Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 - (Page 51)

and at a time when daily workload demands already are pushing the health and life balance of employees to critical limits. In speaking with employees, the following statements are typical: • “I don’t have time to go to training; I’m too busy trying to ﬁgure out this new software.” • “I just want to get in, learn what I need to learn and get out!” • “I need training on what I need to know right now, whether it is ﬁlling a form or ordering a part!” The short-term daily demands take priority over scheduled training classes. As a result, classroom courses are being shortened and attendance is falling. The common complaint is that they take too much time. To illustrate, one manager recently asked me if I could give a 30-minute summary of an eight-hour course at the next meeting because that was all the time his team had available. At a glance, the problem has no good solution because the goals are mutually exclusive: Either the long-term success of the organization suffers or the short-term productivity suffers. The solution, perhaps, lies in changing the training method and program. The Solution: “Surgical Learning” In 2000, Rapid Learn, the virtual university for Proctor & Gamble, was born. The goal was to create a new learning model that was fast, inexpensive and effective at training employees. What evolved from the project is the concept of “surgical learning.” Surgical learning draws from the idea that employees do not need to learn an exhaustive, detailed account of a new technology or program; rather, they need to learn only the speciﬁc aspects necessary to do their jobs. By selecting, or surgically choosing, only the content needed, the amount of training content can be minimized. Minimized content translates into shorter training programs, faster development time and rapid consumption. These shorter training programs ﬁt into employee time schedules, and attendance increases because of the program’s short, applicable nature. The end result is a progressive organization with an educated workforce. Rapid Learn is an illustration of the success of the surgical learning methodology. When Rapid Learn was launched by Proctor & Gamble, 1,044 students downloaded WBT courses. In 2007, the number of students downloading Rapid Learn WBT courses exceeded 50,000 per month. Training is expansive, covering multiple focus groups in multiple languages. In addition to increased attendance, surgical learning has reduced the cost of training. A recent report from Proctor & Gamble’s manufacturing department estimated that the surgical learning methodology in Rapid Learn saved $75 in training for each employee download versus classroom and accel- erated the pace of necessary high-impact training by three to four years. The basic model, by design, is adaptable to any group in any organization. Simply stated, surgical learning is as follows: Rapid Development + Rapid Delivery + Rapid Consumption = Surgical Learning. There are four foundational blocks to the surgical learning approach. They are: 1. Centralize the learning management system (LMS). Consolidate all training records for the company into one database. The centralized LMS expedites delivery and consumption of learning material. End users have a centralized location for all training, where employee training records are obtainable by running a simple report. By eliminating thousands of multiple tracking systems across the company, administrative costs are slashed. 2. Distribute authorship. Make the investment in, and create a community of, self-sufﬁcient WBT authors inside the organization. Distributed authorship increases the speed of training across all three categories: development, delivery and consumption. 3. Create one-point lessons. Create short, one-point-lesson WBTs focused on speciﬁc activities. This eliminates unnecessary training and time. It streamlines development, delivery and consumption of the information by making it simple for authors to create and by allowing end users to select only the training they need. Users can get information immediately, learn it and move on. 4. Standardize the format. Choose only standardized software for authoring and one standard template interface. The use of the standardized software simpliﬁes problem solving and support, and training on a uniform template interface provides consistency and quality for the end user. In conclusion, the business world is changing exponentially, and corporate training programs must pick up the pace. Employees today require more training, more often and in an environment in which there is less time available to train. Surgical learning provides a means to rapidly train employees on focused, applicable topics and maximize success. CLO William Martin is dean of Web-based training at Proctor & Gamble. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. Learning must be at the speed of business, and business is moving fast, so training must also be created, deployed and utilized quickly. Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • July 2008 • www.clomedia.com 51 http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five A Customer-Driven Approach to Molding Tomorrow’s Leaders The Home Depot: Accelerated Leadership CLO Profile Birth of a Salesman: Selling Learning to Solve Business Issues Selling Learning’s Potential at Siemens Transform Corporate Learning With a User Network Wiki Training Increases Productivity for RMC Vanguard Mortgage Lessons From the Feds: Mapping Learning to Strategic Initiatives Department of Labor Centralizes Content Synchronous and Asynchronous: What’s in a Name? Coping With Cultural Barriers to E-Learning The Manager’s Responsibility for Employee Learning Case Study Business Intelligence In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.