ASTD NY Blog

Dawn Sidgwick, Director of Learning Media Development for Global Commercial Operations at Pfizer, outlined how the company is integrating iPads into their training delivery strategy at ASTDNY May Monthly Chapter meeting.

Both the past and future are aligned for e-learning at organizations such as Pfizer. Dawn gave an overview of Pfizer’s long history of innovative training practices – from satellite broadcasts to web-based training and virtual meetings to its current and future plans to expand the use of technology for sales training and onboarding. Currently close to 30% of the Health Sciences organizations use only e-learning for their training delivery. This is foreseen to grow exponentially in the future as iPads are expected to be commonplace in 90% of these types of organizations – and to grow in all types of organizations.

The use of iPads for training delivery grew out of an organizational necessity for the immediate delivery of new hire training. The prohibitive cost and time of the typical printed materials and the time needed to ready laptops for use, led to use of the iPad for the onboarding of sales staff. The organization found many benefits including increased new employee engagement, acquiring the labels of “cool” and “innovative,” positive feedback, and, most important, there was no difference in exam scores.

iPads are generally considered to be very user friendly and less expensive than laptops, having increased functionality with the availability of apps and easy-to-update content. However, some constraints were also noted, such as security concerns, organizational readiness, the need for leadership buy-in, the lack of interactivity, and instructional design issues.

Dawn’s final words of advice were reminders that technology is always evolving; that we are still building it even as we are using it: and, as is clear at Pfizer, our eyes should always be looking toward the future and toward the use of technology to lead to more effective and efficient training solutions.

In "Your Brain at Work" David Rock explores the way our brain is wired based on studies and research conducted in the NeuroScience field. Our brain is the focus of this book and we need to develop an understanding of how our brain processes situations in order to improve our life, becoming more effective and thereby also achieving greater life satisfaction.

The book outlines the day of 2 professionals, Emily and Paul, and their 2 kids, Michelle and Josh. Paul is a self employed Consultant and Emily is a Senior Corporate type. The issues they are dealing with we all know well: Emily was recently promoted, and she has to win people over in her new role, lead a team, sell ideas, and incorporate additional new responsibilities into her day. Additionally, she is juggling marriage, household duties and parenting. Paul is a self employed consultant working from home. He has to pitch ideas to prospects, write proposals and to generate new business. He is dealing with competitors, vendors, marriage, household responsibilities and parenting. The book takes us through email overwhelm, multi-tasking, managing expectations, turning enemies into friends, unfairness, relationships and dealing with a culture that needs to transform.

The book introduces the reader to the functioning and limitations of the brain by exploring the pre-frontal cortex, the limbic system and response to both threats and reward states in the mind. Subsequently, this data was studied further and David Rock has developed a combination of these inter-related functions more concisely into the “SCARF” model which stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.

Making decisions and solving problems relies heavily on the Pre Frontal Cortex. The cortex is the outer covering of the brain- the prefrontal cortex sits behind the forehead. It is the biological seat of your conscious interactions with the world. The pre frontal cortex is handy but it has big limitations. It likes to have everything just right or it does not function well. The pre frontal cortex is introduced as a metaphor, a Stage, in a small theater where actors play a part but sometimes actors might be audience members going on stage to perform. The stage is what you focus on and it can hold information from your inner and outer world or a combination. 5 functions make up the majority of conscious thought.

These 5 functions use the pre frontal cortex and this uses up significant resources. The stage requires a lot of energy to function and knowing this gives us the chance to prioritize and organize our day differently and to simplify where possible. Distractions play a big part in our lives and can be exhausting. Changing focus constantly minimizes productivity, losing quality of thinking. High level thinking requires much energy.

There is also a character called the Director. The director is a metaphor for the part of the awareness that can stand outside of your experience and watch your life. Often it is called mindfulness, essentially meaning knowing yourself, which is the first step towards any change. Activating your “director” when you are overwhelmed is the real challenge that we all face regularly.

