Lorain Road Business District Revitalization Plan Final Presentation
Hi Performing Learning Organisations
1. “Train them so they can leave, treat them so they stay.”
Richard Branson
What does 'good' look like?
The 3 elements necessary for a
successful learning environment
Toby Barnard
IBM Talent Development Lead
Europe
Presented at ITEC on 17 May 2018
2. 2
Talent disruption
The application of new technologies into work is driving a need
for new types of talent and skills.
The need for new skills will continue to proliferate at a faster and
faster pace.
Experience disruption
Employees have new consumer-grade expectations about their
experience: empowering, self-directed, transparent.
Shortage of key skills adds to need to provide for great people
experiences.
of executives globally say they
are struggling to keep their
workforce current and relevant1
threat to enterprise business model as
viewed by CHROs is competitors using
innovative technologies or approaches1
Forces impacting the enterprise
Business disruption
Disruptive technology and new business models are
revolutionizing the way we work.
You don’t always know who your competitors are or where they
might come from and when.
3. Building Blocks of the Learning Organization
…three broad factors that are essential for organizational
learning and adaptability: a supportive learning environment,
concrete learning processes and practices, and leadership
behavior that provides reinforcement.
https://hbr.org/2008/03/is-yours-a-learning-organization
What makes a HiPO(Learning)
10 key characteristics of a sustainable learning organization.
C-Level Engagement Demand
Efficiency Effectiveness
Investment Resilience
Utility Credibility
Governance Continuous Improvement
https://www.td.org/insights/10-characteristics-of-a-sustainable-learning-organization
www.towardsmaturity.org/learningorg2017
4. A Practioner’s Perspective
HiPO
(Learning)
“New Learning Organizations respond faster to change through
effective problem solving and productivity is increased…Notable
improvements are seen in performance, profitability, sustainability
and customer satisfaction.”
(Driving the New Learning Organization, CIPD, May 2017)
6. 2.Invest in Technology
“Companies want a mobile and highly interactive, curated,
and recommendation-based approach to learning.”
Josh Bersin – Predictions 2016
7. 3.Empower Your Workforce
“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you
are determined to learn, no one can stop you.” Zig Ziglar
8. …But what about the organisation?
EUROPEAN MILITARY DELIVERS
WORLD CLASS TRAINING
As part of my job, I get to spend time with CHROs and CLOs discussing what they need to do to make their business into a truly exceptional learning organisation and it’s from these conversations, from market analysis and my own project delivery experiences, that I have collated my top 3 requirements that are necessary for a successful military learning environment.
Companies are experiencing a confluence of disruptions with CEOs searching for new ways to influence their workforce so that they can rapidly shift culture, change mindsets, create an ‘exponential learning’ enterprise, and accelerate change and adoption. These results from IBMs Global CHRO study show that it’s not just about disruption from competitors that we should be worried about, but there is also disruption from within, across experience, talent and business streams.
This knowledge has been gained from across all sectors, but what specific parallels are there in military?
From my experiences, it is exactly the same. The millenials, technology and a resurgence in traditional opinions of what constitutes learning, are all driving a clear change in direction for learning organisations, although I do not subscribe to the theory that it’s all about the millenials as some of us more senior people also want the same out of learning!
There are many views on what makes a Hi Performing Learning Organisation, from Peter Senge’s fifth discipline to ATDs 10 key characteristics, and of course, it wouldn't be a presentation on learning without a nod to Josh Bersin with his 4 levels of maturity of Learning Organisations.
They are all linked by elements such as continuous learning, senior management support and collaboration, just to mention a few but are these really what’s happening in practice.
How do you take an organisation from one that has an LMS, some elearning and a template for a personal development plan, to something that is so good that it doesn’t just result in a better, more flexible workforce, but one that is so good that it’s what attracts your soldiers, sailors and aircrew to you organisation and keeps them there, reducing recruitment and retention costs.
I have worked with the Army who invested heavily in getting Smartboards for every classroom. But this doesn’t make for better learning because there was no training behind it so they just ended up being glorified white boards.
I’m currently working with a government client who has a collection of good ideas that are being pulled together, but that don’t qualify as a coherent pathway to becoming a learning organization.
Employee Centric – Learning events should be captured, monitored and rewarded. They should be employee centric and targeted, with a view to reduce training overheads through a good knowledge of different delivery methods. This is not just about saving money, and e-learning is not the panacea for all training, but instead it is about working smarter to reduce training overheads, cut time away from work, engage the employee and ensure a balanced work-life for your personnel.
