Trends 2020 | November/December 2019

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

BUILDING A WORKFORCE FOR THE FUTURE | 16 Closing the Skills Gap

DESIGN THINKING | 24 Creating Authentically Learner-centric Solutions

CHOOSING TALENT OVER TECH | 42 The Importance of Cultivating Both

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MICHELLE EGGLESTON SCHWARTZ

FROM THE EDITOR

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE OF L&D

It’s that time of year. Organizations are reflecting on annual business goals and planning for the year ahead. Learning and development (L&D) is no different.

L&D teams are busy setting goals and securing the budget to deliver effective training programs that will enable their organizations to reach their business goals.

UNDERSTANDING THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY IS INTEGRAL TO RUNNING A GREAT TRAINING ORGANIZATION.

Staying at the forefront of change has become an added responsibility of L&D professionals. Understanding the state of the industry and how this may impact your employees and bottom line is integral to running a great training organization.

Training Industry, Inc. takes a vested interest in analyzing the current business landscape to help training professionals map their goals and objectives for the coming year. This issue of Training Industry Magazine examines trends that we predict will impact the future of L&D and that should be considered as we enter 2020 – from using crowdsourcing to broaden the resources available to your learners at the point of need to applying design thinking for creating learner-centric solutions to curating and vetting our talent needs as carefully as we do when faced with selecting the right technology.

We are seeing a major shift in how business is conducted. The nature of work is changing with more employees opting for a less traditional work experience.

From remote workers to contract employees, training organizations are challenged with delivering learning experiences that meet the needs of

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employees located both inside and outside of the organization.

As technology continues to evolve and simplify business processes, there is a growing concern regarding which jobs will become obsolete and which skills are necessary to succeed in the changing market. Soft skills like creativity and problem-solving are critical for developing innovative solutions that propel the organization forward. High-performing organizations will continue to invest in soft skills training to untap the creative potential of their employees and leverage their talent in innovative ways.

Today’s organizations must be agile and creative. This requires employees who are prepared for the future of work, and those employees require effective training programs. L&D must take the time to understand the needs of their workforce and upskill, reskill or hire new talent when necessary.

As you read through the collection of articles in this magazine, consider how these ideas and approaches may be implemented in your organization. We want to encourage a healthy dialogue around the challenges and opportunities that are influencing the business of learning. It’s an exciting time to be in the training space, and we would love to hear your thoughts on the topics that you see influencing the industry.

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

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CO N T E N TS

TA B L E O F VOLUME 13

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I

ISSUE 1

I

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019

FEATURES

16 BUILDING A WORKFORCE FOR THE FUTURE

16 21 24 28 34 38

24 DESIGN THINKING

42 CHOOSING TALENT OVER TECH

BUILDING A WORKFORCE FOR THE FUTURE

By Sonia Malik

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will increase the demand for newly created technology roles.

THE ENGAGEMENT CONTINUUM

By Shaun Urban

Learn how to achieve learner engagement when delivering online, mobile and virtual training solutions.

DESIGN THINKING: CREATING AUTHENTICALLY LEARNER-CENTRIC SOLUTIONS

By Clare Dygert and Lauren Granahan

Follow the five stages of design thinking to develop more creative and impactful learning experiences.

TRENDS 2020: THE BROADENING ROLE OF L&D

By Ken Taylor

Discover key L&D trends for 2020 in order to deliver effective learning solutions at the speed of change.

THE FUTURE OF LEARNING IS EXPERIENTIAL

By Matt Confer

Experiential learning creates an engaging environment for learners to actively pursue development.

CLINGING TO 20TH-CENTURY LEARNING ARCHITECTURE INHIBITS YOUR ABILITY TO DELIVER A 21ST-CENTURY LEARNING EXPERIENCE

By Dr. Sydney Savion

Launch your organization and learning system into the 21st-century by embracing the digital revolution.

42 46

CHOOSING TALENT OVER TECH

By Keith Gibson, Ph.D. and Michael Noble, Ph.D.

Smart organizations emphasize both their tech and talent stacks.

GO GROW THEM: USING CROWDSOURCING TO SPUR EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT

By Marcelle Fowler

Crowdsourcing broadens your workforces’ thinking, expands their network and encourages self-directed learning.

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IN THIS ISSUE

THOUGHT LEADERS

3 9 11

FROM THE EDITOR

By Michelle Eggleston Schwartz

L&D professionals are now tasked with staying at the forefront of change.

GUEST EDITOR

By Ben Weber

Embrace flexibility to better navigate change and become a better leader.

SCIENCE OF LEARNING

By Srini Pillay, M.D.

Adopting the principles of brain science can improve learning initiatives.

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PERFORMANCE MATTERS

By Julie Winkle Giulioni

Transform learning efforts by following expressions making a comeback in the corporate training space.

BUILDING LEADERS

By Sam Shriver and Marshall Goldsmith

Today’s leaders are hiring for cultural fits, embracing change and improving content alignment.

57

WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH

58

CLOSING DEALS

59

COMPANY NEWS

By Stella Lee, Ph.D.

As the future of work evolves, learning is key to managing this new workplace.

INFO EXCHANGE

50 52

CASEBOOK AbbVie’s unique, annual workforce development initiative drastically increases employee engagement.

GLOBAL OUTLOOK Avoid alienating international business partners by developing cross-cultural competence.

CONNECT WITH US

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1 (866) 298-4203

The learning technologies market has never seen a busier year than 2019 and 2020 will be no different.

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

editor@trainingindustry.com

TrainingIndustry.com

ABOUT OUR TEAM

STAFF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Doug Harward dharward@trainingindustry.com

EDITORIAL INTERN Hope Williams hwilliams@trainingindustry.com

EDITOR IN CHIEF & PRESIDENT Ken Taylor ktaylor@trainingindustry.com

DESIGNER Mary Lewis mlewis@trainingindustry.com

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Michelle Eggleston Schwartz meggleston@trainingindustry.com

DESIGNER Kellie Blackburn kblackburn@trainingindustry.com

MANAGING EDITOR, DIGITAL Taryn Oesch toesch@trainingindustry.com

DESIGNER Alyssa Alheid aalheid@trainingindustry.com

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sarah Gallo sgallo@trainingindustry.com

MISSION Training Industry Magazine connects learning and development professionals with the resources and solutions needed to more effectively manage the business of learning.

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ARTICLE REPRINTS

LORNA HAGAN Chief People Officer OnDeck

KELLY RIDER Vice President, L&D Content Strategy & Experience SAP Learning & Development

BARBARA JORDAN Group Vice President, Global Learning & Development Sims Metal Management

DR. SYDNEY SAVION General Manager, Learning Air New Zealand

CATHERINE KELLY, MA, BSN, RN, CPTM Director of Learning Programs Brookdale Senior Living SHIREEN LACKEY Talent Management Officer, Office of Business Process Integration Veterans Benefits Administration

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UNDERSTANDING YOUR INTERNAL CYBER THREAT

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

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BEN WEBER

GUEST EDITOR

DO YOU HAVE THIS KEY LEADERSHIP SKILL?

Many of today’s leaders possess several important skills but limit their leadership potential by demonstrating a lack of flexibility. Extraordinary leadership requires emotional intelligence, collaboration skills and the ability to navigate change — all of which require flexibility. Inflexible leaders struggle to work effectively with others, are limited in their creativity, struggle with relationships and miss out on valuable opportunities. Flexibility is a skill that every leader must develop if they want to maximize their leadership potential and evolve into an extraordinary leader.

As a leader, how flexible are you? On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being extremely adaptable and flexible, rate yourself. Would your team and co-workers agree with your rating?

Many leaders struggle in the area of flexibility. Additionally, some leaders believe that they are flexible but are unaware of their own rigidity. A leader’s lack of awareness of their own flexibility creates an invisible barrier to achieving their potential; it also creates frustration for the leader, their team members and their co-workers.

To effectively evaluate your own flexibility, ask yourself these questions: • Do you usually get your way?

• How often do people challenge your perspective?

• Can you embrace discomfort in order to develop another person’s idea?

• When other people speak, do you cut them off?

• How do minor changes affect you?

With good intentions, inflexible leaders often force their agendas into action by steamrolling over others, closed off to ideas different from their own.

This creates a team of compliant but disengaged employees. Team members and co-workers become exhausted by trying to share their ideas and eventually concede to the leader to avoid conflict.

Their ownership and satisfaction in deliverables diminishes, and they start to resemble robots working in a day prison.

These statements may sound harsh, but remember that people contribute their best work when they are encouraged to participate, have the freedom to make independent decisions and feel their ideas add value.

Additionally, rigid leaders will kill and/or stall projects when plans vary from their vision, and they become stressed when things don’t go their way. Unequipped to handle adversity, the inflexible leader uses force to create results, which degrades positive organizational environments. Unable to recognize the damage of rigidity, the leader continues with his or her original plan.

WHAT ARE THE BEHAVIORS OF A FLEXIBLE LEADER? Flexible leaders understand the value of others’ ideas. They embrace change and alternate perspectives, because they appreciate diversity of thought and acknowledge the potential rewards of effective collaboration. They push themselves to exercise excellent listening skills, which validates their acceptance

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of new ideas and encourages others to share their opinions.

Flexible leaders accept change as part of leadership and adjust when adversity arises. When disappointment presents itself, flexible leaders reappraise the situation, find the learning opportunity in the situation and continue to focus on the objective.

While change can be painful, it’s up to the leader to embrace flexibility and find the optimal solution for any given challenge.

FLEXIBLE LEADERS RECOGNIZE AND UNDERSTAND THE VALUE OF OTHERS’ IDEAS. Ultimately, the flexible leader realizes that what determines success is not the circumstances that present themselves or what people do or say, but how the leader responds in the face of adversity.

Successful leaders collaborate with others and maintain focus when working outside of their comfort zone. As you develop yourself as a leader, challenge yourself to embrace the uneasiness of change and exercise flexibility.

Ben Weber is the director of human resources and training at Vendor Resource Management. He holds an MBA and a master’s degree in human resource management and is currently working on his dissertation toward a Ph.D. in leadership studies from Dallas Baptist University. Email Ben.

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TOP 20 TOP

20

COMPANY

HEALTH & SAFETY TRAINING

2019

2019

COMPANIES

TOP

20

COMPANY

LEARNING PORTAL/LMS

VIEW THE LISTS

SRINI PIL LAY, M.D.

SCIENCE OF LEARNING

HOW LEARNING LEADERS CAN IMPLEMENT BRAIN-BASED TRENDS, STRATEGIES AND SOLUTIONS TO TRANSFORM CORPORATE L&D The word “trends” has various meanings.

On the one hand, trends reflect a pattern. On the other hand, they imply a fashion. Both are highly subjective and paradoxical. They could be indicators of the future or a passing fad. Which brainbased trends have lasting value, and how might learning leaders draw on brain science to inform their learning strategies?

1. DON’T OVERHYPE THE RATIONAL Being rational can be impractical.

You read that right. Over 90% of brain function occurs outside the rational realm. For example, organizational behavior professor Richard Boyatzis and his colleagues demonstrated in 2013 that goal-based coaching has inferior outcomes compared to compassionbased coaching, because it overactivates the fight-or-flight response.

BEING SENSITIVE TO THESE NUANCES WILL MOVE L&D FROM #BRAININVASION TO #LOVELEARNING. How to Implement: Design learning to embrace the unconscious. Have employees take the implicit association test to explore their unconscious biases. Provide frank feedback with compassion for the individual at hand.

As I described in “Tinker Dabble Doodle Try,” learning to un-focus is as important as learning to focus. A quick nap can give

you one to three hours of clarity. Why push through your day if a short break will make you more productive and help you learn more effectively?

2. HAND OVER THE LEARNING REINS Brain research demonstrates that financial advice does not activate learners’ brains unless they are actively involved. It also shows the brain is more engaged as a participant than as a spectator. So, if you want engaged employees, engage them.

Engagement means developing a system to enhance self-regulated learning. On the one hand, you can’t just trust that learning will occur. On the other hand, learning and development (L&D) experts must develop environments where learning is encouraged and inspired.

How to Implement: In 2018, Adobe conducted a study that demonstrated that interactive video learning is 10 times more effective than non-interactive video learning. Make learning as interactive as possible to maximize engagement.

There is a place for passive learning, but interactivity is key. To achieve it, research the collaboration apps on the market. Incorporate interactive apps to better meet the needs of your organization.

3. STOP MAKING TECHNOLOGY EXHAUSTING In 2014, Coca-Cola got rid of voicemail. I called a client the other day and received

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a message saying, “If it makes sense to contact me, please text me. I don’t check voicemails.”

This trend of distancing oneself from technology stems from the burden it places on the brain. Current technology exhausts the brain, as it’s largely not human-centered. Every time you send someone an email, you are literally invading their bodies. Your message becomes part of their brain tissue.

How to Implement: Limit the number of communications you receive by asking people to be sensitive to the fact that they’re entering your brain tissue without permission. (There should be a hashtag for this: #braininvasion). L&D leaders need to understand that the very essence of training is occupying the brains of others.

It’s not just about less content. It’s about what L&D wants to be recognized for.

Balance serious learning with fun content.

Balance the intentional content with “do what you want with this” content.

Balance boring experts (who still share valuable information) with engaging ones.

Balance the mandatory content with self-directed learning.

Being sensitive to these nuances will move L&D from #braininvasion to #lovelearning.

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

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JULIE WINKLE GIULIONI

PERFORMANCE MATTERS

CLICHÉ OR CLARITY? 3 EXPRESSIONS THAT CAN ENHANCE YOUR LEARNING EFFORTS

There are plenty of hackneyed phrases in the workplace. After a season or two on “buzzword bingo,” most of these lines are retired.

done endeavor. They also scanned the landscape and saw significant changes ahead — changes that were going to occupy leaders’ attention.

