"Expect from your learners what you see them DO in training!" A Simple, Powerful Design PrincipleExperts who train sometimes are wrong or incomplete. We've known this for a while now. Much of what experts do, think, and apply in their jobs is what cognitive psychologists call non-conscious. They know they're doing it right but they probably aren't aware of HOW or WHY. That's odd, right? You'd assume that an expert who knows stuff and is good at their job would be able to explain it to others. Often, they are less than effective. One common problem is that the expert isn't focused on performance on the job, clear on the learning objective, and doesn't provide 2/3's of the time in practice and feedback. Also, the expert is left to plan their own content-focused agenda, "covering" the material as a way to define success. This approach risks training and learning that is ineffective and irrelevant to a novice. What to do instead? I suggest instructional designers and consultants encourage experts to apply the super clever, and aptly named TOPF Secret to instructional design. It's as follows: To assure that your training results in learners who feel competent and confident in their ability to perform back on the job, remember: Task = Objective = Practice = Feedback Let me explain. The learner's task on the job, the learning objective, the in-class practices, and the learning feedback are ALL THE SAME THING! (Insert head explosion emoji here. Okay. Maybe not.) This simple principle has a profound effect on training success and the learner experience. Here's more on that. The "Task" is the learners' performance on the job. What is it that they must do, care about, and achieve in order to be successful? This is the "thing" that learners should be confident and competent about. You may have to do some analysis to determine exactly what this is. Cognitive Task Analysis is one technique. Interviews of high performers and average performers is another. Observation is a third. Consulting relevant literature on best practice is good too. Or, perhaps you can evaluate work product samples. Lastly, you may interview or survey managers of the work or subject matter experts, but see above for the risks (I'd never use interviews or surveys alone to design training.). The task is best expressed in a short, clear phrase of an action verb followed closely by a noun. Think: Checklist. The "Objective" is the learning objective for the training itself. What do you expect the learners to be able to do (or produce) once the training is completed? What are the essential declarative (book smarts) and procedural (street smarts) knowledge for their success? The "Practice" is what learners DO DURING the training that shows that they are proficient enough, and are confident and competent to apply the learning back on the job. And, the "Feedback" is your basis of assessment of the training. Did you achieve what you needed to achieve? What encouragement can be offered? When will they know they're doing a good job? So, for example, here's how this would work from the designers point of view:
Just imagine that your training and learning programs follow this TOPF Secret? Why, you'd almost instantly have:
Imagine that! Applying the TOPF Secret gives you the power to encourage the experts who train to be more performance-driven. I've found this simple yet powerful tool gives designers the confidence to shape how learning is designed and measured for impact. Imagine, indeed! Coming up in the next post, "The Wall of Reality."
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“The company with the most leaders wins.” Ken Blanchard Business Acumen Builds Valuable Strategic PerspectiveSome of the best companies in the world summarize their strategic intentions very well: “Wander Wisely” “Meet Shoppers In All the Moments that Matter” “The Best Bed for Better Sleep” Yet, time and time again, we encounter leaders at all levels of our client companies who have difficulty putting such seemingly simple instructions into practice. The decisions they make, the challenges they face, the demands placed on them, all seem to conspire to draw their attention away from these relatively simple plans. It’s my belief that the leaders that outperform the rest are those that can fluently translate strategy to action. They can see it and do it. They can connect what is the vision of the future to the decisions and actions in the here and now. Our work in business learning is centered on this very notion. We consistently see companies large and small looking for leaders at all levels that can see things like: Strategic differentiators in the marketplace Position of their products or services relative to their competitors High priority leverage points and decisions to get the best results with scarce resources The learning they and others need in order to see the bigger picture and get it done Each of these areas are essential for leaders to accomplish the overall strategic intention of their companies. Everyone needs to be on board. Ken Blanchard, author of The One-Minute Manager said recently, “The company with the most leaders wins.” He’s right. I’d even go further to say, “The company with the most strategic leaders wins.” A strategic leader is an employee at any level in your company who takes the initiative and brings others along. The strategic part of the role requires that the leader understand the vision, future, and how your company will achieve success at a high level, and then can bring those ideas down to the specific behaviors, decisions, and actions that get it done. How do you get strategic leaders? The best companies hire and develop them. Yes, it can be learned! Our work with our clients shows again and again the power of an engaging learning experience focused on true business acumen. We see that leaders who gain business acumen this way are more productive, energized, and get better results than those who don’t. It takes time and practice. It requires learning experiences that result in energy and enthusiasm around the strategies and tactics for leader success. Most importantly, it requires practice in connecting strategy and getting it done. Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions. A Strategy for Managing Workplace AnxietyI knew the session was going to be a challenge. A major challenge. The program was happening anyway, even though the company had just gotten horrible news. Economic downturn. Stock value was down 90%. The shareholders were losing confidence that this 210-year-old firm could weather the storm. It was 2009. We had a global financial crisis. Our subject that day was leadership business acumen. We were learning how to do insurance business analysis and decisions when you are a non-financial insurance professional. We thought nobody would show up. We were wrong. Everyone showed up. And more. We had over 45 people in attendance that day. We had planned on 25. We scrambled to accommodate everyone. We had one of the best learning programs I have ever been a part of. The company still is a blue-chip insurance and financial services firm. They made it. Upon reflection, I think I know why. When change is chaotic, and there is no clear history or precedent to follow, smart people look to understand the bigger picture. When we provided these super smart people essential business acumen, along with tools to deal with their own uncertainty, well, the uncertainty subsided. More precisely, their stress around the uncertainty subsided. Every one of these 45 professionals left the session with a better understanding their business, what to do, when to do it, and how aggressive to be. They were called to action. Business acumen reduced the negative impact of uncertainty. We have known for some time that we ought to pay more attention to the human side of change. We are more alike than we are different. People will respond to the uncertainty in predictable ways. We have seen models like the Adoption Curve and the Stages of Grief to help us understand how people respond to disruption. Business acumen helps you move through the stages to higher performance. Here is why I think it works. It works because:
The good news is that business acumen gives you the tools to minimize the stress, sense of powerlessness, and the negative impact of uncertainty. Learn the bigger picture. Everyone will show up! "How little can be done under the spirit of fear." Florence Nightingale Essential Ingredients for Good Online LearningWell, it seems we're all online now, more than ever, delivering learning to our stakeholders in every online way possible. It's a bit of a panic for some. I've been a participant in some of this stuff, and let me say, while it's certainly online, much of it is not really learning. We seem to have forgotten the essential ingredients for good learning, whether online or not. In the chaos and the rush, perhaps it may serve us to take a breath and remember what works in the in-person world works in the live, online world. Yes. It does. My challenge to you: Take some time to plan your live online learning session. Apply these principles, and you'll be glad you did. There are five essential ingredients to any effective learning program. Only five. They can be applied more or less, longer or shorter, complex or simple. Yet, all five are needed if your goal is learning and maybe even performance improvement (you know, learners actually USING the stuff they just learned back on the job). They are:
Side note: Include these ingredients and viola! You have an engaging, live online learning session! You want more depth on these suggestions? Sure thing. Read Erica Keeps and Harold Stolovitch's book "Beyond Telling Ain't Training Fieldbook." It's loaded with examples. Rationale This answers the questions why your learners should learn. The best scenario is prima facie, meaning, "on its face." It's obvious. We accept it. For my learners, my topics are business related and there's lots of prima facie relevance. For other topics, that are compulsory or mandatory, you may need to work a bit harder to show relevance. So, use case study or simulation, or at least a pretest, to let the learners know what and why they need to learn. Some call this "What's In It for Me." Objective Too often, we are covering content and topics and NOT focusing on tasks and work outputs. That's a common problem in instructional design since the dawn of time. With a bit of analysis, figure out what task to what performance criteria are you going to deliver to the learners? With some thought, I bet you can define it in clear, simple language. Content There are two types of content: Procedural and Declarative. I sometimes call these "tasky" and "smarty." Tasky content is the how to, the step by step, the "what to do next." Smarty content is the why, when, and if types of stuff. Deep knowledge and experience to know when, if, and whether you should do something. Some call this 'expertise." Both are vital for real world performance. Again, with some thought, you will be able to tease out the essentials here. Practice Real world, relevant, and authentic practice is essential. Give your learners a chance to do what they are supposed to be learning to do. Try it out. You'd never learn to ride a bike without getting on a bike, would you? Use case study, simulation, dry