Formalizing Informal Learning | September/October 2019

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

COACHING IS A COP-OUT | 16 How to Make Every Conversation Matter

KNOWLEDGE SHARING | 24 Fostering Collaboration Between L&D and Employees

ESTABLISHING A CONTENT STRATEGY | 36 5 Steps to Create a Holistic Learner Experience

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PERSPECTIVES KEN TAYLOR

THINKING MORE BROADLY ABOUT HOW ADULTS LEARN

This edition of Training Industry Magazine provides insights we can use to broaden the way we create and manage learning experiences and opportunities.

Informal learning approaches add to the playbook that learning and development (L&D) teams can use when tasked with changing the behavior of their company’s employees.

FORMALIZATION ALLOWS US TO RECOGNIZE THE IMPACT THAT INFORMAL LEARNING HAS ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE.

So, what is informal learning exactly?

Informal learning includes both nontraditional learning approaches like storytelling or mentoring as well as nonstructured content types like articles or video clips. This definition allows us to think unconventionally about the entire learning experience and introduce new approaches or content types into the structured learning journey.

People may get nervous when exploring the idea of creating structure around informal learning because there is a sense that it may negatively impact what made the learning great in the first place – the organic nature of the learning experience. However, I believe that formalization allows us to recognize the impact that informal learning has on employee performance.

Our research has shown that learners prefer informal learning, and the effectiveness of training is increased when learners experience at least some portion of the training in a modality they prefer. By focusing on the complete journey of the learner, and adding

structure to that journey, we will be able to better understand the impact of all elements of the learning experience.

Additionally, this focus will increase the relevancy of the programs we create that will enable learners to find the information they need and learn in the flow of work.

The great news is that technologies like learning experience platforms and even traditional learning management systems provide us with the capability to create the structure and learning pathways for employees by co-locating the curated informal content with the formal learning. Having these materials accessible to employees in one central repository ensures that learners have access at the point of need. This also provides L&D with transparency into how learners are interacting with the content and can inform any necessary changes to improve the employee learning experience. This formalization will help us make better decisions, selections and set better priorities for the future of our programs.

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts about the perspectives shared in the magazine. Please feel free to send along any suggestion for future editions of Training Industry Magazine for us to consider.

Ken Taylor is president and editor in chief of Training Industry, Inc. Email Ken.

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CO N T E N TS

TA B L E O F VOLUME 12

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ISSUE 6

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

FEATURES

16 COACHING IS A COP-OUT

16 20 24

24 KNOWLEDGE SHARING

36 ESTABLISHING A CONTENT STRATEGY

STEPS TO FORMALLY MAKE

By Alan Fine THE INFORMAL PART OF Leaders should strive to make every conversation a “coaching conversation.”

YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY COACHING IS A COP-OUT

CLOSE MORE DEALS WITH STORY SELLING

By Elsa Powel Strong

BY MARK D’AQUIN

Helping your sales team master the art of storytelling can take your sales to the next level.

PARTNERING FOR THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE: HOW CAN KNOWLEDGE FOSTER COLLABORATION AMONG L&D AND EMPLOYEES?

By Kasper Spiro and Videhi Bhamidi

Utilize a collaborative model to untap the tacit knowledge of employees across the business.

29

ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCY: A FUNCTION OF LEADER ADAPTABILITY AND VERSATILITY

By Sam Shriver, Ed.D., and Casey Mulqueen, Ph.D.

Adaptability and versatility are critical to the success of today’s leaders.

32 36 40

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR REVERSE MENTORING

By Laura Francis

Reverse mentoring can increase the retention of young talent while upskilling tenured executives.

5 STEPS TO FORMALLY MAKE THE INFORMAL PART OF YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

By Mark D’Aquin

The demands of learners can be met with many forms of informal learning.

‘THE PLAY’S THE THING:’ THE POWER OF STORY-BASED LEARNING

By Brian S. Grant

Leverage the principles of storytelling to enhance the learning experience.

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I N THIS I S S U E

THOUGHT LEADERS

3

PERSPECTIVES

By Ken Taylor

Informal learning allows learning leaders to think unconventionally about the learner experience.

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GUEST EDITOR

11

SCIENCE OF LEARNING

13

By Kacie Walters

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Fostering meaningful relationships can drive professional growth.

By Srini Pillay, M.D.

Formalizing learning creates a relevant and self-directed learning experience.

PERFORMANCE MATTERS

By Julie Winkle Giulioni

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BUILDING LEADERS

By Sam Shriver and Marshall Goldsmith

Reflection and percolation are making a huge impact on leadership training.

WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH

By Stella Lee, Ph.D.

Integrate informal learning into your learning ecosystem to create a holistic experience.

SECRETS OF SOURCING

By Doug Harward

L&D is missing a major opportunity to optimize informal learning.

55

LEARNER MINDSET

56

CLOSING DEALS

57

COMPANY NEWS

Accidental learners turn everyday experiences into learning opportunities.

By Michelle Eggleston Schwartz

Having fun can improve knowledge retention and recall in adult learners.

INFO EXCHANGE

44

CASEBOOK

46

GLOBAL OUTLOOK

Fujitsu’s experiment uncovers effective peer coaching tips to improve alignment between teams.

Authenticity is the key to successful collaboration among multicultural teams.

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MENTORING: 4 KEYS TO MAKING IT A MEANINGFUL LEARNING EXPERIENCE When we were in school, we typically had a guidance counselor help us select classes and manage college applications.

If we went to college, we had an advisor help us navigate programs and disciplines, understand completion requirements and begin thinking about a career path.

However, when we join an organization, that individualized support disappears unless we have rock star leaders or dedicated career services teams.

Often, we expect our manager to help us identify priorities, make connections, highlight opportunities for professional development and, even, help direct our career paths. Some managers excel at this, but many do not.

MENTORING SHOULD BE APPROACHED WITH RIGOR, PLANNING AND ROLE DEFINITION. So, where do adults turn to for continued selfdiscovery and professional development?

Securing a formal mentor is a good place to start. A mentor can be someone inside your company who is in a position or department that you aspire to break into, an external expert who has achieved what you desire to, or even a former manager. Over the course of my career, I have heard people say they want to be a mentor but have no idea what to do, what to say or how to shape the relationship. Many have said something along the lines of, “I have had coffee a couple of times with my mentee, but then we didn’t know where to take it.”

For mentoring to be meaningful, it should be approached with some rigor, planning and role definition.

While some aspects of a mentoring relationship develop naturally, the relationship must have a defined goal to be meaningful. Here are four tips for making your mentoring relationship a meaningful one: 1. Define Purpose and Parameters. At the very first meeting, after getting to know each other, define the purpose of the relationship. While this may seem a bit forced, having a clear objective benefits both the mentor and the mentee. Possible objectives include networking, determining career options, identifying skill gaps (and how to fill them) and coaching on specific skills. Then, determine how often you will meet, how the mentee would like to receive feedback, and how the relationship can benefit both parties.

2. Create an Action Plan. Creating an action plan is critical in achieving a meaningful mentoring relationship. For example, forming a list of people and professional development opportunities to broaden one’s professional network.

If plotting a career path or change, an action plan could mean identifying assessments, informational interviews and shadowing opportunities. If looking to fill skills gaps, it could mean determining how formal learning, projects and outside forums can help. Having an action plan creates accountability and gives you and your mentee something to follow up on.

3. Weave in Stories, but Not Too Many. As a mentor, it is always tempting to share life experiences and lessons learned.

While sharing stories is an important way for the mentee to relate to and learn from you, try not to dominate the conversation. Share stories to help crystallize a point and share actionable advice. After telling a story, ask your mentee what he or she learned and how they can apply it.

4. Debrief and Conclude. Much like a project, debriefing and formally closing the relationship helps solidify what was achieved and what may still need to be done. I have heard from many mentees and mentors that they just stopped meeting, as calendars got busy and the relationship simply faded away. Openly discussing when the relationship should come to an end, and then having a meeting to conclude the relationship, brings closure and helps each party identify what they can do differently in future mentoring relationships.

Mentoring is not an exact science. It is a human relationship that can benefit from having structure to ensure both parties get what they need from the connection.

Through personal guidance, meaningful mentoring can help mentees learn more about an organization, career path and, even, themselves.

Kacie Walters is the vice president of strategic programs in enterprise learning and development at Northern Trust. She has 20 years’ experience in the fields of learning, organizational development and knowledge management. Email Kacie.

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SCIENCE OF LEARNING SRINI PILLAY, M.D.

FORMALIZING INFORMAL LEARNING: TINKER DABBLE DOODLE TRY

When you learn formally, you make deliberate attempts at attending, concentrating, memorizing, retaining and applying information. This learning method can be very helpful in certain situations. However, while formal learning is important, there can be distinct disadvantages as to how useful it is on the job.

The importance of informal learning is addressed in my book, “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind.” Here are a few advantages of informal learning:

CREATE DOWNTIME SO THAT PEOPLE CAN GIVE THEIR BRAINS ENOUGH TIME TO MAKE CONNECTIONS. Informal learning helps you utilize your brain energy effectively. Focused, formal learning may keep you on point, but it will also tax your brain and can even disengage you.

Informal learning adds intuition. When you learn formally, you stay on task. While this is helpful, it can also be myopic compared to a wandering mind that stumbles upon an insight through informal learning. For instance, learning how to analyze big data can be helpful. Yet, you still need the intuition to prioritize massive amounts of information. Informal learning can help you develop these intuitions.

Informal learning helps you to anticipate the future. Formal learning keeps you embedded in what is — not what could

be. You may learn what customers want now by learning the principles of customer experience, but unless you let your mind wander informally into the future, you will not be responsive to changing priorities.

Informal learning helps innovative thinking. Formal learning may limit your ability to make connections, whereas informal learning can connect you to ideas not addressed in a typical curriculum. For instance, a client of mine recognized that luxury motorcycle dealers were learning all that they could about their competition.

However, they neglected to understand that luxury watch brands were also their competitors, as they offer alternatives for the luxury buyer.

Informal learning may feel more relevant.

When your mind wanders with informal learning, you feel more self-connected because, in the brain, self-circuits overlap with “unfocused” circuits.

FORMALIZING INFORMAL LEARNING How do you formalize informal learning?

The key is to create downtime so that people can give their brains enough time to make the connections they couldn’t during formal learning experiences. You can create this downtime in the following ways: Naps: Ten to 15 minutes of napping, for instance, can give you one to three hours of clarity to enhance formal learning. You can even formalize napping policies and/or provide nap pods, as companies like Google and Zappos do.

Doodling: Providing employees with doodle pads to use while listening to conference

calls can also create valuable downtime. A study by Jackie Andrade and her colleagues found that doodling improved memory by 29%. While this may not prove true in all cases, doodling could make the brain, metaphorically, less rigid, so it can better absorb the learning at hand.

Becoming an actor: There is a technique that I call “psychological halloweenism.” It involves people learning by embodying the personality of a person who could solve a problem. One study showed that this can help you become more creative. Say, for example, you wanted to solve a problem related to marketing. You could embody the personality of a speaker or singer who draws large crowds to spark new ideas around audience engagement. You could try this out at a team innovation meeting.

Group outings: Group outings that teach collaboration through food sharing, strategy through gaming or social cohesion through group challenges can also create downtime.

Overall, formalizing informal learning is crucial and can be captured through activity assessments, idea tanks, online insight sharing tools and/or feedback devices.

When you formalize informal learning by building unstructured thinking into employees’ daily lives, and then document the outcomes, you take full advantage of the brain. As a result, the learning feels self-directed, relevant and engaging.

Dr. Srini Pillay is the CEO of NeuroBusiness Group. He is also assistant professor (part-time) at Harvard Medical School and teaches in the executive education programs at Harvard Business School and Duke CE. Email Srini.

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PERFORMANCE MATTERS JULIE WINKLE GIULIONI

THE ACCIDENTAL LEARNER

The past several decades have ushered in a steady stream of learning innovations to help people perform better. For years, the focus was on generating formalized learning solutions. More recently, the focus has shifted to informal learning.

Increasingly, organizations are investing in bringing greater structure to the important domains of exposure (learning from and through others) and experience (on-the-job activities designed to elevate capability). But, under the surface of both formal and informal methods, another source of learning exists, offering lessons that are available from just living life with intention. This domain is called “accidental learning.”

Every day, we encounter countless events, interactions, wins and losses. But, given the pace of today’s workplace, most employees do little more than power through, moving from one thing to the next. They frequently find themselves facing the same challenges over and over again in the form of different projects and people. However, this is not the experience of all employees. That’s because, while they are engaged in the activities required for success, they are also engaged in something else: accidental learning.

ACCIDENTAL LEARNERS LEVERAGE LIFE FOR LEARNING.

approaches, improve responses and relationships, and recalibrate efforts – all to, essentially, learn. They transform everyday events and interactions into powerful learning experiences.

Accidental learners internalize mental processes that allow them to recognize and respond to opportunities that frequently go unnoticed by others, creating additional opportunities for growth in their daily routine. They tend to naturally, unconsciously and pervasively demonstrate three practices: presence, percolation and play. Individually, these practices open doors. But when utilized together, they open eyes, ears, hearts and minds to accidental learning.