Yet, in learning and development (L&D), there are a few tried-and-true sayings that are making a comeback, offering a fresh perspective on corporate learning.

Rather than rolling out more content, this organization reinterpreted the concepts that training had already delivered. They contextualized it to the current challenges leaders were facing, and they offered it just in time with actionable strategies and tools to take what they had introduced earlier a step further.

Here are three expressions that are making a comeback in the learning space: 1. “LESS IS MORE.” Often, we’re tempted to layer more content atop the learning that we’ve already delivered to build greater skills.

We do this even as we acknowledge that our initial efforts have barely begun to impact individual and/or organizational performance.

As a result, L&D professionals are doubling-down on current and past content to deepen understanding and highlight applications.

One company recently recognized the need to enhance its leaders’ coaching abilities. It developed and delivered training that introduced leaders to five coaching mindsets and laid a foundation for strong relationships, productive conversations and developmental results.

While the reaction of many might have been to offer additional training on the coaching process, or direction on how to engage in dialogue, this team took a step back. They recognized that building a coaching mindset was not a one-and-

This organization’s “less is more” approach is transforming how leaders think about their mission … as they experienced less resistance and invested less in new resources, they saw more results.

IN SOME CASES, A TIRED EXPRESSION CAN ACTUALLY BE A TRUISM. 2. “IT’S NOT WHAT YOU KNOW; IT’S WHO YOU KNOW.” In today’s digital environment, access to information is table stakes.

Nearly everything we might or want to know is a few keystrokes away.

Consequently, knowledge no longer distinguishes employees.

What does? Relationships. Relevant networks are the new knowledge.

L&D functions that recognize this reality are responding creatively and strategically as they facilitate human connections.

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Common strategies for building these connections include: • Driving learners toward social platforms where content and contacts can grow.

• Implementing cohort-based learning that builds community and skills.

• Creating coaching pairs who support and hold each other accountable.

Emphasizing connections is a gamechanging strategy that highlights the importance of knowing the who over the what in today’s workplace.

3. “WHAT’S OLD IS NEW AGAIN.” L&D leaders are looking to work with what they have, as many organizations already possess volumes of training material. Do classic skills need to be consistently reinvented?

For many organizations, the answer to this question is no. Certainly, there are opportunities to refresh, and rearrange elements, but if the core content is aligned, it’s appropriate to leverage previous investments.

L&D professionals who embrace these three expressions can transform them from hackneyed phrases to powerful learning hacks for improved performance.

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

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Success in the Digital Age: New Skills, Mindsets and Roles Success Success in the Digitalin Age: NewDigital Skills, Mindsets and Roles the Age: Success in the Digital Age: New Skills, Mindsets and Roles

New Skills, Mindsets and Roles

Digital technologies and tools are transforming how we live, work and interact with each Digital technologies tools areexpectations transformingabout how we live, work andshould interact with each other—and raisingand everyone’s what businesses provide. other—and raising everyone’s expectations about what businesses should provide.

Digital technologies and tools are transforming how we live, work and interact with each other—and raising everyone’s expectations about what businesses should provide.

Smart companies are adopting radical new Smart companies are adopting radical business models and reaping big new 1 business models and reaping big business benefits.

1 business benefits.

Smart companies are adopting radical new business models and reaping big business benefits.1

58.1%

42.6%

Operational 58.1% Efficiencies Operational Efficiencies

Business 42.6% Innovation Business Innovation

58.1%

42.6%

54% Customer 54%

53.8% Business 53.8%

Operational Efficiencies

Performance Business Performance

Satisfaction Customer Satisfaction

Business Performance

Customer Satisfaction

Business Innovation

54%

53.8%

To score these kinds of successes with digital, organizations need employees To score these kinds of leaders successes with organizations and who candigital, excel at new skills. need employees and leaders who can excel at new skills.

To score these kinds of successes with digital, organizations need employees and leaders who can excel at new skills.

Algorithmic Algorithmic Thinking Thinking

Data Data Literacy Literacy

Critical Critical Thinking Thinking

Algorithmic Thinking

Data Literacy

Critical Thinking

The ability to be “T-shaped”—bringing deep knowledge and expertise in specific functions, fields, or The ability toalso be “T-shaped”—bringing deep knowledge andorganization expertise in is specific functions, or industries—while conversing in other disciplines across the a critical attributefields, for success. industries—while also conversing in other disciplines across the organization is a critical attribute for success.

The ability to be “T-shaped”—bringing deep knowledge and expertise in specific functions, fields, or industries—while also conversing in other disciplines across the organization is a critical attribute for success.

LEARN HOW TO ACHIEVE SUCCESS

Organizations need workforces that include new roles: Organizations need workforces that include new roles:

+1-866-757-3177 | skillsoft.com

Organizations need workforces that include new roles:

Cloud Engineers Cloud Engineers

Data Scientists Data Scientists

Experience Experience Designers Designers

1 “The 2017 State of Digital Transformation.” Brian Solis and Aubrey Littleton, Altimeter, October 2017.

Cloud Engineers

Data Scientists

Experience Designers

SAM SHRIVER & MARSHALL GOLDSMITH

BUILDING LEADERS

LEADERSHIP TRENDS FOR L&D TO CONSIDER

In the context of the theme for this issue (and so we’re all on the same page), what distinguishes a fad from a trend is staying power. With this distinction in mind, here are three practices we see garnering undeniable momentum with major implications for corporate learning and development (L&D) professionals: 1. HIRING CULTURAL FITS With ever-increasing regularity, organizations are developing imaginative ways to test employment candidates for cultural compatibility. How? They start with their company’s mission statement and core values. Then, they accept the fact that no traditional interview setting will give them what they desire most (the ability to see the candidate respond to a set of circumstances in real time and under stress). Then, they get creative!

IS LEADING ANY DIFFERENT IN THE C-SUITE THAN IT IS ON THE FRONT LINE? IN SOME WAYS, YES, BUT IN MANY WAYS, NO! For example, we have a mutual acquaintance who hires sales professionals by admittedly “putting them through the ringer.” He makes appointments and cancels them at the last minute. He reschedules but then makes sure he is called away right when the candidate is beginning to get comfortable. When he finally sits through a full meeting, he

intentionally avoids eye contact and acts preoccupied. In his own words, he shares: “We have built our business based on our customer responsiveness. Our prospects are busy people. I like to see for myself that job candidates have what it takes to remain persistent and professional in the face of rejection and emergent challenge.”

2. MANAGING THE WAVES OF CHANGE Change comes in waves, a fact that most of us are already aware of. We also know that those waves are crashing onto the beach with ever-increasing regularity and intensity … with no end in sight. When those waves hit, one of three things typically happens: • Survival: Most people work through the discomfort, adapt, adjust and continue on their journey.

• Surfing: For some, change presents an exhilarating opportunity. These people see the wave forming, paddle like crazy, get in the curl of the wave and ride it!

• Moving On: Some, for any number of different reasons, see the wave and get out of the water (voluntarily or otherwise).

In general, we see organizations becoming far more directive (and proficient) in managing this process. The first order of business is to determine whether employees are “in” or “out.” Organizations are dedicating less energy to ushering in change and more energy to the timely execution of the new reality.

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3. LEADERSHIP IS LEADERSHIP The primary reason frontline employees are promoted into management is because they have demonstrated technical mastery of their functional role, whatever that role may be. Although this transition takes place early in most people’s careers, it’s a significant change (i.e., a shift from “doing the work” to “getting the work done through others”). Typically, these new managers receive training in: • Providing direction and guidance • Listening and collaborating • Empowering • Aligning their leadership approach to the particulars of their influence opportunities Upon further (and frequent) review, the content alignment between the training received by new managers and the executive coaching provided to C-suite leaders is unmistakable. We conclude that, when it comes to preparing leaders for the future, L&D functions should prioritize building layers of depth beneath core, common and critical content, as opposed to creating experimental breadth. Is leading any different in the C-suite than it is on the front line? In some ways, yes, but in many ways, no!

Marshall Goldsmith is the world authority in helping successful leaders get even better.

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

Email Marshall and Sam.

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While artificial intelligence (AI) may still be synonymous with images of robots, it’s becoming pervasive in our daily lives, from our personalized shopping experiences on Amazon to our individual entertainment suggestions on Netflix. AI uses our browsing and purchasing histories to evaluate what we consume and make recommendations accordingly.

understanding and leveraging the latest emerging technologies. AI will create roles such as AI and machine learning specialists, big data specialists, process automation experts, information security analysts, user experience and human-machine interaction designers, robotics engineers, and blockchain specialists — all of which did not exist a decade ago.

At home, we take virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri for granted.

We depend on them for traffic reports, weather forecasts, the latest news and even placing Amazon orders. These services use natural language processing to understand and respond to our requests.

The technological revolution we have seen over the past 30 years has been unparalleled and exponential, resulting in more jobs and higher salaries. The future is ever-changing, and what felt impossible a decade ago is now deemed a mundane part of workers’ everyday lives. As such, there is no telling where science will take us next … or what the next step for AI will be.

As we begin to transact more digitally, AI and AI-driven chatbots are instrumental in delivering strong customer experiences.

Whether it’s to process a return on a retailer site, prequalify a candidate for a job application or answer questions about a product, a chatbot is available 24/7 and can drive personalized customer experiences.

In social and business environments alike, AI is becoming engrained in our daily lives.

Massive Labor Market Churn AI is set to drive a workforce transformation that we haven’t seen since the advent of the personal computer. While it will eliminate 75 million jobs, AI will also create more than 133 million jobs, according to the World Economic Forum: Future of Jobs report.

There will also be an accelerating demand for a variety of wholly new specialist roles related to

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If We Could Survive Spreadsheets, We Can Survive AI The birth of spreadsheets reduced the demand for bookkeepers by more than 44% since 1985, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. However, people who could “run numbers” on the new software became hot commodities. Since that year, the number of accountants and auditors has grown 41%, and the number of financial managers and management analysts has almost quadrupled, to reach 2.1 million.

Just as spreadsheets reduced costs and increased the demand for calculations, machine learning — the application of AI to large data sets — will do the same for

predictions. However, unlike spreadsheets, machine learning doesn’t yield exact answers; it reduces uncertainty so that domain specialists can make evaluations accordingly.

“CLOSING THE GLOBAL SKILLS GAP WILL REQUIRE COLLABORATION ACROSS ECOSYSTEMS THAT SPAN INDUSTRY, EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT ENVIRONMENTS.” Even with the rapid advancement of technology, nothing has genuinely replaced humans or made them secondary in the world’s hierarchy. Why? The answer is simple: We live in a human-made society. And humans, being innately selfserving creatures, would never let anything, technology or otherwise, turn them into secondary citizens within their creation. Although machines may eventually take over most jobs as we know them today, it’s safe to assume that new job opportunities will arise in the future, making up for the lost livelihood.

New Work, New Skills As the nature of human work changes in the emerging

technological context, a new workforce is set to emerge, requiring a diverse range of skills. Innovating and succeeding in this constantly evolving corporate landscape is challenging, as dealing with a complex and unknown future requires individuals who can communicate effectively, apply problem-solving and criticalthinking skills on the job, and draw and act on insights from vast amounts of data. To survive in the future of work, organizations need employees with strong soft and technical skills.

Ultimately, technological advancements are changing the nature of work and, with it, the skills employees need to succeed in today’s business environment.

As a result, organizations must prioritize upskilling and reskilling initiatives to ensure they — and their employees — are prepared for the future.

Closing the Skills Gap The IBM Institute for Business Value has identified organizations three strategies organizations can use to build and maintain a skilled workforce:

1

Make It Personal

Personalization has become commonplace in the consumer world.

Creating learning experiences tailored to customer and market needs and employee goals and interests can improve retention and help build a futureproof workforce. This approach requires the training organization to understand the current skills of every employee, know where the corporation wants and/or

needs to progress, and create personalized learning paths.

AI can help create these personalized paths and bring a meaningful employee learning experience to life. Most importantly, however, companies must foster a culture of continuous learning, personalizing the employee life cycle to build, grow and reward continual skill growth in the future of work.

2

Turn up the Transparency

To stop operating in the dark, organizations must protect their people by making skills development initiatives a key part of their people strategy.

Organizations should develop a transparent skills-based people strategy that: •

Shows employees the roles and skills that are growing in market demand.

•

Provides employees with engaging, meaningful ways to develop their skills in the areas that matter most.

•

Allows them to demonstrate their skill proficiency and recognizes employees who have progressed.

This new level of transparency provides employees with information to self-direct their learning and career choices.

3

Look Inside and Out

To remain competitive, companies must adopt an open technology architecture and organize a set of

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partners that can take advantage of the latest advancements. Inside the organization, organizations should build agile teams with heterogenous skill sets to enable experiential, peer-to-peer innovation and create a culture where learning becomes viral. They should also create opportunities for job-sharing and internal mobility that focus on skills development and share skilled talent across organizational boundaries.

Across the external ecosystem, organizations should engage a coalition of partners to explore and pilot innovative skills gap closure strategies iteratively. Additionally, they should invest in innovative skill-building technologies and harness the power of initiatives such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), coding schools and bootcamps, and industry expertise networks, by using AI to source and curate the most relevant educational assets for learners.

A Call to Action The skills shortage is unlikely to go away any time soon. Closing this global skills gap will require collaboration across ecosystems that span industry, education and government environments.

Executives can start today by committing to a modern workforce strategy that places skills at the center, delivers deep visibility into the skill levels of both the enterprise and individual employees, personalizes skills development at scale, and leverages new partnerships and platforms that integrate data and insights across the employee life cycle. The time to act is now.