runs, rehearsals, role plays, mock ups, and other techniques to give learners some practice doing what they are supposed to be learning. That way, they won't be practicing on the job, making mistakes, and blaming the training! Feedback In some cases, feedback that encourages, nudges, corrects, and confirms is almost enough to shape performance. It is essential encouragement that gives a newbie confidence and a feeling of competence that they can do what they've learned, and will persist if they run into trouble back on the job. Some argue this is THE ingredient, along with practice, that makes training, training. Now, facilitating live online seminars is a unique skill set. Much of what you already know how to do transfers to this format. However, we can all do more to develop these skills. Check out the International Association of Facilitators for development opportunities and networking. If you need inspiration, check out Thiagi's new book on Live Online Learning Activities. So there you have it. Five simple ingredients you can integrate into any learning program, either live online or otherwise. With some thought, planning, and creativity, you can get your learners to truly learn, and feel good about the experience. Thanks for reading. I gotta go to my next Zoom call. It's finally Happy Hour! “We have a lot going on between the ears. . . A lot of what mental training addresses is how do we start being selective about what you pay attention to.” Ericka Carson, Sports Psychologist Create the "A-Ha" to Improve PerformanceWell, do you see the cow? Do you? Look again. Do you see the patterns that you could interpret as a "cow?" Not yet? (See a picture below for more help.) I've used this exercise to make the point that we only see patterns when we see them, not before. We will only see them when WE see them. No amount of explanation or encouragement will result in you seeing the pattern until you see it. Also, I have found that the more we talk, the more we say "it's right there" or "can't you see it?" we can make things worse. A lot worse. And then, there it is. The pattern. The "Cow." Our ability to see patterns has everything to do with leadership and business acumen. In my work, we help experienced leaders free their minds from the 'noise' so they can see the important patterns in their business information, thereby allowing them to make strategically sound and operationally effective decisions. That's "business acumen." I have also learned that too much too soon is not helpful. There's a principle in learning called "cognitive load." In short, it means that when learning something new, there's a limit to how much your brain can absorb at one time. That load can be maximized quite easily when something is new. It feels like you're "drinking from a fire hose" or you're experiencing 'death by PowerPoint." Decision researchers call this phenomenon Information Overdose. Information overdose (also known as infobesity, infoxication, information anxiety, and information overload) is the difficulty in understanding an issue and effectively making decisions when one has too much information about that issue. Wikipedia When we overdose on information, when something is new or risky or complex, our ability to see patterns is significantly curtailed. We can't see the forest for the trees. We lose the bigger picture. That's where Business Acumen comes in. With real business acumen, the 'game of business' is perceived to slow down, because your expertise is available to anticipate, to connect, to react, and to think. Read more about this phenomenon in professional athletes here. I use business simulation, spaced repetition, direct instruction, case studies, feedback, and other techniques to build business acumen. To be more precise, I engage our learners in these learning experiences so that THEY can achieve fluency and automated thinking, allowing them to see patterns. With this fluency, leaders free their cognitive abilities to see the patterns and make decisions. In short, they can perform their jobs better. To get there, you need to simply practice a bunch, be curious, take chances, and do it rather than simply talk about it. These techniques are what we use to improve leadership decision making and performance. See the cow now? A-ha! If you empty your purse into your head, no one can take it from you. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return. Benjamin Franklin Research New Companies QuicklyBREAKING NEWS: Sabre (NYSE: SBR) will acquire the only surviving branch of Dunder Mifflin! Who is Sabre? Who is Robert California? Is Jo Bennet a good boss? There must be a way to learn about Sabre and its plans without getting bogged down into the details. Well there is! Often, my learners are interested in applying their business acumen to learn more about potential clients, competitors, industry leaders, and others in a marketplace. With some business acumen, curiosity, and a few tools, it's pretty straight forward to learn more about what's happening at these companies. You may even be able to predict their pending liquidation! Publicly traded companies put out a great deal of information on a regular basis. Anyone who's interested can find useful information that can provide context for their business decisions, strategies, and plans for growth. You can do the same with private companies, but it may be a bit trickier. Investor Presentations Publicly traded companies will prepare a presentation and a "road show" for Sell Side analysts and related firms to help them provide regular research reports to the firms clients. The company's leaders may present at investor conferences, where many