Managers want training in using virtual tools; in order to do their jobs better

While 87% of managers say that online meeting tools such as WebEx and Lync are mission critical, only 10% say they're competent and confident using those types of tools.

Source: Virtual Leadership - Closing the Distance, in Training Magazine, May/June 2015  

Recent and Upcoming Speaking

We recently presented a workshop on Adult Learning Theory to the Kubota University Summit

Next up: On October 6 we'll be presenting at the Online Learning Conference in Denver on the topic of Achieving Optimal Learning Outcomes via Virtual Learning Platforms

L:ater this fall, in November, we will be speaking at the Brain Matters 2015 Conference: Pushing the Genius Button, debuting our new whitepaper linking leadership development to thinking skills

The Value of External Alliances when You are a One Person Training Department

In an earlier post, we talked about the value of creating internal advisory committees in order to help you to determine and prioritize what training is needed in your organization.  In this excerpt, we continue in that vein, discussing the value of external alliances.

Relationships with people who are external to your organization are valuable because they will look at your situation in a different light and undoubtedly offer a different perspective. One excellent source of peers who are external to your company is through industry organizations.

Industry organizations are where you will get the most accurate information and feedback about how your industry is implementing training. You'll be able to ask other training professionals in your industry segment about the results they achieved when they implemented training on a particular topic, and in addition, you'll get a sense of what the industry overall feels is important in terms of developing the workforce for the industry.

For example, Maintenance Solutions, the trade publication of the facilities management industry, includes a semi-monthly column regarding training needs and priorities. The October 2004 edition included an article titled "Training Spotlight: Electrical Systems, "which states, "Safety training is a continuous effort that is best done with frequent, short, job-related meetings," and continues, "Safe work performance begins with each technician knowing the personal protective equipment (PPE) he or she should wear and how to adjust and wear it correctly." If you work in the facilities management industry, you don't have to identify what training is essential or even what content should be covered in the training. Your industry is doing it for you!

In addition to having knowledge about the training needs of the industry, joining industry groups and having contacts within the industry may save you from having to reinvent the wheel. Of course, you'll want to validate that an industry need is indeed a need for your organization as well.

Belonging to an industry organization will provide you with a kind of support that you will not receive anywhere else. You can find industry organizations by using a search engine. Type the name of our industry and the word association into the search field. For example, a search on telecommunications association returned, among many others, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, and Industrial Telecommunications Association.

Funky fonts in WebEx? Try this tip...

If your organization has its own "branded font" (and this is especially prevalent when using branded PowerPoint templates), you will often find that WebEx will display odd things on your slides such as words falling out of tables, headlines breaking where they did not break in the original PPT, etc. 

The best fonts to use for smooth WebEx integration are Helvetica and Arial. Rather than muddle through each slide, simply go to your master slides and change the fonts there. You may still have to do some refinements, but it is still a much faster approach than editing each slide individually.

Online learning is gaining in "popularity"

Interest in online learning is growing rapidly, while interest in traditional education is waning. From 2012 - 2013, distance education enrollment rose 1.8% compared with a drop of 4% in overall higher education enrollment according to the US Department of Education. 

What does this mean for us? As trainers? It means our new hires are coming to us already equipped to be successful while learning virtually.

Train Managers? Naw, they don't need it.

Managers are the most undertrained and under-appreciated employees in corporate America according to a study conducted by Kelton Research and Root, Inc. of 205 Training / HR executives.

Some survey highlights include:

• 32% of respondents don't feel their company views managers as critical to success (who DO they think is critical, would be The Training Doctor's next question)

• Reducing overhead and making technology upgrades are prioritized over manager training investments (57%, 48% and 28% respectively)

• 69% of respondents believe their organization's senior leaders don't believe there is a strong link between effective manager training and business performance

• 83% of respondents report that less than ¼ of their training budget (if any!) is allocated to manager training

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At the World-Changing Ideas summit in 2014, Google's vice president, Alfred Spector, pointed to research showing that even average students can reach the top 2 percent of their class if they have a personal tutor to adjust lessons to individual learning needs.

Source: Chief Learning Officer Magazine, May 2015, Your Brain on Learning

Adults Learn Best Through Experiential Techniques

One of Malcolm Knowles basic premises is that adults learn best through experiential techniques.  In other words, hands-on, active engagement in the learning process produces better results.

Sometimes this is not an easy thing to achieve. Since so much of today's work is knowledge-based, how does one teach that in an experiential way? Here are some ideas from designs we have created for our clients:

Teaching a Multi-Faceted Process

This manufacturing client wanted its assembly-line workers to understand how the product was "created" long before it arrived on the factory floor to be assembled. From the inception of an idea in the R+D department, through creating a design + prototype via CAD/CAM, on to requisitioning, provisioning, ordering, acceptance of components, kitting and, finally, arrival at the assembly area. Since many of these steps were esoteric, the design of this content piece was quite challenging. In the end and entire process was re-created in a role play manner, using Legos as the component parts and teams at each stage in the process. We even added in a QC check for good measure.

