The Transition from Top Performer to Manager

A perpetual problem that organizations face is how to support their "top performers" when transitioning them into management roles. Such "all-stars" have many skills, character traits, and other positive characteristics that have made them standouts in what they do. But what made them so successful in their previous roles is not what is needed to be successful as managers. It is unreasonable to expect anyone making that transition to not experience some bumps in the road (I can speak from personal experience!). A key need from an organization's learning and development function is to help minimize these bumps to ease the inevitable learning curve that such individuals face. And this need is only going to become more important as waves of managers in the Baby Boomer generation retire, replaced often by Gen X and Gen Y "top performers."
 
In the July 2009 issue of Talent Management magazine, there was a very good article on this subject, "Nine Ways to Make Top Performers Effective Managers." The nine guidelines shared are:

• Move from tactical to strategic.
• Defend the team.
• Build trusting relationships.
• Delegate.
• Teach and mentor.
• Admit mistakes.
• Leverage others' strengths.
• Manage each employee.
• Take time to manage.

At Element K, we recognize the great importance of this transition phase in the development of an organization's management team. We have a range of e-Learning courses that touch on this topic, and a wealth of resources on the topic of "What Good Managers Do: The First 100 Days." These include a flagship e-Learning course in our Business Skills library, as well as a corresponding instructor-led training print courseware course. (Aside: Did you know that Element K creates formal learning content via a "single source" model that involves authoring in an XML environment in order to get multimedia-rich and engaging e-Learning, and professional print courseware for the classroom, all from one development cycle?)

But we have gone well beyond these foundational learning modalities, by:

• Providing additional "Blended Blueprint" guides that specifically indicate how organizations can integrate classroom training sessions on this topic with e-Learning modules and business simulations.
• Providing key concepts from the course as audio portions that can be listened to when convenient for the learner. These audio MP3 tracks can be played on iPods or smartphones as anytime, anywhere learning.
• Abstracting the key principle guidelines from the training content and providing them as a handy quick reference card. This is a great job-aid for new managers to refer to as needed.
• Enabling learners with collaborative, Web 2.0 features such as forums and blogs, so that they can learn from their cohorts who are making similar changes, or those who have made the same transition in the recent past.
• Providing an end-user "Management Knowledge Portal" that brings together learning assets that cover more advanced topics in management, as there is obviously much to learn beyond those first 100 days.

As your organization evolves, what are you doing to help support your all-star, top-performers who are making the critical next step in their careers? Are you enabling them with a range of learning assets, so they aren't learning everything by trial and error and by hitting the bumps in the road?

To learn more about the Blended Learning solutions available from Element K, see our Real World Blended Learning Subscriptions.
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Learning and Development Roundup (vol. 7)

It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two,  three, four, five, and six).

The Future of the Training Department
I'll start off with the most provocative item in this roundup, a blog posting from Harold Jarche titled "The Future of the Training Department." Jarche begins with a whirlwind tour of the history of training, why it developed as it did, why it made sense and worked well enough, and so on. But then along lines similar to columns and postings written by his colleague Jay Cross over the past year, Jarche notes that the world has changed and that people in organization's "training departments" had better change too, or potentially face extinction as such. Jarche's thoughts on this subject, like those of Cross and others, are provocative to say the least, and should be a wake-up call to any learning leaders who are changing very slowly or continuing to do basically the same things they have always done. While you're at Harold's blog, see also his many other excellent posts from this past month, especially his "Increased Complexity Needs Simplified Design," which makes several valuable points about informal learning.

Low-Costs LMSs Do Exist
The August/September issue of Elearning! magazine included an article by Jerry Roche titled "LMSs for Less Than $20,000." In these tough economic times, where everyone is being asked to do more with less (or in some cases making the tough decisions to do less with less), understanding how to maximize value from your Learning Management System is critical for learning leaders. The article starts by noting the absolutely critical point: The trick is finding an LMS that meets your needs, while not buying more LMS than you need. In other words, hitting the sweet spot while spending as little as possible. With this as the context, the good news is that in some cases, a low price tag no longer equates to less functionality than you need. Some low-cost LMSs now include not only basic tracking of e-Learning, but also features such as ILT classroom management, advanced reporting, and even collaborative Web 2.0 features such as forums, blogs, wikis, and more. Element K's KnowledgeHub LMS is one such platform that provides all of these and more. While many in the industry know of Element K for our award-winning e-Learning and print ILT courseware content, in recent years we have spent a lot of effort into building out our KnowledgeHub LMS platform, so we are pleased to be included in this article's listing of low-cost LMSs you should be considering.