Human emotions involve many brain regions. Emotional experience is connected to a large brain network called the Limbic System. This system tracks your emotional relationship to thoughts, objects, people and events. It determines how you feel and drives behavior. It is not possible to process all options in order to determine what to do next. Value judgments must be made. The limbic system constantly makes positive or negative decisions, termed Toward (Reward) and Away (Threat) states.

David Rock developed the SCARF model and the book defines each of these 5 functions in context very thoroughly. This user-friendly model is a tool to help us to increase our own Toward state and decrease our Away state by strengthening these 5 domains. Also, as leaders or coaches, the model can assist us to help facilitate positive change in others in order to increase their performance.

The book discusses peak performance, insight, hot buttons, uncertainty, autonomy, control, making choices, managing expectations and culture transformation. Readers of the book will find this information, together with the examples provided, very useful.

David Rock imparts suggestions throughout the book with better ways to handle daily challenges that come into our lives each and every moment.

The focus of the book is on the brain, taking into consideration the circuitry of the brain based on recent findings, and offers conclusions in order to improve work-life integration and efficiency.

I highly recommend this book together with David’s book “Quiet Leadership” which  ties all these findings together profoundly in leading or coaching others, with the brain in mind, to enhance performance.

Last but not least, in case you were curious about our co-stars, Emily and Paul and do they live happily ever after, sorry to disappoint but they do not end up living happily ever after in the fairy tale way we would wish. However, they do find ways that work. David Rock shows that there are better ways to approach situations, with the brain limitations in mind, in order that matters do not spiral out of control. Starting with  the understanding of how our brain works, becoming more aware of our limitations and taking self responsibility, we can deal with issues more graciously so that parties involved in our interactions can walk away feeling more satisfied.

With stunning views from the 23rd floor of Met Life overlooking Bryant Park on an unusually warm early April evening, Kieran King from Skillsoft delivered a powerful, comprehensive, highly relevant presentation on “Blended Learning: Critical Design Decisions.” A self-professed “learning nerd” Kieran, Director of Client Loyalty, has authored learning methodologies and published several white papers, several of which are available to ASTD NY members in the Knowledge Center at astdny.org. Kieran may be an Atlanta resident now but she’s a true native New Yorker. As a recently hired Training Director in an organization where we do a fair amount of unblended single event classroom training, this event was perfectly timed for me.

 To give some context to where the industry is going, Kieran highlighted the shift in modality from 2001 when 80% of learning was delivered via ILT with to 2010 when that number decreased to 60% with 35% delivered virtually. This wasn’t as rapid a shift away from ILT as expected but it shows where we’re headed. She also highlighted three major trends in blended learning:

• Increased recognition of its benefits
• More purposeful application of blended designs
• Greater recognition that Instructional Systems Design (ISD) is still just as important as it’s always been

Kieran also pointed out that content can be delivered digitally 50% faster than in the classroom.

She shared 5 blended learning tips from Sally Hovis, VP of Learning Design at Skillsoft:

• Prepare your learners well
• Best blended program is what works best for your org
• Know your delivery options BEFORE you begin design and the best time to use it and the pros/cons for learners
• Core ISD still applies
• Acknowledge constraints

So how do you know what modalities to use? It’s all driven by the needs of the learner at the various stages of the learning process. The focus of Kieran’s presentation was a review of the 8 Phases of Workplace Learning all described from the learner’s perspective:

Before Instruction:

• Show Me

During Instruction:

• Tell Me
• Show Me
• Let Me
• Check Me

After Instruction:

• Support Me
• Coach Me
• Connect Me

As ASTD NY member Gail Gross pointed out, this framework is valuable to share with the learners so they see how the design of any program was created with their needs in mind every step of the way.