analysts attend at the same time. These analysts use these and other data to form opinions, financial estimates, and other recommendations as to the stock's expected performance. The good news, is these investor presentations are posted for public consumption on the company's Investor Relations page. The better news is that they are brief, to the point, clearly written, and full of useful information about where management is taking the company, and why. Here's a great example from Oshkosh Corporation. This is always my first stop when learning about a company. Form 10-K The Form 10-K is an annual report required by the SEC that gives a comprehensive summary of the company's financial performance. It can be an overwhelming document, but please don't let that intimidate you. You don't have to read the whole thing to find it useful. Go directly to Item 1 "The Business." Here you'll find a plainly worded three or four page summary of what the company does to make money, where it does it, and how it sees its way forward. Often, they include risk factors to their business which can tip off where they see opportunities or threats. If you're brave, and I know you are, you can also skip forward to Item 6 Consolidated Financial Data. Here you'll see their Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Statement of Cash Flows. All these things are explained in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis. Here you'll see insights into the thinking of management. Aggregators Online financial aggregators and curators are extremely helpful in learning more about your target company. Sites like www.morningstar.com, https://finance.yahoo.com, or www.Fool.com provide analysts' opinions, news releases, and standard, simplified financial information. They also glean key performance ratios and other stock and performance information from publicly available sources. This is really handy for comparisons to benchmarks and industry standards. Don't underestimate an old-fashioned internet search. Fire up your favorite search tool (Google, Bing, or something else) and search for things like, "XXX company merger" or "Sabre dividend" or "Jo Bennet Sabre Liquidation." You'll find press releases, newspaper articles, or even company publications related to the news. Very useful. Uses and Applications You can use this information to evaluate a potential employer. You can learn about their business to impress them with your questions during the interview. As a business learning consultant, I use this information to provide context for leadership development, talent management, business strategies, and opportunities to growth. All of this is helpful in my work. You can evaluate a potential investment. You can do some homework on a firm before entering into an agreement with them. With a bit of curiosity, and a plan, you can learn a lot about a company in a short time. With this knowledge, you can feel much more confident in your decisions and your assessment. How the turntables! If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Maya Angelou Take a Bit of Time to Bring Them AroundMe: We'll let's plan the training! Them: Um. Okay. Me: What training to you need? Them: None. Go away. Your target learners' attitudes about training make a big difference. I was reminded of this recently. We had a great idea for training and development and it was going to knock their socks off. Except, it didn't. We forgot to consider our learners' opinions of training in general and this training in particular. Pre-conceptions were getting in our way. You see, training for this organization was for those who were, shall I say, "broken." These people think training is because:
This reality hit me. A useful reminder in the form of learner feedback to me, their trainer. So, I was reminded that know that learner attitudes about training fall into three categories:
Attitude is a choice. So, how can we help our learners make better choices? First, how do you position training at your organization? I mean, what's it known for? Aspire to be learner-centered and performance driven. That's a good start. Here are other lessons I've learned:
Apply these principles, and you'll have far more learners and a lot fewer inmates and people "on holiday." Let's try this again: Me: Let's plan the training! Them: Great. It's about time we did. Me: Help me help you! Them: That's great. We have a lot to say. "Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced." John Keats A few years ago (let's say 20, but who's counting?) a set of seminar participant surveys showed that we should "have more real world examples." Wait, what? MORE real world examples? What are they saying? We had discussions, case studies, role plays, and "multimedia" in the training. Everything was real. Yet it wasn't. At least for these people. What did we miss? We missed the business. Knowing the business provides the real context for learning. It keeps everything real. When you know the business, with what I refer to as "business acumen," the new leadership skills are far more useful. Keeping it real encourages learners to take their new learning and apply it back on the job. What do they apply it to? Real world performance. Nowadays, I apply this principle in everything I do. I seek first to understand the learner's context, 'where they are," and then the learners can apply their new learning -- in the real world. Consider these three areas of performance for leaders in business. Business acumen keeps it real in all three. They are:
