Enterprise Learning Initiatives.

By Emerson Consulting Manager, Patti Hughes

I am a Food Network junkie. I love watching the shows and seeing the amazing meals they turn out. I, too, want to turn out delicious, completely from-scratch gourmet meals; the bland and boring meals I typically cook don’t cut it in my family. But a lack of time, money, and confidence in my ability (I wasn’t exactly trained at Le Cordon Bleu) held me back for a long time.

I was stuck, until I discovered the concept of “semi-homemade,” made famous by Sandra Lee. How brilliant: take pre-portioned food, add your fresh ingredients and just enough spice to suit your tastes, and create a delicious, cost-effective, home-cooked meal in less time. I was hooked!

Early in my professional life, I faced a similar dilemma. As a manager of corporate training, I was charged with creating and delivering training to multiple audiences with limited budget, time and resources. My internal clients wanted champagne on a beer budget. How was I supposed to do that? I couldn’t hire a cadre of instructional designers, and I sure didn’t have the budget or time to find and manage consultants to build all the programs I needed.

I found an answer that worked for me: semi-homemade training! Purchase off-the-shelf training – for considerably less than the cost of a custom-built program – and add “fresh ingredients and spices” to make sure employees meet your company’s outcomes and performance goals.

A Simple Recipe to Spice Up Training

Start with the right pre-made components.

• Look for off-the-shelf programs that focus on achieving the behavior change and the performance you need in your organization. For example, some training packages for managers on delivering feedback in a corporate setting might not work if your supervisors are delivering feedback to union workers on a factory floor. Do a little research and read the training objectives to makes sure you get the best fit.
• Educate yourself about the platform, structure and content of the program. You want to be sure it’s flexible enough so you can make it your own.

Add your favorite fresh ingredients.

• Take out generic work examples and add case studies and job scenarios that make sense to your target audience, industry and organization.
• Include exercises and activities that allow learners to practice their new skills in the context of their jobs.
• Change the course content so it uses words common in your organization. Participants will tune out if they encounter terms and language that don’t make sense to them.
• Build in a time and setting for participants to share ideas and tips with each other. This takes real-world relevance up a notch; co-workers can reinforce ways to use the new skills in their day-to-day jobs.
• Leverage what works in your organization to enhance the training and create consistency with other training employees have had. Integrating your own organization’s methods and models connects their new knowledge and skills to something they already know, improving relevance and retention.

Throw in some spice

• Consider branding or renaming the training program to connect to a larger organizational initiative.
• Change or add visuals that you know will resonate with your audience.
• Chunk the training content and delivery. If you have room in the timeline, consider breaking the content into smaller pieces and delivering it over time. This is not only easier on the organization, it gives you time to gather feedback and fine-tune your customization.
• Eliminate content that doesn’t directly relate to your high-priority objectives and won’t support learner’s on-the-job performance.
• Schedule follow-up sessions, create job aids, and plan on-the-job support so real-world learning continues after the training is over.

Semi-homemade might not be the answer for all your training needs, but when it is, these steps will help. If you follow this recipe to make off-the-shelf training your own, your organization will be begging for more!

When my son Trevor was a toddler, I wanted him to learn his ABCs. Pretty soon, like most kids his age, he was belting out The Alphabet Song loud and clear. When I heard him sing, I was confident that he could name all the letters of the alphabet. I felt even better when he began pointing to the letters in the books we read at night. I knew then that he would have an easier time learning to read words in kindergarten.

In my professional life as an instructional designer, my clients come to me with a lot of things they want their employees to learn. Often, they say they have some content they want workers to know or understand. They might write their learning objectives as follows:

By the end of this course, learners will:

• Know the procedure to ring up a returned item.
• Understand the elements of our storytelling framework.
• Know how to use the AUTOSUM formula in Microsoft Excel.

Unfortunately, these learning objectives don’t go far enough. We can’t see inside people’s brains. If we want to be sure they have new knowledge, we need something observable. They have to demonstrate that they know or understand the content.

I was sure Trevor knew the letters of the alphabet because he was able to say them out loud.

My clients need even more than that. We don’t build learning programs just to put ideas in peoples’ heads – we want those people to DO something with the knowledge they’ve gained. That’s why I encourage my clients to focus not on the content they want people to know, but on the OUTCOMES.

I was sure Trevor could use his knowledge of the alphabet when he started spelling words.

Knowledge is the foundation, but the real key is being able to perform a task that drives business results. The best learning objectives are job-relevant activities learners should be able to perform – not only in a training environment, but also in the course of their daily work.

Using these guiding principles, I would push my client to rewrite their objectives around job performance:

By the end of this course, learners will:

• Issue a refund for a returned item using the original form of payment.
• Tell a two-minute story that incorporates drama, detail, and dialogue.
• Calculate the total annual budget using the AUTOSUM function in Excel to add the monthly allocations.