1. PRESENCE We can also think of this as mindfulness, awareness, focus or intention. Whatever the label, this practice involves being willing to slow down just enough to pay attention to the world around us. We can only take advantage of the ever-present learning opportunities flooding our dayto-day existence to the extent that we’re able to notice and pick up on the cues.

A non-verbal reaction from a coworker.

A small error. A repeated struggle.

These are quiet cues or indicators of a potential learning opportunity for the accidental learner.

2. PERCOLATION

Accidental learners leverage life for learning. They recognize that day-today life presents infinite opportunities to expand perspectives, consider new

E.E. Cummings wrote, “Pity to have had the experience and missed the meaning.”

Too many of us are missing much of the meaning our lives offer. The business

world’s bias toward action means the reflection rarely gets its due. Whatever the cause, the solution is to pause and allow our thoughts to percolate. Start meetings with a moment or two to get centered and shift focus. Shorten your 60-minute meeting default to 50 minutes and redeploy this newfound time for reflection on insights and actions you’ll take. Find ways to prioritize percolation.

3. PLAY Kids embrace play and experimentation.

They try stuff out. They fall down. They get up, and they repeat it all again. But adults take things much more seriously and proceed more cautiously. We are less apt to take a risk. But, if we reframe learning in terms of attempting something new and seeing how it goes, suddenly we can relax into learning one step at a time. Progress, rather than perfection, becomes the goal.

As a result, we can more confidently seize spontaneous opportunities to innovate, improve and learn. Trial and error is today’s classroom.

Although formal learning is an important piece of the corporate learning puzzle, and informal learning is invaluable in terms of scaling and contextualizing development efforts, let’s not forget to tap into the endless possibilities of accidental learning — the most pervasive and potentially powerful source of insights, improvement, innovation and results.

Julie Winkle Giulioni has 25 years of experience working with organizations worldwide to improve performance through learning.

Email Julie.

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BUILDING LEADERS SAM SHRIVER & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

PERCOLATING BUILDS DEPTH

No matter how hard people try to expand their mental imagery, when people hear the word “leader” they typically imagine a hierarchy and think about a person with some form of legitimate power.

In reality, regardless of one’s position, a significant percentage of his or her attempts to lead others target peers and senior associates, proving that leadership isn’t as hierarchical as one might think.

The same is true when people hear the word “learning.” Often, people associate learning with a subject matter expert (SME) in formal control of a classroom (either physical or virtual) in order to impart knowledge. Upon further review, however, it is evident that there are numerous ways people learn.

For instance, have you ever gotten in your car (even for a short drive across town) and “unplugged” (i.e., eliminated all sources of outside distraction)? It’s amazing where your mind can go when it’s not distracted. You may start thinking about people you sincerely appreciate but haven’t seen or spoken to in a while, or things you have been meaning to take care of but, for whatever reason, haven’t, or even things you need to investigate more closely. By the time you get where you are going, you have generated a prioritized list of actions you need to take.

An expanded version of that same drill can yield countless unforeseen benefits when you have a couple other people driving with you (perhaps on a little bit longer of a trip). When you limit external competing responses by

unplugging, the quality of your time together can be greatly enhanced. You may remember things that have long been forgotten, or learn things about your passengers you never would have known. If traffic cooperates, the time flies and, at minimum, the depth of your understanding about each other has increased dramatically.

Believe it or not, activities like these used to be key components of formalized learning in leadership training (albeit, not the driving part). A facilitator would introduce a concept, ask learners to thoughtfully consider it in the context of their life experiences, and then share those thoughts with peer learners before engaging in a large group discussion where everyone had informal access to what everyone else was thinking. It was a highly collaborative sequence that allowed whatever was being discussed to percolate. Almost invariably, that percolation resulted in an increased depth of understanding.

So, where did all this percolating in formalized leadership learning go? Long story short, it turns out it’s much easier to quantify the cost savings of making a three-day program a two- or oneday program than it is to demonstrate the tangible pull-through or return on investment (ROI) of that threeday program. In general, what wound up getting cut to deliver that reduced seat-time? Introspective reflection.

Small group discussions. Large group discussions. Pretty much anything that remotely resembled intellectual percolating. What suffered (or, at a

minimum, became more challenging to demonstrate)? Training transfer. Pullthrough. Behavior change.

But guess what’s making a huge comeback? Percolation! With everincreasing regularity, the leadership training event is being extended to bring self-directed and communitybased learning activities back into the mix. Learners can be paired and scheduled post-event to engage in an ongoing series of virtual, peer-driven, real-world application activities. Those activities can culminate with virtual or live presentations on lessons learned, behaviors altered and results achieved.

PERCOLATION IS MAKING A HUGE COMEBACK IN LEADERSHIP TRAINING.

Learning, like leadership, is so much more than simply receiving and implementing a message from someone with formal authority. It’s a function of creating the time and opportunity to reflect on and discuss that message in a manner that yields discernible progress.

Marshall Goldsmith is the world authority in helping successful leaders get even better. Sam Shriver is the executive vice president at The Center for Leadership Studies. Email Marshall and Sam.

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COACHING IS A COP-OUT These days, “coaching” has become quite a buzzword. There is much discussion about the results coaching can produce, the various types of coaching (from tennis coaches to life coaches to everything in-between), coaching strategies and best practices, when to coach and who to coach. Almost everyone now has the word coach on their resume. I would argue that there’s no one on this planet who’s a bigger fan of coaching than me.

My coaching journey began when I was 14 and was working as a children’s tennis coach. Since then, I’ve coached amateur and professional golfers and tennis players, musicians, public speakers and executives, and I’ve witnessed some amazing results from this thing we call coaching.

We all know instinctively that good coaching drives lasting results.

Athletes and musicians have always hired coaches to help them determine

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the quickest, most effective way to improve their performance. Now, the business world recognizes coaching as a powerful way to improve performance within organizations. Coaching has been shown to boost everything from revenue and productivity to employee engagement and retention — and it’s one of the most important skills needed to “manage” millennials and Generation Z. As its impact on performance and engagement has been repeatedly demonstrated, many organizations have invested considerable resources into training managers and leaders to become better coaches.

Yet, despite the time and money dedicated to building managers’ coaching skills, many organizations struggle to achieve the behavior change they are looking for. All too often, although managers know how to coach, at the end of the day, they aren’t actually

BY ALAN FINE

doing it. Employees of these welltrained and well-intentioned managers frequently say they aren’t getting the coaching they want or need — or, at least, not enough of it. When managers explain why they aren’t coaching, the most common refrain is: “I’m too busy doing all the other things I have to do.”

It’s seen as one more thing on a to-do list that is already too long.

Leaders often make coaching a separate task to be completed, viewing it as something else to fit into an already busy schedule. So, when I look at coaching in the business world, I find myself wondering: Is the notion of “coaching conversations” a cop-out? Does the concept of coaching conversations get us off the hook for doing what we could or should be doing in every conversation?

I would say yes — at least in most of our conversations. Here’s why:

EVERY CONVERSATION MATTERS — CONVERSATIONAL COACHING The best leaders and managers don’t wait to have a formal coaching conversation.

They use every conversation as an opportunity to coach.

Managers are in conversations all day, every day and, like it or not, every conversation has an impact. The only choice they have is what kind of impact, and how much of it, they want to create from a single conversation.

I’ve asked thousands of people about what characteristics make for a great coaching conversation. These are the most common responses I received: • A genuinely caring attitude • The opportunity to tell one’s truth • Results-driven

• • • • • • • • • •

Feeling valued, safe and heard A non-judgmental mindset Motivating Inspiring Confidence-building Empowering Respectful Encouraging Supportive The presence of mutual trust

These traits common to great coaching conversations boil down to three conclusions: A great coaching conversation is candid, caring and constructive. That’s it. If you’re not sure whether these are useful criteria, ask yourself: Would I engage with someone who…

• Didn’t care about me?

• At best, withheld information from me and, at worst, lied to me?

• Wasn’t constructive in their communication with me?

Of course not! These three traits, or “The Three C’s,” (candid, caring and constructive) are at the core of all meaningful communication.

If great coaching, at its simplest, is about being caring, candid and constructive, then when managers say they don’t have time to coach because they are busy focusing on all the other things they have to get done, are they saying that they don’t have time to be caring, candid and constructive?

Unfortunately, in my experience, this is exactly the case. It’s not that managers are intentionally being un-caring, uncandid or un-constructive; it’s that they’re not paying enough attention to whether they are or not. Intentional or not, when one or more of these traits isn’t present, its absence has a negative impact on both that conversation and future conversations.

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TAKING COACHING OUT OF THE WORKPLACE All conversations have an impact.

Given that, our interactions outside of work are just as important as those in the workplace. After all, conversations happen everywhere —not just at work.

Once you’re invested in making every conversation a coaching conversation, you can use The Three C’s to guide and increase the impact of your conversations in your personal relationships as well.

Give the same care and effort to conversations with your friends and loved ones that you dedicate to coaching conversations at work.

experience us as caring, candid and constructive leaders.

What we believe about someone always shows up in every aspect of our communication. Ask people about the best coaches they’ve ever had (from any aspect of their life) and one of the things they always report is that they could tell their coach believed in them, even on those dark days when they couldn’t believe in themselves, and even when their coach needed to talk tough with them.

Great coaches have a mindset anchored in the belief that people have potential to learn and grow, that everyone has the ability to do and be better. That belief inspires and encourages people to engage in coaching conversations — and when people are engaged, they pay careful attention to what is being discussed. In fact, attention, belief and commitment (engagement) are the ABC’s of performance.

THE MINDSET Not only does every conversation matter, how we think about the people we are conversing with matters, too.

What we believe about the person we are communicating with will have a powerful effect on whether they

THE PROCESS: HOW WE ORGANIZE A CONVERSATION It’s no coincidence that doctors and pilots use checklists to ensure they take the appropriate actions to get the results

they want. This is exactly what the most effective coaches do in their coaching conversations. They almost always follow some kind of consistent process, whether consciously or unconsciously. You could think of it as a map for navigating a conversation or a checklist for ensuring nothing gets missed. We can use checklists to organize any conversation so that it leads to the appropriate actions.

A GREAT COACHING CONVERSATION IS CANDID, CARING AND CONSTRUCTIVE. Most conversations take place in order to get to some kind of decision. There is a current state at the beginning of the conversation and a desired state at the end of the conversation. The goal is usually to have some kind of agreement or action plan for the future. To determine the best path forward, it can be useful to explore many possibilities through different stages. For short, we can label these stages “Goal,” “Reality,” “Options” and “Way Forward,” which is how the popular GROW® model came into being.

IS THERE A PLACE FOR COACHING CONVERSATIONS? While great coaches should strive to bring the core elements of a coaching conversation into every interaction, there is still a place for formal coaching conversations in the workplace.

These more detached, formal conversations are critical for solving complex or high-stakes issues, and can have a significant impact when used consistently (and frequently) for both on-the-job and development conversations.

While it still is important to set aside time for these formal coaching conversations, the best coaches don’t wait for a formal opportunity to coach others: they create coaching opportunities in each and every conversation they have.

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The reason we have conversations is to reach a desired end-goal (Goal).

We have that end-goal because we want to change the current situation (Reality). We either want to explore ideas of how to close the gap between the Reality and the Goal stage, or we want to enroll someone in how we have decided to close that gap (Options).

From all of this, we want to arrive at a decision on next steps (Way Forward).

EVERY CONVERSATION HAS AN IMPACT Managers are in conversations all day every day — and they all have an impact. The only choice they have is what kind of impact, and how much of an impact, each conversation will have on others.

GREAT COACHES HAVE A MINDSET ANCHORED IN THE BELIEF THAT PEOPLE HAVE POTENTIAL TO LEARN AND GROW. Every conversation, including the ones we have with ourselves, can be organized in a systematic way and can be caring, candid and constructive. In other words: every conversation has the potential to be a coaching conversation. What we need to avoid is using formal coaching conversations as a cop-out from what we can, and should, be doing in every conversation — coaching.

At its core, coaching is simply a way to organize what you’re already doing so that you can do it more often. Coaching shouldn’t be viewed as another thing on your to-do list. In fact, coaching will save you more time by making your conversations more productive.

Applying these principles to ensure every conversation is a coaching conversation is how we can keep coaching from becoming a cop-out and become more reputable leaders.

Alan Fine is the co-creator of the GROW® Model, a New York Times bestselling author, and founder of InsideOut Development — an organization that helps managers become world-class coaches and helps organizations build effective coaching cultures. Email Alan.

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Story Selling

BY ELSA POWEL STRONG

Storytelling is the vehicle by which humankind has passed down information from one generation to the next for hundreds of thousands of years. It’s therefore not surprising that it’s credited with helping to close countless business deals. After all, it is an ideal way for sales teams to engage and connect with prospects while conveying the benefits of partnering with your company. Most people dislike being sold to, but everyone loves a good story.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE POWER OF STORYTELLING The influence of a story on its listeners is well documented. The Neurochemistry of Empathy, Storytelling, and the Dramatic Arc highlights how stories trigger listeners’ brains to release neurochemicals like cortisol and oxytocin. Oxytocin, because it promotes connection and encourages people to feel empathy, is sometimes referred to as the “trust hormone.” This was discovered in a series of experiments conducted by Paul Zak, a pioneer in neuroeconomics, a new field that combines economics, neuroscience and psychology to determine how individuals make economic decisions. Imagine what

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your sales team could achieve if members were able to tell stories that built trust in your company’s brand as well as its products or services.

BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC STORYTELLING IN SALES As prospective clients or customers, when we connect with salespeople, we don’t just want another recital of the facts. The company’s website can give us plenty of that already. We’re looking for something more human: a sense of whether or not we’d enjoy working with a particular business, a working knowledge of other clients’ experiences and a deeper context to show us if their product is right for us.

Storytelling, when partnered with listening, achieves these things while building an invaluable human connection between sales teams and prospects. It delivers on the following: • Building trust and rapport: Salespeople can share a little bit about themselves and show their human side, which makes them more relatable. The end result: an emotional connection.

• Creating credibility: Highlighting related work you’ve done with other clients shows your prospect that you understand the issue at hand — and that your company has a track record of successfully addressing it. This should leave prospects feeling that what you’re selling is worth the investment.

• Delivering insights that resonate: Prospects will remember important information when it is framed within an engaging story, particularly one that enables them to see themselves as the victorious main character.

• Differentiating oneself: Stories provide the opportunity for sales team members to allow their authentic, unique presence to come out.

STORYTELLING BUILDS AN INVALUABLE HUMAN CONNECTION BETWEEN SALES TEAMS AND PROSPECTS.

• Sparking new thinking and ideas: Stories can lead to free flowing brainstorming sessions, sparking new ideas and fostering a feeling of team spirit between prospects and salespeople.

• Overcoming resistance: Salespeople can overcome objections by responding with stories about customers who felt similar doubts, yet ultimately succeeded in meeting their needs by investing in your company’s products or services.

• Closing deals and moving business forward: It’s possible to effectively create a sense of urgency and relevance through stories that move prospects to see the advantages of quick action.

ELEMENTS OF A PERSUASIVE SALES STORY The best sales stories give a soul to otherwise inanimate products and services. Through a process psychologists call narrative transport, they affect the way prospects feel about what they are being sold. Listeners become so immersed that they see themselves in the story and make it their own.

It’s easiest to emotionally hook prospects by sharing stories of people who faced challenges similar to their own. The prospects ideally start rooting for the main characters, finding them relatable.

When the main characters succeed as a result of using your company’s product or service, the prospects visualize themselves as succeeding — which leaves them with a good feeling about your company.

• Brevity: The ideal length for sales stories is no more than one minute, preferably 30 seconds.

An effective sales story typically shows most or all of the following attributes:

Storytelling for selling is a learned skill that begins with presence — the ability to authentically connect with the hearts and minds of others in order to motivate and inspire them toward a desired outcome. Ask sales team members to do the following to improve their presence and help them effectively use stories to close more sales:

• Relevance: The right story will illustrate the values that its particular listeners will care about. It’s a good idea to have a variety of different stories to call upon at any time; different ones may have different impacts.

• Flow: Stories must have a clearly defined beginning, middle and end; otherwise, listeners may tune them out.

• Details: Stories chock full of descriptive details give prospects a sensory experience — they can transport themselves into the story by virtually visualizing, hearing and smelling the details within it.

• Goal orientation: All stories shared with prospects should convey a target message that encourages them to take a desired action.

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY DELIVER STORIES THAT SELL

• Practice: Practice stories before using them. This provides time to memorize them and gives tellers the chance to develop a polished delivery that drives home key takeaways.

• Relax: Focusing on the personal need to close a sale may heighten feelings of anxiety, which can cause salespeople to rush or have trouble listening. Taking some belly breaths and shifting their

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focus from achieving their own personal goals to achieving their prospect’s, will help them become centered.

• Listen: When prospects are talking, listen for strengths, values, challenges and concerns to determine what’s important to them.

• Reflect: Reflect on what was heard, and decide what is needed to make an emotional connection, be collaborative or contribute something.

• Improvise: Use a story that best meets what the prospect is seeking.

It’s crucial to work from the prospect’s stated needs rather than a predetermined agenda. Stories can be tied to a specific section of the sales deck/PowerPoint in order to hold the prospect’s interest. The remaining information can be addressed at some point if it’s relevant to the prospect.

• Share: Tell the story that was selected, making it vivid, clear and brief.

• Make it relevant: Underscore the story’s relevance by highlighting how it ties into what matters to the prospect. Doing so helps the prospect know they have been heard and understood.

• Refocus: Transition the focus of the conversation back to the core business issue.

THE BEST SALES STORIES GIVE A SOUL TO OTHERWISE INANIMATE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES. GET YOUR TEAMS “STORY SELLING” The best way to get your sales team story selling is to adopt a multi-pronged approach: • Create a sales story library: Provide a searchable online “library” of sales stories your team can tap into, broken out by topic, product or service.

• Teach storytelling as a sales technique: Teach your team techniques for creating and delivering an effective sales story.

5 ELEMENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE SALES STORY Relevance: The right story will illustrate the values that its listeners care about.

Flow: Clearly define the beginning, middle and end of stories to promote engagement.

Details: Use descriptive details to transport listeners into the story.

Brevity: Keep sales stories under a minute.

Goal Orientation: All stories shared with prospects should convey a target message that encourages them to take a desired action.

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• Share sales stories: Ask your team to Figure 1: The Kirkpatrick Model share their short sales stories during weekly sales meetings or calls. Ideally, take a video of them doing so, or have what they said transcribed and added to the online sales story “library.”

• Hold storytelling off-sites: Hold periodic off-sites during which sales team members are asked to share their best sales story with a colleague who must constructively critique their delivery and retell the story.

This achieves two things: It helps the team expand their sales story repertoire and improves their storytelling ability.

• Use outside expertise: Sharpen your team’s skills by engaging a company experienced in using storytelling for sales training.

Few people naturally have the ability to tell an engaging sales story, but everyone can learn how to do so. Giving your sales team the tools needed to master the art of storytelling for sales will enable them to close deals faster and forge positive, lasting client relationships.

Elsa Powel Strong is the vice president of solution strategy at Ariel, a leadership and communication training firm. Email Elsa.

LEVERAGING STORYTELLING FOR BUSINESS IMPACT Storytelling is integral to the human experience. It enables us to connect with others and overcome fears, differences and objections. The power of this ancient art, when strategically utilized in sales, has a positive impact on business growth.

Does your sales team have compelling stories to share about your company and the skills needed to tell them well?

80%

OF CUSTOMERS

feel the buying experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, according to Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer” report.

22

TIMES MORE MEMORABLE

Stories are about 22 times more memorable than facts alone, according to Stanford marketing professor Jennifer Aaker.

53%

OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY

is driven by the sales experience, according to global research and advisory firm Gartner.

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Information herein is subject to change without notice.

PARTNERING FOR THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE:

How Can Knowledge Sharing Foster Collaboration Among L&D and Employees?

By Kasper Spiro and Videhi Bhamidi | 24

Fast moving business goals necessitate the workforce to be upskilled or reskilled at the same pace. Learning and knowledge distribution is no longer learning and development’s (L&D’s) sole responsibility and, whether you accept it or not, your employees are finding solutions elsewhere.

They are creating knowledge nuggets in a myriad of ways and curating their own learning resources. L&D should partner with employees to share their internal professional expertise, the type of expertise gained only through experience – not Google. Let’s discuss a collaborative model to untap the tacit knowledge of subject matter experts (SMEs) and share it with their teams. This creates a body of knowledge to facilitate a bottom-up learning approach.

Introduction Here’s a reality check: Your SMEs invariably rely on their personal learning networks and resources to get things moving. Apart from learning something entirely new, they do not wait for training workshops and learning courses to happen. They need instant information to add to their knowledge, apply in the workflow and solve the problem at hand.

Today, employees are finding their own partial solutions across the internet and curating their own journeys at work. This method works most of the time, except for when the knowledge they are seeking lies in experience. A related distinction is that information available on the web is generic and may not be tailored to company specifics. Sometimes, it needs to be untapped from another individual who has cracked that code, solved that customer case, won that deal or built that product from scratch.

According to well-known learning leader and author, JD Dillon, approximately 2.5 hours per day are wasted looking for information. You can imagine the loss when you scale it up at an organizational level. Let’s add another tangent to this discussion, where employees leave organizations and take their unique knowledge with them. This costs organizations a large amount of time and money in order to replace lost knowledge.

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In a nutshell, organizations must try to preserve this unique information, so that it is accessible to other employees seeking similar solutions. Thus, eliminating the risk of wasting employees’ time and effort because they cannot access the unique, meaningful knowledge available to them.

New Role of L&D in EmployeeGenerated Learning Model So, how can L&D enable knowledge sharing? It is L&D’s responsibility to gear up for the future as a curator, facilitator, community manager, and marketing and communication expert alike. Let’s combine the best traits of all these roles and refer to them as an enterprise knowledge catalyst, someone who oversees business, employees and knowledge with the following core jobs: • Consulting the business in identifying performance gaps.

classes, they can solve problems without disrupting workflow. Secondly, they don’t need to wade through hoards of courses.

They instantly refer to the tested and tried knowledge and apply it straight away.

L&D can partner with employees to create a pool of collective wisdom that serves the rest of the organization and helps maintain an up-to-date knowledge base – an internal Google!

Case Study In today’s fast-paced, competitive telecom industry with ever-growing learning requests, T-Mobile’s L&D department faced a significant reduction in resources.

How could T-Mobile fulfill increasing numbers of training requests with fewer L&D staff?

Challenge: Fulfilling More Training Requests with Only 25% of the Previous Staff

• Collaborating with employees to drive content creation; they inspire, guide and empower them to share their expertise.

T-Mobile’s situation is very common in the L&D field; budget cuts reduced the L&D team from 14 trainers to four while the demand for training kept increasing.

• Maintaining and monitoring the knowledge base; they facilitate the source and structure for preserving the knowledge.

Training requests were accelerating because new products were launching rapidly, the amount of regulation was increasing and consumers expected better customer service. Staff cuts forced the L&D team to reject training requests.

The L&D team knew they needed to find a way to scale training output while using only 25% of the previous resources.

This process is facilitated by L&D and driven by the employees who create and share knowledge. We termed this democratic and collaborative approach employee-generated learning (EGL), and here are the cornerstones of the approach: • Strategy: Move from top-down to bottom-up.

• Design and Delivery: Move from courses to resources.

• Impact: Move from metrics to data.

EGL is a method to capture tacit knowledge and use this information to support the performance of employees in the workflow. Primarily because employees don’t need to step away to fill knowledge gaps through training

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Solution: Scaling Output by Enabling Business Units to Create Training Under the Guidance of L&D They knew that the L&D department alone would never be able to meet the high demand for training resources. Training requests would remain unfulfilled and time to market for training resources would be too time consuming. For example, Apple announces its new products very shortly before they launch. Their resources need to be tailored to T-Mobile’s needs quickly to ensure sales and marketing staff are

properly trained. The L&D team knew they needed significantly more people to create content than a centralized L&D department could ever facilitate.

Employee-generated Learning After identifying user-generated content as the most suitable solution, the L&D team started a trial of EGL and chose support tools that had a low learning curve to suit people who do not have an e-learning or didactical background.

ORGANIZATIONS MUST TRY TO PRESERVE UNIQUE INFORMATION. Instead of creating training, the L&D department’s main responsibility became enabling employees to create their own training. They offered guidance on questions such as: • Is there a large enough audience to create a training resource?

• Does the training resource address a learning goal?

• Is the training output didactically sound? For instance, is it visually appealing, did the creator use the minimum amount of text needed and does it include interactive elements?

The responsibility for fulfilling training requests shifted from the L&D department to the business units. L&D became responsible for quality assurance and guidance, shifting away from content creation. This transition to EGL resulted in five times more training, increased delivery of training resources and eliminated unfulfilled training requests.

Employees, SMEs and Knowledge Sharing Tools This said, if you are taking the route of EGL, then our industry must envision an SME-

Figure 1 The Performance Support Pyramid: The Methodology Game Changer

• Support the creation of multiple content types • Easy set-up and maintenance • Flexible publishing and sharing options • Peer review workflow

Guidelines to Ensure Quality Information Moving on to the final piece of this EGL equation, how can L&D ensure quality of information shared by SMEs and inspire them to continue sharing knowledge?

Here are a few guidelines drawn from our experience:

Source: Bob Mosher and Conrad Gottfredson

friendly tool that captures the knowledge in the working moment so that it is available to other colleagues.

To this end, we conducted a study in 2018 to understand the behavior and content types created by SMEs as part of the knowledge-sharing act. Our top findings indicated that employees create different types of content to match the point of need. Our results tied in with the content types illustrated in the Performance Support Pyramid (Figure 1) of five moments of learning needs. This implies that SMEs may not adhere to the standards of curriculum or courses and can be improvised to a great extent.

L&D CAN PARTNER WITH EMPLOYEES TO CREATE A POOL OF COLLECTIVE WISDOM. As Elliot Masie, educational technology expert, puts it, think of a tool that supports “lego-styled content creation,” where pieces can be arranged in any way to arrive at a structure. In other words, the learning

tools must allow SMEs to share knowledge as they experience it in their work. They should enable authors to create discrete chunks of information in multiple forms and an on-demand format (i.e., checklists, articles, tutorials, videos, FAQs, etc.).

