Business professionals face increasingly complex problems, as they adapt to rapid economic, technological and cultural changes in a global business environment. The price of decisions made through trial and error is high, making this a costly way to learn. Case analysis offers realistic opportunities to develop problem-solving, decision-making and teamwork skills by analyzing a fictional problem. With e-learning, this respected approach can be used in individual just-in-time or group training. This interactive webcast offers easy-to-adapt strategies for using case methods with the e-learning technologies you have available at all times. Your organization can draw from fictional problems based on fact to transfer and execute on strategic initiatives for your company.   Presenter and facilitator Janet Salmons will demonstrate using a case study on coaching talent, and you’ll leave with practical ideas for developing and increasing your organization’s problem-solving using on-line resources.

HCI members please post your insights, experience and questions below about how you use on-line resources for problemm solving, or start or join a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

HCI members ask:

1. How can case studies be used to improve individuals’ and team performance? ie what if several people on the team at different times were floundering in team leader role?

2. Question: How does this type of learning accelerate learning transfer on the job (shift from e-learning to e-working) to improve job performance?

3. Question: How are case studies similar to or different from simulations, both which have the goal to improve jability to deal with situations likely to encounter in job performance?

4. Question: How do case studies develop the competency called “critical thinking”?

5. Question: What is the role of the trainer or facilitator?” “What do managers/supervisors need to know?”

6. Question: Are there any good locations (search engines) to go to online to find a case study that meets the need of the training course?

7. Comment: I think that there is wonderful potential for using case study method to support online collaborative learning. The key benefit that I see is that it can provide useful substance and content that engages participants in thinking and exploring. So much online learning is presentaion based and this provides an opportunity, if well done, for interaction and exploration - both real time and asynchronously. Your steps are helpful in outlining a process for this.

It’s a sign of the times…Learning professionals are shifting their attention from doing the training to recommending on-line learning. What guidance can learning and development departments offer to ensure e-learning is building competencies that improve job performance? How does talent move from “learning to know” to “learning to do” and knowing how to find out? This webcast will cover critical aspects of e-learning such as competencies to access e-learning tools, communities of practice to share applied learning, and what you can do as a learning professional to shift your organization to leverage e-learning for business results.  Experts John Smith and Beverly Traynor will share their insights about how your organization can leverage e-learning in the web 2.0 world, as learning on the job becomes inseparable with delivering performance.

HCI members we hope you’ll post your thoughts, insights below as well as join or start a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org

HCI members ask:

Question: How do you bridge the gap of multi-generational users?
Answer: thanks for asking Elizabeth…we’ll explore…

gaming and learning, web events, Increasing your revenue through e-speaking, learning metrics & reporting, new hires in our community/organizations, development of curriculum to support advancement of organizational process maturity 

Question: Tell us more about CoPs and how they are created? How does an organization operationalize them? How does the L&D function connect best to with a CoP to support it?
Answer: thanks for asking Laura, we’ll explore

Question: People have different preferences on desired speed of learning…paradoxically we are used to e-anything being very fast, but when there are others in a COP everyone is at a different place and pace… when there is one facilitator that person keeps conversation moving at a pace that matches the needs of most learners…how does this adjustment get made in a COP to help keep everyone engaged?

Question: Talk about setting up a learning blog specific to a CoP…
Question: What e-learning s/w packages are others using, e.g., toolbook, ignite, adobe captivate? (Rapid development tools) 
Answer: thanks Anne

Question: what e-learning s/w packages are others using, e.g., toolbook, ignite, adobe captivate?
Private Answer: thanks Chad…

Question: How does one measure knowledge retention from e-learning?
Answer: great question Chad…let’s explore…

From Bev:

Hi!

You asked: “How do you bridge the gap of multi-generational users?”

I think cross-generational gaps are part of that diversity we were talking about in our presentation.

People come in to e-learning situations with different levels of digital literacy, different levels of maturity, different expectations about learning, different attitude to risk… And people from different generations.

