Bottom-Line Performance

I loved the issues raised in Jennifer’s post on linking learning to the workplace  that I have to write my own. I started out simply commenting on hers…but my comments got pretty lengthy so I’m going for a full post.

I’m going to sound a bit cynical but I think the #1 reason people don’t implement change is because it’s not necessary for their imminent survival/coping on the job/succeeding in their jobs.  We change when we have to change. We resist change when we don’t absolutely have to make it. We have to feel compelled to change before we will make change happen.  I also think there is lots of “training” out there that is not really designed to change anything - it gives out lots of information, but very little application so people don’t know HOW to implement the change in their jobs..

Case in point: How many of us know we should lose weight, exercise more, develop better sleep habits…or whatever? Yet…how many of us are actually successful at implementing lifestyle changes to make these things happen? Often, the only thing that COMPELS us to make a lifestyle change is a scary diagnosis from the doctor (i.e. diabetes, heart disease, etc.) or some sort of “crash” in our personal lives.  In other words, we often seem more motivated to make a change to turn a negative situation into a positive one than we are to make a change when things are already positive.

Once we get that scary diagnosis or wake-up call, we start seeking out lots of advice and counsel on how to make changes. We hook up with the personal trainer at the local Y, we schedule an appointment with a nutritionist, or we seek out online step-by-step guidance from a website. We drive the change, in other words, because we have a compelling reason to change: our personal well-being and happiness.

I don’t think creating an action plan at the end of a training program - online or F2F - is going to make me change my behavior on the job.  Neither will talking to my peers or my boss if I don’t see the clear, compelling reason to make a change. Conversely, if I buy into the case for change and see that it will make things better (mostly for me) - or avoid some serious worse consequence -  I may be motivated to change.

The problem is…most training programs don’t even attempt to explain and illustrate “what’s in it for me” messages or identify the actions required to change….or provide explicit “show me how to change” steps. Heck - most training programs don’t even want to go beyond a Level I evaluation that asks, “did you like the training?” Worse, most people take training in a vacuum, which means once they complete it, it never gets discussed again. How important is any training program, really, if it’s not worth at least one conversation with a boss or a peer after the fact?

Finally…how many of us learn to do anything with 100% proficiency after a single training course on it? Even the best training programs end with the learner at the point of conscious competence - if they think and concentrate hard enough on what they are doing, they can do a task or behavior correctly.  It takes time and coaching for learners to achieve unconscious competence or fluency, which means they do things correctly without thought or undue mental effort.

I’d tell the folks at the Wall Street Journal that it’s not about creating an action plan, talking with peers, or having sessions with your boss, I’d say it’s about being allowed time to integrate the new skill, being required to do so, and being coached to succeed in doing so.

I know I typically try to make you laugh or give you a heads up on a new tool. Well, some of the best tools I use happen to be books! So I’m leaving you with a list of my favorite, helpful titles of 2008.

• e-Learning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Colvin Clark. I’ve spent 2008 reviewing some of Clark’s principles for creating effective e-learning. There are great tips for those just starting in e-learning as well as experienced designers. Sharon loves this book!
• Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning by Karl M. Kapp. This is a fantastic look at how Generation Y,  or gamers, look at learning. Kapp offered some great insights on creating effective games, how we learn through games, and how GenY is influencing the workforce and Boomers. The book convinced me to get into Second Life and explore!
• The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam. I can’t draw. My handwritting is barely legible. But I love Roam’s book on the power of images as explanatory tools. It’s given me lots of inspiration for clearer graphical organizers in future courses.
• Engaging Learning: Designing e-Learning Simulation Games by Clark Quinn. Ok, so I have to admit, I’ve not read this one yet. It’s going to be a holiday read. I had a chance to hear Quinn speak at DevLearn 2008 and promptly got his book. The first two chapters have been wonderful. I’ll let you know how the whole thing turns out.

Enjoy reading and have a very happy holiday! See you in 2009!

Hey everyone,

This blogger is going on holiday. Look for my next post the week of January 5th, 2009. In the meantime, enjoy your holiday break.

For those of you in Indy, our next LOL LIVE session will be January 15th. Check out our website for more info:

http://www.bottomlineperformance.com/LOLLive.php

Happy Friday! Today’s post is very official…because we’re going to talk about a recent Wall Street Journal article. (In the interest of full disclosure - No, I am not a regular reader of the WSJ, but wouldn’t I feel smart if I were! I’ll have to add that to the list of New Year’s Resolutions.)

But after seeing this article after it was linked to on another blog, it’s definitely worth discussing for a few reasons:

• The article suggests that one reason employees don’t change their behavior when back on the job is because of anxiety of the change. I’m not sure that I totally buy that reason. Yes, fear of change can be a factor. But in my experience, workers have become more and more flexible. I hear more often that the employee doesn’t have time to process the information and implement the change in behavior.
• Suggested ways to increase learning transfer include: Writing an action plan, measure results, help from peers, supportive superiors, and access to experts. These are interventions that most learning professionals are familiar with, and are able to implement to varying degrees.