In this context, there is a gap in the market for social learning and knowledge sharing tools. This was evident in Easygenerator’s research among subject matter experts (SMEs) who helped distinguish two main types of content tools: rich, complex authoring tools and wiki-style document and information systems. These authoring tools are made for instructional designers who are highly skilled at creating highquality training content and do not suit the needs of SMEs who lack a didactic background. Vast, wiki-style document and information systems are designed for employees to collaborate and exchange information. These frustrate SMEs because of their lack of structure.

In our experience working with clients like T-Mobile, Nielsen and Electrolux, there are a few criteria that helped L&D decide on the right tools for implementing EGL: • Zero-learning curve • Collaborative content creation

Inspire: SMEs often assume that creating e-learning content is too difficult because it involves developing complicated, comprehensive courses. L&D should make clear that learning content does not have to be a full course but can be a simple how-to. Help them identify best practices for the training resources.

Guide: Provide enough guidance on what constitutes meaningful learning content.

Webinars, resources and in-person sessions on best practices will significantly improve the quality of content.

Monitor: You only guide once and then start monitoring authors and content to evaluate consumption. Use the data/metrics to figure out what’s working and what’s not, and guide your authors accordingly.

To sum it up, L&D professionals have always strived to produce the best learning experience possible. But does a perfectionist approach result in the best return on investment (ROI)? Instead of striving to achieve the perfect training course, L&D teams should give SMEs everything they need to spring into action and do it themselves. The true power lies in partnering with employees and enabling them to share knowledge as they experience it.

Kasper Spiro is the CEO of Easygenerator.

Videhi Bhamidi serves as a learning product consultant at Easygenerator. Email Kasper and Videhi.

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Power Talent Development

Onboarding

Career Pathing

Development & Learning

Succession Planning & Talent Assessment

Performance, Goals & Compensation

LEARN MORE

ORGANIZATIONAL RESILIENCY: A FUNCTION OF LEADER ADAPTABILITY AND VERSATILITY

BY SAM SHRIVER, ED.D., AND CASEY MULQUEEN, PH.D. In the modern era, leadership has become more complex than ever before. Organizations want leaders with versatile skill sets, combining technical and functional expertise, emotional intelligence, creativity, critical thinking and the ability to recognize and respond to employees’ abilities for any given assignment. With so many objectives and demands on leaders, organizations invest considerable budgets for leadership training, often using multiple commercial programs to fulfill their curricula, but without any evidence for how these programs complement one another to achieve their objectives. Different models have unique goals or theories and sometimes these models may have elements that are theoretically unaligned or even opposed with one another, leaving leaders confused about when to use each model or how to use them together.

Two models that are often used in conjunction are Situational Leadership® and SOCIAL STYLE®. While these models target distinct areas of leader performance, a question that has never been addressed is whether there are any unknown benefits when the two programs are combined.

Can leaders gain insights from both

models, when used together, that could improve their effectiveness?

To answer this question, The Center for Leadership Studies (CLS) and TRACOM Group partnered to conduct research with 4,237 people who were profiled on each model. We used a multi-rater assessment method, meaning that leaders were profiled by their teams and other coworkers, to more effectively determine their leadership style and individual behavioral preferences.

of relationship support. For leaders, particularly emerging leaders, this dual insight into their natural behavioral style and the conditions under which they need to alter their behavior to fit their followers’ needs makes both programs a complementary match that enhances their overall development as a leader.

When leaders consistently practice both models, they are earning the trust of their followers — a critical aspect of leader effectiveness.

Situational Leadership® LEADERS GRAVITATE TOWARD THE LEADERSHIP APPROACH THAT IS MOST NATURAL FOR THEM. We found that leaders’ natural behavioral styles can influence which leadership approach they prefer to use, but that leaders with high adaptability and versatility adjust their approach when followers require a high degree

Situational Leadership® is a model developed by Dr. Paul Hersey that, in 2019, is celebrating its 50th year of active use (see Figure 1 on page 30). It is a contingency model that sits on a foundation of pioneering research in the field of organizational behavior.

Its repeatable, practical use is driven by leaders reviewing the following three questions: • What is the specific task?

• What is the follower’s level of ability and willingness to perform that task; what is their Performance Readiness®?

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• What leadership style approach has the highest probability of success given the answers to the first two questions?

This model helps leaders adapt their approach regardless of the circumstances they attempt to influence. In addition to leadership style, adaptability is also measured. Adaptability means that, regardless of what comes naturally or is most comfortable, the leader can employ whatever approach has the highest probability of success.

SOCIAL STYLE® The SOCIAL STYLE Model® was developed in the 1960s by Dr. David Merrill and Roger Reid and describes behavior along two continuums: assertiveness and responsiveness. By plotting these two independent dimensions together, the model is formed and results in four social styles (see Figure 2). Each style describes a

person’s preferred way of communicating, making decisions and achieving work goals. For leaders, recognizing their own style and the styles of followers helps them determine how best to communicate priorities and schedule work to fit the natural styles of team members.

The profile also measures versatility, an indicator of a leader’s interpersonal effectiveness when working with others.

High versatility means a leader consistently interacts with others by focusing not only on their own needs and the situational requirements, but also on others’ concerns and preferences. When leaders regularly practice high versatility, followers develop trust that the leader understands them and their needs, along with the situational requirements and work priorities.

Research Findings The research project was conducted over the course of 18 months and sought to understand the relationships among:

• The four Situational Leadership® styles and the four SOCIAL STYLES • The four Situational Leadership® styles and versatility • The four SOCIAL STYLES and adaptability • Adaptability and versatility (Is the ability to match your leadership style to a follower’s Performance Readiness® level correlated with the perception of your overall interpersonal effectiveness?)

The SOCIAL STYLE Model® suggests that people have natural behavioral tendencies and preferences, and leaders should adjust their behavior and communication to followers’ styles and preferences to help each other achieve goals. Situational Leadership® indicates that leaders should adjust their leadership style based on the situational needs and performance abilities of followers.

Our research found, with statistical significance, that a leader’s SOCIAL

FIGURE 1

FIGURE 2

Situational Leadership®

SOCIAL STYLE MODEL™

Influence Behaviors

Parti

S2

S4

S1

ANALYTICAL

ASK ASSERTIVE

el

D

LOW

AMIABLE LOW

HIGH

Task Behavior Directive Behavior

Performance Readiness® HIGH

R4

MODERATE

R3

R2

LOW

R1

Situational Leadership® and Performance Readiness® are registered trademarks of Leadership Studies, Inc. Copyright © 1972 - 2019. All Rights Reserved.

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DRIVING

TELL ASSERTIVE

i ng

eg

ati

ll Te

ng

S3

EMOTE RESPONSIVE

Supportive Behavior Relationship Behavior

lli n g

cip

Se

at

i

ng

CONTROL RESPONSIVE

HIGH

SOCIAL STYLE MODEL™

EXPRESSIVE

STYLE® influences their comfort with certain leadership approaches. Leaders practicing leadership style S1 (telling), are more comfortable with the “tell assertive” styles (driving and expressive).

This leadership approach is “high task,” meaning leaders need to direct and guide followers. This method is simply more natural for driving and expressive people who prefer to be active and directive when working with others.

On the flip side, leaders practicing leadership style S4 (delegating), are more comfortable with the “ask assertive” styles (amiable and analytical). These situations are “low task” and require observing and monitoring followers. Again, this approach is a natural fit for amiable and analytical people who prefer a less direct, more hands-off technique when working with others.

Importantly, leadership styles S1 and S4 are both “low relationship” strategies, meaning that, from an interpersonal relationship-building perspective, they require less effort. Therefore, these findings make intuitive sense; leaders gravitate toward the leadership approach that is most natural for them, especially under situations where the effort to build a relationship is less important. For example, driving and expressive people are more hands-on whereas amiable and analytical people are more detached. However, this natural tendency is only effective when the situation calls for it.

What about situations where followers require more personal involvement from leaders, namely leadership styles S2 (selling) and S3 (participating)? While we found that amiable leaders had a slight preference for the participating approach, our research didn’t find any other SOCIAL STYLE®-specific preferences. However, what we did discover is that the selling and participating strategies are highly related to leaders’ versatility: leaders who practice a high level of interpersonal versatility are more likely to use the leadership styles S2 and S3 approaches than leaders who lack versatility. Again, this makes intuitive sense; due to the heavier focus on building relationships with followers, these two leadership approaches require more “interpersonal work” of leaders. Further, we discovered that versatility and adaptability

are strongly correlated, meaning that highly versatile leaders are also skilled at adapting their leadership style to the needs of the situation. This is a win-win, since leaders who learn both skills are learning to interact with their natural social styles in ways that also achieve leadership demands and organizational objectives.

HIGHLY VERSATILE LEADERS ARE ALSO SKILLED AT ADAPTING THEIR LEADERSHIP STYLE TO THE NEEDS OF THE SITUATION. Building Trust The implications of these findings are that leaders will benefit from both programs when used together. In addition to the standard benefits leaders gain when learning about their social styles and situation-based leadership, in isolation, a critical insight for leaders is that they need to be very cautious not to rest on their behavioral laurels. It’s easy for leaders to default to their comfort zones, especially when it comes to natural behaviors and communication styles. This was proven through the research. However, the danger is that leaders may default to their standard social style preferences when the situation calls for a different leadership approach. An analytical leader who uses a delegating approach when the situation clearly calls for a participating approach will likely fail. The same is true for an expressive leader who naturally prefers the telling approach when the situation requires a selling approach.

To be effective leaders, people across individual behavioral preferences must recognize when followers require more relationship support, which requires a higher level of interpersonal versatility and adaptability. When leaders experience both programs, making the switch to a different leadership approach is easier.

The combination of understanding followers’ Performance Readiness®,

along with their social and behavioral preferences, magnifies leaders’ abilities to lead effectively in any given situation.

Another important benefit is the creation of trust among leaders. One of the ultimate goals of all leadership development programs is to help leaders build the skills needed to develop trust among their followers. After all, if leadership is an attempt to influence, trust is a leader’s primary source of influence potential. Practicing versatility, along with recognizing followers’ taskrelated performance abilities and needs, helps leaders gain the trust of followers. As a result, followers will feel supported because their leader cares about their technical and taskrelated needs, and provides coaching and interpersonal support in their preferred style. In short, leaders gain trust by communicating and working with people in the ways they prefer and by guiding followers’ performance according to their individual needs and situational requirements. This leads to better relationships, more trust and greater effectiveness — essential goals of any leadership development strategy.

Implications for Ongoing Leadership Practices So, what are the implications for L&D leaders who are trying to get the most out of their training dollars? When trying to fulfill multiple criteria in leadership programs, this research makes clear that the Situational Leadership® and SOCIAL STYLE® models, when offered together, develop leadership skills that are greater than those achieved in isolation. By integrating the knowledge gained from both programs, leaders’ skills are multiplied. In the modern era where change is fast-paced and organizations are increasingly challenged to collectively demonstrate resilience, developing leaders firmly grounded in the tenets of personal adaptability and versatility merits strong consideration.

Sam Shriver, Ed.D., is the executive vice president at The Center for Leadership Studies.

Casey Mulqueen, Ph.D., is the senior director of learning and development at TRACOM Group.

Email Sam and Casey.

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MANPOWERGROUP PREDICTS THAT THE WORKFORCE WILL LOOK DECIDEDLY YOUNGER IN 2020, WITH A GENERATIONAL PICTURE THAT BREAKS DOWN TO 6% BABY BOOMER, 35% GEN X, 35% MILLENNIAL AND 24% GEN Z. THAT MEANS THAT MORE THAN HALF OF THE WORKFORCE WILL BE YOUNGER THAN 40 IN 2020.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT FOR

REVERSE MENTORING

BY LAURA FRANCIS

Organizations are scrambling to find ways to attract and retain these young workers.

Many companies turn to traditional mentoring to help develop their young talent – and for good reason. Deloitte’s 2016 Millennial Survey found that younger employees intending to stay with their organization for more than five years were twice as likely to have a mentor.

Additionally, DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2018 report showed that mentoring can reduce turnover and create higher leader quality overall.

Yet, traditional mentoring only tells part of the story. Many innovative organizations are exploring reverse mentoring: a method that takes mentoring and flips it on its head. In reverse mentoring, the mentee is the older, more senior leader, while the mentor is the more junior, often younger, employee. This is appealing to organizations and younger employees because it allows younger employees to step into the expert role and show off their skills and knowledge to people in leadership positions.

More and more companies are exploring this unique style of mentoring for a variety of reasons, such as: • Offering a way for younger employees to share their knowledge and unique perspectives with leaders.

• Assisting executives and leaders with timely learning needs surrounding topics such as new technologies, generational issues, and diversity and inclusion efforts.

• Helping improve employee engagement and retention overall.

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With a senior employee as the mentee and a junior employee as the mentor, there may be some inherent discomfort for the people in these roles. A senior executive may struggle with taking advice from someone who is lower in the organizational hierarchy. On the flip side, a more junior or younger employee may not feel comfortable giving feedback or challenging the thinking of someone who could potentially harm their career.

Companies that want to implement reverse mentoring successfully need to ensure they launch the program with a clear purpose and explicit rules of engagement that mentees and mentors are aware of and respect. With that in mind, here are five rules of engagement that will help mentees and mentors participate in reverse mentoring with confidence, care and consideration.