Evaluating performance is similar but different from assessment. In evaluation, you're doing two more things that business acumen helps with: A) Assigning a value and B) analyzing impacts. Leaders with high business acumen will assess things with the most value (cash flow, margin, market share, payback, etc.) since these drive overall results for the business.. In decision making, leaders apply business acumen to analyze impacts, before or after a decision is made. Beforehand, it's used to predict an outcome of a set of decisions. Afterwards, it's used to learn what went well and why. It's vital that leaders are able to fluently "go both ways" like this. This ambidextrous approach reduces risks and improves performance. Our seminars provide learners with a set of questions they may not have asked before, but are now empowered to ask. These are relevant, real world questions for assessing, evaluating, and deciding things back at work. Our learners use questions and their newfound confidence initiate change for their teams, their companies, and their stakeholders. That's leadership performance. Today, trainers gamify, micro-learn, mLearn, MOOC, and blend our learning programs to to meet our learners' expectations. They may or may not need us to do so. What they truly need is for all of us to keep it real. Keep it real and you can't miss. "This isn't flying, this is falling with style." Buzz Lightyear "Gee, Dan. I like your facilitation style!" Often, I get this response from my clients and program participants. I wonder about it. I wonder if this well-meaning comment is meant as a compliment. I wonder if they get it. I mean, "Style?" Is that all you see in me? Hmm. A talented facilitator will make purposeful choices about how to approach an agenda, group, and goals. They plan thoughtfully to engage the group in the material, the process, and the outcomes. If this is done well, the group itself achieves its objectives. Look here for more on professional facilitation. The impact of the facilitators choices is significant. First, the facilitator is helping learners and participants engage in the content. We want them to remember things, right? (See my earlier post on this.) Beyond remembering, facilitators want true engagement with an expectation for follow through. Follow through by his or her participants. They make commitments and take actions. That's the business value of participating and engaging. Sure, style matters. It's the sizzle with the steak. It's the packaging. It's the "likability factor." Sure, I get that. If they don't like you, they may not listen to you. My choices in facilitating learning are purposefully meant to achieve:
"I am here to show you that the magic of creativity can happen even in the institutional environment where formal learning is supposed to take place." Gordon MacKenzie It was 1991. I was 27. It was my second day on the job. I still remember the man, the presentation, his techniques, and his message. Gordon MacKenzie, the man with the job title "Corporate Fool" at Hallmark Cards, presented his session entitled "Orbiting the Giant Hairball." He offered advice through story and example to help us navigate company politics so we could be our best, creative selves. You can get his book on Amazon, and you can read a summary. MacKenzie describes his book as “a liberation manual for the chronically entangled and the relentlessly oppressed.” Isn't that a memorable quote? Isn't that what it's all about? Making it memorable? In talent development, we give learners experiences that shape their perspectives, offer solutions, and improve performance. It's really difficult unless they remember what they've learned. Mr. MacKenzie's presentation stuck with me. His pony tail. His irreverence. His passion for people. His quirky style. All of that added up to a memorable morning for me. So memorable, I even remember the boring presentation by HR managers that followed his. (It was about profit sharing. I wasn't getting any.) We've known for a long time what aids in remembering. First, it's hard work for the learner. They must engage in the material with focused attention and spaced practice and recall. Interest helps too -- make it interesting. Novelty helps, with just a bit of unpredictability. Make it unique and it will more easily be remembered. Also, mnemonics, clustering, association, spatial references, and more help with recall. Harold Stolovitch wrote about "Getting Learners to Remember" in Chapter Seven of his book, "Telling Ain't Training." In my work, I will include these techniques in the delivery of simulations and other direct instruction. Often, I will speak with alumni of my programs and they will remember lots of details of their learning experience with me. For fun, I ask what they remember from the last PowerPoint presentation they sat through. Silence. Without remembering, we have little chance of learning transferring to the job and impacting performance. Patti Shank has written an entire book on writing for learning and remembering. Her evidence-based approach is very useful. Through these fundamentals, we can increase the likelihood our learners will use what they've learned and improve their performance. Don't forget it. |
"The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the unanimous views of all parts of my mind."
- Malcolm McMahon AuthorDan Topf, CPT is Sr. Vice President at MDI, Inc. Business Learning by Dan: Primers for TrainersPDF versions of short articles on how to integrate business acumen into all training and development:
The Income Statement Cash Flow Price and Volume The Circulation of Capital The Cost of Capital Market Differentiation Industry-specific: Financial Services -- Life Insurance/Annuities Retailing Archives
January 2021
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