If you are in the market for an LMS, another good recent resource to share with you is Clive Shepherd's posting on "The 21st Century LMS," which includes a PDF of the results of a recent gathering of the eLearning Network, and in particular their activity to "identify what was required in an LMS that was fit for the 21st Century."

Don't be Scared to Evaluate
In the August/September issue of Elearning! magazine, Diane Valenti wrote on the importance of evaluation in "Scared to Evaluate? Return on Learning Is Your Lifeline." After introducing the subject and posing the normal difficult questions regarding training ROI, Valenti describes a good example of the role that accountability can play in driving ROI: it can be the extra push users need to apply what they learn from training to their actual jobs. She notes that ROI doesn't always need to be calculated, but does when training "is the solution, in whole or in part, to a specific business challenge. Such challenges could include an increase in customer complaints or employee turnover, a drop in sales or profit margin, or even a lack of leadership bench strength." She then walks the reader through the three high-level steps of determining ROI: determining the benefits of training, determining the costs of training, and finally calculating the value of the training. For each, step she gives useful examples to help anyone new to this process. A recommended read for both novices and veterans alike: you definitely don't need to be scared to evaluate!

Big Question: New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills?
The latest "big question" at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog is "New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills?" The list of more focused questions can be pretty well summed up with two concerns: multitasking and backchannel. That is, how can trainers and presenters best handle the inevitable multitasking and backchannel chatter that occurs during their classes and sessions? And what are the best practices for us on the other side, as learners and audience members? As a conference speaker myself, I've certainly been thinking about this a lot lately, especially as the phenomenon that is Twitter has made live-backchannel discussions a reality at almost every presentation at every conference. The response postings to this "big question" come from great industry bloggers including Tony Karrer, Clark Quinn, Clive Shepherd, and others. See also Karrer's additional posting highlighting some of the salient points raised by everyone else.

A Corporate Social Media Use Example: SabreTown
The September 2009 issue of T+D Magazine, in an article titled "Letting Go" (ASTD membership required), provided another good example of using social media technologies in a corporation, this time from Sabre Holdings. The center of their application, SabreTown, revolves around employee-completed profiles, complete with areas of expertise, and online discussion boards. When people ask questions, the system notifies the people it considers to have the most relevant expertise, an innovative way to drive conversation and knowledge exchange. The article details numerous best practices and lessons learned at Sabre, including the following and more:

• Maximize the value of the system by making sure it is used to the greatest extent. In particular, the advice given suggests keeping it simple, making the tool easy to use for all, not worrying about making it perfect technologically, building it to mimic how people already communicate (e.g., Q&A), and not letting it lose its meaning by building it into something larger
• Promote behavior that will increase trust in the system.
• Seed the system with questions and answers for the first month or two by selecting some people to "overuse it."
• In communications about the system, keep returning to its value.

The article notes that SabreTown is credited with substantial savings for the company, including $500,000 in direct savings in the first year. But, based on strong anecdotal evidence, that figure doesn't come close to representing the total savings they are seeing. A truly impressive case study!

New Whitepaper: Social Learning Introduction
Harold Jarche recently announced a new whitepaper, "Social Learning Introduction", from the new "idea lab" group Collaborative Enterprise. A group-authored whitepaper, each writer gave their unique perspective on the question: "How would you describe social learning and why is it important for today's enterprise?" Included are insights from Clark Quinn, Charles Jennings, George Siemens, Jay Cross, and eight others. 

22 Power Laws
Dion Hinchcliffe wrote an outstanding article at ZDNet.com titled "Twenty-Two Power Laws of the Emerging Social Economy." Definitely a good read, possibly one of the most thought-provoking things you will read all year. Some of the "laws" he covers will be well-known to you, such as Moore's law, the Long Tail, the Pareto principle, or even Metcalfe's law. But many of the others will be new to you, so I strongly recommend you read this article and consider which of these "power laws" are a major driver for your organization. And for additional reflections, see also Tony Karrer's comments on Dion's article.

