MindLeaders: Fueling the Learning Revolution

Using Twitter lists to follow great elearning people

As you might know if you read this blog, I believe that Twitter is not about what you say, it's about who you follow. Therefore, one of the most important tricks to Twitter is finding the right people to follow: people who are sharing good information about the things you're interested in.

Twitter's new Lists feature helps out with that. Anyone can create a list of Twitter accounts and label them anything they'd like. One of the first fun things to do with lists is to look at your own (or anyone else's) Twitter account to see if you're on anyone's lists.

Mindleaders is on six people's lists. You can click the "x listed" number to see exactly what lists that account is on.

That exploration can lead you to some good people to follow. But the power of Lists is when you take a step back and look at the wisdom of the crowds.

First of all, the raw number of lists an account is on can tell you a bit about how valuable that account is to other people. It's like judging accounts by their number of followers, but this number is an even better gauge.

Looking for lists in your favorite topic areas? Check out Listorious. This site is serving as a central repository for the lists that everyone has made. Type in any topic to see all of the lists it knows about that deal with that topic.

You can follow a list to follow everyone in it. Or, if you want to take yet another strategic step back, take a look at some of the best lists and see who comes up in them over and over again. That's the way to really mine for gold. Unfortunately, right now Listorious doesn't do that for us except for one generic, over-arching list of "Top 140 Most Listed People," so we have to do that part manually for the time being.

Here are some great elearning and corporate training lists. They can be followed directly, or you can take a closer look at the people being followed for potentials for your Twitter stream:

• corporate-training
• e-learning
• elearning
• lrnchat
• top-elearning blogs

(Good to see in these lists that the "e-learning"/"elearning" debate is still alive and well.)

Have you made any lists of your own yet? Please share your experiences in the comments section!

LMS Market Still Strong, Despite Recession

Bersin and Associates is predicting that the $850 million LMS market will continue to grow at a rate of 10 to 15 percent. This is good news for learning and development organizations. The strength in the LMS market indicates that corporations view employee development as a business driver that they are willing to invest in. Training is moving out of “nice to have” into “must have.” Finally.

In addition, informal learning and the advent of social learning networks have changed the game. More and more corporations are trying to embrace information sharing, collaboration, and harness the power of informal learning that is happening within their organizations. In some cases the LMS is a major player in facilitating this. But certainly not in all cases.

The downside to the good news is that LMS systems are still difficult to manage. They are generally complex and in some instances cost millions of dollars and take a few years to fully implement. This issue is going to get worse over the next few years. Talent management and learning management are converging, and corporations are already wishing for more interoperability between LMS systems, talent management systems, and HRIS systems.

If your organization doesn’t have an LMS yet, chances are they will be looking at one in the future. If they do, ensure that there are clear goals for what functionality is important to the organization. Is it customizable reporting? Is it simply to serve up e-learning? Is it to provide an internal social network? Be clear about what is needed, and then assess vendors to determine if they have the potential to meet those needs.

What do you think? Is your company assessing or implementing an LMS system this year? What features are most important for your organization?

Sales Training Drives HIgher Performance Levels

Have you trained your sales staff this year? Not product training. Not training in how to fill out their expense reports. Training in prospecting skills. Training in closing skills. If you haven’t, you are missing on an opportunity to increase your company’s performance according to a recent report released by Aberdeen Group. How much of an opportunity? Best in class companies experience:

• Over 80 percent of sales reps meeting their annual quota (compared to 65% for average companies)
• Average deal size/contract value increasing by 7% year over year (compared to average companies which had a flat deal size year to year)
• Average annual revenue increasing 11% year over year (compared to 2% decrease for average companies)

Best in class companies deploy training that focuses on what sales reps say and do to create perceived customer value to create these results. (Not just how to calculate quota or track number of sales appointments.) These companies have processes for:

• Sharing collective knowledge
• Training their internal trainers
• Reinforcing training on a regular basis
• Capturing organizational best practices
• Defining competencies (and training needs) for each sales role

Best in class companies also train often and train consistently, regardless of economic conditions. In fact, they are increasing spending on sales training over the next 12 months. This makes sense. As the economy recovers, these companies want to be positioned to capitalize on the positive changes.