Teaching Product Knowledge and Service Skills

A retail organization was introducing a new product line which required salespeople to be experts in knowing the particulars of the product. At the same time, the client wanted to beef up customer service and selling skills. The client did not want these taught as separate concepts (e.g. first product knowledge, then customer service skills). The resultant training was in the form of a game-board-grid, with product knowledge along the vertical axis and customer service / selling skills along the horizontal axis. Participants would chose a grid on the board and the trainer would explain how the two intersected or complemented one another and then the learners were challenged to demonstrate how the two might "sound" on-the-job.

Teaching Financial Analysis

A global insurance brokerage firm needed an elite group of salespeople to be able to understand financial documents in order to sell to the C-Suite. Rather than simply explaining the different types of financial reports (profit and loss, cash flow, 10K, etc.) and hoping the salespeople could translate that knowledge to their accounts, the participants were tasked with bringing the annual report for two of their clients. Then, as the instructor taught about each type of report and what to look for as "red flags," the participants looked to their own reports to interpret information that was pertinent to their clients / their work.

When tasked with designing training, always ask yourself, "How can I make this more experiential and participative? How can the learners really engage with this content?"  This is not an easy task but is always worthwhile (nay, essential) for better adult learning outcomes.

The Next "Generation" of Learning

Generation means that people need to make their own meaning, literally generating their own links while learning, not just passively listening to ideas. We need our brains to create rich webs of links to any new concept, linking ideas to many parts of the brain.

Using different types of neural circuitry to link to an idea is the key. Meaning, we should be listening, speaking, thinking, writing, and other tasks about any important ideas.

Source: Your Brain on Learning, published in Chief Learning Officer, May 2015

Online Learning Conference Coming Up!

Have you checked out the Flipped Classroom concept that Training Magazine is promoting for their upcoming Online Learning Conference (Oct 6 - 8)? Check it out - it has some great resources that you can check out even without being a registered participant for the conference such as 8 recorded webinars on topics such as social media, video, eLearning and more.

If you are attending - be sure to visit the site and access the great handouts and videos being posted by the speakers.  And if you are registered - we'll see you there! 

How to Improve Training Recall? S P A C E O U T Learning

Long-term recall is far better when we learn information over several sittings, and any amount of spacing appears to help a lot. The longer we need to remember information, the more the learning should be spaced out.

Source: Chief Learning Officer Magazine, May 2015, Your Brain on Learning

Successful Virtually Delivered Training Is Dependent On...

Many organizations are using virtually delivered training programs due to companies’ widespread geographic locations and the just-in-time nature of delivery that the synchronous platforms allow. Unfortunately, not many organizations are doing it well. 

At a minimum, there are three key components for successful virtually delivered training.  None is more important than another – all must be created, tested, and executed to perfection.  The good news is: all are completely within your control.

Content

Many organizations are moving what used to be delivered in a classroom to an online format.  This requires translating concepts and content into a new format.  The face-to-face class simply cannot be replicated in the online environment, so it is important to make critical decisions about what to keep, what to distribute in another way (such as reading or an e-learning module), and what to deliver in another way (such as on-the-job coaching).

Virtually delivered training, by default, is blended learning.  There is no way around it.  Not everything can be delivered successfully in a synchronous online environment, nor should it be.  For example, reading a case study might be done during 5 minutes in the face to face class, but it is not a good use of online time. Therefore the case study should be read at another time (what to distribute in another way).   Doing some work asynchronously (independently) and some work together, during the online session, is the very definition of blended learning.

Materials

Materials are critical in the online environment.  This include slides, because it is a very visually-oriented delivery medium; Participant Guides, because very often a learner will be the sole individual enrolled in a class at his/her location, and the learner needs some sort of reference material or supporting documentation in order to follow along in the class; and scripted Facilitator Guides to ensure the training achieves the intended learning outcomes while ending in the allotted time (virtual, online training is very tightly timed).

Most especially, when it comes to slides, get rid of the PPT templates, get rid of the bullets, and create visual, engaging “canvases” for creating.

Mastering Technology

Luckily, technology is rather fool-proof these days unless something is done that purposefully interferes with its operation.  Like most physical skills, using technology only gets better with practice.  A best-practice is to always rehearse the delivery one or two days in advance of the scheduled class.  No matter how many times a facilitator has delivered the same session, it’s always a good idea to practice it –in the synchronous environment – to be comfortable with the tools, their location, their execution, and their results (e.g.  does it look better to highlight a particular piece of text, or underline it?).

Creating and re-designing training to be delivered via a virtual technology can be a daunting task. 

There are many details to be aware of and manage.  If you find yourself being overwhelmed, concentrate on these three things and you will more than ensure your success.

