Bottom-Line Performance

I just finished reading Malcom Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers. In one of its chapters, he explains the 10,000-hour rule. This rule states that people don’t become “masters” at complex things (programming, music, painting, free throws) until they have accrued 10,000-hours of practice. And…he dos a great job of illustrating that people who are commonly regarding as “masters” are really just people who hit the 10,000 hour mark very early in their lifetimes. (Examples: Mozart and the Beatles in music; Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak sin programming).

The research he cites to prove his point is compelling. It does support this 10,000 hour threshold and crosses all types of areas from computer programming through hockey. Who cares, you ask? As learning professionals, WE SHOULD.  In an era where company management wants training on just about anything distilled down to minutes of time as opposed to hours of time, what can a learner realistically gain in terms of mastery? – or even rudimentary skill?

Think about it. Today’s companies want people to spend less and less time in training, and they want to “downsize” out the most experienced workers (i.e. the most expensive ones).  It’s time for us to tell companies the truth: we can’t make people competent at anything very complex unless we really allow them the time required to learn. And a 30-minute e-course or 4-hour classroom experience – or even an 8-hour e-course and week-long training course won’t make people “masters” at anything. At best, we give them a starting point to use in building competence on the job.

Don’t believe me? How long would you speculate someone needs to practice before you’d say they were a “good” doctor? Do you want the 1st year resident taking out your appendix or the general surgeon whose been doing her job for 10 years? What about driving? How many hours on the road does someone need before you feel like they are a good driver?

I’ll bet it’s not the six hours that is the sum total of most driver’s education training programs.  IF you had to have someone selling your services or your product, who would you prefer: The employee who just transferred into the sales department or the sales department’s top seller, who, by the way, has been doing sales for more than 5 years (which would translate to about 10,000 hours of time if you multiply 52 weeks x 40 hours x 5 years)?

No one gets good at anything without practice – and lots of it. The more we practice, the better we get. We need to think through learning design very carefully if we really want learners to get better at what we’re trying to teach them. Companies don’t have 5 years to train the new sales guy, so we have to come up with a design that allows as much practice as possible in as short a period of time as possible. When our designs are all “tell,” and no “do,” then we are setting learners up to be absolutely no better at doing something AFTER training than they were before training – even if we provided lots of great information or “reference” material. And when we pretend we can make people good at selling, managing, troubleshooting, etc. by creating and delivering a 60-minute e-course or 1/2-day classroom session for them to take,  then we’re just plain silly.

What about what you do? How many hours did it take you to get good at it? How can we do a better job of helping people actually get good at something through the learning solutions we devise?

Can You Tell a Good Story?

Have you ever looked at a mobile app or game and said, “I could write that!”?

Would you like to build your portfolio? (Can you really answer no to this one?)

If so, BLP would like to talk to you.

Bottom-Line Performance (BLP), a learning solutions company in New Palestine, IN (25 minutes from downtown Indianapolis) is looking for an intern to help create innovative learning solutions for us and for our clients. We have some exciting projects in the works this summer and are looking for the right person to bring on board our collaborative team.

• You will work with a multimedia developer to design and write a mobile app or game that BLP can
use to show our clients what new media can do.
• You will work with experienced writers and instructional designers on client projects, which could
be anything from a custom video to an e-learning program to a series of PowerPoint
presentations.
• You will have the chance to build your business acumen by working side by side with leaders
throughout BLP.

So, what do you need to succeed?

• Strong research, writing, and editing skills.
• Ability to collaborate on a team AND take a project and run with it.
• Proactive communication skills – you will be working in the office, but many of our team members
are virtual, so you need to be great at reaching out and keeping everyone in the loop.
• Basic proficiency in Microsoft Office products.
• Knowledge of video, audio, or multimedia production a plus.
• Interest in helping people learn – and learning the best way to do that.
• Cumulative GPA of 3.3 or higher
• Ability to give us at least 6 weeks of your summer; the internship can span up to 10 weeks.

How do you apply…and does this internship pay?
Send a resume – along with two writing samples – to steve@bottomlineperformance.com. We will follow up with you if we are interested.
To qualify for the internship, you must have finished at least one semester of your junior year.
This internship is PAID; the rate varies between $10-$12, depending on your background.
Why should I intern with you guys?

If fabulous cash prizes and invaluable experience aren’t enough incentive, consider the fact that you will be working in a truly creative space with a talented, motivated team while collaborating on cutting-edge projects. No filing papers, filling out forms, or brain-wasting here: we want to put your skills to work.

You’ll love where you work:

Learning professionals, please pass this on to any eligible college student you think might be interested. Can’t wait to hear from you!

View the official PDF Here.

Chances are, someone has told you how you should or should not be using Twitter recently.

