Trends 2016 | Winter 2016

Q U A R T E R LY I W I N T E R 2 0 1 6

TRENDS 2016

TRAIN FOR THE BRAIN | page 16

Using Brain Science to Improve Learning

EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY | page 34 Amplifying Leadership Development

ON-DEMAND VIDEO BYTES | page 46 Delivering Just-in-Time Sales Training

BUSINESS

PERSPECTIVES

ON

MANAGING

WORLD-CLASS

TRAINING

endof

The

Personality Stereo types

The Pearman Personality Integrator ™ is a scientifically validated assessment that generates over one million profiles of personality type, taking a deep look into personality in one’s natural state and how one behaves in their profession, at home, or socially. The Pearman FlexIndex™ then measures how one leverages psychological resources to be adaptable and flexible to everyday situations leading to coaching and development opportunities. Learn more and find out how to become certified at MHS.com/Pearman.

PERSPECTIVES - K E N TAY LO R

TRACKING TRENDS This is the time of year that our team at Training Industry reflects and takes inventory of the ideas that have impacted our industry over the past 12 months. This past year saw a lot of change in the training industry with significant industry consolidation including LinkedIn’s entry into the skills development pool with its $1.5 billion acquisition of Lynda.com, the market dominance of new cloud service offerings across the HR spectrum and a renewed focus on the role of our leaders and their impact on the performance of the organizations we support. The industry lost a few remarkable visionaries and saw the emergence of new voices on the topics that will dominate the attention of our leaders in the years to come.

Additionally, the number of new products and services that were launched into our market this year has provided us with unprecedented choice and the power to affect real change, and drive performance improvement in new and exciting ways. Our ability to track and report on the impact of our programs has never been better, and is not only accepted as part of new initiatives, but expected when we report back on the performance of the programs we launch.

We’ve heard a lot about the length of the training programs we provide our learners, how and when various media should be included in our courses,

and how to better understand adult learning in the corporate setting.

Our focus in this edition of Training Industry Magazine is to collect a set of viewpoints that learning leaders can use to generate ideas and develop new strategies to improve workplace performance. Everyone reading this magazine will have a different perspective on these viewpoints, so let’s start the discussion. We at Training Industry hope to provide you with the catalyst for these conversations, and will continue to support the discussion through social media, our website and our events throughout 2016.

OUR ABILITY TO TRACK AND REPORT ON THE IMPACT OF OUR PROGRAMS HAS NEVER BEEN BETTER.

So, as I suggest every year, take a quick read through the various perspectives outlined in this issue, assemble a group of your team members, or even better, some of your peers and find a collection of reasons why these trends don’t apply to your organization. Through this discussion, take a few notes on the trends most difficult to discount, and consider how they might change the way you are planning to manage one important initiative launching in 2016.

As always, please feel free to reach out and let us know your thoughts.

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

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3

CO N T E N TS

TA B L E O F VOLUME 9

4

I

ISSUE 1

I

WINTER 2016

F E AT U R E S

16 TRAIN FOR THE BRAIN

34 EVOLUTION OF TECHNOLOGY

46 ON-DEMAND VIDEO BYTES

16

TRAIN FOR THE BRAIN: WHAT 25 YEARS OF BRAIN SCIENCE CAN TEACH US ABOUT WORKPLACE LEARNING

21

WHY YESTERDAY’S SKILLS AREN’T ENOUGH TO SURVIVE TODAY’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

24 28 34 39 42 46

By Jeremy B. Teitelbaum

Trainers need to stay up-to-date with brain science research or risk being left behind.

By Jason C. Hathaway

Organizations must rethink the way they develop their people to fill the skills gap.

RISE OF THE LEARNBOT

By James J. Goldsmith

The ability to track learner preferences can enhance training and development.

KEY TRENDS FOR 2016: FOCUSING ON THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING TO BETTER ENGAGE THE ADULT LEARNER

By Doug Harward

Understanding how to better engage the learner is at the heart of our industry.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO AMPLIFY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

By Sanjay Advani

Training managers need to develop a continuous learning journey to support leaders.

LEAVING A LEARNING LEGACY: DEVELOPING PERVASIVE & PERPETUAL LEARNING

By Steve Swink

By creating do-it-yourself learning experiences, learners can grow beyond a training event.

HOW TO TURN HIGHLY TECHNICAL CONTENT INTO AN ENGAGING LEARNER EXPERIENCE

By Michele Graham, Diana Benyaminy, Lauren Fregonese & Joy Gross

Breaking down technical content is the key to developing an engaging training program.

VIDEO BYTES: JUST-IN-TIME SALES TRAINING

By Scott Cook

On-demand video can deliver training to sales professional when it’s needed most.

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THOUGHT LEADERS

03 09 11 13

PERSPECTIVES

By Ken Taylor

Analyze market trends to generate new ideas and solutions.

GUEST EDITOR

By Donna Simonetta

Personalizing training can enhance the learner experience.

PERFORMANCE & PRODUCTIVITY

By Charles Jennings

Real learning is not a series of events, but a continuous process.

15 55 57

GEN WHY

By Michelle Eggleston

Employee engagement reduces turnover and drives performance.

LEADERSHIP 2.0

By Ken Blanchard & Scott Blanchard

New managers must be able to engage in effective conversations.

SCIENCE OF LEARNING

By Art Kohn, Ph.D.

Applying a scientific approach to training can drive learning outcomes.

TOOLS IN LEARNING

By Karl Kapp

Learning professionals must be able to distinguish fad from trend.

INFO EXCHANGE 50 I CASEBOOK

UT Southwestern Medical Center is driving employee engagement through its training strategy.

52 I GLOBAL OUTLOOK

Localization of training content requires diligent planning to ensure a smooth process.

58 I MEASURING IMPACT

Build credibility for your learning initiatives by demonstrating the business value of training.

60 I CLOSING DEALS

The acquisition of Vodeclic allows Skillsoft to deliver more tools that address the digital skills gap.

61 I COMPANY NEWS

Keep up with the latest in the training industry by reading news from the last quarter.

62 I WHAT’S ONLINE

Find additional articles and information available only at TrainingIndustry.com.

63 I TRAINING TALK

Review insights and industry poll results collected from learning leaders around the world.

6

A B O U T OUR TEAM

STAFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

EDITOR

Doug Harward dharward@trainingindustry.com

Shina Neo sneo@trainingindustry.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT

DESIGNER

Ken Taylor ktaylor@trainingindustry.com

Heather Schwendner hschwendner@trainingindustry.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

ADVERTISING SALES

Michelle Eggleston meggleston@trainingindustry.com EDITOR

Taryn Oesch toesch@trainingindustry.com

sales@trainingindustry.com East: Dan Weller dweller@trainingindustry.com West: Kristin Bolduc kbolduc@trainingindustry.com

EDITORIAL BOARD Dr. Shawn Andrews Senior Manager, Global Compliance and Training Allergan

Kaliym Islam Vice President Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.

Derek Cunard, LPC Chief People Officer Pinnacle Automotive Hospitality Services

Barbara Jordan Chief Learning Officer Jackson Hewitt Tax Service

Vince Eugenio, Ph.D., HCS, CCMC Senior Leader, Talent Development Boys and Girls Clubs of America

Karen Kocher Chief Learning Officer Cigna

Carol Gajus, Ph.D. Director, Stores and Military Executive Development Programs Macy’s Corporate

Meredith Lubitz Vice President, Talent Management Dow Jones

Nancy Gustafson Workforce Learning and Development Manager American Red Cross Lorna Hagen Vice President, People Operations OnDeck

Laura Moraros Vice President, Sales Learning & Development Yahoo!

Scott Nutter General Manager, Research, AQP & Development Delta Air Lines

Jeanette Harrison Vice President, Enterprise Learning & Development Pitney Bowes

Steve Sitek Head of Learning, Education & Communications, Ethics & Compliance Novartis

John Hovell Senior Manager, Learning Operations and Technology BAE Systems

Kee Meng Yeo Director, Enterprise Talent Development Amway

SUBSCRIBE TODAY Training Industry Magazine offers free electronic subscriptions to learning and development professionals.

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SUBSCRIPTIONS ELECTRONIC: Sign up at TrainingIndustry.com to receive notification of each new electronic issue.

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PUBLISHER Training Industry Magazine is published quarterly by: Training Industry, Inc. 401 Harrison Oaks Blvd.

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The Citrix features you trust.

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PERSONALIZING THE

USER EXPERIENCE IN A WORLD OF

BLUR

At a recent conference I attended, the opening speaker stated, “We are living in a world of blur.” I reflected on this statement and wondered to myself, how do we as learning and development practitioners make an impact in this rapidly, everchanging environment? Taking into account the importance of human capital in our organizations, we need to figure out how to successfully incorporate technology into our curriculum to personalize the online training experience for learners.

Given the geographical diversity of the employee population in the company I work for, our learning and development team chose to focus on this initiative in 2015. In an effort to drive performance and build organizational capability, we utilize a strengths-based personality profiling tool. The tool improves our employees’ understanding of individual differences of team members to maximize communication and enhance effectiveness, resulting in increased productivity. Traditionally, this tool is introduced to learners through instructor-led sessions; however, the majority of our 18,000-plus workforce is geographically dispersed, making this training approach challenging. The result is a strong reliance on self-paced learning initiatives administered via our learning management system.

One of the obvious benefits of delivering instructor-led training courses is the ability of the instructor to tailor the delivery of the content to their audience. When the

geographical diversity of learners and your business needs do not allow for classroom training, personalization is much more complicated to deliver effectively. In our company, we understood maintaining the level of personalization in the delivery of this profiling tool was critical, so finding a way to train our employees online through an individualized approach became our objective.

PERSONALIZATION ADDRESSES A NUMBER OF ADULT LEARNING PRINCIPLES. This year, we created an e-learning solution that provides a highly interactive way for our employees to learn about their personality profile. Personalization is achieved by asking the learner to enter their profile information when beginning the course. Based on the information provided, the course customizes the online experience to deliver the interactive exercises in a method associated with their profile. The course also accounts for employees who do not have a profile by varying the design of the exercises giving the learner a chance to experience different styles to determine which one resonates with them.

The course is groundbreaking in its ability to respond to the learner. In a white paper entitled “Principles of Adult Learning,” Tony Smarella identifies key adult learning principles. Personalization addresses a number of these principles including an adult’s desire to direct his or

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- DONNA SIMONETTA

GUEST EDITOR

her own learning and how each person has a different learning style. Delivering the exercises in a manner that matches their preferences links the experience to the individual learning style, and the flexibility to customize the learning experience speaks to an adult’s desire to direct his or her own learning.

Our company has been able to recognize the cost savings of offering the online module. In addition, our employees across the globe have benefited from the accessibility of the program through our learning management system. The online module permits our trainers to provide a consistent message while allowing time to focus on more specific coaching and training tailored to each employee.

Based on the success of this project, we are continuing to pursue personalization of online content to support the development of our global workforce. Our overarching goal is to increase the impact of training effectiveness while creating a unique individualized user experience in this world of blur.

THIS ISSUE’S GUEST EDITOR Donna Simonetta is the senior director of learning and development for Wyndham Vacation Ownership, where she oversees the leadership development function for the sales and marketing teams. She has 20 years of progressive experience in creating and implementing customized solutions to maximize individual and organizational performance. Email Donna.

9

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EXTENDING

LEARNING

into the WORKFLOW Thirty years ago a training course was the principal, and often only, method used to help build workforce capability. Although our solutions are now moving beyond this way of thinking and acting, it is understandable why the “course mindset” emerged as the dominant way to address performance problems.

This traditional “course solution” arose because the principles of schooling were transferred into the workplace. Training courses were adult versions of school classes.

They were based on schooling concepts, and assessment was almost always focused on knowledge retention rather than the ability to apply knowledge in the context of the workplace. As such, organizational learning was invariably based on a series of events – courses or programs.

Other factors such as increasing complexity, the need for ever-increasing speed to performance, greater teamwork, and the challenge of working in an ever-changing environment, have all contributed to this demand to use new approaches in workforce development.

Each of these has contributed to the need to extend our focus on learning beyond the course or program and out into the workflow.

FROM COURSES TO RESOURCES AND CAMPAIGNS

“Real learners are equipped to learn from experience, to work smarter, and to convert their aspirations into realities.”

We now understand that school and the workplace are vastly different environments, and that designing and developing solutions to build a highly skilled workforce in the same way we taught schoolchildren will not lead to the desired outcomes.

REAL LEARNING IS A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF IMPROVEMENT.

We created our solutions in a course paradigm. What was needed were solutions that were created for a performance paradigm.

The changing nature of the workplace, including the unrelenting drive for higher performance and productivity, and the need to innovate and work smarter, has underpinned a general drive for new ways of learning.

Jay Cross, a leader in the movement to help people understand that “real learning” is more than courses, wrote the following in the final two articles he published before his premature death in November 2015: “Ten years ago I argued that most people learn to do their jobs informally, not from training or formal courses. It was a radical message at the time. Most people rejected the notion or chose to overlook it.”

Until recently, courses were the fundamental “atoms” for any training and development professional. They were what we used to build our solutions. We used instructional theory to develop learning content and a logical sequence for the delivery of that content. We then devised some form of measurement to assess whether the content had been learned. When a new training challenge was presented, we applied our contentcentric approach to develop a new course or program, and so on.

NEW WAYS OF LEARNING

- CH AR L E S J E NNING S

PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY

It is now clear that effective learning needs to move beyond the course paradigm.

Real learning is not a series of events but a continuous process of improvement.

People learn continuously and our approaches to building and supporting high performance need to reflect these continuous learning cycles.

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Throughout his life, Cross’s work highlighted the fact that the move from courses to resources and campaigns (where a selection of courses, resources, and other tools are brought together to create and support a culture of continuous learning) is essential for effective learning.

LEARNING IN THE WORKFLOW Most learning occurs in the workflow.

That’s where people face and overcome challenges. It’s where they find new and better ways to achieve the outcomes they’re aiming for, and it’s where they reinforce the knowledge they may have gained in courses and elsewhere.

Continuous learning requires training and performance professionals to adopt a new mindset that understands learning as a process and not a series of events. They then need to adopt a set of practices to meet the needs of the modern worker.

Charles Jennings is a director of the Internet Time Alliance. He is the former chief learning officer for Thomson Reuters. Email Charles.

11

CONGRATULATIONS

TOP 20 GAMIFICATION COMPANIES

Check Out Our 2015 Gamification Watch List The Top 20 Gamification Companies are a service provided by Training Industry, Inc. Due to the diversity of services offered, no attempt is made to rank the “Top 20s.”

- KAR L M. KAPP, Ed.D.

TOOLS IN LEARNING

Distinguishing fad from

TREND

A learning professional must be able to separate fads from trends. The ability to distinguish between the two allows the professional to avoid jumping on a bandwagon versus becoming an organizational thought leader. Ignoring fads and participating in a legitimate trend can help you correctly navigate technology to bring the most effective learning to your organization.

There are three ways to distinguish a fad from a trend. It is important to know these methods when evaluating technology and learning budgets.

TRENDS SPRING FROM REAL NEEDS

promise while trends tend to get stronger over time and actually solve more needs than originally anticipated.

