CIPD's HRD

I briefly went to CIPD's flagship event for the learning and development profession called HRD Conference and Exhibition. Personally I was not impressed. It all seemed a bit stale and it looked smaller. Maybe that's because I have not been to it in the past three years. Although I am a member of the CIPD I do have a lot of personal issues with them. To start with I don't think they promote  L&D adequately. It seems to sit in the background of other aspects of Human Resources. But my biggest beef with them is the cost of their qualifications. They are way too expensive. I would imagine that they should allow different routes of study. CIPD currently has only two routes. You either study with them or through one of their certified providers or you study at a college/University.

In a world with great and affordable learning technology I find that very backward. Here are some options I would like to see CIPD provide to study their qualifications.

• Distance study: They can sell their resources for those who believe they can study it independtly on their own. All they need to do is to assign a tutor to people studying this way. Kind of like studying with the Open University.
• E-Learning: Why not make use of virtual technology which can provide content for study and also use the community of practice model to get students to interact.

Recently I have taken a lot of interest in EdTech (Educational Technology) and the pace of innovation is breathtaking. We need this type of innovation to disrupt the current models of providing professional certification. To become a graduate student of CIPD do I really need to pay over £9500? I think it is absurd and ridiculous.

If you are reading this, what do you think?

I must admit though, they  have a great library and the people who work there are really nice and helpful.

Creating a Team Learning Strategy

One of our services called CDW Brent is launching a new service called Travel Support. The purpose of the service is to provide support for people with Mental Health illness to move about using public transport. The people employed in this service will be called Travel Buddies and they will be people with lived experience of Mental Health illness. To provide training for the Travel Buddies they have been set up to do our mandatory e-learning courses and booked on mandatory courses that are not currently run through e-learning.

But I am also interested in seeing whether they need any development which will support them to do their jobs up to the required standard. To tackle this I have sent an email to the service's project manager. Here is what I sent to her:

I’m trying to put together a development plan for the Travel Buddies. I have read the Job Description. I need some more information from you. Please can you send me information on the skills and knowledge the Travel Buddies need to be able to do the job up to the required standard.

I am  expecting her reply.

Some Good Webinar Tips

I recently read what I consider to be a very good post about webinars from the HBR Blog Network written by Rachel Burstein who is a research associate at New America Foundation's California Civic Innovation project. In the post she identified what she saw as the weaknesses of using webinar as a learning tool and ways to make webinars more effective. I will divide this summary into two parts based on Rachel's assertions, 1) Why webinar's may not be so great for teaching and 2) How you can make webinars more effective for teaching.

Why webinar's may not be so great for teaching

• Webinars have the advantage of being ubiquitous which means lots of people in different places can view it at the same time but that doesn't make it an effective delivery method. To start with the content being delivered tends not to be tailored to the learners.
• Also the virtual experience of webinars does allow for a lot of engagement between the learners and speakers.
• Another thing that is also an issue is that there is no consequence for non-attendance, neither are there rewards if you do attend.
• There is also little or even no quality control applied to the webinars.

How you can make webinars more effective for teaching

The above mentioned points are not absolutes and there are certainly exceptions, but generally what can be done to ensure webinar developers engage learners and learners learn more from webinars?
Here are a few pointers.

• Be careful what you use webinars for. It's not fitted to communicating every type of information. For instance webinars may not be suitable for discussing innovation which requires more engagement but better for training to use a technology or giving details about some new legislation. So chose topics carefully.
• Focus webinars on training not analysis. Webinars are less effective when concentrated on topics for which there is no consensus or require a lot of customisation to fit the audience.
• Create opportunities for dialogue. Technology can allow questions to asked in real time and skilled facilitators can integrate the questions into the discussion.
• Help participants to grow their networks. Facilitators can circulate their contact details before the webinar starts and they can encourage participants to contact them through various online sources.
• Provide ways to help the participant display what they've learned. For example giving a short quiz or allow them to accumulate points towards their professional development. This will no doubt engage the learners more.
• Also provide notes which the learners can use after the webinar.

It's not just those designing and delivering webinars that need to be mindful but also those watching webinars can take some action to benefit more from the webinar.

• Choose webinars carefully according to how much value it will add to you. Don't register for every and any webinar.
• Watch webinars in groups. This can facilitae a discussion about the webinar topic among the group. Also people are more likely to attend when they know they will be in a group.
• Take and distribute notes.
• Use the webinar to network. If facilitators distribute their contact details, don't be shy to contact them.
• Ask questions during the webinar and talk to other colleagues who may be watching the webinar with you about your questions.

No learning delivery method can be perfect but these tips may go a long way in helping you get more out of webinars.