My question after reading it was: What about eLearning? The examples in this article were for leadership/management sessions and used face-to-face meetings. My challenge - How could I implement these traditional transfer methods into the e-learning courses we develop. A few thoughts:

• Action plans are hard. I agree that the learner should be thinking about what can/can’t be implemented. But how to build that instruction into an e-learning course? Maybe somehow it could be linked to an LMS or email system.
• Help from peers/Access to experts. Again, it’s hard to build into an asynchronous eLearning course. Organizations are beginning to do more with blogs and wikis that can support eLearning courses. Some of my colleagues that went to DevLearn 2008 reported that there didn’t seem to be much growth here in the corporate world…if these collaborative technologies aren’t supported by the organization, they won’t last!

What do you think? How can learning transfer be improved for eLearning courses? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

If you’re interested in the idea of peer support in learning, check out this video. It’s a presentation by Mark Federman. In it, he gives a lecture describing how technology has changed the way students interact and communication at colleges. He argues for changing education to focus more on connectivity.

Do you know the carbon footprint of your ILT? I went to LearningTown.com and found a new group – Green Learning. I would not consider myself an environmental activist by any means. I just figure if it is good for the environment then it is probably a good idea, and most likely cheaper than the alternative. Then I had a genuine “duh” moment – eLearning is generally cost effective and it is definitely a green solution. Let there be light!

Still, I feel like there must be more to “Green Learning” then online training. So I set out to seek the hard facts, and the best practices. I came up a little short in my search. I’m not finding much information. There is a buzz in the blogosphere about green learning and I did find endorsements for utilizing wikis, and virtual distributed meetings - but that’s about it.

Maybe I refuse to accept a simple solution, but what else is green learning if not simply less paper, and less fuel? If we are to align ourselves in a green economy, and provide environmentally friendly learning solutions, what exactly does that look like? Is there a broader resolution beyond eLearning?

You know you’ve spent too much time in corporate training when…

1. You ask the waiter what the restaurant’s core competencies are.
2. You decide to re-org your family into a “team-based organization.”
3. You refer to dating as test marketing.
4. You can spell “paradigm.”
5. You actually know what a paradigm is.
6. You understand your airline’s fare structure.
7. You write executive summaries on your love letters.
8. Your Valentine’s Day cards have bullet points.
9. You think that it’s actually efficient to write a 10 page presentation with six other people you don’t know.
10. You celebrate your wedding anniversary by conducting a performance review.
11. You believe you never have any problems in your life, just “issues” and “improvement opportunities.”
12. You calculate your own personal cost of capital.
13. You explain to your bank manager you prefer to think of yourself as “highly leveraged” as opposed to “in debt.”
14. You end every argument by saying “let’s talk about this offline”.
15. You can explain to somebody the difference between “re- engineering,”"down-sizing,” “right-sizing,” and “firing people.”
16. You actually believe your explanation in number 15.
17. You talk to the waiter about process flow when dinner arrives late.
18. You refer to your previous life as “my sunk cost.”
19. You refer to your significant other as “my co-CEO.”
20. You like both types of sandwiches: ham and turkey.
21. You start to feel sorry for Dilbert’s boss.
22. You believe the best tables and graphs take an hour to comprehend.
23. You account for your tuition as a capital expenditure instead of an expense.
24. You insist that you do some more market research before you and your spouse produce another child.
25. At your last family reunion, you wanted to have an emergency meeting about their brand equity.
26. Your “deliverable” for Sunday evening is clean laundry and paid bills.
27. You use the term “value-added” without falling down laughing.
28. You ask the car salesman if the car comes with a whiteboard and Internet connection.
29. You give constructive feedback to your dog.

As this week’s shameless plug, I’d like to mention that this coming Friday, Shelby and I are presenting a session at the ELearning Guild’s Online Forum on Interactivity on a Budget (come see us! Say hi!) We will provide tips for getting the most interaction for your elearning dollar. Actually, we’ll be talking in terms of hours, but what with the whole time is money thing, you know what I mean.

There are two different types of interactivity that can occur within any sort of learning event:

1. Physical interaction
2. Psychological interaction

Physical interaction is where the learner is clicking or dragging something within the user interface on the computer screen. Psychological interaction is where the course triggers mental activity within the brain of the learner.

The ideal is to trigger psychological interaction, where something (namely learning) is happening within the mind of the learner. Some people, often SMEs whose expertise is in something other than learning, believe that physical interaction with the learning material automatically creates psychological interaction within the brain of a learner. Anyone whose ever taken an elearning course designed within that model knows just how sadly wrong it can go. My favorite bad example was a page turner module within a course, where the learner had to grab and drag virtual pages of a virtual book on the screen to move through the course. (Had the purpose of the course been to teach mouse skills, it would have been great. Sadly, this was not the purpose of the course.)