Sonia Malik is a learning strategist at IBM Training and Skills.

Email Sonia.

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JUNE 16-18, 2020 | RALEIGH, NC

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The 2020 Training Industry Conference & Expo (TICE) is where learning professionals come together to tackle L&D challenges and learn about emerging topics impacting the industry today.

Register today to take advantage of our lowest rates and experience firsthand why TICE 2020 is the perfect size and focus for learning leaders.

Engagement: It is the word of the day, and there are countless articles and tips on how to improve content to keep learners engaged. Disengagement is not a new problem, however. Surveys have asked questions about engagement for years, and it repeatedly surfaces as one of trainers’ biggest challenges.

While instructor-led training (ILT) has always been the gold standard, the rise of mobile, online and virtual training has added another dimension to the training continuum. Instructors are besieged with new options and platforms. As a result, determining which training delivery method best suits one’s learning objectives is becoming increasingly difficult.

The Evolution of Virtual Communication The concept of virtual communication has its roots in the 1800s, when Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. Like virtual communication today, the telegraph allowed users to communicate information quickly, while also reducing the travel, time and cost of in-person communication. Alexander Graham Bell took it another step when he invented the telephone. However, it wasn’t until the

need for greater human connection arose that the business application of virtual communication truly became apparent.

Walt Disney predicted it in 1958 in his animated film about the future, “Disney’s Magic Highway,” although his prediction, of course, was simply that video would be displayed through television technology. By the early 1960s, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. imagined the 21st-century “The Jetsons.” In this cartoon, the Jetsons family communicated using video on personal phone calls and watches and used video meeting technology in the workplace.

Despite many attempts to perfect the technology, starting as early as 1927 by Bell Labs, it wasn’t until the last decade that businesses regularly implemented virtual programs. The continuum now ranges from video-based mobile platforms to teleconferences and online systems web conferences to new technology platforms that bridge the gap between virtual and in-person meetings.

The Challenges of Traditional Virtual Training

According to Training Industry, the current North American training market is

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estimated to be $166.8 billion. According to Training Magazine, spending on travel, facilities and equipment for in-person training is estimated at $29.6 billion. It’s no wonder that instructors are seeking alternative training options. However, training without in-person interaction presents its own set of challenges.

Cindy Huggett identified several challenges that trainers are experiencing with virtual platforms in her 2019 “State of Virtual Training” report. Her findings include the following: • Only 23% of virtual trainers use webcams while facilitating. A higher percentage — 42% — turn their cameras on at the beginning and then quickly turn them off. The most common reason cited was the lack of internet bandwidth.

• Other technology issues were listed as top challenges as well. When Huggett asked instructors to identify their biggest obstacle to success, more than 30% of their responses were about technology.

• Respondents also mentioned many other challenges — most notably, unprepared participants and lack of stakeholder buy-in.

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Juxtapose these findings to another statistic Huggett noted — that 91% of learners across all demographics said collaboration is a key to learning success — and we begin to see some of the obstacles trainers are facing today.

Consider ILT, which remains the most popular method of delivery for sales trainers. Virtual instructor-led training (VILT) could very well produce the same results. In fact, Training Industry’s “State of Sales Training Market” report found that 82.9% of sales trainers surveyed are using VILT. But this modality is not without limitations.

Training Industry’s “The Anatomy of the Modern Learning System” established four quadrants to understand learners’ preferences (See Figure 1 on page 23): 1| Useful but Underused 2| Useful and Often Used 3| Unsure and Not Often Used 4| Less Useful but Often Used This report found that while learners believe ILT is useful and often used, they consider VILT to be less useful but often used. In addition, fewer than half of 252 learners surveyed believed the training they received (in any modality) over the past 12 months “was very effective at positively impacting their job performance.”

What can we attribute these research findings to? For one, despite improvements to the technology, the challenges have not changed much over the years. Ed Satter’s Training Industry article “4 Common Challenges Faced by Virtual Instructors” confirms this reality, citing the following challenges in virtual instruction: • Being Unable to Read Non-verbal Cues: In-person “instructors can see learners’ faces, notice non-verbal cues and gauge their level of engagement.”

It is exponentially more difficult do so in learning platforms with talking heads, and it’s impossible in platforms without video.

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Collaboration is key for learners’ success.

Based on a survey of 5,600 employees, Google provides the following recommendations for creating effective virtual meeting experiences for both attendees and facilitators: • Engage and connect; work to minimize distractions.

• Pay attention to each other’s facial expressions and body language.

• Build rapport by taking the time to get to know learners.

• Choose a technology platform that delivers optimal levels of productivity.

• Fewer Tools: In-person settings allow instructors to use multiple tools — writing on a whiteboard, responding to polls or surveys, asking and answering questions, using props, and more — enabling them to shift gears if necessary. Traditional virtual platforms do not support this level of interaction.

• Distracted Learners: We’ve all been there — attending a virtual meeting and multitasking. How many of us have checked an e-mail during a virtual meeting or put the platform on pause while we made coffee? There are numerous ways learners can become distracted during a virtual meeting, the primary one being that they are not fully engaged in the first place. It is far too easy to check out mentally, as they assume they will get the gist of the information being presented.

• Gaining Learners’ Confidence: It is challenging enough to gain learners’ confidence during inperson training, even with personal interactions and lively discussion.

Traditional virtual programs do not allow for relationship-building.

Google also reinforces these challenges.

In a study of 5,600 employees, Veronica Gilrane, manager of Google’s People Innovation Lab (PiLab), sought to understand the challenges of working together remotely. In Google’s 2019 Distributed Work Playbook, she reported that the biggest issue remote workers faced was a lack of connectivity.

Another critical element of successful training is measurement. While many learning leaders have historically used the Kirkpatrick Model to assess

training outcomes, Kirkpatrick Partners updated the methodology as “The New World Kirkpatrick Model,” which includes several new criteria, including engagement. With the rise of virtual platforms, L&D professionals must measure engagement with the delivery system as well as with the content.

New Technologies Enter the Market Over the past several years, changes in the training market have meant that training organizations must do more with less — while still ensuring return on investment (ROI). And, as virtual platforms are becoming staples in the training landscape, it’s even more critical that learning professionals choose the platform that can best meet their objectives. Whether they plan to replace ILT or augment it, they must find a platform that can both effectively deliver their content and keep learners engaged.

While the market of virtual platforms continues to expand, trainers are also trying new technologies, such as gamification and artificial intelligence (AI), to engage their target audiences. It is clear that the future of virtual training technologies will be the combination of virtual technology with the collaboration, engagement and multi-modality of inperson meetings. The integration of a live studio production with remote participants can better serve training initiatives, as turning the technology over to professionals enables instructors to focus on presenting their content. It also allows them to see trainees “lifesize,” which can improve interaction

Figure 1 | Learner Preference Quadrants 85%

USEFUL BUT UNDERUSED

USEFUL AND OFTEN USED

On-the-Job Training

Perceived Usefulness for Impacting Learning

80%

II

75% 70%

Adaptive Learning

65%

On-the-Job Coaching

Informal, Social Learning Simulation Performance Support Tools Formal Coaching

UNSURE AND NOT OFTEN USED

III

60%

Videos

VILT

User-Generated Knowledge Base

Webinar(s)

Books Mobile Learning

Gamification

50%

E-Learning

LESS USEFUL BUT OFTEN USED

Virtual/Augmented Reality

55%

I

Instructor-Led Training*

IV

Audio

45%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Respondents Who Received Training

and, because they can call out learners at any time, increase engagement.

Ultimately, what defines successful virtual training: content or delivery?

Unequivocally, it’s both. Even exceptional content will fall short on delivery if the participant is distracted or, worse, can’t join the platform due to technology challenges. On the other hand, in-person training won’t be effective if trainers

Successful meetings are defined by learners’ level of engagement with the content, instructor and other learners. In a recent study, The Inception Company used a proprietary index to measure learners’ engagement in virtual meetings facilitated in an inperson studio setting. The average engagement score across 2,635 participants was 107%.

cannot create an engaging experience, integrating strong content with superior facilitation skills.

Here is a checklist of questions to think through in order to choose the virtual platform that best meets your needs: • Is the objective of the event to present didactic content or to interact with the audience?

• Is connectivity among the learners important for this training and, if so, does the platform support it?

• How many people does the platform need to support?

• Is the technology easy to use? Does it have all of the tools necessary for multi-modality, and are they integrated seamlessly into the flow of the program?

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• How do learners through the platform?

communicate

• Is face-to-face contact important for this training?

• Is the virtual training intended to replace or augment an in-person event?

• What does success look like?

In the end, modern training will require an integrated approach to learning, using different platforms to ensure learners’ diverse needs are effectively met. Choosing the right one will make all the difference for instructors and participants alike.

Shaun Urban is the president of The Inception Company, the innovators of Pando which is the first virtual meeting platform to integrate an in-person studio production with remote participants on a 40-foot video wall. https:// pandomeetings.com/ti. Email Shaun.

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Design Thinking: Creating Authentically Learner-Centric Solutions

By Clare Dygert and Lauren Granahan

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“What truly motivates this audience is competition….”

“We need a mobile app — our learners are the perfect demographic….”

“When I was in this role 15 years ago, I’d have loved a simulation!”

When designing new learning solutions, how often do you hear these kinds of assumptions about your learners from stakeholders, subject matter experts (SMEs), learning and development (L&D) colleagues, and/or vendor partners? For most of us, the answer is “all the time.”

These well-meaning professionals may have learners’ interests at heart, but do they really know what learners want — and need?

These assumptions make sense.

After all, today’s fast-paced business environment demands the rapid development of learning, leaving little time for robust audience analyses.

Interviews, focus groups and surveys are seen as time- and cost-prohibitive — except in the case of high-profile programs. Later in the process, learners might review a course or participate in a pilot, but by that point, there often isn’t the time or budget to make any significant changes.

And what happens when a solution isn’t on target for learners? It results in

decreased motivation and engagement and, ultimately, a less effective solution —which is a missed opportunity for L&D. Practitioners need a way to validate ideas proposed by non-learners and to invent something new that hits the mark.

Enter a new, powerful tool in the L&D toolbox: design thinking.

You’ve likely heard of design thinking as a methodology for business innovation.

Now, it’s being used in L&D to create learner-centric solutions — and it’s a process you can use to vastly accelerate your learning design.

The five stages of design thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype and test) bring L&D professionals, stakeholders, SMEs and, most importantly, learners together through a creative, collaborative and engaging design experience. The result: an effective learning solution aligned with both the business’ and the learners’ needs.

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Creating Your Design Thinking Experience Start by framing your design question as, “How might we...” without mentioning a specific solution. If you can ask that question in this way, you’re a strong candidate for design thinking.

Then, consider the “who,” “when” and “how.” Determine who to include in the process. You’ll want to include your stakeholders, especially the ones with strong opinions, and you’ll definitely want to include your learners.

Next, determine when you will work together. Set aside enough time to work through all the phases of design thinking, which typically lasts two to three days. Explain to your collaborators that moving through the phases of design thinking consecutively will take less time, in the long run, than breaking up the process — which can also help you gain buy-in.

WHEN YOU DEEPLY UNDERSTAND YOUR AUDIENCE, YOU CAN MAKE DECISIONS THAT BEST SERVE THEM. For a successful design thinking experience, setting expectations is key.

Address expectations on attendance, phone policies, lunch breaks and any other relevant factors up front to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Empathize: Taking Audience Analysis to the Next Level When you deeply understand your audience, you can make decisions that best serve them. To do so, you need to actually talk to them. The

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Is Your Learning Program a Good Candidate for Design Thinking?

Ask Yourself if this Program is …

Sticky?

Is it connected to a “big problem” that the business has struggled with in the past but to no avail?

Are there are many stakeholders with lots of opinions?

Do you suspect there are multiple solutions to this problem?

Impactful?

Does this program span the entire organization?

Does it have a very deep impact on one group?

first stage in design thinking includes empathy interviews (ideally face to face or, alternatively, via video) with representatives of each learner category for your program.

Empathy interviews with learners are different than SME interviews. In these interviews, you want learners to take you where they want to go. Ask open-ended questions and, after they respond, follow up for clarification. To be a real empathy ninja, ask your first question and then be quiet — don’t ask a follow up question, and don’t make a comment. Just wait, and your learner may offer a deeper, subtler, more nuanced reply.

As you speak with your learners, listen for three things: First, what do they know (or not know) about the topic, both in terms of knowledge and skills?

Second, what is their work life like?

Everyone has a different day-to-day work experience. The more you can understand their experience, the more you can empathize with them.

Dramatic?

Does the business challenge inspiring this learning program make people want to run and hide?

Are there mixed emotions around this business challenge?

Frameable?

Can you frame the challenge in the form of a “how might we” question without implying a solution — for example, by asking, “How might we institute a coaching culture” rather than, “How might we create performance support materials to institute a coaching culture?”

Finally, how do they like to learn? Do they jump right in? Call a friend? Watch a video? Uncovering learners’ modality preference is golden.

Define: Shaping the Requirements Next, your team will need to define what the program needs to address by focusing on three areas: First, consider any constraints and/ or requirements at play, such as time, resources, technology and budget.

Don’t take items that surface as fact; probe to understand them deeper.

Channel your inner two-year-old and ask, “Why?” Although constraints and requirements may seem restricting, they can act as helpful guardrails and encourage creativity.

Then, determine the business need the program should address. Leaders may give you lofty-sounding statements, such as, “We need every employee to demonstrate leadership” or “Employees

must put customers first.” In this case, it’s implied that learners have a current way of acting or thinking, and the business wants them to change; in other words, they want a mindset shift. The empathize stage of design thinking helps you understand learners’ view of the world.