When learners are able to demonstrate the behaviors identified in these learning objectives, we will be confident that they know and understand the underlying content. But we’ve raised the bar and now have equal confidence that they can perform key activities that will grow and sustain the business. And, after all, isn’t that why companies invest in learning programs?

So remember, when writing powerful learning objectives, think of your ABCs:

A – use ACTION verbs
B – focus on a BEHAVIOR
C – CONNECT the learning to a job-relevant task

Now you know your ABCs…next time won’t you sing with me?

Or will they? Perhaps you’ve just rolled out a new system. Or you’ve changed a core job process. Or maybe you’ve hired a new set of leaders. What do you do before letting your employees loose on the job? Train them! And yet for some reason, they don’t always do what you want.

In 2016, companies around the world spent $359.3 billion in training their employees according to TrainingIndustry.com (source). Within North America, companies spend $161.7 billion. Outside the misspent dollars and time, when behaviors don’t change, there are other implications.

• Your company doesn’t realize the benefits of a change.
• Leaders point fingers and want answers about what went wrong.
• Managers become frustrated because they’re not getting the outcomes they’re accountable for.
• Employees lose productivity, confidence, and might suffer real impacts to their rewards and careers.

As a learning professional, I certainly don’t want these outcomes for my clients. While there’s no guarantee of on-the-job performance, there are five things you can do to improve your chances. Think of this plan as your CREST for success!

• Commit. When your company is making a change, get your senior leaders on board from the outset. Have them define what success looks like. Ask them to model the changes they want to see. When they champion the behaviors, employees are more likely to adopt them.
• Reward. When you see it, reward it. As employees start to adopt new behaviors, reinforce their actions. Make it public and immediate. Don’t wait until the next staff meeting to call out a victory. Send an email to the team describing the success and the positive outcome. Forward positive messages from customers to the team. Show that you know what success looks like, you see it, and that you care about it.
• Embed. So often, learning is a one-time event. Right before the change happens, you train employees and expect them to remember it all. But there is always a lag between when employees learn new behaviors and when they need to perform. So embed the learning into the job. Train and support new skills and behaviors as they come up naturally, in real life.
• Support. Performance support, like online help and job aids, is another way to move learning closer to on-the-job performance. And remember your walking, talking performance support: super-users or peer experts should be available when employees need them.
• Test. After completing a training program, assess employees to make sure they can demonstrate the skills and behaviors your organization needs. Make the tests objective and performance-based.

Apply CREST to your learning program and you’ll likely see more of the employee performance you want.

I can’t wait to see your deck! – said no one, ever.

Real talk: chances are slim you’ll hear oohs and awe during your PowerPoint presentation. Don’t take it personally, take it as failing of the business world. Microsoft estimates more than 30 million PowerPoint decks are presented every day. That’s a lot of slides. We’re decked to death.

Keep this in mind the next time you use PowerPoint. While it’s an easy and well-accepted tool for the deck builder, it’s not always so great for the learner. Why?

The way we use decks helps us as presenters and trainers more than it helps learners.

People have to quickly read and glean data from each slide, while you’re talking, before you – poof! – move on and the slide disappears. Same for the next slide. And the next.

If you have a more active and familiar audience, you can expect requests to “go back a few slides” where you’ll re-explain as they furiously take notes. You’ll see a few furrowed brows, but eventually they will stop asking questions. That’s not always a good thing.

If you have a distant or more formal audience, people will tune out and make a mental note to ask you for the deck later.

Most presenters offer to send it anyway. The presenter and audience have good intentions, but it’s sort of a cop out. You’re unintentionally saying, “I know you probably didn’t learn what you needed, but it’s all right here – good luck!”

Many of us in the audience don’t look at those abandoned decks. If we do…now it’s a job aid. You could have designed a job aid that works as a job aid instead.

Most people need both the deck and the presenter to facilitate learning. You probably won’t be with learners when they are trying to execute what you have taught. So even if you have the most amazing deck ever, there are a few things you can do.

1. Even if it’s not training – it’s “just a presentation” – raise it to the level of a learning experience. Think like an instructional designer. People learn by engaging, but every slide is essentially a passive experience. Any kind of content can be turned into an interaction. So, stop. Leave the deck during your presentation to get your audience talking, doing and sharing.
2. Build in time for that engagement. If you have 30 minutes on the agenda, don’t build 30 minutes of slides. Leave time for practice and discussion. And that doesn’t just mean after your slides are done – make it clear you’re ready to stay on one slide until everyone is comfortable, before moving on. Leaving no extra time says to the group, “My deck is perfect – this is all you need.”
3. Think of even the simplest presentation as a multi-step learning process. The steps should include your presentation, follow-up, and on-the-job learning opportunities. So build tools that support each step.

