The Power of Questions in Solving Problems - Workshop Tip #230

Application: Try this idea. Ask workers or learners in your implementation of Workflow Learning. “Identify a problem at work. What series of questions would you ask to arrive at the point where you fully understand the issues?”

In Workflow Learning (WFL), one begins to recognize work issues and concerns right in the midst of work, with no time or space to get help from conventional training and consulting opportunities for expert opinions and solutions.  The worker is challenged on the spot to learn in situations of how to solve problems. How is this done in the WFL process?

Allen Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John offered ideas in their article, The Surprising Power of Questions. Just by thinking through the issues with the “power of questions,” the worker can learn to discover more vital and in-depth information.

Honing their skills in asking different types of questions such as introductory questions, mirror questions, follow-up questions, open-ended questions, and closed or direct questions could be a can opener to generating information that is relevant to the issues at hand.  

Asking the right questions is best done at the first step of the WFL model where one needs to diagnose or assess where the issue is coming from and what contributes to it.

Yes, there is “power” in using questions to learn in the workflow and solve problems with no need for external expertise to come into the picture. How would you organize your thoughts in asking divergent and convergent questions about the issue at hand?

References

Allen Wood Brooks and Leslie K. John, The Surprising Power of Questions

Ray Jimenez, PhD., Workflow Learning book

Ray Jimenez, PhD., Did It Work? Conversations Matter in Workflow Learning

Ray Jimenez, PhD., Expertise: Why The Odds Are Stacked Against Novices

Video: Workflow Learning Idea: Why Is Question the Root of All Learning?

Ray Jimenez, PhD

Vignettes Learning

"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Microsoft Teams and Workflow Learning - Workshop Tip #226

Just a few weeks ago, my good friend Jonathan Workman of COG Industries shared with me a video link about Microsoft Teams. Click here to watch the video.

It is fascinating, and in fact, exciting to see that Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) has now incorporated some of the critical principles of workflow learning and microlearning.

I am so enthralled and completely captivated by these two methods of learning that I wrote books about them: Workflow Learning (2019) and 3-Minute E-Learning (2006). I strongly find these methods as the modern-day representation of the much-needed refinements, adjustments, and fine-tuning in learning design.

My impressions

Having used these methods for quite awhile, I have listed down my impressions of MS Teams adopting workflow learning and microlearning in its design. Let’s discuss them in detail.

1. MS Teams recognizes and supports the thought process that learning and work are intertwined. When problems and issues confront workers at work, a workflow learning-based design helps facilitate more straightforward access and usage of needed information. They can quickly refer to resources or they can simply go and check with managers and leaders.
   
   
2. It found a way to separate the process of learning from the world of instructions, which makes for a smooth and coherent design. Instructions are integrated to reference learning tools through Microsoft Learn and LinkedIn Learning (the next generation of Lynda).
   
   
3. MS Teams referred to the fluidness of workflow learning and the simplicity of microlearning. Learners need not be interrupted on what they do, while they learn every bit of information and apply them to solving work issues.
   
   
4. When technologies like Microsoft initially started to commoditize, the process and design were arduous and hard to navigate. There were very high-level hurdles for learners when they used the old concepts of learning management systems or other heavy learning platforms. But today, Microsoft has succeeded in making it seamless, lightweight, and natural through MS Teams.

Culture of Collaboration

It is noteworthy to add that a new culture of learning is evolving. Workers are collaborating, exchanging ideas, communicating, and learning at the same time in the right places. We have finally brought the importance of collaboration to the forefront.

The bottom line for me is this: it is easier to commoditize the process when technologies are beginning to keep up with new ideas in learning. Likewise, when they try to mimic and implement some of the significant innovations of thinking (i.e., using workflow learning and microlearning in their software). For me, the most potent implication is, we are learning. We are developing a learning behavior that is focused on work and away from just instruction. Even without being formally taught, people learn through the principles of workflow learning and microlearning.

Doing it, is far more important than being educated on what workflow learning or microlearning is. When you come across Microsoft Teams or any other learning app that allows you to do more, take advantage of it. The journey has been long BUT but we finally made it.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Demystifying the Trainer’s Myth - Workshop Tip #223

I recall a story where a trainer said to her participants,

Although this is a statement of fact, in my mind I thought that the trainer seemed to have missed a golden opportunity to make the learning stick to her learners’ minds.

