managers about being careful what you measure, we often used the example of the lack of consistency among managers in the restaurant. Team members quickly learn about a manager's pet peeves, the things he or she measures, and they work very hard to avoid those things. This doesn't mean that the restaurant is achieving the organizational goals of creating great guest experiences, increasing sales, being safe or controlling costs. But it was doing a great job of avoiding punishment.

Be careful what you measure. When you measure learning and practice some effective culling, you end up with a stronger learning library and a highly productive set of tools. When you only measure participant reaction, or worse, measure the wrong behavior as part of your level three analysis, you will end up diminishing the reputation of your training department. Don't just try to avoid punishment. Design the training with the end in mind, i.e., impact on performance. Then look for ways to show how training is helping the organization achieve its goals.

Making Leaders

They say that leaders are born not made. I don't know who "they" are but I disagree and so do others including Colin Powell.

Think about the best boss you ever had. I'll bet he/she had years of experience. I'll bet he/she had plenty of stories of successes and failures that shaped managerial behavior. I'll bet he/she empowered you to make decisions, recognized your hard work, provided feedback and coaching and rewarded results. In other words, these leaders were made, not born. They had learned how to translate the vision of the organization into actionable practices. They learned how to communicate their own vision of excellence and how to model it and reinforce the behavior that supported it.

What does all this mean for the learning organization? Learning and organizational development go hand in hand. To develop future leaders, organizations utilize sound succession planning strategies and encourage development plans and professional growth. This works well for the high potential employees who have been selected as future leaders. To truly grow leadership, I would argue that you need to cast the net a bit wider.

1. Teach the fundamentals across the organization. There are a core set of communication and feedback skills that everyone should know. These skills should be used every day between managers and employees and between peers. The skills are the basis for every other leadership paradigm. For example, Situational Leadership is a very popular coaching model (you can learn more about the model at wikipedia.org or through a very well put together online course). I am a huge fan of Situational Leadership, but asking someone to diagnose and then engage in the correct leadership style is still a tough task. They can probably make the right choice but do they have the skills required to handle the conversation and respond appropriately. When everyone in the organization has the skills, they are more likely to hold everyone accountable to the behavior.

2. Continuing Leadership education. It is not enough to roll out the yearly management skills course, or hold biannual leadership conferences. These are great tools and go a long way to maintaining a consistent leadership environment. I would also add informal learning to the mix. Provide opportunities for leaders to share success and failure and learn from each other. Some of my most successful classes involved sharing the "war stories" and allowing leaders time to learn from each other. Consider creating easy to implement tools that leaders can take back to their work groups to continue leadership education on their own and gather feedback. There is plenty being written about leadership in books, articles, white papers, web seminars and other places. Create a clearinghouse through which your leaders can easily access these resources and enjoy them as needed.

3. Create a culture in which feedback is a good thing. Some people love feedback. They see it as an opportunity to improve and receive recognition for their effort. Many people fear feedback and with good reason. I've seen (and received) feedback delivered poorly and it does very little to improve performance. Teaching people how to give and receive feedback goes back to my first point. Once the foundation is in place, create opportunities for people to receive feedback on a regular basis.

4. Create vertical alignment. Leadership starts at the top of an organization. If the senior leadership isn't bought in to leadership development, no amount of training intervention is going to matter because the senior leadership doesn't recognize it or reward it. Fortunately, this isn't the case in most organizations. Keep the top of the organization in tune with the leadership training by offering them a place in the program as a speaker, facilitator, or participant. Offer them access to the same informal opportunities to leadership content.


Leadership is a hot topic these days. Plenty is being written and there is always room to improve it and drive performance. Make sure that in your organization leadership is something everyone is involved in, not just a select few.

Leading, Learning and Change

Everywhere you look, learning professionals and consultants are writing about coping with tough times, surviving the downturn, or bracing for the worst. I don't blame them, times are tough and many people I talk to are cutting corners and balancing expenses. By people I mean friends, family, and business contacts. Personally or professionally, anyone with a checkbook is paying even closer attention to what's going out.


So when I ask training leaders, and I've spoken to quite a few, what the biggest learning need is in these times, I get a handful of answers: leadership, continuing development, and change management top the charts. I think these are very achievable and can be closely aligned with your business results.