Adobe Connect Tip

Load your files to the Shared Content Library first, then load to your share pod from the library.  This prevents errors when the pptx is "converted" for Adobe Connect use.

One common conversion error is bullets that don't have space between the bullet and the text (even though your slides, in PowerPoint format are perfectly bulleted).

How To Assess Real Results From Your Corporate Training

The four levels of corporate training evaluation (and the futility of most training evaluation)  was discussed in this earlier blog post; but in this post we will discuss the types of training evaluation that allow you to assess real results.

Level three evaluations are the most logical evaluations to deploy because they get at the purpose of the training – to change people’s behavior on the job.  A Level three evaluation then determines if people have actually changed their behavior by either observing them in action, asking them for their own assessment, or asking for a third-party’s assessment.

Level three evaluations incorporate Level two evaluations because the evaluator is able to determine if the trainee is utilizing the knowledge that they acquired during the training and applying it to their work.

Level Three Evaluations

Observation – by a manager, quality control or even a training person An observation form must be utilized so that the evaluation is not subjective (Did the trainee acquire the customer information, using the five prescribed questions, in the correct order? vs. Did the trainee begin the customer interaction correctly?)

Personal assessment – is frequently used for Level three evaluations because many organizations find observation to be cumbersome (it requires asking a third-party to conduct it, it requires disseminating and retrieving information, and other administrative tasks which are all subject to not being completed). In a personal assessment the trainee, once they are back on the job for a period of tame (three weeks, three months) reports on their own changed behavior.

Questions utilized include:

• Have you applied the ___ process in  your day-to-day work?

• How many times a day would you say you utilize the process?

• Have you seen positive results from utilize the process?

• Can you provide an example of when you used the process and what the outcome was? 

These types of questions not only help the training department to understand how the training is being utilized on the job, they also cause the employee to realize how they have changed their behavior as a result of training, and further, if the individual has not changed their behavior, these types of assessments help to reinforce the fact the training is an investment the organization has made in that individual and it is an investment the organization intends to follow up on.

Level Four Evaluations

Level four evaluations then tell us whether the investment in the training was worth it. For example: if the intention was to increase sales, did sales numbers go up? These types of evaluation require a lot of number crunching AND require a baseline of data to compare against, which many organizations simply don’t possess.

Factors and Nuances

One nuance which makes Level four evaluations difficult to conduct is determining how long it will take for the training to become “the way we work.”  When can the training department be confident that what was taught is truly ingrained in to the trainee’s everyday work responsibilities?  In other words – when should the measurement take place? If a goal was set prior to the training process - say, increasing sales by 50%, and sales increase by only 20% in the first three months following training – would that be considered a failure? What if, instead, the trainees were able to increase their sales by 20% every quarter following the training? Then that outcome would far exceed the 50% goal.  So when is the “line in the sand” drawn and success or failure determined?

Another nuance is that the long-term effects of training can be quite difficult to factor. For instance, if the intent was to increase sales, the training department might evaluate the sales numbers three months or six months after the training; but rarely will they evaluate it again a year after the training. And in some cases, where sales results are residual, the ongoing effect of the training is never quantified. For instance, in insurance sales, teaching salespeople to cross-sell (e.g. selling an umbrella policy to a current homeowner’ policy owner) not only results in an immediate uptick in sales, but also, when the policy is renewed, that sales training results in an ongoing increase in sales.

Sadly, most companies don’t take the time to extrapolate their training outcomes to Level three and Level four. It is acknowledged that evaluation at these levels can be time consuming and cumbersome, but these results are crucial for training departments to measure and communicate their worth to the organization as a whole.

Training Evaluation - What Does It Tell Us? Not Much!

4 levels

Most companies who do conduct evaluation of their training programs will stop at Level 2 evaluations (see graphic).

Level one evaluations are often called smile-sheets or butts-in-seats evaluations. They are realistically opinion gauges. they ask too many questions, including questions about the facilitator’s knowledge and skill, the quality of the learning materials, the comfort of the training room or delivery methodology (e.g. if it were e-Learning), etc. Unfortunately, the responses provide little useable information in return. Smile-sheets could be revitalized and used to a better purpose with just a bit of tweaking of the questioning process.

Level two evaluations are intended to test knowledge. They are typically a type of test – either paper-and-pencil (or these days, computer generated) or a demonstration / performance of skill (for instance, if you are teaching an individual to run a cash register, you wouldn’t want to stop at simply asking them questions about cash register operations – you would want to see them physically operate the cash register as well).The biggest drawback of Level two evaluations is that they realistically gauge short-term memory. They are typically distributed immediately after the training concludes, so most individuals have a relatively good chance of passing that type of evaluation.

Level three and Level four evaluations - those that assess whether the training is being used on the job and whether the intended business impact of the training was realized, are more complicated to design and administer and more often than not, simply not utilized in most businesses.

If you’d like to learn more about effective training evaluation, see this associated posted: How to Assess Real Results From Your Corporate Training.