The Performance Improvement Blog

Does Your Organization Need a Learning Culture?

If this post describes your organization, you need to make the transition to a learning culture.

The amount and complexity of knowledge and skills that each of your employees needs is increasing dramatically every day due to technology and globalization. Simple, repetitive tasks are being automated (e.g., banking) and online technologies are disrupting traditional businesses (e.g., transportation). Employees that survive automation and disruption will need to know more and do more.

Employees need to learn quickly. They need to acquire new information, new skills, and develop new abilities and they need to do this in a way in which that learning will be retained and applied immediately. They can no longer rely on formal training events. Stephen J. Meyer, addressed this issue in his blog for Forbes online:

Any corporate learning professional will tell you that sales and leadership training need to be processes, not events. The learning cognoscenti know there are no shortcuts to effective learning. If sales managers want their inside sales team to conduct powerful discovery, they’ve got to teach an approach, listen to tapes, let reps self-evaluate, give feedback, listen to more tapes, give more feedback, and so on. Leadership training requires a similar process. For high-level soft skills training, organizations need to create a path to mastery, and accompany people down that path.

Current onboarding and training programs are not helping you achieve your business goals. Dani Johnson, writing for Bersin by Deloitte, explains that the old corporate training model worked because information moved top-down, there was one way to do things, and the corporate sponsored job-training was all an employee needed (or so they believed). Now, according to Johnson, this is no longer the case. Johnson writes:

…advances often mean that people who show up to training events know as much as, if not more than, the facilitators. They also have other options for learning than just company training. Information is ubiquitous, free, and comes from many, many sources.

Likewise, today’s knowledge workers are asked to do more than just complete tasks. Now the focus is on “thinking outside the box,” embracing innovation, improving processes, and helping the company to better compete.

This shift in focus leaves L&D in uncharted waters. The processes and infrastructures that L&D organizations have built over the years are reinforced by architectures, systems, and technology which support antiquated thinking. L&D departments need to completely reinvent themselves; and they need to develop new skills, capabilities, and behaviors in order to do it.

In the past, your L&D department could get away with delivering well attended, well-liked training programs. Today, L&D is being asked to show evidence that learning interventions are contributing to the bottom-line. The approach of Jenny Dearborn at SAP is an example of this. In January 2016 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, Kate Iverson quotes Dearborn:

Justifying and inciting change in an engineering organization like SAP requires hard metrics. Dearborn would argue that’s the case for CLOs in general. “As a learning professional, if you can’t provision your program without affecting those metrics that an executive thinks about, then you really shouldn’t be having this conversation,” she said. “If you can’t speak that language, you’re out of your league.”

The pace of change is making it difficult for your organization to compete effectively in the marketplace unless the organization is constantly learning. You need a work environment that is supporting learning all the time so that you can respond quickly to trends and disruptions in your industry and your customers. You must be able acquire new knowledge and skills in anticipation of these changes and as they take place. For example, if customers are demanding same-day delivery and some retailers are meeting that demand, then any company that can’t adapt will be faced with a tremendous loss of business.

You have a multi-generational and diverse workforce that requires a learning culture. This is a workforce that is clamoring for personalization. One size does not fit all. Increasing and maintaining employee engagement and productivity depends on being responsive to the individual learning needs of workers. Some older workers are waiting for management to push what they need to know to them; some younger workers want to pull what they want to know and do it now. Elliott Masie puts it this way in January 2016 issue of Chief Learning Officer:

The future of learning has embraced the fascinating reality of personalization. More than ever, our workers expect to be able to select, sequence, manage and access learning resources in a manner of their choosing.

Personalization is the ability to choose time, device, style and even intensity of content, context or collaboration. But is personal choice the learning goal?

The learner might have some ingrained preferences. [The learner] might like video more than reading or practice more than theory. A learner might be drawn to one topic and have no interest in another key element of a curriculum. Or, [a learner] might feel fully competent in an area and skip a learning offering altogether.