Like many things currently, it has to have the employee at the centre. Today’s military demands an engaging, adaptable and micro-learning approach to learning, but not at the expense of as realistic an experience as possible. We live in a just-in-time society so whether its Amazon delivering their products within an hour, or Netflix disrupting how we consume television, it has to be now, it has to be how I want it and I want to be able to do it to fit in around my day. From TedEx you can search for learning based on the time you have, not just on the subjects. So where I’ve seen BYOD strategies suggest that they enable an extra 40 hours of learning per year from employees so it stands to reason that combining this with the ability to undertake learning in small bite size amounts, whether its webinars, elearning or videos, will drastically increase their ability to consume learning. And it doesn’t stop there, throw adaptable learning into the mix and the ability to get your personnel onto the trained strength will be exponentially increased.
In the UK I trained classes of sailors in Mathematics, that had academic backgrounds that included GSCE or Baccalaureate level maths, through to Batchelor Degree courses that included complex mathematical differentiation, and yet both had to attend the same lessons. It’s better for the learner and it’s definitely better for your organisation, to be able to get people through as quickly as possible, whilst ensuring that the level of knowledge is at least at a consistent benchmark.
Adaptive – Adaptive learning is not a new concept, but its power is incredible. For the learner and the organisation, there is no greater personalisation than being able to deliver bespoke training curricula, just for you, that reacts in real time to course progression and assessment. The benefit to the learner is that they get the right depth of knowledge in a timeframe that suits them, appropriate to their learning style. For the organisation, they can speed up the time for employees to reach the required level of training OR have staff at the same level of skills and knowledge, even if it takes a little longer, something that is vital for training in health and safety, medical procedures and weapons.
Micro-learning – Whatever the delivery method used, make it short. 3 minute videos, 5 minute eLearning, 30 min webinars should all be the norm. And if you need more time to deliver your learning objectives, just break it down and make it more easily consumable.
Whether it’s primacy or recency effect or just that people don’t have the time, the concept of dipping in and out of training encourages staff to start. If you know you have a 2-hour webinar to watch, are you going to sit there learning, or just have it on in the background whilst you’re doing something else?
Engaging – It goes without saying but if the material isn’t engaging, then it’s unlikely learning will take place. Consider gaming instead of training, videos instead of eLearning and think about what would make you want to start, finish and continue to learn about a topic. Staff will get the most out of learning if they WANT to do it by seeing the benefit of it, not when they have to. Consider what motivates your staff and why they should take part. Use stories to focus their minds onto why it’s important for them to learn this and learn it first time. At this point you may be thinking that this isn’t a financial sector business but a military, that relies on realistic training, individual and collective, that benefits more by large scale warfare exercises than computer games. But what I’m describing here is exactly part of that. What is a brigade or company exercise but an example of a flipped classroom? Before you get there, you do the basics, learn the techniques (gain knowledge) and then you put it into action (experientially) then debrief (reflect) on what you’ve done.
Next is the ability to nurture innovation. I get asked this a lot by clients, “how do I identify and nurture talent and innovation.” And my recommendations are simple. It takes a combination of unfettered access to learning, empowerment of your staff and an investment in learning technology. You may already use “Dragon’s Den’ events or innovation awards schemes such as the Royal Navy’s Gem scheme, but are you also harnessing learning events. These are used to develop ideas, create predictions, make process and product improvements and identify and deliver what we call, thought-leadership, all of which should be part of any successful organization’s culture.
Unfettered access – It’s not just a requirement for millenials to have unfettered access to learning, whenever and wherever they are. All staff should have the opportunity to access learning, across all subjects, on a platform of their choosing, at a time and location they desire. Whether you use SaaS or an on-premise LMS, most have the ability to transform content for all platforms, with offline learning and collaboration tools as standard. The Sky-Q concept of being able to start something on one device and then continue it on another is being seen within learning systems. And if it’s security you’re worried about from your cloud or on-premise learning management system, access control and split level classifications can be used or simply anonymize the data to avoid being able to hack lists of service personnel.
Empower – Your Chief Learning Officer’s, 2nd Sea Lord for the UK’ Royal Navy, should empower their staff with unfettered access and promotion of self-managed learning. Why constrain your staff to just the training that the organisation believes they need? Why shouldn’t someone train to be a project manager when they are a mortar controller, as it’s a transferrable skill so benefits the employee and the organization. If there’s a zero cost and it can be done without impinging on daily work, then it can be considered a significant part of staff and organisational development and well being.
Invest in Technology – Technology selection is often where corporations need help. One client I worked with had 3 document managements systems and 3 user portals, at a cost of millions, without achieving the aim, which was that they wanted a single-source-of-the-truth and single entry point for all users. The advice here is that ‘what’s shiny is not necessarily the best!’ An investment strategy should consider technology that is social, convergent and cognitive but above all; appropriate, engaging, flexible and disruptive to your personnel.