As an organization’s learning strategy matures, the degree and complexity of blending evolves as well. Here is Kieran’s Learning Strategy Maturity Model:

Stage 1: Supplement: Initiate learning

Stage 2: Target: Manager Learning

Stage 3: Strategic: Align Learning

Stage 4: Systematic: Integrate Learning

Stage 5: Optimize: Enterprise-Wide Learning

Other resources Kieran shared:

Jennifer Hofman’s ASTD Infoline on instructional design

Skillsoft’s ROI calculator

For further elaboration on these invaluable points, members can reference 5 documents Kieran shared with us which are posted in the “Knowledge Center” under the “Resources” tab at astdny.org. You must log in to access this section. Thanks again to Kieran for an outstanding presentation and to MetLife for hosting in their incredible meeting space.

I’m finally ready to admit that I have been a computer gamer for many years, but only now feel it’s safe enough to admit it. Why? Because gamification is now all the rage. If you don’t believe me, just look around you on the subway the next time you’re travelling in NYC and you’ll notice people intently looking at their cell phones playing everything from “Angry Birds” to “Tetris” to “Solitaire”.  Marketers and advertisers are adding game element like badges, status indicators, and leaderboards to encourage people to buy their products.  But how can we best use games to enhance learning and what are the game elements that make for effective learning?

That question was the main focus on April 26^th at the NYU Higher Ed and eLearning SIG joint SIG meeting.  We were fortunate to have Karl Kapp, Professor/Consultant at Bloomsburg University, stop by on his national book/blog tour to present highlights from his latest book “The Gamification of Learning & Instruction”.  The evening was energizing and engaging as we participated in a business simulation where we were assigned a role and had to negotiate with our table-mates to determine what business to be in and how to position it. In a very short time, the groups were completely immersed in the game. When Karl debriefed the game, and asked us a few questions, it was apparent that we had learned the key objectives without any formal training.

Karl started out by asking us what questions we had when playing games such as pong, space invaders, Oregon Trail and Myst.  One surprising fact is that the highest growing segment of casual gamers is women over 40 – who are playing casual games which are those that don’t require a high time commitment. (Think “angry birds”).

He noted that whenever training for life or death situations is needed, games are often the method of choice (i.e. flight simulators for pilots, health care simulations for doctors/hospital staff). Karl pointed out that trainers are often guilty of creating scenarios that are not challenging enough. For example, a hospital asked if they should have patients die in their simulation. (Karl’s answer: Yes!).

Karl presented research showing that the situations don’t have to be fun to be educational – it’s much more important to make them engaging.  And simulation games often build confidence back on the job.  In one study, participants in the simulation showed 20% higher confidence rate on the job than those in a traditional classroom experience.

According to Karl’s research, the four elements of games that aid learning are:

1.       Stories and Challenges – people learn and retain much more when the information is presented within a story.  Consider starting your training with a scenario that places the learner in the story.

2.       Levels – include scaffolding for beginners that isn’t used for advanced learners. Ideally, adaptive learning.

3.       Freedom – games provide feedback throughout, where most elearning only provides feedback at the end. Leaderboards compare your success to others, however leaderboards are most successful when participants can choose who to compete with.

4.       Freedom to Fail – in classroom, you may get only one try, but games start with expectation that you fail to try again and have multiple attempts to succeed.

To top off the evening, Karl raffled off copies of his book to two lucky winners.

Dr. Kapp was kind enough to provide his presentation on Slideshare:

http://www.slideshare.net/kkapp/games-simulations-and-gamification-in-learning-design-and-delivery 

If you have any interest in making your learning programs more effective, you owe it to yourself and your learners to consider using games as part of your instructional strategy.  The book is highly recommended and you can purchase it from Amazon or from the ASTD bookstore (use our chapter

code : CH1026):  http://store.astd.org/Default.aspx?tabid=167&ProductId=22923

Additional resources for the book :

Pinterest page for the book http://pinterest.com/kkapp01/gamification-happenings/