Your work teams are not as efficient and effective as they need to be. Meetings are tedious, time consuming, and unproductive. Team projects are late and over-budget. Team members are not engaged in the work. Often, this is because team leaders and members do not know how to be successful. This is something the team can learn. To do that they need to learn how to learn about teamwork.

And your organization as a whole could be better at communicating across silos, strategic planning, making decisions that affect everyone, managing information, and creating a positive climate. In other words, your organization needs to "get better at getting better." This takes learning; learning how to continually improve as an organization.

A training culture, which is what we’ve had in most organizations for the past 100 years, cannot meet the needs of workers, teams, and organizations in the world we live in today. The pace of change, the need to adapt quickly, global competition, personalization of learning, and a demand for results, are all forces that make it necessary for learning to be constant, for everyone, using many different methods . If that's not your organization, start making the transition now.

50 Ways to Lever Learning

(My apologies to Paul Simon.)

In a learning culture, formal training is just one of many methods used to facilitate employee learning. In a learning culture, we start with the performance goal and then select the mix of methods that will help employees acquire and retain the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs they need in order to achieve those goals. This is a list of 50 of those methods. The first 25 are primarily instructor-directed; the second 25 are primarily learner-directed.

1. Instructor-centered class (fact to face) – traditional classroom in which instructor controls the content and learning process
2. Instructor-centered class (virtual) – similar to classroom except instructor delivers instruction via the Web and class can be synchronous or asynchronous
3. Instructor-facilitated seminar – meeting convened by an instructor; learners discuss a topic relevant to their work and chosen by instructor
4. Instructor-facilitated workshop – meeting convened by an instructor; participants learn from experience of working together on solving a problem or creating something new
5. eLearning  – content delivered to learner via computer; usually desktop computer
6. Mobile learning – a form of elearning that is accessed by a mobile device such as smart phone or tablet; can be anywhere, anytime
7. Coaching – a relationship in which a trained coach helps an employee develop the knowledge and skills to be a more effective manager by addressing real situations that manager faces in workplace
8. Mentoring – a relationship in which senior leaders impart their knowledge and wisdom on employees who are learning to be leaders
9. Learning alliance – a relationship between managers and their direct reports that focuses on employee learning and how managers can support that learning
10. Game –engaging employees in learning by applying principles of gaming (scoring, competition, rules of play, etc.) to create an experience that is interactive and fun
11. Simulation – replicating real-life problem solving within a safe environment; for example, learning business acumen by working with a team to solve a typical business problem and receiving immediate feedback on their performance
12. On-campus college courses – attending for-credit courses or non-credit courses that are relevant to one’s job
13. External online courses (e.g., MOOCs) – taking relevant courses online from leading institutions and from renowned faculty
14. Webinars – participating in a Web-based program using video conferencing software; usually a one-session offering by an expert on a specific topic
15. Internship – working in a temporary position for the purpose of learning about a job, the work environment of that job, and the organizational culture
16. Apprenticeship – working under the guidance of experienced employees for the purpose of learning specific skills
17. Business case-study – drawing lessons from discussing the documented story of actual events in another organization
18. Performance measurement – learning from measures of performance such as sales figures, production numbers, and customer service feedback
19. Success Case Evaluation Method – a method of evaluating training (or any learning intervention) by identifying those participants who successfully applied learning in the organization and telling their stories; learning comes from analyzing those stories and drawing useful conclusions from successes and failures