1. Leadership Training. Spend the time developing leaders to be more successful and building your succession plan. And face it, they will leave. Strong leaders will help guide your company in these challenging times and then be tempted away when conditions improve. How you keep them is a different conversation, but make sure you have their successor lined up.

The other benefit to leadership development is the establishment of a shared language. Leadership development, done right, involves both the leaders and the led. It creates a common understanding of the role of leaders and accountability for leadership behaviors. Employees know what to expect from their leaders, managers are better able to provide peer coaching and feedback, and executive leadership has an "apples to apples" way of describing and identifying high performers in the organization. For more on leadership and succession planning, Talent Management has a very good article on developing emerging leaders.

2. Continuing Development. Many organization are adopting the "do more with less" mentality these days. I don't have a problem with that, as long as people are prepared to do the work you need them to do, and that might mean more training. Yet in the "more with less" mindset, the learning organization has less to work with. Once again, social media comes to the rescue as does a proactive communication plan.

• Let the organization know you are creating informal learning and development opportunities.


• Communicate the topic areas and the means to obtain training.


• Partner those who have skills with those who don't for more peer training and informal development.


• Have experts answer questions on discussion boards or document success in wikis.


• Create lunch and learn sessions through which experts can share experience and answer questions.


• Remind employees to document learning opportunities and time spent practicing new skills.


• Remind your experts to document time spent teaching, training or mentoring. Ask them how you can help develop them further by making them better trainers.

This continuing development should fit hand-in-hand with your leadership development and succession planning process.

3. Teach people how to manage change. Change management isn't just a task for the senior leadership or the training department. Managing how team members cope with and respond to changing conditions falls to front line leaders. Since these line managers may be formal or informal leaders, it is important to create an awareness in the population of how people handle change and how to help people use the tension to move forward and be productive. I'm not arguing for enterprise-wide change management training. I am arguing for creating opportunities for the entire workforce to learn about the change process and some of the ways that successful organizations handle and grow from change pressure.

To be successful, organizations need to continually grow, develop and innovate. By focusing on a leadership platform, all team members share accountability for leadership. Through continuing development, team members have an opportunity to grow and be successful. Continuing development doesn't have to draw on excessive resources when information sharing becomes the norm. Finally, create a culture that knows how to adapt to and use the tension caused by change events and you will have an organization ready to cope with the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Training with the Experience in Mind

While perusing the blogs I follow, I reacquainted myself with this article from Josh Bersin. I was pleased to see that my ideas align pretty well and I was able to learn a few new things. I love the focus on informal, casual learning and the value of networks. I've been blogging about informal learning quite a bit and was pleased to see I'm on track.

I also enjoyed some of the specifics regarding human networks outlined in this recent article in CLO magazine. It got me thinking about the power of people and the kind of experience they have getting the information they need in a practical, timely fashion. User experience always brings me back to the work of Lou Carbone and his book Clued In: How to Keep Customers Coming Back Again and Again. This book really changed the way I viewed the guest experience and as such changed the way I think about developing learning tools.

1. Develop tools with the end user in mind. Specifically, what is the emotional connection you want users to make with the tools or learning experience? Developing learning interventions can become fairly methodical. Great learning professionals also consider the overall experience of the user and strive to measure the degree to which participants feel confident, secure, knowledgeable and prepared.

2. Develop tools with the customer in mind. Your clients eventually interact with your organization's clients. How would those individuals describe your people? The tools prepare learners to perform on the job, but are they performing in a way that creates an enjoyable experience for the guest and a profitable experience for the organization? For example, sales teams are provided plenty of material on "up-selling" or "adding value." I would ask how the guest perceives the outcomes of the training. Do they feel like they are getting a better service experience or do they feel are they being pushed to purchase things they don't want.

3. Keep it simple. Make learning tools easy to obtain, easy to use, easy to reuse, easy to share. The Bersin article calls it "Facilitating Learning." Learning organizations have plenty of informal tools and can guide and enable learning rather than focus on delivering training.

To come full circle, I think high-impact learning organizations also make the learner experience an important part of their design process. More than just a look at the user requirements, training solutions should be built within the context of the entire learning structure and organization's cultural experience.

Ben Franklin Would Tell You To Go With The Blended Solution

"Moderation in all things -- including moderation." - Benjamin Franklin

Lately I have been in several friendly debates with high school teachers over the use of Second Life in secondary education. There seems to be some hesitation in some quarters about losing face time with students. Great teachers have learned to measure the effectiveness of their training session by a glance around the room. They value that face-to-face contact.

