Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 - (Page 42)

Listen Up: A How-to Guide for Podcasting BY KALIYM A. ISLAM The mechanics of podcasting are easy; the skills required are minimal. So the most challenging aspect of introducing the new technology into your organization is persuading your employees to accept the new approach. W hen Colin Powell retired from his position as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1993, his retirement present from President Clinton was a “barely ambulatory wreck” of a 1966 Volvo. Powell is reported as saying that this gift was the best he had ever received. The reason he felt that way was because, in his spare time, Powell had taken up the hobby of ﬁxing old Volvos. He felt that the technical work of ﬁxing old cars was easy and relaxing. If he connected the right hoses and wires and ensured the car had the proper levels of oil, fuel and other liquids, it would eventually start and work. “People, on the other hand,” Powell said, “were more difﬁcult.” Just because you used a technique to inspire, motivate or persuade them on one day and it worked, using that same technique a week later might cause the opposite effect. The story of Gen. Powell and his Volvos is similar to the dilemma companies face when they attempt to deploy new media tools such as podcasting into their organizations. The technical mechanics of creating a podcast are easy, the skills required are minimal and the hardware and software requirements are insigniﬁcant. However, it’s much more difﬁcult to help stakeholders see the vision, understand the value proposition, buy in to the concept of podcasting as a training option and take ownership in the process. Trainers might resist podcasting if they perceive the technology will make them less valuable. A trainer at one ﬁnancial service ﬁrm openly stated: “If anyone can record this stuff, what good am I?” Similarly, business partners may not see the value of creating podcasts. CLO-RADIO Want to ﬁnd out more about how to use podcasting? Go to CLO-Radio to listen to “Using Podcasting for Training Purposes,” our podcast with Kaliym Islam. Listen online at www.clomedia.com/podcast. Their view may be that sending out a memo is sufﬁcient. A product manager at one ﬁrm laughed when podcasts were presented to him as a solution to his business issue. His response was: “I already send this information out in my monthly newsletter.” Also, the information technology or corporate security department may view podcasting as a security threat. Some ﬁrms block any site that has an RSS feed. As a result, this article will present some suggestions for dealing with the potential people issues surrounding the introduction of podcasting into an organization. The People As the Colin Powell story illustrated, the most challenging part of introducing new technology, including podcasting, is ﬁrst persuading people to accept the new approach. Members of your training organization may resist using or learning how to use this “new” technology. The business units you are attempting to support may claim that they do not see or understand the beneﬁt of podcasting. This resistance likely is not speciﬁc to podcasting, but rather a general opposition to doing things differently. Therefore, addressing the people component of podcast implementation largely is a matter of change management. 42 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • August 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com/podcast http://www.clomedia.com

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

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Connections Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness High-Octane Leadership Development Leadership and Personality CLO Profile Discussion Groups: Harvesting Value from Real-World Experiences Kimpton 2.0: Discussion on the Web Learning Olympics: Development Through Competition Bypassing the Obstacles to Change Listen Up: A How-To-Guide for Podcasting University of Toyota: A Success Story in Podcast Implementation What Stinks About Webinars? Webinars for Learning Professionals Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

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