Proof of Direct Link between Learning and Performance

(To protect the interest of our clients, we are using fictitious names. However, the data presented here are close to real and living cases.)

Last week, I had a conversation with a VP for Sales Training. He asked what is new in learning systems that can demonstrate learning impacts on the job. Furthermore, he inquired if this solution is an off–the-shelf software.

The first question is like searching for the Holy Grail in training and learning. This has been always a tough question with exceptionally hard –to- find solutions. The reply to the second question can only be "none."That type of off–the-shelf software does not exist."

However, under certain conditions, we can use software to link learning with tangible numbers in performance.

I'd like to share here an approach we have developed to help some of our clients. However, I must preface this presentation with this thought -that we have replicated this model only in very specialized and niched initiatives and only where conditions converge to make the model possible.

Metrics Learning System

The model "Metrics Learning System" (MLS) is an approach that uses learning systems to dynamically (a) link and correlate learning activities and progress with measurable aspects of the job. Furthermore, the (a) approach identifies gaps in performance that trigger coaching and remedial action.
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Background

“Our key leaders in branches abhor learning since
it takes away income from performance bonuses. “

The case overview below is a good illustration of a specific organization that we worked with to implement the Metrics Learning System.

A financial services company of 2,500 branch offices wants to accelerate expansion to 1,000 more branch offices in 3 years. To accomplish the business plans, a good training strategy must be in place. During the research phase, it was clear that a creative approach had to be developed. This summarizes the business realities according to the branch leaders:

“Our account managers are high-revenue generating contributors. Their time is very expensive. Each hour spent in training, unless directly related to the tasks on hand or challenges they are currently facing currently, are considered time wasters. Our key leaders in the branches abhor learning since it takes away income from performance bonuses. “

The Three-Pronged Solution

“Quick lessons, flexible LMS, real-time feedback and
follow-up are starting points.”

These were solutions taken, using the integrated technology, instructional design, implementation and management approaches. At the heart of the solution is a metrics driven learning program.

1. Short and Quick Lessons – The old curriculum training design which demanded more time from account managers was “thrown” into the waste can. The criticism was “why train people on topics they may not need to impact performance.” The lessons were reduced to 5-10 minutes covering basic and sufficient content to train managers on “must learn” content. The mentoring system between branch leaders and account managers continued.
2. Flexible Learning Solutions – The LMS was reprogrammed to allow for flexible training 24/7. Managers took their training sessions online anytime and anywhere they were. There were mandated trainings for license compliance, but the main thrust was to make learning easy and timely. The learning plan was connected to the performance being tracked by the branch leaders.
3. Metrics Learning System – The branch management system tracked revenues and activities per account manager. To continue with this practice, the learning system and data were integrated with the branch financial system to show how each account manager’s training has impacted the performance. The interesting thing happened according to a few branch leaders: “Once we saw how the amount of the account manager’s learning positively or negatively impacted their revenue contributions per hour, we realized the significance of learning as a true value.” An account manager‘s learning and performance dashboard was developed to show each manager and the branch leader the learning schedule, actual time and revenue performance.
   

The Metrics Learning System Dashboard

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1. Work Metrics
Jobs that have clear, quantifiable task outputs and data collected are presented. The data represent targets and commitments of an account manager. It also only represents the actual performance updates. The red items show negative variables which trigger notices to the account manager and the branch leader for one on one coaching. Triggers are emails or onscreen alerts.

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2. Learning Plans and Progress

The dashboard shows the learning plan. This data comes with the LMS (Learning Management System). The learning plan is matched with the work metrics.

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3. Actionable Items

Red alerts from gaps in performance trigger coaching discussions between the account manager and the branch leader. The system provides documentation on the details and progress of the coaching session. The section also shows messages and the exchange of communications between the account manager and the branch leader.

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Practical Usage

“Glimpses of actual performance, red alerts
and corrective actions”

Participants use the system in the following ways.

1. Review the dashboard almost daily to see a glimpse of actual performance, learning, and actions. The dashboard is a source of immediate feedback. It is an alert mechanism.
2. Update the data in the dashboard to reflect revised or new targets, coaching sessions with leaders and priorities for learning.
   

