Training

Four Ways to Assess Learning

Posted on by Seniye Groff

The February issue of “Chief Learning Officer” had a great article on learning assessment. Learning assessments, in my mind, are often overlooked and undervalued. In numerous projects I am currently working on, no one really wants to get specific on the outcomes. For example, instead of “learn a new system”, how about really diving into the details. For example, the article suggests a few questions such as:

1. “What roles do the participants have and whom do they need to influence?
2. What is a typical scenario in which the participants are having difficulty influencing the other party?
3. What underlying problems may be contributing to this challenge?
4. What organization factors might help or hinder their ability to influence their key stakeholders?
5. How well do participants understand their stakeholder’s needs?”

Thought-provoking questions, similar to above, force you to check your assumptions. Often an obstacle to getting this type of information is time, but data can be gathered by keeping things brief and focused. The authors suggest a few tips to gain an accelerated needs assessment:
“Conduct short, limited conversations rather than lengthy surveys.”
“Prioritize rather than boil the ocean.”
“When identifying a gap, look for pockets of strength.”

Read the complete article to gain more tips and read specific questions to help you gather meaningful data so that recommendations can be based on more than “gut instinct”.

2012 in Review

Posted on by Seniye Groff

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Social Media as Change Catalyst

Posted on by Seniye Groff

In the December 2012 issue of Talent Management magazine, there was a great article titled, “Social Media as Change Catalyst”.   Its premise is that organizational change can be enhanced by using social media tools.  What is interesting is that in a current project I am working on, I suggested this very thing, but received a lukewarm response.  Why not allow the super users the opportunity to post tips, tricks and key information to begin the conversation about these software enhancements?  Users can post questions, concerns and even their own tips to help everyone learn the new system and processes and quickly and efficiently as possible.

Choo, et al, suggest that social media can enhance change initiatives by:

  • “Sharing experiences across a knowledge network
  • Building a collaborative culture
  •  Creating targeted and timely learning
  • Improving employee engagement.”

It is no secret that employees are faced with a tremendous amount of change in their daily organizational life…new policies, software enhancements, job reductions and management changes all play a significant role in the amount of change and information an employee must take in.  Change is the “new normal” and with that comes creating a shared vision, gaining buy-in and learning the new product or process.  So it makes sense that connecting employees to be able to share experiences and learning will benefit everyone.  Furthermore, it will be easier for management to gauge how the change is being accepted and implemented in the employees’ daily lives.  Even more importantly, are the pitfalls or mishaps that need to be addressed immediately in order to continue to ensure the change takes hold.  Social media tools allow for “real-time exchange of ideas”.

The article suggests that management play a role in the dialogue, too.  Not only should management be active participants, they should be available to dispel incorrect information during the online exchange of ideas and experiences.  Management can also keep the messages focused.  It is no secret that learning needs to be more focused, targeted and learner-driven.  Social media allows those three things to happen by allowing employees to teach and/or get the specific information they are looking for quickly and easily.  Ultimately, social media tools help information to “flow in multiple directions” which alleviates the common issue of little or poor communication during a change initiative.

Read the full article.

 

 

Personal Learning Environments

Posted on by Seniye Groff

“Surfing the Internet has become everyone’s favored solution for resolving information challenges large and small.”

There has been a shift from formal to informal learning in the corporate training landscape.  Granted, there are still topics that demand formal learning such as compliance and safety issues, but more and more learning is happening on the job, informally driven by the employee.  Employees now have a wealth of information at their fingertips with the internet, social networking sites and collaboration with peers.  Formal learning does not always allow the learner to apply the knowledge to their job immediately, thereby decreasing retention of knowledge.  Usually with informal learning the learner applies the knowledge right away (by answering a customer’s question, following a process etc.). 

Given the growth of social networking, the internet and other technologies, there has been an explosion of Personal Learning Environments (PLE).  These PLEs include both formal and informal learning and allow the learner to be in charge of the needed knowledge.  PLEs “are highly personalized portals that employ filtering technologies to recognize individual users and their preferences and provide them with highly customized experiences.”  PLEs are a perfect solution to being able to offer different content to different audiences.  For example, when addressing the training needs of the novice vs. intermediate vs. expert employee; potentially a novice needs full blown training while an expert only needs to access a performance support piece.

Given the movement from a very structured, planned training event to a more fluid model driven by the learner, Dr. Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan has created the Four-Door Model where the “four doors” represent four different areas or components of the learning environment: 1) The Library, 2) The Playground, 3) The Café and 4) The Evaluation Center. The Library contains the content of the course or module—the information required to master the learning objectives and to successfully complete the final performance test. It typically contains pre-built or existing content, such as videos, documents, slide shows, photos, and audio files. Anything that contains meaningful content and could be put on the Web is used. Learners are invited to study the content in any way they prefer. The Playground contains fast-paced frame-games that provide practice in recalling and applying the content from the library. These games help increase fluency. The frame-games typically require the learner to type or choose short answers. Learners can play each frame game repeatedly at up to three levels of difficulty. The Café contains social learning activities. A good example is the open-question game which uses open-ended questions to encourage the learner to reflect on the content presented in the library. Learners respond to each question by typing an answer in a text box. When complete, the learner can review the answers given by experts and fellow participants. The café may also include other social-learning components such as wikis, blogs, message boards, etc. Facebook and LinkedIn groups would fall under this category. The Evaluation Center is simply the test center. It contains the performance test. Ideally, instead of using multiple-choice questions, the evaluation asks the learner to complete or participate in an actual job-related assignment.