ACCOUNTABILITY IS AT THE HEART OF ALL GOOD MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS.

RULE #1: SET GUIDELINES A good mentoring relationship has boundaries, meaning there is an agreed upon understanding between the mentee and mentor of what the relationship is and what it is not. Establishing these parameters should be a priority for mentoring pairs; this can also be an opportunity for mentoring program administrators to help their participants define what the mentoring relationship should look like. For example, maybe the mentoring program is set up so that each pair focuses on helping the executive learn about social media or identifying and leveraging a millennial viewpoint on work-related topics.

Defining this purpose will give mentees and mentors a clear picture of what

they should expect of their mentoring relationship and time together. This creates an understanding of why they are meeting with one another and can help them focus their time and efforts accordingly. Developing this common purpose, along with broader relationship guidelines, will also help mentees and mentors explicitly state how they will hold one another accountable and what information needs to remain confidential within the relationship.

Holding a superior accountable might feel uncomfortable for a junior mentor, but accountability is at the heart of all good mentoring relationships. Mentees need to be held accountable for their actions, promises and commitments. It does not do anyone any good to have a mentee who does not follow through on their tasks or responsibilities. The mentor must make sure their mentee follows through as needed. Setting clear expectations and agreeing to hold one another accountable needs to be discussed upfront.

RULE #2: RESPECT ONE ANOTHER Having respect for one another is a hallmark of any great mentoring relationship. Respect is demonstrated in how the pair speaks to one another, listens to one another, and treats one another and their relationship. Without respect, mentoring pairs may not give or receive feedback in the spirit it is intended

or won’t believe the best of one another if one falls short of a commitment. However, when respect is present, the mentee and mentor can confidently address issues as they arise.

Keep in mind: With respect comes trust.

When a mentee or mentor knows their partner is open to giving and receiving feedback, learning from or teaching their partner, and acting with the best intentions, they build trust in them. This trust may not come easily, but it is essential for a mentoring relationship to work.

RULE #3: LEARN HOW TO GIVE AND RECEIVE FEEDBACK As mentioned in terms of respect, it is vital that mentees and mentors know how to give and receive feedback. This is particularly important in a reverse mentoring relationship. Many executives are accustomed to issuing orders but not taking feedback. It may be even harder when that feedback comes from a lower level employee. In the same vein, it might be difficult for the junior mentor to give their mentee (i.e., their CEO or vice president) feedback. No one wants to say the wrong thing or make a bad impression on a person in power who can make their work life difficult or push them out of a job.

The whole point of reverse mentoring is for the junior mentor to help the senior mentee learn. Part of that learning

Reverse Mentoring on Gender Issues While most people think of an older executive as a mentee and a younger employee as the mentor in reverse mentoring relationships, reverse mentoring can be used for more than this and can go beyond age-related connections.

LeanIn.org found that a shocking 60% of male managers are uncomfortable participating in common work activities with female employees, such as mentoring, working alone or socializing together. Perhaps it’s time to practice mentoring as a way to expose male leaders to women’s perspectives on work and life experiences. A reverse mentoring relationship focused on women as mentors and men as mentees for the explicit purpose of learning about gender discrimination and gender issues could be a much-needed learning opportunity in today’s workplace.

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REVERSE MENTORING IS A TREND WITH STAYING POWER, AS WELL AS A FANTASTIC WAY TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE.

experience requires giving feedback, as well as listening to that feedback.

To make this less awkward, mentees and mentors should put in writing that they will strive to be honest, fair, compassionate and candid when giving and receiving feedback. This will give them the opportunity to talk through and create a process that works for them.

Mentees and mentors who trust and respect one another will find it easier to listen to their partner without judgment.

RULE #4: BE AUTHENTIC Authenticity goes hand-in-hand with trust. When people trust their mentoring partner, they can be more open and genuine with them. And by being open and genuine, trust is established because their partner accepts their authentic selves. It’s a cyclical pattern that creates a positive connection.

Being authentic can mean anything from speaking up about the issues that matter to them and showing their sense of humor while at work to sharing parts of their personal story in order to foster a connection with their mentee or mentor.

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When people present themselves with sincerity, they form a stronger bond and foundation for their mentoring relationship, and they create a richer mentoring experience for themselves and their partners.

RULE #5: SET GOALS Most mentoring relationships focus on the goals that the mentee sets and works toward accomplishing. Mentors will need to agree that the goals are ideal for the relationship, which can be tricky for junior mentors in reverse mentoring.

They may not feel suited to voice their opinions on what the executive mentee’s goals should be. Some mentoring program administrators set up goals for the pairs in the form of an overarching mentoring program goal, such as having the executive learn about a new technology. Having a program goal as the basis for the relationship can help individual mentees and mentors gain a clear focus on where they can set additional or interrelated objectives.

When setting mentoring goals, it is important that both parties have a

voice. This can offer a great opportunity for mentees and mentors to practice authenticity, respect, listening, confidence and many other behaviors that will be necessary throughout the relationship.

Goals can also be adjusted over time, which means mentoring partners need to have solid lines of communication open in order to evaluate ideas, assess progress and make changes as needed.

Reverse mentoring is a trend with staying power, as well as a fantastic way to share knowledge. There are many senior leaders out there who could use mentoring and plenty of junior employees out there who are willing to share what they know. And for all the mentoring program administrators out there, your reverse mentoring program can be a positive experience for all involved by helping your participants understand what is expected of them, the goal of the program, the focus of the relationship and the best techniques for managing the relationship.

Laura Francis is the Chief Knowledge Officer for River, a mentoring software company based in Denver, CO. Email Laura.

STEPS TO FORMALLY MAKE THE INFORMAL PART OF YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

BY MARK D’AQUIN

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THINK BACK TO A TIME WHEN YOU NEEDED TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW. PERHAPS IT WAS A STEP IN A PROCESS, A PROBLEM TO SOLVE OR A SPECIFIC SKILL YOU NEEDED TO DEVELOP FOR YOUR NEXT CAREER MOVE. Chances are you didn’t relaunch an e-learning course that you took a few months ago or access that 500page manual collecting dust on your shelf to seek the instruction you needed. You likely reached out to a colleague, watched a YouTube video, used a job aid or asked for guidance in an online forum. These are many forms of informal learning. The real magic of informal learning lies in the spontaneous nature in which people learn from the content and people around them.

Learners in today’s corporate world demand content that’s engaging, relevant and available in their daily workflow. They want the capability to access learning content —formal or informal— at the moment of need to improve their skills and performance. To deliver this level of learner experience, learning and development (L&D) organizations must shift to a strategy wherein learning content is considered a business asset that’s optimized for discovery.

There will always be a need for formal learning. However, it must be balanced with facilitating the informal back on the job, where

the biggest performance gains can be achieved. These responsive and meaningful experiences are becoming the new standard, yet there’s a gap between expectation and reality when it comes to delivering on them. The question becomes how do we intentionally design and measure the impact of this type of learning?

STOP TRYING TO FORMALIZE THE INFORMAL, FACILITATE IT To be truly comprehensive and impactful, an L&D organization’s content strategy needs to focus on the human aspects of learning. The content strategy must be grounded in listening to and connecting with target audiences on a personal level to create relevant and innovative L&D experiences that resonate with employees and result in measurable business impact. Those experiences should empower and motivate audiences to achieve higher levels of performance in their current and future roles by blending formal curriculum with informal methods of learning.

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As L&D professionals, we need to provide context over content to our audiences; informal learning provides that context.

In other words, put employees in the driver’s seat. Let learners navigate learning opportunities and help them foster connections with others to get content at the time of need via clear paths and recommendations. To accomplish this, L&D organizations must develop and deliver relevant learning experiences in the workflow, following a unified framework.

Key point: A comprehensive content strategy should include a healthy mixture of formal and informal methods to facilitate learner experiences. It should be a deliberate and well thought out plan to deliver a holistic and continuous learning experience.

STEP 1.

STRUCTURE A HOLISTIC MODERN LEARNING ECOSYSTEM The modern learning ecosystem needs be viewed as an interconnected intelligent system. A modern ecosystem (Figure 1) goes beyond traditional programs hosted on a learning management system (LMS) that measures only completions and training hours. These innovative, new ecosystems connect learning where it happens by measuring behavioral change and business impact. Content outside the LMS augments the learning experience, improving retention and adoption by providing content at the time of need.

Key point: This system is a shift in mindset to a more holistic view that considers the entire system. It’s a framework that allows for a high-performing learning organization, connecting people, content, technology, culture and strategy.

This system would respond to relevant triggers in an employee’s life that may call for a learning intervention based on data, proper metrics and learner preferences. It’s a systematic approach that involves various delivery systems to provide unique learning paths adapted to every learner’s needs. Success of this system requires a collaboration of efforts between all learning teams across an organization. It is important to continue to

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build on this vision to provide a cohesive, personalized and purposeful consumergrade learning experience.

STEP 2.

TIDY UP EXISTING SYSTEMS AND CHANNELS “There’s an opportunity to learn from all the things in your life, including the things that you discard.” – Marie Kondo, bestselling author and star of Netflix’s hit show, “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” You’ve heard the expression less is more.

This is not only true of content itself but also the systems and channels that host content. Due to the lack of tracking, audits and ownership of content, we have continuously cluttered systems with outdated and unused content with no expiration date. So, even with our best efforts to create new more engaging, personalized and relevant content, we still find this content being underutilized. Why?

of systems, ineffective search and the overabundance of irrelevant content. This leads to learner frustration and lack of trust in the systems that are supposed to provide them with the content they need, causing them to look for other means of upskilling themselves.

The real magic of informal learning lies in the spontaneous nature in which people learn from the content and people around them.

A major cause of underutilization of content is that the content cannot be found, often due to poor integration

Figure 1

Content Layer Content repositories and management (formal, informal, other) UA (Universal Asst.)

Content Creators/ Reviewers

Authoring Layer Content authoring and development

Learning Experience Platform

Data Analysts

Data Layer Data Analytics and Measurement

access Learners EcoSystem Framework

Learner Collections/Preferences

It is time to spring clean our systems and channels. Here are a few things you can do: • Audit all existing content, internal and external, to the LMS. • Map relationships of all content and determine how formal connects with the informal (job-aid, guides, performance support, etc.).

face-to-face, etc.). Therefore, learners in an organization expect to experience content as a single overall experience, not one that feels like navigating an airport terminal every time they have an interaction. If the cost of an interaction appears to be more than the perceived value of the content itself, the user will typically abandon their efforts to consume the content. In many cases, users will no longer see that resource as a valuable or trusted.

• Delete and retire old content.

Learning measurement and endto-end content analytics serve as a foundation for making comprehensive, informed decisions about the learner experience. It provides valuable insights into content and systems and sets the stage for improved decision-making and continuous improvement. We can use this information to determine the amount of content being created, the nature of the content, how or if it is being used, and whether the content is providing real value and business impact.

• Set content expiration dates.

• Set content ownership.

STEP 3.

EMPLOY A MODERN FRAMEWORK The modern framework for content is designed to support the modern ecosystem by providing a set of resources and tactics in order to deliver a personalized learning experience. This framework provides a consistent process for creating learning experiences that are specific and relevant, giving learners just the right amount of content at the time of need.

The goal of the framework is to provide an employee experience that is more available and accessible at the moment of need rather than consistently requiring a structured formal learning solution. As we look for solutions to performance needs, it’s important that we start at the bottom of the framework with the informal and work our way up. We will also ask if the solution solves the performance needs, providing just the right amount of support.

Tip: Informal learning increases engagement and improves retention. It provides a means of continuous learning and performance support aiding personal and professional growth.

STEP 4.

CREATE USABLE AND SEAMLESS EXPERIENCES Learners interact with content through many channels (i.e., the web, email, mobile and tablet applications, chat, phone calls,

As L&D professionals, we need to provide context over content to our audiences.

When designing content, it’s important to design for the entire journey, not for a single interaction. We must consider how content will be accessed – whether mobile, desktop, chat or in-application – and use appropriate development tools and design methods to create the optimal experience. Instead of a collection of disjointed interactions, our aim should be to string together content and its various touchpoints into a seamless journey. This involves ensuring the transition from one channel to the next has minimal overhead, providing a smooth transition from one channel to the next. Achieving accessibility also requires that content is consistent, optimized, orchestrated, seamless and collaborative.

STEP 5.

DESIGN FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT It’s important to evaluate the entire experience, spanning the formal and the informal, to determine whether or not the program and content are effective.

We must hold ourselves accountable by measuring, tracking and reporting on L&D experiences using efficient processes and tools, as well as adopting meaningful key performance indicators that can be reported back to leadership, our clients and our audience.

SUMMARY It’s easy to get caught up in the everchanging technology landscape. The important thing is to first establish an effective content strategy, one that is supported by overall business goals and objectives and one that accounts for the entire system and content lifecycle.

The goal is to provide a holistic learner experience through content and activities that form meaningful connections. This includes understanding and leveraging all the ways people learn, both formally and informally; providing a system and methods that supports a seamless experience; evaluating the value of the content you are providing; and taking ownership of continuous improvement.

With that said, Rome was not built in day.