Updates from Element K
I'll again end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched in June. Each newsletter includes several articles of relevance to the Learning and Development field, as well as updates about Element K events and our latest product releases. You can see the latest newsletters here: June, July, August, September, October, and November.
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

On Twitter in the Enterprise

In the October issue of T+D Magazine, enterprise strategist and social media expert Marcia Conner wrote a great article titled "Twitter: Inside the Enterprise, Up the Next Hill."  People in the corporate world, including those in L&D roles, are increasingly becoming familiar with Twitter as a useful tool. The next step is to understand how to use something "Twitter-like" inside the organization for increased communication, idea sharing, expertise location, and other benefits. After all, Twitter is simply the most popular, brand dominant version of a technology that it almost single-handedly invented, namely the technology variously referred to as "micro-messaging," "social-messaging," or "micro-blogging." In an organizational context, an important use is to have a closed "social-messaging" platform (aka, "Enterprise Twitter") for sharing messages just between members of the group, with most or all of the now established conventions and benefits of the public Twitter platform applied internally for just members of the company, division, or department.

Conner walks us through the use of such a technology at Humana, where introducing micro-messaging led one user to note "I use it because it makes a 28,000-person company feel like a 280-person company. It makes [our organization] smarter, more nimble, more personal." She reports several other great anecdotes from users at Humana, including this powerful analogy: "Celebrities have discovered Twitter and are using it to reach fans in an unprecedented, interactive way. Company executives can do the same thing." One key use of the technology at Humana is to replace "big bulky presentations" at meetings with "uncommittees" that share information in short bursts rather than seeking answers to questions through inefficient meetings. Like anything new, it's not that the old approaches (meetings, email, etc.) will be eliminated, it's rather to note how these approaches have been used in contexts where they are not ideal, and where the new technology—in this case, a social-messaging platform—can bring great value as a partial replacement.

Conner also shares the following absolutely critical insight for those in the Learning and Development profession:

With widespread adoption of mobile devices worldwide, organizations that believe blocking social media access is their best defense, sidestep considering how the tools already help their employees succeed. Rather than banning social media tools, companies ought to consider educating their employees on how to use the tools responsibly and to begin learning how these tools can benefit more people. Workplace learning professionals who understand these tools and who can make a case for their use are in a strong position to help their organizations navigate and climb new terrain.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

Note: On Twitter you can follow me at @ThomasStone, and follow Element K at @Element_K.
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

The Modalities of Blended Learning

In the July issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, Cushing Anderson reports some interesting data on the various learning modalities that comprise "blended learning" in organizations (see "Cost and Availability Drive Modality Mix"). The subhead for his article states quite clearly a point I've been making throughout this year in my presentations on how to blend the latest technologies with traditional formal learning, namely that "CLOs are increasingly trying to apply the right delivery option for the content, audience, and environment." (Emphasis mine.)

The data that Anderson reports comes from the latest web-based survey administered by IDC to Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board (BIB) on a "variety of topics to gauge the issues, opportunities, and attitudes that make up the diverse role of a senior training executive." This latest survey provides data on "learning modalities and how they are evolving," with nearly 300 BIB respondents sharing their thoughts.

Some key results from the survey include:

• Classroom training represents the delivery option most used, though cost has driven its use down in the past year.
• Both synchronous and asynchronous e-Learning have seen the most rapid growth, in part due to cost savings.
• For many organizations, asynchronous e-Learning has also seen growth because of the increased convenience.
• A significant number of organizations are using formal, on-the-job (OJT) training as a key component of their overall education programs.
• Due to lack of available content and complete technology solutions, portable learning technologies did not gain traction as much as some had anticipated.
• More than 60 percent of CLOs selected the modality for their blended offerings based on the availability of modalities. The value and potential of blended learning continues to be constrained by the availability of content in a variety of modalities.  

What training and learning modalities do you have available for your learners, either from internal sources or from your learning partners? Do you have the headaches of dealing with multiple vendors for your learning programs that require different modalities, or do you have a partner that can provide content and support for classroom training, various e-learning modalities, and performance support tools?
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Upcoming Industry Conferences

November is usually a very busy months in terms of the number of good conferences in the Learning and Development industry. Two big ones include Elliott Masie's Learning 2009 and the eLearning Guild's DevLearn 2009.

In addition, many regional ASTD chapters hold their full-day annual conferences during the fall. For instance, I participated in the ASTD Valley of the Sun chapter's event in October (see my report), and I'll be speaking at the ASTD Twin Cities Chapter next week as well. Consult your local ASTD chapter's website to see if they have major full-day events or other happenings coming up.

