Happy Christmas

Well it's nearly here, and we just want to say...

Have a great holiday and we hope a prosperous new year.

Best regards

Bob

Why does everyone think all business relationships have to be partnerships?

Referring to suppliers as ‘partners’ has been common practice within many organisations for a some time, but is that at all helpful?  Even the most well intended arrangements seem to begin operating in a ‘partnership style’ but quickly decline into ‘N.A.T.O. style’ that’s No Action Talk Only!  Many more decline even further, some into open warfare before the contract term is out. 

Wouldn’t it be better for organisations to at least ask the question; should this arrangement be a partnership?  The answer to that (by the way) is a resounding ‘yes’, simply because not every arrangement works best as a partnership.  This is the case with any buyer / supplier scenario, but is especially relevant in the sphere of commissioning and outsourcing where the de facto approach is to attempt partnership working.  

Part of the problem is that people don’t realise that  there are alternative ways to approach these big commercial arrangements.  We’ve identified at least four which we call, the colleague, the capitalist, the collector and the controller.  They each have distinct ways of working to bring about best value from the relationship; without too much thought you can probably decipher the intended focus just by considering their name.  Each approach has different visions, behaviours, structures, goal setting, systems, rewards and contracts.  So it makes a lot of difference which one you select and apply to your arrangement.  

In addition it is also really important to understand the differing market conditions which make these alternative approaches the most suitable.  You can be guided as to which is the correct approach by understanding the ease or difficulty of a market, alongside the level of expenditure you command in that market.  

It really is no wonder that some major commissioned services disappoint, when they are being managed with a style which encourages the wrong responses, practices and behaviours on both sides of the relationship.  Smart organisations are tuning into the fact that each major service provision needs to be managed via a different approach strategy.  When they start doing that, they start delivering real value. 

Are managers able to assess staff training needs? Sometimes an external view is needed.

Over the summer we have been involved in carrying out a number of training needs analysis for some of our clients.  It’s one of those activities that most organisations carry out, but then often realise that the results are not very satisfactory.  

Often when HR professionals are faced with summarising the training needs following around of appraisals or personal development plans, they can be left pulling out their hair  in frustration at some of the suggestions being made.  We have probably all seen it; lists of bespoke software training courses, the blandly generic comments like “This person needs assertion training”, and the obligatory “French classes” even if there’s no need for French!   Perhaps in a school teacher kind of way you may have looked at the suggestions, wanted to put a big red cross over it and write “Must try harder next time” before returning to the offending manager.  

Effective training needs analysis can be a challenge in any organisation especially if linked to the performance management cycle.  Learning solutions can easily be based on the wrong indicators of training needs.  We follow four simple training needs analysis steps to deliver assessments based on genuine organisational learning need.

Here they are for your own consideration:

First, define the competence menu.  Many organisations have a competence framework from which to build this assessment menu, but be careful that it is granular enough to gain the insight you need.  We have our own menu, and often find we merge this with client organisations own to create the right level of understanding.  

Second, select the target population.  In practice it is difficult to engage everyone in training needs analysis.  We recommend searching out a target population of people that are representative of the business, but also have a good understanding of the challenges and difficulties faced by them and their colleagues. 

Thirdly, we set up focus group sessions.  These have the purpose of completing the competence assessment, surfacing any areas of business challenge and begin identifying the potential learning needs.  

Fourthly, summarise findings and make recommendations.  You will need a quite room and a few hours to summarise your findings and make  your training recommendations.  You will be sure however, that they are based on genuine needs arising within the business.  

If you are tired of the results delivered from your traditional performance management cycle training needs analysis maybe it's time to do the bold thing and recommend something new? Feel free to ask us at iManage for any support in how to refresh your training needs analysis, if you like we’ll even have us carry it out for you with no cost or obligation. 

What happens if you stop tweeting for a whole month! A personal lesson in the benefits or otherwise of social media.

34 days ago I tweeted my last chirpy goodbyes to you all announcing that I’d be back in a couple of weeks and thereby my abstinence from social media began.  

My plan was always to start chirping again in a couple of weeks tweeting as good as before, but as that deadline drew to a close (along with my annual family holiday coming to an end), there was something in me that urged me to abstain yet further.  Why not extend it a tad longer and refrain from social media for the whole of August?  After all, across europe our whole L&D industry seems to go to sleep, there would likely be no one there to read my ramblings anyway I mused.  I needed little persuading, the truth was I had felt something of a burden lifted over the past two weeks, releasing my slavish attendance to various social media streams had proven to be a pleasurable thing.  So in a moment the remainder of August became not only twitter free, but FB and Blog free.  What would become of me?