20. Assessment center – a dedicated space where employees participate in exercises designed to simulate the conditions of their jobs; observers look for specific behaviors that indicate the employee’s suitability for the work; learning comes from receiving performance feedback and planning how to improve
21. Department meetings – often a lost opportunity for learning, these gatherings can be designed so that participants learn about processes such as planning, project management, innovation, and evaluation
22. Testing knowledge – using results of knowledge tests to facilitate more learning
23. Testing performance – using results of behavioral demonstrations of learning to facilitate more learning
24. Training evaluation – learning from evidence (quantitative and qualitative) collected to show the impact that particular training programs have on individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole
25. Learning Management System (LMS) – using the data from training program tracking software as a focus for discussing employee learning goals and progress toward those goals
26. Roleplay – people (usually two or three) acting out roles to learn about themselves and others by putting themselves in somebody else’s shoes
27. Reflection-in-action – learning from reflecting on an activity while doing it
28. Reflection-on-action – learning from reflecting on an activity by looking back on what happened
29. Reflection-for-action – learning by applying what was learned to a new situation
30. Daily log – individual employees writing or recording learning from each day of work and then discussing their observations with co-workers
31. Survey debrief – meeting with co-workers and other stakeholders to discuss what can be learned from the results of company surveys (such as pulse, employee satisfaction, and climate)
32. Experiments – gathering evidence in a controlled environment to support or refute a particular change that is being proposed (for example, testing an innovation in the product development process)
33. Prototyping – testing a new design of a product or process by constructing an example or model and then trying it out and learning from what happens
34. Content apps – using a software application on a mobile device to provide information and instruction on-the-job, just-in-time
35. Job share – splitting the hours required for a job with someone else and sharing experiences with each other for the purpose of learning
36. Job rotation – trying out different jobs in an organization for the purpose of discovering the best fit and, at the same time, learning about the organization and its culture
37. Community of practice – people who share the same interests or responsibilities in an organization come together to learn from each other
38. Social media – using computer-mediated platforms for sharing information, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs
39. Benchmarking – learning by comparing the structure, policies, practices, products, and programs of one’s organization to the best in the industry
40. Structured observation – learning about some aspect of individual, team, or organizational behavior by observing what occurs according to a set of questions and criteria
41. Books and articles – reading books and articles that have information and expert advice about an area of needed performance improvement
42. Video – learning as-needed from high-quality, relevant videos on sites such as TED and YouTube
43. Recordings – learning as-needed from high-quality, relevant recordings of presentations by business and organizational experts
44. Team reflection – working with team members to find useful meaning in data about team performance
45. Enterprise-wide reflection – working with co-workers across the organization to find useful meaning in data about organization performance
46. Performance support tools - print or electronic tools, such as checklists, micro-lessons, and video demonstrations, used post-training to ensure on-going performance improvement
47. Interactive performance support system (IPSS) – performance support tools that allow the user to interact with Web-based materials for the purpose of shaping the support being provided so that it’s just-in-time and just-enough
48. Professional conferences – attending local, regional, national, and international meetings that have presentations of content relevant to one’s work; learning comes from reflecting on that content and discussing application with others
49. Book groups – groups of employees meeting during the workday to discuss a book they have all read; they learn from the discussion about how it applies to their work
50. Internal wiki – like Wikipedia, this is a company Web site where any employee can contribute content that might be helpful to every employee’s learning; this could include relevant books and videos, tools such as checklists, best practices, survey results, project results, etc.