SCOPE OF PHENOMENON The next clue to examine is the scope of phenomenon that might become a trend or fad. Trends tend to encompass entire areas of technology and not just a single brand or item. For example, mobile learning became a trend because any kind of mobile device could be used. But Google Glass was more of a fad partly because it was only one product by one company and other manufactures really didn’t participate within that market.

The first clue to examine is to look at the origin of the popularity of a particular technology. Fads and trends can have similar beginnings so some investigation is in order. Ask the following types of questions: Is the technology popular because it solves a specific problem? Is it easier to use? Is it faster or more efficient?

Trends have an identifiable benefit over previous instructional methods or approaches, and are driven by the fact that they are solving instructional needs.

While it may seem hard at the beginning to determine the scope of a phenomenon, look at the vendors providing the technology and carefully determine if it is gaining momentum because a group of vendors are all launching a similar technology or because one vendor has developed some buzz and energy around a product and that product is taking off like hot cakes.

Fads, on the other hand, are driven by a “coolness” factor or even a “me-too” type mentality. A fad starts with technology and then tries to find a need for the technology. It should be the opposite — start with a need and then figure out what technology best addresses that need. A fad typically doesn’t deliver on its

The rate of growth of a phenomenon can also provide clues as to fad or trend.

Trends evolve slowly over time with course corrections and new approaches to the same concept as the idea grows and matures. The phenomenon that launches a trend, like mobile devices, tend to change over time to meet learning needs and

NATURE OF THE GROWTH

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TRENDS TEND TO GET STRONGER OVER TIME. what seems like an overnight hit actually develops over a considerable timeframe.

Alternatively, fads spike quickly and dramatically and then fade away just as quickly. Time is a great device for distinguishing between a fad and a true trend in the field of learning and development. It is not always a bad idea to sit back and wait to see how quickly technology is adopted and how many companies participate in the growing phenomenon.

CONCLUSION To distinguish between a fad and a trend in the field of learning and development, use these three criteria to examine the technology you are considering adopting.

Looking at the origin of the technology and the problem it purports to solve as well as the scope of industry participation can help you determine if it’s fad or trend. This knowledge will help you make the right choices for your learners as you continue to stay on the leading edge of technology and not waste your energy on fads.

Karl M. Kapp, Ed.D., is a professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University and the author of six books and the Lynda.com course, “Gamification of Learning.”

Email Karl.

13

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10/30/15 3:37 PM

THREE

CORE VALUES

DRIVING TODAY’S WORKFORCE With the ever-increasing speed of business, organizations must leverage technology and social tools to keep pace.

While technology allows us to do more in less time, there is a breakdown in human connection and collaboration occurring due to our reliance on technology.

Insightful conversations are being downsized to quick, to-the-point email exchanges and networking today consists of adding connections to your LinkedIn profile. The workplace is changing and organizations must respond accordingly to not only attract, but retain top talent.

Today’s millennial workforce craves communication, collaboration and realtime connectivity in order to feel engaged and motivated in an organization. These facts were reinforced by recent survey findings conducted by youearnedit. com. Integrating these core values into learning initiatives can increase employee engagement and drive business value.

Companies with highly engaged employees report lower turnover rates and higher productivity and performance.

COMMUNICATION The way we communicate in the workplace has changed dramatically over the past decade. Despite the surge in technology use and the shorthand, emoticon-driven communication style we have adopted to say more in less characters, employees still want authentic conversations. They want to feel like they are contributing to the business and they want consistent feedback on that contribution. In fact, the research suggests that 97 percent of respondents believe real-time feedback from peers and leaders was equal to, and in some cases, more important

than formalized annual performance reviews. Traditional feedback models are no longer cutting it with the millennial generation. Increasing the frequency of feedback and customizing it to the individual when possible is necessary to motivate and support the development of today’s employees.

COLLABORATION Collaboration is a key contributor to business performance. High performance organizations leverage teamwork to efficiently reach shared goals. But in order for your workforce to run as a well-oiled machine, employees must believe in their leaders as well as their peers.

Building a foundation of trust and comradery requires team members getting to know one another and setting clear expectations.

Promoting more opportunities to exchange ideas and work together can foster a culture of collaboration.

After all, great ideas can manifest in the most unlikely places. For example, my company often uses “get in the green” sessions to brainstorm ideas for projects.

These meetings are used to generate creative, outside-the-box ideas from team members who may not have been involved in the project. The goal is to establish an open forum where team members are encouraged to share ideas without criticism.

CONNECTION After spending 40-plus hours each week with our co-workers, it’s little wonder that our peers have a substantial impact on our engagement levels at work. In

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- MICH E L L E E G G L E STON, CPT M

GEN WHY

fact, the research suggests that great co-workers had the biggest impact on personal engagement at work over the past six months. Leveraging employee connection can transform learning and development and enhance the flow of information across the organization.

GREAT IDEAS CAN MANIFEST IN THE MOST UNLIKELY PLACES. Mentoring and peer-to-peer learning are emerging as effective ways to train today’s workforce. With upward of 90 percent of learning occurring through informal and social means, as suggested by the 70-2010 framework, organizations must harness the insight and information of employees to effectively transfer knowledge. This not only connects employees, but also captures company knowledge.

TRAINING TODAY’S WORKFORCE Investing in your employees’ development is critical to retaining them. As workplace dynamics continue to evolve and shift, training strategies must follow suit.

Today’s workplace is driven by passionate employees who want to make a difference.

Leveraging this passion in a meaningful way can enhance innovation and inspire employees to think outside the box.

Even with the onset of new technology, employees want an authentic connection with their leaders and peers. This connection can engage and motivate your employees to reach and exceed your business goals.

Michelle Eggleston, CPTM, is editorial director for Training Industry, Inc. Email Michelle.

15

TRAIN FOR THE BRAIN

WHAT 25 YEARS OF BRAIN SCIENCE CAN TEACH US ABOUT WORKPLACE LEARNING

BY JEREMY B. TEITELBAUM

Over the last two and a half decades, we have advanced our understanding of the human brain further than we did in the previous 500 years. Thanks to new technologies, we now are able to look inside the human mind and see how it works while a person is thinking and speaking.

16

With this new information in hand, we have made tremendous advances in the way we teach and educate people. That said, too many of us have been quick to jump on bandwagons that are poorly understood and still in the process of being developed.

This misinformation has resulted in the spread of neuromyths – false information about neuroscience that leads to faulty assumptions and incorrect theories.

To counter these neuromyths, here are four important lessons from brain science that can help to improve workplace learning.

1|

HUMAN BRAINS CANNOT MULTITASK.

As we all know, multitasking (such as texting or talking on the phone) while driving is dangerous. It increases the rate of crashes by 50 percent. If talking on the phone while driving is deadly, how effective is sitting at our computer attempting to learn?

Many training managers will argue that they have no choice in the matter. With the added pressure on employees to do their jobs and still learn, multitasking seems like

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the best option. Unfortunately, it wastes money and is ineffective.

Training expenditures per learner averaged almost $1,000 per year in 2014. Since onethird of that training is delivered in ways that demand multitasking of employees, corporations may be losing upwards of $10 billion annually. Organizational leaders must understand that offering training while employees are multitasking is a waste of time, money and brain power.

Researchers at Stanford University found that people who are regularly bombarded 17

BRAIN FOOD Try serving these foods at your next training, and see if participants seem more alert and involved: [ SEEDS, NUTS AND WHOLE GRAINS ] [ SALMON ] [ BEANS ] [ EGGS ] [ GREEK YOGURT ] [ TEA (INSTEAD OF COFFEE) ] [ KALE, SPINACH AND BROCCOLI ] [ AVOCADO ] [ BLUEBERRIES, STRAWBERRIES, & ACAI BERRIES ] [ DARK CHOCOLATE ]

For more suggestions, see David Perlmutter’s, “The Better Brain Book.”

with multiple forms of communication are really paying attention to only one item at a time. Even people who claim to multitask on a regular basis cannot process multiple forms of information at once. So for the human brain, the best way to receive training is in a facility where learners can give it their undivided attention.

2|

BRAINS ONLY WORK IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE BODIES ATTACHED TO THEM.

In recent years, there has been a trend in health and fitness to include the brain in the process of weight loss, becoming healthy and staying well. Most experts in cognitive science agree this trend is positive. Unfortunately, there isn’t an opposite trend: Educators and trainers do not think about the body enough. While most instructors understand that our brains need a breaks, that our bodies need food and that both need rest, this knowledge

WE MUST CONTINUE TO FIND BETTER WAYS OF CUSTOMIZING TRAINING.

18

really just scratches the surface of the mindbody connection.

Experts have known for years that physical activity correlates positively with learning and cognition. In addition to the obvious essentials such as sleep and food, our brains need our bodies to provide them with oxygen and with chemicals to help them function. Many of these important chemicals are provided in the foods we eat.

Yet how many training programs provide “brain food” to their participants?

Researchers at the University of Georgia found that people who exercised for 40 minutes performed better on an executive processing task. This task measured how well participants listened to auditory information, processed that information and made calculations based on it. These findings support the beneficial effects of aerobic exercise on memory and attention.

Trainers should include physical activity, such as taking walks, in training programs. In an ideal world, training would also include healthy “brain foods,” such as nuts, grains, fish, beans, eggs, tea, spinach, berries and even quality dark chocolate.

3|

BRAINS ARE SIMILAR BUT UNIQUE.

One of the benefits of the last 25 years of brain science research is a tremendous increase in our understanding of how

human brains function, think, speak, listen and interact. However, because brain research is costly, time-consuming and challenging, most researchers work with relatively small population samples.

In order to discern meaning from this type of research, we must look for patterns of similarities in the brain functions that are studied. However, many researchers subsequently ignore, and sometimes intentionally isolate, the unique differences we all have in our cognitive processing functions. As a result, we have more information about generalizations than about differences.

That doesn’t mean learning facilitators should ignore their learners’ differences and adopt a “one (or two or three) size fits all” model of talent development. We must continue to find better ways of customizing training so we can better accommodate the diversity of our learners. On the other hand, we often take this customization too far by using models of personality type, learning style and leadership with little to no empirical support.

Certainly, there is great utility in any successful attempt to structure and organize the learning process and content development. However, the danger occurs when such organization is treated as the only or the ideal method for designing curricula.

BRAIN SCIENCE TO OUR BRAINS, THERE IS NO HIERARCHY OF LEARNING OR LEARNING STYLES. As new research emerges that demonstrates the complexity of human brains, trainers will need to accommodate a myriad of learning styles, many of which may not even be known yet, including an understanding of the learning styles currently classified as learning disabilities.

4|

B RAIN SCIENCE ISN’T GUIDING US ENOUGH.

There are several recent advances in brain science that must be addressed by trainers.

The first is the way the brain makes sense of information. Our brains do not distinguish between thought and action or soft skills and hard skills. That’s why you can train a pilot to fly a plane on a computer and a soldier to remain calm under simulated gunfire – and why we can wake from a dream and feel like it was real.

The processes that build neurological connections happen in such an isolated place inside our heads that perception is the only reality. To our brains, there is no hierarchy of learning or learning styles. To paraphrase the immortal words of Yoda, there is only “learn or learn not.”

The second area of recent scientific discovery that trainers should understand is the importance of human emotions to learning and cognition. Many trainers are aware of the importance of this “state of mind” in training sessions and classrooms, but it is not often incorporated into the design of content and curricula. Yet for the last 20 years, substantial research has supported the relationship between learning and emotion, and that connection is now a major component of K-12 educational thinking.

In any learning environment, the processes involved in attention, memory, decisionmaking, motivation and social functioning are strongly influenced by our emotions.

These emotions cause changes in both

body and mind that have a significant impact on our ability to learn. Training programs that expect participants to engage in cognitive processes are never truly devoid of some emotional influences.

To remedy this problem, the first step is to teach participants about the role their emotions play in the learning process.

Then we can begin to include an emotional component in our training programs.

Using humorous media and fun learning activities is a great start, but the key lies in an awareness of the broad spectrum of emotions and their connections to learning.

Cognitive psychologist Jason Williams of California Polytechnic State University has found that when people are anxious, they will rate a speaker as more threatening.

What impact does this effect have on workshops that ask people to give speeches, take tests or otherwise step out of their comfort zones?

While the last 25 years have seen significant advances in our understanding of the human brain, workplace learning has struggled to keep pace with the new information. Training departments that do not stay abreast of this innovative knowledge will find it challenging to remain effective. However, those who use this material to their advantage will reap great rewards with the realization of human potential in transformational growth and organizational success.

This article is based on the forthcoming book of the same name by Jeremy B. Teitelbaum, who is on the communication science faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He is the creator of “Cognitive Communication: The science of connection and influence,” a scientifically-based training program in communication and collaboration.

Email Jeremy.

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FOUR LESSONS TO IMPROVE WORKPLACE LEARNING

1|

B RAINS CANNOT MULTITASK

Human brains are only capable of processing one piece of information at a time. To be effective, we must conduct training away from the job and other distractions. Failure to do so will cost billions of dollars each year.

2|

B RAINS ONLY WORK WITH THEIR BODIES

Trainers must focus on the physiological components of learning by including physical activity and providing “brain foods” in training programs.

3|

B RAINS ARE SIMILAR BUT UNIQUE

Traditional models of learning styles are inadequate to account for the unique ways people process information.

New and improved theories generalize cognitive functions while accounting for the diversity of brain processing.

One size will not fit all.

4|

B RAIN SCIENCE IS NOT GUIDING US ENOUGH

The future of training must better incorporate the theories of cognitive processing or risk being left behind. In particular, we must eliminate the nonexistent distinction between “hard” and “soft” skills and better understand the role of emotion in learning.

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WHY YESTERDAY’S SKILLS AREN’T ENOUGH TO SURVIVE

TODAY’S DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

By Jason C. Hathaway

Organizations today are faced with a disruption that is nothing short of historic.

Digital technologies have made their way into organizations and now impact every facet of organizational behavior, both externally and internally. And the digital transformation is just beginning: By 2018, 50 percent of all business process jobs will disappear, and digital jobs will increase by 500 percent.

Yet despite the omnipresence of digital technologies in organizations today, statistics reveal that the people working in them are unprepared: о Nearly 40 percent of workers in the European Union lack some critical digital skills, and 14 percent have none whatsoever. о In the U.S., an estimated 60 million people are shut out of jobs because of a lack of digital skills, and nearly 20 percent of American adults do not use the Internet at home, work or school or by mobile device. о In the U.K., six million citizens have never used the Internet, and 9.5 million have inadequate digital skills.

In light of these skills gaps, organizations have no choice but to rethink the way

they develop their people and their talent in order to stay afloat in this tidal wave of change.

PROGRESS GENERATES A SKILLS GAP The modern digital transformation can easily be compared to the Industrial Revolution. Like the innovations of that era, digital technologies have afforded organizations opportunities to boost performance and efficiency that even a few years ago would have been unthinkable.

For example, geographically dispersed teams can now collaborate and innovate in real time, and organizations can analyze big data to identify which talent is at risk of leaving. Despite these opportunities, organizations

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TECHNICAL SKILLS

DIGITAL LITERACY True digital literacy is the overlap of three skillsets that work together. How can organizations harness technology to innovate?

To collaborate? To sell? To target new customers? To attract and retain talent?

To gain visibility and build brand awareness?