In this phase, you’ll need to focus on how the business wants to develop learners by listening to the organization’s leaders and reviewing its vision and mission.

Lastly, determine the program’s learning objectives, which serve as a bridge to move your learners from their current mindset to their future mindset. If your learning objectives are more knowledgebased than application-based, try again.

Even if a project sponsor tells you, “This is an awareness course; we just need learners to be aware of this content,” ask, “Why? What will the learner actually do with this information?”

Ideate: Exploring the Possibilities Now, it’s time for the fun part. The goal of this stage is to generate ideas. To do so successfully, try the following activity with another person: Divide a piece of paper into four sections.

Start by putting your “How might we…” question in the top section. In the next section, write a description of one part of your learning project, as you envision it, and hand the paper to your partner. In the third section, your partner will write all the things that are wrong with your idea. Then, your partner will give the paper back to you so you can rewrite

your idea based on his or her feedback.

Repeat this process with all the sections.

Prototype and Test: The Final Two Stages The goal of prototyping is to give your learning project enough form so that you, your learners and your stakeholders can envision it. For example, take a representative chunk of the project, and sketch or storyboard it. If you are creating an instructor-led workshop, you can select some of the activities and practice them. For e-learning programs, you can build a small section of the course.

Prototyping is more than a stage in design thinking; it’s a mindset. If you take the approach that your work will always have room for improvement, and if you share it often and make iterative improvements, it will improve — which benefits your learners.

When you test, compare your prototype to your learning project’s constraints, requirements and business needs. Did the prototype include the project’s musthaves? Did you stay within the allocated budget and deadline? You may find that in some areas, you weren’t able to meet the mark or that, now you’re in the prototyping phase, you don’t know how to implement a requirement. This is a completely normal part of the process.

After prototyping, you should also revisit your learning objectives. Do the content delivery and practice activities align with learning objectives? If they don’t, determine if the objective was off base

or unrealistic or if you need to rework the activities.

Design thinking is an iterative process, so looping back to an earlier phase is part of the plan. When doing so, make sure you’re communicating with stakeholders so they know how the project is unfolding.

When Assumptions and Reality Collide: Navigating Difficult Moments Sometimes, in these sessions, what you hear from your learners is in direct opposition to your stakeholders’ opinions. If this happens, try to validate what you’ve heard by interviewing more learners. You can also conduct empathy interviews with stakeholders to better understand their views, as deeper research often makes it easier to find a middle ground. For example, if stakeholders are set on a mobile solution, but your learners hate the idea, figure out why. By digging deeper, you will likely find an innovative solution that satisfies both parties.

With an open mind and a willingness to improve, design thinking can help you create learning programs that authentically connect with learners by meeting their needs — and that also meet the business’ needs. As a learning professional, design thinking can take you from being an order-taker to being a powerful consultant focused on developing deeper insights with both your stakeholders and learners.

Design thinking is a win-win for L&D professionals and the businesses and learners they serve.

DESIGN THINKING CAN HELP YOU CREATE LEARNING PROGRAMS THAT AUTHENTICALLY CONNECT WITH LEARNERS BY MEETING THEIR NEEDS.

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Clare Dygert is the director of instructional design and Lauren Granahan is the director of organizational effectiveness at SweetRush. They are the primary architects of SweetRush Co-Design, a design thinking experience that creates learner-centric solutions. Email Clare.

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Trends 2020 The Broadening Role of L&D

by Ken Taylor Learning and development (L&D) professionals wear many hats and continue to gain new responsibilities beyond their traditional role of deploying training programs at the request of business leaders. Learning professionals are now taking a more strategic and proactive role in planning and developing training that’s aligned with business goals and, therefore, improves organizational performance.

For example, executives are increasingly recognizing that training has become a competitive advantage for organizations vying for talent.

Employees today want personal and professional development, which has brought training to the forefront of many talent acquisition efforts. Once hired, those employees perform better and stay longer with companies that have built a strong learning culture, developing employees for their current and future roles.

The business market is changing at a rapid pace, requiring organizations to become more agile and responsive to change. Technology is only accelerating this rate of change through innovations in areas like automation and artificial intelligence. Organizations must now reskill and upskill employees at a faster rate, deploying learning experiences that quickly close technical and soft skills gaps and prepare everyone — employees and customers alike — for the future.

As the business market continues to evolve, so will the role of the learning leader. The key trends for 2020 reflect the broadening role of L&D to deliver effective learning solutions at the speed of change.

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Growing Focus on Soft Skills Training Technology is evolving business practices through automation and artificial intelligence (AI), and the future of work will include jobs that don’t exist today. Even with this transformation, soft skills like creativity, agile thinking, communication and collaboration will stay in high demand. However, our research shows that gaps in soft skills exist across all roles and nearly all functions, and organizations in all industries are responding by providing a variety of forms of training. We can assume that this gap is everywhere, and much like data literacy, soft skills training is becoming core to organizational and employee success.

Soft skills are not learned in a one-and-done training event. To truly develop these skills, employees require multiple training experiences over an extended period of time to learn and practice them. We foresee a continued focus on soft skills training, and L&D professionals must create comprehensive learning experiences to develop this critical skill set.

Training for the Gig Economy More and more organizations are employing a growing number of contract and temporary (“gig�) employees. The gig economy represents a shift in how employees view work, valuing the flexibility and freedom of contract jobs over the traditional arrangement of a steady 9-to-5 job.

As the gig economy grows, organizations are challenged with how to train these new types of workers, who may not be granted access to traditional employee systems, such as learning portals.

The gig workforce is a continuation of the trend we saw last year around preboarding. It requires the L&D function to think beyond the enterprise when it comes to ensuring peak performance for the organization. As the nature of work continues to evolve, L&D is beginning to adapt by providing learning opportunities for workers beyond the focus of traditional enterprise training.

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High Capital Investment in Learning Experience Platforms In 2019, we saw more investment, through an influx of capital investments and consolidation, in learning experience platforms (LXPs). Traditional learning libraries are no longer cutting it for organizations that need to aggregate content from multiple sources and providers to create more offerings for employees. As a result, organizations are transitioning to on-demand learning to support employees at the time of need, and AI and machine learning are becoming more commonplace in a range of tools, from delivery platforms (LXPs as well as traditional learning management systems) to chatbotbased coaching tools and content curation applications.

We expect to see more investment flow into the learning space in the coming year, with a focus on improving the employee learning experience. Understanding the implications of these technologies, their potential built-in bias, and the source and use of learner data will be top of mind for L&D professionals as we include these emerging tools in our companies’ technology stacks.

Data Literacy There is no shortage of data in the modern business environment, largely due to the reporting and analytics capabilities provided by technology. Organizations are struggling to consolidate all this data — including learning data — and understand how to use it accurately and ethically. Our research shows that companies that proactively invest in developing their employees’ data literacy are outperforming companies that don’t across a variety of metrics, including revenue growth, profitability and employee satisfaction.

The training function — at any company, in any industry — cannot afford to ignore this competitive advantage, and addressing the data skills gap is critical. Our recent competency and career research has shown that among the weakest competencies for L&D professionals are organizational performance analysis, performance measurement, and business and training performance assessment. L&D professionals must take the first step and invest the time and resources to become data-literate themselves to prove the value of learning to business executives. Then, we can drive the development of this critical skill across the entire organization.

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Defining L&D’s Role in Building a Learning Culture Improving and refining the employee experience continues to be a focal point for many organizations.

Having a strong learning culture can maximize employee potential and encourage creativity and innovation. The outcomes of a strong learning culture could even attract talented employees and extend the length of time they stay with a company.

The challenge we face is defining L&D’s role in building that learning culture. The C-suite, human resources, organizational development, and learning and development teams all have a vested interest and responsibilities in developing and maintaining the company’s learning culture. The tone at the top is key, and our research shows that executives feel they are making the level of investment needed to maximize the impact of learning on the company. The challenge is for L&D to make certain the investment is achieving the outcomes we expect it to.

Ubiquity of Customer Education Technology is constantly changing, and whether it’s by downloading a new app on their phone or by installing new software on their computer at work, users adapt. Today, every technology has some form of self-help function, so no formal training is needed. Many tools have short videos or articles available to answer frequently asked questions.

There is also a growing focus on designing technology with an intuitive user experience, enabling navigation without assistance.

As a result of these developments, one could argue that customer education has largely become a self-help model, with users upskilling themselves as needed. With technology evolving so rapidly, it’s important for these training tools to be relevant and simple, and to be agile, they can have a lower quality than more traditional training materials. L&D must revisit the value we can bring to the development of this critical form of extended enterprise learning. Strong instructional design of these programs will reduce cost and mitigate risk, but do we have a seat at that table? Best-in-class companies recognize the role L&D can play in great customer education programs.

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

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Jeff Bezos once said, “It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, ‘Jeff, I love Amazon; I just wish the prices were a little higher’ [or], ‘Jeff, I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little more slowly.’”

Our default is to focus on what things will or may look like in the future. We brainstorm, theorize and strategize about the possibilities. Bezos’ statement is so powerful because he reframed the approach. He focused on what wasn’t possible, and he shifted Amazon’s strategy accordingly.

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In a similar spirit, take a moment to consider the world of talent development. What has no chance of being true in the future?

What is simply not possible five years, 10 years or even 20 years from now?

Can you imagine a time in the future when new hires, seasoned managers or top executives will prefer to be less involved in their learning and, instead, desire more lecture-based learning experiences? Try to imagine a time in the future when a learner says, “It would have been great if that training used more PowerPoint slides” or, “The only thing that the training was lacking

was more individual assignments that involved reading research on the principles of people management.”

The world today is dominated by realtime access to information and the ability to customize experiences to your liking. You walk outside, push a button on a screen and a car shows up to take you anywhere. The slate of glass in your pocket gives you access to numerous communication mediums that break down geographic barriers in real time.

This is the world that exists, and it isn’t slowing down.

of students from over 1600 colleges and universities since 2000. The consistent results of these data show that handson, integrative, and collaborative active learning experiences lead to high levels of student achievement and personal development.”

In addition, according to the University of California at Berkeley’s graduate student instructor teaching guide, “More complex thought processes are more beneficial for learning because they involve a greater number of neural connections and more neurological cross-talk.

Active learning takes advantage of this cross-talk, stimulating a variety of areas of the brain and promoting memory.”

The Distracted Learner You may be reading this article on a mobile device. At any given time, you can click or swipe, and, in seconds, you are working on something different, playing a game or browsing the web.

We manage emails, text messages and social media notifications with agile reflexes, only to fall behind. We reply in dedicated messaging apps, respond to friend requests and dive into one cat video — then wonder where the last 45 minutes went.

The future of learning is experiential for two core reasons: Learning competes with numerous potential distractions that are only a click away, and the modern learner desires to play an active role in all areas of his or her lives.

Experiential learning refers to playing an active role in learning as opposed to being a passive consumer of the learning.

This type of learning can improve results; according the University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation, “The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has examined the engagement experiences of hundreds of thousands

Any time a learner walks into training or logs into a virtual classroom, you are fighting against a multitude of distractions. You are contending with numerous items on their to-do lists, which they can access from the device in their pocket or the keyboard in front of them.

The notifications on learners’ phones are even more enticing when training is passive. Effective training demand action and involvement. Experiential learning is a vital tool to ward off the plethora of distractions vying for our learners’ attention.

According to LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report, getting employees to make time for learning is the top challenge for talent development professionals.

As a baseline, you have a prospective

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EFFECTIVE TRAINING MUST DEMAND ACTION AND INVOLVEMENT. learner who is inundated with work and easily distracted. Experiential learning provides the solution to engaging learners and enabling them to absorb, retain and apply learning.

Demanding Control Less than 15 years ago, there was no Uber, no Instagram and no Amazon Prime. To say there has been a seismic shift in the level of control, convenience and personalization we now have in our lives is an understatement of epic proportions.

Now, think about the world 15 years from now. Imagine your morning routine, your weekday workflow and your weekends. Do you believe you will have less control over personalizing and crafting those experiences?

Take this perspective into the world of learning and development (L&D), and you begin to understand why learners today demand to be involved in the experience. The youngest learners grew up with Google, Alexa and Siri for their queries and YouTube as their instruction manuals.

3 Ideas to Integrate Experiential Learning and Give Learners Control 1| CASE STUDIES AND ROLEPLAYING Take real-life scenarios and role-play the challenges, the various approaches a person could take and the potential outcomes. Business schools have used the case study method to great success, and corporate L&D programs

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USE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE AND CAPITALIZE ON THE DESIRE FOR MORE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES. can implement a similar approach. The ability to simulate real-world scenarios and provide participants with a platform to practice different approaches is critical to professional development.

2| FEEDBACK, COACHING AND MENTORSHIP PROGRAMS Many organizations incorporate models that encourage senior leaders inside and outside of the organization to coach rising leaders. These coaching conversations should not simply focus on the day-to-day lives of each party. To be truly effective, coaching and mentoring must integrate experiential learning.

Construct coaching frameworks that allow pairs to explore various scenarios and provide an arena for learners to practice potential outcomes. Allow the coaches/ mentors to share their own stories and guide an immersive environment.

Enhance learning moments by providing scenario-based conversations that reflect real-world challenges. This practice allows for true learning through practice in the place of simple conversations that recap the prior two weeks of performance.

3| ACTION LEARNING PROJECTS When training groups are split into cohorts, you experience the added benefit of building comradery among participants. Embrace that benefit, and give each group a company challenge.

Maybe it’s a strategic priority to improve the onboarding of campus hires or an exercise in breaking down crossfunctional barriers while simultaneously removing monthly all-hands meetings.

