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.