Beyond all the things mentioned in this article, success requires organizations to adopt a mindset and culture that sees all content as an asset, values learning from all sources and channels, and continues to find ways to unify the learner experience.

Mark D’Aquin, learning solutions architect and strategist at SAP, has over 25 years of e-learning, graphics, web, multimedia and application experience across industries, as well as proven experience as a results-driven designer and developer. Email Mark.

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With the veritable explosion of new digital learning trends, how can training scenarios and video differentiate themselves from the pack? Ironically, the answer lies in one of humanity’s oldest technologies: storytelling.

Make no mistake, storytelling is a technology, as innovative a method of distributing and retaining information as the printing press or the blog. Shakespeare knew this. When he had Hamlet posit that “the play’s the thing, wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king,” he meant it quite literally. Engaging stories possess an innate power to exploit existing pathways to penetrate and affect the mind. The human brain is evolutionarily hardwired to learn through stories, gaining valuable lessons through the experiences of others.

Using a compelling narrative provides special access to increase someone’s engagement and retention.

This is especially true in the learning industry, where stories are the foundation of the training, scenarios and videos that help bridge the gap from entry-level to expert learners. But learners are savvy, so these stories must go beyond simple cookie-cutter tales, where Bob confronts the new software system and clicks his way to success. Instead, they need to be highly engaging, while remaining laserfocused on the learning objective. That is the goal of the story-based learning approach presented: to provide a systematic, yet customizable, method to generate powerful, experiential narratives that translate the observed and interactive experiences of a story’s protagonist (the story’s most prominent character) onto the learner — just as the best stories have always done.

The Story-based Learning Model can help formalize the informal, often murky, creative process of crafting a good story; it is a process designed to generate engaging content that supports the learning objectives while enhancing the learning experience.

THE STORY-BASED LEARNING MODEL The purpose of any model is to distill experience, observations and data into a simplified relational construct to

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formalize the informal. In this case, the Story-based Learning Model (see Figure on page 42) demonstrates:

• What role does this protagonist have in the story? In this example, they are a parent of school-age children.

• A systematic, repeatable process that anyone can use to enhance any type of training topic.

• Why choose this character and not another? They have the most safety considerations to balance.

• The relationship between both familiar and new story elements.

The best protagonists provide a unique or instructive perspective to the story events and are relevant to the learners. For example, given the learning objective used above, the protagonist could be “Jessica,” a working mother of two children, whose husband, “Brad,” often travels out of town for business.

• How to adjust the variables of these elements to heighten the story’s engagement.

To use the model, start with a clearly stated and properly scoped learning objective.

For example: “Distinguish appropriate methods for responding to a variety of severe weather events, as depicted in various scenarios.” With the learning objective in mind, identify the point of view (POV), the lens through which the learner will experience the story events. Typically, the POV will be either: • First Person: The narrator is inside the story, seen through the protagonist’s perspective: -- First person example: “I was worried about a tornado striking our house.”

• Third Person Limited: The narrator is outside the story, viewed through a limited perspective (only conveying the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings while they observe the body language of others): -- Third person limited example: “She was worried about a tornado striking her house.”

It is worth noting that there are other POVs available, such as second person (where the narrator speaks directly to the reading, using the word “you”) or third person omniscient (viewing many character’s thoughts at the same time). However, those don’t tend to work as effectively for story-based learning scenarios and structures.

To determine a story’s POV, it helps to identify the protagonist, the primary character whose experiences must map onto the learner. Consider these questions: • Who is the audience? In this case, it is adults, as opposed to children or first responders.

CONFLICT AND SETTING Stories thrive on conflict, and this struggle typically stems from pitting the protagonist’s motivations (whether internal or external) against the obstacles set in place by an antagonist and/or environment. Remember that the protagonist’s motivation should align with the story’s learning objective.

So, expanding on the earlier example, Jessica’s motivation is to protect her family and herself, mitigating the effects of any weather event.

cost of relevance to the learning audience, only to enhance it.

The key to creating tension through setting is to remember that it is the clash of cultures.

One group happily engages in the current set of cultural norms, the status quo.

Whether for social and/or economic reasons, this group wishes to maintain things as they are, for better or worse. In the earlier example, the cultural norms are that Jessica’s neighbors and friends are complacent about severe weather events and, thus, are not prepared for their potential harm.

The human brain is hardwired to learn through stories, gaining valuable lessons through the experiences of others.

In this case, her obstacles are more environmental than stemming from a human antagonist or arch-enemy out to undermine Jessica’s goal. Here, the inclement weather is the antagonist. This is one example of using different story elements, adjusting variables to customize the narrative.

But there is always some sort of counterculture bubbling out at the edges. This counter-culture may be silent or vocal, but it reacts to cultural norms by promoting change to the status quo through resistance and/or revolution. Perhaps Jessica has one friend who takes preparations for weather seriously and encourages her to do the same.

The important point is that the obstacles must be overcome, such as safely surviving the tornado scenario. As long as the antagonist (whether it’s a person or environment) presents challenges that may prevent the protagonist from achieving his or her motivation, then a struggle exists, creating conflict and suspense.

The point is that using the inherent tension between these two groups can drive drama and suspense, and prove a powerful narrative lever in story-based learning. This is especially true when each group thinks they are in the right, and who is framed as the heroes and villains depends on how the story is framed.

However, conflict is not the only source of tension that can help create an engaging story. The use of setting (the time and place in which the story unfolds) can also provide a powerful source of intensity to the narrative. Here, the use of metaphor, or even fantastical elements, can provide effective levers to increase engagement in the story.

The setting, no matter how outside of the everyday norm, must still have plausible realism that allows the learner to suspend disbelief, as any engaging story does.

However, this should never be used at the

PLOT, CONFRONTATION AND REVELATION As the story narrative begins, the plot unfolds. This is where the protagonist and other characters are revealed, the setting is established and the inherent conflict of the story is discovered. There are many ways for a plot to unfurl in pacing and flow of time: • Mountain Structure (Classic The standard story form,

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Arc): with

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FIGURE 1 | STORY-BASED LEARNING MODEL Climax Rising Tension

Protagonist

1st Person 3rd Person Point Of View

Beginning

PLOT

CONFRONTATION

Falling Action

Middle

Evaluation

REVELATION

End

Transcendence

Conflict

Setting

Setback (Remediation) Motivation

Change (Eustress)

Resolution

Debrief

Obstacles

RINSE & REPEAT Cultural Norms

Counter-Culture

beginning exposition, rising tension with confrontations, culminating in a climax, and ending with falling action.

• Fractured Structure (False Start): Time order is broken, with opening action that then jumps back to a new beginning, or the entire story is told out of order.

• Circular Structure (Hero’s Journey): The classic monomyth where the protagonist travels into the unknown, survives ordeals, undergoes change, and returns home different.

• In Medias Res Structure (In the Middle of the Action): The tale engages by beginning in the heat of the moment before recounting how the protagonist got into that situation.

As the story evolves the protagonist will inevitably encounter a confrontation involving the story’s conflict (the obstacles to the protagonist’s motivation). In the Storybased Learning Model, this confrontation is an opportunity to evaluate the learner’s absorption of the content by having them decide the protagonist’s course of action.

The initial outcome of this confrontation is not always a success. At first, the learner and the protagonist may encounter a setback resulting from failing the evaluation in

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What dynamic change does the protagonist experience?

which remediation is required. Otherwise, success demonstrates change and growth of the learner through eustress, the positive and beneficial type of stress that comes from challenging the learner — just the right amount — to improve his or her performance.

Stories are the foundation of the training, scenarios and videos that help bridge the gap from entry-level to expert learners.

These evaluations continue to occur through a “rinse and repeat” pattern, where timely feedback and debrief of each confrontation/evaluation occurs before moving on. Thus, through a series of confrontations, setbacks and changes, the protagonist and learner experience the revelations needed to achieve the overall objective.

When designing these confrontation/ evaluations, consider these two important

questions: What dynamic change does the protagonist undergo through these confrontations? How does this growth align with what the learner gains from the experiential learning?

As the tension of the narrative rises to a climax, a final confrontation/evaluation occurs and the protagonist transcends the conflict challenge and achieves his or her goal (the learning objective) and the learner basks in the same achievement as the protagonist.

Finally, with the falling action of the story comes a final debrief to wrap things up. This can be a reflection on what was learned, the struggles endured or even looking forward to a future goal, where the learner now knows they are up to the challenge.

Thus, the Story-based Learning Model allows the systematic generation of customizable stories. And through this narrative, learners are engaged through the proper story tensions to experience the necessary eustress and true performance improvement.

Brian S. Grant is a principal analyst and development specialist at Raytheon Professional Services, an author of fiction under the name B. Geren Sanford, and a lover of good stories, regardless of their form.

Email Brian.

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CASEBOOK

FUJITSU’S EXPERIMENT WITH PEER COACHING PAYS OFF

BY KENTARO IIJIMA AND KEN SENDA

Peer coaching is a powerful method for organizational transformation. However, we don’t normally think as such, and therefore, we often overlook one of the most effective tools in a learning professional’s repertoire.

Peer coaching was put to the test, at a large scale and over an extended period of time, at Fujitsu SSL. The company’s business objective was to increase alignment between its solutions group and its systems integration group. This improved alignment was crucial to enabling the business to succeed at a time of rapid change in technology.

Fujitsu’s peer coaching method was developed by Professor Henry Mintzberg at McGill University. Mintzberg is one of the world’s most cited professors of management, and he had become increasingly frustrated with the flaws in management education. So frustrated, he wrote a best-selling book “Managers, Not MBAs.” While the book identified what was wrong with MBA programs, it did not provide a method that organizations could use to improve their managers’ capabilities.

Friends challenged Mintzberg to develop a method that would make a difference in developing managers. He eventually launched a program called the International Master’s Program for Managers (IMPM), and from that program flowed a peer coaching methodology called “CoachingOurselves.”

This methodology brings together small

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groups of leaders to meet for 90 minutes, typically twice a month, to learn from each other. In these learning meetings, as opposed to planning meetings or status meetings, the managers work through prepared topics, such as “Becoming a Visionary Leader,” “Silos and Slabs in Organizations,” “Zen and Management,” or “Sources of Motivation.”

WHEN YOU LISTEN TO A PEER COACHING SESSION, IT IS MORE AKIN TO PROBLEM-SOLVING THAN SITTING IN A CLASSROOM.

the point that systems integration and solutions could no longer exist as distinct service lines. They had to work seamlessly together to meet client needs. To meet the transformed need, Fujitsu SSL needed change within its organization.

Learning professionals know how to deliver training that increases knowledge or develops skill, but how does the learning function go from teaching content to driving an uncomfortable change that spans across the organization?

The answer was a sustained peer coaching program that brought managers together to learn skills relevant to the transition while building relationships and mutual understanding.

THE DETAILS OF THE APPROACH

Fujitsu saw that this method would be an excellent way for managers to develop their skills by discussing business topics in the context of their own working situations. Just as importantly, the conversations in those learning meetings could potentially provide a means for building relationships, understanding and trust within the team.

THE BUSINESS ISSUE AT FUJITSU SSL Fujitsu SSL provides system integration and IT solutions to large organizations. Two separate units delivered these services: systems integration and solutions.

However, the IT world had evolved to

The core of the change intervention was to have teams of managers participate in weekly peer coaching sessions. Having the sessions weekly, rather than just twice a month, ramped up the intensity of the intervention to reflect the urgency of the business objectives. Over the course of almost nine months, the learning teams would each complete 30 peer coaching sessions.

The program was delivered by a Tokyobased consultancy, J-Feel. The facilitation had a light touch. Peer coaching is quite unlike traditional training where an expert relays information. In peer coaching, the facilitator simply ensures the groups are moving through the material at the

Figure 1: Does more participation in peer coaching lead to higher profits?

no meaningful impact? Of course not.

The data can’t prove peer coaching drives organizational success; however, the data certainly suggests that it does. Overall, this collection of findings gave leadership confidence that peer coaching was a wise investment and one that has contributed to getting through difficult organizational transformation.

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right pace and checks that nothing is going off track (e.g., conflict between team members).

When you listen in on a peer coaching session, you’ll see it is more akin to problemsolving than sitting in a classroom.

The prepared topic presents ideas and questions for the team to grapple with.

They draw on their own experiences and share what they think is relevant to the issue. In doing so, they consolidate their own understanding and learn from their peers while simultaneously learning about their peers and their work challenges.

However, Fujitsu SSL wasn’t just promoting learning. The goal was to use this learning methodology to drive organizational change. Did it work?

ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF PEER COACHING The work at Fujitsu SSL was unusual in its scope and duration. As a result, they were able to do some interesting analysis on the impact of the program. Here are the findings: • Departments with higher participation in peer coaching posted higher profits. Some departments put many managers through the peer coaching program, others just a few.

A plot of department profits versus participation rate showed a strong

correlation between peer coaching and profitability (see Figure 1).

• As overall participation in peer coaching increased so did the organization’s revenue and profits.

Over the nine years of the program, participation steadily increased, as well as revenue and profits. The core goals of the organizational transformation were achieved.

• Managers rated the sessions as valuable. Peer coaching is a novel approach to learning. However, managers at Fujitsu SSL saw the value; they were particularly positive about modules that focused on reflection.

