Measurement still matters!

While I've been working full time in the technology field again, I've had plenty of opportunity to play with some new training tools. Notice my use of the verb "play". That has to be the best part of my job, taking time to try out some new toys, all in the name of work.

My latest toy is using a virtual cloud of systems for a virtual training lab. Skytap, the awesome vendor that I've been working with, asked me to write up what I found important about using a virtual environment.

You can read the article here!

Happy learning!

I've been a slacker!

Ok, so I've been a bit lax in posting to my blog...

A friend of mine recently returned from a trip to France, where he documented his trip on his blog. It was so entertaining, I thought I'd share it with anyone who needs a good laugh!

http://www.hyper-jump.com/

Enjoy!

eLearning 2.0 - Karrer - ASTD OC 2007

Tony Karrer, from TechEmpower, created this presentation about eLearning 2.0 and where it's headed. Great content!

eLearning 2.0 - Karrer - ASTD OC 2007

View more presentations from akarrer.

eLearning 2.0 - Why the New Tools

The tools you need in your eLearning tool box!

E-Learning 2.0 � Why the New Tools

View more presentations from Stephen Downes.

Do Good Intentions Lead to Results in Performance?

Setting goals are key to improving performance, but how often do people set goals then never measure them or quit halfway? A better way to approach goal-setting is to decide what your intentions are (i.e. what kind of performance you expect) and start from there.

According to Jeffrey Gitomer, “What you intend to do is what you actually do. Goals notwithstanding, it's all about your intentions."

In the world of personal growth and development, it’s generally accepted that goals and intentions are linked. Intentions actually precede goal setting. If you fall short of intention, or don’t focus on your intention, you are not likely to achieve the goal you set.

The same is true in the business world. Sometimes, the intention is so off the mark that the identified goals (and subsequent results) take business performance way off track. The best example of this I’ve ever seen was reported in the April 16, 2001, issue of FORTUNE magazine about Gateway Computer:

One policy put a time limit on customer service calls; reps who spent more than 13 minutes talking to a customer didn't get their monthly bonuses. As a result, workers began doing just about anything to get customers off the phone: pretending the line wasn't working, hanging up, or often--at great expense--sending them new parts or computers. Not surprisingly, Gateway's customer satisfaction rates, once the best in the industry, fell below average. What's more, many customers stopped recommending Gateway to their friends and families; Gateway's referral business, once 50 percent of total sales, fell to about 30 percent.

The intention was reducing call times, the goal was 13 minutes or less or no bonus. The result was painful!

You may have a goal for a training class, or you may have been given goals for training your workforce, but your intentions will dictate the job performance related to your training effort.

Be clear about your intentions for each training effort:

• Write down the performance intentions before you write the course goals.
• When creating a course, keep the intention in mind at all times. Ask the question “Does this (information, task, activity, exercise, etc.) lead to my performance intention?”
• For each course goal, make sure you can identify the content that addresses the goal.
• Finally, develop a method to confirm when the performance intention is fulfilled on the job.

This article was originally published on TrainingDay Blog.

Incentives—Fast Track to Performance Improvement?

While I've been remiss in keeping up with my postings, I have been contributing to the training industry in other ways. This is the link to my recent posting on TrainingDay's Blog:

http://vnutravel.typepad.com/trainingday/2006/09/incentivesfast_.html

Teams Miss the Boat on Accountability

The Table Group, the consulting firm of business author Patrick Lencioni, has identified a major trend plaguing teams today - team members readily avoid holding their peers accountable for both their performance and behaviors that might hurt the team.

A full 68% of teams scored "red" on accountability - or lowest on The Table Group's three tiered rating scale of green-yellow-red. Other red scores for the remaining four dysfunctions include: absence of trust (44%), fear of conflict (39%), avoidance of commitment (25%) and inattention to results (28%).

Lencioni's definition of accountability goes beyond just informing people about missing "their numbers." The essence of this dysfunction is the reluctance of team members to tolerate the discomfort that accompanies calling a peer on his or her behavior. Team members have a general tendency to avoid difficult conversations.

This problem is even more apparent at the executive level- 80% scored in the "red". This is attributed to the fact that members of an executive team typically have similar socioeconomic status and, therefore, don't feel justified commenting on a peer's performance.

To overcome this dysfunction, Lencioni suggests leveraging peer pressure on a team by publicly stating the team's goals and standards, instituting regular progress reviews and rewarding team achievement (rather than individual contribution).