The learner controls their learning path when instruction is a non linear experience. Allow learners to figure things out on their own and  still establish metrics for success. This flexibility allows every employee to jump into the training at their own place.  For example, a new employee versus and experienced employee has very different learning needs and would use the Four Doors very differently.

 

What it Takes to Build a Team

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Team?  What is it really?  There are thousands of articles, books, seminars and courses on team but Talent Management (August 2012) has a great article of what it really takes.  Anderson argues that “high-performance teams regularly challenge each other for their best thinking.”  How often have you seen that everyone goes with the flow or is afraid of asking a tough question?  Afterall, if you ask a tough question and your team-mate cannot answer it, you run the risk of making them look stupid or incompetent.  So how do you ask the tough questions without putting people on the defensive?

Anderson states that the first step is to change the rewards and recognition.  “To build any team, members must understand what’s in it for them and be able to tie that to their own rewards and recognition.  Once they are convinced their own needs are going to be met, most can begin to think more as “we” rather than I.'”  The next step is to work in facilitated dialogue sessions.  In these session shared goals are identified.  There also must be a thought and action shift (and lots of trust) to move to the next phase.  We are talking about a serious cultural shift in the way teams, and companies, do business.  Ultimately, “teaming in new ways, collaborating across organizational boundaries and sharing resources in new ways”  are the path to nirvana when it comes to the future of teamwork. 

Check out the article and tell me what you think!

Who Should Choose What Employees Learn?

Posted on by Seniye Groff

The August 2012 Chief Learning Officer has an article near and dear to my heart.  I have mentioned before that learning is moving away from the centralized, corporate dictatorship to a more learner-driven model.  Randy Emelo’s article reinforces that “internal drivers, such as your own personal desire to learn, rather than external drivers, such as someone telling you what to learn” are taking precedence.  People are taking their experience and “applying new insights immediately to solve problems.”

And guess what?  As a learning leader your job is to help people exchange their knowledge!  Instead of learning folks holding all the knowledge, they are facilitators of making sure employees that know find others that know or need to know.  In other words, “people come together to solve problems.”  In the past (and even the present in many organizations) there is a focus on information management but instead, we need to focus on knowledge management.

The article’s closing thought could not be better said:  “It has been said that many companies hire the smartest people they find and then they treat them like idiots but if we simply give them the opportunity to guide their own learning and their careers, they will produce amazing results.”  Check out the complete article.

What’s Going on in Retail Training

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I was recently asked by a client to do some recent on current retail training methodology.  I did a tremendous amount of research and even connected with some old retail buddies to get a sense of what is going on out there.  I will write several posts in the next few weeks, sharing snippets of what I learned.  Comment back if you have additional insight or questions.

According to the National Retail Federation, almost 30 percent of all retail workers are age 30 or younger, and nearly half of them have college degrees. Today’s employees have been immersed in technology almost since birth, and based on their experiences as students and consumers; they have come to expect technology in the workplace as well. The pervasiveness of social media and social computing is a big part of this expectation, as well as, comfort with technology.  These expectations have to be factored in when trying to recruit, retain, motivate and train younger employees.

Many retailers have empowered their employees with the right mix of tools and information, and have invested in mobility solutions that help them answer customer queries, look up price, confirm item availability and know their customers. In-store associates are using handheld applications not only for information, but also for guided selling, check out and replenishment. Retailers have implemented new features for online chat so that associates can perform sales and support activities to better serve their customers during transactions.

Enhanced features in employee touch points have allowed customer service associates to use real-time information to provide product features, benefits, recommendations, product availability and price information.  Enhancing employee efficiency and customer experience are value drivers to implement mobility solutions at the store front. Concerns like security, infrastructure management and integrated solutions have been the primary reasons for slower adoption of mobility solutions. At the same time, improved technology, along with some killer applications to support functions and infrastructure, has helped faster adoption of mobility solutions. A classic example is Apple which took customer service to a new level by adopting mobile solutions for all business functions in their stores.  Apple offers the Genius Bar, free workshops, personal setup, personal pickup and EasyPay; all of this could not happen unless their staff was trained and trained very well.