On the other hand, many companies and universities are taking their training more and more virtual. Second Life and webinar tools have become viable options for conducting group sessions. Presenters can deliver content, manage breakout groups, have groups report findings, create flip charts...all the tools of the classroom. Voice over IP has even enabled users to hear each other rather than spend the time in text chat.

Some argue that virtual worlds and social networking are the next progression of our social evolution (check out this article from the New York Times, online). In many ways, social networks are logical extensions of our tribal culture: we share ideas, we trade virtual trinkets, we form groups based on common interests and goals.

But what about human interaction? Aren't we social animals with a need for face time, to see a person's expression and react? I would argue that all this virtual time makes actual face-to-face time that much more valuable to learning. Great learning solutions can be built that engage people on both levels.

1. Create engaging online experiences. Use Second Life, webinars, or online resources to create virtual tools and resources that learners want to reuse. Let those experiences create excitement, interest, and healthy tension.

2. Teach people how to facilitate discussions. Once the online piece is complete, have people meet to discuss the content presented. They will all be part of the group called "People who experienced online content." They will have a shared history and experience to get them started and will begin to collaborate and build group norms. Train leaders to facilitate group discussion and draw out ideas and action plans. Encourage learners to form these groups in their work place rather than online to build social interaction and support networks.

3. Use virtual space for continuing development and follow-up. Once a group has formed in real space, encourage them to extend their influence into virtual space through online meetings, wikis, blogs, and discussion boards. By working through the first steps, groups may "unlock" (to use a gaming term) additional content and resources.

Classroom learning is becoming too costly to remain the predominant delivery tool of corporate training. Online delivery is becoming less expensive, easier to produce and sometimes, in the case of Second Life, as good as classroom learning. Human interaction is still an integral part of learning for many people and shouldn't be eliminated entirely. The best options usually combine the flavor and benefits of multiple delivery vehicles.

March Madness and the Learning Professional

March Madness has hit my home like a tornado. We are staunch supporters of Villanova basketball so you can imagine the ups and downs we've been going through.

My wife and I had friends over for the very exciting Elite Eight match-up with Pitt. After the game, we got into a discussion of scholar-athletes and how focused they should be on education. We spoke of athletes who leave school early for the draft and those that finish. We spoke of college tutors and how many athletes slip through the system (sorry NCAA) and have tutors do the work for them. Probably not the typical conversation in your house, but my wife is an Advanced Placement English teacher and her friend is an English teacher.

I think we all agreed that it's a shame that so many college athletes leave college early lured by big professional paychecks and miss out on a quality education and becoming "well-rounded." It's almost as if the system is failing them. As a former high school teacher, I completely related to this. What about the importance of a degree? What about the value in the entire education that gives you the experience and background to understand and relate to current events?

The problem lies in the expectation of results. For many college athletes, who have spent a lifetime training to be "best in field" the measure of success is the pro contract. Likewise, in corporate learning cultures, personal development needs to be tied to business results. Organizations want to develop the whole person; the financial ledger demands accountability to the bottom line. So how do we as learning professionals walk the fine line between developing the whole person and meeting the needs of the business?

1. Be a Performance Consultant. Don't develop training for the sake of training. Be a partner with the business and make recommendations for better accountability, enforced compliance, and motivational perks if those are the true problems. The problem may not be in knowledge or skill, it may be because the process is broken or it creates obstacles further down the line. The role of the learning professional is to point those out. It may simply be that people need the right incentive or better feedback systems, rather than more training.

2. Keep the training specific to the task at hand. Sometimes all that is required is a performance support tool that shows workers how and when to do a particular task. Don't muddy the water with extra information that only confuses the worker. Adult learners certainly need context and want to know why the task is important. I'm not arguing against this. I am saying that for some learners, the answer may be as simple as, "Because this will help you do the job the right way and you will be more successful."

3. Provide content formally and informally. Make sure that the training that drives performance is formal, tracked, measured and impacts productivity. Development for the "whole person" can be provided formally, through classes and workshops, or informally through social media. I recently viewed a video from a leadership series at Google featuring Marshall Goldsmith, renowned author and executive coach. I admit to catching it pretty late, but this served as a great opportunity for both the people in the room at Google and the thousands who viewed it later and took something away from his presentation. In fact, I recommend his library as a great place to start with leadership development. Tools like this and other shared media like Wikis, blogs, and discussion boards can be powerful and inexpensive learning solutions.