PowerPoint is an incredibly successful and useful tool. But it’s just one tool and it shouldn’t drive the service you are providing to your audience. Put learning first and make the deck follow.

Recently, when I picked up my high school junior from school, I asked her how her classes were. “Boring,” she said. I develop learning programs for my clients, and I never want my learners say anything like that. Usually, if our training participants aren’t stimulated, it’s because we are focused more on content delivery – unconsciously thinking of our learners as passive receptacles to be filled with content. Instead, we need to focus on engaging them. It’s easy to be bored when you’re sitting, with little to do – it’s hard to be bored when you’re taking center-stage as the star of the show.

So, I’d like to provide four tips for stimulating learner engagement:

Stimulate their brains.

Lectures are boring because they trigger only one part of the brain – the part that listens. To make your learning more impactful, try to engage as many brain systems as you can. Engage the visual cortex by surrounding the learning environment with pictures and graphics. We process images much more quickly and effectively than words, and we remember those images longer – especially if they are unique and grab our attention. By appealing to multiple brain centers, we give learners multiple paths to store and retrieve the information.

Stimulate their hearts.

People learn more when they have an emotional connection to the topic. And the best way to build emotional connection is by sharing a story. Stories bring training to life. They give us a main character that learners can relate to. We care – we root for the character through the obstacles and challenges that give the story drama and build our interest. We are drawn into the story and want to know what happens next. We cheer when the hero of the story finds a way to overcome those difficulties – and we learn a little something about how we could do the same when facing a similar challenge.

Stimulate their hands and feet.

Get learners out of their chairs and get their hearts pumping faster. Make the learners interact with and manipulate the content. Have them demonstrate content points. For example, if there are five key customer service principles you want them to remember, assign each principle to a small group and have that group come up with a dance move that represents the principle. Then have each group teach the others their dance move and pull it all together into the whole group doing the “customer service dance.” They might find it a bit silly, but they won’t be bored. And that will be one topic they remember for a long time!

Stimulate their funny bones. 

Laughter is the opposite of boredom. So make the learning fun. Use gamification to inspire some friendly competition between groups. For example, ask learners to share their funniest story from when things went wrong – you might even have them act it out as a skit or record it on video. Then, challenge the group to come up with their cleverest way to use the learning concepts to address the situation.

When learning programs activate participants’ brains, hearts, hands, feet, and funny bones, the last thing you’ll ever hear is “that was boring.”

I’m not a great cook, but I enjoy watching competitive cooking shows like Master Chef and Top Chef where amazing dishes are created. The TV chefs create an experience using the right combination of flavors, textures, and presentation. There’s no cookie-cutter approach; each dish is unique and carefully planned to achieve the optimal eating experience. Likewise, when I want to create a great learning program, I try to use the right combination of learning techniques, blended together, to maximize the transfer of knowledge.

There’s nothing cookie-cutter about my learning creations either. People learn in different ways, so putting together the best experience takes an understanding of audience, content, skills and behaviors they need to learn, and any delivery considerations. There are, however, some staples – elements I think about when designing any blended solution.

Elements of a Blended Learning Program

• Set up. “Mise en place” is a French term for having all your ingredients measured, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before cooking starts. Pans are prepared. Mixing bowls, tools, and equipment are set out. It is a technique chefs use to assemble meals efficiently. For blended learning courses, the setup is also important. Provide an overview of the course, including how the course will be organized and delivered. Set expectations with learners about how they will interact with media, measure success, and find support after training ends.
• Present. Chefs use a variety of ways to share their recipes and cooking methods: books, videos, TV cooking shows, and live classes. For blended learning, we use classroom instruction, group activities, independent learning, eLearning, coaching, etc. Build a blended solutions solution that gives the individual more ways to learn, improving their chance of success. And allow learners flexibility across a blended program; they learn better when they can control their own experiences.
• Demonstrate. Learning a new recipe for the first time is easier if someone shows you how to do it. Include live demonstrations, video demonstrations, and other ways to observe someone performing well.
• Practice. The best way to hone your cooking skills is to experience first-hand a dish that turns out great and a dish that flops. Allow learners to practice using the content in a realistic, but controlled environment. Simulations and other realistic trials help learners test their learning and get real-time feedback on their performance in a low-risk setting. And, for tasks requiring human interaction, there’s no substitute for face-to-face interaction and practice in a real or realistic setting.
• Assess. Good chefs taste their food as they cook to make sure it meets their standards and expectations. For blended solutions, verify the learner has mastered the skills through performance assessment, certification, or informal learning checks. Just as chefs make sure each part of a dish is right, consider having your learners demonstrate mastery of each skill or behavior before they move on to the next.
• Coach. Every great chef once worked under the wing of an established, reputable chef who taught them the nuances of cooking that can’t be learned from a book. Make managers and peers part of blended learning programs. They should provide structured, ongoing coaching and feedback. This is a key piece of any blended solution; it helps ensure the skills learned through formal training are applied on the job.
• Collaborate. Social media has become a great platform for chefs and casual cooks alike to share recipes, cooking techniques, and lessons learned. Enhance your blended learning program through communities of practice. These communities enable collaboration during the course; for example, participants might use online chat to ask questions, share information, and solve problems. They are also a great way to deepen skills and reinforce critical behaviors over time.