Crucial Reminder By Kirkpatrick

Nowadays I hardly ever buy books because I spend a lot of time reading from a number of sites such as HBR Blogs, Learning Solution Magazine, Chief Learning Officer, Entrepreneur, Inc and Harvard Business Review. That is not to say that I won't be buying and reading books. I have a number of instructional design books in my Amazon learning and development wishlist that I really want to read, but I need to get a kindle first. No more killing trees for me.
One of the sites I also learn from is Kirkpatrick Partners. Offcourse the name sounds familiar because Kirkpatrick is the evaluation guy.
I routinely receive a newsletter from the Kirkpatrick website with lots of useful information. Just this week I was reading the Quick Tip series from the site. Currently I think they are at Quick Tip 3. After reading the three articles I came up with a list of learning points which I feel are important to any learning and development practitioner and here they are:

1. When discussing learning and development with your stakeholders use business language that they understand not your own industry jargon.
2. Create a robust evaluation framework that can identify the impact of training in the workplace and on the organisation (he would say that wouldn't he?).
3. Provide on the job support tools possibly after a learning programme to encourage application of learning back at work.
4. Create knowledge sharing communities, either physical or virtual.
5. Learning does not end after a classroom training course or an e-learning course completion.
6. Identify what factors affect the application of learning back in the workplace and how to monitor them.
7. From the onset before any learning programme discuss possible barriers to application of learning in the workplace with necessary stakeholders.
8. Work with stakeholders to overcome barriers to effective learning application.
9. Make sure you identify clearly that learning is the right solution for a problem that needs to be tackled.
10. Be assertive enough to tell stakeholders that training alone will not lead to improved performance results.

That's it, summary of my learning from the first three kirkpatrick's quick tips. You might want to have a read of the tips yourself. Here's the website:

http://www.kirkpatrickpartners.com/Blog/tabid/135/Default.aspx

A learning delivery strategy

I was having a meeting about how to use the training and development module of the latest incarnation of the HRIS we use at the compnay I work at. And then I had a learning delivery idea. It's quite sad that I mostly have my best ideas while in meetings. That doesn't say much for the meetings i attend does it.
Anyway I thought about ways we could use our intranet and KPI dashboard to support learning delivery and these steps came to mind.

1. Step 1 - Create a community of practice on the intranets forum around a specific learning topic. For example we use a support tool called Recovery Star fior all our Mental health customers. It is mandatory that all support workers supporting our mental health workers be able to use this tool so we run a one day training course to give them the required skills and knowledge. I can set up a topic titled Recovery Star as a forum topic. This will serve as a community of practice for people who attend the training where they can discuss various issues relating to Recovery Star only. It may also be used to communicate prequisite resources and assignments necessary to attend the training.
2. Step 2 - Design an E-Learning course which focuses on helping learners understand what the recovery star is and how to use it.
3. Step 3 - Run a team based training session at each teams location so that it is contextual to the work they do.
4. Step 4 - Collect feedback after the training course using a simple one page feedback form.
5. Step 5 - Check their Recovery Star report 6 weeks after the training course on the KPI dashboard reporting system. This is used to record outcomes from recovery star meetings that employees have with mental health customers that they support. The information they report will highlight how well they are using the rwecovery star tool.
6. Step 6 - Based on the reports on the KPI dashboard have a conversation with the employees and their managers. For example if their reports are really good and useful showing good use of the recovery star, speak to them to know what has given them the ability to use the tool in such a competent way. If their reporting is not good then speak to them to understand what challenges they have and what support they might need to improve their reporting.
7. Step 7 - Compile report based on step 6 and 7 which will be an evaluation report for management to show how effective the training has been.

Overcoming resistance to unlearning/re-learning

1. First communicate why the change (change unlearning/re-learning will bring) is necessary. e.g. savings or greater effectiveness.
2. Change is hard so it is necessary to provide adequate support. Using blended learning with mixtures of learning modes such as classroom, formal e-learning, and mobile learning can be good.
   
   Here is a good example from the Cheesecake Factory:
   
   The teach-back
   An effective method to build a knowledge base and reinforce change is the "teach-back" method.
   
   The Cheesecake factory implemeted a new inventory system. The system rolled out with e-learning modules and dedicated support staff. By carefully monitoring system use, management realized that employees were not maximising the system to save costs.
   The professional development department followed these steps to implement a teach-back system:
   a - Core users completed online quizzes to identify their key knowledge gaps.
   b - System experts trained a group of high-level managersto become subject matter experts or mentors.
   c - A yearly gathering of employees was a perfect opportunity to get everyone on the same page. The session started with a reminder of the reason for adopting the new system. Then, using tutorials, reference manuals, and guided discussions, mentors closed the knowledge gaps for the core user group.
   d - The core user group is now using the same resources to teach-back to those employees who did not attend the conference. They can contact their mentor with any questions.
3. Assess the change and take action. Identify barriers to change and do something about it.

Summary of the key points

• Communicate why the change is necessary before, during and after the roll out.
• Leverage the support and expertise of early adopters.
• Before any change initiative, ensure there is adequate number of knowledge experts who are available to answer questions.
• Provide performance support tools, including print-based job aids, and facilitate the use of social media (blogs, wikis, micro-blogging) within the organisation and from outside experts (hi-tech).
• Provide phone or virtual support.
• Use the teach back method to increase the applicationof the change and the number of experts.
• Ensure there is no overlap with other tools, processes, or procedures.
• Monitor the use of the tool during personal development meetings or by using a tracking system.
• Address skills gaps with a blended learning solution, including formal learning events and performance support.