One of the key takeaways of is that training and reinforcement should happen frequently. This doesn’t necessarily mean continuous onsite training. Consider what content you can license, how you can train internal trainers, and how access to training content can continue to reinforce new skills.

For more information, you can read the entire report, Sales Training: Translating Tribal Selling Knowledge into Bottom-Line Productivity.

Play is far superior to Work

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and [...]Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

I love this quote from Tom Sawyer. Not just for the insight on its face, but also for its context: the fence still got whitewashed. Work got done, and yet everyone had a grand ol' time accomplishing it. And with the growth of "serious games" and "virtual worlds," the training and organizational development world might be starting to agree with Mark Twain.

At MindLeaders, we believe deeply in Play and Fun. We believe that it's a core part of building knowledge, and of building teams and relationships. Our greatest example of this was held on Friday: our annual Halloween Party.

 

Outrageous costumes roam the halls all day long, we feast on a massive potluck lunch, and we gather up for an early end to the day to give prizes for all kinds of contests held throughout the week and eat and drink together. My friends envy me on Halloween Party day. When I show them pictures of the costumed craziness that goes on, their cracks are usually something along the lines of "Do you guys do any WORK in your office?!?"

Tom Sawyer's answer to that is no. Nobody is Working in our office on that day. Everyone's doing a lot of Playing. But much still gets accomplished, and the effects continue throughout the year. When MindLeaders employees talk about the company culture or what it's like to work here, the Halloween Party is frequently one of the first things mentioned. We've been doing it so many years that it's part of our DNA. Teams work together months in advance to come up with group costumes. Silos disappear on that day as everyone explores the halls to enjoy cool costumes or check out office decorations.

Our Halloween Party is strictly a company-building type of Play. For a great example of a teaching type of Play, check out DevLearn 2009's "Zombie Apocalypse." People are getting familiar with all types of social media, scouring it far more deeply than any Work class assignment would ever compel them to do, and it's Play. (And if you're trying to come up with a play idea, it's hard to go wrong with zombies.)

Got a team that needs to communicate better? Trying to teach some tough skills to someone? Want to knock down some tension or closed doors between teams, departments, or management and employees? Do some Playing. Not the fake kind of play that's still an obligation. If someone watching from the outside would question whether you're Working, then you have the right kind of Play.

Social Media's Rise Doesn't Mean Formal Learning is Dead

The landscape of employee development is shifting under our feet. While learning and development organizations are facing lots of changes, two developments are driving most of them.

·     Technology and social media are allowing information to be shared quickly and easily

·     Learning management and talent management are converging

Remember when e-learning came into the market and there was lots of talk about the death of instructor-led training? Stand up training is still here. E-learning is here. And now we have the influx of social media platforms and a lot of chatter about how it will wipe out formal learning (and e-mail and other forms of communication). And guess what? It won’t.

Formal learning is far from dead. The fact that learning management and talent management are converging is one reason why. Integrating learning into career development and performance improvement will always be formalized in organizations. And of course content lends itself to different deliveries. That which lends itself to instructor-led or e-learning formats isn’t likely to be completely replaced by the new social media and information sharing technologies. So social media's rise hardly means the death for formal learning. It does make for some interesting challlenges though.

Learning organizations are faced with helping organizations integrate these technologies in a way that makes sense. New roles will emerge and new skills will become necessary for learning organizations to move forward effectively.  But the ones who can will reap some real benefits. These new technologies let peers easily share information. They allow transparency between groups. They make it harder to blow smoke about what you are up to. They practically eliminate the ability to information-hoard. Yes, there are some who won’t like that much, but the benefit of easily accessible organizational knowledge is well-worth the price.   

Squeezing in Time for Training

Several years ago I worked for a newspaper, and one of my co-workers liked to wear a shirt that said, “I was put on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind I will never die.” All of us in the office thought it was hilarious and quite apropos. It seemed like we were always on deadline and running behind. And the thought of that making us immortal did lessen the stress.

