As remote working became the norm for many workers, so did virtual learning. In March 2020, L&D departments had to pivot their learning strategies overnight. Some were already well-versed in distance and digital learning. Others had never attempted it before. L&D professionals learned a lot from that experience, and so did we. So this guide is a collection of our favorite resources—ebooks, webinars, blogs, and articles—to help you prepare, design, and develop your own virtual learning content and strategy. 

Virtual learning has been an important part of learning strategies for a long time. Like many areas of learning, the pandemic and sudden shifts in working locations merely exacerbated the need for it. This short guide full of useful resources is here to help you navigate a range of elements of virtual learning, from content and design through to engagement and strategy. 

You’ll find links to resources from GP Strategies and a whole bunch of research we’ve found useful on our own journey with virtual learning. 

To help keep things simple, we’ve split this guide up into the following sections: 

1. Animation, and creating for virtual learning content  

2. Designing and facilitating virtual workshops and classrooms 

3. Building and maintaining engagement in virtual learning 

4. Adapting and developing virtual learning strategies 

5. External research 

1) Distance and Virtual Learning Content 

When you think of virtual learning, you may go straight to virtual classrooms. And while they are a big part of a virtual learning strategy, there’s a lot more to it than that. For example, animation elements and video content can be great additions to virtual learning. These resources can help you with creating learning content for virtual learning, both professionally and remotely.  

• ARTICLE | The 6 Dos and Don’ts of Designing Distance Learning Content

• ARTICLE | 5 Benefits of Animation in a Virtual Learning Journey

• ARTICLE | 6 Ways to Embed Social Learning Into Virtual Learning Journeys

2) Virtual Workshops and Classrooms 

When remote working first became widespread across the world, virtual classrooms and webinars were the go-to delivery for internal training that was previously conducted in person. We’ve worked with a wide range of customers to help them transform their virtual learning efforts and have created a lot of resources specific to workshops and classrooms. 

These resources draw on the expertise of L&D professionals across a range of industries, a model for understanding virtual learners (check out the final webinar from the list!), and commentary on industry research. 

• ARTICLE | How to Run Successful Virtual Classrooms: 10 Tips for Virtual Training
  
• ARTICLE | Virtual Learning Delivery Tips: L&D Professionals Reveal What’s Working
  
• ARTICLE| Reflections on Fosway’s 2021 Report on the Power of Virtual Classrooms
  
• WEBINAR RECORDING | Going Virtual: The Next Steps in Engaging Online Together
  
• CHECKLIST | 12 Ways to Design Virtual-First Learning
  
• WEBINAR RECORDING | Going Virtual: What’s Working?
  
• WEBINAR RECORDING | Virtual Learning Journeys: A Focus on the Emerging Learner
  

3) Designing Engaging Virtual Learning 

Once you understand what goes into designing effective virtual learning journeys, whether the delivery is live or asynchronous, the next vital step is to boost engagement. Learning at a distance without your peers can bring new challenges when it comes to maintaining interest and engagement, so these resources are here to help you understand how to get through to your learners at a distance and maintain their focus. 

• ARTICLE | Virtual Instructor-Led Training: Best Practices to Elevate Virtual Learning Delivery
  
• ARTICLE | Distance Learning: 5 Ways to Keep Engaging Your Audience
  
• ARTICLE | 5 Ways to Build Trust and Engagement in a Virtual Workshop Setting
  
• WEBINAR RECORDING | Virtual Learning Journeys: Engaging With Learners at a Distance  
  
• ARTICLE | How to Design a Distance-Friendly Blended Learning Experience  
  
• ARTICLE | Embracing the Power of Scenarios in a Virtual Learning Journey

4) Advice and Virtual Learning Strategy 

Our final section is a little broader. Here, we’ve included a series of resources that discuss the theme of virtual learning more generally. However, we think these blogs are still really useful and wanted to make sure we included them. Our experts talk strategy, ask questions, and use what we learned during the pandemic to look to the future of virtual learning. 

• ARTICLE | Zoom Fatigue: 4 Ways L&D is Adapting Learning Delivery During Lockdown
  
• ARTICLE | 3 Key Mindset Shifts for L&D Capabilities in 2021  

5) External Research 

As well as learning from our clients, we’ve spent a lot of time reading and researching to create the resources above. Here are a few of our favorite pieces we’ve drawn on over the years. 