I tend to get people to work as “buddies” and build peer-mentoring into the programme. While someone might have good technology skills to teach their colleagues, someone else will have good interpersonal relations, someone else will know how to manage tasks, another will be good at finishing tasks etc. You need an ecology of leadership and skills to learn, not just one specific domain of expertise.

I think it’s also important to put these gaps on the table and use them as learning opportunities. “Gaps” of any sort are an opportunity to surface issues of diversity and reflect on what advantages they bring.

Imagine a group of three: one with good technology skills, one who is a risk-taker and other who is rather cautious. How much more effective is that group if they collaborate and riff off each other’s skills than if they act individually?

Here are some of the concrete things I would do for cross-generational, cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary (etc.) groups:

* model an attitude which is “There are some things I don’t know and I’m not very good at. I draw on my network and social capital so that I learn and work more effectively.”

* give positive feedback and encouragement to people who share their skills and support each other

* build activities and reflection into what we do 

* introduce peer-mentoring and/or collegial coaching

* allow enough time in programmes for the processes of collaboration and trust-building (and not just the pursuit of content objectives)

BTW: What has been your experience?

I’m always excited to learn something new… and when you think about it, who isn’t?  But who in organizations prepares individual learners and their managers to be ready to learn, and what approaches are effective? And once learners are excited about what they have learned, if the organization’s processes and systems don’t support application of the learning, emerging competencies and behaviors are at risk to be dead in the water. This webcast will offer proven approaches to motivate learners, and adopt and apply critical learning for performance and business results.  Join Claudia Escribano  Senior Instructional Designer at Vangent, and me to explore this topic and related best practices.

HCI members, please post your comments below and join or start a related discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org
 

HCI members ask:

(from Risa)
For the Manager Support strategy, how do you apply tools to managers, especially manager training when the managers are executives with very little time?

More than 25% of Learning & Development managers have made integrating performance management with learning goals one of their top priorities (Bersin 2007). What is driving these leading practitioners? As organizations sharpen their focus of ROI, the emphasis has changed from how good the training is, to how well the training is used to improve performance.  

Do you apply “evalu-action” to help talent transfer learning to the job and improve their performance?   Hear insights and practices from our webcast presenters Frank Horvath and Alex Santos.  

Please add your comments and experiences below and join the post-webcast discussion group at www.humancapitalist.org  

HCI members add:

Do organizations begin with the business goal and then ask themselves what do people need to learn to accomplish it?

How do organizations prepare managers to coach application of learning so that it shows up in performance?
How do you suggest companies create a scalable reporting/metrics framework that is so critical to proving value to management? Often it is possible to show impact/application/value of a single class, but how can you scale that to 100s if not 1000s of courses?

What is the best way to align manager coaching and preparation with centralized training when there has been decentralized training for many years?
        We develop a core curriculum based on organisation’s competency dictionary. Then we develop learning solution based on the curriculum.

To reach today’s learners, organizations are finding exciting ways to deliver info on the go to their increasingly mobile workforce… no longer are field sales the only group who pull critical info just in time…as work-life balance and flexible work schedules become the norm, busy parents use their blackberries at their kids’ soccer game to prepare for a conference call or meeting, and millenials typically have their i-phone attached at all times, multi-tasking as a way of life. In China more people have cell phones than computers. Learning to go is becoming mainstream…learners demand it.   

Is “learning to go” like fast food?  Is content quickly pushed out to the masses as new business opportunities emerge? 

Learners have choice and want to pull info to match their “super-size-me” appetite for just-in-time info. 

Whichever form mobile learning takes, productivity comes with it.  We hope you’ll join our webcast with experts Steve Wexler and Judy Brown and explore the newest forms and uses of m-learning.  Please add your thoughts and experiences to the post-webcast discussion below…

When you recall your most effective coach, which terms and feelings most accurately describe their approach– tough?  tough love? compassionate? 