Not much other than my job titles has changed since then. The workday pace certainly hasn’t slowed. My to-do list hasn’t miraculously gotten shorter, although there are an increasing number of books and tools to help me manage it better. I am always pulled in many directions at once. And I don’t think I am alone. This is the reality of today’s workplace. And it’s a tough competitor when you are trying to squeeze in time for training.

If you and your staff you don’t make time for training, it won’t happen. It’ll get lost in that workday frenzy, buried in the marathon list of to-dos. So here are some strategies that have worked for me over the years to squeeze in the training I needed.

• Block out time on your electronic calendar so that you will be reminded to start training and others will know you are busy.
• Put a sign on your door or cube entrance to encourage others to go away until you are finished. Humor is acceptable.
• Use some earphones to deaden the inevitable noise around you. You don’t have to pipe music into them and no one has to know that but you.
• Borrow a vacant office or small conference room for your session. If they can’t find you, you can’t be bothered. Plus you’ll look like you are doing something really important, which you are.
• Schedule time for group discussions and debriefs to ensure that information is shared at the end of projects.
• Declare a training time-out for you and your staff, say a couple of hours on a Friday afternoon each month. (No one is working on Friday afternoon anyway and the time-out is valuable for everyone.)

This list isn’t comprehensive, but simply things that have worked well for me. What strategies have worked for you? How do you squeeze in time for training?

Leadership Mastery Demands Experience

Leadership development programs utilize many different tools to help build future leaders. Everything from courses to workshops to books can help the beginner begin to establish some level of competence. The trick is moving from competence to mastery. In this month’s issue of Leadership Excellence Kim Lamoureux argues leadership mastery is only attained through experience. Thus companies who wish to create a team of exceptional leaders will establish ways to accelerate learning experiences.

Creating experiential learning opportunities for leaders isn’t a quick and easy solution. (And throwing a new leader into the role with a “sink or swim” attitude isn’t what we’re talking about.) Lamoureux suggests three methods for incorporating learning experiences into your leadership development program.

1. Simulations – Lamoureux’s examples center on in-person simulations where a team role plays different situations. However, online simulations and decision trees can provide this element as well. As usual, a blended approach will likely yield the best results.
2. Job Rotation – Many companies choose the best and brightest for their rotation programs. Rotating members through different jobs provides quick experience and a broad base of knowledge to draw on when making business decisions. It also allows management to see the relative strengths and weaknesses of participants and choose roles that fit them well for permanent placements.
3. Action Learning – Action learning uses small teams to work on and solve business problems. I see this as more of a leadership practice approach. A bit more involved than a couple hour role play simulation but not as long-term as a two year job rotation. The team is assigned a business problem project and then leaders are evaluated on ability to perform under pressure, define recommendations, deliver solutions, and how well the team functioned as a group.

I particularly like the action learning approach. Maybe it’s because I worked in project management for so long, but projects are good crucibles for molding talent. Projects allow for fixed-deadlines and show how well people behave themselves when under pressure to deliver results. It also gives people a framework to work within that they are familiar with while trying to learn new skills.

While these three methods are great suggestions, I’m sure there are other effective techniques to give young leaders some good learning experiences. What other experience-based activities have you seen in leadership development? Were they effective?

The Golden Rule of Training

Is the recession over? It may be too early to say, but there are some signs of recovery. Unfortunately employment isn’t one of those things. Employment recovery lags since employers don’t want to add headcount prematurely. But even in this atmosphere there are some interesting trends that everyone should pay attention to. An annual study from Robert Half International and CareerBuilder.com found that:

• Over half of employers polled planned to hire full-time employees in the next year. About 4 in 10 will hire contract workers, project workers, or part-time employees.
• 4 in 10 employers expect the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to create jobs for their organizations over the next couple of years.
• 6 in 10 employers are willing to negotiate with qualified candidates for higher compensation.