And finally, it’s about identifying and growing talent your talent – Talent can be found in all sorts of places within your organisation, and efforts should be made to identify and grow it, within the constraints of your service, specialisation or stage of training. Industry has top talent programs so why not the military.
There are many ways that this can be achieved, but my top 3 are;
Badging – A trend with many uses, ranging from being a reward mechanism, to making colleagues aware of experts within fields of work. After all, we’re great in the military at giving out badges, whether its for marksmanship, medical training or commandos, we all love getting a badge. Rewarding with badges can;
Deliver instant recognition for achievements
Help create an evidence-based record
Develop shareable skills currency to build personal brand and unlock opportunities
Validate the expertise of your resources
Enable a trusted credential for resettlement
Or simply just peer awareness and motivation.
Communities of Interest Can easily be set up virtually or in real terms, to bring together like minded staff. Events should be communicated and held regularly to recruit staff internally that have similar interests. In most establishments I worked in we had sports clubs, car clubs so why not have forums for spreading best practice and advice from colleagues and peers. Use of corporate versions of Facebook are used to promote skills and develop COIs and you can also use ideation events to capture innovation across these COIs without geographical boundaries. One example of this was the trial in the US of a Facebook style community tool that allowed recruiters to find people with the correct skills, and determine suitability through social and collaborative tools. COIs are vital in identifying, nurturing and promoting innovation in your workforce without being organizationally led.
Reward – Tangible rewards can include cash payments, promotion or gifts whereas intangible rewards include nominations, awards or even a simple thank you. Depending on the level of training completed, and the number of staff that may achieve it, factor your rewards to ensure they are commensurate. Rewards can vary from gaining a manager’s recognition of completion, to tangible rewards, such as extra holiday, a cash bonus or trophy. Training itself can be used as a reward, by demonstrating how the organisation is investing in individuals that are valuable to the business. The use of psychological rewards can have a significant effect on staff, without attracting costs. It also assists in making people want to do training, rather than feeling that they have to. In annual reports, having sentences like “I would be happy to serve front line with this recruit” make a world of difference.
So that’s the theory, how do you make it a reality????
Everything should start with a strategy – it gives you direction and something to measure your progress against. A crucial part of this is to Create a single vision.
The single vision is often missed out or is created from a collection of “good ideas”. All strategies need a vision of where your organisation wants to be. It should be a short, unambiguous and impactful statement that unifies staff and gives a sense of purpose and focus. For learning you can either create your own or use the corporate vision statement to derive your learning strategy.
The main aim of leadership when developing a learning organisation is to ensure that any initiative has full support from senior stakeholders. Top management sponsorship was rated as the most important aspect of successful change projects by 80% of the staff surveyed. Leaders must be briefed, on-board and encourage, energise and clarify the learning vision for all your staff.
Create a learning environment
To design this environment, we must be cognisant that,
“learning isn’t a single event, it’s a journey.”
To create a learning environment takes effort and isn’t easy, but without it, you could spend a fortune on technology and waste time and effort on rolling out your strategy. It is the nirvana we should be striving for, it may not be perfect but it can be defined in your strategy and delivered through the:
combined elements of leadership support
with making learning acceptable,
positively encouraged,
empowering your staff and
developing safe-failure environments.
Do this and you’ll significantly improve your chances of achieving a robust and long lasting continuously improving learning organisation.
Technology selection is difficult, especially within the military. Problems that are specific are:
Security, of content and of personnel,
with access in remote locations, at or under the sea
For an extremely diverse set of people
whose priorities might not always be to fill their spare time, but instead want to spend much needed time with friends and family before the next deployment.
Closely linked to personalisation, the delivery methods have to cater to ALL staff. Obviously there is a need to ensure that delivery methods comply with the Disability Discrimination Act, or equivalent across the EU, so that those with difficulties in sight or hearing are not disadvantaged, but consider also the technology itself. Do your staff all have or frequently use, their smartphones or do they prefer the ease of a PC or laptop? Can they access it anywhere or only where there is a high spec broadband or are they restricted to only learning whilst connected to the corporate intranet? Is there a digital divide within your staff or does everyone single person have a smartphone that can access content, instead of a PC or laptop?
Make it Social
With 20% of learning identified as being achieved socially, whatever technological approach is considered, or even lack of, you must capitalise on this approach. Whether it’s the GiffGaff approach to social wiki’s and knowledge management for their customers and products, or something more formal and structured, the risk of allowing staff to conduct social learning without moderation is manageable through business conduct guidelines and auditing. For training that is compliant or part of a regulation, stricter rules must apply but the direction of learning within industry is moving more towards employees taking responsibility for creating or identifying learning.