• FOSWAY REPORT | The Power of Virtual Classrooms in a Post-Pandemic World
  
• HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING eBOOK | Harnessing the Power of Virtual Learning
  
• HARVARD BUSINESS PUBLISHING ARTICLE | Keep Your People Learning When You Go Virtual  
  
• MCKINSEY & CO ARTICLE | Everyone Is Within Learning Distance: Building Skills Remotely

Ready to take your next steps in the world of virtual learning? Or perhaps you have some questions? Get in touch with one of our experts. 

About the Authors

Andrew Joly

Andrew leads the strategy and consulting faculty in the Learning Experience team, which is at the frontline of delivering creative, innovative and effective learning solutions. He focuses on his personal passion: how technology-enabled learning experiences and communication blends can transform behaviors and performance in the workplace. Andrew has a passion for exploring how new modes and strategies for learning and connection can make a real difference to people, teams, and global organizations.

This blog article was written prior to LEO Learning becoming part of GP Strategies. 

Jaws: The Revenge is universally panned as one of the worst films in the history of cinema. However, this so-bad-it’s-great classic is not without its merits. For starters, it introduced the now-ubiquitous tagline “This time it’s personal,” which I have affectionately borrowed as the title of this post. Additionally, it taught audiences three fascinating lessons:

1. Sir Michael Caine is so talented that he is capable of winning both Razzies and Oscars.
2. A franchise about killer sharks can unironically and quite literally “jump the shark.”
3. Personal connection is everything.

Re-read number three if needed. If you’ve seen the fourth installment of the Jaws franchise, you’ll know that a massive Great White follows Lorraine Gary (the matriarch of the first installment) all the way from Long Island to the Bahamas. This is a logic leap that I cannot begin to justify, but suffice it to say that the events of this movie stem from a 20-year vendetta between a shark family and a grandmother.

Now consider yourself as the grandmother, and your learners as the shark(s). Are you still with me? Learners within your organization will follow you if they feel a personal connection to the learning content and to the overall user experience. On the contrary, if they feel the learning is irrelevant or too “off the shelf,” you run the risk of losing them.

This is where learning personalization comes in…

The History of Learning Personalization

The concept of learning personalization is nothing new. In fact, a cursory search of academic databases will yield a plethora of journal articles dating back to the 1960s. Early discussions focused on the impact of “teaching machines” within the context of audio visual studies, as well as individualized or even self-directed learning in the context of an overarching group curriculum.

Now, learning personalization primarily focuses on modes and channels of learning as part of a greater blended journey. Naturally, with the prominence of remote working and distance learning, this contemporary view leans heavily toward eLearning and digital learning programs.

The beauty of learning personalization is that it has evolved over the decades to meet the needs of learners and learning designers alike. In this way, its definition is largely subjective and should not be oversimplified or constricted. Keep in mind that the ultimate goal of personalization is to establish and sustain connections between learners and content—the “how” and “why” will fall into place naturally once the “what” and “who” are determined.

A Broader Definition of Learning Personalization

Based on your own experiences, you likely already have an idea of what personalized learning is or isn’t. As we begin to broaden our definition, we will consider a set of overarching characteristics of personalized learning. Working from this base of assumptions will help as we move into tangible models that can inform our decision-making to personalize learning.

So, what is personalized learning? It’s about:

• Empowering the learner to take ownership of their learning by providing resources that allow them to navigate more freely 
• Offering various pathways and assigning them to groups of learners based on shared need(s) within the organization
• Differentiating content that looks beyond role to consider factors such as time commitment, motivation level, prior knowledge, and values

Again, when we broaden our definition and our perspective, we begin to think of ways we can be more intentional as we design learning solutions for users that feel meaningful, relevant, and unique to the individual. Ultimately, we want learners to say, “This was made for me.”

3 Models of Learning Personalization

Now that we’ve agreed on the general parameters of personalized learning, we can begin to explore frameworks that can help to develop new and revamp existing learning solutions.

As you become more familiar with the models showcased here, you’ll begin to notice a degree of overlap, which is expected. At the heart of each model is the ultimate goal of catering to the individual, often while meeting a larger and more overarching organizational need.

1) The Empowerment Model

This personalized learning model provides the learner with a sense of choice and variety. Contrary to traditional, locked eLearning modules that require the learner to listen to an audio clip in its entirety or watch a video through to the last second, learning experiences developed under this lens allow the learner to come and go as they please. When learners feel unencumbered and are encouraged to engage in open exploration, they feel they have a degree of control over what they learn and how they learn it.

Zero-waste learning occurs as a result. Without the confines of “busy work” or box-checking formalities, learners make real connections with the content. Paired with interspersed opportunities for reflection and self-assessment, your organization will know, in real time, how learners feel about the overall experience and what they are gaining as a result.

