It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
Measuring the Impact of Learning and Development Two recent items of note on the always challenging issue of measuring the impact of training, or learning and development activities more broadly. First, Josh Bersin's August column in the August issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, "A Memorandum on Metrics," describes three trends found through his firm's ongoing research on training measurement. These describe the continuing challenge that good measurement continues to pose for most organizations, the fact that the tools available continue to change (forcing organizations to adopt a variety in an attempt to obtain a complete picture), and lastly, the need to expand measurement initiatives to include informal learning.
The second recent article is "ROE's Rising Star: Why Return on Expectations is Getting So Much Attention," by James D. Kirkpatrick and Wendy Kirkpatrick, in the August issue of T+D magazine. This is a deeper dive on the subject, walking through what ROE is and how it contrasts with the more traditional ROI. The authors detail several key principles, including why:
The end is the beginning.
ROE is the ultimate indicator of value.
Business partnership is necessary to bring about positive ROE.
Value must be created before it can be demonstrated.
A compelling chain of evidence demonstrates your bottom line value.
How Long Does it Take to Create Learning? As noted in my previous roundup, Bryan Chapman recently performed a survey of the Learning and Development industry, asking how long it takes to develop various kinds of learning content. This was an update to his earlier survey results from several years ago. The results are now in, and he has provided them in a presentation hosted at SlideShare. Included are separate results for the creation of content for ILT, three levels of e-Learning development, and blended learning. These are very interesting survey results, and very valuable information for all in the L&D field.
Formal vs. Informal, or a New Taxonomy for Learning? Rob Pannoni and Grant Ricketts in the August issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine wrote an interesting article titled "A New Taxonomy for Learning." I can agree with the authors that terms like formal and informal learning are used inconsistently at times in the Learning and Development industry. But with my background in philosophy, I am a stickler for clearly defining my concepts, and so I don't personally struggle with the formal vs. informal distinction and the line between them. That said, I think Rob and Grant have done us a service by clearly laying out a "new taxonomy for learning," that maps both learning modalities and organizational needs onto a two-by-two grid created by crossing organization-driven vs. learner-driven with developed resources vs. ad hoc resources. This mapping and terminology is easy to understand and I think should be helpful for many L&D professionals.
Tips for Effective Online Conferences The amazingly prolific Tony Karrer recently provided two blog posts to help you create better online conferences and learning webinars. The first was "19 Tips for Effective Online Conferences" and the other is a list of links to other resources, "Effective Web Conferences - 41 resources." If you have had inconsistent results with synchronous or so-called "virtual classroom" e-Learning, then these two resources should be very helpful!
The Pros and Cons of Podcasting Have you been considering the use of podcasts for learning and development? I recently described some of the many podcasts available for learning professionals, but if you are considering the use of podcasts for your own organization's L&D needs, you might find value in Mike Petersell's recent blog post "The Pros and Cons of Podcasting." Not all of his listed pros and cons will be relevant for your organization, but he provides good lists to get you started.
Rossett's Ode to Mobile Performance Support The eLearning Guild's Learning Solutions Magazine recently included Allison Rossett's article "Ode to Mobile Performance Support." In this excellent article, Rossett describes the important differences between mobile learning and mobile performance support. It is a must-read for anyone pursuing the use of mobile devices for learning and development purposes in their organization.
The Latest on Social Learning There continues to be a great flow of good articles, blog postings, and resources on this important subject, so I will again list a few from recent weeks here.
TheNewSocialLearning.com - The website for the new book of the same name, written by ASTD President Tony Bingham and consultant and social media expert Marcia Conner.
Enterprise Microlearning - Marcia Conner on the enterprise use of both Twitter and similar internal microsharing platforms.
The Evolving Social Organization - Harold Jarche gives an interesting history of enterprise evolution, describes the importance of social learning for modern organizations, and gives several examples of success stories.
Social Networking: A Platform for Training New Managers Online? - Bill Brandon considers first some history of informal learning groups from several centuries ago, and then provides insights on what makes such groups successful -- including those that are further enabled today by social media technologies.
Updates from Element K As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched last year. 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, and September.
When asked to name one or more good leaders, many of us would think of current or past world statesmen, people who effectively led movements near and dear to our hearts, or if you are lucky, a present or past work colleague who successfully led your organization during tough times or to new heights. But how many of us would initially think of a fictional character as a standout role model of good leadership? This is an interesting question, in part because fictional characters -- necessarily being less "three-dimensional" than real people -- can serve very well as role models. Whether in books, movies, or elsewhere, they are combinations of abstracted character traits from real people, provided to us via limited descriptions and limited dialogue and actions. Similarly, when thinking of good leadership role models (or any role models), you are focusing on abstracting the traits that make a good leader.
I've actually thought about this several times over the years, and there has always been one fictional character that I would eventually come to as my top role model for leadership. I felt rather validated when I recently learned that I'm not alone: Gina Eckert, blogging for the esteemed Center for Creative Leadership, seems to agree with me when she wrote her post "Make It So: How a Frenchman Could Become an American Leadership Idol."
The character that Gina and I are talking about is of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, from the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series and movies. The other top leaders of the various Star Trek series also have strong, though varying, leadership qualities: Captain James T. Kirk, Commander Benjamin Sisko, Captain Kathryn Janeway, and Captain Jonathan Archer. But for me and I suspect many others, Picard is the one who is the most relevant role model for leadership in organizations today. As Eckert describes him:
Picard is an excellent information gatherer and decision maker…He rarely makes real consensus decisions, but he gathers opinions from each team member before reaching an integrated conclusion, thereby giving his team the feeling of being highly involved. …Picard's appeal partly consists of his refusal to be portrayed as a hero. Picard's humility and modesty, almost shyness sometimes, make him more a member of a winning team than a solitary champion. After any threat that he and/or the Enterprise have successfully averted, he emphasizes that he is not an independent individual, able to achieve, perform, or move mountains (or rather, stars) based on his own volition. He very much defines himself as being integrated into the democratic structure of Starfleet that allows every voice to be heard, even junior ranks. …He is not so much an inspirational, visionary leader than rather a discreet operator who projects his strengths through silence. A little quirky -- but that only makes him more lovable.
And how is it that Picard is so respected as a leader even now, 20 years after his "invention?" I think mainly because his leadership style fits with the problems we're currently facing. From Picard, we can learn how to lead sustainably -- building and maintaining a high-performing team, developing others yet also retaining top talent; acknowledging people (and other species) in their entirety and caring for their emotional and physical well-being as much as, if not more than, their work output. Making moral judgments and defending them against organizational protocol, if necessary.
Admittedly, being such a leader is easier in an ideal organization like Starfleet, and in the reality of our lives we face more difficulties than Picard might --but he would argue that that should not discourage us to try and strive for continuous improvement.
I couldn't have said it better myself!
For the Star Trek fans among you, which of its characters is your favorite leadership role model, and why? And beyond the realm of Star Trek, do you have any other fictional characters that you consider to be top leadership role models?
I recently wrote a blog post titled "Podcasts in the Learning and Development Industry" wherein I described and linked to several of the more popular and valuable podcasts for learning professionals. In this post I thought I'd do something similar for free video content, going beyond the excellent videos from CommonCraft that I've blogged about here.
First I'll start with the intersection of the largest free video sharing site in the world, and the largest L&D organization in the U.S.: the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). By now the ASTD has jumped into YouTube in a big way, using their ASTD123 channel to market their events and their broader value proposition for their members, but also as an extension of their main website to provide substantive videos with good content for learning professionals. And they do a good job, especially relative to our relaxed standards for YouTube content, at producing high-quality, professional videos. Here are some I'd like to draw your attention to:
Social Learning: Voices of Experience -- A four-part series with interviews from learning professionals who have been successful in implementing social learning in their organizations.
CPLP -- A series of anecdotes from learning professionals who have pursued and obtained their Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification from ASTD.
ASTD 2010 International -- Dozens of videos about their biggest annual event, including videos of keynote speakers (like the one linked to here), but also on-the-ground interviews of participants, vendors, and others during the conference.
Interviews with Chapter Leaders at ALC -- Dozens of short anecdotes regarding the value that individuals get from being a member of he national ASTD, but also their local ASTD chapters.
ASTD Author Interview Series -- Exactly what it sounds like: authors promoting their books to learning professionals.
And that just scratches the surface of the videos ASTD has uploaded to YouTube. They also provide plenty of videos from smaller, regional ASTD events, top thought-leaders such as Marshall Goldsmith and others, and much more. In fact, to keep up with all of their videos, I recommend that you sign up to their channel as one of your YouTube subscriptions, and then create a reminder for yourself to check your YouTube subscriptions page once a week (on a Friday afternoon perhaps?) to stay current on this and any other subscriptions of interest to you.
One of the series listed above mentioned ASTD local chapters. I've searched, and I don't see very many ASTD chapters with their own, official channels on YouTube -- at least not yet. Surely that will be coming, so watch for your local chapter to see if they start to post videos. Three that have taken the plunge so far are ASTD Orange County, ASTD Fort Lauderdale, and ASTD Valley of the Sun.
Of course, many other videos of relevance to learning professionals have posted to YouTube, with clips coming from vendors, practitioners, consultants, book authors, and more. But I'd like to leave YouTube for a moment, and shift attention now to another great source of videos for learning professionals: TED. As their website describes, TED is a "small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences… TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize."
On the one hand, TED conferences are relatively expensive and registration is limited. On the other hand, TED makes their videos available for free online, and they can often be some of the best educational videos you will ever see. This is because TED has done a great job of attracting high-powered, big-name speakers, and then demanding that they give engaging, and most of all, *short* presentations. Further, they are arranged by themes, with broad coverage to interest just about anyone.
The theme of most obvious relevance to learning professionals is "How We Learn." Included in this theme are several individuals I've heard as keynotes speakers at L&D industry events, such as Ken Robinson, Tim Ferriss, and Steven Pinker. Your mileage will certainly vary, but other themes that might be of interest to you as learning professionals: The Rise of Collaboration, How the Mind Works, Presentation Innovation, and What's Next in Tech. Or take a look at the current top-10 TED talks, which includes the video that first introduced me to TED a couple of years ago, a true must-see clip: "Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen."
Over the past several years, I've heard many people in the Learning and Development industry use jargon and technology terms in ways that aren't quite correct. At the very least this can cause momentary confusion, but at its worst it can seriously mislead, waste time, and even reflect badly on the person or organization employing the mistaken usage.
One term that I think is often used quite loosely, and at times incorrectly, is the concept of Community of Practice (CoP). Wikipedia puts it simply and succinctly: a CoP is a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. You can have many CoPs within an organization -- say the instructional designers, or the project managers, or the loan officers, or the web developers. Traditionally, they might meet regularly to share ideas or discuss issues of common concern, or they might have an email group list for the same purpose. And of course there are broader CoPs in society that span across workplaces. A recent column in Chief Learning Officer magazine by Jay Cross, "The Case for Communities of Practice," I think does a very good job of giving examples and capturing the essence of CoPs.
On the other hand, the mistaken usage of "community of practice" that I see most often is to imply that it is some sort of new technology, one of the many so-called "Web 2.0" or "social learning" technologies, on the same level as say wikis, blogs, forums, and so on. This confuses things, because a "community of practice" is not a technology per se, but a group of people who share an interest, a craft, and/or a profession. Such a group can be better enabled by the use of some of the latest social technologies. For instance, a CoP can have a shared wiki as an organic knowledge base, use a forum for asking questions and learning from each others' responses, and a group blog or micromessaging platform for sharing best practices, lessons learned, and so on. Typically, a CoP in an organization that is technology-enabled in this way might use several of these or other technologies -- but the CoP itself is not a kind of technology as such. Supporting the CoP, this group of people, is rather one of many strong use-cases for the social technologies in question.
A few of the technology terms I just mentioned also often get misused in our industry. Simply put, a wiki is a type of website, or at the very least a set of web pages at a broader website, where people can easily edit, add, or delete content, track changes over time, and so on. Individual pages in the wiki are just that: "wiki pages." Unfortunately, sometimes people confuse the overall wiki with the individual pages in a wiki, and say things like "Create a wiki for that topic" when what they mean is "Create a page in our [existing] wiki for that topic" -- and there is a big difference in terms of what you are asking the person to do!
I find a similar issue arises for blogs. A blog is website or section of a website where one or more authors can write essays that typically then get displayed in reverse chronological order (newest at the top), with the ability for readers to add comments to each essay. A blog is composed of blog postings, the individual entries or essays that make up the blog. This is fairly straightforward, and yet at times, I hear people confusingly say "You should write a blog about that," when what they mean is either "You should blog about that" (using "blog" as a verb) or "You should write a blog posting about that." Again, a big difference in what the person is asking -- do they want an entirely new blog to be created, or just a single posting at an existing blog?
A third technology term that often gets misused is podcast. Here, the problem arises when people provide standalone audio files available for download, perhaps even in the most common format used in podcasting (MP3), and then for marketing or other reasons, want to call what they have created a "podcast." Unfortunately, a true podcast is more than just a set of downloadable audio files: it is a series of such files that a person can subscribe to, and therefore get updates pushed to them as they become available. This is what provides the "cast" in "podcast" -- the ability to subscribe to the content in the ongoing series.
Are all of these subtle differences? Am I the only one who gets confused at some of these word usage cases? If so, then perhaps I'm becoming a cranky old man well before my biological clock would suggest I should. If not, then I hope this blog posting was a helpful one!