When you act in the best interest of the business, you gain credibility with the leadership team for being honest about performance and being fiscally prudent. When you provide targeted, quality learning interventions that address true training needs, your training organization will gain credibility for results. Finally, when you provide learning opportunities for your corporate citizens to develop themselves personally and professionally, you provide the whole package as a learning and development organization.

What my son taught me about modern learning interventions.

This past weekend I rented Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo for my kids. There is no way they would have picked it, but I was feeling nostaligic for old Disney movies (brought on by the release of Race to Witch Mountain which looks like a fun movie). I mean, who doesn't like Don Knotts?

The beginning of Herbie goes to Monte Carlo sets the stage and foreshadows the rest of the movie. It alludes to the race team's arrival in Monte Carlo by showing passports being stamped. It then uses a sweeping panoramic style showing the car driving across the French countryside on the way to Paris. This sequence takes maybe three minutes, four at the most.

My son interrupted my nostalgic moment with a comment that inspired this blog. About a minute into the opening sequence my son said, "When is the movie going to start?" I found myself having to explain that this scene set up the movie and might be important later.

It occurred to me then that the modern learner has very little stomach for lots of context setting up front. They are used to jumping right into the topic and figuring it out as they go. The younger generation (Gen Y and the Millenials) do it when they learn to play video games and figure out new technology. Most of the "action" cartoons I let my son watch start the same way. It's an exciting action sequence that may or may not have anything to do with the story being told in that episode.


We all know as learning professionals that one of the first steps in a good design is an attention grabber. It seems to me that we often rely on the WIIFM (What's in it for me) to be our hook. Instead, we have an opportunity to use the moment to build on learning.


1. Give people a problem to solve. Here's a great way to make the learning practical and utilize pre-work. Send out work-related puzzles/questions to potential learner groups to drive interest and enthusiasm about the learning.

2. Illustrate real life examples. Have learners see or be exposed to real life examples of situations in which the content will make a difference. This will help them relate personally to the content.

3. Create conditions that help people unfreeze behavior. I mentioned this in an earlier post (Learning, Innovation and...Soccer). If you embed an activity that illustrates how useful the future learning can be, your participants will line up for development.

4. Use collaborative tools to create a shared desire for change. Try using discussion groups, wikis, blogs and forums to have user groups build enthusiasm for learning interventions. They will not only share the best practices; they may also help you set the direction of your training team.


When you get learners engaged in productive work right away, you won't have to deal with, "When does the movie start?" Instead, you'll have them engaged from the start and ready to absorb and use the learning you have to offer.

Quality, Cost, Time. Pick two.

I stumbled into my next topic while listening to Fresh Air on National Public Radio. In this episode, Terry Gross, the host, interviewed Economist Uwe Reinhardt to discuss the hidden costs and economics of health care. During the interview, Reinhardt relates an interesting story that summarizes the difference between European and American views on health care. Specifically, it illustrated a mindset that everyone knows they will get health care, and yet also realizes it won't be immediate. It reminded me of a rule I live by when advising my clients in the development of learning solutions. The rule is known as Triple Constraint. It's a project management concept introduced to me early in my career. You can Google Triple Constraint and get almost 700,000 hits.

For those of you for whom this is new info, Triple Constraint refers to the relationship between Quality (Scope), Cost (Resources) and Time (Schedule). I'm no Project Manager, and I cherish the PMs I know and get to work with, so I'll oversimplify this rule for purposes of this message. According to the rule, you can't have it all. I've been on plenty of projects during which time the needs of the business, or the requirements of the tools had to change to respond to external or internal factors. In these cases there was a change in scope (quality) of the deliverable. As a good partner to the operations, I was tasked with explaining that it would either take longer to make the change or cost extra. Never a fun conversation. Regardless of the cause of the change, my Ops partners needed to know that change costs, in either time, money, or both.

Organizational culture impacts design and development as well. Some organizations have a "get it done now" mentality, so that every project is urgent. Others have long, convoluted approval processes in which every VP needs to throw in two or more cents. Still others very strictly control spending and resources budgeted (plan on seeing this more often in these tough times). In every case, most organizations want the same thing: the best learning tools, for little or no money, right away.