Facebook page : http://www.facebook.com/gamificationLI

Twitter hashtag #gamili

Karl Kapp on twitter: @kkapp

Karl’s blog: http://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/

Instruct people to turn off their cellphones when you want them to pay attention - otherwise their brains will be trained on their phones, even if they are on vibrate.  Also, forget about multi-tasking - something will suffer because the brain simply cannot do two things at once.  This is how Paul McGinniss started the Joint Coaching and Book Club SIG Meeting on April 17, "The Neuroscience of Coaching - How the Brain Works to Facilitate Positive Change."  Paul is Director of Training & Delivery for the NeuroLeadership Group, North America, and the concepts he presented are based on David Rock's book, Your Brain at Work.  Paul reviewed the 5 Primary Social Needs presented in the book:  Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness (SCARF) and described how he has used SCARF in coaching scenarios.  He also worked with session participants to apply SCARF to their own challenging situations and answered questions on how to get the most out of working with clients.  The topic was so interesting that participants did not want to leave the session.  Fortunately, there's an opportunity to continue the conversation with Paul McGinniss on Tuesday, April 24 at 6:00pm EST.  Serena Martino, Chair of the Book Club SIG, invited participants to dial in to Conference Number 512-400-4809, Guest Access Code: 848 3901# to:

• Learn strategies for embedding routines and information so that you have more strength in regulating your behavior
• Bring actual life situations to get a brain science perspective on how to deal with them
• Share business client challenges and let Paul work with you by applying SCARF to diffuse them

Anne Lesch, Co-Chair Coaching SIG

Dave Basarab presented his book “Predictive Evaluation” at the March Chapter meeting and the Book Club SIG discussed it on March 29th at Barnes and Noble, with Dave participating via conference call.

Dave presented the “PE” model in a very open and interactive style at the Chapter Meeting. The PE model is based on using the model as a leading indicator, to predict the adoption success rate in advance of starting a training program---what a concept!

The PE model has two main components: Predicting and Evaluating and it provides data for executives, including:

1. predicting areas of success in 3 areas: Intention, Adoption and Impact, and Measuring to see if success was achieved.
2. leading indicators of future adoption, i.e. Transfer of Learning and Impact
3. making recommendations for continued improvement

If leading indicators are below what was predicted, actions can be taken “to right the ship”.

The book defines the variables Intention, Adoption, and Impact in great detail. Intention addresses the question: “Are participant goals and beliefs upon course completion aligned with desired goals?” The text provides the steps to follow in order to conduct a successful Intention Evaluation.

Adoption addresses the question: How much of the training has been implemented on the job and successfully integrated into the participants work behavior.  An Adoption Evaluation measures participant goal completion rate against the defined Adoption Rate created when training value is predicted, transferring goals to the workplace. Results are analyzed and reports produced as needed. The steps are outlined in detail in the text to conduct successful Adoption Evaluation.

Impact evaluation identifies the impact the value of training has for the organization that can be traced to training. Assessment is quantified by the adoptive behavior that has made a measurable difference. The steps are expanded fully in the book to calculate successful Impact Evaluation.

The model is designed to predict the success of skills-based rather than knowledge-based training. It is also designed to monitor ongoing repeatable training programs in order to measure continuous improvement. Most importantly, it is designed for learning organizations that are open to examining their progress further by looking within in order to improve processes to achieve more favorable results that can be traced to training specifically.

I have discovered that to start with the last chapter of the book, chapter 6, is extremely useful. It explains how to start using the PE model successfully. It recommends the plan of action and the questions to ask before starting. Questions such as “Who are the key stakeholders? Who should receive the evaluation reports? What resources are available? What existing practices are in place? What funding is available?” and the “Timing” may prove crucial to your plan. These questions help to assess the purpose of the evaluation and what is prompting it. A plan of action is the key to the success of the PE plan. Action steps such as Deciding on the Questions that the PE should answer, and Creating a list of information that the PE needs to deliver followed by a list of tasks to execute for each deliverable identified, may prove critical. Subsequently, after asking the questions, perform the PE using the PE Sequence as shown in the book.

To summarize, as Dave inscribed in my book: “Predict and Evaluate to drive great results.” The PE Model is worth exploring prior to making the training investment, to illustrate to the organization stakeholders in a comprehensive manner the value and impact attributable to training.