Leaders use the system in the following manner:

1. Get instant red alerts indicating team member’s performance issues.
2. Redirect learning priorities based on red alert items.
3. Record coaching communications between the team member and leader.
   

Link Learning to Performance

“Leaders and team members to instantly get
a feel of what is happening.”

The Metrics Learning System’s biggest value is allowing leaders and team members to instantly get a feel of how to correct work jobs issues, align the right learning and follow-up with coaching. In essence, the system focuses learning on what matters in performance and makes sure that the follow up coaching are instant feedback and transparency. The ability to redirect learning and coaching to help the team member is where learning is linked to improved actual performance.

The focus of the system is to help real time corrective actions and less on documenting ROI learning. The champions, who are the operations and sales executives, clearly understood that the correlation between learning and performance do happen. Their desire is to help team members improve real performance.

Conditions for a Successful Metrics Learning System

“Enlightened leaders, pro-active IT teams, historically tracking
numbers converge to create the right conditions.”

These conditions seem to be common characteristics of a successful implementation.

1. The champions are top line level executives, e.g. VP for Call Center Operations, VP for Corporate Accounts, and Managing Partner for consulting practice. Training leaders and specialists are support providers.
   
2. The technology platforms and IT leaders are proactive to find business solutions. Systems innovations and integration are encouraged. Most often, the Metrics Learning System is an integration of the LMS, CRM, Call tracking system, and HR systems.
   
3. The system is only feasible when team members’ task and performance metrics have been historically tracked as part of the business practice. For example, number of accounts contacted, number of successful phone calls, consulting hours producing billable hours, etc.
   
4. Strong leadership dedication to run a business unit with the mission to help team members improve performance by learning and proactive actions, and not reactive.
   

Conclusion

The Metrics Learning System is not driven by software but by enlightened management leadership. Software solutions only work with the right leaders. The solutions are often very specific and narrow; hence, creative innovations and customization are needed.

The key benefits of the system are to provide real timely feedback, transparency and follow up. When learning is approached in this manner, it is most likely that learning links to performance.

New Territories and Innovations in Learning Solutions

Happy New Year! May 2011 bring you and your loved ones peace, good health and more wealth. Thank you for all your support in 2010. 

My 2010 was a year of discovery and innovation. My team had an abundance of opportunities to explore new territories to develop and expand learning solutions. To mention a few that are publicly available:

 

TrainingMagNetwork.com has now 21,000 members - www.trainingmagnetwork.com. The VFTNetworks software (FREE) that powers TrainingMagNetwork has over 1,000 corporate accounts. We are learning a lot on how to grow communities and consistently produce good quality events.

 

 

  
Vignettes Videos was launched in December, 2010.  TrainingTube.TV is its first application. Soon you can create your own private Vignettes Videos account to view pre-selected and the best of breed videos from speakers, members, YouTube.com, and TED.com. http://trainingtube.TV.

my3MinuteGames http://my3mg.com continues to be in BETA and we are receiving a lot of excellent feedback. Some clients kept wanting to customize the games to meet their own needs. We are planning the final release of my3MinuteGames as a subscription service in early 2011.Thank you to those who are part of the beta group. We appreciate all of your inputs.

 

Whole Brain Learning, an online learning system, is undergoing testing in three universities. This is truly an innovative system which allows students to learn subjects by employing whole brain thinking through processes. For more information, please see: http://prototype.wbldi.com/about

In 2010 we started the project Stories to Learn System. STLS is a web-based learning system that enables trainers and learners to learn by sharing stories while following a minimum of formal structure.

I will update you on the progress. We look forward to its release early 2011.

I still do a lot of consulting and workshops on eLearning, Scenario-based Learning, learning strategies and systems. This is fun to do and I share and learn from participants and clients. If you are interested, you can attend one of my online workshops with a $150 discount. Click this link:

http://www.trainingliveandonline.com/elearning_design.cfm

http://www.trainingliveandonline.com/scenario_based_elearning.cfm

We think 2011 will be another promising and exciting year. I look forward to working with
many of you.

Best,

Ray

Ray Jimenez, PhD  

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Ray’s Wacky Video - Blur Between Learning and Applying

Are you emphasizing learning or applying?

There is a blur and the more you focus your investment
in applying the better your returns will be. And learners
learn better.