The good news is, I’m still here - astonishingly you can see this change had no detrimental impact on my well being.  Neither did the world come to an end, although it has to be recorded for purposes of accuracy that my longstanding cat Figaro did kick the bucket in circumstances too unpleasant to write of here.  

On the positive side I managed instead to go about some things that were if nothing else of personal therapeutic worth.  In the past few weeks I’ve read more books than the last 7 months put together.  I’ve really enjoyed some long dog walks on some of the UK’s finest beaches, to-boot generating some pleasure fiddling about with the B&W setting on my little camera.  Then perhaps my crowning glory (although family members aren’t in total accord) was to purchase a little Ukelele and learn a bundle of hits from decades now referred to only in history books!  If nothing else I’ve had fun filling my time without feeling the need to draught a single witty or profound tweet, not even during more than a few hours of BBC Olympics coverage.  

But what of my presence on the web?  A google search for “iManage” now returns us in third place when it had been first place all year, and my blog views are only down 90%!  Yes down 90%!!!  

Ho hum, I suppose as September dawns in the name of marketing I do need to get back to it then, but in so doing I’m introducing a handful of simple rules to help calibrate my social media fix:

1. Stop doing social media when involved in other things like walking the dogs or spending time with loved ones. 
2. Limit the frequency of tweets, for me a few a day is fine.  
3. Use social media just as much for my personal pleasure as for business marketing (I may follow a few Ukelele feeds!).

If you haven't already you really should try a little SM abstinence sometime soon, at least so long as you don’t have a cat.

Does someones nappy need changing? Will HR rise to the challenge of babies in the work place.

The BBC series Babies in the Work Place has been an interesting insight into the prospect of parents bringing their babies and toddlers right into their workspace.  As an experiment the program is brilliant, but for me the long term potential of this concept seems limited.  

I suppose that they chose a call centre setting to maximise the difficulty of coping with screaming children while large teams of people were on the phone to customers.  The result was far from ideal but it wasn't only the customers that I felt concerned for, it was more so for the toddlers themselves.  Even if you place these little tots in a room full of exciting amusement and interesting stuff to distract them, they are inevitably going to get tired and grouchy.  How much more so when you are expecting them to be quiet and well behaved within a workspace where there isn't enough to distract them beyond thirty minutes?  

If I were two years old I don't think I would relish the monotony of my mum or dads office space 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  My propensity for mischief would kick in very quickly!  If companies are genuinely serious about supporting parents in the workplace, wouldn't it be far better for them to supply purpose built crèche facilities?  This is of course what many companies choose to do. Many of the parents interviewed in the program expressed sadness at having to leave their children at a crèche somewhere across town, but equally their concern was in the significant (sometimes prohibitive) costs associated with child care.  

Being realistic about this we know most business are not charities, setting up a crèche facility has significant cost associated with it.  There does need to be some offset here for the employer, which is likely to come in the shape of reduced recruitment and the training costs associated with replacing workers that have failed to return and stay post maternity leave.  The model of a subsidised crèche at the workplace rather than in the workspace is already well tested and valued by employees who have such facilities made available.  It would be good for organisations to share the economics of this more openly to help other employers make informed decisions.  We would love to hear from you if you have such insights. 

Child Care facilities are still only one part of the solution. Forward thinking organisations are putting effort into assisting parents in the workplace not only in the practical areas, but also in the emotional challenges that are faced. Tangible benefits are being realised by organisations who are supporting parents in the way they approach and carry out starting families.  

In fact there is such a lot more that organisations are able to do for expectant or new mums and dads at work.  Have a look at this post for a starter.  It’s great that the BBC are raising the discussion with Babies in the Work Place. but it will be over to those in HR to pick up the challenge and take practical solutions forward.  Here’s hoping they rise to the challenge.  

Mummy, where is my Daddy? Do businesses care about fathers at work?

Research also  shows many fathers are dissatisfied with the amount of time they spend at work and the amount of time they spend with their children. Some 54% of fathers with children under one feel they are not devoting enough time to them, while 42% of fathers feel they are not able to spend enough time with their children. Additionally, 62% of fathers think that, in general, fathers should spend more time caring for their children: fathers are working long hours too, with six out of 10 working more than 40 hours a week.

All this makes the topic of work-life balance for dads a major social significance. Here in the UK family policy emphasises the need for fathers to be more involved with children, in the pre-school and infant years which are crucial in relation to later child development, and especially in relation to families with limited incomes. The economic situation has changed, and labour market participation in the UK among women with pre-school and infant children has risen sharply over the past 30 years since the advent of equal pay acts and anti-discrimination policies. Divorce rates and rates of family breakdown have also risen, meaning that fathers may be less able to rely on mothers to manage the father/child relationship on men’s behalf but must work to establish meaningful father/child relationships on their own behalf. This affects not only divorced and separated fathers, but also men within intact relationships.