Kieran King, Director of Client Loyalty at Skillsoft is speaking at the April 4th chapter event and she would like to hear your responses to these questions:

• Are you incorporating social learning and/or mobile learning in your blended programs?
• Does your organization have a standard set of blended program guidelines or are design approaches individually drafted?
• Do you have experience measuring the outcomes of your blended programs as compared to those that are not blended?

Barbara Safani of Career Solvers facilitated an excellent session, Setting Goals for 2012:  For You, Your Business & Your Clients, at the Joint Transition/Coaching SIG Meeting on February 23.  Participants had diverse backgrounds, experience, and expectations for the session and Barbara satisfied them all through her depth of knowledge and her manner of engaging participants.  She shared her extensive career coaching experience and recommended relevant websites, organizations, and resources to address the needs of the group, whether in transition, working with clients, or growing a business.  She discussed goal setting, emphasized the importance of relationships, and made recommendations for getting the most out of social media. 

Barbara stated that potential employers are less concerned about a candidate's age than whether or not they're relevant - candidates are advised to demonstrate relevancy.  There was a discussion of various assessments and types of certification and participants offered their own recommendations for resources they have found helpful.  All in all, a terrific session with a dynamic presenter and engaged participants.

Click below to view slides from Barbara's presentation:

Coaching SIG Goal Setting PP Safani.ppt

I recently attended "From C-Learning to E-Learning to V-Learning – Experience the Future of Learning, Collaboration and Coaching" presented by Margaret Regan.  As a Consultant I quickly felt the need to attend this intriguingly titled event.  This seminar "blew my mind", to echo the words of the e-Learning SIG Co-Chair, Enid Crystal.  I was exposed to concepts such as Telepresence, 3-D holographic projection and learning platforms such as Second Life and On24.  These technologies can be used by trainers to interact with individuals or groups miles apart. 

For example, coaches have used Second Life to help people through various disorders, illnesses and traumatic situations.  A few key takeaways from this presentation: 1) Gen Y is currently the largest population in the workforce. 2) The future of learning must accommodate them.  It must be fast paced and visually stimulating. 3) the future is now.  I will end off with the words of Margaret Regan “You need to see what’s next to be what’s next.”

P.S. As a learning professional do you think that the metrics for evaluating an elearning program is different from the a traditional classroom set up?(curious on your thoughts)

Ben Dattner (BD), author of the book “The Blame Game” led the discussion on Thursday February 23, 2012 at the Barnes & Noble 53rd street conference room in midtown.  Ben signed our copies of his book right at the start of the event and proceeded with an overview of how the book came about. He was inspired greatly by one of his Harvard Professors when he was an undergrad student, and the book is a good collection of all of his personal and professional experiences. Pop culture references are made throughout the book and should appeal to ASTD NY members!

Ben states that personal “introspection” is key to managing the blame issue effectively. Understanding your own “triggers” and their source is very helpful and identifying your own “style” is useful. He offers options for taking assessments to further your own understanding of these issues by referencing various sites in the book. Chapter members may recall that Ben presented and explained the way the assessments work more fully at the chapter meeting in October. We looked at charts and discussed our dominant styles in groups and then discussed with the entire group.

Ben writes with ease about a topic which at times can be very challenging. Most of us can say that “blame” is a part of our lives in one way or another. In some organizations, finger pointing is the normal culture while credit is either not awarded overall or not specifically given to the appropriate party. According to Ben, “The only winning move in the blame game is not to play.” The key is understanding your corporate culture before taking any action.

This book is ideal for the person that is on a learning path in life or the Learning Professional that is working in a culture that fosters learning, collaboration and trust. This book examines the dark side of personality, combining insights from organizational expertise and psychology.  Practical approaches are provided for anyone willing to perform the “inner” exploration in order to identify their own issues and work with them more effectively.

Personally, since reading this book, I find myself thinking twice before speaking in sensitive situations because some scenarios can be made far worse by “playing the blame game.” I find that I use this book to quote the practical approaches when appropriate, and I have also recommended the book to my yoga students so that they learn about themselves in order to navigate situations they confront in the work place more easily.