The Truth in eLearning

A colleague of mine, Peter Cervieri of ScribeStudio, recently asked me to write a review/recap of his company's premiere webTV episode of "The Truth in eLearning". It was a great honor and opportunity to see what other experts in the field have to say about eLearning, and see if I agree or disagree with their perspectives! Read on for my full review:

http://blog.scribestudio.com/articles/2006/07/31/the-truth-about-e-learning-roi

Trainers and Professional Development

Thanks to Tony Karrer for this posting on his blog:

eLearning Technology: Pew Survey on Blogging - Training Professionals Far Behind

Given my post on July 20 (Women Rock the Blogs), it's unfortunate that more female training professionals are not active in the blog world. It makes me wonder if this is due to training professionals not having enough time to increase their personal learning, or just overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information out there? Are they spending more time developing materials for others, or developing themselves?

Christopher Sessums recently commented on this topic in his blog. He also quotes Courtney Shannon, a teacher using a blog for her World History class. In reference to the use of blogs for professional development of teachers, Ms. Shannon says, "Blogs can offer an open forum with teachers near and far to discuss lesson plans, share classroom management ideas, ideas for summer reading lists, strategies to deal with the stresses of the world of teaching, rubric ideas, and to discuss "hot topics" in education, leadership, and policy."

If teachers have the time available to reach out and grab the technology that is readily (and freely) available, I believe the teaching world will continue to grow smaller as the ideas get bigger.

A new survey of teachers and their use of technology suggests there is a clear correlation between hours spent in professional development, classroom integration of technology, and improved student performance.

Technology use by teachers continues to rise, the survey indicates; three out of five teachers said their tech skills were at least "somewhat advanced," four of five think it engages students, and two in three believe it can improve performance.

Professional development in the use of technology also is on the rise, according to the survey--though one in five teachers still receives no such training.

According to Tim Sanders, in his book, "Love is the Killer App," the average manager reads 0.7 (business related) books every 5 years, and the average Fortune 500 CEO reads 12 books a year. What and how much are the training professionals reading? I'd like to find out what you are reading - post your comments and let me know!

Assessing E-Learning Effectiveness in Corporate Environment

Dave Boggs of Syberworks posted a link to a great primer on measurement of the effectiveness of e-learning in corporations. I've had similar discussions with quite a few people over the past few years, especially as this is one area I focus on in my consulting. Without true measurement of effectiveness, how can training departments truly justify their existence? If they cannot demonstrate how courses delivered contribute to the organization's bottom line, budgets are likely cut when times get tough...

Corporate managers are constantly looking for more cost-effective ways to deliver training to their employees. E-learning is less expensive than traditional classroom instruction. In addition, many expenses – booking training facilities, travel costs for employees or trainers, plus employee time away from the job – are greatly reduced. However, some firms that have spent large amounts of money on new e-learning efforts have not received the desired economic advantages.

In 1999, E-learning was seen as the cure for the training ailments. However, when effectiveness was not measured as a part of the process, and those promised 3000% ROIs didn't materialize, organizations slammed on the brakes and claimed "this stuff doesn't work!"

Measuring e-learning effectiveness is not rocket science, nor is measurement of traditional training - you actually have to do it, do it right, AND be consistent. And when something is no longer effective, change it!

Read the full article by Judith B. Strother of the Florida Institute of Technology to find out more about e-learning measurement.

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Shannon Lear Martin is the President of Austin, Texas based TrainUtopia (www.trainutopia.com) and helps companies improve their organizational performance to meet their business goals. She is also considered an expert in training effectiveness measurement. Shannon publishes a monthly newsletter “Training News You Can Use” http://www.trainutopia.com/news.htm , which is jammed with resources, articles and tips on performance improvement, training and development. She can be reached at smartin@trainutopia.com.

Women Rock the Blogs!

Ok, this has nothing directly related to training (or maybe it does...) but very interesting, regardless!

It turns out that 56% of blogs are created by women, and they don't abandon them as quickly, either! Here's a quote from a recent article in the Boston Globe:

Blogs have helped women to find their voices. Some of them find their voice 15 minutes at a time, which is why Lisa Williams said it's a perfect medium for multitasking parents. Many women talk about how they see their lives as markedly different pre- and post-blog. The biggest benefits -- relationships, community -- can't be quantified.