And finally, perhaps the most intriguing event this month is a virtual one: Corporate Learning Trends 2009, which is a free, online, non-profit conference on innovation in corporate learning. It’s a labor of love from industry leaders George Siemens, Tony Karrer, and Jay Cross, and will be held online from November 17-19. The theme for this year's event is Convergence in Corporate Learning, and the lineup of speakers not only includes the three already mentioned, but also Charles Jennings, Janet Clarey, Tony O'Driscoll, Jane Hart, Harold Jarche, and many others (see their pictures at Jay Cross' blog posting here.) And for more information, visit the LearnTrends social networking site.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Conference Reports: Recent CSTD and ASTD Events

As I've done in the past here at Element K Blog (see the Industry Events for many conference report postings), I wanted to provide a brief report on a couple of Learning and Development industry conferences.

First up was the annual Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) conference
, held at the Sheraton Centre Hotel, in Toronto, Canada. I had attended and spoken at the excellent CSTD Symposium held in Halifax in May, so I was very much looking forward to this larger CSTD event. And this year's event was even more intriguing, as it was both the annual conference for CSTD and for the International Federation of Training and Development Organizations (IFTDO). In my view, this two-in-one aspect made up for any decrease in attendance that otherwise might have been apparent from the poor economy and tighter travel budgets. Every session that I attended or even walked by seemed to be very well attended!

As with the smaller CSTD symposium, I can definitely recommend CSTD events. For those leaders in the L&D industry in Canada, they are a no-brainer. But they offer much that is of interest to L&D leaders from the U.S. and the rest of the world as well—after all, most issues, challenges, and opportunities in our field are universal in nature. For instance, all of the headliners—the keynote speakers and those in the "Thought Leader" series—were well-known speakers presenting on topics of common interest to our industry (Allison Rossett, Harold Stolovitch, Patti Shank, Peter Senge, and others.)

The conference's program designers also made a brilliant move in dedicating the first day of the conference (not an optional pre-conference day) to the theme of "Research to Practice." These sessions helped to highlight the latest research in the field, but did so in a way that attendees could take those insights back to their work and apply them in practical ways, thereby reducing the common dichotomy between theory and practice.

Also on this first day was a "Trading Post" event, where about 15 speakers presented and led discussion three times, in 20-minute segments, on a very specific topic. I've done this before at other conferences (e.g., several eLearning Guild events), and I always find it effective for the attendees, as they get a high dose of information on three topics of their choosing, in a very short period of time. I was one of the speakers, and I introduced about 25 learning leaders to the worldwide phenomenon of Twitter, making it relevant for them as professionals and giving them the info they need to get started. Other tables focused on instructional design, the use of gaming in learning, the future of training departments, and other great topics.

The bulk of the program was naturally composed of the breakout sessions, and again the program committee did a great job of spacing these out by general subject area (leadership development, technology focus, etc.), so that those with targeted interests almost always had a session of interest in each time slot, but didn't find themselves having to choose between competing sessions in the same area. There were several outstanding speakers in this part of the program, including folks like Gary Woodhill, Harold Jarche, Jane Bozarth, and many others. I again spoke for 90 minutes on "Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Formal Learning," and the audience had great questions both during and after. It is a topic that so many in L&D are struggling with, but as the many examples I shared demonstrate, a lot of real progress is being made.

Alas, I had to leave this conference early to catch a flight to Phoenix, Arizona, where I was one of four speakers at the regional American Society for Training & Development chapter known as ASTD Valley of the Sun. Their annual conference was on Friday, October 23 and had the theme "Web 2.0: A Social Learning Conference." Being a regional conference, it was of course smaller than national or international events like the CSTD event I had just come from. But this was an innovative event in its own right, as nearly 100 percent of attendees brought their laptops, and participated in a lively "back-channel" throughout the day. People were looking up resources, sending each other links, and most of all using Twitter (with live tweets displayed on a side wall for several of the sessions). If you have never experienced this kind of event, you might think this kind of approach would be distracting or chaotic. But it really isn't; instead, it was a positively energized event with greater learning occurring.

Bill Fournet, President and CEO at The Persimmon Group, led things off with a stirring keynote presentation, and then David Wilkins of Learn.com, Christy Pettit of ODScore, and myself each gave two nearly two-hour presentations each on various aspects of Web 2.0 in a learning and development context. Again, the energetic participants did not just soak up the experience and knowledge we were sharing, but fully participated with questions and discussion; it was phenomenal. The ASTD-VOS chapter is now off and running with a better understanding of Web 2.0/social media technologies, and how they can use them both as an ASTD chapter (e.g., they now have a social networking site for the group), but more importantly how they can use technologies such as wikis, blogs, and forums in their own organizations. Congrats to all involved for taking this major step forward!
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)