FUNCTIONAL SKILLS

Digital technical, functional and behavior skills come with their own subsets of interdependent, interdisciplinary skills that must be contextualized and addressed concurrently to create sustainable value.

BEHAVIORAL SKILLS

[DIGITAL LITERACY]

are unsure how to embrace this change and unleash the full potential digital technologies offer.

Perhaps the biggest impact of the digital transformation affects the people who make up organizations. Like the Industrial Revolution, the digital disruption has reached the societal level, causing anxiety, fear and heightened uncertainty and insecurity regarding the future.

In 1675, when machine looms began to replace handloom weaving, a three-day riot broke out in England, during which

THE SKILLSET EMPLOYEES NEED TO SURVIVE THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION REQUIRES A HOLISTIC APPROACH.

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groups of weavers destroyed the machines that had begun to replace their jobs. While these machines presented inestimable advantages for performance and efficiency, the people who lived at that time had either to adapt to this change or risk being left jobless.

As history illustrates, technological progress will prevail. Therefore, rather than resisting the digital transformation, people and organizations must prepare immediately and strategically for a skillset that will perpetually change and evolve.

LEARNING FOR LIFE To master perpetual change, both people and organizations must consider learning and development as a never-ending cycle of continuous improvement. Contrary to even a decade ago, a college degree is no longer sufficient to develop the skills needed to build a lifelong career.

The 21st-century workplace is built on changing skills that require lifelong learning and development; failure to adapt will result in obsolescence. Individuals who

stop learning endanger their careers. More worrying still, what is true for people is also true for businesses: Companies that are unready or unwilling to become learning organizations will not survive in the era of digital transformation.

To complicate matters, the way people learn has also been greatly impacted by digital technologies. Learning today is less and less about reserving an hour of training than about consuming short bursts of content on the go. Traditional didactic models are incompatible with new working habits: People simply cannot cut themselves off and concentrate for long periods of time.

Learning is now happening on subway platforms, on planes and even in taxis; as a result, contemporary learners expect learning experiences to be quick, engaging and immediately useful. In addition, organizations can no longer adopt only a top-down approach when it comes to development. Instead, they need to focus more on empowering their staff to develop themselves and each other by providing them with the tools, framework and autonomy to do so.

HISTORY ILLUSTRATES THAT TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS WILL PREVAIL.

instead, it is by mastering the ensemble of all these skills in various environments that makes a good driver.

4| COLLABORATION DIGITAL LITERACY Acquiring a solid range of digital skills is of utmost importance for people and organizations. Many companies, in an effort to join the race toward digital transformation, have chosen to train their staff members to use software.

While developing such technical skills is a laudable decision, teaching a staff member which button to push to create a bar chart or how to electronically sign a document is just not enough.

If an organization’s goal is to make its employees digitally literate, simply training them to operate different types of software only addresses part of the problem. Put simply, it is as if these organizations were giving their staff one shoe to wear instead of two. Instead, the skillset employees need in order to survive the digital transformation requires a more holistic approach to create sustainable value.

Academic research generally defines digital literacy as the interdependence of threeor more interdisciplinary skill subsets that must work in harmony. Of particular importance, researchers Mark Warschauer and Tina Matuchniak identify these interdisciplinary skillsets as (1) information, media and technology skills; (2) learning and innovation skills; and (3) life and career skills.

be illustrated using the example of learning to drive a car, which, like digital literacy, involves three types of skills: technical (i.e., igniting the engine), functional (i.e., analyzing traffic density) and behavioral (i.e., adjusting speed, making turns).

The Five C’s :

1| COMPLEMENTARY A development program should target skills that are complementary, in the sense that technical skills, functional skills and behavioral skills work together. The abstract, “The Search for Competence in the 21st Century,” notes that learning strategies must focus on “how subjects are interconnected.” Because these skills are interdependent, they should be learned and acquired simultaneously.

2| CONCURRENT According to Leah Taylor and Jim Parsons in their journal article, “Improving Student Engagement,” like learning to drive, digital skillsets should be addressed concurrently, “all infused into core content as both process and outcome.”

3| CONTEXTUALIZED The skillsets underpinning digital literacy depend on and change according to the specific context in which they are used.

This categorization further insists that digital literacy is multi-faceted and not simply the mastery of computer or technology skills. In “Digital Literacy: A Conceptual Framework for Survival Skills in the Digital Era,” researcher Yoram Eshet-Alkalai notably underscores this point, saying, “Digital literacy involves more than the mere ability to use software or operate a digital device; it includes a large variety of complex cognitive, motor, sociological and emotional skills, which users need in order to function effectively in digital environments.”

Consider a videoconference: The interactions occurring in a small group of four people who know each other would be very different from those involving 12 strangers. While the relevant technical skills may be the same in both settings (i.e., mastery of the relevant software to hold a videoconference), the functional and behavioral skills required would certainly be different. The way a videoconference is organized and managed depends on several specific parameters (number of people, type of interaction, physical situation, etc.), and, therefore, the targeted skillsets should be contextualized.

DESIGNING A STRATEGY

Digital literacy is the delicate interplay and mastery of all these skill groups in a variety of contexts, not only one. Like driving a car, it is not by mastering the technical, functional and behavioral skills in one context that means the driver is skilled;

When designing a corporate development strategy to achieve digital literacy, managers should focus on five “C’s,” or five key characteristics. These characteristics can

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When designing a development strategy, it is essential to consider the changing nature of learner expectations to optimize engagement based on collaboration. John Seely Brown describes “a shift between using technology to support the individual to using technology to support relationships between individuals. With that shift, we will discover new tools and social protocols that help us help each other, which is the very essence of social learning.”

Taylor and Parsons also suggest, “We need to change how we teach as well as what we teach if we are to engage learners – moving from didactic to constructivist pedagogy.

Constructivist instruction requires strong respectful relationships and safe learning environments, especially as teacher-student relationships shift from expert-disciple towards peer-based collaborative learning.”

5| CONTINUOUS Digital tools come and go quickly; they evolve and incorporate new features regularly (think about the number of versions of Microsoft Office released in the past decade). If a training program is intended to bridge this digital skills gap sustainably, learning cannot be a one-time affair. Training that targets digital literacy must be ongoing and continuously evolving.

The new paradigm for learning and development in the 21st century is very different from past models in the sense that organizations must not only address what people learn but also how they learn. It is by designing sound strategies that integrate changing needs in both content and delivery that we can achieve true digital transformation.

Jason C. Hathaway is the director of content and learning solutions at CrossKnowledge.

Email Jason.

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RISE OF THE LEARNBOT

BY JAMES J. GOLDSMITH

When one hears the word “robot,” the reaction frequently is one of either concern or amusement – concern because of movies like “The Terminator” and “I, Robot,” where machines decide it’s time for their makers to go, and amusement because of movies like “Star Wars” and “Wall-E” and their endearing, Chaplinesque metal characters. But this vision of robots is skewed, because movies are focused on entertainment rather than information. The real story of robots is much more complicated and remarkable.

Elliott Masie, president and CEO of the MASIE Center, recently said, “There is a growing belief that we are beginning to enter an era where the technology base [will] increasingly be able to understand how we learn.” LearnBots will be at the forefront of this new era.

WHAT ARE LEARNBOTS? LearnBots are routines programmed to automate learning. For example, a LearnBot could track your learning history, map it against your current learning needs, provide you with the learning interventions you need, and even suggest options to increase your abilities in related knowledge or skill areas.

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Fairly sophisticated support of this type is currently available in the marketplace (think Amazon), and the learning industry is slowly adopting some of these benefits.

Over time, however, LearnBots will be able to do much, much more.

WHERE DID THEY COME FROM? LearnBots have strong ties to Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSSs), which emerged in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

EPSSs are systems that strive to minimize if not eliminate the distinction between work and learning. Initially, EPSSs focused on human programmed context-sensitive support. Now, more of this functionality is automated; Bob Mosher, chief learning

evangelist at APPLY Synergies, observes that “these technologies will only get smarter and more adaptive as time goes on.”

There are also important ties to Intelligent Tutoring. Clark Quinn, executive director of Quinnovation, notes, "Intelligent Tutoring Systems have been around for decades, adapting on the basis of deep models of expertise in a domain. More recently, adaptation[s] based upon characteristics of the learner have emerged, and now some commercial ones have hit the market that combine some of both elements.”

But these adaptations have been slow to catch on. Clive Shepherd, founding director of The More Than Blended Learning Company, observes, “For some reason, we have restricted our use of computer[s] to mere multimedia distribution devices and completely ignored their potential for providing an adaptive learning experience,” even though “real progress was being made with Intelligent Tutoring” in the 1980s.

Fortunately, he says, “…if you wait long enough, it all comes [a]round again, and this time, hopefully it will stick.”

LearnBots have benefited from and been influenced by developments in many fields, including: » Personalization/Adaptive Learning » Increases in Computing Power, which, in turn, lead to increased capability » Sensors and the Internet of Everything (IOE): information gathered from everywhere and updated continuously » Big Data and Predictive Analytics: the massive collection of information gathered from sensors and the IOE and the programs that use this information to predict outcomes » Synthetic Biology (including emotional interfaces): reality mimicked in an electronic/synthetic form, which also serves as the interface to reality Given their complexity, these and other developments in business, science, academia and the world in general will shape the various generations of LearnBots in ways that may be surprising.

WHY LEARNBOTS? LearnBots can: » Automate basic, repetitive and/or errorprone learning development tasks, freeing us to do other (presumably higher-order) activities

» Gather and interpret data to better manage learning administration » F ill learning gaps by providing highquality learning to more people who need it »P rovide efficiencies that will reduce the complexity, time and/or number of steps needed to reach learning goals » I mprove the quality of learning by providing appropriate consistency while delivering personalization »P rovide learning functionality and support at the speed of computer processing power »D eliver adaptive learning using predictive analytics, semantic search engine optimization and other advanced techniques »B e available continuously In the future, LearnBots may also: » Teach themselves, so they can continually improve »P rovide realistic, highly engaging and ever-changing simulations and other learning events designed to lead participants to new insights, opportunities and solutions » E xpand the definition of learning » E xpand the impact of learning »H elp us think differently about the world, which may help us make the world better

MATH 101 FOR LEARNBOT USERS At the core of LearnBots is math.

Here are some definitions to better understand what drives a LearnBot:

ALGORITHM A procedure or formula used to solve a problem. Algorithms have been used since the ninth century and, in modern times, are the basis for most computer programs. In data processing, an algorithm typically starts with a set of conditions and, applied to these conditions, is a set of (often repeated) instructions designed to lead to an anticipated outcome.

PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS Using mathematics, forecasting what might happen in the future based on an analysis of what has happened in the past. In Predictive Analytics, an existing data set is selectively screened for patterns and relationships that can provide an acceptable level of reliability for a targeted outcome, such as managing a risk or projecting a future trend.

WILL THEY CHANGE OVER TIME? Personalization, adaptive learning, increases in computing power, sensors and other phenomena have shaped First Generation LearnBots – the ones available today. These LearnBots can make adjustments to an EPSS or help a Learning Management System (LMS) perform better. This generation will create new standards of learning efficiency, but they are just the beginning.

Building on what we learned from the First Generation and applying advances in mathematics, data science, psychology and other fields, Second Generation LearnBots will be able to understand, if not master, subtleties of human personality and, in particular, natural language. They will use this knowledge to drive and continually enhance deep and engaging simulations that will test human potential.

SEMANTIC SEARCH Using mathematics and advanced tools an action designed to help users get meaningful answers to questions from a searchable electronic environment (think Siri). Since no keyword is required, a Semantic Search seeks to understand the user’s intent in the context of the entered word or phrase’s meaning in “natural” (rather than “computer”) language. A Semantic Search can, for example, distinguish between spoken homonyms (there, their, they’re), and apply the right word to produce a relevant search outcome.

But there will be limits. The Second Generation LearnBot will still operate behind the scenes, the product of the intelligent

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REPLACE

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNERS? Here’s what leading thought leaders in the learning industry had to say about this: CATHY MOORE

(Learning Consultant and Author)

“Our responsibility goes well beyond putting information into brains. Our job is to ‘solve performance problems.’

Information isn’t the solution to every performance problem. IDs need to analyze each problem and identify the best solution, whether it’s ‘knowledge transfer’ or something else, such as improving a clunky process or removing an organizational barrier. This kind of analysis needs human brains and can’t be replaced by a LearnBot.” CRAIG WEISS

(CEO, Blogger, Speaker, and e-Learning Analyst)

“I’m not seeing a LearnBot nor deep learning taking out the ID or e-learning developer. You still need someone to build courses, and deep learning isn’t designed to do that.”

RYAN TRACEY

(E-Learning Manager at AMP)

“I believe there will always be the need for humans in roles such as instructional design. Rather than replace IDs, LearnBots will ‘assist’ them.

In other words, IDs will use LearnBots as a tool to improve what they do.”

CLIVE SHEPHERD

(Founding Director at The More Than Blended Learning Company)

“Instructional designers should employ [LearnBots] as tools. I don’t see them as a threat. Anything that makes learning a more adaptable, personalized experience has to be a good thing.”

BOB MOSHER

(Chief Learning Evangelist at APPLY Synergies)

“The ID’s new role is to help the correct type of workflow design to enable these tools rather than own the design process from start to finish.”

Clark Quinn

(Executive Director at Quinnovation)

“I think IDs will shift to being learning engineers, in the sense of mining data on performance and tuning systems to achieve learning outcomes.”

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machine language developed by scientists but continually enhanced by the machines themselves. They will raise the bar for effectiveness, but there will still be more to come.

Third Generation LearnBots will assume physical form as synthetic teachers.

They will have the remarkable ability to understand and emphasize with their students, adapting their actions to provide unparalleled learning experiences. These LearnBots will employ an advanced form of heuristics, which will produce profound and novel insights that, in turn, will be transformed into unprecedented learning experiences. These experiences could alter the way people see the world and how they live in it. If LearnBots reach their potential, the impact will be transformative.

WHY AREN’T THEY PREVALENT NOW? Julie Dirksen, learning strategy consultant at Usable Learning, says, “I've been puzzled by how little use the learning field has made of recommender engines. They are being used more and more often in retail, social media, and online content. It seems like a natural fit for learning environments, but I've seen very little adoption thus far.

It probably has something to do with how locked down learning content tends to be, and our ways of managing learning content will need to evolve.”

Besides the challenges involved in handling learning content, there are at least two other reasons why LearnBots aren’t more prevalent.

First, successful LearnBot development requires the active collaboration of two separate and often very different disciplines: learning and data science. There is a precedent for the type of interdisciplinary cooperation needed (i.e., the work done in learning technologies over several decades). However, to date, work on LearnBots has been isolated and limited.

The two groups attend different schools, work in different industries and have their own ways of speaking. We need a group of LearnBot scientists with the right academic and professional opportunities to develop this interdisciplinary role, and given the LearnBot’s potential, this profession is likely to develop.

Second, creating LearnBots is difficult.