 

Tiagi’s Four Door Model

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I learned something new yesterday and want to share.  I am working on a project that needs to be turned upside down!  I am talking to anyone and everyone about what new ideas are floating around in training.  Someone I met yesterday mentioned Tiagi’s Four Door model.  Anyone who is faintly familiar with training, knows Tiagi.  He is a master at framegrames and that is just the beginning.  He is an energetic, excitable presenter with lots of interesting ideas.  Here is what I found out about his Four Door model:

What is the Four-door Model?
The “four doors” represent four different areas or components of the learning environment:

1. The Library

2. The Playground,

3. The Café

4, The Evaluation Center.

Each of the components
The Library contains the content of the course or module—the information required to master the learning objectives and to successfully complete the final performance test. It typically contains pre-built or existing content, such as videos, documents, slide shows, photos, and audio files. Anything that contains meaningful content and could be put on the Web is used. Learners are invited to study the content in any way they prefer.

The Playground contains fast-paced frame-games that provide practice in recalling and applying the content from the library. They help increase fluency. The frame-games typically require the learner to type or choose short answers. Learners can play each frame game repeatedly at up to three levels of difficulty.

The Café contains social learning activities. A good example is the open-question game which uses open-ended questions to encourage the learner to reflect on the content presented in the library. Learners respond to each question by typing an answer in a text box. When complete, the learner can review the answers given by experts and fellow participants. The café may also include other social-learning components such as wikis, blogs, message boards, etc. Facebook and LinkedIn groups would fall under this category.

The Evaluation Center is simply the test center. It contains the performance test. Ideally, instead of using multiple-choice questions, the evaluation asks the learner to complete or participate in an actual job-related assignment.

The beauty of this model is that the learner can use or not use any of these components.  It allows the learner to decide based on what they need to know and how they like to learn it.  This really ties nicely with the just-in-time learning model that is so prevalent today.  Also, you could name these four components anything you wanted so that it reflects your business and culture.

The Age of Agility

Posted on by Seniye Groff

The May 2012 issue of “Talent Management” has a great article about Unilever’s flexible work model.  Unilever has made a deliberate decision to give its employees the ability to work whenever and wherever they like as long as the work gets done.  I am currently working onsite for a project and when I was hired, I was told I could work remotely as much as I wanted.  I was a bit skeptical but it has turned out to be true.  Although the workplace is extremely flexible, I still need to go in about three days a week.  I need to meet people, test procedures in the lab and ultimately feel connected to the project, the team and the processes. 

Unilever has resolved the disconnect between saying they are flexible with truly being flexible by investing heavily in technology and by eliminating the conventional idea of what an office is and is not.    They build their offices around activities rather than people.  They have three zones:

  1. Focus zones where people come and go and there is no ownership over the work stations.
  2. Connect zones which are spaces for virtual and face-to-face meetings.
  3. Refresh zones are locations stocked with food and gyms.

Unilever has also invested heavily in technology  so that people have great laptops, smart phones and virtual collaboration technology.  Finally, Unilever trained their people on the agile model.  No doubt, some people struggle with the agile model.  I imagine there must be a boss or two that is still “stuck” in the old way of believing face time is best.  For me, disconnecting from work, when my home office is constantly looming is my biggest challenge.  Nonetheless, I applaud Unilever for not just saying they support work/life balance but instead putting together the infrastructure, tools and training to make life/work balance a reality for its employees!

 

Structured Mentoring

Posted on by Seniye Groff

I have created several mentoring programs, both for clients and for teams that I managed when I was an employee.  I really believe that both the mentor and the mentee gain from this relationship.  For the mentor, they gain skills such as how to give feedback and how to provide direction and they are sharing their knowledge, which builds self esteem.  For the mentee, they receive real-time feedback on actual work and hear real-life scenarios and solutions.  Furthermore, if you do it right, you will balance the skills of the mentor and the mentee so that both learn from the relationship.  For example, if as an instructional designer you need both solid writing skills and adult learning theory, put two people together-one with awesome written communication skills and the other with formal adult learning theory knowledge.

One resource that I found valuable when creating a mentoring program was the book, “Making Mentoring Happen” by Kathy Lacey.  Also, in the May 2012 issue of Chief Learning Officer there is an article titled “Breathing the Same Air is Not Enough”.  Although the title is a bit hokey, the main point is dead on.  Oftentimes, companies believe scheduling informal lunches or chats can be considered mentoring.  With that type of setup, it really is only a conversation; the mentee never gets to really dissect real issues.  There needs to be expectations, an action plan, scheduled ongoing meetings, accountability and follow-up.  According to Lollis, “Mentoring needs to be approached with intention and structure.”

Before I launched my mentor program, I provided training for both mentors and mentees.  Both parties need to know expectations, how-to’s and to be given tools to be used to be successful in their respective roles.  I even gave them a list of questions to help get the conversation going, as well as, provide more thought-provoking discussions beyond “How’s it going?”  And don’t discount the possibility of a mentoring program if team members are at a distance.  Mentoring is totally possible with today’s tools such as Skype.

Another article from the May 2012 issue of CLO. 

 What has worked with mentoring programs that you have been exposed to?