We’ll be interested in your insights and experiences and hope you’ll engage in the live webcast (and post-webcast blog discussion) of related evidence-based research presented by Dr. Richard Boyatzis.  You’ll discover why compassion is key to leadership development, and why it is central to your talent’s renewal and sustainable improvements.

HCI members ask:

Question (from Sean): Do you think that we feel compelled to ’socially engineer’ people because it is all we know how to do?
Question (from Carolyn): What is some of the language one would use when communicating to another starting from a position of the positive emotional attractors?
Question (from Keith): How does one evaluate the quality of an EI Coach program that is offered in the 3 to 5 day program?
Question: In light of your last comment on ‘real reasons leaders should coach’, how can this best be achieved in the ‘coaching cultures’ that we’ve created today that are primarily for retention and younger ‘ee development?

Question: What tangible measures of success can a manager use to gauge a team’s performance where the members cover all age ranges? (i.e. the easy changers and more difficult changers)

A point made by presenter Enzo Silva  on our webcast today was that millenial talent is not afraid to make mistakes and that they live and thrive in a “perpetual beta environment.”   Presenter Jeanne Meister added that the new approach to learning is based on user-generated content that is collaborative and personalized.  These are exciting elements that would undoubtedly lead to innovation. 

How are those innovative break-thru’s captured when they may be published in multiple social networking sites?  

What are some of examples of meeting challenges with mobile learning (“learning to go”) for people learning on the job out in the field?

HCI members, please share your related thoughts and questions on today’s webcast , Leveraging Learning Innovations for Millenial Talent Managment, in our new e-learning track Innovation & Creativity…

Hope you’ll get started in a lively dialog on these questions and related issues:

 Our presenter Enzo Silva asks: What do YOU think the future of learning has in store for the next generation?

HCI members’ thoughts:

The future of learning would be self driven rather than driven by the organisation. people would find out what they need to grow and then go in for self learning mechanisms to grow up the ladder

HCI member asks: How are service organizations that require face-to-face customer interaction and behavior change using gaming to implement learning that drives behavior and creates a personal customer experience?

HCI member asks: When we talk of learning how do we teach people what is to be learnt in laboratories and in places where one needs to do certain research to get the answer.

HCI member asks: What is true? If all info is obtained through the social media, isn’t it possible for something that isn’t true to be understood as true?

HCI member asks: How are companies that are heavy manufacturing and engineering applying this type of learning when not all of your workforce has access to computers?

HCI member asks: Is Sun Designing Learning in multi-modes to reach a variety of learning styles (i.e a game and written case study, podcast, etc)?

HCI member asks: Yes, being connected (i.e., social networking) is essential; however, this does not create human connectivity, it creates connectivity via the technology.  How do you connect the people to the actual person, not just to the text message?

HCI member asks: Since learners are all ages, how do content developers for various forms of distance learning accommodate options and preferences for multiple generations?

Also, to express more thoughts on related ideas, hope you’ll visit the blogs of each of today’s presenters  Jeanne Meister  and Enzo Silva.  

One of the most exciting organizational capabilities and talent competencies is innovation.  While undoubtedly innovation inspires more innovation, what stimulates innovation at its root?   Moving past the “chicken-egg” reflection, who could argue that learning inspires new thought and hence innovation?  Learning is undergoing a revolution, drawing on new technology with a global reach.  I hope you’ll weigh in on how learning inspires innovation and share your thoughts on learning technologies and tools that further break-through ideas and related practices.  

The above cartoon implies that break-thru thinking is needed to inspire innovation :-)  What are the learning practices in your organization that inspire innovation?