Having been a latecomer to the "blogosphere," I can readily agree with that! When you read someone's thoughts and opinions day after day, you feel like you know that person. This creates a real sense of community. Bloggers also provide links, credit and feedback as they write, which allows for greater contribution and sharing regardless of industry, geography or sex. Since women validate our lives by the breadth and depth of our relationships, it seems only natural that we would be drawn to a medium that allows that to an infinite degree!

Rock on, Ladies!

Are Leaders Born or Trained?

Is leadership something you are born with or something you learn along the way? According to an Tamim Ansary, people are not born leaders - they must learn to lead.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/Departments/elearning/Default.aspx?article=CanLeadershipBeLearned

There is also something to be said for genetics - some people avoid conflict and are less likely to step into a leadership role. You can't be a leader if you roll over at the first suggestion of disagreement. Leaders have to stick their necks out, and be willing to get their heads chopped off on occasion.

In any case, it's good to hear that U.S. companies see leadership as something worth investing in. First line managers are the most likely to receive leadership (management) training, followed by entry-level employees and mid-level executives.

It makes sense for new managers to receive the first benefit of these (ever-important) training dollars, as they were most likely promoted for their ability to do the job, but have yet to learn how to manage people doing the job.

Now it's your turn - I'd like to find out what YOU think makes a leader.

Click here to complete a quick poll! I promise to share the results!

Trainers Need to Sharpen those Spreadsheets

As I keep telling my clients and prospects, the best way for a training department to justify its existence (and budget) is to prove training's return on investment. While training is often seen as a "touchy feely" sort of operation, more and more organizations are seeing the light on this important business requirement:

http://www.workforce.com/section/11/feature/24/37/85/index.html

Training efforts are being disected for more than just content - are they efficient, are they effective, do they reduce costs, are they aligned with corporate goals? These are just a few tough questions that Chief Learning Officers, HR execs and departmental trainers are facing today.

The answers are critical, and available, if you take the time to gather the data and do the analysis. If you don' t have the time or capability, call me - I'll be glad to help you out, I've got Excel all warmed up...

Training Doesn't Work!

I think most in the working world would agree that it’s normal to use the training department to address skill gaps (among other things). It appears this approach hasn’t been working for many companies, and executives place some of the blame within the HR and training department. (GASP!)

According to the “Accenture High Performance Workforce Study,” only 14% of respondents said the overall skill level of their organizations’ entire workforce is industry-leading. And only 20% of respondents believe that most of their employees understand their companies’ strategy and its road to success.

So whose fault is it? The surveyed executives attributed performance problems in part to the HR and training departments. On average, only 10 percent of respondents reported being very satisfied with the performance of their human resources and training. Fortunately, respondents also took some responsibility for their low satisfaction rates.

The gap between the two could be attributed to a lack of connection to business drivers, failure to measure the business impact of HR and training efforts, ineffective or non-existent knowledge capture and sharing capabilities, and a lack of leader involvement in people issues.

Only 36% of respondents said their companies adjust their HR and training to each function’s needs and contributions to the organization. Meanwhile, more than 40% said they do not evaluate the impact of their HR and training efforts against profitability, and half (50%) do not evaluate those efforts against revenues and sales.

It has become more recognized that companies that fail to develop their workforces risk losing their competitive edge. A key component to making the leap from acknowledgement to implementation is for executive teams to view the HR/Training leader as a strategic business partner - not just the touchy-feeling team building guru!

This survey also demonstrates one of the main reasons to move from training to performance improvement - accountability and measurement of impact. Without measurement of the difference made by a training initiative, there will never be a way to demonstrate the true value of training to the organization. If one kind of training is not adding value to the organization (i.e. profitability), don't do it.

Find out what will add value and do that. Measure and confirm the value. And just like shampoo - repeat!

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Source: CLO Newsletter

Corporate Learning Facts from Bersin

The researchers at Bersin have launched "The Corporate Learning Factbook", a new study on the US learning market. According to Bersin the US learning market is worth $46.6 billion.