The last finding is perhaps the most surprising, since you’d expect employers to be less willing to negotiate with an abundant labor pool. The problem with the abundant labor pool is that there is still a shortage of skilled workers. Employers who participated in the study reported that over 40 percent of the resumes they receive are from unqualified candidates.

This is good news for qualified candidates and a mixed bag for employers. Employers who take care of their employees, provide fair compensation, and adequate opportunities for development will differentiate themselves from those who don’t. There’s also a warning shot for organizations that are cutting benefits and piling on the work with the attitude that employees “should be happy to have a job.”

• More than half of polled employees plan to make a career change or go back to school when the economy improves.
• A Monster.com poll found that 89 percent of employees would consider switching jobs.

The current labor market may lull managers into thinking that their actions don’t matter since immediate impact isn’t felt in turnover and retention numbers. But employees will remember how they were treated during this tough time and actions now will either ignite the desire to leave or retain talent. And guess who will hit the door first? That’s right. It’s the high performers.

The Golden Rule still applies. Treat others fairly and with respect. And for employers there is also a Golden Rule of Training. Give employees opportunities to grow and they’ll perform better and stick around longer. That same study showed that 20 percent of employees hoped for better benefits as a retention tool. At the top of the wishlist? Tuition reimbursement or subsidized training.

What if Learning Was Free?

A few weeks ago Seth Godin blogged that if TV ads were free, people would have learned to do advertising by simply doing it. Without that barrier to entry, people would just do advertising instead of talking about it and obsessing about it because it’s expensive.

Harold Jarche picked up on the parallels that can be drawn with corporate learning.  Instructional design systems and curriculum development is expensive. It takes time and energy. And once created, no one wants to do it again, or make significant changes to it.

Technology is removing barriers to entry in every industry and discipline. Internet technologies make distributing information to lots of people cheap. Want to engage with a community and ask for their feedback? Consider a focused blog directed at that audience. Want to build a collaborative group? Enter social media platforms. Didn’t get the results you wanted? Try, try again. After all, in the brave new world of technology learning really can be free.

But here’s the trick. You’ll have to let go of some control. You’ll have to facilitate and be a conduit, rather than a director. This can be scary, but it can work. Need proof? Take the Work Literacy site which helps teach Web 2.0 technology to learning professionals. Cost to develop: Zero. Time to create: A week. Content updates: Courtesy of participants. So there’s the proof that it can work. (Check out the site, it’s got some great content.)

Oh and get out there and start experimenting! If it doesn’t work the way you’d hoped, try something else. But stop waiting. The time is now.

What do you think? How has technology removed the barriers to entry for learning? Are you experimenting enough?

Using Talent Management and L&D to Meet Strategic Goals

In their September newsletter, Bersin and Associates featured a case study on one of our local companies – Nationwide Insurance. In 2007, Nationwide decided to migrate most of its applications from a COBOL/mainframe environment to a Java/web services model. Needless to say, this had huge implications for the organization and its IT staff. Nationwide had to decide whether to buy, build or rent the capabilities it needed. The case study is about their decisions and how things worked out. Here’s what I loved about it:

• Nationwide decided to build their talent pool’s skills to match their needs, rather than lay off most of the staff that had served it well to that point.
• Nationwide took the time to set clear goals for the program, including:
• Executive sponsorship from both IT and HR branches of the organization
• Incorporating both technical and business process training in their program
• Determining performance results, best practices and work environment
• Evaluating the appropriate mix of classroom training, coaching, practice, and informal learning
• Interested associates had to apply and be selected to participate in the training program.
• Communications about the program were frequent and in many forms such as e-mail, newsletters, meetings, etc. They emphasized the future direction of the company and the intensive nature of the training.
• They got great results! 70% of program grads were at expectations for their salary band within 3 months; 100% within 9 months. Better yet, all hiring managers would recommend the program based upon the quality of the results.

As Nationwide has demonstrated, properly managing your talent pool allows for the flexibility to meet the changing demands of the marketplace. This is certainly an instance where HR, L&D, and management goals were clearly aligned to meet a company’s strategic needs. The case study is available to anyone who wants to read it for a limited time. Go out and take a look!