Having said all of this, for whatever reasons the facts tell us that men are less likely to access work-life balance policies than woman.

Working Families and Lancaster University Management School are currently researching men’s levels of stress and engagement at work, with a particular interest in men’s participation in family life, and how their working life affects (and is affected by) their efforts to reconcile work and home life. This research indicates that for the fathers surveyed engagement with work is low, and lower than that of other groups of employees than is generally found. It is accompanied by high levels of stress and self-reported physical and mental ill-health. In particular, motivation amongst these fathers is low.

The reasons for this are being sighted as lack of control over work alongside work interfering with home life. Fathers questioned so far also seem less committed to their jobs than would be expected, which is interesting in light of many of the perceptions about workers’ commitment levels and what constitutes an ideal worker (especially in relation to working patterns) which are often dominant in organisations.

Maybe it’s time for organisations to wake up to potential benefits that can be obtained through caring parental policies. This support could take on many forms, but most definitely it would do well to include a new dads workshop giving ‘expectant’ and new dads the recognition and support they need to help them navigate the early stages of being a new dad at work. Our own sessions cover the facts, the practicalities but also helps them identify the values which drive a happier work-life balance.

Is yours a family friendly organisation?

Any organisation with more than a few employees will have staff that are having children.  It’s a big deal, not only for them, but for the employer too.  Even though this is the case many organisations provide little in the way of learning support for these staff.   Interestingly those employers that do assist there staff plan and prepare for this major exciting life change can sight multiple benefits as a result.  Real measurable benefits. 

In one example where a comprehensive evaluation exercise for a client’s Maternity coaching programme was undertaken, it revealed the following results: 

• Return rates (of women returning from mat leave) increased by 4%
• Retention rates (of women staying after maternity leave) increased by 15%
• In a telephone evaluation exercise, 25% of the ladies voluntarily said that they would not have returned to work following maternity if they hadn't attended the workshops

So what types of training can be given in this area?  

Workshops to provide pregnant employees with confidence through change, a supportive network and practical ways to increase their productivity and professionalism.  Covering topics such as:

• ‘professional to parent’ – managing your change of image at work,
• maintaining your confidence and assertiveness through change,
• strengthening your relationships at work,
• creating and communicating a handover plan,
• setting up a support network and communication plan,
• preparing for the maternity leave ‘culture shock’.

Workshops to encourage new mothers to reconnect with work and colleagues in a safe, supportive environment and to begin to plan their return.  Covering topics such as:

• ‘reconnecting’ – sharing of experiences, highs and lows and key learns,
• assessing options for returning to work,
• preparing your first ‘return to work’ meeting with your line manager,
• preparing for the return to work – the practical considerations,
• managing your change of image from ‘parent’ back to ‘professional’.

Workshops to support those employees who have recently returned from maternity leave to be able to confidently and quickly reintegrate into the workplace.  Covering topics such as:

• benefits of working parents to the family, 
• banish the guilty feelings,
• managing separation anxiety positively,
• the affects of childcare on the family,
• time management for managing work/family balance,
• agreeing roles and responsibilities with your family at home and your team at work,
• managing your own stress levels,
• managing your image and your relationships,
• reviewing your career plan.  

Or how about learning for line managers to support those employees who have recently returned from maternity/adoption leave, to be able to confidently and quickly reintegrate into the workplace.  Covering topics such as:

• the importance of managing an employee well through a period of maternity,
• the company and policy-based requirements of managing an employee through maternity,
• additional support that can be offered to boost confidence levels of employees and assist in retaining talent.  

A National Childbirth Trust (NCT) survey of over 1500 working mums confirmed that 33% of respondents reported concern about the attitude of their boss and/or colleagues as being one of the main worries about returning to work.  Clearly there is so much more that can be done to help employees and employers manage this whole area.  Duncan Fraser in Personnel Today 2008  said “The cost to a company of a badly managed maternity leave is not purely financial...it also negatively affects client relationships, performance, organisational knowledge and goodwill”.  

By providing specialist professional training for your employees you can see tangible measurable benefits within your own organisation, which has got to equal genuine value from an L&D budget.  If you would like to know more about these and other courses such as a ‘new dads workshop’ do get in contact with us.  I think this is an area that warrants greater attention in the workplace and I’d love to hear what you think.  

What's your attitude to learning?

I recently came across a UK study carried out by the department of innovation, universities and skills.  It referred to the Leitch Review of Skills which was endorsed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the pre-Budget Report 2006 which set a commendable aim for UK to be a world leader on skills by 2020.  The analysis was undertaken using data from the National Adult Learning Survey (2005) dataset.  The methodology assumes that whether or not people will learn depends on their attitudes towards learning, and on their barriers to learning.

