Chief Learning Officer - January 2008 - (Page 23)

environment and collaborative elements, offering a huge advantage over noncollaborative training. This also can influence one of the most timeconsuming and expensive aspects of training development: generating content. Course drafts are rewritten, reviewed, edited and rewritten, in what can only be described as a subjective, labor-intensive process. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We’re all familiar with classic examples of user-generated content — Amazon benefits from tens of thousands of unpaid reviewers, and Wikipedia has written a massive encyclopedia without paying writers. True, there are potential issues with the quality, accuracy and veracity of the content, but weighed against the cost of writing content the traditional way (which also can miss the mark), user-generated content involves the learner and supports the collaboration inherent in pull learning. time on top of that. That’s time employees won’t spend doing their jobs, and then they’ll be forced to return to a backlog of work. For an employee in sales, it means a time of potentially missed commissions. To address these issues, alternatives to the standard classroom, such as online learning, should be examined and considered. Do the cost-benefit analysis. Evaluate what you save by going online and what you give up by moving away from the classroom environment. If you decide e-learning fits better into your training budget, the next factor in the decision will be how to best present the content online. This analysis is another element of pull learning — applying flexibility and agility to respond to the needs of the situation. Online courses can provide a better alternative for strapped employees, particularly if the courses are concise, divided into manageable chunks and appropriately skimmable for the way the majority of online readers absorb information. The employee can then take the course when it fits into his or her schedule. Though training incentives are popular, learning itself must be viewed as the ultimate reward for the journey. The Rewards of Learning Though training incentives are popular, learning itself must be viewed as the ultimate reward for the journey. While incentives often are identified as a push-learning approach, they can be effective if created and used carefully. A simple incentive can be to award a completion certificate to the learner. This serves as far more than a piece of paper. It is a confirmation of accomplishment. However, offering prizes that are perceived as more expensive often ends up backfiring and serves as an incentive for mere attendance, rather than for learning, retention and improved performance — which is the purpose of the entire exercise. Incentives sometimes take unexpected forms. For example, Siemens requires its customers to complete preliminary online training as a prerequisite to classroom training. This allows classroom time to focus on more in-depth topics. Customers see classroom training then as a perk, and are thus inspired to complete online training. For incentives to be effective, however, a method is needed to monitor those who have completed the training and how well they have done. This is easily done with online training that operates on a learning management system (LMS), which can provide reports on course participation and test score results. Many of these systems can track classroom training as well. Fun, Fun, Fun In college, I was much more excited about going to a class when it was fun. Those kind of college classes were rare, but they did exist. Enjoyable, engaging training exists, too, if you look in the right places. Good corporate training finds ways to inject fun into curriculum, with games, for example, that can provide a fresh approach to age-old challenges. Even crossword puzzles offer some degree of educational content. They’re fun, and they draw learners to training while being simple and inexpensive to implement. As the budget grows, you can move further into the realm of more complex challenges and games, adding even more fun and educational value. Training also can be simulation based, with learners making decisions modeled on the decisions they make on the job. They learn from feedback and are scored based on performance. They are learning without even realizing it. That’s the course I wish I could have taken in college! Achieving on the Corporate Campus Learners will be drawn to training when it is delivered in multiple modes via well-designed course offerings with compelling content, group activities and support. Training that’s fun and meets the needs of the busy employee gets an A every time. The things that sparked learning in you initially are the very things that will encourage and compel you to keep learning now. And smart corporate training knows that. Get a Life While face-to-face training is nearly always the ideal situation, it’s expensive. When employees are pushed to take on-site training, very often it entails a two-day course, often with travel 23 January 2008 Charlie Gillette has served as president and chief executive officer of Knowledge Anywhere since founding the company in 1998. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer http://www.clomedia.com

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Chief Learning Officer - January 2008 Editor’s Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Environment Sips of Knowledge at E. & J. Gallo Winery CLO Profile Productivity UST Global: Opening Employees’ Eyes to New Learning Tactics Applying CRM Concepts to E-Learning Human Capital Capital One: Experiences in Innovation Learning Solutions Macy’s: Using Feedback to Develop One Leader at a Time Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - January 2008

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