They support a key function of the human brain and, as physicist Dr. Michio Kaku points out, the human brain “is the most complex object in the known universe.” The mathematics needed to enable effective learning through robotics is a work in

progress and may stay that way for some time. In addition, many of the disciplines that need to converge to produce Third or even Second Generation LearnBots are just emerging. Therefore, it may be many years before LearnBots think, look and act like us.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR LEARNBOTS? Craig Weiss, e-learning CEO, blogger, speaker and analyst, is cautious: “I think it will depend on whether or not training and the L&D departments see value in what [LearnBots] can do and, more importantly, the level [to] which…the administrator will be able to tweak the weighting or percentiles of the algorithm. If the LearnBot does not allow for any modifications on behalf of the organization, it will be a problem.”

THIRD GENERATION LEARNBOTS WILL ASSUME PHYSICAL FORM AS SYNTHETIC TEACHERS. Some of Weiss’ colleagues are more optimistic.

Clark Quinn says, “The growing potential for semantic mining of content offers up the promise of systems that can meet contextualized learning needs without human intervention, though a hybrid solution is likely to be better. Still, we are already seeing such emergence, and the notion of a ubiquitous always-on learning mentor could reach fruition within [the next five to ten years].” Ryan Tracey, e-learning manager at AMP, agrees that LearnBots will likely become more prevalent but cautions that “if you need a Ph.D. in electronic engineering…the technology will remain within the realm of the few who can afford to pay someone else big money to do it for them.”

Because of the potential of LearnBots to save time, money and effort while continually improving their in-demand services, business will drive science and the learning profession to find a way to make them work. Will it happen in the next three years? Five years? Ten years? Stay tuned!

James J. Goldsmith has worked at Accenture for 19 years and is currently a learning architect/business advisor. He has more than 30 years of experience in learning design/development and program/project management, working with several Fortune 500 and major global clients. Email James.

8 in 10

HR Functions are completing or will soon undergo an HR Transformation. Are you one of them?

Source: Corporate Executive Board

Transforming L&D can transform your HR strategy more than anything else.

While organizations look broadly at HR, it is our belief that training and development should be at, or near the top, of your HR transformation strategy. If you are seeking to create transformative value from the investments your organization makes in training, discover how NIIT can help you Run Training like a Business. Explore how you can dramatically improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your training capability at www.niit.us/transformHR.

Running Training like a Business.

Enabling the HR Transformation Strategy.

CURRICULUM AND CONTENT

LEARNING DELIVERY

LEARNING ADMINISTRATION

STRATEGIC SOURCING

LEARNING TECHNOLOGY

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KEY TRENDS 2016

FOCUSING ON THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING TO BETTER ENGAGE THE ADULTBY DOUG LEARNER HARWARD THE EXPECTATIONS ON LEADERS OF TRAINING ORGANIZATIONS TO IMPROVE BUSINESS PERFORMANCE REQUIRES THEM TO UNDERSTAND HOW TO CREATE AND DELIVER CONTENT THAT POSITIVELY INFLUENCES THE LEARNER’S BEHAVIOR. UNDERSTANDING HOW TO BETTER ENGAGE THE LEARNER IS AT THE HEART OF HOW OUR INDUSTRY IS EVOLVING.

In our 2014 Key Trends Report we discussed the industry’s shift from a learner-centric approach to one focused more on how to meet the needs of the business. As this trend continued into 2015, corporate executives began looking for ways to transform their organizations into one that creates value and has meaningful impact on the performance of the business.

As we now look into 2016, we are seeing corporate executives and learning leaders collectively looking at how to get back to the basics of understanding what makes training work, and what activities are not so effective. We like to think of this as the science of application. It’s the focus on how learning leaders can better engage the adult learner to ensure we move from knowledge to skill to application. With this in mind, here are some key trends to consider in the coming year.

CONSISTENCY OF PERFORMANCE DRIVES ONGOING TRAINING

NEUROSCIENCE BRINGS PARADIGM SHIFT TO DESIGN AND DELIVERY OF TRAINING

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve shows us that learners forget most of the information they learn shortly after leaving the classroom. Organizations need learners to consistently perform on the job over an extended period of time. Learning leaders are increasingly recognizing their responsibility to provide a training experience that extends the classroom, and leverages the 70:20:10 approach, by providing ongoing training through informal and social means. This concept has traditionally been referred to as performance support systems, but more recently has been coined reinforcement content, or “boost” forms of learning support. We are seeing a growing number of technologies and mobile apps being introduced that support the need to ensure a worker performs their job at a consistent level over time.

Medical researchers and neuroscientists consider the human brain to be the most complex object in our universe and the final frontier of science. Understanding how the brain works and how people learn has been the Holy Grail of our profession since the beginning. We have an insatiable fascination with new technologies and techniques for designing, delivering and reinforcing training; although, we really don’t understand why one works better than the other. As our industry has continued to grow, so has our interest in neuroscience. As learning leaders, our focus is on applying scientific approaches to understand which technologies and techniques deliver higher retention and application, and helping us break the old paradigms of classroom and online training.

COMPETENCY-BASED PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT Imagine the possibilities if we were able to graph every economic opportunity by the skills needed to achieve those opportunities, the company’s profiles that can offer those opportunities, and the professional profiles of every individual in the global workforce who can meet those needs. This is the goal of the LinkedIn Economic Graph Challenge. As more and more great training organizations have access to larger amounts of data that link competencies with job performance, organizations are spending more time putting together curated sets of courses and learning aids that allow the learner to develop the skills they need to improve their impact. Leveraging crowdsourcing of competency data and matching that data with shorter, more focused learning, encompasses a few of the trends we see emerging in the training market. We need to look for ways to develop training roadmaps that organize and curate content into competency-based programs for specific jobs, roles and skill levels.

RENEWED EMPHASIS ON INSTRUCTOR QUALITY Regardless the type of training, great training organizations are increasingly demanding that instructors have real-world experiences and share the stories necessary to give the training relevancy and reflect the values the company intends to portray.

Virtual delivery has made it easier to attract subject matter experts (SMEs) to the delivery platform, but it’s adding complexity to how we develop their delivery skills. Facilitators have become generalists in many content segments as they are priced and sourced as a commodity skillset. The challenge is in upskilling instructors – or properly preparing instructors to be quality communicators and SMEs – and developing the skillsets where they enhance the training experience. Expect to see more focus on instructor development and credentialing for virtual and classroom delivery.

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EMERGENCE OF VIDEO AS THE DOMINANT APPROACH TO MOBILE LEARNING Mobile learning is not a new idea. Since the introduction of the mobile device, learning leaders have viewed mobile devices as another way to get training content in the hands of the learner at the point of application. Video has emerged as the dominant approach to deliver training content over a mobile device. We have not seen a widespread acceptance and adoption of structured courseware on a mobile device, especially the smartphone. A learner’s ability to access a video that demonstrates how a job or task should be done is proving to be one of the most effective methods for ensuring consistency in job tasks, as well as an efficient way to get information to the learner when they need it.

LEARNING IN THE CLOUD As enterprise and workplace systems evolve, so too are the technologies and tools that deliver training content and track learning activities. The traditional LMS has quickly evolved to cloud-based, SaaS (software-as-a-service) platforms that can be turned on and off with relative ease.

Tools such as Workday, Namely, HR Cloud, and Cvent are providing a fast and flexible approach to managing small and large enterprise training organizations, single training events, as well as monitoring online, on-demand training programs.

The introduction of workplace apps that allow us to deliver training content preand post-learning experience, or to better manage and track the effectiveness and efficiency of online training, will change how we use devices for training. Mobile apps are not just about how we access content, but in the future will be more about how we monitor learning and skill progression. In addition to speed and flexibility, these new environments are making measurement and data collection much easier. With the ability to target development at the skill level, testing becomes easier and the data the learning team collects becomes a better proxy of learning impact.

INCREASE OF STARTUPS FOR TRAINING BUSINESSES Large companies can spend as much as 60 percent of their training budget with external training suppliers to design, develop and deliver training. Corporate training organizations have an increased willingness to use independent training professionals instead of carrying fixed staff for variable activities.

With any growing market, there are more people chasing their entrepreneurial dreams by creating a training company. In the technology sector, there is an increase in investment funding for companies to provide innovative tools and apps to deliver and reinforce training content. There are more companies today that act as brokers for these independent contractors to provide a channel for selling into the large enterprise. The barrier of entry to being a training supplier is as low as ever, allowing training professionals to move from working within the corporate training function to being a contractor for the same organization. Expect this trend to continue as corporate training organizations continue to use variable resources for training activities.

ACCELERATED CURRICULUMS DISRUPT TRADITIONAL APPROACHES TO JOB TRAINING Universities and technical colleges have traditionally been the provider of vocational programs to prepare entry-level workers for the job market. The U.S. Department of Education recently announced the Educational Quality through Innovation Partnerships (EQUIP) program that provides financial aid to eligible students for “alternative education providers” programs, including coding bootcamps and MOOCs. These programs have seen a 140 percent growth in graduates over the past two years, and expected to continue for the foreseeable future.

The drivers behind this phenomenon is the ongoing increase in the cost of education, the time it takes to get a college degree, and the willingness of companies to recognize these credentials for new hires. Accelerated curriculums can prepare a worker for the job market in weeks instead of years, saving money and providing employees with exactly the skills they need. These programs are also instrumental in reducing the cost of recruitment and onboarding for the hiring firm. Expect the concept of accelerated curriculums as seen in the coder bootcamps to expand across other technical professions in the near future.

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SOURCING FOR TRAINING SERVICES CONTINUES TO GROW The market for training outsourcing services continues to rise in proportion to the growth in corporate spend for training. The growth in corporate spend for training services grew in 2015 at approximately 6.25 percent, as compared to the estimated growth in GDP. This means companies are more willing to spend for training as a percent of revenue.

The growth is stronger in spend for customer training as opposed to employee training. We are seeing ongoing efficiencies in the cost of providing employee training as we move from formal classroom training to virtual and online access of content. The market for training business process outsourcing (BPO) is relatively stable as it relates to large scale, multinational engagements. The majority of training BPO deals involve companies leveraging selective outsourcing models for functional training needs, such as sales training organizations selecting companies that specialize in sales training. Large scale, or comprehensive BPO companies, are not gaining strength in converting multinationals to transition all activities to one global provider.

JOB MARKET FOR TRAINING PROFESSIONALS IS STABLE The job market for training professionals is not as robust as it was a year ago, although there are still opportunities to be found. Leadership positions on the buy-side of the profession tend to be relatively stable, whereas practitioner roles such as instructional designers, instructors and administrators are at best stable. Most of the practitioner job opportunities are on the supply-side of the profession, and are often more contractororiented. The growing trend of buy-side training organizations to use contract resources for practitioner roles has been instrumental in the growth of the independent training companies mentioned earlier. We expect this trend to continue as supply-side companies expand their use of contract resources to deal with the fluctuating demands of resources by their client base.

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

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Custom-tailored learning services to drive business results. Xerox makes it simple.

Your company objectives, your goals, your plans—these are all specific to your business. The tools and resources you use to keep your employees sharp and performing their best should be no different. From learning strategy and consulting to the measurement of learning outcomes, Xerox Learning Services tailors each solution to drive business results.

844.839.7988 xerox.com/learning ©2015 Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved. Xerox®, Xerox and Design® and Ready For Real Business® are trademarks of Xerox Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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USING TECHNOLOGY TO

AMPLIFY

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

By Sanjay Advani

Leadership development is ubiquitous; U.S. companies alone spend billions every year on it. And it’s critical in the current business environment, where everyone is grappling with constant change. Learning and development (L&D) departments routinely deliver high-intensity, in-person workshops that are exhilarating, empowering and motivating experiences for senior leaders and high-potential employees.

But even with such substantial investment, a recent survey found that 62 percent of business leaders say they have leadership gaps, and only 17 percent feel confident that they have the leadership talent to deliver on strategic priorities.

The problem is: Then what? Most workshop participants return to their overcrowded workdays and lose the motivation, focus, resources and even knowledge to change their behavior on the job. What’s missing is a way to surround, sustain and

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scale that rich, in-person experience to enable a continuous learning journey for leaders.

DEVELOPING A CONTINUOUS LEARNING JOURNEY A continuous learning journey isn’t a new goal for L&D. But the evolution of learning technology is providing new ways to surround, sustain and scale. New approaches can take a great leadership workshop and amplify it, for real and immediate business results.

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LEARNING TECHNOLOGY TODAY The word “phone” has a completely different meaning in 2015 than it did in 1990. Learning technology has undergone a similar evolution, and when we use the term today, we don’t mean 1990s – or even 2012s – tools and platforms.

THE EVOLUTION OF CORPORATE LEARNING:

CLASSROOM

E-LEARNING

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

BLENDED LEARNING

LEARNING EXPERIENCES

ONLINE LEARNING BETWEEN EVENTS CAN DRIVE COMMUNITY BUILDING AND REINFORCEMENT. As Noah Rabinowitz, Korn Ferry’s global solution lead for leadership development, puts it, “Leadership training is really about building a better organization, if you want to roll it up. It’s about driving the strategy, changing the culture, filling the pipeline.”

And you can’t really change an organization’s culture if only some leaders are getting the message, and fewer still are empowered to enact it.

Giuseppe Auricchio, executive director of learning innovation at IESE Business School in Barcelona, thinks learning needs a paradigm shift like the ones already experienced in areas that are now highly digitized, like shopping or health and fitness.

“Take for example something like a FitBit,” Auricchio explains. “We have an entirely different way to think about and to experience health and fitness as an individual. You are now continuously engaged in meeting your fitness goals across breakfast, the gym and so forth, all day. Learning is going to become the same as fitness today, and in the new paradigm, barriers will be removed, and it’s going to become continuous, learner-led and data driven.”

So how can technology amplify existing leadership training to meet these kinds of critical business goals? Here are some tips.

SURROUND AND SUSTAIN From desktop to cloud-based, asynchronous to flexible synchronicity, didactic to collaborative, location-bound to massively scalable, and expensive and slow-to-produce to cost-effective and nimble, learning technology is finally reaching the stage consumers expect of all their other technologies.

Today’s innovative options are consumer-grade, intuitive, elegant and all about the learner. And digitization is woven right into the overall fabric of the experience. Learning technology is better than it’s ever been, and it’s available to ever more people at once.

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Before the workshop, flip the classroom by using online learning to build participants’ fluency in core leadership concepts.

Building on this foundation, your leaders can go deeper during their in-person sessions.

You can then devote precious live classroom time to deeper levels of application and synthesis, including activities like roleplaying that are best done face to face. After the workshop, you can make information available online for reinforcement and just-in-time access.

What does this“surround and sustain”process look like in practice?

When a consulting firm wanted to broaden partner capability and amplify its existing in-person networking events, it launched a series of “corporate MOOCs” (collaborative, cohort-driven online learning experiences) leading up to the in-person sessions.

These senior-level leaders – a group generally seen as skeptical and dismissive of online learning – loved the approach, with an overwhelming majority rating it as very effective preparation for the inperson events.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS Networking is one of the biggest benefits of in-person leadership training, but keeping that community alive afterward can be a challenge. Utilizing online options, you can start introducing cohorts to each other before workshops, and then provide a forum for ongoing networking and deepening relationships after them.

Online learning activities between events can also drive community building and reinforcement.

For example, one professional services firm supplemented its leadership development program for new senior leaders with a robust technology platform featuring an array of short-form content. The mobilefriendly technology included self-directed learning paths, multiple discussion forums and integrated social features, and the ability to upload learner-generated content for “wisdom of the crowd” sharing. They also added webinars and conference calls between workshops to address topics chosen by the community of learners.