Whatever you choose, set a group of learners on a journey to prepare and present its potential solutions. If possible, include a competitive element where multiple teams concoct different approaches and are judged on their performance and creativity.

The Future of Learning Impactful learning must first break through the numerous barriers of distraction and provide learners the level of control they are accustomed to.

Passive approaches to learning delivery fail to take advantage of the opportunity

to positively impact today’s leaders as well as the leaders of the future.

Experiential learning creates a memorable and engaging environment in which participants can actively pursue the development of new competencies.

In LinkedIn’s workplace learning survey, 94% of respondents said they would stay with their current employer longer if it invested in their career development.

Use experiential learning to bridge the gap between theory and practice and capitalize on the desire for more development opportunities.

What better way to close a conversation about the future than with a quote by Aristotle from 350 BCE: “For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

Matt Confer is the vice president of strategy at Abilitie, a leading provider of simulation-based manger and executive development training for over 50 Fortune 500 companies in 30+ countries around the world. Matt has spoken on the topic of leadership development at TEDx in Dallas, the CLO Exchange and at the annual Human Resources Leadership Summit. Email Matt.

Experiential Learning: 3 Takeaways to Remember 1|Brainstorm what learning looks like in the future by first considering what will never be true. Does passive learning realistically have a chance of being preferred by future learners?

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2|Learning operates in an environment ripe with distractions. Learners demand control, because they harness it in other aspects of their lives. Experiential learning is a dynamic solution to combat these two core challenges.

3|We can use experiential learning to engage learners in an immersive environment that breaks through potential distractions and allows them to play an active role in the experience.

CONGRATULATIONS CPTM GRADUATES! Compliments to all of those who have earned the Certified Professional in Training Management (CPTM™) credential in the past year. We would like to recognize over 130 graduates from diverse industries and roles around the world. Your accomplishment places you amongst an elite group of learning and development professionals. We cannot wait to see how you will lead the change!

Ossama Abdelsattar |

Gulf Drilling International Ltd.

Scott Agnew |

Lauri Dreher |

Prescott High School

Somya Dwivedi-Burks |

Nicole Leon | Lenovo Wanda Lipscomb-Vasquez |

Perspecta

Christina Salcedo |

Somya Trains, LLC

Daniel Lowell | Thomson Reuters

Yousef Alghamdi |

Nikki Earich | Vistex

Danielle Lynch |

Jana Edmunds |

Ohio Department of Transportation

Delenis Roman Rodriguez |

Sun Nuclear Corporation

Basin Electric Power Cooperative Ministry of Communication and Information Technology

Derrick Robinson | SSE

Yolo Federal Credit Union

Investments and Wealth Institute

Heather Schultes | TransPerfect

Bruce Manley Jr. |

Melissa Evankovich |

Southern Cross, Inc.

Courtney Schultz | Honkamp Kruger & Co, PC

Central Electric Cooperative, Inc.

Martin Mansour | Plant Therapy

Laura Attewell | Fourth, Ltd.

Steve Schwarze | VMware

Desiree Evans | Seeq Corporation

David Marshall |

Berrisa-Day Austin | TTEC

Marshall Galloway |

Todd Shackelford | Alvine and Associates

Daniel Arroyo |

Atmos International Inc.

Kris Benefield |

Penn State University

Carrie Berg | Livongo

Goodwill Industries International

Laura Gilpin |

Armtec Defense Technologies

Arun Biswas | Nestle

Erin Goldman | OnPrem Solution Partners

Berdina Bonds | Morgan Stanley

Daveen Goodman |

Nadia Bornfleth | Advanced

Ohio Department of Transportation

Technology International

Susie Grace | OneUpWeb

Jeffrey Brown | Lush Cosmetics

Charles Gunter | BAE Systems

Stephen Brown |

Nikkia Hamler | Weltman,

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

David Buettner | Idea Development

Richard Cecil | Red River Bank Alana Chavez Stephanie Clark |

Learn on Demand Systems

American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons AAOS

Howard Marshall |

Mandy Shields | HNTB

Denise Mathis

Stephen Simmons Jr. | MidAmerican Energy Company

Demetrius Matuauto | Vivify Development

Helene Smith | Morgan Stanley

Hillary Maxwell

Linda Smith |

Melissa McCornack |

Arby’s Restaurant Group

Phoebe McKinney | Made Simple Consulting, LLC

Ohio Department of Transportation

Nels Hanson | Grant County PUD

Michelle McNeill |

LeRon Stevens | Amida Care, Inc.

Thomas Harrell | Master Electronics

Clayton Hartog | Bioventus Andrew Heifetz | Akamai Technologies Patty Hemmingsen |

PCL Construction

Megan Mendenhall |

Ohio Department of Transportation

Tammy Miller |

Ohio Department of Transportation

Charles Monk | The GEO Group

Edna Ojano | MNX Global Logistics

LearnSearch

Melanie Johnston | Hologic

Bill Palazzolo | General Motors

Ann Marie Cucinello | Eppendorf

Mindy Johnston |

Radharamanan Panicker |

Southwest Airlines University

Brenton Daviau | KPA

Jessica Jones | CivicPlus

Madhur Devi | LensCrafters

Sofia Kadar |

Shawn Diaz |

Pacira Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Felicia Dietrich | Training Made Simple Consulting LLC

Stephanie Dirou | Tabcorp Nicole Dorsin |

HF Management, LLC

Mark Doty | Constellation Brands Sharice Douglas |

Lawrence Livermore National Lab

Project Management Institute

Marty Tanner | HCR ManorCare

Igor Torrealba | Aptiv

Paige Johnson | Organizational Leadership Graduate Student

Tracey D’Ambrosia | Paychex

Robin Talmadge | United States Department of Agriculture

Claire Morris |

Juan Francisco Cortés Doña |

Evan Jones |

Micron Technology

Gwen Thomas | Ohio Department of Transportation

Joel Janssen | HUB International

Grant County PUD

Linda Stevens |

Patti Morgan | FCB

Fortera Credit Union

Owen D’Acres | Geotab

American Red Cross

Paul Staley |

Amber McLean

Olaf Cook | Motorola Solutions

Catherine Crabtree |

University of Delaware

Allison Spearman |

Weinberg & Reis Co., LPA

Kathleen Cook

Quipu GmbH

Matthew Shannon | LearnSearch

Oracle-NetSuite

McDermott Will & Emery LLP

Steven Ortiz |

Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Dangerous Goods Management India Pvt. Ltd.

Cynthia Perez-Chavez | University of New Mexico

Roberta Perna | World Courier Inc.

Hugh Pleasants |

Samuel Torres | Nabors Drilling Isael Vallejos | Hope Enterprise Corporation Laura Van Ness |

Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation OBWC

Kristal Walker |

3C’s Training Group

Marqel Watkins |

Ohio Department of Transportation

Rachael Weaver | Kingspan Insulation

Kelly Weingart |

Reyaz Kausar Siddiqui | Azaiba Gardens Family Furniture

S&P Global Market Intelligence

Michaelle Knight |

Youfit Health Clubs

Alyssa Wenzel | Gemalto

Thomas Polaski | RGS Energy

Sandra Williams | Primerica, Inc.

Vistage, Worldwide

Paul Krasley |

VA Acquisition Academy

Ben Kunze | Ohio Department of Transportation Jobe Lawson | Morgan Stanley Lynn Leadley | Pax8

Jessica Podsada |

Nichole Polifka | Proto Labs Ray Pollon | International Road Dynamics Christy Raines | Arvest Bank Katrina Reiniers-Jackson | Bunim-Murray

Visit cptm.trainingindustry.com to learn more about how you can earn the CPTM credential and join over 500 CPTM graduates.

Joint Military Attaché School

Theresa Williamson |

Williston Financial

Tim Willis Yiannis Yiannakopoulos |

Interamerican

David Ziegler | SOC-USA

“In the midst of historic technology and market disruption, only the fleet of foot will survive.”

– Deloitte Insights Companies are experiencing disruptive change driven by the rapid pace of digital advancements, yet most cling to what feels stable — the past. A company’s future readiness and competitive edge lie in its ability to rapidly develop skills and knowledge and commoditize learning content.

T

he scene opens with the Ghost of Christmas Past, the first of three spirits to haunt a banker from Edinburgh. This angelic spirit shows the banker scenes from his past to demonstrate to him the necessity of changing his ways. At the story’s conclusion, the banker is transformed into an open-minded and generous man by the spirits who showed him the consequences of his greedy, selfcentered lifestyle.

You may recognize this story as Charles Dickens’ novella “A Christmas Carol.” Much like the banker, Ebenezer Scrooge, many companies are out of step with best practice and clinging to 20th-century learning architectures while being haunted by their inability to deliver 21st-century learning experiences. Regardless of your organization’s lagging learning architecture, there are steps that you can take to navigate the powerful forces of the digital revolution and usher your organization into the modern era.

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The Digital Revolution Driving Profound Disruption It is widely known that the pace of digital revolution is accelerating, evidenced by the speed and use of disruptive technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These technologies are reshaping the workforce, workplace and marketplace. This era, known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, is profoundly disrupting all industries across the globe.

Attending to legacy systems and deciding on new platforms is critical to catching up and then keeping pace. As technological advancement accelerates, organizations are faced with the challenge of managing the interaction between legacy systems and new digital platforms. In addition, preparing for the future modernized architecture is no longer optional. According to Information Age, 97% of companies say their legacy networks will have difficulty keeping pace with the evolving demands of cloud-based applications.

Successful companies confront these changes by investing in disruptive technologies and continuously adapting to meet employee and customer experience expectations. A “let’s ignore it until it’s broken” approach is not sustainable and may be harmful to your company’s brand. With the explosion of cloud-based learning solutions, your organization can make decisions that align with your corporate strategy and introduce a learning technology stack that promotes learner experience and performance.

Enhance Learner Experience, Improve Performance More and more employees are entering their workplaces expecting a consumer-like experience, which means 24/7 access to technology, mobile capabilities, seamlessly interconnected digital platforms, simple

and intuitive user interfaces, and the ability to share and receive feedback.

Digital learning solutions create countless opportunities for organizations to provide innovative learning experiences to their employees. With modern cloud-based platforms come improved employee access, personalization, curated microcontent, video distribution and enhanced learner experiences.

If an organization is to stay ahead of the game, learning must be realized more quickly and at the points of need to meet business goals.

Unfortunately, according to a recent Deloitte study, “nearly 80 percent of executives rated employee experience very important (42 percent) or important (38 percent), but only 22 percent reported that their companies were excellent at building a differentiated employee experience.”

If improving the learner experience is a winwin for the enterprise and the employee, why do companies cling to outdated learning models? Most organizations are aware that they need to adopt and adapt to new digital learning solutions.

However, technology is the easy part. The hard part is confronting mixed mindsets based in historical, social and institutional practices — or “the way it’s always been done.” These mindsets hamper an organization’s progress and ability to unpack decades of customizations, well-meaning workarounds, deferred upgrades and cobbled-together systems that are not securely connected to the corporate digital ecosystem.

Haunting Legacy Architecture Learning technology is rapidly changing.

Solutions are becoming more cloud- and experienced-based to meet employees’ expectation that the learner experience measure up to the commercial standard.

There is no doubt that a lagging learning architecture is holding back digital transformation. However, many organizations do not realize that clinging to traditional, monolithic systems is detrimental to their future.

According to studies described by Deloitte Insights, “Organizations with the most compelling workforce experiences” experience 22% higher employee engagement, 12% greater customer satisfaction and 2.3 times greater three-year revenue growth.

At these companies, workers are also Digital transformation is at the center of four times more likely to stay with many organizations’ business strategy.

Yet a surprising number of leading the organization. companies are letting a common enemy Operationally, organizations with stand in their way — aging legacy a better learner experience can systems. One reason leaders lack count on a shortened ramp to confidence in their ability to benefit from proficiency and increased capability technology may be the obstacles legacy to integrate learning into the flow of technologies present. Cloud applications work. Strategically, modern learning are a key driver of digital transformation, technology yields enhanced learning but legacy architecture doesn’t have experiences that can occur anytime the flexibility to integrate cloud-based data sources. and anywhere.

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Opposition to any change is typically borne of fear of entering an unknown situation. A technological change is no different. Transitioning from a familiar learning technology stack to an interconnected, cloud-based architecture will affect people, processes and reliance on past practices. It breeds a fear of obsolescence, power loss and not receiving a perceptible personal benefit. However, if an organization is to stay ahead of the game, learning must be realized more quickly and at the points of need to meet business goals.

it may equally trigger resistance.

Champions influence others’ thinking and help them adopt and adapt to new learning solutions.

3. Market benefits to the target audience: Many organizations are puzzled when innovations fail to secure automatic acceptance. Much like how the needs and wants of your commercial consumers are critical in creating and funding new services, promoting new digital learning solutions help it land better within the

Begin Your Story of Redemption

2. Enlist leader and learner champions of change: Any organizational change, particularly the introduction of a new digital learning solution, needs champions to promote it. If a digital solution can inspire strong support,

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Let’s face it: Delivering a 21st-century learning experience is challenging for many organizations. However, there are a range of best practices proven to help organizations start the process of upgrading their digital learning architecture and delivering a modern experience.

The ball and chain of legacy learning architecture will continue to keep your organization from fully implementing learning solutions that bolster learner experience and performance. Your legacy system also tells employees that it is acceptable to avoid change and put off today’s problem for another day.

As learning and development (L&D) practitioners, we need think beyond our own expertise and begin forging strategic partnerships to identify cloud-based technologies that are compatible with dated learning technology stacks, processes and mindsets. Rethink analog training practices, and bring your organization in step with best practices that untether it from its 20th-century learning architecture. Ebenezer Scrooge was saved, and your organization can be, too; here are five simple tips to lay the groundwork for your organization’s redemption.