Did you know that Twitter chats are a fantastic way to share informal knowledge and spark conversation within  your field or even inside your organization? Think about it: You spend all day every day sitting in your office, siloed off from the world of information ebbing and flowing all around you. What if there was a way to tap in to the collective expertise of industry experts and thought leaders, creating synergistic relationships both inside and outside your organization? This is all possible. Best of all, it’s cost-effective and easy to implement.

For the past month, Bottom-Line Performance has been hosting Thursday Tech Talk, a weekly chat on Twitter. Each week, we extend an open call for users to submit articles on emerging trends, gadgets, or tech and we curate three of our favorites to include in our discussion. You can follow along and even join in by following @BLPIndy on Twitter to see the upcoming articles and saving the #TalkTech hashtag as a search. Here’s a transcript from our chat on Thursday, 2/16:

A few tips to get you started:

-Pick a hashtag that is short yet memorable and unique: We started our Twitter chat using the hashtag #T3 and have since changed it to #TalkTech. Since Twitter limits the number of characters per tweet to 140, we thought using a short hashtag would enhance people’s experience by allowing them to fit more in to one tweet. However, we quickly realized that having a hashtag that is unique and specific to your talk is important. The stream for #T3 was always cluttered with spam and errant conversations we did not want to view. #TalkTech has been much more successful thus far.

-Brevity is the soul of wit…and good conversation: New Twitter users sometimes balk at the 140 character limit per tweet. “How will I get my point across?” Rather than being a deterrant, we’ve found that the 140 character clause actually helps participants be more concise and form their thoughts better.

-Embrace different consumption preferences: Some of our BLPers are digital natives who find it easy to rapid-fire Tweets on any topic (I fit in to this heap). However, others prefer to receive and process information at a more controlled rate. We recommend using a service like Storify to gather the conversation and preserve a record of it for easy viewing. Users who prefer to interact with Twitter at a slower pace will still benefit from the conversation by reading it later and may even become more comfortable with the medium in time. Making a transcript of your chat available after the fact will greatly enhance its value. 

-It takes time to build participation: We have been encouraging BLP employees who do not normally use Twitter to hop on and try participating in #TalkTech. It has taken some time for those not used to taking part in this medium of communication to get used to sharing thoughts in this format, but we have seen great improvement from the first week.

-Twitter isn’t perfect: The platform itself has some limitations that are worth noting: Tweets do not always load immediately when you are monitoring a keyword and the stream of commentary can become confusing for some. Remember that the added value of Twitter versus a closed off chat room is the openness of the platform itself: every Tweet being shared can be searched and viewed by anyone on Twitter, any time. There is always an opportunity for someone unexpected to chime in with a new insight. Sharing your thoughts and expertise in such a way is also a great way to improve the credibility of your organization on a chosen topic.

Our experiences with #TalkTech have been all-together encouraging and we plan to continue our weekly chats. We’ll keep posting the Storify summaries once a week on this blog.

I would encourage any organization still standing on the side of the pool dipping their toes in and grimacing a bit to take the plunge in to social media and try hosting a Twitter chat of your own. You can also try participating in one of many Twitter chats already going on. Just search for what you are looking for, and odds are you will find it!

Most of us think of QR codes as that goofy looking bar code in the bottom corner of advertisements. Or maybe you have noticed them slapped on billboards that you could not possibly have time to stop and scan. Either way, chances are you have seen a QR Code recently!

For those who haven’t been exposed, a QR code is a two dimensional code  that can hold thousands of characters of information. They can be easily generated using numerous free online services and easily scanned with one of many free QR readers out there. QR Codes will easily link to text, an image, or a website.

It may seem like QR codes are just another marketing gimick, but not so fast: in his recent New York Times blog, Gene Marks offers an interesting insight:

“The QR code was actually invented by Denso — a Toyota company — to track automotive parts during the manufacturing process, but has since gained popularity as a marketing tool. QR codes can be used for just about anything you can think of.”

So while marketers are using QR codes almost everywhere you look, there are many ways QR codes can be put to work in your business…like in your training program.

On February 28th, BLP is hosting a Lunch and Learn at the Downtown Central Library sponsored by CIASTD. It’s an interactive scavenger hunt through the library where you will have the opportunity to scan QR Codes and reveal the next clue. By the end of our hour, you might know your way around better than the reference librarian!

QR Codes (particularly scavenger hunts) can be a fun tool to integrate into a corporate learning environment. Imagine using QR codes to:

• Create an interactive employee orientation scavenger hunt.
• Provide easily accessible reference materials for sales reps.
• Keep company policies within easy access.

Mobile app developers know the mantra: make sure it works on every platform!

It can be difficult to make an app work on every version of iOS, let alone every Android tablet. When company’s decide to standardize their hardware, the developer’s job becomes considerably easier.