• Generally, individual managers’ results improved after participating in peer learning. While there were some ups and downs, on average, performance ratings for the individual managers improved after participation.

• Peer coaching participation is correlated with improvement in various engagement survey measures.

As peer coaching participation went up so did scores on various engagement survey measures, particularly teamwork and crossfunctional communication.

What are we to glean from this data? Does it lead you to believe peer coaching has

• Peer coaching is more than just an extra tool that sits in the learning professional’s toolkit. It can be a powerful means for organizational change. Listed below are a few lessons learned from this process: • Peer coaching made a difference. The learning intervention was clearly in aid of a larger business purpose; it was not just learning for the sake of learning.

• It would have been impossible to get a reliable assessment of the impact had the program not been run over a period of several years.

• It is crucial to gather a variety of measures that highlight whether or not the program has the desired impact. Avoid simple-minded ROI measurements.

• A training intervention can go well beyond transmitting knowledge or developing skills; it can be a catalyst that enables managers to achieve impressive results for the organization.

Every learning professional should experiment with peer coaching to get a hands-on sense of the change it can deliver.

Kentaro Iijima is co-director of the Japan Module of the IMPM. Previously, he served as the corporate senior vice president at Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory and Fujitsu Marketing, where he worked for 40 years. Ken Senda is a corporate executive officer at Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory Ltd. Email Kentaro and Ken.

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G L O B A L O U T LO O K

HOW TO BE AUTHENTIC WHEN COLLABORATING ON MULTICULTURAL VIRTUAL TEAMS

BY CHARLENE SOLOMON

Imagine this: You’re on a team with people from Germany, Italy and Japan.

The German team member is quite direct in communication style, the Italian teammate is loquacious and animated, and the Japanese colleague tends to be quiet and circumspect in communicating. Setting aside the language challenges, how do you authentically collaborate with these three people?

The term “authentic” is defined as, “not false or copied; being genuine and real.”

If you think about that definition and envision yourself on this multicultural team with people who have significantly different styles and expectations of behavior, you realize how complicated and challenging it can be to retain authenticity while adapting your style to the different cultures present on your team. How can you collaborate effectively?

Do you insist on retaining your unique communication style? Do you adapt to any one or all of your colleagues’ styles?

Do you try to mirror the style of your teammates? The challenge is to learn to flex your style while remaining authentic.

WHAT IS AUTHENTICITY IN A MULTICULTURAL, VIRTUAL SITUATION? You probably know people who act genuinely no matter the circumstance.

They’re trusted by colleagues and are able to collaborate well because they don’t sacrifice their authenticity when placed in situations that require them to honor the different cultures present.

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How can you maintain your authenticity and gain the confidence of your colleagues to enhance your ability to collaborate effectively? The secret to effective collaboration on intercultural virtual teams is to understand how culture impacts behavior and communication and find a way to bridge those differences while remaining authentic. What does this require?

It’s not easy to do. However, these skills can be learned, and you can gain confidence through practice. The more you practice, the more effective you become. At the same time, these skills need to be honed before your first encounter with your multicultural team in order to begin gaining the trust of your teammates.

STEP 1: LEARNING ABOUT CULTURE’S IMPACT

LEARN TO FLEX YOUR COMMUNICATION STYLE WHILE REMAINING AUTHENTIC.

We think of it as a three-fold process that continues and builds over time (see Figure 1 on page 47): • First, it requires an understanding of culture — especially the cultures on your team – and an understanding of culture’s impact on behavior.

• Second, it necessitates self-awareness and an understanding of your personal history and culture’s impact on your behavior and collaboration preferences.

• Third, it requires you to flex your own style to bridge the cultural differences on your team with confidence, so you can maintain your authenticity.

Every team member needs to understand the cultures present on their team and how they might impact each person’s expectations and actions.

You cannot overemphasize the importance of making sure that every member of the team is aware of the different behavioral styles associated with their teammates. This ensures that all teammates recognize the power of culture and the impact various cultural norms may have on the team.

Additionally, teammates will feel more comfortable knowing that others are acquainted with their background and culture.

In other words, as every member of the team becomes aware of how culture impacts their behavior, it becomes easier to understand one another. For example, teammates will understand why their Japanese colleague may need to seek greater consensus, or why their Italian teammate may need more time to build a relationship and establish trust with others.

FIGURE 1 Obviously, in order to collaborate, you need to figure out ways to bridge those differences.

STEP 2: BECOMING SELF-AWARE You now have an appreciation for culture and its influence on behavior.

The second step in the process is selfawareness. Authenticity begins with examining your own preferences, capabilities and background. In other words, it’s crucial to recognize who you are, your preferred communication style, your likes and dislikes, how you react to others, what things frustrate you, and what situations bring out your best performance.

It’s not very complicated, but it requires conscious focus and effort. As you can imagine, it’s fundamental to understanding your interactions with different colleagues.

colleagues are more hesitant to take risks. Then, you’ll be prepared when you suggest embracing a new practices and others are resistant to the idea.

COLLABORATING AUTHENTICALLY ON YOUR MULTICULTURAL TEAM Continual Process of Self-Improvement

It’s not difficult to see why this step is critical in the process of achieving authenticity, but how can you do it?

There are simple assessments you can take that provide guidance. You may also begin by thinking about how and when you are most effective and make a list. It can be as simple as: • • • •

I like people who…

People who do … frustrate me.

I am most productive when…

I prefer to work in an environment that…

The trick is being able to see yourself as others see you. However, in an intercultural context that becomes a little more complicated because you’re being looked at through a different cultural lens.

For example, if you know you tend to be a relationship-oriented person, and you’ve done some research about the cultures of your multicultural team members, you may discover that many of your teammates prefer to be transactional. You now have the benefit of being aware that others might see you as “wasting time” when attempting to establish relationships rather than getting right down-to-business.

There are many reasons why maintaining authenticity is critical, but perhaps the most important is that authenticity can be recognized by all people, and the absence of it will impair trust. Without trust, you will not achieve effective collaboration.

Here’s an example of what can go amiss:

Similarly, if you know you tend to be a risk-taker when it comes to business decisions, you may find that your

A Dutch individual was on a virtual team with French and British colleagues.

The group was developing marketing

STEP 3: REMAINING AUTHENTIC IN ORDER TO COLLABORATE WITH DIFFERENT CULTURES

Be aware of culture’s impact on behavior

Flex your style while remaining authentic

Develop awareness of your behavioral style

materials for a new service their division was launching, and their ability to collaborate was crucial to meeting tight deadlines.

The Dutch member was aware that his tendency toward a very brief, direct communication style was likely to be different and potentially off-putting to his colleagues who were more indirect and contextual in their communication.

He quickly realized that his tendency to be blunt and succinct would not encourage his colleagues to collaborate easily with him. He attempted to be more ambiguous and obscure in order to mimic the others’ styles.

Unfortunately, he discovered this approach wasn’t working. The team

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8 TIPS TO IMPROVE CULTURAL AWARENESS

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leader asked him if something was distracting him during the team discussions. His teammates sensed he was uncomfortable, and his attempt to act differently was negatively affecting his performance. He had compromised his authenticity and impaired the trust of his colleagues, making them wonder if he was being attentive.

THE FOUNDATION OF AUTHENTICITY IS TO RECOGNIZE HOW OTHER

Incorporate coaching to guide and support each team member.

When he explained this to his team leader, the leader suggested that he find a way to relax and contribute more spontaneously to the discussions.

This incident illustrates how difficult remaining authentic in multicultural scenarios can be. In this case, the Dutch teammate needed to flex his style slightly while being genuine about his communication preference. To be successful in his collaboration, he could have toned down a little and checked with his colleagues to see if he was being too direct or brief. He also could have

Learn how your style preferences are similar to and different from your teammates’.

8

Periodically check-in with colleagues and discuss how everyone is doing.

been transparent from the beginning of the formation of the team and discussed his natural communication preference and his intention to adapt to his teammates’ dispositions.

members, you do not need to change who you are. The ability to understand yourself and your behavior means you don’t relinquish your values; you just incorporate ways to adjust to others.

How you react to what pleases and displeases you is what your colleagues will be seeing most often. If you can find a way to tell people who you are in a nonjudgmental manner, your authenticity will be appreciated, and your collegiality will be genuine. People are able to see through facades and, if they feel that you’re not genuine, they’ll have more trouble trusting and collaborating with you.

If something or someone is challenging, an authentic person will not pretend that they’re not troubled by it, but will collaboratively communicate an alternative approach. If you can identify these differences and articulate them without making others defensive, you will be successful.

PEOPLE ARE NOT LIKE YOU.

4

HOW CAN AUTHENTICITY BE UNLEASHED? The foundation of authenticity is to recognize how other people are not like you. Varying cultures have different styles and behavioral preferences, and it is helpful to identify how you can accommodate their differences while not giving up your own way of approaching situations.

You must have the ability to flex your style to bridge differences while being true to your own values and needs.

This means that, while you give your Japanese colleague more time to build consensus and allow your Italian colleague the opportunity to spend time building relationships with other team

Of course, training will facilitate the ability to recognize behavioral preferences and enable team members’ ability to communicate authentically in a constructive manner. Training and coaching in these situations can benefit teammates by providing an opportunity and space to contemplate these questions, teaching exercises to practice flexing communication styles and bridging multicultural differences, and developing effective techniques for constructive interactions to enable the most effective collaboration on multicultural teams.

In short, there is no secret to effectively collaborating on teams with an array of cultures. However, to remain authentic requires understanding, communication and effort.

Charlene Solomon is the president of RW3 CultureWizard. Email Charlene.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR INTERNAL CYBER THREAT

RAYTHEON PROFESSIONAL SERVICES CYBER TRAINING Perhaps more harmful than any malware is an unprepared workforce. Especially one that underestimates what today’s threats can do to your brand reputation and your business. To stay ahead of it all, you need to ready your team for anything.

RPS.COM

© 2019 Raytheon Company. All rights reserved.

JUNE 16-18, 2020 | RALEIGH, NC

TICE 2020 LOADING...

SPEAK AT TICE 2020 THE CALL FOR PRESENTERS IS NOW OPEN

Do you have a unique perspective on a pressing topic in the training industry or a story about the challenges of managing the business of learning? We are looking for learning leaders to share their knowledge and expertise with attendees at the 2020 Training Industry Conference & Expo (TICE) – where L&D leaders gather to gain new insights and form powerful, professional connections.

Submit your session proposal today!

Deadline to submit is November 15.

WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH STELLA LEE, PH.D.

MAKING THE CASE FOR INFORMAL LEARNING AT WORK

Just about everything we do with technology has an informal learning component: downloading an app requires you to learn how to use it, interacting with a chatbot necessitates you to find out what questions are within the scope of the bot’s domain knowledge and accessing a website for the first time necessitates a quick orientation of where to go to accomplish your tasks.

If informal learning is so omnipresent in our daily lives, why is it that organizations are struggling to apply informal learning at work? The challenges are manifold.

While informal learning allows learners the freedom to make organic discoveries, it provides less structure and is difficult to implement and optimize. Furthermore, there is a lack of knowledge and research in this area, particularly in measuring the impact of informal learning.

To address these challenges, here are four areas to consider when integrating informal learning into your corporate learning ecosystem: FIND A GOOD BLEND While informal learning is powerful and engages learners in their natural settings, formal learning has its applications. Formal learning is ideal for establishing a baseline of knowledge and skills, as well as enabling the delivery of compliance-based or standardized content that organizations have control over. Informal learning supplements and extends learning beyond the classroom by observing, exploring, asking questions, interacting with peers and experimenting. Finding a good blend

between informal and formal learning is the ticket to creating a holistic learning culture.

LEVERAGE TECHNOLOGY To create and support a culture of continuous exploration, leverage a range of technologies that are already in place within your organization. Knowledge repository platforms, internal communication channels, enterprise social media tools, collaboration tools and performance support systems enable learners to self-direct their learning.

For example, staff uses instant messages (IM) to communicate with each other. Why not take this opportunity to push learning nuggets via IM? Many technologies can be used as a learning technology without explicitly naming them as such. Try adding one or two of these into your training strategy. Then, observe and collect feedback on how people interact and explore.

BLENDED LEARNING IS THE TICKET TO CREATING A HOLISTIC LEARNING CULTURE. AIM FOR THE LOW HANGING FRUIT Chances are informal learning already takes place in your organization. Your task is to identify where these activities are, what format they come in and how relevant they are to learning needs. For example, there is probably a repository of videos, internal wikis, corporate libraries and mentoring programs readily available. If not, there is a plethora of external content that one can access. Open educational resources (OER) and massive

open online courses (MOOCs) are great, free resources for general skill training. Open content can be used as a starting point in understanding topic areas. Simultaneously, adding organization-specific examples enables you to formalize the learning.

SET GOALS AND METRICS FOR SUCCESS You want to ensure that you are gathering meaningful and actionable data for your informal learning effort. In order to do that, begin with the end in mind. What goals are you trying to achieve by implementing informal learning? Managers and learning professionals need to work together to establish which metrics matter the most in driving business outcomes. Execute preand post-assessments based on the agreedupon metrics. Learning management systems (LMS) and other technologies typically have analytic functions that log content views, generate reports on activity, dissect discussion forum quality and track other informal learning usage.