Successful learning takes many forms because learners and situations are different. It’s all about thinking like a Top Chef and finding that optimal mix of techniques. As great chef Emeril Lagasse would say, blended programs give your learning some “BAM!”

By Emerson Director, Learning and Development, Laura Hume

I love my team. There. I said it. We met three-and-a half-years ago. It was going to be a long distance relationship from the start, as they were scattered across the US. They had recently ended a long-term relationship with my predecessor. Most of them were with her for years and had both personal and professional bonds. I knew I had my work cut out for me, but was confident I had something to offer them if they would give me a chance.

I made sure to use our webcams a lot the first few months. We had individual meetings and group meetings. We texted at odd hours. It was a start. I got to know them as professionals and colleagues. I saw them use their instructional design, program management, and client management skills. I discovered who had specialty areas like eLearning or simulation design. I heaved a sigh of relief. My team was smart, talented, creative…and funny, and talented, and caring. I hadn’t been sold a bill of goods in the hiring process.

I also got to know them as people. I learned about husbands, wives, partners, children, cats, and dogs. I figured out who was introverted and who was extroverted. I discovered who needed lots of support and who wanted only an occasional check-in. They were learning from me and felt supported by me. And, more importantly, I was learning from them and felt equally supported. What started as good will and professionalism turned into strong relationships that I cherish.

However, I occasionally feel like I’m cheating on them.

I feel like I’m cheating because I have a secret…I loved my last team just as much. It was a totally different team with a very different company, but I loved them too. Oh…and I guess I loved the team before that one. And the one before that.

I’ve been reflecting lately on the concepts of love, leadership, and high performance teams. There are several metaphors typical in the leadership literature: Coach, Servant, Conductor, and Guide. I love that a Coach sets a high bar and leverages the strengths of each player. Servant leadership, with its emphasis on social responsibility, speaks to me as well. A Conductor creates a unified whole out of talented individuals, which is very much what I seek to do. A Guide brings others along a sometimes difficult path, and that’s essential in our business.

Yet none of those metaphors felt just right to me. Each implies the leader is acting upon the team in some way. None of them captures the reciprocity and interactivity of team-ness. My love affair with my team is not unrequited. In fact, I’m getting more than I give in this relationship. After all, there are many of them and just one of me. Although my title is Director, I am simply performing the responsibilities of my role — just as each member of my team is – and, together, we create an interactive whole.

Finally, I stumbled upon the African term ubuntu. Leymah Gbowee, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, is credited with the definition of Ubuntu: “I am what I am because of who we all are.” Muchiri ¹ notes that ubuntu focuses on a humanistic concern for relationships employing compassion and respect. Eureka! This was what I was searching for — a word that means we are all together part of the whole.

Brubaker, in his article Servant Leadership, Ubuntu, and Leader Effectiveness in Rwanda²
created a survey for his research study to determine whether Ubuntu leadership was a strong predictor of leader effectiveness. Although he found that it was positively correlated, I am more interested in the (unstudied) correlation of overall team effectiveness.

I adapted Brubaker’s survey and replaced the term “leader” with the term “team,” and I have streamlined the survey to five questions.

1. My team provides me with counsel to succeed in my job.
2. My team provides me with resources to fulfill my responsibilities.
3. My team is sensitive to each other’s problems.
4. My team is willing to reach out and help others.
5. My team respects each other’s contributions.

My hypothesis is that a team (the named leader plus all members in the reporting chain) that answers “yes” to these five questions is an engaged, high-performing team.

How will your team answer? How will you? If each of you answers yes, I see an HR-approved love affair in your future, too.

Laura Hume is Director of the Learning and Development line of business for Emerson Human Capital Consulting, Inc.

^{1. Muchiri, M. K. (2011). Leadership in context: A review and research agenda for subSaharan Africa. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 84, 440-452.↩}

^{2. Brubaker, T. A. (2013). Servant Leadership, Ubuntu, and Leader Effectiveness in Rwanda. Emerging Leadership Journeys, Vol. 6 Iss. 1, pp. 114 – 147. Regent University School of Business & Leadership ISSN 1941-4684↩}