Salient points of the video

* Blur Between Learning and Applying
* Rapid change and demands force quick application
* The intention of learning is to resolve issues and problems, and to get results quickly
* e-Learning should be geared more toward applying
* Less emphasis on testing or memorization
* Application points are essential to quick applications on the job
* Compliance programs are exceptions


















Ray Jimenez, PhD
http://www.vignettestraining.com/
http://www.simplifiedelearning.com/

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way" "Helping Learners Apply Learning"

Wired article - "Doing everything right by doing everything wrong"

This is an interesting article from Wired Magazine on "How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong" - how Steve Jobs' leadership style is often in contrast to traditionally accepted norms.

The part that interests me the most is that Apple has successfully focused on the user experience rather than winning business clients.

The author, Leander Kahney says:

"When hardware and software makers were focused on winning business clients, price and interoperability were more important than the user experience. But now
that consumers make up the most profitable market segment, usability and design
have become priorities. Customers expect a reliable and intuitive experience — just like they do with any other consumer product."

I can not help but relate this thought on how Learning Management Systems (LMS) focuses on corporate needs of control and efficiency at the expense of learner's experience.

One of my clients said: "Rather then helping learners to learn, LMS gets in the way of learning."

Where Have All the LMSs Gone? Growth in the Purchase of LMSs, Hybrids and Learning 2.0

As I have shared in my workshops and consulting work, LMSs are alive and kicking, but they are morphing into different forms and shapes. Josh Bersin just concluded a report on the growth of LMSs.

These are the mutations of LMSs, to name a few:

1. Performance-metrics driven e-learning design - captures critical performance areas and provides small e-learning topics to support learning

2. Search, tags, share, and email favorite pages – supporting on-the-job training and coaching

3. Ranking pages and lessons on relevancy and sharing these with all learners – good information for instructional designers who want to know what works and what does not

4. Social and collaborative learning – Web 2.0 and e-Learning 2.0 enhancements

5. Coaching tool allows managers and participants to follow up goals and plans for learning application

6. Human resources development functions like 360 assessments, performance appraisals, self-development plans, employee job history, compensation and others.


Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

A Trainer’s Manifesto to Rapid LMS (Learning Management Systems)

1. I want to use an LMS that allows me to author, publish, register participants, and
track reports – in 30 minutes.

2. Anything beyond this, the LMS is not deemed a learning tool, but rather another tool for the software people and IT system administrator.

3. We want an LMS that is as simple as PowerPoint.

Please let me know if you have the secret. Many of us trainers can use it.


Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

What Stops LMCSs from Succeeding?

I met with an executive from one of the leading LCMS (Learning Content Management System) providers. He said, "clients are not fully utilizing the "C" in the LCMS". I inquired further why this is the case. It turns out that most of content being produced are "solid blocks" of content. This is where a developer would use, as an example, Captivate or Flash to construct the program in one closed file. Because the program is a "solid block", there is very little opportunity to reuse or reposition parts of the content in other programs. By designing programs in "solid blocks" the value of the content and its parts to be inputs to other programs are limited.

Here are thoughts to consider:

1. Plan your instructional design to allow you to divide the programs into smaller portions. Your Flash developer may not like this because it requires a little more work on his part.
   
2. Divide the parts into granular levels so that each granule can be a free-standing learning lesson that you can reuse somewhere else or in other programs.
   
3. Publish the granular programs as stand-alone programs.
   Example: In sales training, you can divide all the steps of the selling process as stand-alone lessons. Prospecting, closing, or probing can be one independent Flash file or video, etc.

The benefits are:

1. Allows you flexibility to reuse the lessons as part of other programs.
   
2. Learners can locate each lesson easily compared to when they have to drill down to the "solid block" to find the content they needed.
   

Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

LMS is Dead! But Long Live LMS!

The LMS is dead as a model of e-learning. LMS was thought of as a way to help learners learn. But this was a misconception. The LMS has never been designed to be a learning tool. Rather, it is a system to reduce administrative burden and decrease the cost of delivery. LMS has nothing to do with learning. However, the LMS has its own place in the world of training delivery - it helps push training down to learners, particularly with compliance-type of programs.