Some facts they found that you might be interested in:

• The corporate learning market grew by 5% in 2005, with fastest-growing spending rates in the technology and retail sectors. Spending increases by small and medium-sized businesses (6 to 6.5%) were double those of large enterprises (approximately 3%).
• The biggest percentage of program dollars go to management and leadership training, rated as a first or second priority by 37% of respondents. These investments are fueled by succession planning and the need to develop new and mid-level management talent.
• Spending per employee varies widely, depending on industry sector and company size. The spectrum ranges from $4,000 per employee in business services to $200 in retail. The average per learner expenditure is $1,412.
• LMS spending is typically 3 to 7% of an organisation's total training expenditures. Consolidation of LMSs is a significant trend, with 26% of large enterprises consolidating or reducing the number of LMSs within their organizations over the last year. One-third plan to consolidate in the next 12 months.
• The adoption of virtual classroom technology is high in most sectors. The study found that 60% of respondents are now using virtual classes as part of corporate training.
• One-third of training groups report staff increases over last year. One-half say staffing resources have remained unchanged, and just 13% have reduced staff size.

For more information, go to www.bersin.com/factbook.

Top Five Mistakes Made When Hiring or Promoting

The most common mistake organizations make when hiring or promoting managers and executives is failing to define and assess those roles most crucial to successful performance, according to a survey by Right Management.

The most common mistakes organizations make in hiring and promoting managers and executives are:

• 43% - Inadequately defining and evaluating roles critical to successful performance
• 41% - Insufficient grooming of high-potential employees (i.e. coaching, mentoring and training)
• 29% - Using overly subjective criteria
• 27% - Too much focus on managerial and interpersonal skills - and not enough emphasis on less apparent talents, such as morale or team building
• 20% - Giving inadequate consideration to people from outside the organization

Lower employee morale and decreased productivity are the biggest consequences of bad hiring and promotion decisions. Other negative consequences of bad hires and promotions include: lost customers and market share, and higher training, recruitment and severance costs, according to the survey.

Here is an interesting fact that a colleague of mine, John W. Howard, Ph.D., collected from SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management):

• More than half of applicants lie or exaggerate in applications and resumes! (We don’t know which part is lies!)

What do most employers do to try to improve this flawed information? We check references. (Unfortunately, reference checking is prone to all of the flawed information of applications, hard to obtain, and time-consuming.) To complete the information-gathering, we use that time-honored tool of the hiring process, the interview.

So what does an interview get us? More scary statistics...

• 63% of all hiring decisions are reached in less than 5 minutes of interview time. The next 25 minutes we spend does not change or improve this decision.
• Interviewers have less than a 15% chance of identifying lies from application information
  in an interview.
• Interviews predict job success only 14% of the time.
• As much as we try not to, demographic variables such as age, race, or gender influence interviewer judgments.

How can we overcome the multiple challenges described? Introduce as much good, accurate, reliable, valid information into the process as you can. Use valid, reliable, legally defensible assessments. Assessments may include behavioral assessment tools, workplace simulations, situational judgment, cognitive ability testing, etc.

When we have access to reliable, subject information in the hiring and promoting process, we also gain the following benefits:

• Turnover goes down!
• Cost of the hiring process diminishes!
• More hires become “Top Performers”!
• Most importantly, profits increase!

Seems like a good place to start!

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Shannon Lear Martin is the President of Austin, Texas based TrainUtopia (http://www.trainutopia.com) and has been helping companies improve their organizational performance to meet their business goals. She is also considered an expert in training effectiveness measurement. Shannon publishes a monthly newsletter “Training News You Can Use” , which is jammed with resources, articles and tips on performance improvement, training and development. She can be reached at smartin@trainutopia.com.

Coming to a Corporate Trainer Near You - No More Orders!

As I've been evangelizing to my clients lately, the role of the corporate "trainer" is evolving away from an order taker to that of a performance consultant.

“There is a very strong trend in the best-practice organizations to move away from being an order taker,” Marcia Dresner, senior researcher and consultant with Corporate University Xchange, said. “To move away from somebody who responds to ‘We need a course. Go and produce a course,’ to a much broader role as a performance consultant. Determine if learning is an issue and provide the appropriate kind of intervention rather than just throwing courses at a business problem.”

Sue Todd, President of Corporate University Xchange, said this move to the performance consultant role is indicative of a macro-level trend similar to the one the IT industry experienced a few years ago. “IT was really considered an order taker. People would ask for new technologies and new systems. IT would come in and put them up, and they would be there and nobody would use them. The company would get no benefit, and there’d be a lot of money wasted on a solution that didn’t contribute to improved performance. Training has followed that exact path in terms of their maturity levels and is coming to that point now where they’re really starting to get some credibility in organizations that they really can have a significant impact on performance.”