Informal learning is a key component of any impactful corporate learning strategy because it gives the learner control over their learning and supplements formal training by providing a blended and holistic learning experience.

Dr. Stella Lee has over 20 years of experience in consulting, planning, designing, implementing, and measuring learning initiatives. Today, her focus is on large-scale learning projects including LMS evaluation and implementation, learning analytics, and artificial intelligent applications in learning. Email Stella.

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SECRETS OF SOURCING DOUG HARWARD

FORMALIZING INFORMAL LEARNING TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

Over the last few years, the concept of formalizing informal learning has seen quite a debate. Some believe that we should not formalize informal learning, as it is the heart of how most people learn and consume information to do their job. I completely agree that learners get the most relevant information through informal means like social learning and on-the-job training. But, if we ignore improving informal learning activities, then we’d only be focused on formal learning, which accounts for only 10 to 20% (O-S-F Ratio) of the information that learners use to perform their job.

I’m a believer that training leaders should be involved in all aspects of the learning experience. Formalizing informal content is not about eliminating informal learning.

It’s about embracing informal learning and finding ways to put more structure around how learners learn in informal environments – and from informal resources.

In our book, “What Makes a Great Training Organization,” Ken Taylor and I posed it not so much as a choice, but a necessary best practice for building a high-performing training organization. Our research found that informal content is agreeably the highest consumed form of information related to how we do a job well. But the best practice is in making informal, ondemand content as organized, curated and structured as possible to make it an efficient way of learning.

A similar concept was made very popular from research done by Dr. Anders Ericsson and outlined in his book, “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise.”

Dr. Ericsson found through years of research that individuals who performed at a very high level, the highest of their profession, achieved expertise by being very deliberate about how they practiced and learned their skill. This idea of practice is similar to the concept of informal learning in corporate training.

It’s basically learning by doing.

Informal learning is essentially the practice of learning while you are doing the job, using the informal consumption of information. Informal learning becomes deliberate when the learning is organized, curated, well planned, measured and reinforced.

For those who lead a training organization, an important question to ask is, “How do we implement a strategy for formalizing informal learning?” The best approach is to first understand all the sources of information a learner/worker utilizes while on the job, and then create a plan on how each can be more structured, curated and supported to make access, measurement and feedback more efficient.

It may involve creating a structured on-the-job training program where practice activities are embedded into the daily job routine. When a coach or mentor are utilized to help learners, it is recommended to train the coach or mentor to help them be as structured and effective at providing feedback and direction. An evaluation method should also be used to help the learner assess their own performance and when they need to improve on certain aspects of the job.

If your organization is not well versed in these practices, it is highly recommended that you engage training consultants who are experts in designing learning systems that include each of these practices. These types of solutions are not about hiring companies to deliver courses for you. It’s about having resources to help in the design of learning solutions for on-the-job routines, technologies for curated content, and the production of job aids related to tasks and on-the-job problems a worker may encounter.

HIGH-PERFORMING TRAINING ORGANIZATIONS DO NOT LEAVE LEARNING TO CHANCE. From where I sit, the concept of formalizing informal learning is not one that we can ignore. The reason we exist as training leaders is to create solutions that facilitate effective and efficient performance improvement. For too long our profession has been focused on creating formal courses and operating as a mini schoolhouse or corporate university inside the company.

The future of training management is about creating performance improvement systems and less about creating courses.

High-performing training organizations do not leave learning to chance; they are deliberate, organized and embrace all aspects of the learning experience.

Doug Harward is CEO of Training Industry, Inc. and a former learning leader in the high-tech industry. Email Doug.

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Take this quiz to see if the CPTM credential is the missing link to achieving your future goals.

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LEARNER MINDSET MICHELLE EGGLESTON SCHWARTZ

MAKING LEARNING FUN AGAIN

Somewhere between grade school and the real world, “fun” took a back seat in the learning process. Stories are no longer told around a magic carpet, catchy songs are no longer sung to remember important information, and engaging games and exciting rewards have vanished from lesson plans.

As we age, learning becomes a much more serious and structured event, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, having fun can improve learning retention and recall – regardless of the learner’s age.

It’s amazing how a simple story, game or role-play session can improve knowledge retention for adult learners.

Informal learning accounts for a large portion of how employees consume information and apply learning to their work. Whether gaining tips from a colleague or watching a quick video online, informal learning occurs throughout our organizations every day. It’s the organic nature of this learning that makes it engaging and entertaining. The challenge for many organizations surrounds how to document, harness and leverage informal knowledge for the benefit of the company.

This challenge only grows more complicated when considering the essential skills necessary for the future of work. Research reports by LinkedIn Learning and the World Economic Forum reveal that creativity is one of the most critical skills that employees will need in order to navigate the future workplace. As technology continues to transform business and take an increasingly active role in streamlining business practices, human skills like creativity become more essential.

“We need people who are not just very narrowly trained in their discipline, but we need people who can think outside the box and can think critically and get creative,” according to Rebecca Winthrop of Brookings Institution in the “New Skills Now” report by Accenture.

Creativity is a process of discovery that requires innovative, unstructured thinking.

It’s not a skill that can be developed with a one-and-done training solution. So how can learning and development (L&D) teams help employees tap into their innate creativity through informal learning? Here are a few things to consider:

HAVING FUN CAN IMPROVE LEARNING RETENTION AND RECALL – REGARDLESS OF THE LEARNER’S AGE. CELEBRATING LEARNING MOMENTS Learning can occur in the most unlikely places – from the breakroom to the walk to the car at the end of the workday.

However, oftentimes, no one hears about it. These learning moments get buried among typical day-to-day activities.

Finding ways to share and celebrate these moments can spark inspiration in other employees and build a strong learning culture that embraces and encourages the learning process.

PRIORITIZING QUIET TIME Today’s employees are busy jumping from meeting to meeting and project

to project, leaving little time to pause and reflect. People need time to reflect on their experiences in order to truly learn and improve. These moments of solitude can breed innovative solutions to troubleshoot recurring problems or devise new alternatives to processes and procedures. Helping employees find time to brainstorm and think more deeply about their work can have amazing advantages.

MAKING TIME FOR TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES Organizing team building activities provides employees the opportunity to interact with coworkers in a casual, relaxed setting. Structured activities like happy hours, book clubs, sporting events or other social outings can improve employee morale while also enhancing communication and collaboration skills. Having casual conversations can strengthen employee relationships that will lead to more productive meetings in the future.

MAKING LEARNING FUN AGAIN Orchestrating fun learning activities for the business may sound more like a job description for a party planner than a training professional, but it’s quickly becoming a crucial part of the L&D professional’s role.

By making corporate learning fun, L&D professionals can transform business as usual and kick-start innovation that will lead to more creative problem-solving and cutting-edge solutions.

Michelle Eggleston Schwartz is the editorial director at Training Industry, Inc. Email Michelle.

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CLOSING D E A L S INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF THE WORKER, NOT JUST THE FUTURE OF WORK

BY TARYN OESCH

Many publications, including our own, are exploring “the future of work” in articles, research and other content. Topics like automation, artificial intelligence (AI), the gig economy and the virtual workplace take center stage in this discussion. We can’t forget, however, that central to the future of work are workers themselves.

How can we make sure that our business strategies moving forward are considering employees’ needs and supporting their growth and development?

You guessed it: Learning leaders must play a role.

While emerging technologies are creating a brave new future of work, they are also supporting the future of the worker. AI is enabling coaching at scale, augmenting the personalized development approach of a professional coach; online platforms are automating some performance management tasks, freeing up managers’ time for those oneon-one conversations that are critical to performance; and remote meeting and learning platforms are enabling managers, trainers, employees and learners to communicate effectively, no matter where their offices are located.

INVESTORS TAKING NOTE: THE “GREAT AWAKENING” Funding for these technologies is following the demand. For example, BetterUp, a mobile coaching company, announced $103 million in growth financing for its Series C round in June, bringing its total financing to over $142 million. Fuel50, creator of a “career experience and talent mobility platform,” closed $14 million in Series B funding in August, bringing its total funding to over $18 million.

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When BetterUp launched, says co-founder and CEO Alexi Robichaux, investors weren’t really interested in what it was offering. But “BetterUp is focused on the future of the worker, not just the future of work,” and investors are starting to understand this reality. “Your competitive advantage is your people,” he says, and there’s been a “great awakening” that optimizing employees through growth and development is critical to success.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES ARE SUPPORTING THE FUTURE OF THE WORKER.

From an investor’s perspective, Will Kohler, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners (which led BetterUp’s Series C), says that, while investing in “technology and tools to improve visibility into data, into decisions, into workflow” is important, “investing in people and their development” is also key.

In fact, Robichaux reports that Workday has seen a 10% increase in its “managers’ ability to elevate and drive results” after implementing BetterUp’s platform.

deliver a level of transparency that helps reduce ‘skills anxiety’ for both the organization and the employee.” By enabling organizations to know which skills they’re missing and employees to know which positions and career paths might be open to them, Fuel50 helps ensure a solid talent pipeline for the future.

Based on the data Fulton provides, it works; its clients have seen employee retention improve by an average of 60% and employee engagement improve by an average of 3% to 5%. Organizations also improve their internal talent mobility; for example, IngersollBrand has improved its “internal fill rates from 37.5% to 55%” since beginning its partnership with Fuel50 in 2016.

Artificial intelligence enables these platforms to automatically make career path and training recommendations based on each employee’s career history, learning and other data. Matching employees’ skills, performance and goals to organizational opportunities improves employee engagement and retention and helps fill the talent pipeline.

Fuel50, meanwhile, supports organizations’ employee development programs through what CEO Anne Fulton describes as a platform that combines “the simplicity of Google Maps” with personalized career pathing.

“We’re not designing around compliance anymore,” Robichaux says. Instead, learning leaders are focusing on engaging learners and ensuring that they are growing. By formalizing previously informal learning processes like coaching and career planning, organizations can track not only compliance metrics but also those metrics like engagement, learning and talent mobility. Then, they can change their programs to improve them.

“Employees are hungry to know what their future holds,” Fulton says. “We

Taryn Oesch is the managing editor of digital content at Training Industry, Inc. Email Taryn.

PERSONALIZING CAREER PLANNING

C O M PA N Y N E W S

ACQU I S I T I O N S A N D PA RTN E R SHIPS Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc., a leading global provider of integrated risk management solutions acquired the premier provider of corporate compliance and oversight solutions, Osprey Compliance Software. The acquisition of Osprey complements Steele’s robust product suite, providing one of the most comprehensive integrated risk management solutions to the compliance industry. eThink Education, a fully managed e-learning solution provider, is partnering with OpenSesame, an industryleading content curator. Partnering with OpenSesame will allow eThink to add high-quality content to their LMS offerings and provide a complete e-learning solution capable of meeting

a variety of workplace training needs.

L&D

and

CoAdvantage, one of the nation’s top professional employer organizations (PEO) and provider of strategic human resource (HR) solutions, will be acquired

by Aquiline Capital Partners, a private equity firm investing in financial services and technology. The acquisition will be funded with investment funds managed

by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.

Toast, the fastest-growing restaurant management platform in the U.S., will acquire StratEx, a leading provider of HR and payroll software for restaurants. Acquiring StratEx will enable Toast to better support restaurants in simplifying HR, payroll and talent management on their platform.

Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of business information services, has acquired HighQ, a leading collaboration platform for the legal regulatory market.

With the acquisition, Thomson Reuters will expand on its strategic objective to provide more cloud-based software offerings and meet a growing market need for legal professionals.

BTS, a leading global strategy implementation firm, will acquire Swiss Virtual Business School, a provider of high-impact digital learning solutions for the modern corporate learner. With this acquisition, BTS will be able to offer clients a wider range of solutions and become even competitive as an end-toend talent partner.

INDUST RY N E WS PREDICTION ENGINE ENABLING BUSINESS LEADERS TO SEE INTO THE FUTURE

Culture Amp, the leading People & Culture platform, unveiled the HR technology industry’s most advanced prediction engine to forecast employee performance and turnover risk. The new Foresight Engine delivers recommendations to organizations’ decision-makers through personalized dashboards with clear actions for change.

INTELLIGENT ASSISTANT TO DELIVER SEAMLESS, FULLY TRACKED LEARNING IN THE FLOW OF WORK

Global leader in talent development solutions, SumTotal Systems, announced enhancements to its talent development suite that deliver a seamless and enriched experience for learners, administrators and managers. The enhancements align with SumTotal’s goal to reimagine talent

development by providing advanced universal content support, a world-class mobile experience, superior career and employee development functionality, and exceptional extended enterprise capabilities.

SKILLING TODAY’S YOUTH FOR THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE

NIIT, a global leader in skills and talent development, announced “Future Ready Talent,” an initiative to encourage aspiring professionals to enhance their knowledge through future ready programs. In the month of July, NIIT conducted seminars across 26 centres in India wherein successful leaders from diverse fields shared their experiences with youth, making them aware of the importance of new-age future ready careers.

MASTER’S PROGRAMS IN DATA SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FIELDS

Simplilearn, a global online training provider, announced a collaboration with IBM to introduce four master’s programs in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science.

This collaboration will allow professionals to access live virtual classrooms and self-paced video courses that combine Simplilearn’s seamless training experience and world-class instructors with IBM’s state-of-the-art labs and course content.

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