• To make use of your LMS as a learning tool, consider doing the following:
  Design the program first and find a way to optimize your LMS to suit the design. Not the other way around. An illustration: there is a strong tendency to convert PowerPoints using Captivate or Articulate and publish them in the LMS. This does not guarantee the learners will study the materials. Delivery for e-Learning is different from classroom presentation using PowerPoint.
  
  
• LMS is only a part of a long list of tools to deliver learning. Allocate the type of learning that should be in an LMS. For example, an LMS is good to cover bulk, repetitive learning or introductory information. It does not work well as a way to coach learners on skills.

If we continue the old ways of using an LMS, then it is dead. With a little creativity and thought, LMS can do wonders -- and live longer.

Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Some Web 2.0-Like Tools in LMSs Extend e-Learning into Social Networking and Community Sharing

The following are Web 2.0-like tools in LMSs. If added or incorporated, these tools help learners use LMS content as a resource for sharing ideas in networks and communities. See how they work:

1. Google-like search - allows learners to search ALL text in the LMS content.
2. Bookmarking - allows learners to bookmark specific pages as references, keeping a bookmark list.
3. Send a URL - allows learners to send email of a specific page in e-Learning content.
4. Note-taking - allows learners to make notes for every page as they wish and download or print the notes. Notes can be searched.
5. Learner-driven learning - allows learners to record their own desired learning paths which may contain a combination of company- provided e-learning, informal learning, postings from blogs, Wikis, and others like readings, personal projects, etc.
6. Comments - allows learners to add comments to e-learning content to be shared with all learners.
7. Ranking - allows learners to rank relevance of content and present them to all learners in a ranked format.

Although these tools may be restricted by companies and may not fully operate as networking tools, having these tools provide your learners some exposure to Web 2.0-like tools.

Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Sometimes I wish Tony Soprano is working for me - The Politics: Culture change and implementation in e-Learning

Have you noticed that, whether we observe and admit it or not, e-Learning is not free from the politics of project implementation in organizations? Sometimes, I get so frustrated with internal politics that I wish Tony Soprano were working for me.

Don't get lulled into feeling that e-Learning will be accepted just because it is "cool" or a novel way of learning. Someone can torpedo your e-Learning projects and bring them to a halt.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed. What do you do? Consider these ideas.

1. When implementing an e-Learning program, commonly known as LMS (Learning Management System), identify your sponsors, champions, and leaders who are recipients of the programs.
2. Educate them about the business impacts, benefits, and potential challenges of the e-Learning program.
3. Using an OD (Organizational Development) term, you need to provide theappropriate "unfreezing process". Most of your sponsors are frozen in time with old practices and hang-ups. Invest in time and effort to make them current. For example: One time I needed to convert a video about a CEO to enable it to be shown in an iPod and show how the iPod works!
4. In most cases, organizations learn and apply changes incrementally. If it is appropriate for you, introduce small e-Learning programs. Pick those topics that the business is really "hurting" about.
5. Metaphorically, there is no harm at all that you identify a Tony Soprano (the command and control leaders or "I'll break your leg or I will fire you" leaders) in your organization. In fact, more than we want to accept, having a muscle supporting your e-Learning works!

Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

If your Content is 1,000 pages, how do you discover the 10% key performance content?

Most training converted into e-Learning is based on linear, teacher-trainer delivery methods. Of course, just converting into e-Learning is a bad approach. Why? Because nobody wants to study a linear lesson online.

The biggest value of e-learning is helping the person learn quickly the key performance content. But how do you go through the mountain of knowledge and identify the key performance content?

In my experience, there is only 10-20% part in any form of content that impacts key performance areas. This is the part of the content that learners need in order to produce key tasks which are critical to delivering results. The 80-90% remainder of the content is made up usually of references, legislation text, policies, technical guides, etc. They are also important, but not as much as the key performance content.

To identify the 10-20% key performance content, consider these ideas:

1. Interview or get from your operations people, champions, and SMEs (subject matter experts), your target audience what are the areas that really impact performance -- those areas that really matter on the job, not those that SMEs say are important, necessarily.
2. Ask three key questions:

Question 1: What knowledge or skill is a "must?”
Question 2: What are areas that are the most difficult to learn to do a good job?
Question 3: What areas most often are sources of costly errors on the job?

Ray Jimenez, PhD www.vignettestraining.com
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"