This year-long, workshop-based program is highly valued, and the face-to-face experiences are still the heart of the program. However, now participants can build community, share best practices, and

receive continual guidance from coaches and senior mentors between the in-person events. Eighty-nine percent of surveyed learners indicated the online platform added high value to the program.

perspectives from numerous voices, which you can bring together online, drive the type of disruptive thinking that’s crucial to shake up approaches to organizational culture, and that leads to business impact.”

PRACTICING NEW SKILLS

But scale can also mean reaching different audience levels, extending the reach of leadership programs right down to the front line. In organizations trying to drive and manage change, this kind of scale is increasingly important. A recent survey showed that leading change is not only a top priority for both senior and mid-level managers but also a surprisingly high number three on the list for first-level leaders too.

Learning requires real-world practice. Using online technologies for reminders, guided practice in a safe environment and justin-time access to practical information are great ways to build on the work done at live leadership development events. Takiyah Gross, vice president of learning at Newell Rubbermaid, notes: “People don’t often think that bitesized learning is an effective way to develop leadership skills…For many leaders, there’s not enough time in the day to focus on learning. However, there are responsibilities that leaders are faced with daily such as performance review discussions or tough coaching conversations. It’s in these moments that on-the-spot advice can make all the difference between a leader’s ability to motivate an employee or totally disengage them.”

SCALE When we talk about scale in learning, we usually mean either training more people or training them in more locations. Learning technology can help leadership training scale in both these ways.

NEW APPROACHES CAN AMPLIFY A GREAT LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP.

Online learning can also scale the reach of coaching or mentoring moments. A voice memo or webcam video from a company leader answering one learner’s question can live online and be consumed by many learners now and in the future. Additionally, an online platform can be used to connect mentors with mentees and enable them to share best practices on an ongoing basis.

“So much of an organization’s success hinges on culture,” says Gross. “If only a small percentage of leaders get access to content, then you’re not really shifting the culture, driving performance or the behaviors. That’s why it’s essential that learning content is connected from the top of the house and cascades throughout the organization for clear continuity.”

It’s inspiring to see some of the most progressive companies in the world tackle leadership development as a journey instead of a dip-and-dunk. It’s also exciting to see the innovative learning technologies available today make it easier for a lot more companies to amplify their leadership development programs. Best of all is seeing these programs significantly impact strategy, culture and change.

Sanjay Advani is vice president of marketing and alliances at Intrepid Learning, Inc. Email Sanjay.

“The geographic reach enabled by technology,” says Rabinowitz, “empowers a crucial piece of truly impactful strategic leadership development: diversity. Different

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES “REAL-WORLD LEADERSHIP REPORTS”

BY KORN FERRY

These research reports analyze the results of a global survey on leadership development that Korn Ferry recently conducted. Over 50 percent of participants were at the vice president or C-suite level.

“RE-THINKING BLENDED LEARNING FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT”

BY RODDY MILLAR

Roddy Millar investigates Giuseppe Auricchio’s research into engagement and barriers to engagement for senior-level learners.

WEBINAR: AHA’S AND UH-OHS: BUILDING GREAT FIRST-LEVEL LEADERS This webinar, presented by The Forum Corporation’s Tom Rose, examines the results of a “Voice of the Industry” survey, providing leadership development priorities and suggestions for developing pivotal first-level leader roles.

“EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: WHAT’S MISSING IN MOST CHANGE PROGRAMS”

BY NICK VAN DAM

McKinsey CLO Nick Van Dam lays out the case for experiential learning. The real-world application and peer review for which he calls can easily be accomplished with a robust online learning experience component.

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LEAVING A

LEARNING LEGACY DEVELOPING PERVASIVE & PERPETUAL LEARNING

By Steve Swink

The corporate learning landscape continues to change and develop at light speed.

Business demands and competitive pressures are forcing professionals to learn “in the moment.” Employees no longer wait for their companies to develop formalized learning experiences to meet their needs; they now seek and bring their own learning experiences to the table. As a result, corporate learning and development (L&D) experts are faced with the challenge of creating and leveraging a platform to capture and curate this instant, “do-it-yourself” learning that is robust enough to churn through a perpetual learning cycle and gives learners a resource to curate and share their own learning.

KNOWLEDGE: NOW IT’S RELEVANT, NOW IT’S NOT In her book “Rookie Smarts: Why Learning Beats Knowing in the New Game of Work,” Liz Wiseman states the new workscape is “vast, fast and fleeting.” With an abundance of information, work cycles spinning at increasingly faster rates and the pace of discovery accelerating, yesterday’s knowledge is decaying at a rate of 15 percent or more per year.

As workers become overwhelmed with knowledge overload and increasingly aggressive deadlines, they are forced to filter through and prioritize information, often without the benefit of formalized learning events.

Not only is knowledge becoming irrelevant at an ever-increasing pace, but, as the demographics of the workplace change, and technology and culture continue to T R A I N I N G I N DUSTR Y MA GAZ INE - WINTER20 1 6 I WWW.TRAININGINDU S T RY . C OM/ MAGAZ I NE

shift consumer demands and expectations, employees are coming to expect and receive their learning in new – and sometimes unconventional – ways. (See “Get Set for a New Mindset” sidebar.)

The plethora of information bombarding employees and managers is also causing attention spans to shrink dramatically.

Longer training courses are now reserved for deep technical training. According to Josh Bersin, most workplace learning now occurs in one- to two-minute portions.

Google and other search engines are becoming the default go-to source for inthe-moment learning. Resources such as Wikipedia have evolved into communities of knowledge with built-in self-policing for some modicum of accuracy and impartiality. Whether out of necessity or convenience, workers are abandoning corporate universities and divisional 39

training departments in favor of communal and open resources when they gather the information and skills needed to accomplish their work.

As a result, employers and organizational leaders are presented with the task of not only meeting learners’ vast array of demands and expectations, but they are also charged with the responsibility of tracking the mosaic of artifacts employees bring to the communal heap of the corporate knowledgebase.

In turn, L&D leaders are looking to learning management system (LMS) and other learning platform vendors to offer effective and flexible solutions to capture the constantly moving target of “vast, fast and fleeting” information whipping across Wiseman’s “new workscape.”

GET SET FOR A NEW MINDSET Beloit College is known for its worldfamous “Mindset List”, which provides insight into the worlds of incoming freshmen. The list sheds light on cultural and technological changes as well as the expectations of those soon to enter the workforce and those who have recently arrived.

Here are selections from the lists between 2005 and 2015: T hey are wireless, yet always connected.

“Google” has always been a verb.

Text messaging is their email.

A SEISMIC SHIFT IN THE LEARNING ECOSPHERE

“Don’t touch that dial!”….what dial?

Degreed.com is one of several of a new breed of learning platform purveyors that go beyond the traditional roles of LMS or learning content management systems (LCMS). These newer players focus from the outset on delivering a learner experience rather than simply managing and tracking learning events. Josh Bersin likens the new digital LMS platforms to a “consumer-like TV channel of corporate learning” and elaborates on how shifts in technology have forced the LMS marketplace to evolve.

(See Figure 1.)

FIGURE 1

Other factors influencing consumer behavior and expectations include the ubiquity of 24/7 on-demand streaming entertainment and information.

Here’s a final item from the 2019 list: ell phones have become so C ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party.

Are you ready?

More established and traditional vendors are also shifting their business models and offerings. Evidence of this shift can be seen in consolidations and acquisitions that include the SAP (SuccessFactors) 2011 takeover of video learning company Jambok, which powers SucessFactors’ integrated social learning platform, Jam. In late June of 2015, Cornerstone OnDemand announced an alliance with TED to provide a series of TED talk playlists to their clients.

CHARTING A PATH AND LEAVING A TRAIL Learning takes place in a collective, according to authors Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown’s 2011 work, “A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change.” The authors advocate three pillars of the new learning culture: play, questioning and imagination. They cite several examples, including a seasoned employee who taught himself several core programming languages through trial and error and learned from the collective by uploading the errors in his code to seek feedback and find the correct code.

But how can L&D leaders channel collectives to keep them from appearing as chaos? One answer may lie with digital badges, which can help give credence to the artifacts today’s discovery learners bring to their learning collectives. (See “Badges” sidebar.)

EVOLUTION OF THE LEARNING PLATFORM MARKET

TODAY

2000s » Talent Management and 1990s » E-Learning and Blended Learning Management

1980s » Learning Administration (Training Management)

» Classroom » Materials » Scheduling » Fees and Commerce » Wait Lists

» E-Learning » Virtual Classroom »Blended Learning » Simulations » SCORM Tracking

Talent Development

» Perfomance Management » Career Development »Mobile Learning » Compliance » Certification

» The Learning Platform » MOOCs »Video »Apps » Machine Learning » Recommendations

Source: Bersin by Deloitte

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HOW CAN L&D LEADERS CHANNEL COLLECTIVES TO KEEP THEM FROM APPEARING AS CHAOS? However, to be relevant, badges must be designed and implemented with deliberation and forethought. In a report from Reconnect Learning, a nonprofit dedicated to“growing the badge ecosystem,” the authors emphasize the importance of not treating badges as a passing fancy. They advise leveraging the collective for input on the badges and making sure to gather enough qualified community members or other experts to help set the standards and rate the work of prospective badge earners.

The report goes on to say that organizations looking to implement badges into their learning programs should also expect to invest adequate amounts of both time and money to build the right infrastructure and support for the badging initiative to ensure its success.

In corporate classrooms, some facilitators are also ditching traditional user guides and workbooks for more interactive personal repositories like Microsoft OneNote. Such tactics allow classroom participants to take core, validated learning components and assemble them into a living personalized mosaic of material. Because the content is living and interactive, learners can continually remold it to meet their own personal style preferences, add new components that emerge after the initial training and shed obsolete information when it expires.

KEY TAKEAWAYS What steps can those involved in the L&D field, whether they are executives, instructional designers or facilitators, take to stay ahead of the ever-sharpening curve in the industry?

Sponsor and build a collective. This collective may be user groups of proprietary or industry-specific software; communities of experts around a specific skill or specialty; or simply passionate associates who want to explore, encourage, incentivize, and recognize active participation in (and contributions to) these communities using tactics such as digital badging.

Curate and communicate. If you are in an organization that uses an LMS or other learning platform, work with your vendor to leverage some of the newly emerging features appearing in this market. If needed, supplement your existing platforms with structured, “home-grown” archives until your learning platform supplier can integrate this information.

Step away from the podium and join the crowd. As a facilitator, it’s no longer enough to move from being a “sage on the stage” to being a “guide on the side.” Become a docent by pointing your participants to resources and letting them explore on their own. It’s likely they’ll make relevant discoveries you might never have imagined.

By following these tips to guide learners, curate knowledge, and track and recognize achievements, L&D leaders will leave a learning legacy for their organizations, employees and communities that will span beyond any single training event and serve and grow with participants for years to come.

Steve Swink is a training specialist for GP Strategies, a global performance improvement company driven to solve your business challenges, perform at the highest level and make a greater impact on the world around you. Email Steve.

BADGES? DO WE REALLY NEED THEM?

Like badges used in the scouting system, digital badges are representations of the accomplishment of certain tasks or skill sets. Mozilla’s Open Badge Project is one of several initiatives advancing the use of digital badges in learning.

Badges can be displayed on the web for education, employment or other purposes.

Common features of open badge programs include: OPEN SOURCED Badges give organizations the ability to create, issue and verify digital badges.

TRANSFERABILITY Badges empower learners to earn and collect badges from a variety of sources or institutions and attach them to their “sash” as they build a customized learning odyssey.

STACKABILITY Badges are designed to build upon one another, creating a customized “resume” for each individual.

EVIDENCE-BASED Open badges contain hard-coded metadata connected to the issuer, criteria and verifying evidence.

Let learners build – and share – their own legacies. Give them the freedom to explore and discover (within reason) the resources and knowledge they need to better perform for your organization. Then, give them appropriate tools and platforms to share and discuss their discoveries with one another. Truly motivated learners will work to find the resources and methods that will be most effective for them to get the job done.

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H W TO HOW HO TO TURN TUR TU URN N

HIGHLY TECHNICAL CONTENT INTO AN

ENGAGING LEARNER EXPERIENCE

B Michele A. Graham, M.S.; Diana Benyaminy, CPA, M.S.; By Joy Gross, M.A.; and Lauren K. Fregonese, M.B.A.

Imagine a typical course on a technical topic: Learners enter the room; sit for hours passively listening to an instructor slog through a slideheavy, text-heavy, lecture-based course; then walk out with their heads spinning.

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It doesn’t have to be this way. The next time you are tasked with developing technical training, you can create an engaging, effective experience that yields results and leaves the learner wanting more. You don’t need to be fluent in instructional design jargon, but you may want to follow a few practical steps.

1 DEFINE LEARNING OBJECTIVES. More and more, organizations look to learning and development for solutions to business problems.

When charged with creating a course to solve a business problem or close a skill gap, first make sure you are asking the right questions. Often, the root of the issue is not as simple as it may seem.

Once you have a better sense of the problem at hand and the organization’s goals, you can define what you expect your learners to know, or be able to do, when they leave your training: your learning objectives. Be sure to write objectives that are specific and aimed at the level of learning expected.

Ask yourself:

º What problem or issue do you want to solve? º Is the problem caused or exacerbated by a lack of knowledge or skills?

º What has led to this problem or need? ºW hat are the biggest obstacles to solving this problem?

º Is training a solution? º What does the learner need to know or be able to do differently after the course?

2D ETERMINE THE NATURE OF THE CONTENT FOR EACH LEARNING OBJECTIVE. Once the learning objectives are clearly defined, the key to turning highly technical content into engaging training is to break it down and determine the nature of the content: What do you really need to teach, and what type of content is it?

For example, consider this learning objective: Perform steps in a process. The nature of this

THINK ABOUT WHAT LEARNERS SHOULD LEARN BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE MAIN TRAINING EVENT.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN BEST PRACTICES Here are best practices for each of the four instructional design steps.

STEP 1:

objective is to perform tasks in a specific sequence. Think about the specific steps for the particular process that learners need to acquire and the knowledge and skills required to perform those steps. Ask yourself some probing questions until you understand what you really need to cover for learners to meet that objective.

3 I DENTIFY EFFECTIVE METHODS OF DELIVERING EACH OBJECTIVE. Once you understand the nature of each learning objective, choose the most effective method for each objective based on the nature of the content. For example:

º T o teach a new procedure, your delivery

method could be an on-demand video demonstrating the procedure.

for participants to learn before they attend training. Exposure to this content prior to training allows for in-class activities that provide learners with opportunities to apply their knowledge, discuss it and assess their understanding.

Use before-training activities to begin setting expectations. Adult learners do not just want to learn content; they want to know why they are learning it. So communicate how this content will be applied in the classroom and, more importantly, why it will help them on the job.

Use this time to “level-set” the audience.

Learners come with varying levels of knowledge and skills, and providing content prior to a training can help get everyone on the same page, regardless of prior experience.

