It's Not the Weapon, but the One Who Wields It...

I have been spending some time on LinkedIn lately, specifically on group conversations. Recently the E-Learning 2.0 group got my attention. The discussion was based on what would be the most relevant eLearning technologies of the 21st century. Now I am a product strategist, learning technologist, and lacrosse coach...

Whenever it comes to discussing how to best use technology, learning systems, or lacrosse sticks, and whether using it will make a difference, it always comes down to the same thing... "It's not the tool, but the one who wields it" that scores the goal... That takes preparation...

This means that the future of Enterprise 2.0, social tools, mobile, or any other advances in eLearning will depend highly on whether those who implement these tools to make business critical and or academic information available - are mapping the right tools, to the right job roles, and for the right reasons. It all comes down to needs analysis and how providers design a set of learning and knowledge management systems around those needs.

 As a learning or knowledge management professional, what can you do?

• Conduct a needs analysis.
• Identify the organizations goals and business drivers.
• Identify critical job- and team-based tasks.
• Understand the parameters of the work environment and its context.
• Know your learners and knowledge consumers.
• Involve all stakeholders in the process (IT, HR, Operations, any business unit that may be "touched")
• Avoid the "flavor of the month..."do not implement a new technology just because everyone else is using it.
• Bring in experts when you need them
• Choose the right tools for the right jobs

New technologies are the weapons for success in the years to come, but remember, it's not the weapon, but the one who wields it...

Analysis and Planning: Organizational Analysis

Organizational Analysis:

This sub-phase identifies organizational readiness for the learning solution. The organizational analysis validates and aligns the stakeholder’s mission and objectives with strategic delivery of a courseware solution, as mutually confirmed by stakeholder decision makers and the delivery team. The organizational analysis identifies critical information for the developed courseware solution, which should be mapped to criteria for behavior-based learning outcomes, performance outcomes, learner characteristics, and return on investment measures. Data should be mapped to the design phase as appropriate. An organizational analysis summary should be submitted.

Data collected at this stage includes:

• Critical success factors for synchronous and/or asynchronous training
• Confirmation of mission objectives
• Identification of training goals, expectations, and success measures
• Identification for points-of-contact
• Identification of systemic support factors
• Identification of constraining variables
• Confirmation that the problem to be addressed is based on a skill deficit vs. a performance or systemic deficit
• Paralleling project charter and planning

Risks if not conducted or conducted improperly:

• The solution does not meet expectations of decision-makers
• Misalignment of the course expectations with organizational or departmental goals, values, mission, and vision
• Support factors, external constraints, and climate related factors that do not facilitate transfer of training and thus result on project failure
• Losses of internal and predictive validity as benchmarks are not tailored to organizational needs for predicting success. (Internal validity looks at if training made any difference at all. Predictive validity is how training should predict success on the job based on criterion measures.)
• Miscommunication between the various constituencies of the stakeholder and the development team
  
• Development of a training solution for an outcome-oriented problem that requires a systemic or motivational solution
• Missed deadlines - extended project plans, and unforeseen obstacles to product success that do not meet stakeholder expectations due to a lack of proactive planning
• A dissatisfied stakeholder due to misdirected planning

We will discuss Task-KSA Analysis next.

Millennials

(Adapted from my corporate blog originally published December 11, 2007)

Who are the millennials and do we need to be concerned with their needs? Well, there is lot’s of debate over what started out as Generation Y, or the NetGen, but for the most part, millennials are those born after 1981. They will populate the workforce after their parents, the Baby Boomers, start retiring en masse at about 2011, and they think, learn, and do things differently.

Why do they do things differently? They are wired differently – not through nature but through nurture. While Generation X was raised on TV; the millennials were raised on the Internet with access to information like no population before them. Some say they are spoiled with their sense of entitlement, and some are, but characteristically, they like to be challenged and rise to the occasion. Look at the millennials in the workforce today - unlike some of their Generation X forbearers, millennials tend to get the job done right and done on time. Much like their baby-boom parents who embraced the advances that followed WWII, the millennials are masters of technology who embody the principles of goal setting espoused by Lock and Latham with a bit of bravado. Yeah, they have their own way of doing things, but as a parent who is a baby-boomer, I think they understand the world is different one that’s ripe for the picking.

For those of you who have teenagers 13 and up, watch what they are doing before dinner (or between after-school athletics, karate, dance, heading out with friends, etc.). What do you see them doing when you walk into their rooms at 7 PM? I don’t know about you, but mine have a book open (they are either reading or doing a good job of pretending); they have their TV on (the volume is off at least); they are listening to their iPods (that’s why the volume is off); SMS-texting on their cell phones; their computers are on so they can do homework in Word or on Blackboard; and update Facebook while IM’ing on Yahoo Chat... All at the same time! Oddly enough, they do well in school, one’s in line for a sports scholarship the other an academic one… How the heck do they do that? Those of you with teenagers, does any of this sound familiar? You have probably heard this story before, but the fact that so many convey similar anecdotes lends support to what makes them special.

Their needs are are important because they are the managers and key technicians of the future. From an instructional perspective, we need to map the characteristics and tools of this new learner to the required job-skills and organizational needs of the workplace. Like everyone who came before them, as professionals in learning and development, we need to enable them while managing behavior and performance. We need to design and develop systems and programs that support rapid information gathering and channels of collaboration, through technology. At the same time, we need to create opportunities for knowledge-transfer where the intellectual capital for those who are leaving the workforce can be passed on to the millennials entering. Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, and mobile devices are where we can bridge this gap between the boomers and the millennials.

There’s an old saying my grandfather used to say when I would try something new, “you will get out of it what you put into it…” The millennials seem to have mastered this concept. Not a believer?... I am. Look at some of the millennials entering the workplace now – easier to manage than the GenX’ers that preceded them - and they are bright eyed, bushy tailed, and ready to conquer. Are we ready? Well, let’s just say we are moving in the right direction. Hey, you are reading a blog aren’t you?

Recommended Articles:
http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/cda/doc/content/us_consulting_millennialfactsheet_080606.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y
http://www.generationsatwork.com/articles/millenials.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/60minutes/main3475200.shtml

BTW – I strongly recommend the Deloitte article.