1. Educate executives and employees on the values proposition: Answer the age-old question of, “What’s in it for me?”

It’s not enough to convey the danger, waste and costs of maintaining a legacy learning technology stack. Increase awareness and understanding of both your current learning technology stack and emerging cloud-based technologies.

Share with your organization how cloudbased approaches can eliminate the annoying systems triage, instability, unpredictability, wasted resources and labor cost embedded in the legacy architecture.

with the business owner to establish quantitative measures of success.

Align learning interventions to business problems and measurable outcomes.

Then, collect data to show proof of concept and impact on performance and the business.

organization. Marketing is a proven method to promote the benefits of digital learning solutions to your leaders and learners.

4. Conduct smart experiments: To validate the potential benefits of a digital learning solution, conduct smart experiments involving business unit owners and learners. Use control and “treatment” groups to glean quantitative and qualitative feedback. An experiment is a great opportunity to discover and validate benefits by applying the solution in the organization’s ecosystem and a controlled environment simultaneously.

5. Establish quantitative measures: To ensure valid measurement, partner

A much-needed awakening has arrived in the form of the digital revolution. The onus is on the organization to keep pace with the radically shifting workplace.

The alternative is to continue being haunted by a 20thcentury learning architecture that is incapable of delivering 21stcentury learner experiences. While a legacy learning technology stack has served your organization well for years, the powerful forces of the digital revolution are rendering them ineffective. Vendors are jettisoning their support for on-premise legacy systems. Ready or not, they are doubling down on cloud-based solutions that provide security, stability, scalability and enhanced learner experiences.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.

As legendary tennis player Arthur Ashe once said, “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can” (other than nothing at all).

Dr. Sydney Savion is general manager of learning at Air New Zealand.

Email Sydney.

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AS A LEARNING LEADER, HAVE YOU EVER MOVED INTO A ROLE AND ASSUMED OWNERSHIP OF A TECHNOLOGY THAT WAS GOING UNUSED? This tech might include subscriptions to specialized tools or expensive platforms like a learning management system (LMS). Initially, it seems a stroke of good fortune to inherit a platform paid for (or at least budgeted for) by a predecessor. After all, something is better than nothing, right?

When it comes to learning technology, however, that may not be the case. Everyone wants to make the best of sunk-cost investments, but designing an ecosystem around mismatched technology only leads to disappointment — and the recent growth of the market only further complicates things. Although many tools fall into specific categories, few do the same job, and they are not interchangeable. In fact, the various use cases for new players are increasingly specialized as more and more enter the space and increased competition has each carving out a unique niche.

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In our case, we inherited a perfectly good, cloud-based LMS subscription. We were a few months into the subscription, and we had uploaded no assets whatsoever. It was simply the wrong technology for the needs of our organization. Instead, we put our efforts into a robust collaboration platform to build communities of practice and stand up a sales enablement strategy. It isn’t that an LMS is always a bad idea — it simply wasn’t right for us. Since a refund for the subscription was not an option, it made more sense to abandon the platform than it did to invest the time and talent to make it work for us.

The logic of starting with foundational technology, such as an LMS, seems sound on the surface. Certain components of a learning tech stack are considered essential for any organization —

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we expect tools for authoring, tracking and hosting, virtual instruction, and learner experience. The problem is that the proliferation of tools and our understanding of specific categories have been in constant flux. At this point, learning leaders are overwhelmed by options. Josh Bersin has noted both the fragmentation and the trending consolidation of these learning product segments. Similarly, RedThread Research created a model for assessing learning tech functionalities, organized by use cases identified in its research. Both perspectives are valuable in choosing technology from an array of everevolving options. However, stepping away from the trends lists, the buzz on social media and the crowded expo floors of major conferences, we might question whether the learning tech stack is the right focus. Here are four reasons to think critically of that assumption: • The end need isn’t for technology; it’s for improved performance and human excellence.

• Recruiting for the skill sets that can support the learning tech stack creates unnecessary limitations.

TRENDS IN L&D TALENT Increased use of agile, on-demand talent.

Innovation in human cloud platforms and self-service.

Outsourcing of L&D staffing due to the tight labor market.

Focus on measuring and assessing the talent experience.

Evolving roles for learning experience designers and learning strategists.

Recruitment of talent from broader or varied backgrounds.

Strategic management of the team’s talent stack.

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• Talent and available expertise may now be a bigger risk than technological disruption.

• Building a talent stack may provide a stronger team foundation.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN AND TECHNICAL NEEDS When cornered, any knowledgeable learning and development (L&D) professional is going to point to high performance on the job as the real need.

That said, we are all susceptible to our implicit biases, and one at play in this context is the the framing effect. The marketplace frames our decision-making, and the ubiquitous voice of the L&D marketplace tells us we need to have these technologies. RedThread Research argues for the intentional design of your learning tech ecosystem, but the framework presupposes the need for a learning tech stack. According to the last U.S. census, nearly half the nation’s labor force works for companies with fewer than 500 employees. Therefore, it’s possible that our framing of the need is disproportionately influenced by large organizations and the market targeting those organizations.

A good counterbalance to that influence is a conscious analysis and scrutiny of needs.

A jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) approach can be helpful. Bob Moesta’s technique for JTBD interviews, for example, identifies underlying needs and the multiple decision points that define them. This approach is typically applied to the buying process, but it can also be useful in understanding the decisions and strategies that will make teams successful, whether it’s analyzing the underlying needs for a technology purchases or understanding the needs of the stakeholders.

RECRUITING PLUG-ANDPLAY TALENT Envisioning the L&D future as an ecosystem often results in perceiving the talent portion of that system as human plug-ins. Increasingly, job descriptions call for expertise in a variety of specific

STEPPING AWAY FROM TRENDS LISTS AND THE BUZZ ON SOCIAL MEDIA, WE MIGHT QUESTION WHETHER THE LEARNING TECH STACK IS THE RIGHT FOCUS.

tools. Leaders may make the comparison to web development and programming, but the complexity of learning to code is not analogous to that of learning to use most learning applications.

Emphasizing the technical skill set may cause leaders to overlook the skills necessary to achieve desired outcomes.

Building a team of instructional designers with expertise in a specific tool or suite shifts the focus to tech experience at the expense of aptitude or potential. It also devalues soft skills such as the ability to communicate effectively or to collaborate.

It’s also important to consider the size of the team. Larger teams allow for greater specialization, but smaller organizations may need a few generalists to cover all the bases. Plug-and-play talent may work well with your technology but not with your business needs.

THE TALENT ECONOMY COMES TO L&D We’re used to thinking of increasingly sophisticated technology as the X-factor in accomplishing our business goals, but that may no longer be the case. A recent Gartner survey indicates that the talent shortage is the top emerging risk for global organizations, and additional studies, conducted by XpertHR and Conference Board, came to the same conclusion. If a

ULTIMATELY, THE CHOICE ISN’T FOR TALENT OVER TECH; SMART ORGANIZATIONS EMPHASIZE BOTH. skill. It encompasses work habits and communication preferences. We wouldn’t necessarily connect it to technical skills, yet there are work cultures that rely heavily on collaborative technology for communication. Cultural fit is a broad umbrella and encompass a lot of factors.

talent crisis may soon pose as pressing a risk as technological disruption, we need to be much more deliberate about taking a talent approach to designing our learning teams. By reimagining the learning talent-to-technology relationship, we can work from need to solution rather than solution to need.

JTBD is not the production of training classes, online modules, videos or job aids. Addressing performance gaps through influence and insight requires leaders to have a talent mindset.

Learning leaders must recognize that a professional’s ability to provide influence and insight is more difficult to assess than exposure to certain authoring tools.

A TEAM’S TALENT STACK What might it mean to intentionally design the team’s talent stack? Though the metaphor is not perfect — the inherent complexity of talent makes it difficult to create taxonomies or definitive competency profiles — thinking about the expertise we need to make our teams successful is often secondary to other considerations. First of all, we need to consider which soft skills will contribute to the end objectives. As a benchmark, LinkedIn ranked the top five soft skills: creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and time management. Of course, recruiting for

creativity and persuasion would require a different approach than recruiting for tool experience. Such an approach is difficult to automate and requires more investment in robust vetting, qualification and analysis of cultural fit.

Recent research by Training Industry regarding the success factors of external L&D talent reveals that cultural fit is as important as cost in selection criteria.

However, factors such as cultural fit or alignment with values don’t typically appear on the competency profile for a learning leader. Cultural fit differs from emotional intelligence in that we generally agree that it’s more of a style, preference or mindset than a

Ultimately, the choice isn’t talent over tech; smart organizations emphasize both. Instead, it’s understanding that talent contributes as much to the ecosystem as technology, and prioritizing L&D talent strategy can help learning leaders bring sustainable value to their organizations. Developing a team with adaptability will enable them to embrace new technologies. It’s time to put as much analytical effort into planning, curating and vetting our talent needs as we do into selecting the right technology.

Keith Gibson, Ph.D., is the vice president of business development for TTA (also known as The Training Associates).

Michael Noble, Ph.D., is the COO and chief learning strategist for TTA. Email the authors.

ASSESSING THE TALENT STACK OF YOUR TEAM hat are the W underlying jobs this team must perform?

persuasion, collaboration, etc.) does the team need?

What needs are better met with outside, ondemand talent?

What business acumen is required to carefully analyze performance and make recommendations?

Which technical skills demonstrate an aptitude for learning?

How can our talent strategy scale to meet large, unforeseen challenges?

What combination of soft skills (creativity,

What cultural factors should we consider?

How can learning shape or influence culture?

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GO GROW THEM Using Crowdsourcing to Spur Employee Development

BY MARCELLE FOWLER

For human resources (HR) practitioners, crowdsourcing — the use of technology and social networking to draw resources, services, content or ideas from a large number of people — has broadened talent pools, given employees a voice on topics from benefit options to company culture, opened avenues for internal collaboration and content sharing, and enhanced performance feedback and employee recognition systems.

From cybersecurity “hackathons” to new potato chip flavors, crowdsourcing is rapidly growing in popularity (along with its monetary cousin, crowdfunding), and it’s no wonder. With a just few clicks, thousands of responses can flood your screen faster than you can make a coffee run.

Despite diverse applications, crowdsourcing remains largely untapped within talent development, even as the digital natives (Generation Z) enter the workforce. According to a 2018 Robert Half survey, more than 90% of Gen Zers rank development and advancement opportunities as their top reason for selecting an employer. Crowdsourcing is an effective way to meet their needs, as

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well as the needs of their predecessors, by merging talent development with technology and social connectedness.

Wherever your organization is on its digital journey, there are ways to include crowdsourcing in your development toolkit — whether it’s enabling employees to generate development ideas, increasing post-learning application and retention, or providing more development opportunities overall.

GENERATING DEVELOPMENT IDEAS Employees’ perspectives on their development are often limited to a narrow, promotion-focused or classroom setting view. Crowdsourcing can broaden their thinking, expand their network of supporters and encourage self-directed learning: • Crowdsource, then craft: Discussing ideas with only one or two people, such as a manager or mentor, may not help your employees explore new possibilities for development.

Encourage employees to use virtual

methods to glean ideas from a broader, more diverse population before settling on a development action plan by: • Writing a post on their personal blog.

• Posting goals on their social media platform(s) of choice and asking for input.

• Starting a thread in special interest or professional associations’ LinkedIn or Facebook groups.

• Sharing progress with their network and asking for additional suggestions based on that progress and updated development goals.

• Repurpose feedback and recognition platforms: Many organizations encourage employees and managers to solicit performance feedback and recognition from multiple sources.

However, soliciting thoughts on development isn’t common practice.

Explore ways to adapt your organization’s existing performance review platform for seeking development ideas as well. Simple programming shifts could open a completely new, yet functionally familiar, platform for gaining

Creating a sense of community by sharing initial development experiences can reduce some of the stress associated with entering a new role and organization.

greater help and support individual development.

for

INCREASING APPLICATION AND RETENTION At the conclusion of training courses, facilitators typically ask participants to consider takeaways they’ll apply upon returning to the office. Instead, facilitators may find it helpful to crowdsource options for retaining and applying the learning objectives: • Communities of practice: Communities of practice (CoPs) are one of the more enduring forms of collective learning in organizations. However, many of these communities suffer from inactivity on their dedicated company platforms. Facilitators can breathe new life into these potentially valuable resources by encouraging training participants to share or seek suggestions on applying learning. They’ll also benefit from seeing what previous participants wrote and gleaning ideas from past posts. If they have internet access while in the classroom, encourage

them to spend a few minutes exploring the CoP before leaving the training event.

• Post-event forums: Even if a learning event or development program doesn’t have a related community of practice, it’s fairly simple to set up an online forum for employees who recently participated in the learning event. Cohorts can use the forum to post ideas, results and insights, and — even if they stop using the forum after a while — their comments will prove valuable to future participants.

• “Re-boarding”: Within new hires’ first 90 days, they’re ripe with lessons learned during their transition from wide-eyed newbie to contributing employee. Who better to ask about the actions and interactions that helped them acclimate to their roles? Harvest these ideas by creating a forum where they can share insights. As they approach their 90-day milestone (or any interval of your choosing), send them an email asking them to post thoughts in the space; then, share it with future onboarding classes to support their on-the-job orientation.

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Studies show that anywhere from 20% to 30% of new hires quit — or consider quitting — within their first 90 days.

While the reasons vary, creating a sense of community early on by sharing initial development experiences can reduce some of the stress associated with entering a new role and organization.

PROVIDING MORE OPPORTUNITIES In its 2019 talent trends research, HR consulting firm Randstad found that nearly 59% of employees want more transparency about career opportunities at their company. Since broad communication is central to any crowdsourcing effort, you can use it to provide and promote career opportunities.

• “Brand” open roles and departments: Your external brand is important in making your organization an employer of choice, and internal branding is just as powerful. Rather than simply posting open roles in your applicant tracking system, encourage employees to broadcast the roles to their internal and external networks,

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along with their thoughts on why their department is an ideal place to work.

to highlight the skills and competencies the challenge will hone so employees link it to their development.

• Encourage participation in open challenges: Employees can hone technical skills such as programming and coding, as well as soft skills like creative problem-solving and communications, through hackathons, innovation challenges and other crowdsourced opportunities available online. Sites such as Challenge.gov regularly cater to a range of interests and skills through a wide variety of challenges, many of which include sizeable monetary prizes.

From a competition for the White House’s architectural design in the 1790s and Toyota’s logo contest in 1936 to the launch of Wikipedia in 2001, crowdsourcing was a phenomenon long before Wired magazine officially coined the term in 2006. As technology continues to evolve, it’s likely to become even more ubiquitous in business. If your talent development efforts haven’t kept pace, take advantage of these opportunities to follow the crowd.

• Create challenges of your own: Use internal platforms to issue a business or innovation challenge to employees, or work with an external firm to create more formal challenges using their secure platforms. Should you choose to offer prize money or corporate swag, be sure

Marcelle Fowler is president of Job Mixology, LLC, a coaching and consulting firm specializing in helping leaders and their teams think more creatively and strategically about on-the-job development to ensure lasting growth for individuals and organizations. Email Marcelle.

As technology continues to evolve, crowdsourcing is likely to become even more ubiquitous in business.

PUT TI N G TH E O N G O I N G “ SOU RCE ” I N CROW DSOU RC E As with any new approach in the talent developer’s toolkit, crowdsourcing efforts can quickly suffer the dreaded flavor-of-the-month fate without an effort to cultivate an ongoing practice. You can help maintain the vitality of your crowdsourced initiatives by ensuring employees at all levels play a role: Formally incorporate your development planning process into crowdsourcing: Take development planning beyond a two-person conversation by adding an official crowdsourcing step before employees create their action plans. During the crowdsourcing step, managers should encourage employees to share their goals with a variety of colleagues to gather development ideas. It shouldn’t be difficult to obtain five to seven suggestions as they tap teammates, peers and other leaders within and outside of their departments, mentors and coaches, and their social networks.

While managers may suggest sources for ideas, the onus should be on the employee to take responsibility for his or her development goals and gather ideas. This approach helps broaden the thinking of the employees, who may be hyper-focused on promotion or stretch assignments as their only means of development. It also ensures that employees take ownership of their development rather than expecting their managers to tell them what they

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should do. Armed with ideas, employees are ready to meet with their manager to discuss and prioritize actions that will become part of their development action plan.

Engage leaders and key influencers in your organization: • LinkedIn has a feature where self-identified experts in their fields can provide career advice to other LinkedIn members. When someone poses a question that may be within the expert’s field, the expert receives a notification in his or her LinkedIn feed. If your organization has a mentor-matching system, consider how you might leverage it to crowdsource “spot mentoring.”

• For influencers who are particularly strong in certain disciplines or skills — particularly those that didn’t exist just years ago — encourage them to support spot mentoring by offering suggestions on upskilling, gaining industry insights and general development.

• Because development opportunities are evolving rapidly alongside delivery modes, senior leaders’ suggestions for development may not be as timely as those from more junior, emerging leaders.

Encourage this population to enhance their ability to develop others by offering spot mentoring on new best practices.

GET BEHIND YOUR EMPLOYEES TO STAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE Keeping up with the demands of business means working faster, better, smarter. With 200+ careerfocused programs, Southern New Hampshire University offers flexible, affordable degree pathways designed to upskill your employees – so you can stay competitive now and ahead of the curve tomorrow.

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CASEBOOK

ENGAGE EMPLOYEES IN DEVELOPMENT, AND LEAVE THEM WANTING MORE

BY MICHAEL POLL

ASSUMPTIONS VERSUS REALITY Assumption: Employees go to your offerings first for their learning.

Reality: Most employees turn to Google, YouTube or other channels before turning to internal company solutions.

Assumption: Employees want what your learning function is offering.

Reality: They may want it but not even know it exists.

Assumption: Employees trust your learning team and the content you provide.

Reality: Most employees are turned off by the corporate learning function, and your brand may not be not as strong as you think.

You likely have a good learning team with good intentions. Perhaps you’ve won some awards or experienced some buzz about a recent initiative or framework. The reality is, however, that most employees don’t care about your intentions — and it shows in low engagement scores, slow talent acceleration and lack of individual contributor retention.

What really matters is the perspective of your employees — not your learning function. Are they showing up for learning events? Are they fully engaged in their development? Do they understand that individual development leads to improved performance and greater rewards for the

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individual, the team, the company, the shareholder and the customer?

OUR COMPANY, OUR CHALLENGE AND OUR GOAL AbbVie is a biopharmaceutical company delivering a consistent stream of innovative medicines that solve critical health issues and have a major impact on people’s lives. Approximately 30,000 employees around the world deliver transformational medicines and therapies that offer significant patient benefits.

WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS THE PERSPECTIVE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES — NOT YOUR LEARNING FUNCTION.

At AbbVie, we faced the common L&D challenges described earlier.

However, using creativity, technology and innovation, we created an employee development juggernaut.

Events regularly sell out. Employees take to social media to talk about their personal development, and employee engagement scores have increased.

Almost two-thirds of global employees

participate, and nearly 65% of senior leaders are involved in teaching; C-suite leaders publicly and actively participate.

The solution includes webinars delivered by content experts, a 24hour radio program, multiple in-person events, functional viewing parties, a TED-like event and a go-to online portal with resources for development.

These changes all started because we wanted to drive culture, improve engagement and encourage development. From this goal, a unique program called Learn.Develop.Perform (LDP) was born on a shoestring budget. You can do the same with a similar approach, tailored to match the needs and culture of your company and employees.

In 2017, we set out to develop a weeklong event with the following objectives: • Create and launch an identifiable brand.

• Host over 20 live, globally broadcasted webinars with expert content.

• Encourage live events and meet-ups.

• Feature nearly 80 leaders and their development stories on LDP Radio.

• Build a microsite to serve as the hub of all things LDP.

RESULTS • Over 14,000 campaign registrations.

• Upward of 90% participants ranked programs as “helpful for development.”

• Engaged 54% of people leaders.

• Significant global reach.

• Strong participation by the highest performers.

FEEDBACK • “This is the first time I have seen a genuine effort across the organization to develop its employees. This has been sorely needed. Bravo!”

• “I loved the variety of topics. LDP sent a signal to all of us that AbbVie cares about people development and is making it a priority for both employees and people leaders.”

• “I loved LDP and AbbVie’s willingness to assist in the development of all their employees.

WHAT MAKES IT POSSIBLE 1. Create your brand: Spending time on your brand promise up front is critical — and by “brand,” I don’t mean a logo or catchphrase. Instead, think about what you want your program to convey. Is it bold or humble? Is it colorful or muted? Is it open for everyone or highly selective? Think through these questions in advance, and let them guide all your decisions about what you do and how you present your style.

2. Determine your delivery: For AbbVie, webinars delivered by content experts were critical. Our population consists of scientists, engineers and employees with advanced degrees.

We needed to bring experts forward in a trusted format. There was nothing flashy about the webinars, but the content was current, relevant and backed by research. They addressed topics such as careers, development, storytelling, feedback, branding,

difficult conversations, business acumen, presence and more.

3. Deliver messages with unconventional marketing: When delivering a new solution or program, marketing effectively can be difficult. It can be tempting to say, “Me, me, look at me!”

But nobody really wants to hear about your team, your department or your function. Instead, learners want to know the focus is on them. Stay true to your brand promise, and invest in marketing efforts. If you do, word of mouth marketing will begin!

CONTINUING SUCCESS We designed this week-long event to raise awareness and get people excited about their development. The results were so strong that the organization demanded we continue! People continued to call for more development, more learning and more expert content. We moved forward by adding one new webinar every month and ramping up for LDP Week 2018. We stayed true to our brand promise and advanced with additional goals: • Global growth: Focus on increasing our global position.

• Raise the bar: Innovate and increase the number of delivery methods.

• Stories: Leverage development stories of our leaders and employees.

• Mobile: Leverage mobile technology to bring LDP to employees no matter where they are.

In 2018, we delivered 22 global webinars featuring interviews with AbbVie leaders.

We hosted 405 self-created webinar viewing parties across the globe, and more than 250 webinar replay viewing events took place following the week of LDP. We also delivered a TED event and LDP Radio — a live, 24-hour radio broadcast interviewing over 50 leaders from across the globe.

The results were astounding, with over 16,000 employees engaged and most metrics improving. Moreover, employee

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engagement related to development rose significantly. The most substantial new set of development offerings, by far, were offered through LDP. You can accomplish these results, too. Steal the idea of doing something amazing, but bring your own style to it and use the following tips as your guide: • Define your brand: Determine up front what you do and don’t want your brand to say. Let this brand, not your intuition, be the guiding principle for what and how you move forward.

• Realize your intent: Clearly outline what you are setting out to achieve.

Our goal wasn’t an increase in employee engagement; we set out to drive development and create a more deliberately developmental organization. What is your intent?

What challenge do you need to tackle for the organization? Focus and align.

• Know your audience: Your employee population may have certain demands by nature of who they are. Understand their personas, and play to them.

• Iterate along the way: Start with what you have. Our shoestring budget helped us begin, and our resources grew with each success. Refine as you move forward.

• Don’t wait for the C-suite, and don’t listen to naysayers: Don’t wait for approval from everyone or the endorsement of key leaders. If you can move forward without it, and your plan is solid, get started with the team who is ready to go. With the right approach in place, others will want to join in!

With clarity and determination, you can hardwire development into your organization.

Michael Poll leads talent development at AbbVie, where he focuses on elevating talent so they can lead effectively and drive high-performing teams.

Email Michael.

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GLOBAL OUTLOOK

THE ADAPTATION OF CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE

BY DEBASHREE ROY, PH.D.

Today, a business’ reach can span across the globe with manufacturing units, support, warehouses, shared workplaces and distribution centers.

Global interdependence requires a shift toward team collaboration across cultures to sustain today’s technology-enriched business environment. However, it takes a split second to alienate business partners by unintentionally encroaching on cultural norms or breaking intercultural protocols.

Culture is a shared pattern of values, attitudes, beliefs, practices, ideas and behaviors that define the way of life of a group (i.e., a country, state, organization or linguistic assemblage).

Competence is often mistaken for knowledge or skill. While knowledge is information processed by the brain — a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject — skill is the ability to carry out a task, with determined results, within a given span of time and energy.

Competence refers to the ability to do the same task efficiently and repeatedly with superior performance.

Hence, cross-cultural competence can be defined as “the process of exchanging meaningful and unambiguous information across cultures in a way that preserves mutual respect and minimizes conflict.”

THE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE Management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “Culture eats strategy for

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breakfast.” This statement is even more apt for communication across cultures. Cross-cultural communication can be defined as “a process of exchanging, negotiating, and mediating one’s cultural differences through language, non-verbal gestures, and space relationships.”

The art and science of communication — both verbal and nonverbal — has gained a lot of momentum recently.

Organizations are investing millions in training on speaking properly and adopting the conversational nuances of business partners, even mimicking communication styles.

WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING CULTURAL VALUES, SPEAKING THE SAME LANGUAGE CANNOT MITIGATE POTENTIAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS. A closer look at the challenges of achieving cross-cultural competence reveals that communication is more than language. It also requires an understanding of cultural values.

In addition, technology has made overcoming language barriers easy; just download an app, insert an earpiece and receive an instant translation.

Other consequential aspects of communication that impact crosscultural competence are: • Body language and gestures: The implications of gestures and other body language vary from culture to culture and include eye contact (some cultures prefer direct eye contact when conversing, while it may indicate a challenge in others), head nodding (considered “yes” in some cultures and “no” in others), raising an eyebrow, pointing a finger, and posture.

• Tone and pace: Tone conveys mood and attitude in verbal and non-verbal communication, and tonal variations can easily lead to misinterpretations, even within the same cultural group.

“OK” is a widely used English term.

Change your tone while saying it, and it changes the message conveyed altogether. Pace is another aspect of spoken language that can impact communication across cultures. Speaking too quickly when communicating with a non-native English speaker can lead to gaps in understanding and adversely impact communication.

• Word choice: Jargon, idioms and phrases that are commonly used in one’s cultural group often negatively affect cross-cultural communication.

Even organizations have their own lingo. For medical personnel, “stat” means “immediately.” In other industries, it can be an abbreviated version of “statistics.”

ADAPTING CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE Understanding other cultures and being sensitive to differences is vital in today’s global business environment. It entails moving away from acting out of habit and toward making conscious decisions in a sustained manner.

Requisites of adapting competence include:

cross-cultural

• Awareness of one’s own cultural worldview: It is imperative to understand and accept what we think and how we act before we can understand others.

• Positive attitudes toward cultural differences: Are we open to differences? For example, in another culture, when employees address their boss by their first name, are they being disrespectful, or is this form of address normal?

• Knowledge of other cultures: Attend to dominant values, business practices, hierarchy, gift-giving customs and humor with sharp focus.

Different cultures encode and decode messages differently. Filters like assumptions, implied values and meanings, emotions, prejudices, and stereotypes can mar communication and cross-cultural interactions by distorting the intended message.