º F or a complex topic that requires critical

During

º T o reinforce old information and provide

Any content that goes beyond basic knowledge attainment and requires application on the job is ripe for this environment. Since adults best learn by doing, in-class activities that are interactive and collaborative will maximize their learning.

thinking skills, your delivery method could be an in-class case study with guided facilitation and monitoring by instructors. new information, you could include a flipchart activity in which learners rotate around the room, document all they know about each area and then debrief as a group.

4D ECIDE WHAT LEARNERS SHOULD DO BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER TRAINING.

For content that requires instructor expertise to provide a high level of depth, delivering it during training provides learners the opportunity to ask challenging questions and obtain complex knowledge and skills.

You’re almost there! You know your objectives, the nature of your content and your delivery method. Now, it’s time to determine the right timeframe to deliver it to the learners.

Objectives that require learner interaction are also ideal for the classroom, where learners can practice their new skills with others.

Learning happens beyond the classroom (live or virtual). It happens throughout the year as new challenges arise and obstacles are overcome. As a designer, you can develop training that will be impactful and effective at all stages of the learning continuum. As you develop your content, think about what learners should learn before, during and after the main training event.

Reinforcing highly technical material is a critical step in the learning process, but it is often forgotten, especially if a learner does not have the immediate opportunity to apply it back on the job. Create engaging, relevant, on-the-go training that learners can access anytime and anywhere from their mobile devices to remind them of key principles they can use when they need them.

Before

Create content that takes learning to the next level, so learners who have to go to the next step have the opportunity to learn it prior to their next training.

Content that requires reading or time to digest (e.g., a new technical topic) is ideal

After

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º B egin each objective with an action verb.

º I dentify realistic objectives that can be accomplished through training.

º L everage Bloom’s Taxonomy as a

guide for creating course objectives.

STEP 2:

º L ist all of the topics and sub-

topics that need to be addressed to accomplish each objective.

ºD etermine the complexity of the knowledge and skills required: Are they basic, intermediate or advanced?

STEP 3:

º K now your audience; some methods will work with some learners but not with others.

º K now how much time you have. If

you’re short on time, whole-group activities may be better than smallgroup case studies.

º K now your space: Are you in a virtual environment? In person?

In a small or large room?

STEP 4:

ºU se the continuum to your

advantage: Plan activities prior to the live training so you can flip the live classroom. Instead of presenting content, you’ll be able to spend your classroom time facilitating learning with a discussion, case study or other activity that gives learners an opportunity to expand on content they already learned.

º K now your learners’ on-the-job

expectations, and use them to determine what they are able to do before and after training.

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PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

º P rovide virtual technology demos covering basic information on how to identify errors.

Consider this example.

Step 1: Define the learning objective.

º I dentify and correct errors.

THE KEY TO TURNING HIGHLY TECHNICAL CONTENT INTO ENGAGING TRAINING IS TO BREAK IT DOWN.

Step 2: Determine the nature of the content.

ºW hat do learners need to know to be able to identify errors?

ºH ow should learners determine how to correct errors?

Is there a specific process learners should follow?

ºA re learners looking for errors that can be identified

by a break in a pattern, numbers that do not balance, missing information, etc.?

Step 3: I dentify effective delivery methods.

During

ºU se videos to make complex technical areas easy

and enjoyable to understand. Don’t depend on the videos to teach the topic, but use them to help learners understand the concept, and then discuss it.

ºU se iPads or tablets to engage learners. Use applications such as Doceri, an interactive whiteboard, for complex errors and calculations.

Learners can facilitate discussion using the tablet, leaving facilitators free to move about the classroom.

ºU se games as energizers and ice breakers to break up and reinforce highly technical content.

After

ºU se social networks to support the continuous º L earners identify errors after the instructor demonstrates how to do so.

learning process and share learner experiences and knowledge.

º T he group discusses whether an error exists and

º P rovide content after training in a number of

º L earners identify errors after seeing a video,

ºU se just-in-time communications to highlight certain

how it could be corrected.

reading about breaks in patterns or noticing missing information.

º L earners identify and correct errors individually

or working in small groups. Then, they debrief as a group to determine gaps, areas they missed, etc.

Step 4: D ecide what learners should do before, during, and/or after training.

Before

ºU se social media platforms to pose questions so

learners will begin thinking about the topic before coming to class.

ºR equire a reading that provides background information on types of errors.

formats, such as readings, videos or games.

tools or resources to support professionals in performing tasks. Provide them as close to the point of need as possible.

ºU se mentors and coaches to provide tips and ideas on developing the specific skills.

Designing training for highly technical content, or any content for that matter, does not have to be complicated. If you follow a few simple steps, you can engage and challenge learners and yield business results.

Michele Graham, M.S., is a director in the KPMG Tax Business School. Diana Benyaminy, CPA, M.S., is an assistant director in the KPMG Tax Business School. Lauren Fregonese, M.B.A., and Joy Gross, M.A., are managers at the KPMG Tax Business School. Email Authors.

TAKEAWAYS ºD efining the problem you are trying to solve is critical

ºB e sure to consider what a learner needs to know

º T here are a variety of delivery methods, but the

º S hare this step-by-step guide with your business

to successfully designing any content.

nature of each learning objective should help determine the most effective method of learning.

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before, during and after training.

counterparts to assist in implementing instructional design best practices.

VIDEO BYTES: JUST-IN-TIME SALES TRAINING

By Scott Cook

As a trainer, it’s common to hear complaints like these from sales reps: “I don’t have time for training.”

“By the time I get back to my territory, the information is obsolete.”

“I need the information just before a sales call.”

“Training is boring.”

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Any trainer who has at some point in his or her career tried to train sales professionals has likely heard these and other, similar comments. Most do not want to be there, wish they were selling instead of training and have very short attention spans.

Salespeople are typically very motivated, driven to succeed and people-oriented.

Their attention is measured in minutes or seconds, so you need to get to the point and keep training interesting and fast-paced.

Recent business demographic research indicates that millennials will make up nearly 50 percent of the workforce by 2020, as the baby boomer generation continues to retire. Millennials are the iPhone, tablet and Xbox generation: Everything is visual, quick and on-demand. Experiences are in one- to three-minute increments. Their attention spans are short, as is their patience for drawn-out, non-technical-based learning.

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Trainers are learning that sales training is more impactful when delivered at the moment it’s needed, in the format it’s most desired, and with opportunities to immediately put new knowledge and skills into practice. One option is to provide justin-time sales training through on-demand video bytes available 24/7.

WHAT IS JUST-IN-TIME SALES TRAINING? Just-in-time methodology was originally developed by the manufacturing industry to coordinate the manufacture and distribution of products at the exact time they were needed: the right material, at the right time, in the right place, in the right amount – all in an effort to reduce holding costs.

Just-in-time sales training uses these same principles to deliver training to sales professionals at the exact time that they need it, allows the training to be personalized, and provides bite-size chunks that salespeople can absorb quickly and apply immediately.

The use of video for sales training continues to grow as technological advancements

make video streams readily available through cloud technology and learning management systems (LMS).

This accessibility has enabled sales managers and trainers to leverage video as a meaningful tool in the training toolbox.

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF JUST-IN-TIME SALES TRAINING WITH VIDEO BYTES There are multiple benefits of using video just-in-time sales training, including: » Businesses save on travel costs and the cost of losing productive selling days. » Salespeople receive the training when, where and how they want and need it. » Sales managers have a flexible tool that supports training on topics such as sales messaging, overcoming objections, product changes and important industry information in an easily accessible format. » The gap between knowledge acquisition and practice can be reduced dramatically.

The challenge for training departments is developing and maintaining a training

function with the expertise, resources and time to quickly deliver training content.

Doing so involves producing learning content quickly; in video format; and allowing for visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning preferences. It also requires developing the video presentation skills of sales managers, subject matter experts or trainers so they are comfortable in front of a video camera.

Presenters also need to understand the challenges of the “video gap” between the video and the learner; when presenting in video bytes, trainers must exaggerate their facial and body motions, voice inflections and learning points for maximum impact.

Doing so requires practice, training and remembering one’s audience.

DEVELOPING JUST-IN-TIME SALES TRAINING VIDEO BYTES Trainers can quickly drive video bytes from concept to completion by following these four steps:

«1» U nderstand when video bytes should be used by identifying topics that can be broken into one- to three-minute

BEST PRACTICES » As Stephen Covey once said, “Begin with the end in mind.” Based on the desired business outcome, what do you want a video byte to accomplish and in how much time? » Have a clearly defined process from idea to delivery that allows all stakeholders to contribute. This process creates more impactful and effective training content. » At mid-size to small companies, think outside the box and reach out to departments that havethe creative talent and knowledge to assist in the production process so the video bytes are of high quality.

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» Train each presenter on video presentation skills, and practice and reinforce verbal and nonverbal disciplines. This process will take time but dramatically increase effectiveness. » Salespeople are all about fun, so when appropriate, use humor!

Research indicates it’s possible to increase attention to learning content with humor. » “Chunk” the videos to keep them less than three minutes each. If there is a lot of material, release the videos in a series, with frequency depending on need.

» Less is more:Reduce the video to one or two points, and keep to those points. » Just-in-time sales training with video bytes is not a substitute for an effective, ongoing, traditionally delivered sales training program.

Stick to the mission and let the video bytes fill the immediate knowledge or skill gap as they are needed. » Use assessment tools, surveys and follow-up “virtual coaching” groups facilitated by sales managers or sales trainers to reinforce the training. » Test-drive a new video byte with selected salespeople and ask for their feedback; they’ll be honest!

videos; knowledge or skills that must be developed quickly; or outside events that need swift, impactful messaging.

«2» Obtain consensus among sales managers on the guiding philosophy behind the video bytes and the desired outcomes or goals of each. Consensus prevents inappropriate use of the videos and protects legitimate training methods such as group, live or virtual training.

«3» D on’t rely solely on the perspective of the sales manager or subject matter expert. Also take into consideration the immediate need or problem of the sales professionals from their perspectives. You might use quick surveys, assessments or video chats to help determine content and activities.

«4» R esearch shows that salespeople want training to be of high quality, interesting, motivating, relevant and available the moment they need it.

Keep an eye on the quality of your videos with a practical understanding of both time and budget constraints.

Visuals such as white boards or PowerPoint slides may be used, and captions at the bottom of the screen or pictures of actual sales collateral can be added postproduction. Role plays, discussions between subject matter experts or managers, answering frequently asked questions and follow-up assessments are effective interactions on video bytes.

THE MOST IMPORTANT DRIVER: ROI The most compelling reason companies pursue just-in-time sales training through video bytes is the return on investment.

Training should drive clearly defined business outcomes, with its costs tied to specific sales metrics. As videos are released, managers can evaluate sales data by integrating the CRM with the LMS and monitoring the platform on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, measuring it against the cost of producing and distributing the videos.

TAKE

AWAYS

Video bytes by their very nature are shortform content covering one or two major

knowledge points or sales skills. Presenters should, at a minimum, have an outline or script for their presentations to prevent retakes and save time and money.

» Video bytes should assist in driving business results and allow tracking of ROI through the integration of CRMs with the LMS.

» The incorporation of video bytes can be a challenge to training departments, from integrating visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning preferences into each video to developing the skills of presenters so they bridge the “video gap.”

» Video bytes are most effective in short form with scripting, visual interactions, discussions, FAQs and role plays.

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TRAINING SHOULD DRIVE BUSINESS OUTCOMES, WITH ITS COSTS TIED TO SPECIFIC SALES METRICS. Just-in-time sales training through video bytes is here to stay and will continue to grow as technology advances and new ways to “skill-up” salespeople emerge.

Training teams can take advantage of this powerful new creative tool to reduce the learning gap and increase skillsets of sales professionals and meaningfully impact ROI in the future.

Scott Cook is vice president of training and education programs for Provasi Capital Partners, LP. The opinions referenced are those of the author, a registered representative of Provasi Capital Partners, LP. Email Scott.

» Use humor; learners will likely pay more attention!

» Training departments must drive the video bytes program by identifying indicators that a video byte should be used, obtaining consensus among sales managers, seeking input from the sales force and committing to excellence in the finished product.

» Sales professionals are increasingly demanding training that is “just-in-time.”

With today’s technology, this demand can be met with online video bytes available 24/7.

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CASEBOOK

CONNECTING LEARNING STRATEGY and INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT to the BUSINESS STRATEGY

By Paul Scott, M.A.

Historically, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center functioned solely as a university, with education and research at the forefront. From a cost perspective and with tremendous pressures on both research grant and educational funding, we had to shift our organizational strategy to place more emphasis on our clinical enterprise to bridge the financial gap.

This transformational shift meant that our campus population had to quickly learn how to lead and operationally run hospitals and clinics, build robust business plans, navigate complex policies and regulations, influence individuals in matrix environments without authority, and work collaboratively in multidisciplined teams. Considering that we did not have a large, state-of-the-art hospital to consolidate the three components of our mission statement together under one roof, grand-scale planning activities resulted in the design and subsequent opening of the William P. Clements, Jr. University Hospital. To make the situation even more challenging, the opening of Clements hospital and the need to formally and effectively train individuals on the nowrequisite leadership skills went live during the most tumultuous and ambiguous time in our nation’s healthcare history.

This tremendous opportunity and strategic business focus area highlighted critical needs that the learning function was faced with meeting in the areas

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of organizational design, workforce creation, planning, selection and training, development assessment, change and stress management, and cross-campus onboarding. A Learning Council was formed to more closely align learning and development efforts to this business strategy. Comprised of key senior stakeholders over training and development across the institution, the multi-disciplinary Council was charged with breaking down silos, sharing best practices, creating a comprehensive learning calendar, developing style and process documents and helping to promote leadership development at all levels.

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK The embodiment of its vision, the Academy for Career Enrichment (ACE), was chartered and launched as a one-stop shop infrastructure with targeted development tracks for physicians, nurses and other campus professionals, scaled by level. ACE is an online destination that consolidates and simplifies access to all available instructorled and online courses, certification preps, assessments, books, training videos and other reference materials.

Our over-arching learning program and competency framework took an outsidein approach that put learners at the center by providing personalized, segmented and technology-enabled solutions.

• Personalized: Our ongoing marketing campaign “DevelopMEnt, EngageMEnt, EnhanceMEnt” visually and literally places the employee at the center of his/ her commitment to providing quality service. It highlights that the most impactful development is individually relevant and motivating to achieve. We provide personalized onboarding plans, executive coaching for new leaders, and customizable development options for everyone. Our internal coaches are masters/doctoral prepared professionals who encourage self-awareness regarding career ambitions, strengths enhancement and potential derailers awareness. Due to explosive demand, we expanded our practice by implementing an internal coaching certification.

• Segmented: We have re-packaged existing open enrollment offerings and created new business-specific content and blended e-learning resources into audience-specific programs by role and leadership level. We employ a cohort approach that allows for robust discussion, relevant case studies and opportunities for tangible outcomes via capstone learning projects. We also added six targeted leadership programs/ academies in the past 12 months.

• Technology-enabled: The vast majority of our formal learning and development options were classroom-based and the time-lag between identified need and attendance was measured in months, not days. To expand our on-demand reach, we collaborated with Skillsoft, allowing us to offer online courses, books and resources to fill curriculum gaps. We heavily utilized job function data to send customized marketing emails to individuals based upon their title, function, sub-function, and role responsibilities. Deep-linked to the resources themselves, these targeted communications became springboards for our 15,000 employees to feel connected to the organization, yet in a way that spoke to them personally. We offer scalable leadership competencies

SECURING THE SUPPORT OF OUR EXECUTIVE LEADERS WAS PARAMOUNT IN LINKING TO THE BUSINESS STRATEGY.

