Chief Learning Officer - November 2007 - (Page 21)

learning solutions At the epic moment when the late arrivals finally have appeared, the leader of the session begins: “We are together at a critical point,” he or she laments in a serious tone, “when the future of our organization hangs in the balance. The clock is ticking, our backs are to the wall and we must come up with a newer, better, faster, stronger, easier or otherwise more innovative approach.” In other words, they must build a better mousetrap and maybe even a better mouse. Then, after a dramatic pause, the facilitator tells the group that the objective of today’s session is to come up with an “outside-the-box” idea. And although one could argue that this should be the objective of most corporate learning, there is now a moment of intense silence — most likely because everyone in the room has unsuccessfully wrestled with this issue before, has no idea why they were chosen for this learning experience, are less than eager to put the first marginal idea on the table or are just plain clueless about what to do. And even though they are told that “there is no such thing as a bad idea,” those with ideas fear the silent scorn and cleverly crafted smirks that might accompany the floating of some half-baked thought. After a moment, a spokesperson for the creatively challenged summons the courage to speak. “Are we talking about totally new ideas here?” he or she wonders aloud. “I mean, things we’ve never thought of before? Or are we just supposed to come up with a better way of doing what we’re already doing?” (In other words, should we dust off the same tired, old, lame ideas that we’ve always had for solving this problem — and hope the customer thinks it’s at least a semi-quantum leap forward?) “Some new ideas would be great,” the facilitator replies. “After all, the world and our market are changing faster than we ever imagined.” Now the cat, cleverly disguised as a culture of plodding incrementalism parading as a deer in the headlights, is out of the bag. That’s a scary picture in any world, let alone one that requires dramatic change and fresh thinking. “So we need really new ideas,” the facilitator continues. “Breakthrough ideas. Ideas that will shake up the way we do our business. And they need to be implemented by the start of next quarter or before the next total eclipse of our bottom line — whichever comes first.” 21 November 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - November 2007

Chief Learning Officer - November 2007 Editor's Letter Table of Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five Rediscovering the Essence of Learning Cornell University Maintains Productivity While Pursuing Higher Education CLO Profile How Loyalty and Employee Engagement Add Up to Corporate Profits A Strategic Foundation The Evolution of the LMS Ariba: Growing Sales Skills in Conjunction with LMS Technology Leveraging Change to Build Productivity Equinox Fitness: Leveraging Change to Build Productivity Tangibles or Intangibles: Where’s Your Value? Raising the Stakes: The Strategic Role of the CLO Case Study Business Intelligence Case Study Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - November 2007

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