Adaptive learning is a popular contemporary example of the Empowerment Model in action. Area9 Lyceum, one of LEO Learning’s partners in innovative design, specializes in this area. Their platform ensures that a learner’s path shifts based on the responses they provide, alongside their self-reported confidence rankings. Learners are allowed to opt out of content and move on to more challenging concepts as they demonstrate mastery.

2) The Pathways Model

This framework is often defined by a unique path for each learner or learner category. These unique paths, in turn, comprise a larger, more overarching blended learning journey. These paths may be defined and assigned by the organization, or they may be determined by the learner. Interactions that determine custom branching or next steps may be explicitly controlled by the learner. Or they may be implicitly determined by decisions a learner makes or the answers they provide within the course or component of a blend. 

Within an overarching blend, unique learner paths may converge and diverge as engineered by learning designers, and specific LMS capabilities can be leveraged to this end. For example, as businesses search for ways to maintain a sense of community while working remotely, social learning is currently trending. Learner paths may reconvene for online interactions that emulate face-to-face discussion, from asynchronous forum threads to user-generated video interactions.

3) The Differentiation Model

One of the most common and traditional ways to enact the Differentiation Model is by adding a role selector to a course—but we can dive so much deeper. Learners benefit when content is differentiated based on time commitment, motivation level, prior knowledge, and even values.

We can differentiate among learners by assigning groupings, or allowing them to self-identify where appropriate. Doing so can meet compliance requirements, or may ensure that an overall blend meets the needs of multiple categories of learners, to name two examples.

For learning designers who may hail from an HR background, think of specific learners who need HR refreshers or courses that are part of a specific performance plan. Alternatively, consider onboarding a new hire—the path of a recent college graduate may differ from the path of a seasoned professional, and rightfully so. Differentiation may occur at a manager’s discretion following an initial assessment of competencies.

Personalization in Practice

The solutions we design are as unique as our intended audience.

For this reason, we must get to know them and their needs early on. As you’re tasked with planning a learning experience and tailoring it for a new audience, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your process for model selection?
• Who are your learners? What is their preference? What is their work environment?
• What are participants expected to do as a result of this opportunity?

The more complex or more involved your answers become, the more likely you’ll start to consider multiple pathways, multiple resources, alternate or complementary versions of a learning experience, and so on. Don’t be afraid to mix and match strategies that fit, or to rethink the ones that don’t.

Once you choose an appropriate model (or hybrid of the models covered here), let it be your guide. Consider the outcomes—both intended and unintended. Continue to build your solution from this vantage point. As you open up to more creative and customized blends, you’ll find that this time—and from here on out—it’s personal.

Need an expert hand in designing and delivering personalized learning programs? Get in touch today to see how GP Strategies can help!

About the Authors

Derek Phillips

A good friend of mine came out to me a few years ago. In the quiet of my kitchen, she told me she was gay. And in that moment, everything changed. And in that moment, everything was the same. For me, that’s the paradox of being an ally. By definition, as an ally, you’re supposed to be an advocate. You’re meant to be a supporter. You’re someone who defends and promotes. But those words—advocate, support, defend, promote—they are words of doing, words of action. And, sometimes, as it was for me with my friend in the quiet of the kitchen, it’s more about being than doing. Being present. Being mindful. Being aware. Being what a friend needed me to be. I needed to be a good listener and a holder of space for another person who needed to speak her truth.

I’m neither a perfect person, nor a perfect ally. I don’t want to offer homespun advice on what an ally should or shouldn’t do. I can simply share what I know worked in that moment, and in the days since:   

• Respect what she wanted to talk about, who she wanted to talk to, and when she was ready to share more.
• Honor who she was as a person—all of her—in all facets of her life.
• Recognize decisions about who else she wanted to tell and how she wanted to tell them had no right answers, was something she needed to decide, and something I needed to support.
• Check in periodically to see how things are going and let her know I was there for her.
• Celebrate the relief that she felt in her ability to be authentic with someone close to her and the fact that she chose me as that person.

Maybe these words are too soft for a leadership blog. This isn’t the “tough stuff” we need to feed leaders to make them successful. Or is it? We talk about creating an environment of psychological safety and the very tangible benefits in terms of innovation, contribution, and productivity. These issues—respecting each other, honoring our differences, recognizing individual differences, and checking in with each other—are ways we can create psychological safety, not only in our kitchens, but in our offices and Zoom rooms, so that, ultimately, we can celebrate. Celebrate the right we all should have—to live our authentic lives. Celebrate the humanity. Celebrate love and acceptance. Celebrate the pride that has come not only to define the LGBTQ+ community but those who are lucky enough to call themselves allies.