Please also join our post webcast discussion…

Title: Leverage Learning Innovations for Millennial Talent Management
When: Wed, Aug 20 2008 / 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET
 
Presented By: Jeanne C. Meister , Founder New Learning Playbook  blog, New Learning Playbook
Allan Schweyer , Exec. Director & SVP, Research , Talent Economy blog, Human Capital Institute (HCI) 
Register:  Click Here »
 
 
Over 80 million people born between the years 1982 and 1994, referred to as the “Millennial Generation,” are entering the workforce with expectations about learning that are vastly different from traditional approaches. They have grown up on Facebook and have social networking in their DNA.
This webcast will cover innovative approaches to re-invent corporate learning capabilities. Leverage peer-to-peer learning, collaboration, and “wearable learning” to integrate learning with productivity and how work is done by the Millennial generation.

Don’t miss these webcast take aways:

1. Identify the needs for learning and career development for four generations in the workplace–with a focus on recent research about Millennials
   2. Define benefits and barriers to investing in Web 2.0 technologies for corporate learning and talent development
   3. Integrate corporate social networking into your new talent on-boarding
   4. Create online communities of practice for various job families

Multiple stakeholders want to see the impact of training and learning on business processes and results.  The success story in today’s webcast,

is enlightening because of the guideline applied by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta:  ”It’s not how good the training is, it’s how good we use the training.”    They used success case evaulation to apply their leadership training and ”learn their way forward” with “evalu-actions” planned from the very start… 

I hope you’ll join the post-webcast discussion to hear more and exchange comments below… 

Here are some related questions from HCI members: 

How do you efficiently and effectively manage follow-up logistics, such as coaching learners post-training; communicating with the learners’ managers; seeking success stories; etc. How many staff are dedicated to making this follow-up process work well? How much time is dedicated to this process?
 

What direct ways do you connect the learning with increased revenues and cost savings?

In learning organizations often a valuable question or insight relies on another question being asked.  Here are three related questions– Is your talent on fire with innovation?  What factors precipitate talent being fired up to learn?   Where (and with whom) does talent development begin?

Immediately post-hire, new talent wants to learn who the “go to” people are for answers, and how to get things done in keeping with the company culture.   Last week I was on a breakfast panel in NYC at a meeting of the Five O’Clock Club to discuss best in class onboarding with 250 people also interested in how to accelerate time-to-productivity and the related learning curve.   HCI’s webcasts on Onboarding have had over 4000 sign ups from a broad spectrum of HCI members in HR, senior leadership, OD, and hiring managers, indicating there is clearly shared responsibility for developing new talent during the onboarding process. At some point post-hire (3-6 months), after the essential ‘know how’s’ to perform on the job are under one’s belt, motivation to learn may become taken for granted.  Who continues to fan the flames of talent development?  Is talent development a shared responsibility and by whom?

Let’s begin with the learner. Looking at blog directories under the heading of “talent development” I found countless blogs devoted to self-development.  To be frank, my first impulse was to skim right past most of them, because as an OD practitioner and baby boomer, my corporate experience began with answering the question, “what competencies does the organization want to develop?”  I’m not ready to throw that baby (boomer idea) out with the bath water, but upon reflection I think it is more important than ever for organizations to attract, recruit, retain and develop talent who are passionate about self-development and to find out what they want to learn.

Sun Hydraulics is known to hire talent who are passionate about learning through collaboration, and their practice with new talent is to NOT provide job descriptions on day one because a preconceived job description might be too constraining to people’s learning.  Rather, new talent is given a time period post-hire to learn about the company and align their individual motivation to learn with company goals.  What a refreshing an avant guard concept!

Peter Senge says that a learning organization comes from people who are excited and passionate about learning and enjoy learning together in pursuit of a shared purpose. This is the fertile ground for team learning and accomplishing the shared mission.

If people are passionate about self-development, it will be much easier

1) for managers (who are increasingly becoming developers of talent) to engage in conversations about learning and find out what motivates their talent,

2) to connect their interests to learning opportunities and strategic business priorities, because

3) it is these individuals who are likely contributors to innovation as they are committed to learning and continual improvement at their very core.

I invite your posts about learning practices in your organization to develop talent, and in particular learning related to innovation…