So how do you get ahead of the problem? How can we, as learning professionals, manage our projects to quickly create inexpensive, high quality learning solutions ?

1. Define behavioral outcomes. The behavior change drives the design and allows the training team to pick only the activities and content that will affect changes in the learners.

2. Good enough is good enough. Everybody loves a fancy product. Fancy takes time and probably costs extra. If it doesn't, I'd question the quality of the product. Pick the very best activities and then do a great job packaging those items.

3. Know your end user. The deliverable has to fit within the world of the end user, not yours. Keep that in mind in the early stages and it'll save you time later. If end users can't use the tools, behavior won't change and you'll spend extra cycles fixing your tools.

4. Collaborate with business owners to set clear expectations. Get with the business owners, the front line operators, and make sure they have a say in what the final outcome looks like. They will appreciate being involved in the solution and will be ready when the tools are handed off.

5. Provide choices. My favorite strategy is to provide a menu, with pictures, of what proposed solutions might look like. This strategy allows me to offer "good, better, best" choices and allows the business to choose how much it wants to spend on the solution.

Making clients see that they can't have it all takes patience (easier said than done, trust me). Keeping them involved every step of the way will certainly alleviate tension when changes to the budget or timeline are required. In the end, your clients will respect your professionalism, business sense, forthright partnership and quality products.

Innovation, Learning and...Soccer?

I spent a good portion of this past Saturday coaching my kids’ soccer teams. I try not to be that dad, reliving my better days through my kids. I coach like crazy in practice and then in games I sit in my chair and watch. I was proud to see my teams do some great stuff on the field and it reminded me of how we learn to play games like soccer. Sure, as a coach I provide skill practice and drills to hone soccer ability. But true soccer knowledge is gained from playing the game, through trial and error. Kids learn what works (what helps them score goals, or stop the other team from doing the same) when they try the things I’ve been telling them and it pays off. The thrill of scoring or stopping that attack brings its own sense of fulfillment that I can’t create on the practice field.

As I watched my kids play, it reminded me of a webinar I viewed recently featuring Scott Anthony of Innosight. In his presentation, he emphasized the need for organizations to practice the art of innovation. He provided some great guidelines and some memorable facts and figures. His position is that for companies to be successful in these tough times they must be innovative all the time. He gave many examples of companies that rose out of tough times by doing exactly that. In every case, companies that rigorously practice and encourage innovation, ultimately succeed.

Innovation, like learning, demands that we try new ideas and often fail. Okay, I said it. It means we fail. Scott shared a great quote by Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."

Scott does a great job showing how companies invest wisely in innovation because they know that many ideas won’t pan out. They plan for it. They invest a little, to learn a lot.

In a learning culture, failure has to be an option. We often learn the most when we fail. Failure, and the introspection that follows, guides us to new directions that we may not have tried before. I love the quote from Batman Begins (2005), in which Alfred Pennyworth, the faithful butler to the Dark Knight, asks a young Bruce Wayne, “Why do we fall, sir?” The answer, though it seems trite, is packed with meaning. “So that we might learn to pick ourselves up.” I admit to being a comic book fan, which makes the quote more memorable. Regardless this is still a great lesson. For learning to actually work, participants need the chance to get all the information and practice it in a safe setting in which failure is an option.
Back on the job, our clients will have the opportunity to try the new skills. If our design was solid and the course a success, our learners should have some success at the new skills. When they do fail, and they will, the learning organization should be there to quickly assess the conditions that caused failure, provide the introspection required, and be ready to meet the need in a timely and cost-efficient manner. I’m not condoning failure as a standard. My belief is that in failing, we learn what not to do and sometimes that’s a good piece of information to have.

Soccer coaching may not be the best model for how to run a learning organization but there are some good parallels:

1. Give learners a safe environment to practice the skills and use the relevant information.
2. Provide lots of feedback and generate dialogue about what’s working and what isn’t.
3. Motivate participants with praise and positive reinforcement.
4. Unfreeze counterproductive behaviors and refreeze productive ones.
5. Prepare learners as best we can for “game time”.
6. Document the successes and failures and build new training experiences to address the shortcomings.
7. Repeat and have fun.

I'm constantly telling my assistant coaches, a group of helpful dads, to relax. If we teach our kids the basic soccer skills and make it fun, the kids will start to experiment and have success. That's how we can support innovation on the soccer field.
How is your learning department supporting innovation in your business?