The study segmented attitudes towards learning into 10 different categories, 1: being the Enthusiastic and Enlightened, through to 10: the Disaffected and Discouraged.  I’ve included a summary of their findings:

1 - Enthusiastic and Enlightened – 29.2% of the population

Enthusiastic and Enlightened are very positive about learning, and have very few barriers. They are mostly employed and well qualified and they can be expected to invest in their training when necessary without external incentives.

2 - Fulfilled and Family-focused – 14.5%

Fulfilled and Family-focused are positive about learning but they have little time to learn because of their family commitments. They tend to be younger women with children under 16 in their household. Most of them are working and well qualified.

3 - Hampered Hard Workers – 7.1%

Hampered Hard Workers are positive about learning but tend to find it difficult to justify taking time away from work. Nearly all of them are in work, and most of them are well-qualified.

4 - Looking for Learning – 4.9%

Looking for Learning are positive about learning, but unsure what training to do. Nearly all of them are in work, and most of them are well-qualified. They tend to be mostly under 45.

5 - Trapped on a Treadmill – 5.9%

Trapped on a Treadmill are slightly negative about the value of learning, and have strong financial barriers to learning. Most of them are working and they have average qualification levels. Their incomes are lower than most of the other “in work” segments and they are not very happy with their lives. They are mostly under 45.

6 - Older into Other Things – 11.1%

Older into Other Things are slightly negative about learning. They are not interested in doing learning themselves and are very happy with their lives. Most of them are over 45, and a majority are male. Around two-thirds are in work and they have slightly less than average qualifications.

7 - Too Late to Learn – 10.6%

Too Late to Learn tend to be older women. They are slightly negative about the value of learning but seem to have few barriers. Only about half of them are working, and a majority have qualifications below Level 2. Despite mostly having low incomes, they seem reasonably happy with their lives.

8 - Sceptical but Scraping by – 5.5%

Sceptical but Scraping by have few barriers to learning but have a very negative attitude towards it. They are mostly in work even though half of them do not have Level 2 or above qualifications. Half of them have a low income and a majority of them are men, and are fairly happy with their lives.

9 - Unfulfilled and Unhappy – 8.6%

Unfulfilled and Unhappy are slightly negative about learning but have many barriers. Less than half of them are working and over half are without level two qualifications. They are unhappy with their lives but don’t feel that learning could change things for them

10 - Disaffected and Discouraged – 2.6%

Disaffected and Discouraged have a negative perception of the value of learning, and they report a great many barriers to doing any. Only around half of them are working, and more than half have basic skills problems. Two- thirds have low incomes, and overall they are not very happy with their lives.  

The big social challenge this raises is how you move those bottom groups with the worst attitudes towards learning up the scale sufficiently to do something about learning.  Maybe each group needs a different approach to achieve this?  Sometimes I’m glad I don’t have some of the challenges local governments face!  

It would be good if corporates became increasingly willing to facilitate some of this learning; group 5 for example sound like a perfect segment to be ‘brought around’.  Mainly at work, slightly negative towards learning but struggling to fund it.  Organisations could be (and some are) very instrumental in helping these people to grow and learn.  An number of our iManage clients are taking an increasing interest in using 3rd party academic institutes such as the Institute of leadership and Management to accredit the learning programmes we run for them.  This is a really good step, and one that supports the vision to be a world leader on skills by 2020.  

Wot, No Job Description? Crappy Performance Management Rule Number 4.

If you really want to make a disconnect between performance management and your staff here are three must haves for your teams Job Descriptions:

1. The old ones are the good ones:  Why go to the bother of updating perfectly good JD’s?  If you’ve an old one that’s been faithful in the past, then save yourself the effort and issue it again.  Even better, you might have a good one from a previous employer, search it out and get this time wasting activity out of the way.  No one ever looks at them anyway!
2. Make the job title as flash as you can:  If you have to tart up an old JD, then go for a flash title.  The grander the better.  People love to feel important, so dream up the biggest title possible for the role in question.  
3. Don’t tie your kangaroo down sport:  Keep any JD as vague as you possibly can, that way you can get them to do anything you need.  After all a flexible team is key.  

OK, so none of us would really subscribe to these guidelines would we?  Scan them again asking whether they could (even in part) be leveled at your own organisations Job description practices.  It’s often not that difficult to find more than a hint of these practices in our organisations, let’s make sure it’s not us that’s doing it. 

Performance Management should be built on an effective foundation, that starts with writing robust and clear Job Descriptions.  Let’s flip these three crappy rules around into better ones.  

