Chief Learning Officer

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”.

Engage Passive Learners

Posted on by Seniye Groff

According to the January 2013 issue of “Chief Learning Officer” 60% of people are passive learners. I find this so interesting because when I design classes or content, I always focus on “active learning”. I want my learners to engage with the content, to actually have to use the new knowledge to change behavior. Randy Emelo suggests, “learning professionals need to construct learning environments, events and programs that encourage active participation and speak to employees in ways that trigger an innate need and desire to learn.

Sounds easy but it is actually pretty difficult. Think about all the “training” you have attended that is essentially information sharing. You are not asked to construct “new” knowledge or use the new skills and behaviors in thought-provoking, meaningful ways. Certainly social media has aided in engagement and collaboration, but more often than not, there are many that are “lurkers” staying in the background rather than getting involved in the conversation. But tap into someone’s passions or allow them to be an “expert” and motivation can increase. I think Trip Advisor does this really well. I was reminded of this during my recent trip to Palm Springs. When we wanted suggestions for things to do or places to eat, I would search Trip Advisor’s reviews. I was then compelled to “give back” by writing reviews after I visited places. And then Trip Advisor acknowledged my contributions by giving me a “contributor” badge and when another reader finds my review helpful, I get an email telling me someone thought my review was helpful. Genius!

The article suggests some ideas to foster active learning:
1. “Set up learning environments and systems that are personally motivating.
2. Look for systems that have push and pull.
3. Reward and recognize people for building the organization’s learning culture.”

Check out the complete article: http://read.clomedia.com/publication/?i=138586&p=32

Who’s Leading Innovation

Posted on by Seniye Groff

The October issue of “Chief Learning Officer” contained an interesting article on the elusive skill of driving innovation.  The authors cite a DDI/Luma Institute survey and found data that leaders are challenged to:

  • “Inspire curiosity
  • Challenge current perspectives
  • Create freedom
  • Drive discipline.”

What is interesting is that everyone wants the next “great” idea but so often our corporate environments are all about cutting costs, doing it faster and avoiding risks at all costs.  And heaven-forbid that we are blamed for a bad idea and lose our jobs!  Yet, what really differentiates us in the world marketplace, I think, is that we are a country that values creativity and risk and the next great idea.  So leaders’ biggest challenge is to create a safe, yet innovative, environment where employees feel empowered to take risks and suggest the next outlandish “thing.”

Read the full article here.

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.

Knowledge Sharing

Posted on by Seniye Groff

In this month’s “Chief Learning Officer” there is an article titled, “Talk That Talk” by Brandon Hall.  As a life long learner, his article resonated with me because I believe we should never stop learning and stretching the boundaries of what we are comfortable doing.  Hall argues that there are flexible and mobile sources out there that provide “powerful, unique and intense knoweldge sharing from today’s noteworthy leaders”.  Here are some of his suggestions:

Charlie Rose

TED

Book TV

iTunes University and podcasts

Fresh Air.

I have not heard of Book TV or Fresh Air so I will explore those resources.  What about you?  What do you do to constantly learn more and push your own personal boundaries?

 

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?

The Real Education Gap

Posted on by Seniye Groff

Chief Learning Officer’s January 2012 issue contained a relevant article on “The Real Education Gap”.  The article describes the lack of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking skills present in today’s workforce.  The article suggests that “82% of American schools fail to teach curricula that imbue students with the skills leadership demands.”  One could argue that school should (and are) teaching students reading, writing and math.  The challenge lies in the need for other skills to excel in today’s modern workplace and global arena.

The 2010 American Management Association (AMA) Critical Skills Survey uncovered the need for the “Four C’s”:

  • Critical thinking and problem solving
  • Effective communication
  • Collaboration and team building
  • Creativity and innovation. 

The most important of the “4C’s” is communication, which includes thinking clearly, figuring out what information is most important and then communicating back clearly.  Given my experience in training and education, I believe it would be fairly simple to practice these skills, even with existing content.  Revising content so that is culminates in real-life, practical application would be an easy fix for organizations. 

Ultimately, if practitioners ask the question “How does this training change behavior?” it is more likely the content will have some practice and skill development built into the design.  The article concludes with “organizations that develop their people have more success across all performance metrics.”  I think this is an obvious insight because as the old adage goes:  Don’t worry about training people that then might leave, instead worry about not training employees and having them stay! 

Tech Tools of 2012

Posted on by Seniye Groff

November’s  Chief Learning Officer, “Tech Tools in 2012”  caught my eye.   Apparently investment in learning technologies continues to be a priority.  Content development and learning strategy also made the list of priorities.  This means that beyond the LMS, companies want to invest in mobile learning and collaboration tools including social networking tools.  After several years of declining spending, this is good news!

Not surprising, the ability to align all the competing priorities of the organizations is a focus.  CLO’s are focused on the goals of their organization and how to align it with the performance of its employees.  This includes informal learning, leadership training, overall skill development and overall productivity.

Technical tools are still a focus, especially those tools that are more “mainstream” such as learning management systems, elearning content tools and virtual classroom environments.  The jury is still out on how to use social networking, iPads and mobile devices for training.  As these tools demonstrate success and the ability to truly change behavior, I suspect the investment will follow.

Another article that shares the need for training as a continued priority was in Fast Company‘s blog post on training to close the skills gaps that employers whine so often about.  According to the post, many jobs remain unfilled because companies cannot find qualified people.  The old adage “hire for attitude, train for the job” seems to be forgotten.  It is easy to point the finger at our schools, but ultimately companies are going to have to create their own “schools” or universities to address the missing skills that job candidates need.