Consider training and work situations as two islands. Trainers, instructional designers and developers build the bridge that interconnects the two. We need to provide the workers an avenue where skills and knowledge learned in training can meet the demands, issues, and situations at work “as they happen.”

We’re Not Atlas

For some, the trainer’s myth that it is our job to follow up on how good the workers are at doing their jobs and applying ideas beyond training is unfair and unrealistic. It is like Atlas carrying all the weight of the world on his shoulders. It’s not that learning professionals are trying to avoid responsibility but this is hinged on what actually happens on the ground. However, just because it’s hardly possible to check on everyone, it does not mean that there’s no way around it.

Follow-up Works!

The importance of follow-up in the training process cannot be underestimated. It is during follow-up that workers are given time to reflect on their learning. Also, trainers are able to evaluate the effectiveness through feedback and results. It also is an opportunity to reinforce key learning points to the workers. It works! No doubt. However, follow-up requires time and resources from both trainers and workers. It can also be difficult when trainers and workers are unable to connect regularly.

Three areas to explore to make follow-ups effective:

1. Self-learning - Encourage your learners to drive their own learning. Provide opportunities in your design and training that follow-up work and study are relevant and useful to learners.
2. Easy to access references while at work - publish your references and learn-on-need materials so your learners can easily access them when the need arises. The references become so handy that it feels “it is always there.”
3. Build in your design work applications - focus your design with the intent of work applications. If your sessions are on point for work usefulness, learners will apply the ideas by themselves, instead of the need for follow-ups.

Learning is supposed to be an ongoing process. But we also have to realize that formal training alone will never be sufficient. More learning happens in the workflow, albeit informally. Study how people learn while doing work, involve their ideas, and try to embed follow-up methods or activities for a seamless, more efficient, and relevant learning process. The argument of whether follow-up is a trainer’s sole responsibility may be debatable but it doesn’t take away the fact that it is essential and highly beneficial to improving the workers’ learning and performance at work.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

How to Shift the Learning Culture From Dependency to Workflow Learning - Workshop Tip #222

Too often I hear instructional designers, developers, and L&D specialists resort to saying “we can’t share the culture of learning, it is up to our leaders.” Specifically, “we can’t introduce new ways to help learners to self-learn because leaders and SMEs won’t allow them.”

There are some truths to these concerns. However, we look at it from a view of what we do in instructional design, where there are opportunities to be more proactive and positive…”move the needle,” as the saying goes.

To change the culture from dependency to workflow learning

The practice of traditional instruction learning is to organize and present ideas and knowledge to help workers improve results at work. Traditionally, instructional learning primarily focuses on transferring content and knowledge. Consequently, the application of knowledge is often left to chance – we “hope they use it.” The cost to produce this type of learning content is high, the speed of delivery is slow, and the added value is difficult to establish with any certainty.

But the rapid advancements in technology have led to dramatic changes to L&D and how people “want” to learn in the workplace. We see the shift from delivering information dump and static LMS towards facilitating stimulating learning experiences leading to self-discovery. Support from the organizations and its leaders to push for integrated and results-oriented workflow learning is steadily gaining ground.

Where are the opportunities to change the culture?

To change the culture from one that is about “instructing” to the culture that will “let them learn,” one that does not take a mandatory order from top to bottom to make the change.  Instructional designers, developers, SMEs, and project leaders can make small yet significant milestones.

See how this works for you.

1. Add to your lesson exercises

In your lessons, you can add an application-focused exercise and activity. This exercise or activity encourages workers to take on a work-related issue and find ways to solve and improve it. This should be linked to the subject you want them to learn. The usual exercise is to simulate an experience for the learners about the content of the lessons. We need to move towards the culture that lessons are used only to support what we do at work. Lessons are not the end-all or be-all of learning. It simply reinforces it.