1. Job Descriptions become dated as soon as you’ve written them:  The fact is people often dismiss the value of JD’s because they have the potential to become out of date very quickly.  Not only should we start with a clean sheet when we are writing a JD, we should make time to regularly review existing ones.  If you do this it will send a very strong message to your team about the direction of your function, about your seriousness with doing what we should be doing, and about the value you have for supporting the team.  Never pull out an old JD and pass it on.  Start with a good job analysis, use your team to support this activity and craft the new document.  If you’re revisiting the JD because someone is leaving, then interview them about the job they were doing, then ask how what you have learned impacts what you do next, and use your knowledge to influence the new version.  
2. Ensure that the job title will attract the write candidate:  Avoid at all costs the temptation to ‘over-egg’ the job title.  It is the main trigger for attracting new candidates to the role, it  is the thing that they will latch onto first, and if done badly can attract all the wrong people to your recruitment process.  If you had a vacancy for a systems support role you might give it the title of Systems Manager or perhaps Systems Specialist, think about it, these two titles have the potential to attract very different applicants.  
3. Make the language used as specific as possible:  A vague JD does not correlate with having a flexible team, more often it creates confusion.  Use very clear descriptions of what is needed to do the job, trying always to remove ambiguity.  Avoid fashionable but meaningless phrases such as “computer literate” - They can mean a hundred different  things to a hundred different people.  The more specific you are the better able you will be to judge role suitability, and the better the employee will be at developing the required capabilities.  For recruitment make sure you differentiate between role ‘must have’ and ‘nice to have’ competencies / requirements, it will help you to see which applicants are in the race at all, and for those that are which can offer your team the most.  

You may have heard biblical parable of the man who built his house on the sand, and his peer who built on the rock; read here if you want to know what happened when the storm came!  Great performance management should start with a rock like foundation - despite all the corporate criticism they receive Job Descriptions offer you the opportunity build a strong effective team that will take less of your precious resource to performance manage the results you require.  Perhaps it’s even a good time for a complete team JD review?  Go on, build your team on a solid foundation. 

See here for Crappy Performance Management Rule 3.   

How committed are you to experiential learning?

I recently had the pleasure of a relaxed chat with a Professor of the very respected Henley Business School.  We walked around their impressive stately home environment on the banks of the river Thames dodging the heavy showers and discussing approaches to learning.  It was as you might expect a thought provoking hour or so. 

Previously I had been musing on the seeming lack of tutor input that my daughter was receiving on her degree course at Central St Martins college of the arts.   Ok, I know it (like Henley Business School) is a world renowned leader in its field, but to me it seemed like our considerable fees were providing pitiful levels of input to the students within the process.   

Back at Henley the conversation came around to experiential learning.  My very clever acquaintance explained just how committed they were to student immersion in self discovery. Great resources were at hand, but expectations that the learner would take responsibility for their own learning experience was high.  It was clear that some students found this disconcerting at least for a start, especially it seemed those that had been brought up in strongly didactic teaching environments.  Certainly he suggested, some international students who may have been used to very traditional academic teaching could be excused at thinking they weren't being taught anything at all!  

All this got me thinking about our own commitment to experiential learning at iManage.  An example of experiential learning would be going to the zoo and learning through observation and interaction with the zoo environment, as opposed to reading about animals from a book. Thus, one makes discoveries and experiments with knowledge firsthand, instead of hearing or reading about others' experiences.  It is unlikely that this idea is new to any of us reading this, indeed at iManage would consider our own workshop learning solutions as experiential.  The challenge is, just how experiential are they?  

Two very different, but world leading academic establishments seem totally committed to facilitating individuals learning, but not in merely handing out education.  In fact if students don't immerse themselves in the experience they are somewhat unwelcome.  What can we learn from this as L&D professionals in the world of commerce?  

Content on our courses must still be important, but so is creating a memorable learning experience.  Budget pressures are in some organisations encouraging HR and L&D decision makers to squeeze as much as possible into courses and run them in the ‘most efficient’ way possible.  Longer experiential events are definitely under pressure in favour of shorter crammed in versions.  How is that impacting the learning?  Maybe we need to be more confident in maintaining the necessary space within training courses, being prepared to remove more of the content (if the length is shortened) so that the space remains for learners to engage in a valuable journey of self exploration.  

How some professionals are really making a difference through learning and development.

For me one of the interesting observations of the last 24 months has been the return of  the 'substantial' training programme. Four (or was it five) years ago as the banks went into melt down our iManage order book became very short term.  Clients were still buying, but it felt quite reactive. Often we were being asked to run interventions at short notice, and those interventions were frequently shorter in duration and perhaps more tactical in application. That was way back then, but now there seems to be a more exciting wind of change blowing through learning and development. 

