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I stumbled across the site Word Spy today which tells about the first uses of new words or terms.  They list the earliest use of the official term ‘Chief Learning Officer’ as being in 1993 with the following quote:

“So, just as some companies have a vice-president for total quality or an officer in charge of safety, Argyris explains, the CEO decided to have an executive in charge of organizational learning. He divided the HR function into two sets of tasks: record-keeping tasks and other duties that could be placed in a database, and tasks that involved employee education and retraining. The latter functions were to become the purview of a chief learning officer.”
—George F. Kimmerling, “A place at the top for trainers,” Training & Development, March, 1993

I also learned about such terms as ‘wikiality‘, ‘fridge Googling‘ and ‘peoplerazzi.’

Word Spy is worth a peek for a quick brain break.

In a Chief Learning Officer magazine article titled “People, the Neglected Part of Technology”, author David Miller explains his perspective on how learning and knowledge management should be integrated with the implementation of new technologies, such as a new ERP package (i.e. SAP).  He even provides a specific statistic from the Gartner Group that says, “when 17 percent of the total program budget is spent on these initiatives the chances of success go up significantly.”

I found David’s points to be applicable beyond tech implementations and to all of organizational learning.  I like reading articles where I find myself subconsciously nodding my head in agreement as I read and that happened numerous times throughout this article.

David calls on the combination of the usuals for learning such as “telling the learner, showing the learner and letting them try” and adds to that the elements that will support the more informal channels that allow people to build on what was formally designed for them.  He suggests strengthening the network, cultivating communities of practice and providing just-in-time access to information that people can call upon at the moment it is needed. 

Doing the above creates what David calls a “culture of shared experiences” allowing organizations to capture the often elusive tacit knowledge of how work really gets done.  This results in people having access to the information they need as opposed to “sterile, clinical information found in manuals and training courses.”  This concept can be applied to any training, regardless of the topic.

Follow David’s advice and you’ve got the diverse learning and development portfolio that will do more than just allow you to implement technology effectively - it will put you on the fast track to being a true learning organization.  How will you know if you’ve done it correctly?  David advocates the use of a balanced scorecard for establishing and assessing the metrics associated with the learning initiative (nod, nod).

A recent report in Chief Learning Officer magazine stated that 90% of all sales training programs resulted in only moderate increases in sales and those increases lasted for just a very brief period of time (90-120 days). 

The report was compiled by ES Research (ESR) Group and it lists some specific findings; the main message, though, is that most sales training doesn’t stick.

For organizations looking for sales training, ESR’s report confirms that many vendors can fill the need of a training event that will boost sales for a brief period.  I encourage people to look at how a training vendor will sustain the momentum created in training. 

Can the vendor cultivate a community of practice for the sales positions?  Will they seed a knowledge management repository to capture the best practices of participants as they take the foundational concepts and make them their own?  How about action learning assignments for sales managers that have them optimize the sales function within the operation of the rest of the company?  How can the networks of informal learning be supported around the initial sales training?

There are countless things that could be done that would extend the effectiveness of a sales training initiative.  I believe that the selection of a training supplier takes a back seat to exploring some of the options that can be implemented that would complement the content that is delivered.

P.S. Sales training certainly has a high profile due to its direct link to organizational performance but the lessons learned from this report could be applied to any area of learning.

I am officially registered to be part of the first-ever class to attend the CLO Academy. 

The CLO Academy begins with a Colloquium from September 10-12 in Virginia.  They have announced the faculty and I’m intrigued:

Colloquium I: September 10–12, 2006
Frank Anderson, President, Defense Acquisition University
Ted Hoff, Vice President, Learning, IBM
Bob Mosher, Director, Learning & Strategy Evangelism, Microsoft
Chris Hardy, Strategic Planner, Defense Acquisition University
Thomas Clancy, Chief Learning Officer, EMC
Bill Kline, former CLO, Delta Airlines
Kevin Wilde, Vice President/CLO, General Mills
Keith Bridges, Chief Learning Architect/Global Workforce Management/Technical Development, EDS

I’ll be blogging from the event so check back here on those dates if you cannot join us.

We recently added a feature to the Orbital RPM site that allows visitors to get an at-a-glance look at what events are happening in the world of learning and development for any given month.

It’s the Learning and Development Events Calendar.  It’s somewhat of a beta feature at the moment as we work through the ideal formatting, information, etc. but we envision a resource where people can quickly survey their options, get details and register for events from the different players in the learning and development field.

If you know of any events that should be added, please contact us at: info@orbitalrpm.com and we’ll get them loaded into the system.  Thank you!

One of my personal hobbies is photography and I subscribe to PC Photo Magazine.  I am a self-described pack rat and have kept all of the issues they’ve sent for fear that there may be a morsel of information in one that I’ll need to come back to.

As part of the process of moving into my new office, though, I thought about how likely it was that I would go back and look through old magazines as opposed to looking for the information on the Internet or via some other source.  It didn’t take long to decide that they belong in the circular file.

It was very liberating to toss them out - knowing that I could find my answers in other ways.  Then my eyes drifted to the top shelf where there sat many of the binders I’ve collected over the years through various projects and seminars.  I haven’t gotten up the nerve to toss them just yet but the experience with the magazines got me thinking about it.  I haven’t touched many of those binders in years.  Before digging through old binders to answer a question, I am more inclined to talk with a colleague or look on-line.  The shelves in my office are prime real estate and I don’t want them being occupied by information that I won’t use.

For the time being, though, instead of tossing them I’ve decided to not allow binders to take up any more room on the shelf.  Of the binders I get in the future, then, I will have to decide if they get a spot and another one gets tossed or if they never get a turn in the rotation.

