What does the future hold for enterprise training
departments, especially in this era of Web 2.0? This is the intriguing question
posed by Collaborative Enterprise in its ECOLLAB. According to the blog
site, ECOLLAB “…is a cross-cultural idea laboratory to exchange perspectives
with experts and practitioners on Social Learning and Networked Enterprise
concepts to develop more resilient organizations.” The authors chose “training
departments” as the lab’s first topic.
In response to ECOLLAB, Clark Quinn writes:
It
can no longer be just about courses.
It’s got to include performance support, and informal learning. It’s got
to be about culture, and learning together skills, and facilitating productive
information interchange and productive interactions. We have technologies now
to empower user-generated content, collaboration and more, but the associated
skills are being assumed, which is a mistake.
The ability to use these tools will continually need updating and
support.
Tom Haskins writes that training departments in
collaborative enterprises must choose between:
·
living
fearfully in the past and living optimistically in the future
·
neglecting
technological advances or fully utilizing them
·
rejecting
the younger generations or embracing them wholeheartedly
·
facing the
future with self-absorbed resignation or creating a future by caring for common
interests with many others
Harold Jarche writes this about the future of the enterprise training department:
The
main objective of the new training department is to enable knowledge to flow in
the organization. The primary function of learning professionals within this
new work model is connecting and communicating, based on three core processes:
1.
Facilitating collaborative work and learning amongst workers, especially as
peers.
2.
Sensing patterns and helping to develop emergent work and learning practices.
3.
Working with management to fund and develop appropriate tools and processes for
workers.
The
only certainty about the future from here on out is that it won’t resemble the
past. For example, instructional designers no longer have time to develop
formal courses. Survival requires people who can navigate a rapidly-changing
maze at high speed. They need to find their own curriculum, figure out an
appropriate way to learn it, and get on with it. It’s cliché to say that people
have to learn how to learn. Management needs to support self-learning, not
direct it.
While I agree with these commentators, I think the training
(and development) function in organizations should be designed around its
ultimate purpose which is to help the organization achieve its strategic goals.
As the great architect Louis Sullivan said, “Form ever follows function.” Given
this sage advice, the question becomes, “What is the best structure for
facilitating learning that will result in achieving business goals?” The point then
is not whether a centralized or distributed department delivers training
programs, or internal consultants facilitate self-directed learning, or even
that technologists teach employees how to use Web 2.0 tools for learning. These all are worthy activities. The main point is that employees are learning and applying that learning to achieve strategic
goals. That necessitates what we call the “5As Framework”: 1) aligning learning interventions
(training, coaching, online support, etc.) with goals; 2) anticipating learning and success; 3) forming a learning alliance of learner with supervisor/boss;
4) applying learning to achieving
business goals; and 5) being accountable
for business results. Whatever structure (centralized enterprise training
department, distributed training, collaborative networks, etc.) supports these
elements, then that’s what’s needed.