“That goes along with an increase in accountability,” Dresner explained. “People need to be accountable. Business leaders are insisting that learning be accountable for results. Leaders do not want to hear learning professionals tell them how many courses they taught. They want to hear how sales are improving or how profits are improved as a result of learning. Many organizations are doing this by sitting down with their business leaders beforehand. That’s the other really important trend. The one that says ‘We are going to decide what the purpose of this intervention is before we do it. We need to agree on the metrics that will measure our success.’”

Hallelujah and Amen! Metrics, anyone?

Click here to read full article.

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Source: Chief Learning Officer Magazine, June 2006.

The Key to Fixing Employee Weaknesses

In a perfect world, managers would never have to worry about employees that don't meet performance expectations. Employees would come onboard with the requisite skills, they would easily adapt to change, and if there were any skill gaps, they would eagerly put in extra hours and training to reach their full potential. In the real world, however, employees manage to slip through the interview process and come into an organization under-prepared. Others fail to progress with changing times and responsibilities. And some just don’t get it, and they make no attempts to improve their performance (read: government employees within two years of retirement).

According to a nationwide survey from NFI Research, the top course of action for managers to deal with weaknesses in their subordinates is to discuss the weakness. The next leading courses of action are to provide additional training, support, regular meetings and then put them on notice.

Even with ongoing performance discussions, only 20 percent of senior executives and four percent of managers said they are extremely successful at correcting weaknesses in others to meet the manager’s expectations or requirements. There are also times that the person and the task or job are no longer a fit, but the challenge is to identify it sooner rather than later for the benefit of both parties.

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Shannon Lear Martin is the President of Austin, Texas based TrainUtopia (www.trainutopia.com) and has been helping companies improve their organizational performance to meet their business goals. She is also considered an expert in training effectiveness measurement. Shannon publishes a monthly newsletter “Training News You Can Use” , which is jammed with resources, articles and tips on performance improvement, training and development. She can be reached at smartin@trainutopia.com.

Nano-Learning: Bite Sized Chunks of Knowledge

Elliot Masie, president of The Masie Center and the director of the Learning Consortium, has done it again. He is one of the premiere thought leaders in the learning world, and has now come up with a new approach to learning, Nano-learning.

Right now, most learning modules start at 15 minutes and often cover hours or days of involvement. But most learning moments are teachable moments. Malcolm Knowles described the perfect teachable moment as the intersection of a small question with a great small answer. That is at the heart of nano-learning.

You can read the full article titled "NanoLearning: Miniaturization of Design." on the Chief Learning Officer website.

Bringing Government Training into the Measurement Era

I recently spoke at a meeting for education and training personnel from a variety of Texas state agencies. Needless to say, it was an education for both sides. Recognizing the need to measure training effectiveness is more apparent in the private sector (think profits), and less developed in the public sector.

In the corporate world, training departments are maximizing their ability to be internal consultants to better align training deliverables and outcomes with corporate goals and objectives. The main goal for a corporate training initiative is to improve people's skills, knowledge and abilities to positively affect the bottom line. In the government arena, training departments have a budget and they need to spend the money or lose it the following budget cycle.

My entire purpose in this presentation was to demonstrate the many ways workplace competencies could be used to measure and demonstrate the ROI (Return On Investment) of training through conversion of performance improvement into dollars. Dennis Kravetz of Kravetz and Associates has written and spoken at length on this incredibly valuable topic.

One of the areas I covered was using individual and aggregate workplace competency scores to determine focused training and development needs. Many of the group stared at me like I had grown a second nose. One attendee commented, "You mean training departments actually get that kind of information?"

Another person told me, "All we really use are smile sheets, and we know that's not enough."

I proceeded to educate the group on the variety of uses for workplace competencies, all of which better align training delivery with the needs of each job. In addition, if you have a baseline of the individual's competency, you can re-measure after training delivery (or after time back on the job) to further assess the true impact of the training on workplace performance.

By the end of the meeting, each person had a new box of tools to take back to their department - measurement was their new motto.

Despite the fact that many technology advancements have come from the military in the past, I think it's safe to say that the corporate world is leading the way in development of targeted training and measures of effectiveness.

Remember, what can be measured can be improved!

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Shannon Martin is the President of Austin, Texas-based TrainUtopia (www.trainutopia.com) and has been helping companies improve their organizational performance to meet their business goals. She is also considered an expert in training effectiveness measurement. Shannon publishes a monthly newsletter “Training News You Can Use” http://www.trainutopia.com/news.htm jammed with resources, articles and tips to help companies improve their approach to training and development. She can be reached at smartin@trainutopia.com.