If our experience is anything to go by, we are seeing much more strategic intent motivating our clients buying behaviours. Typically that seems to manifest itself in more significant training and developer programmes that align themselves to business initiatives as much as individual needs.  Coupled with this we are finding more readiness to engender a learning culture through some form of 70:20:10 approach.  The shorter intervention has not disappeared, rather it seems to have polarised around bite sized style solutions that are part of the supporting blend.  This to me feels like a healthy place for L&D to be.

It would be easy to assume that this is being driven by an need to secure true value from the training budget, but in practice it's seldom as simple as that.  So here are some of the things we've seen that have impressed us about the way L&D teams are working:

Being bold enough to make the case.

It's not an easy thing to put your head above the parapet, it's a bold thing to do, but sometimes great leaders do bold things.  Where L&D professionals step up and begin to make the links between an organisations strategy and operational effectiveness you start to see how value is really delivered.  The good ones are all over the strategy, working out ways in which they can support the vision and direction with a range of very targeted learning interventions. 

Being prepared to make a single way. 

Whats coming here may be an obvious thing to say, but it's far from an easy thing to establish. Organisations that get hold of maverick, independent budget spending, and instead puts a high quality 'company way' together begin to maximise the benefits. Success in this area seems to come when learning solutions really hit the spot with individual needs whilst delivering against strategic goals.   

High levels of involvement.

It’s no accident that some of the best and most exciting programmes we are involved in are well supported by the HR / L&D teams.  Simply put they are just very active; have a high level of interaction with the delegates, seen to take an interest, dropping in, helping out, looking for ways to support the learning etc.  

If there is one benefit from the conditions brought about by the current economic downturn, it’s that much more care is being taken around creating tangible value from the L&D budget.  That’s got to be a good thing for the profession, and one we’ve always supported with our ‘no change - no fee’ approach to learning solutions.  It’s great working with teams and individuals who are determined to go beyond the menu based ‘seen to be doing something’ training portfolio.  Long may the current climate continue! 

How to run a virtual classroom - Five ways to make virtual classroom events come to life.

Many organisations are keen to maximise the impact of their L&D budgets and seem increasingly willing to explore different ways of interacting with the learner.  This is all good stuff in my mind, allowing providers to use a wider range of interventions in delivering effective learning. 

One such approach that we are finding an increased appetite for is virtual classroom technology. Typically for us, part of the 20% solution (70:20:10 model).  For the uninitiated virtual classroom a realtime live training session held over the Internet for participants that can take part using their laptops and PCs while remaining geographically dispersed.  As part of a blended learning solution virtual classroom makes complete sense, providing an effective way of getting a cohort together to further the learning experience. 

As with any style of learning intervention it can be delivered effectively or badly, so here are our guiding principles to make sure a valuable learning experience is secured:

1.  Select content that fits. 

There are two obvious things to consider here; the need to keep the session duration short and the need to select topics that will lend themselves to the approach.  With an open mind you can find ways of using a virtual classroom for all kinds of topics, you just need to be creative in working out compelling ways of structuring and delivering it.  The bigger challenge however is to select enough content to deliver value, whilst being concise enough to fit within a short timescale.  We like working within a 45 minute session. 

2.  Make it really difficult to drop out. 

The design of your virtual classroom session is critical.  We all know how it can be very tempting to drop out of a conference call, start looking at emails or maybe divert our attention to work on something else while the call takes place.  The temptation is no different when attending a virtual classroom.  There is though a viable solution to this, it is to develop the session so that it is highly interactive.  We need to design content that relies on the participation of all the attendees and therefore becomes almost impossible to drop out of.  At least to drop-out without being noticed.  Aim for very high levels of participant interaction, we think at least one interaction every 2 to 3 minutes throughout the entire session. 

3.  Maximise the cam, minimise the ppt.

Virtual classroom is no place for death by PowerPoint, as it will result in death of the virtual classroom!  Instead maximise the human element by making a lot of use of the trainers cam.  In our experience if your cam quality is good it’s very credible to use a trainer and flip-chart approach, at least for some of the session.  

4.  Attendee numbers. 

Perhaps this goes without saying, but a smaller class size works better for virtual classrooms.  We would rather run two groups of 6, than one of 12 simply because the trainer will be more able to manage all the interactions / questions.  

5.  Always record it.

Most virtual classroom environments allow you to record the event.  If your’s doesn’t then dump it ;-)  It is so useful to review the session afterwards so that the trainer can assess and learn how to improve next time.  But even more importantly participants can revisit the session at a later date, and those that missed the live event (for whatever reason) can catch up later at their convenience. 