(and expected behaviors) with carefully selected resources to save searching and vetting time and energy.

MEASURING OUTCOMES Since the launch of ACE, we have witnessed a 315 percent increase in the number of learning and development activities, and over 28,000 hours of learning delivered.

This is impressive considering that all of these activities are voluntary and do not include mandatory compliance training.

Our average quarterly run rate pre-ACE was 660 instructor-led, e-learning or other learning activities per quarter, yet in the fiscal year post-ACE, we averaged 4,348 learning and development activities per quarter. Further, in the year prior to ACE, organizational development and training delivered 2,486 learner activities, and in the immediate-past fiscal year, we saw a dramatic 600 percent increase to 17,395 learner activities. Hours spent in customized sessions (workshops, retreats, team-building sessions, etc.) increased 90 percent. Our ACE webpages have collectively received over 65,000 voluntary hits since going live.

Soliciting and securing the support of our executive leaders was paramount in linking to the business strategy. Their buyin and endorsement remains visible in their willingness to serve as champions for programs as well as desire and availability to facilitate classroom sessions. They generously gift their time by serving as mentors for our executive new hires, helping to orient, onboard and acclimate them to our organization.

Our bi-annual employee engagement surveys also serve as a great indicator of our efforts. ACE went live nine months after the 2012 survey closed and one year before we surveyed our employees again in 2014. In the later survey, we saw a 22 percent overall increase in participation and an 11 percent increase in overall satisfaction with engagement workplace factors. Learning and development responses witnessed a 14 percent increase in individuals feeling they received the formal training they wanted, a 14 percent increase in individuals feeling their managers personally helped them learn and grow, a 14 percent increase in managers caring about their employees’ concerns, an 11 percent increase in those who wanted to stay at UT Southwestern

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for more than one year, and a 9 percent increase in individuals who highly recommended working here.

Additional outcome measures can also be attributed to the effects of better training of our staff. Our patient satisfaction surveys have steadily increased from the 70th percentile to above the 90th percentile in overall satisfaction and our two hospitals comfortably sit between the 80th and 99th percentiles, winning prestigious awards two years in a row. Promotion data reveals that nearly 50 percent of graduates in our accredited master’s degree, aspiring leaders and junior faculty development programs are promoted into leadership roles within a year of their completion.

MOVING FORWARD Regardless of any success we have achieved to develop our workforce in both effective and fiscally-prudent ways, we remain keenly focused on advancing our development strategy even further.

We continually research and seek ways to better understand how to apply learning principles and employ even more sophisticated, technology-enhanced and personalized approaches to leadership development. We are enhancing efforts even more on our emerging physicians, researchers and nurse leaders, and our next generation of medical and graduate students, residents and fellows. We are also strengthening ties with our Office of Global Health to implement year-long professional development curricula for students and/or identify opportunities for students to impact others on a global scale through partnerships with medical institutions in developing countries.

Our efforts have proven that by aligning to the business strategy and scaling and personalizing our efforts to our entire population, we can increase employee engagement, drive organizational success, and ultimately benefit our patients/ customers.

Paul Scott, M.A., is the manager of learning and development at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he manages the Academy for Career Enrichment as well as oversees the orientation, instructor-led and online leadership training initiatives. Email Paul.

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G LO B A L

OUTLOOK

ENSURING YOUR TRAINING SUCCESS ON A GLOBAL SCALE

BY SUSAN BOWLES

An immense amount of money is being invested into training employees and for good reason.

No matter what industry you are in, technology can only take you so far. Employees ultimately drive a company’s innovation, growth, customer engagement and profits. When we get great people, we want to keep them.

Developing successful training becomes exponentially more complicated with a need to train across a wide variety of languages. With more than 7,000 living languages, chances are you’ll be learning about languages that you didn’t even know existed five years ago. Most likely, you’ll be learning on the fly.

Companies globally pony-up significant dollars into training employees. By the end of 2015, the global e-learning market is expected to reach $107 billion. Training Industry published the following statistics regarding global spend on corporate training in 2014: • $322.2B spent globally on training

So, to a certain extent, localization involves a leap-of-faith for the developer. No one can know every language but you can be an informed consumer of language services.

Whether partnering with a language service provider or internal resources, this knowledge will guide you into making informed choices and minimizing risk.

• $150.2B spent within North America

Here are a few tips to help ensure your success:

• 4.9 percent annual growth

SELECT THE RIGHT TARGET LANGUAGE.

• 42 percent training budgets spent on outsource suppliers Once your company determines the need to launch training in multiple languages, the fun begins. With approximately 7 percent of budgets planned for localization of training content in 2014, there can be a significant risk. In North America, this is an $11B investment in employee training in a language other than English.

With expansion into other markets, the need to develop training for much broader audiences becomes more mainstream for the developer.

With companies becoming leaner on internal staffing, it is apparent that this will shift to more outsourcing. There are more than 27,000 language service providers according to The Common Sense Advisory (2014). As with any service provider in any industry, some are definitely better than others.

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By defining the true audience, you can determine the dialects involved. If you are dealing with more than one dialect, your team should reflect that group as whole as closely as possible.

The localized training needs to be crosscultural, appropriate and accurately convey the information. If you are indeed blending dialects, you’ll never be able to satisfy 100 percent of the people 100 percent of the time. The important focus is an understanding of the training content.

BACK-TRANSLATIONS TO MEET REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS. Back-translations are designed to catch errors and mistranslations and will not be suitable for public consumption. These will be more literal since they are designed as a check-and-balance process to catch errors. You’ll also need to plan for additional working days to address any corrections that are brought forth from this process.

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT ALIGNMENT. Subject matter expert alignment in your translation is just as critical as they are in your English development. The translator’s credentialing and experience should align with those you are training. If not, you’ll end up with a sub-par translation.

Be wary of making a selection based on lowest cost when outsourcing, no matter what the task. More often than not, you get what you pay for. Professional and experienced translators, voice talent, project managers and localization engineers will not be the least expensive. The experience and expertise they’ll bring to your projects is well worth the nominal additional costs.

It’s always good to know your priority and what you are willing to flex on if you need to.

Find the best balance between, cost, quality and turnaround time.

TECHNICAL PLATFORMS MAY HAVE ISSUES WITH FONTS OR LANGUAGE NUANCES. Diacritical marks, stacking, and script-based languages don’t always play nicely with every tool. You will want to identify character limitations for onscreen navigation (LMS, web, mobile) up front. This can make a huge difference in maintaining your budget and your production timeline. Always use Unicode fonts.

TEXT EXPANSION. This will affect both text and audio. Do not cut the original video too tight during final editing.

E-learning authoring tools can have the onscreen text timed to match the new audio.

Remember, videos can only be stretched so far before compromising the quality.

ACRONYMS, SLANG AND COLLOQUIALISMS. Avoid them when you can. If you can’t, the translation should leave the acronym in English with a parenthetical explanation in the target language. If you need to use slang or colloquialisms, as in the case of marketing content, these should be completely replaced by the appropriate term or phrase for the local market audience.

MAINTAIN YOUR CORPORATE CULTURE AND TERMINOLOGY ACROSS A BROAD LEXICON OF CONTENT. Style guides, glossaries and translation memories can help maintain this consistency.

DEVELOPING SUCCESSFUL TRAINING BECOMES EXPONENTIALLY MORE COMPLICATED WITH A NEED TO TRAIN ACROSS A WIDE VARIETY OF LANGUAGES. It is critical to keep them up-to-date. To ensure your vendor consistently does this, require these to be a part of your final deliverables.

MAINTAIN COSTS AND PRODUCTION TIMELINES. Develop your production calendar with benchmarks based on input from all vested parties. Get the sign-offs and hold people accountable. This will help keep you on track and within budget.

If you have an internal review process, give your reviewers clear guidelines and deadlines.

Ensure the reviewer speaks the same dialect as your target and understands the subject matter.

A bilingual skill does not make an internal reviewer qualified. Making unnecessary stylistic and incorrect edits during the internal review process causes an additional translator review, adding time and expense.

The script needs to be reviewed and vetted before any audio recording is done and synced.

Deciding you don’t like something after the audio is recorded results in another recording session and additional engineering hours.

These will be most likely treated as author’s alterations and billed in addition. This will also add working days to your production schedule not planned for.

SUMMARY Developing training for global audiences should not be painful. It should be a smooth process.

By doing your homework up front, you’ll be able to anticipate and plan much more effectively.

A global training initiative can be developed smoothly and successfully with the right information, good planning, smart resourcing, and making informed decisions. Invest the time and complete your due diligence so you can be confident when handing off. Once done, you’ll set yourself up for success and your employees with thank you for it.

Susan Bowles is the director of client strategies for Local Concept, Inc. She has helped hundreds of clients launch global initiatives smoothly and effectively resulting in a native level of engagement.

Email Susan.

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#TICE2016

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0 2 ra e g vi d th dvanta ics dri each t n e t At take a y top from e k k e d e an ce on ak p i e a d v ’s a s n e Her DEVELOPING STRONG LEADERS

DESIGNING AND CREATING CONTENT

American Airlines’ Leadership Integration Strategy

The Receptive Approach to Content Design

FLIP Meetings and the Power of Video

LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE LEARNING PROGRAMS

DRIVING BUSINESS RESULTS BY EMPOWERING YOUR WORKFORCE

The Art of Scaling Virtual Learning

Think Macro: Utilize an Opportunity Matrix to Identify Solutions

Microsoft Creates and Launches Sales Onboarding Within 90 Days

WHAT’S TRENDING IN LEARNING?

TRANSFORMING A SALES TEAM

Learn more at TICE2016.com.

Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Email TICE@trainingindustry.com.

REGISTER

LEADERSHIP 2.0

FOUR WORK CONVERSATIONS NEW MANAGERS NEED TO MASTER - KE N B LANCH ARD AND S COT T BLANCHAR D

Fifteen years ago we opened up a Coaching Services division in our company. One of the models embraced and taught widely is known as LITE Skills. LITE stands for Listening, Inquiring, Testing for Truth, and Endorsing. This model has been helpful to leaders as they seek to influence others through direction and support instead of command and control.

Recently, we took a second look at this model as a part of a first-time manager curriculum. New managers need to be effective communicators and this LITE approach can help new leaders successfully address the situations they’ll face. Let’s take a quick look at the four LITE skills and then see how they can be applied to a couple of common performance management situations. º L ISTENING Listening at a deep and purposeful level requires a shift in attitude. Listen to learn something you might not have known before. Listen for opportunities to have your mind changed. Listen in service to the person and the conversation. º I NQUIRING This method of questioning helps

open up and generate more dialogue.

Ask open-ended questions beginning with the word “what” to give people an opportunity to think, reflect, and clarify things that are important to them.

Avoid “why” questions, which tend to sound judgmental and can close down a conversation. º T ESTING FOR TRUTH Since our goal is to create purposeful action through clarity, testing for truth

is an opportunity to shift gears.

Paraphrase what you’ve heard and check to see if it accurately represents the other person’s point of view. º E NDORSING Acknowledge the person and maintain a respectful, positive regard for them and their contribution. Separate the subject matter from the person.

Endorsing allows you to preserve a good relationship regardless of the type of conversation you have.

PUTTING THESE SKILLS INTO CONTEXT All new managers need to master four different types of conversations — each one uses elements of the LITE skills, but in a different order or with a different emphasis. º T HE GOAL-SETTING CONVERSATION Goals should be developed side by side with your people, not given to them.

Begin a goal-setting conversation by Testing for Truth to confirm that the goal is attainable. Listening can be used to surface concerns, Inquiring can probe a little deeper, and Endorsing can be used to reaffirm that achieving the goal is a partnership. º T HE PRAISING CONVERSATION

Have a praising conversation when things are going well. Start by Endorsing the successful outcome and Testing for Truth. From there, you might ask an Inquiring question. Get the person talking so that you can listen and then circle back to Endorsing. º T HE REDIRECTION CONVERSATION

When things aren’t going as well as

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expected, begin with a brief observation.

From there, focus on Listening, Inquiring, and finally Testing for Truth. Focus the conversation on listening to the person whose behavior is in question. Don’t spend time pointing out the mistake.

Instead, have the person talk about the situation as you listen. º T HE CLOSING CONVERSATION

An opportunity to celebrate goal accomplishment and recognize newly gained knowledge or skills, the closing conversation also promotes reflection. In a closing conversation, begin by Endorsing and celebrating the achievement, happily Test for Truth by reviewing results, Listen for wisdom gained, Inquire about personal development and then finish by Endorsing a job well done.

NEW MANAGERS NEED TO BE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS. KEY COMPETENCY FOR NEW MANAGERS Having the skill, intent and capacity to engage in effective conversations is a key competency for success as a new manager. Help your new managers get off to a fast start by sharing these strategies.

It will smooth their transition and improve the performance of their team.

Scott Blanchard is a principal and executive vice president of The Ken Blanchard Companies. Ken Blanchard is the best-selling co-author of The New One Minute Manager and 60 other leadership books. Email Scott and Ken. 55

CONGRATULATIONS

TOP 20 LEARNING PORTALS COMPANIES

Check Out Our 2015 Learning Portals Watch List The Top 20 Learning Portals Companies are a service provided by Training Industry, Inc. Due to the diversity of services offered, no attempt is made to rank the “Top 20s.”

SCIENCE OF LEARNING

APPLYING A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO TRAINING - ART KOHN, P H.D.

Science has been the driving force behind human progress for the past 400 years. The scientific method has produced dramatic advances in most human endeavors including medicine, communication, manufacturing and transportation. Sadly, science is rarely applied to education and as a result, our systems of teaching and learning have advanced very little.

But science can help. Science in general, and brain science in particular, can make our teaching more effective, our learners more engaged, and our workplace more profitable.

Let’s look at how organizations can apply scientific best practices in four critical phases of training, including delivery, incentive programs, memory boostering and assessment.

SCIENCE IS THE SINGLE GREATEST INVENTION OF THE MODERN AGE. DELIVERY Most training organizations continue to provide employees with protracted training sessions that last from several hours to many days or even weeks.

These training sessions are rarely effective because they conflict with the way that the brain processes and encodes information. For example, psychologists long ago discovered the spacing effect, which shows that people learn more easily when they are trained intermittently

over a long time (spaced learning), rather than cramming the same total duration of training into a continuous period (massed training).

INCENTIVE PROGRAMS By rewarding a person simply for finishing a training program, organizations are ignoring scientific insights. While this may seem like a good idea, 50 years of behavioral research suggests that this approach is counterproductive since reinforcement should be delivered not for finishing training or even scoring well on a follow-up quiz, but when the learner expresses a desired behavior in an applied business setting. Paradoxically, evidence also shows that to get its full effect, the reward should be delivered only intermittently and not every time the behavior is expressed

MEMORY BOOSTERING American companies spend $60 billion a year training their employees.

Unfortunately once this training is delivered, companies spend almost nothing on follow-up. This is a huge blunder because research shows us that people forget approximately 70 percent of what they learn within 24 hours and 90 percent within a week. This means that seven days after training more than $50 billion have been wasted.

