Chief Learning Officer - January 2009 - (Page 14) SELLING UP, SELLING DOWN Do We Make Learning Easier or Harder? Positioning your learning assets • BY BOB MOSHER I Bob Mosher is global chief learning and strategy evangelist for LearningGuide Solutions and has been an influential leader in the IT training space for more than 15 years. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. I’ve mentioned many times in this column, we often spend more time designing and adding learning assets than we do teaching how and when to use them. To maximize these assets, this instruction needs to occur on three levels. The most obvious is at the learner level. The next is the organization’s hierarchy, especially the learner’s manager and, finally, our trainers and the learning organization itself. I’ve watched many learning assets demonstrated in a classroom but never truly taught in the context in which it was meant to be used. I’ve observed managers telling their reports to stop wasting time with a performance-support tool so they can get back to real work. I’ve also seen employees waste co-workers’ valu1. What learning options have we made available? able time helping them with a problem when a more 2. How well do they complement each other? effective and less costly option was available. In each 3. What results are we getting? case, stakeholders were not taught how to introduce Although each offering is and use the asset properly. designed to support employDID YOU KNOW? Finally, one last thing to ees throughout the learning Use of e-learning in organizations consider is the accessibilprocess, do these efforts make rose to nearly 18 percent this year, ity of each asset. Some are learning easier or harder? up from 15 percent in 2007. simply hidden or poorly We live in a “more is better” Source: Chief Learning Officer Business orchestrated. This allows world. More technology, more Intelligence Board survey two dangerous things to information, more resources, occur: First, we encourmore collaboration, more age poor learning behaviors, and second, we unfairly connectivity — the list goes on and on. The danger is when “more” becomes the driver, instead of effective represent the true power of each asset. If we observed learning. Orchestrating what exists and knowing when our learners trying to navigate throughout the learning to stop adding is essential to a successful overall strategy. process, we would be surprised at how poorly many of There are a few key things to consider throughout them perform. They often choose the path of least resisthis analysis. First, are the learners we serve aware of tance, which may be the least effective and most costly. Because of these behaviors, many also develop a all that’s available? I can’t tell you how many learnnegative attitude toward a particular learning asset ing organizations I’ve worked with that weren’t fully aware of all that was offered. One of the more eye- simply because they are using it incorrectly. E-learnopening parts of this analysis is that many find that ing faced this challenge throughout most of the 1990s. the most effective tools used throughout the enterprise It often was hidden behind poorly deployed learning may not live under their domains. Many find power- management systems and incorrectly positioned as a ful learning assets that have been created, distributed just-in-time learning asset. The combination of these and maintained within the business units themselves. approaches poorly positioned this highly effective asset Getting organized and having a better understanding across many organizations. The most instructionally sound learning asset can of exactly what’s available is a critical first step. be ineffective if it’s misused or poorly positioned. Our The next question is do we have too much? Is the amount and complexity of the assets themselves role is to help empower our learners to be productive getting in the way of making our learners success- as quickly and consistently as possible. Sometimes that ful and productive? Redundant systems are help- involves getting out of our own way and simplifying ful in some areas and cause confusion in others. As the entire process. CLO recently spent some time with an organization examining the many learning offerings they’d assembled for their learners. The latest and greatest option was in the distance learning arena. The potential was staggering and the implementation was impressive. Still, I had to ask myself: “Would the addition of this tool really help, considering all the other impressive learning assets I had already observed?” More and more learning organizations are taking the time to step back and look at the learning environment they’ve created. They are asking themselves three very important questions: 14 Chief Learning Officer • January 2009 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com
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