We were thrilled when Cummins approached us about their need for an easier way to rapidly author RFPs. We asked a simple question: “Want an App for that?” It was clear that their was opportunity for a unique approach to RFP creation.

The end result: a beautifully efficient application called Cummins EasyRFP developed exclusively for the Asus Eee Pad Transformer.

Dustin used the rapid authoring tool Screenr to produce a simple walk-through of the app. But don’t take our word for it:

What do you think? Are mobile applications a viable solution to improve workflow and productivity in your organization?

Well, that was fun.

The last of the celebrities and East Coast football fans have left Indianapolis, and what a party it was! It was hard not to get caught up in the “Big Game” buzz last week. Football was on everyone’s brain, and we are so happy to have been able to share Gridiron Guru with you. This was part 1 of our m+s+g=l? learning lab experiment.

Our sign-ups were modest, but we had players from all over the world take part. The top score achieved topic mastery of all four paths AND amassed a Grab Bag score of 126,000,000. Talk about self-directed learning!

Part of social learning is that the “teacher” learns too. Unlike the bearded character in our game, we are NOT Gurus who have achieved mastery. We know what we are good at and love using our expertise, but there is always more to learn. And boy, did we learn a ton from putting this game together! Here are 5 take-aways for you to consider as you begin looking at ways to “gamify” your training and create opportunities for informal, non-traditional learning on mobile platforms.

1. Respond to results in real time. Social learning platforms enable facilitators to respond to the needs of learners in a more immediate, direct fashion. The admin side of the game engine we created for this (KnowledgeGuru)  has a robust set of reports that allow us to see what learning objectives and questions were the hardest. Here is a quick view at part of a learning objectives report:

Okay, so maybe 67.5% of statistics are made up. Nevertheless, it is commonly quoted that 75% of what we learn is “informal.” (See Marcia Connor’s 2004 article on Informal Learning to see the research on this.) Connor explains:

“Most learning doesn’t occur during formal training programs. It happens through processes not structured or sponsored by an employer or a school. Informal learning is…what happens the rest of the time.”

She goes on to explain that companies invest all their $$ and time in creating formal learning programs when informal learning is where companies are going to get the most bang for their buck.

Connor further distinguishes between what is intentional learning and accidental learning with this helpful graphic:

Notice that she categorizes “informal” and yet “intentional” learning as that which occurs via community, teaming, and playing. There is also informal, yet ”accidental” learning that comes from self-study, exploring, and internet surfing. This intentional learning is going to come from blogs, social networks, project opportunities at work, and interactive opportunities (i.e. playing). Social media was just starting to appear when this graphic was produced in 2004. It will be especially interesting to see how social learning applications evolve as social platforms achieve increasingly high levels of saturation.

The concept of informal learning is quite the rage these days as everyone talks about Web 2.0′s ability to make informal learning easier. At BLP, we have even launched our own Learning Lab to explore the possibilities mobile, social, and gaming platforms hold for learning. (You can play “Gridiron Guru” here)  While I myself am excited by the various Web 2.0 applications I see, I’m starting to have my doubts as to how easily these applications will make informal learning EASIER. Will the inundation of social communities cause us to opt out entirely? Where is the saturation point? As our attention becomes more fragmented, how can authentic “learning” occur? And what is “authentic learning,” anyway?

Many of us find ourselves sticking our toes into the water of social media without making a significant enough investment to drive value. I “dabble” rather than dive deep.

Companies who see informal learning as the Holy Grail that will eliminate the need for expensive, formal training need to think carefully. Informal learning IS largely what self-motivated people do.  Often, this description of “self-motivated” is not one that fits the profile of people who come to formal learning opportunities. If an “informal” forum exists, a non-motivated learner isn’t likely to seek it out even if it exists. A self-motivated employee likely will…if he/she can find information easily.  If various departments and pockets all set up their own social networks – or create collaboaration sites – suddenly we’ve created a nightmare for employees who are drowning in information. We’ve bombarded them with STUFF…much of which they won’t have time to use.

Companies need to give intentional, planned consideration to how they want informal learning to take place in their organizations – at least the part of it that involves online communities. One or two are great…there is a huge drop-off in ability to participate beyond that point. The same truth goes with blogs…exactly how many blogs can you keep up with? Again – planned consideration is the key. Creating a bazillion sites and blogs – just because it’s easy to do – sets companies up for disappointment. Always remember that LEARNING is the goal and all of these tools are just a means to an end.

As always, I’m interested in views that either contradict or support my own. Tell us what you think of the growing interest in informal learning…and social. networks as a means to facilitate it?

We’d also love to also have your participation in our social learning lab. Give Gridiron Guru a shot by clicking the image below: