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)

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 Element K Webinar on Adding Web 2.0 to your Blended Learning Solutions

On Wednesday April 8th, at 2:00 p.m. (EST) I will be presenting a one-hour webinar on the topic "Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Learning Approaches". Registration for this event is free.

Here is a summary of this session:

When learning leaders can successfully integrate the new with the current, everyone benefits. But how do you integrate Web 2.0 technologies -- wikis, blogs, forums, and so on -- with the traditional formal learning methods such as e-Learning and ILT? What collaborative technology is the best to use in various learning program scenarios? What are some strategies for blending Web 2.0 technologies with the learning modalities you've invested so much in over the years? What are the connections with informal learning and performance support?

In this webinar I will give you critical best practices gained from real experience, and provide a dozen actionable strategies for including Web 2.0 technologies to your blended learning solution.

I've delivered a similar presentation a few times at recent industry conferences, and have gotten very positive feedback. This webinar is not a sales pitch or Element K product demo, but rather a presentation that includes lots of key information and valuable best practices, and it gives you the opportunity to ask me your burning questions about integrating Web 2.0 into your learning solutions.

I hope to see you there!

— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)