When we look to decide how much interactivity to include in a course, there are six factors we consider.

What factors would you add? Are there any you would suggest removing, or changing?

Samples from this presentation can be found here.

Anyone else feeling the stress of the holidays? We are rapidly steam rolling into Christmas and my to-do list is growing exponentially. All of my holiday commitments are truly blessings, but I think we all can feel a bit overwhelmed. For instance by Saturday at 8:00 am I need to deliver six dozen cookies and an additional baked item to our church fundraiser. The directions are very specific that you must bring Christmas cookies. Chocolate chip is not an option. Bake shop, clean, wrap, entertain- all part of the holiday countdown.

In my quest for ways to ease stress and manage multiple priorities, I stumbled across MSN article, 7 Smart Ways to Buy Happiness, number four on this list is learning. The article referenced research by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi which indicates, “We are often happiest when engaged in activities that challenge us and hold our focus.”(1)

I recently wrote that playing puzzle based video games has been found to relieve stress which is another good reason to incorporate games into learning designs. In Sharon Boller’s recent post Getting Started in Creating Learning Games - she said the “truth is you need to start playing a lot of games.”  I also have been known to dole out advice on how important it is to embrace change - step out of your comfort zone and welcome learning new skills. So it seems it is time to heed my own advice, Sharon’s advice, as well as experts on happiness, and start playing some games already.

As of this week, I am incorporating playing games into my holiday stress relief plan, right along with getting regualr exercise and 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I will perform two hours of game playing a week. It will be a double duty stress reliever, improve my mood and I’ll develop critical skills for the future of learning.  In January I’ll share what I learn from this experience. In the meanwhile, please share your experiences where you have stepped out of your comfort zone as learning professionals. What new techniques are you trying? What have you gained from the experience?

(1)7 Ways to Buy Happiness, MP Dunleavy, MSN, http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/7-smart-ways-to-buy-happiness.aspx#pageTopAchor (Dec 2008)

Happy Friday!

Dave’s Whiteboard blog had a great post this week on power versus powered users. He argues that most users are looking to be powered, versus power users. Here’s a great diagram he used to make the distinction.

I had a couple of conversations with subject matter experts this week that really made made this post resonate with me:

• “I tell new employees that if they’ve done it once, then they’re the expert.” Jobs change so quickly sometimes that learning the technique isn’t worth the person’s time….getting it done is enough.
• “We have so much to do, there’s not time to become an expert.” Employees are asked to do more and more; being a power user is almost a luxury that they can’t afford.

The implication for those of us designing learning is to 1)know our audience and 2) discourage SMEs from adding details to a course that the learner doesn’t want or need.  What do you think - How do you distinguish between a power and powered user in your organization?

In an earlier post this week, Leanne Dimon wrote about the potential power of games in learning. But…how does a newbie get started in designing and developing learning games?

E-learning Guild’s 2008 DevLearn conference had a heavy emphasis on gaming - and how to use games in learning.  One of the best sessions I attended was simply an overview of how to get started in creating learning games. Hree’s what I learned:

The truth…you have to first start PLAYING a lot of games so you can learn what’s good and bad. And…the games don’t have to be learning games - they just need to be games. Part of creating a learning game is to first figure out how to create a game - how to set up rules, the world within the game,  and to be clear about what makes a game a good one (i.e. fun/engaging) versus a bad one (frustrating or just downright stupid).

Here’s a quick summary of the high points:

1) Most games are done in Flash. While people TEND to think of the cool-looking 3D worlds, 95% of games are NOT 3D. They are done in Flash and will continue to be built in Flash because Flash is far easier/less time-consuming to build in and serious gamers are less about the 3D world than they are about the quality of the gaming experience.

2) Kongregate is a fantastic site for playing games…and you can play for free. There are almost 10,000 free games available for play. Newbies to gaming need to play lots and lots of games and this site lets you! The site also features online labs to teach people principles of game design.

3) If you want to design games, then you need to read “Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals” by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman. It’s basically a bible for game designers.

4) If you really want to develop games in 3D worlds there is cheap software to help you do it. The caveat is that while the software is cheap to buy (anywhere from $35 to $300), the learning curve to using it - and the time it takes to create such games is still huge, huge, huge. You will not “rapidly” build a 3D game even if the software is really cheap. Go to Garage Games or The Game Creators if you want to check out the tools.

Finally, another great game  site  (this comes from me - not DevLearn) is Youda Games. This site, too, enables you to play free games…and our entire staff has been captivated by some of them (Check out a game called Waitress. Do a search for it once you get to the site.

Happy gaming - tell us how you’ll be using games as learning tools in 2009…and what you are learning about what makes a good/bad game. In 2009, I guarantee you’ll be seeing them a lot more as learning tools. Get informed - and get started making them!