  

Virtual classroom is a great tool if it’s applied appropriately, it can add significant value, just keep it as part of the overall blended learning mix.  If you’ve never experienced one, then seek them out, or even get in touch with us at iManage, perhaps we could run a company demo for you?  If you apply the simple guidance above you will be well on your way to effectively increasing the intervention options you offer your learners.  

Are business serious about 70:20:10 development? Or is it becoming a lazy way of reducing budgets while expecting already over stretched staff to take on increased responsibility for there own learning?

70:20:10 Development models seem to be gaining an increasing number of supporters in organisations HR and L&D departments.  The idea itself is great and one that we actively encourage our clients to adopt, 10% traditional or formal learning (courses, workshops, academic studies etc) 20% supported learning (usually limited to coaching and mentoring) and 70% on the job learning.  The frustration we have with this model is in the way some businesses are applying it.  We are seeing organisations talk about the 20% and 70% with enthusiasm, yet in practice they are putting very little in place to facilitate it. 

So here is what we suggest, seven practical things that you need to do if you are serious about implementing a successful blended 70:20:10 learning and development strategy. 

The 70 element

There are 4 vital aspects of at the job learning, or ‘action learning’ 

Action learning is an educational process where the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance.  It is learning acquired knowledge through actual actions and repetitions, rather than through traditional instruction.  It is proposed as particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to reflect on and review the action they have taken and the learning points arising. This should then guide future action and improve performance.

Reg Revans summed up the action learning set process in the following formula:

Learning (L) = Programmed Knowledge (P) + Insightful questioning (Q) 

Programmed knowledge is the knowledge in books / what we have been told to do for years.  It also refers to our own acquired personal knowledge. Both of these need to be questioned.  Questioning asks what aspect of that knowledge is useful and relevant, here and now. It is also a way of saying 'I do not know'.  Learning results from the combination of P & Q.

Action learning sets (groups of learners) can be engaged at any time, but we advocate that the following 5 concepts are required to support 70 At the job learning

1.  A learning culture is facilitated through the use of formal performance management processes:

Organisations that are successful in creating a learning culture take care to embed learning into the formal routines, rituals and processes of the organisation.  

Learning needs to be positioned as an organisational value which cascades down into the day to day practices of the business.  

Tangibly this means that every individual must have (in addition to  their operational objectives), specific and personal learning objectives which are to be attained.  These learning objectives must have equal weighting with the business oriented goals individuals are targeted against in the normal business cycle.  If performance related pay is part of the existing Performance Management process then reward should equally be linked to changes in learnt behaviours.  

2.  70 at the job learning requires a consistent long term marketing strategy. 

A true learning culture does not come about by chance.  Like any good product, consumers need to be constantly reminded of it’s availability.  Individuals therefore need to be frequently reminded that learning is a constant and continuous goal.  The design and implantation of an internal L&D marketing strategy is core to 70 at the job learning, ensuring that learning is constantly ‘front of mind’ instead of ‘bottom of draw’.  Both traditional and social media should be used to create interest, enthusiasm and deliver a drip feed of learning content. 

3.  Supporting resources.  

Providing a mobile workforce with powerful sound bites of learning gives users access at the point of need.  A rich library of self help learning materials can be tailored and made available to staff to support the learning experience.  Using reading materials, pod and vidcasts provides highly accessible training materials for those on the move, enabling a significantly higher number of touch points with the learning content.

4.  Utilisation of formal assignments:

Personal assignments requiring research and a formal documented conclusions remain an effective route to individual 70 on the job learning.  

The 20 element

By providing the learner with multiple touch points with experts, we are able to enhance the depth of understanding attained and spread domain best practice.  Our approach to this involves two concepts:

5.  Formal Mentoring (directional input):

By establishing a formal developmental mentoring programme learners are provided support from acknowledged (Internal or external) experts.  Training for Mentors and mentees should be provided to establish effective mentoring behaviours where:

• Two way learning is encouraged
• The power and authority of the mentor are ‘parked’.
• Mentors helps mentees decide what they want and plan how to achieve it.
• Begins with an ending in mind
• Built on learning opportunities and friendship.
• Most common form of help is stimulating insight.
• Mentor may be peer or even junior - It is experience that counts.

6. Informal coaching (non directional input):

Alongside a formal mentoring structure the organisation needs to instigate an informal coaching culture that simply becomes “the way we work around here”.  Understanding the concepts of a non directional coaching needs to be taught and embedded into daily practice.  

7.  Access to Short on demand learning interventions:

Learning applied at the point it is needed helps to facilitate immediate adoption and behavioural change.  By providing access to bite-sized education in practical techniques we become more effective and we get more out the resources we have.  For example we offer two solutions to deliver this demand lead learning: 

120 minutes of high impact education:  Short focused workshops lasting just 120 minutes, or sessions like our lunch and learn 60 minute interventions provide frequent but manageable sized learning opportunities.