Adapting cross-cultural competence is also impacted by differences in:

• Value systems.

• Attitudes toward the completion of tasks.

• Ethnocentrism (the inability to accept the worldview of other cultures).

• Cultural imposition (the belief that everyone should conform to the majority).

Cross-cultural competence is about striking the right balance among: • Knowledge: Understanding other cultures, their people and their behaviors.

• Empathy: Understanding and responding in accordance to the needs of people from other cultural groups.

• Self-confidence: Striving to acquire the ability to express one’s point in an effective and transparent way, aiming to be understood and respected, and remaining flexible when possible.

HINDRANCES TO CROSS-CULTURAL COMPETENCE Different cultural contexts bring challenges to the workplace, even if employees speak the same language.

Communication between English speakers in the U.S. and English speakers in the U.K. often go awry because of cultural differences that impact language. When non-nativeEnglish-speaking partners communicate with native English speakers, it can

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lead to miscommunication perceived incompatibility.

and

Hinderances to cross-cultural competence often arise due to the following reasons: • Language barriers: Linguistic variances have a major impact on cross-cultural competencies. Idioms, tone and sentence structure can all adversely affect communication fluencies.

• Psychological and attitudinal barriers: One’s own cultural background, values and experiences often give way to the emergence of stereotypes — fixed ideas about a cultural group where no effort is made to ascertain whether they are appropriate or applicable to individuals. Interactions with people from stereotyped cultures or backgrounds are often inaccurately informed by these mindsets.

• Physical barriers: Geographical distance forces individuals to rely heavily on technology to communicate, but technical disruptions can impact communication and adversely affect outcomes.

• Cultural barriers: The value systems ingrained in cultures often cause conflict. In the late 1970s, psychologist Dr. Geert Hofstede published his cultural dimensions model to explain how value differentials impact interactions between cultures. Since then, it has become an internationally recognized standard for understanding

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ABILITY TO INTERACT EFFECTIVELY WITH PEOPLE OF OTHER CULTURES REQUIRES

Awareness of one’s own cultural worldview

Positive attitude towards cultural differences

Knowledge of other cultures

Cross-cultural skills

Awareness of what and how one thinks and acts needs to come before understanding others

Are we open to differences?

Are we aware of other cultures and their value systems?

Are we aware of other cultures and their value systems?

cultural differences. It has renewed importance today, where businesses span across cultures.

OVERCOMING HINDRANCES Effective cross-cultural communication begins with the understanding that the sender and receiver of a message are from different cultures. They can overcome hindrances to adapting cross-cultural competence by:

• Breaking sentences into short sections to give the audience time to translate.

• Using simple words.

• Practicing active listening and briefly summarizing what the other person has said to ensure understanding.

• Asking frequent questions but not interrupting.

• Developing awareness of individual cultures.

• Considering special needs like time differences, holidays and observances, and national laws.

• Working toward mutual acceptance.

• Keeping an open mind.

• Researching the communication etiquette of the other culture and learning a few key words and phrases, such as greetings.

• Avoiding generalizations based on stereotypes.

• Avoiding the use of slang and idioms.

• Avoiding negative and double questions. Instead of asking, “Did you not any follow of that?”, asking, “Did you follow that?”

• Following the other person’s lead when it comes to humor. Humor is notoriously culture-specific.

• Being patient, supportive and courteous.

• Asking open questions. In many cultures, it is considered rude to say an outright “no.” Hence, someone may hear a “yes” even if the actual answer is “no.”

Today’s business relations are made complex by the nature of the human diversity involved. Acquiring and adapting cross-cultural competence can open up a world of opportunities and value.

Developing this competence throughout the workforce is the most effective way to ensure success across organizations.

• Speaking slowly and clearly and modulating well.

Debashree Roy, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in social sciences. Email Debashree.

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EFFECTIVE CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION BEGINS WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE SENDER AND RECEIVER OF A MESSAGE ARE FROM DIFFERENT CULTURES.

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STELLA LEE, PH.D.

WHAT’S NEXT IN TECH

HOW TECHNOLOGY IS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF WORKPLACE LEARNING The Fourth Industrial Revolution is transforming industries and fundamentally changing the way we work and live. As the nature of work evolves, learning is key to managing and embracing this new workplace.

Looking back, 2019 brought a lot of excitement about future of learning, from using blockchain to verify educational credentials to voice-based interfaces.

Technology is a form of pedagogy; it shapes the way we think about and design learning experiences. As we look to the future, learning will continue to be shaped by emerging technological innovations, as well as our rate of adoption in the learning and development (L&D) space.

At a high level, I envision the future of workplace learning with the following characteristics:

TECHNOLOGY IS A FORM OF PEDAGOGY; IT SHAPES THE WAY WE THINK ABOUT AND DESIGN LEARNING EXPERIENCES. HIGHLY PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCE There will be an increased demand for experiential and personalized learning, especially as users’ interactions with online learning become more sophisticated, and the focus shifts further toward an emphasis on quality, personalized content.

L&D will need instructional designers who look beyond page-turner e-learning

courses and incorporate design thinking approaches and a variety of learning modalities to cater to the needs and preferences of learners. Adaptive learning paths, recommender systems, learnerand peer-curated content, and virtual coaches will continue to improve and rise in demand. It will serve us well to become acquainted with how these learning tools support a better learning experience.

DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS Analytics technologies have matured over the years, with some applications being used to process data in real time to measure learner attitudes, sentiments, readiness, progress and levels of engagement. With these capabilities, organizations have new opportunities to assess, measure and improve learning.

While it will become increasingly commonplace for digital tools to have built-in machine learning capacities for analytics, L&D often lacks the ability to leverage this data effectively. According to a 2018 Towards Maturity study, 51% of L&D professionals say that they cannot meaningfully use data due to a lack of in-house skills. As a result, around one in 10 organizations never analyze the data it collects. It is time for us to bridge this skill gap and equip ourselves with the tools necessary to interpret and present data.

DIGITAL FLUENCY REQUIRED According to the 2019 “EDUCASE Horizon Report,” “Digital fluency is the ability to leverage digital tools and platforms to communicate critically,

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design creatively, make informed decisions, and solve wicked problems while anticipating new ones.”

Digital literacy is no longer adequate to keep up with the complex needs of retraining and upskilling. Learning solutions come in many forms, including plenty with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. L&D professionals need digital fluency to understand how best to make use of these solutions.

WORKING IS THE NEW LEARNING Working is now learning. AI and automation will replace components of our jobs, and we will be required to take on new tasks as a result. This requires us to learn new skills and let go of old mindsets. As learning practitioners, we need to modify our roles with business strategies.

We also need to consider how everyday technologies and productivity tools are being used for learning at work.

YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Twitter, Skype and many more are being used for knowledge-sharing, collaboration and learning. More than ever, we need to provide instructional design frameworks in these everyday tools so we can integrate them into our repertoires.

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

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CLOSING DEALS

USING TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT THE LEARNER AND LEARNING PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

BY TARYN OESCH

From artificial intelligence (AI) to learning experience platforms, the edtech market was busy this year. Indications are good that 2020 will be no different.

development to delivery, organizations will continue to look for ways to provide the most efficient way to reskill and upskill their workforce.”

For instance, Docebo’s initial public offering (IPO) closed in October on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Docebo uses data from its more than 1,600 customer organizations around the world to train its algorithm and customize its AI-based learning platform. The IPO is the latest in a series of announcements; this year, Docebo also released a new mobile-ready content library, a mobile app publisher, and several integrations to support seamless operations across tech stacks, according to Claudio Erba, founder and CEO.

Whether it’s checking a spec during a sales call or reading a refresher on feedback before an annual review, when learners can learn quickly on the job, it benefits everyone.

PERSONALIZATION COMES FULL CIRCLE In 2020, Erba believes, personalized learning will come “full circle.” Learners need accurate, relevant content, and they need it as soon as a question arises. To meet this need, 2020 will see better, device-agnostic content curation.

“Data is quickly becoming a commodity, and those organizations that are training their people with AI-powered learning platforms are collecting invaluable data,” Erba says. That data will help inform stakeholders on the impact of learning not just on the individual but on the business as well.

MICROLEARNING IN THE FLOW OF WORK You’re busier than ever — and your learners are, too. As a result, they need easy-to-consume training at their point of need, says Erba. “This will continue to be important in 2020, and from content

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LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM VS. LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLATFORM Docebo’s customers are looking for a “more effective skills experience that is learner-driven,” Erba says. Learning experience platforms (LXPs) focus on user experience and integrate automated content recommendations, social learning, assessments, user-generated content and analytics. Their reporting tends to emphasize impact over compliance, which is helpful in functions and industries that aren’t regulated, says Ken Taylor, president of Training Industry.

Learning management systems (LMSs), on the other hand, enable the management of non-digital learning, which most LXPs don’t allow for. “You still need a way for the L&D admin to ‘manage’ (and understand) how that content is being used/consumed and how it’s being (or not being) applied in the flow of work.’” Erba agrees. “The LXP cannot replace the LMS.” L&D leaders should, instead, view them as complementary or look for a platform that combines core elements of both.

With the growing focus on the learner experience — making sure that training covers the right information in an engaging way — LXPs’ popularity is also growing.

However, Taylor notes, many LMS

providers are looking to innovate their platforms to improve the user experience.

EXPANDING THE LEARNER AUDIENCE These trends are applicable to customer training as well. Erba notes that in 2019, many of Docebo’s customers “evolved their training programs to also include external audiences,” such as customers, partners and association members.

There are multiple reasons to deploy extended enterprise training, including to enhance product knowledge and brand consistency, to create additional revenue streams, to reduce risk, to improve business processes, and to attract more brand advocates.

As L&D leaders partner with customer success and sales teams on these training programs, they must be able to balance stakeholder needs in what Erba describes as an account manager role.

Here, learning technology providers have an opportunity: By creating platforms that enable the management of multiple programs for multiple audiences with multiple administrators, they can help learning leaders succeed in extended enterprise training.

Whether it’s using AI to make personalized content recommendations or LXPs to train employees as well as customers, technology is supporting and, in some cases, expanding the role of the training professional. These are just a few of the ways technology has impacted L&D in 2019; we can’t wait to see what happens in 2020.

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

COMPANY NEWS

ACQUISITIONS AND PARTNERSHIPS Korn Ferry, a global organizational consulting firm, announced an agreement to acquire three companies from TwentyEighty, Inc.: Miller Heiman Group, AchieveForum and Strategy Execution. These companies will be part of the newly-branded Korn Ferry Digital) and provide clients access to data and analytics from one of the world’s most comprehensive people and organizational databases.

Findcourses.com, the North American arm of EMG – Educations Media Group and a partner of Training Industry, Inc., has partnered with Verdane, a leading investor in tech and e-commerce.

Findcourses.com helps companies and individuals find professional training and courses. The primary focus in accelerating the group’s growth will be to expand EMG’s presence in the global market.

Area9 Lyceum announced its partnership with NIIT, a global leader in skills and talent development, to bring its world-class Area9 Rhapsode™ adaptive learning platform to NIIT’s clients. The partnership combines Area9’s over 20 years of expertise in personalized, adaptive learning and NIIT’s expertise as a leader in managed training services.

VitalSmarts, a Top 20 leadership training company, has been acquired by Leeds Equity Partners. In addition to allowing VitalSmarts to operate independently, the investment will accelerate the company’s growth initiatives and further its presence in the corporate training and leadership development market.

DDI, a Top 20 leadership training company, has been acquired by Leeds Equity Partners. In addition to allowing VitalSmarts to operate independently, the investment will accelerate the company’s growth initiatives and further its presence in the corporate training and leadership development market.

INDUSTRY NEWS CORNERSTONE AND BETA PROGRAM CLIENTS ARE REDEFINING WORKPLACE CONVERSATIONS

Cornerstone OnDemand, Inc., a global leader in the cloud-based learning and emerging talent experience market, announced Cornerstone Conversations, a new module within the Cornerstone Performance Suite. Cornerstone Conversations helps organizations develop managers into effective coaches.

AUTUMN PRODUCT RELEASE FROM INTREPID BY VITALSOURCE SIMPLIFIES AND SPEEDS COURSE CREATION

Intrepid®, the market-leading collaborative learning platform provider, announced the latest enhancements to its platform. The new Intrepid features enhance the process for designing and delivering collaborative learning experiences. Enhancements include a visual design interface that enables instructional designers to build with ease, as well as simple tools for gamification.

SALESHOOD LAUNCHES PARTNERHOOD TO SCALE COACHING AND CONTENT FOR PARTNERS

SalesHood, the leading sales enablement platform and community, launches onboarding, training coaching and content for partners. Sales enablement is now available for direct sales teams and indirect partner sales teams like distributors, resellers and agents with PartnerHood.

Many successful and hyper-growth companies like Sage are using PartnerHood to enable their partners to close more deals and service more customers.

PINNACLE PERFORMANCE COMPANY LAUNCHES ASCEND PROGRAM TO ENCOURAGE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS RETENTION AND BEHAVIOR CHANGE

Pinnacle Performance Company, a premier global communication skills training firm, launched its new Pinnacle Ascend Program to encourage past workshop participants to adopt, retain and apply effective communication skills training

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in the workplace. Pinnacle Performance Company provides individuals the tools and techniques to become influential communicators.

D2L UNVEILS “SKILLS CONNECTION” TO BUILD THE WORKFORCE OF THE FUTURE

D2L, the global leader in learning technology, announced its new initiative: Skills Connection. D2L will offer a comprehensive set of tools and services for businesses and schools to help organizations close the skills gap, improve retention and attract new talent. Skills Connection will also provide a foundation for higher education institutions to partner closely with employers.

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