2. Delete, replace or reposition knowledge tests to application and impacts

Totally delete or reposition your “testing” for memorization to “how do you apply the ideas at work?”. This helps learners to think beyond test completion and focus on applying ideas learned. Tests have their own place, however, they tend to be the end of it all in lessons. This is how a culture where learning is all about testing begins. We should foster a new culture that is centered around learning and applying impacts at work.

3. Disrupt lessons from “you must learn” to “find the problem and fix it.”

Determining impact areas and ROI is such a difficult process in an instruction-driven learning. One reason is that we start with the lesson and content, and along the way, we spend our energies on drilling down what they “ought” to learn. Reversing this would improve impacts. Start lessons with asking learners to identify an area where they can apply a general area around your lesson topic. Then allow them to use their situations to use the lesson to discover and apply impact areas.

Shifting the culture of learning is everyone’s responsibility - top to bottom, sideways and from bottom to the top. I have seen long lasting and even immediate learning culture changes when L&D professionals in the frontline make experimental lessons and beta programs.

We can influence the learning culture change.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

"It Depends" Elicits Deliberate Thinking and Learning - Workshop Tip #217

This is from a participant in our Workflow Learning workshop.

Why is it easier for people to say “It depends” when they are asked a question? I often hear this prevalent response from scientists, as well as workers and leaders.

What do people mean exactly when they say it?

It could be mental requests like

“Provide me more information. Tell me more.” 

“What is the issue and the problem?” 

“What is your point of view?”

“What do you want to achieve?”

Or for others, it may simply mean “I don’t understand.” 

At times, “I am just a smart aleck who wants to show off.”

The “It depends” response suggests that the question or issue requires more careful thinking.

Timothy Carey, Ph.D. wrote in a Psychology Today article.

Understanding the appropriateness of “It depends” (and why many more advice-givers should use these two words with much greater frequency than they do) hinges on understanding where the dependingness comes from. When you’re trying to decide whether to do A or B, the answer doesn’t depend on anything “out there” in the external world. The “depends” all comes down to you and your internal world. The suitability or otherwise of any course of action depends entirely on what you want.

Carey, also suggests further, that this has to do with a deliberation process.

The trouble is, we always have lots of wants. That’s why the “depends” is so important to pay attention to. If you’re deliberating over something, it must be because you’re not clear about how to respond. Should I go or stay? Should I spend or save? Should I study or party?

In my related work to Workflow Learning and our workshops, a key aspect is the deliberate process of thinking.

Oftentimes, we want learners to grasp what we teach them. But in the context where learners are thinking to solve issues, they must go through a deliberation process in their minds or with their teams.

An example:

“What happens if I adjust the formula to add more of this element? What could be the possible outcome?

Deliberate thinking is the start of good quality learning and it is essential to arrive at the most reliable answers. After all, this is what we want workers to do.

References

Timothy Carey, Ph.D., “It Depends”

Ray Jimenez, Ph.D., Workflow Learning

Ray Jimenez, Ph.D., Figure It Out!

Situation Expert website

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Importance of Collaboration in the Workplace - Tip #215

In a recent article by Josh Bersin, he acknowledged that we are indeed living in a skills-based community in which people, especially workers, want to learn everything quickly. The volume of online content is huge, and companies are spending more than $200 billion on different types of workplace training programs, including workflow learning. Most of the content is targeted towards the workplace to allow employees to learn new things whenever they get time.

But we need to understand that the most effective and memorable learning happens through communication and collaboration while in the workplace. In Jane Hart’s 2018 survey, a glaring 94% of the respondents think that learning from daily work experiences is very important, followed by knowledge sharing with the team. Learning in the workplace has moved away from the traditional methods.

Collaborative Learning

The best way to study collaboration among employees is to examine how they behave and what they say while at work. We can easily evaluate the type and depth of collaboration by listening to conversations of employees while they are working on a task. Employees commonly collaborate to complete tasks and improve their work situations. They don’t necessarily formally attend meetings to collaborate. Just as work is not a natural place where we “do” learning. People don’t go to work to learn. We simply do work, but work is a transformative process. According to Joseph Raelin, its purpose is to transform activities and resources into some form of result. It is when workers are faced with work problems to fix, solve or improve, small actions or “nudges” present themselves that lead to peer to peer actions and formation of teams within the company.