The waste can be prevented. Cognitive neuroscientists have shown us how to establish a systematic program of

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follow-up training that dramatically increases retention and overcomes the forgetting curve.

ASSESSMENT A fourth area of scientific neglect is our failure to collect data to evaluate the efficacy of our training programs. Fewer than 5 percent of training organizations perform meaningful self evaluation. As a result, we have no idea which aspects of our training is working and which are not. We are flying blind in ways that would never be tolerated in other areas of business such as operations, marketing or sales. By implementing assessment criteria into our training programs, learning and development professionals can evaluate program effectiveness.

USING A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH Science is the single greatest invention of the modern age. It has solved some of our greatest problems and it has dramatically improved the quality of life for people across the planet. By applying a scientific approach to training, learning and development professionals can improve the way they deliver training programs within their organizations.

Dr. Art Kohn is an internationally recognized professor, speaker, consultant and cognitive psychologist who helps organizations apply insights from science and technology to solve their organizational challenges. Email Art. 57

MEASURING

I M PAC T

THREE WAYS TO GAIN LEADERSHIP SUPPORT FOR YOUR LEARNING EFFORTS - AJAY PANGARKAR, CTDP, CMA, AND TERESA KIRKWOOD, CTDP

After many years of speaking at numerous learning conferences, participants still come up to us and ask, “How do I get business leaders to support my learning initiative?” From the popularity of this question, it appears that this is one of the biggest challenges many learning practitioners face.

Not too long ago leaders would blindly allocate funds to learning departments and simply tell practitioners to develop training solutions. Well, those days are long gone. Accountability is now the primary concern for every budget allocation, which is unfamiliar for many learning practitioners.

Let’s examine three tips that can help you gain leadership support. While these methods are both simple and complex, they may surprise you.

1| T HEY LIKE YOU … THEY REALLY, REALLY LIKE YOU The truth is business leaders are sold on workplace training and the benefits it delivers. But they expect answers to questions like, “Does training make business sense?” and “What are the tangible outcomes from your effort?” This

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is where things typically fall apart for many learning proposals.

There is a collective belief within the learning community that business leaders possess a fundamental disdain for softer business activities like training. Further compounding this belief is when training departments are one of the first to get their budgets cut. It is not personal and it is not that they don’t like what you have to offer, it’s just business.

Start by objectively asking why training’s budget is being cut. Is it because leaders truly believe it is a waste of time or is it that training is not delivering results?

Your leaders need what you offer, but are ultimately seeking tangible results.

Effective leaders expect to maximize every business resource to achieve specific business objectives. They will quickly eliminate any resource that fails to deliver on its promise and is easily replaced by another resource. This is how leaders drive overall profitability.

Leaders recognize that one of their only weapons to effectively compete is to leverage the knowledge of their people.

Furthermore, leaders recognize that they can’t afford to wait for financial

ACCOUNTABILITY IS NOW THE PRIMARY CONCERN FOR EVERY BUDGET ALLOCATION.

outcomes and require leading qualitative performance measures. This is what learning practitioners offer for their leaders. But you need to demonstrate that you are a valued resource. So, demonstrate business value from your efforts.

2| S TOP REINVENTING THE WHEEL Remember accountability? Recognizing its relevance will help answer the question, “What are the tangible outcomes from your effort?” Most practitioners react by seeking clear and tangible correlations for their training effort. The problem is that training is rarely the sole solution to any business issue and training results are often far from tangible.

When there is a lack of a tangible correlation, learning practitioners desperately turn to what they know best, demonstrating learning results. This is also a mistake. Leaders don’t expect a direct correlation from training and certainly don’t want to hear about how much employees learned or enjoyed a training initiative. Essentially, they expect performance to improve and most likely measure it through a performance improvement framework. Essentially, your leaders are handing you the answers, you just need to identify the issues.

Leaders view training as a vehicle to improve people performance. And people performance is tied directly to work/job responsibilities. These work responsibilities align with specific performance measures within the performance framework. So all you have to do is identify the specific metrics, align your initiative to them, and then demonstrate improvement.

There is no need to ever develop new learning metrics since leaders will not deem them relevant. Source your organization’s performance framework. It exists. If it doesn’t, as within many smaller

businesses, speak with leaders and learn about their business preoccupations. This will lead you to the performance metrics you seek.

3| S PEAK THEIR LANGUAGE Many practitioners complain to us that they can’t understand what their leaders are saying. One even said to us, “It’s like they are speaking in tongues!” Keep calm; your leaders are not possessed. They are, however, most likely speaking in business terms.

In the same manner you learn the basic phrases when traveling to another country, you need to do the same out of respect for your leaders. The one difference is that learning practitioners must understand and speak business, whereas leaders don’t need to speak our learning language.

Your main goals for professional growth is to develop your business acumen. Too many times we hear practitioners say, “We’re hired for our learning expertise, not to handle business.” This type of arrogance no longer has a place if you want to build lasting credibility with leaders. Ultimately, your leaders look at training solely as a business activity.

Be prepared to answer the question, “Does it make business sense?” The knee-jerk reaction for many practitioners is to conduct a return on investment analysis. While superficially this sounds appropriate, it is misdirected. Your leaders may say something to the effect, “Why should I invest in your project?” using the word “invest” and implicitly asking what is the “return.” Practitioners often misunderstand what leaders actually mean by “return on investment.”

cost center. This is not a bad thing and it is not meant to be derogatory. It is simply a financial and accounting classification.

If you attempt to conduct a training ROI evaluation, you violate many of the financial and accounting guidelines your leaders follow. When they ask what return your efforts will produce, they are actually asking how training will contribute to improving performance.

They are not seeking a financial return since they see training as an expense and sunken (unrecoverable) cost. They do, however, want you to demonstrate how allocating funds to training addresses and resolves business performance issues. So put your training ROI away if you expect to be taken seriously with leaders.

Realistically, training will always remain in a precarious position in the minds of business leaders. The good news is that they recognize that intellectual capital retention is a key factor for business success. This is an opportunity for training (and HR) to become a strategic partner with business leaders rather than an after-thought.

Never take your role for granted. These three key points will lead you to build credibility for learning. When your leaders call upon you to participate in their decision-making process, be ready to sell them on how your efforts will benefit the organization in terms they understand.

Ajay M. Pangarkar, CTDP, CPA, CMA, and Teresa Kirkwood, CTDP, are foundersofCentralKnowledge. com and LearningSourceonline.com. They are renowned employee performance management experts and three-time authors most recently publishing, “The Trainer’s Balanced Scorecard.”

Email Ajay and Teresa.

Leaders don’t evaluate the return of expenses or cost centers in the same manner as profit-driven activities. They consider training both an expense and a

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CLOSING D E A L S

WHAT THE DIGITAL SKILLS GAP IS

SECRETLY COSTING

YOUR ORGANIZATION AND EMPLOYEES - XAVIER SILION

The digital skills gap is real and has the potential to sink organizations that don’t catch it early amongst their employees. The office, Internet and digital collaboration skills that were once just nice-to-have capabilities have now fully become the backbone of any workplace.

Think about applications like Dropbox, Twitter and Skype, which, although they were relatively unknown just years ago, are now used pervasively by employees across organizations to increase productivity and drive innovation. The frantic pace of digital transformation is having a major impact on businesses of every size, in every sector and is responsible for a wide variety of hidden costs as unprepared employees may negatively affect both their own productivity and that of the team members around them.

Only 53 percent of laborers feel confident that their level of computer and Internet skills is sufficient. More broadly, just one in ten adults in the U.S. feels they’re proficient with the digital tools they’re responsible for using every day at work.

How can organizations expect to thrive in the digital age when such a striking percentage of the workforce is struggling to keep up with the skills needed to optimize this new technology?

As the rate at which we’re seeing new technologies and platforms introduced to the market is increasing exponentially, it’s not uncommon to see a newly-learned digital skill have a half-life as short as two years. This means that, while we do need to be making training resources 60

readily available to our workers, it’s just as important that we make the learning process continuous and fluid so that our employees’ development is keeping pace with the rate at which new digital tools are introduced to them.

With Skillsoft’s acquisition of Vodeclic and the addition of Vodeclic’s more than 25,000 video tutorials to the Skillsoft content offerings, global, cloud-based learning solutions can now deliver even more tools that address this digital skills gap. The relationship is symbiotic with the combined organization now poised to bring a wider set of digital competencies to a wider audience of learners. Vodeclic’s strength is in providing content that emphasizes skills for highly-soughtafter digital professionals, such as Prezi, Photoshop, Office 365, Salesforce, Evernote and more. But keeping with the microlearning mindset of the digital age of learning, the real strength is in the rapid release of new video courses as the digital landscape delivers us new and exciting platforms to learn. The idea that every employee is only three clicks and five minutes away from any digital skill he needs for the job is in fact the prime weapon against the skills gap.

The digital and desktop skills are presented in a manner Skillsoft users have been accustomed to seeing for years with video-based courses led by highlycredentialed subject matter experts. The new solutions, however, will leverage Skillsoft’s expertise in instructional design and include a number of well thought-out

learning features that cohesively assist the users’ performance. For example, different layers of integrated assessment for each video course provides targeted insight into individual employee’s skill gaps while the social messaging feature helps boost teams’ performance by opening up the ability of communication and recommendation.

THE FRANTIC PACE OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS HAVING A MAJOR IMPACT ON BUSINESSES OF EVERY SIZE. Sustainable organizational growth often depends on the successful implementation of engaging learning programs that improve that organization’s ability to address rapidly evolving business challenges. In today’s world, these organizations no longer decide when to upgrade their application portfolio and are instead forced to embrace today’s digital environment of telecommuting, bring-your-own-device, and more. It is imperative that organizations provide employees accessible and relevant learning opportunities to keep up with the accelerated technological change.

With more tools available to deliver relevant and effective learning opportunities to close these skills gaps, organizations have an unprecedented opportunity for growth through continuously developing employees’ digital skills.

Xavier Silion is the general manager of Vodeclic, a Skillsoft company. Email Xavier.

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ACQ UIS I T I ON S A N D PA RTN E R SHIPS itslearning, a market leading learning management system provider, announced it has acquired Scandinavian-based learning management system Fronter from Pearson. The acquisition is an important step in itslearning’s global strategy of strong and sustainable growth, and will strengthen the company’s competencies.

The two companies have joined forces under the itslearning brand.

InfoPro Learning announced the acquisition of Sherwood Learning, a provider of leadership and development workshops and training to corporations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Sherwood Learning’s leadership training library and workshops, combined with InfoPro’s innovative blended learning framework iPerform, will help InfoPro offer a wide range of leadership development programs.

GP Strategies Corporation and Future Workplace announced a strategic partnership to provide a new set of leadership offerings under an initiative called Future Workplace University – the corporate training arm for developing employees around the concepts of the Future Workplace. This series of programs is designed to help individuals develop strategic solutions to address the challenges impacting workplaces in the coming decade.

Keypath Education announced the acquisition of GlobalHealth Education, bringing together two leading higher education businesses to better address the demand for healthcare education.

This partnership will leverage deep health system relationships and B2B ties to deliver world-leading online offerings.

The acquisition increases the degree options available to healthcare workers and professionals.

Relias Learning, the leader in online training and compliance solutions for the healthcare market, has completed the acquisition of RediLearning. Relias’ acquisition of RediLearning reflects a continued investment in healthcare education by adding more than 400 new senior care courses to Relias Learning’s comprehensive training library, along with a talented team of senior care experts.

Santia, a leading global provider of health, safety, and environmental risk management solutions, has partnered with e-learning training provider 360training.com. The partnership will see internationally recognized health and safety e-learning training become available to individuals looking to progress their career within health, safety, and environmental roles within the Middle East, Africa, United States and Asia.

INDUST RY NE WS ONLINE RESOURCE CENTER FOR EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT TINYpulse launched TINYinstitute, the firstever free online employee engagement learning center. The TINYinstitute will help guide leaders through the employee engagement journey step by step. It’s a resource to help anyone level-up their leadership and management skills from individual contributor to CEO to our next generation of leaders. The TINYinstitute guides leaders to full employee engagement in five steps.

APP TO HELP LEADERS RAISE ACHIEVEMENT VELOCITY Workboard, a fast-growing provider of real-time goal management solutions, unveiled its latest app for line-of-business leaders to raise achievement velocity, gain greater agility, and improve crossorganization collaboration. The new

features and improvements give leaders continuous transparency on business and operating goal progression and enables them to respond to changing market conditions much more dynamically. It also offers greater capacity to coalesce and coach people to better outcomes on their most strategic initiatives.

INDUSTRY-FIRST BIOSIMILAR PHARMACEUTICAL BUSINESS SIMULATION Advantexe Learning Solutions announced the launch of an industry-first Biosimilar pharmaceutical business simulation that teaches business acumen and business leadership skills to organizations working on and launching biosimilar products. As the world of healthcare and specifically pharmaceuticals continues to evolve, so do the training needs of the leaders making and executing strategic business decisions.

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NEW STUDY REVEALS THE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL MANAGED LEARNING The challenges and benefits of appointing an external provider to supplement your training capability are examined in a new research report, “The Secrets of Successful Managed Learning” from Hemsley Fraser, which highlights that “managed learning” can be under mined by poor relationships or a mismatch of expectations. The study involves 17 clients of managed learning providers, and reveals the driving factors behind managed learning.

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W H AT ’ S ONLINE T R A I N I N G I N D U S T R Y. C O M

A RTICLES TRAINING EMPLOYEES WITH GAMIFICATION I By JP George Game-based learning can enhance knowledge retention and recall.

HOW TO IDENTIFY TRAINING NEEDS AT YOUR ORGANIZATION I By Tess Pajaron Organizations need to learn how to identify and assess training needs.

SIX STRATEGIES TO FUEL INNOVATION IN YOUR COMPANY I By Alison Napolitano Innovation is one way organizations can forge a competitive .

BIAS IN THE WORKPLACE: USING NEUROSCIENCE TO IMPROVE TRAINING I By Casey Mulqueen, Ph.D. and Natalie Wolfson, Ph.D Understanding negativity bias can enhance resilience and emotional intelligence.

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SOURCING TRAINING SOLUTIONS:

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BEST PRACTICES FOR THE BEST

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INTO THE DISENGAGED WORKING DEAD

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What is the most important consideration when planning your company’s learning and development initiatives in 2016?

TIPS FOR GIVING

15%

EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK

15% 1| S PECIFIC Be clear about what should be done to improve performance and how it will be evaluated.

2| M EASURABLE Objectives must be measurable in order for employees and managers to know when a goal has been achieved.

3| ACHIEVABILITY Objectives should be challenging, but they must be attainable. Goals should be set by both managers and employees to gain buy-in from employees.

4| R ELEVANT Objectives should always be aligned with departmental and organizational goals.

49%

12% 9% Competency-based program development Customizing content for the learner Consistency of content across modalities Strategies for reinforcing content Instructor quality

N = 33

What is the biggest barrier to career advancement in talent development?

10% 14% 48%

14% 14%

5| T IME-BASED A timeframe should be associated with all objectives, bringing a sense of urgency to meeting the goals.

S

N = 50 Opportunity within organization Industry experience Educational qualification Competency in industry-specific tools Lack of key industry certifications

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