Perhaps some day I’ll have the nerve to purge my shelf more radically - but I doubt it. 

Many training companies like to load their participants up with take-aways that usually collect dust once participants return to their office, just as mine are.  Since people are more inclined to go ask a colleague or consult the internet when they have a challenge, why not spend those training dollars on things that make it easier for them to do so?

This post is part of a series.  For previous posts please select from the list below:

• Foreword
• Social Brickworking

The next installment in this series involves drywall.  On a recent Sunday, my cousin and I had encountered several setbacks that put us behind our timeline.  He travels for his job and was leaving early the next morning and would be gone for two weeks straight.  I couldn’t let the project lie dormant for two weeks and needed to get to a point where I could do OK on my own.

Throughout the day my cousin was rebuilding a stud wall that we had demolished to create more space in the office.  We also spent some time hanging sheets of drywall. 

After my cousin left that night, it was up to me to finish hanging the drywall and then to begin the process of ‘taping and mudding.’  I had never done any of this before but had been told that taping and mudding was the most difficult part of the process.

The next day I finished hanging the drywall at lunch time.  Before moving into the taping and mudding, I broke for a sandwich.  While eating I searched Google for anything on ‘taping and mudding drywall.’  I found a video of Myron Ferguson modeling the steps for invisible drywall seams.  I watched the video twice while I ate and at the end of my meal I felt pretty well prepared to tackle my next obstacle.

With this just-in-time information, I headed back downstairs and proceeded to tape and mud the seams of the drywall sheets.  My results were pretty impressive although the process to get there wasn’t as clean as Myron’s.  Below is a picture of the shirt I wore over the few days it took for the multiple coats of mud needed:

Consider the similarities of the position I was in and what happens in organizations daily:

• Unexpected snags caused a delay in our project timeline 
• My supervisor was pulled away from the project at a critical time
• I was left alone to figure out how to deliver on our objectives

Having access to the Google database allowed me to find the just-in-time (JIT) information I needed to proceed.  This is the philosophy of JIT training - give people access to information so that they can get it just when they need it.  The level of retention of this information is astonishing.  If I were put through a course on drywalling months ago I would not have retained much.  Because of my experience, though, I could help another amateur drywaller through the process.

What would be the value of having the Google-equivalent of relevant JIT information in your organization?

I have subscribed to Chief Learning Officer Magazine nearly since its inception.  In the July 2006 issue, there was a brochure touting the launch of the CLO Academy.

Back in November of 2005 I received an email from a different organization announcing the launch of the CLO Institute.

If nothing else, it is exciting to see the visibility and credibility that is being given to the strategic role that learning leaders can play in organizations.  Beyond that, though, I’m curious as to how the CLO Academy and the CLO Institute will differ in their approach to developing leaders of strategic learning.

I took the first three classes ever offered by the CLO Institute in January and am currently working on the client project required for certification.  The classes were very insightful and well worth my time. 

The CLO Academy opens its doors in September and I plan to be in attendance.  Check back for a compare and contrast of how these two institutions approach this much needed track for professionals in the learning community.

Welcome to the next part in the series of home repair and organizational learning - for the foreword, please visit here.

The initial plan was to put up drywall on all four walls.  Once the plaster came down, though, and we saw the exposed brick beneath we changed our minds and decided to keep the look of the brick. 

Unfortunately the brick was badly deteriorated, brittle and would flake off with the slightest touch.  I remembered that my neighbor was a contractor and that they had exposed brick in their foyer.  I went over and asked about what he had used.

Not only did he show me the product, he also offered the use of a special sprayer.  He then came over, showed me how to apply the first coat and left me enough product for four more coats.  Just by knowing who to ask I was able to solve my problem - and I didn’t spend a dime.

This situation is similar to what happens in many organizations daily:

• The plan changed mid-stream (from drywall to exposed brick)
• I relied on my social network to solve my problem - I went to someone I knew that I thought would be able to help me

Organizations can enhance these exchanges that naturally occur.  By providing corporate yellow pages (a list people’s areas of expertise) and by providing venues and resources for employees to share information, organizations can optimize the informal exchanges that most people turn to for their job-related information.

Jefferson County, Colorado has over 1,000 miles of recreational trails within it.  This is largely due to Jefferson County Open Space which exists through a minimal tax slotted to “fund planning, acquisition and maintenance of lands and waters for the enjoyment of current and future generations.”  

Today I spent the afternoon with a crew going through training to learn how to lead youth groups on one of the many trail maintenance trips that are required to keep Jefferson County  beautiful and accessible.  I was just there as an observer and I witnessed an approach that was simple and very effective.  These future crew leaders received a blend of the following:

• Face-to-face classroom instruction
• Pneumonic devices (i.e. CUSS for tools: Carrying, Using, Storing, Safety)
• A field trip
• Hands on experience
• Informal learning 

A ‘Master Instructor’ was our guide - both in the classroom as well as the trails.  The group was very diverse in terms of age and experience.  Members of the group were encouraged to speak up on their areas of expertise and many did so, pointing out features and techniques for the rest of us.  We watched a golf ball being rolled to predict the path that water will take - a very memorable tip that will certainly be adopted by some of my classmates.  It was suggested by a group member and demonstrated immediately by our guide. 

It was refreshing to see the impact that adherance to the basics can have when combined with an intrinsic motivation to learn.  Many organizations try to make training too complicated.  Give people the incentive to do something and then let them acquire the skills to do it.  Kudos to the trails teams at Jefferson County Open Space for their approach - they take those that want to help preserve CO and then show them a way to do it.

If you’re local and would like to help out, please contact Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.