These are examples of conversations in the workplace in which collaboration happens:

Design new training programs for workplace

No doubt that technology has helped us in various forms, but at the same time, we need to pay attention to the collaborative learning process. It is essential to understand that training programs for employees should be based on collaborative learning, whether they are available online or organized in the meeting room. Group learning activities can also be designed for employees because they help to generate fast and effective results in limited time. It does not mean that traditional learning strategies should be ignored. It is better to maintain a healthy balance between instructional and collaborative learning process for better results.

Conclusion

The challenge in learning through collaboration is that we set a very tall order and tell people how to best collaborate. Instead of recognizing that collaboration already exists, we don’t, and as a result it becomes a foreign concept in the workplace. We must foster the culture of collaboration and make it a native practice by acknowledging that workers, whether shallow or deep, do collaborate in their own ways. How we harness them and actively promote the process is the key.

References

Ray Jimenez, Workflow Learning

Josh Bersin, The Power of Collaborative Learning: More Important Than Ever

Jane Hart. (2018). 7th Annual Learning in the Workplace Survey results.

Joseph Raelin

Thaler, R. H. & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"

Enhancing Observational Skills Is Crucial in Workflow Learning - Tip #213

How many times have we seen workers in situations where they focus too much on following the process we trained them on, instead of using the power of observation and critical thinking?

The Broken Screw Story

A technician, who was having a problem with an equipment, frustratingly scans the manual again to see if she’s doing it correctly.

“I’m using the correct screw, but it won’t fit. What am I doing wrong?”

She tried to insert it again, but to no avail. She checked the supplier’s website for more updated information about the equipment but there was none. Her last resort was to ask a senior technician about it.

He then replied, “I used the other screw, and you have to slightly heat it up because this one, although it’s supposed to be the right one, does not fit.”

According to Roger Schank, one of the places where real-life learning takes place is in the workplace, “on the job.” He suggests that if we want our workers to learn their jobs, the best way to do it is to let them do their jobs. Work situations and issues trigger the worker’s critical thinking and creativity. It is the starting point for their investigation and their need for answers and solutions. In the story above, the senior technician knew how to work the screw because he had gone through the same problems and must have tried and tested several solutions. It even paved the way for him to innovate (heat up the screw, even if it doesn’t say i needed to in the manual). Observation is a key component in the process of diagnosing and fixing work problems.

Also, in a study by Magda Osman, evidence suggests that there is a positive correlation between observation-based learning and problem-solving. People learn better and faster, not through mastery of procedures, but rather by trial and error and observation. Just like what we realized in the Broken Screw Story.

3 Impact Areas Of Observation in the Workplace

Click here for enlarged view.

1. Discovery of gaps

The modern workplace is full of distractions and it’s easy for workers to lose focus and to just go with the flow in order to complete their tasks. Critical thinking and time for observation are often set aside in favor of deadlines. Observation is crucial in identifying gaps, breaches or inconsistencies in the workflow. It is how workers are able to assess which problem areas to immediately fix, solve, and improve.

2. Forward-looking solutions

Being fully aware and deliberately paying attention to the different elements of work processes, deeply understanding its meaning and recognizing plausible risks, errors, and hazards are essential observational skills in the workplace. It aids the workers to think ahead of solutions to problems before they happen. It trains their mind to be adept at solving both expected and unexpected work issues.

3. Results

Observation is a powerful skill that can be scaled. It can be measured based on the variances of results and on how well workers adjust to changes in their work and its environment. Being diligent, observant workers highly impact their productivity, safety and company costs as it lessens, if not eliminate, the possibility of mistakes, accidents, and errors while doing their assigned tasks.

Conclusion

Without good observational skills, the potential to miss important steps and the risk of repeated errors are high. It affects the quality of workers’ output which can be costly to the organizations they are in. We have to train our workers, not just to be mere followers of procedures and processes, but also to be keen observers, self-reliant thinkers and creative problem-solvers.

Reference

Ray Jimenez, PhD., Workflow Learning

Roger C. Schank, What We Learn When We Learn By Doing

Magda Osman, Observation Can Be as Effective as Action in Problem Solving

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"