Convergent Technology
It’s not just businesses that are converging and moving into areas that they would not normally take a market share in e.g. Amazon and cloud technology, but applications and technology are also converging. Why have individual applications for your HR, employee portal, messaging, email or learning, when actually you can combine all. When considering your LMS, for example, choose one that provides a range of functionality such as mobile, offline, a range of delivery methods, with good data reporting and a configurable user interface. And be wary of the Open Source products. They work well in academic institutes and companies that are full of developers, but unless you have a team to maintain them, you could soon find your product getting left behind.
Cognitive
The current trend in cognitive learning is driven by the technological advances in machine learning or artificial intelligence, making it affordable and easy to use through natural language queries. No longer are specialist developers required, as NLQ enables even the most basic skilled developers to create something truly great. For IBM< we use an open API architecture that means our apps can “click” together without complicated coding.
Within learning, the first step to developing a cognitive learning environment is to digitise all learning objects by harvesting, cleansing, tagging, mapping and curating them, and then bring in a cognitive solution that scours the 20% of structured data, but more significantly, the 80% of unstructured, to create training that is closer to the just-in-time training solution that we seem to be moving towards. Examples already exist of this technology such as IBMs Cognitive Content Collator that harvest content from servers and the internet, to return learning objects that are relevant and current.
I’ve already mentioned that unfettered access is important and promoting self managed and self directed learning. But giving the responsibility for their learning, alongside the organisational learning need, is a huge step and not one that is necessarily synonymous with the armed forces. But the people are changing, and we as the organisations, need to change with them to make sure we get the best out of our military personnel.
Adaptive learning is not a new concept, but its power is incredible. For the learner and the organisation, there is no greater personalisation that being able to deliver bespoke training curricula, just for you, that reacts in real time to course progression and assessment.
Reward has been mentioned already but have you consider micro-badging, socialisation, tangible rewards or even just a thank you? Some learn for fun and others learn to upskill, but both should be rewarded equally. This could even be linked to appraisal reporting for significant learning objectives.
Leaders play a critical role in embedding culture within a business and an important consideration is redefining the existing reward and recognition programmes
by considering how cultural change advocacy will be built into performance objectives. Studies show that “managers' ability to reward and recognize achievement effectively can increase employees' discretionary effort and intent to stay by up to 22.7% and 31.6% respectively. It is imperative that managers have a clear understanding of how and when to recognize or reward employees.” Consider the concept of expectancy theory that says that an employee will be motivated to make a high level of effort when he/she believes that the effort will lead to a good performance evaluation; that a good evaluation of performance will lead to organizational rewards, such as a bonus, a salary increase or a promotion; and that the rewards will satisfy the employee's personal goals (Robbins, 1999).
Engaging
So I’ve covered that learning has to be engaging, so whether it’s the roar of gunfire as the ship turns hard to starboard, or a video that motivates you to try a new technique, engagement is key. Think about the crazes that are kids or even we have taken on. Think about angry birds and what a success that was in 2009. Think about how captivated many of us where with Tetris, which couldn’t be a simpler game. People inherently relate to stories. We always have from when we lived in caves, and with memory techniques promoting a link between recall and a story, it makes sense that learning should follow that ideology. Make it engaging so your staff want to do it, know why it’s important to do it, and ideally make it aesthetically pleasing as well. With one client, we used vignettes to explain we use tagging of documents. We had some that told a bad story, and some that told of successes. And these really stuck.
There are three key benefits to your military organisation.
1 – Data
Whether its data about your personnel, their learning habits, their motivators or simply by feeding back training data into equipment development, there is a vast array of data that could, and should, be captured for during learning, to help shape your forces at the organisational level. Imagine being able to use learning data to decrease fatalities through incorrect use of equipment, or to help in the redesign of a piece of kit that ensures it is adopted more rapidly.
2 – A world class training organisation. As mentioned, the links in industry between learning and profit, customer base and market share are clear. But imagine if you’re forces were considered world class by everyone else. Something that isn’t going to happen without creating a positive and nurturing learning environment.
3 – Recruitment and Retention – Closely aligned to the last comment, with staff more empowered and engaged, feeling that they are being invested in. If this happens, your aspirations of a world class learning organisation can be realised with retention less of an issue and recruitment costs consequently reduced.
For a high performing learning organisation, simply supplying a good learning management system isn’t sufficient. You need to make it people-centric and consider a breadth of technologies that works for you and for your military personnel. The tech has to be adaptive and have the capability to be personalised, both in content and aesthetics. The environment has to be one of reward and recognition for learning, whether it’s directly attributable to the personnel’s role or beyond it. For organisations that don’t consider their approach to learning, be warned. With studies linking metrics such as profit, market share and customer base, purported to be effected by learning, the investment is shown to be worth it. And for the military, it’s about having a word class training organisation, that improves recruitment and retention. Thank you.