Virtual Classroom:  Live training, carried out online. Using for example Adobe Acrobat Connect™ you can do all those things you do in a traditional face to face workshop. Input content, discuss ideas with the group, breakout into small groups, work on exercises, and come back to share plenary findings. This is an incredibly cost effective way of delivery training to dispersed workforces, and a great way supporting other blended learning interventions.  

Blended learning refers to a type of learning that combines multiple delivery methods throughout the learning process. The 70:20:10 model is an ideal way to structure those different intervention methods.  Today more methods of delivering learning exist than ever before, and successful blended learning maximises the use of all possible delivery methods.

It is true that some users experience of blended learning has been disappointing, disjointed, a cobbled together blend of different solutions. Learners are left feeling that they are enrolled on a number of separate learning interventions not one continuous programme delivered through a variety of methods.

A totally integrated 70:20:10 blended learning solution will have multiple delivery methods, but just one continuous stream of learning.  Done well this model is a great guide for bringing about change and improvement through learning and development.  Remember that the 20% means twice as much learning as the traditional solutions, and 70% means seven times as much learning!  That will only happen if HR and L&D teams help facilitate it through ideas and efforts such as these outlined.  

Patience was a virtue!

I sat down in the breakfast room and waited for my full English order to be taken. I was on a reasonably tight time table and so was pleased to note two menu options. The express grill which promised to be delivered within 5 or the fresh cooked breakfast that would take 15 of my precious minutes.  Hmmm, I would definitely prefer the fresh cooked option, but this time speed was of the essence.  I still had to drive the short distance from the hotel to the clients premises and get the room set up for the day.  

But where were all the staff?  Minutes passed me by as my agitation level rose, "what's the point in a 5 minute delivery option when it takes longer than that to take my order!"  On this particular morning patience wasn't my strength, the pressures of the day seem to be bearing down on me. 

Twenty minutes later I was enroute, navigating a particularly tricky junction coupled with the complexity of road works and temporary traffic lights over a pelican crossing (why are they called that?), with cyclists and buses everywhere I looked.   It was after all one of those cycling towns, Cambridge.  I still have no idea who was at fault in the following seconds, but I eased forward just at the same time as a slightly more elderly gentleman proceeded to do the same across my path on his bicycle.  By the way he looked, he was no doubt a learned professor, or if not then definitely one of my course delegates for that day!

I’m pleased to report that no harm occurred accept for the penetrating scowl, quickly followed by a hand gesture cast in my direction.  The Prof proceeded to carry out (as he calculated the pressure that was needed to be applied to his braking system) something involving complex scientific algorithms, and pulled to a stop as I went past. 

"How rude, why are people so impatient" I piously muttered to myself!  

So is that it? Patience is something that we may expect much of in others, but exercise little ourselves?  I rather hope not.  

At least the mornings circumstances caused me to reflect on the worth of patience, whether it was still a virtue in our hectic world, while at the same time pondering whether or not I needed to increase my own forbearance with other people and things.  Have we forgotten to be patient? Would we do well to calm down and enjoy the moment a little more?

In the 1960’s Stanford University started what became known as the marshmallow study. In it, four and five year olds were brought into a room and sat in front of a marshmallow. They were told that if they could wait to eat it until the researcher returned, they would be given two marshmallows.  About a third of the kids couldn’t last the 15 minutes, some grabbing the sweet even before the researcher left the room.  A follow-up study done after the kids graduated high school found that the ones who delayed were happier and more successful in their lives.  The ones who grabbed the treat right away were “more troubled, stubborn and indecisive, mistrustful, less self-confident, and still could not put off gratification. They also had trouble subordinating immediate impulses to achieve long-range goals.  In short the study advocated that patience was a huge indicator of success.  

Stamford have recently extended the study to understand how the less patient can be taught to be more patient with some simple diversions.  They observed that success in resisting the marshmallow came when the child was less fixated on it.  Those that focused on the gooey blob were doomed to fail.  However those who diverted their attention from it  by playing with their hair, sitting under the table, running jumping around or exploring the inside of their noses to find their own gooey blob succeeded in resisting.  

William Penn the 15th century entrepreneur and philosopher wrote “patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains”.  So having spent the last couple of weeks being more grateful for many good things around about me (and enjoying the result of my endeavors), this week I’ve determined I’m also going to work at learning patience.  

I’m hoping that the result will be calming, enabling me to enjoy more of the moment I’m in, making me someone others might appreciate being around more, and them someone I’m less quick to judge.  

Bob Bannister