I’m sure you can think of more ways to lever learning. What would you add to this list?

SCORM and xAPI LMS in a Learning Culture

A learning management system (LMS) is considered to be a necessary tool in most complex organizations today, especially those industries, like nuclear energy, airlines, and healthcare, where monitoring compliance with government-imposed training requirements is essential.

However, I have had my doubts about the value of an LMS for enhancing learning and contributing to a learning culture. Knowing who has taken which course and even knowing how they did on a test, is not evidence of learning and certainly doesn’t indicate one’s ability to apply that learning on the job. And more importantly, an LMS does not tell us the impact of that learning on the organization.

I recently attended an “xAPI Party” at Torrance Learning where the conversation was about the shift from a SCORM-based LMS to an xAPI (experience application programming interface) LMS. xAPI appears to be a huge leap forward in tracking the whole gamut of learning experiences from formal training programs to informal, social, and mobile activities. There was a lot of excitement about this change and the benefits seemed clear.

Steve Foreman, in an article for Learning Solutions Magazine, describes XAPI this way:

The xAPI operates based on activity streams, a model that uses software to track things people do. The idea of tracking activity streams emerged from social networking and is used by sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus.

The Experience API makes it possible to track activities that people do using computers such as performing work tasks, producing work outputs, interacting with others using social media, achieving milestones in games and simulations, and just about any other activity that one can observe or record.

Imagine that your LMS can communicate, not just with eLearning courses, but also with knowledge bases, collaboration platforms, document management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, helpdesk systems, portals, talent management, performance management, and other types of systems used in the workplace. The learning management system may track not only attendance, completions, and test scores, but actual work inputs, outputs, deliverables, tasks, and more.

However, I have to ask, “Does xAPI do a better job of facilitating learning?” Any tool is only as good as the person who’s using it and this is true for xAPI, as well. Clearly, xAPI, because it includes a wide range of workplace learning experiences, is superior to SCORM for tracking activity, but it is still about activity, not learning.

To make xAPI effective for enhancing learning, employees will have to consistently collect evidence of experience, constantly input the right data, use that data, through feedback and reflection, to help individuals and teams develop their competencies, continually assess the impact of learning on the organization as a whole, and have conversations about the meaning of those findings. These are behaviors of a learning culture.

Employee learning requires feedback, reflection, and practice. Experiences, whether formal, informal, social, or mobile, do not result in learning unless these other elements are present. If an organization is committed to a learning culture, those elements will be the way the organization functions on a day-to-day basis. Without a learning culture, I’m skeptical that any LMS (SCORM or xAPI) can enhance learning and improve performance. However, in the context of a learning culture, xAPI offers great promise for contributing to organizational learning.

[image from Pixabay]

Design Thinking Culture Change in IBM

The need for creating and sustaining a learning culture in organizations is critical given the rise of digital technology, the rapid pace of change, the complexities of globalization, and the growing development demands of a diverse workforce. However, the challenge of changing the culture of an organization can seem overwhelming, especially if you work in a large, established, conventional company.

So I was intrigued to hear that IBM, a 100 year old, world-wide company of over 370,000 employees, is embarking on a culture change that is heavily dependent on learning.  According to a column by Steve Lohr in the New York Times, IBM is seeking to reinvent itself as a “design thinking” company. Lohr writes:

…the IBM initiative stands out. The company is well on its way to hiring more than 1,000 professional designers, and much of its management work force is being trained in design thinking. “I’ve never seen any company implement it on the scale of IBM,” said William Burnett, executive director of the design program at Stanford University. “To try to change a culture in a company that size is a daunting task.”

Critics have responded that design thinking is nothing new, that their own companies have always been customer focused and responsive to customer needs. I’m sure IBM employees would have made this same argument prior to the design-thinking initiative. However, design thinking is different in its intensity of focus on the customer and on the customer’s problem that needs to be solved, in the relationship between designer and customer, and in discovering creative ways to solve a problem. It’s not about customizing products and services to meet customer needs; it’s about finding the best solution to a problem given the circumstances.

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO and author of Change by Design, writes that design thinking is:

…the collaborative process by which the designer’s sensibilities and methods are employed to match people’s needs with what is technically feasible and a viable business strategy. In short, design thinking converts need into demand. It’s a human-centered approach to problem solving that helps people and organizations become more innovative and creative.
 

It would be a mistake to assume that IBM designers and their customers (internal and external) will become proficient in design-thinking by simply attending a workshop or taking a set of courses. That might be the start, but learning and application of that learning must be an ongoing process. People need to learn the principles and tools (e.g., iterative prototyping) of design thinking. They also need to learn how to develop empathy for their customers. And, as David Kelley describes it, they need to learn “creative confidence”, a belief in themselves that they can be creative regardless of what they have been telling themselves since elementary school.

IBM employees will need to learn how to help their customers learn how to be creative. So it’s not only about their own learning; it’s also about facilitating the learning of others and helping others develop creative confidence.

IBM can be successful at bringing design thinking into its culture if it has the mindset of continuous learning by everyone. Start with formal workshops and courses and then, at The Pivot Point, transition designers and other stakeholders (sales, marketing, R&D, etc.) to all of the various forms of informal learning that will result in application of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs of design thinking over time.