About the Authors

Leah Clark

Leah Clark is the Leadership Practice Lead at GP Strategies, as well as an author and the founder of LeaderConnect. With over 28 years of experience in her field, Leah brings a unique perspective on the mindsets and skillset that are critical to leadership success to her coaching and consulting. Her clients benefit from her collaborative approach to crafting a well-connected and thoughtful leadership development strategy. Leah holds a Master of Arts; Organizational Psychology, Columbia University and a Bachelor of Arts; English and Sociology, Boston College.

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that more adults age 65 and older left the labor force in 2020 than in any year since the U.S. began tracking such information in 1948. As the aerospace and defense workforce approaches retirement, each organization needs a plan for supplementing the knowledge that will be lost. According to industry experts, roughly 12 million manufacturing employees now working in the U.S. are at least 55 years old. Replacing these key individuals when they leave the workforce is a substantial issue for aerospace and defense suppliers and manufacturers.

What Is Tacit Knowledge?

“Tacit knowledge” is a term that refers to any information that is not widely known by other employees within an organization. It is not documented and exists only in the minds of those who have captured it through experience.

Knowledge learned through on-the-job experience is some of the most valuable, as it applies to real-world situations. Unfortunately, in many cases, employees take this knowledge with them when they retire. That is why it is essential to retain and pass along as much of this Tacit knowledge as possible.

Identify Tacit Knowledge Keepers

Organizations should also work to identify the “tacit knowledge keepers” in the company, with an objective to “download” as much information from these mentors as possible before they retire. These people will be the ones who have the most experience and who have worked on the widest variety of machines and in the widest variety of roles. Often times, these people are noted mentors within the company who work with newer employees to help get them up to speed.

If possible, consider retaining some of the more experienced Tacit knowledge keepers as consultants as they retire. Often times, individuals will be more than happy to contribute long after they have left the organization, and their assistance can be crucial. Experienced employees can be brought back into the fold to work with the younger generation on specific projects that require their experience. This collaboration will facilitate the knowledge being passed down in a practical manner.

Creating Access to Tacit Knowledge

Interviewing tacit knowledge keepers, while setting-up extremely accurate record-keeping systems for the information they hold, is a must. Organizations should also consider ways of making this information available as a teaching or learning asset for those to whom the knowledge would apply.

Organizing your team’s tacit knowledge in an easily accessible way is crucial. Nearly every office has file cabinets filled with papers that never get reviewed. If important information is out of sight and out of mind, it will quickly be forgotten and lost. Organizing information gained from the possessors of tacit knowledge in a searchable, easily accessible, and digital directory will make it much more likely that this critical knowledge is utilized to benefit the organization, rather than collecting dust in a file cabinet.

Contact us for more information on how your organization can develop and implement an effective plan to retain and transfer tacit knowledge effectively.

About the Authors

Andy Reagan

For more than a century, the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry has impacted the world and driven technology forward at a rapid pace. As technology continues to accelerate, though, it has outpaced the expertise of even the most diligent and motivated technical workers.

A&D organizations increasingly rely on a tech-savvy workforce to implement and utilize technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality, as well as the digital customer experience and remote workforce.

Further complicating matters, each year more and more veteran technical workers are retiring, with fewer and fewer applicants to replace them. This can be especially difficult because of the “tribal knowledge” held by the older generation of workers—knowledge that can only be gained through years of on-the-job experience.

The next generation of talent has one distinct advantage—they have grown up with modern technology as an integrated part of their daily lives and have learned to adapt to new technologies seamlessly. However, one disadvantage is that despite emerging technologies like virtual reality, they lack real-world, on-the-job, problem-solving experience.

Gartner reported in its 2018 Shifting Skills Survey that 70% of employees haven’t mastered the skills they need for their jobs today, and 80% said they lack the skills they need for both their current and future roles.

So how can A&D organizations address these challenges? They can focus on building skills through just-in-time training, which helps users expand the skills directly related to their on-the-job tasks. Additionally, by putting the right recruiting programs in place to find and integrate new talent, as well as by upskilling and reskilling your current workforce, your organization can effectively deal with technology skills gap challenges.

For more information on how GP Strategies helps A&D clients address the technology skills gap, please contact us today to schedule a consultation.

About the Authors

Andy Reagan

This blog article was written prior to LEO Learning becoming part of GP Strategies. 

One of the best things about a blended learning journey is the opportunity to create a fully rounded experience. Blended learning, by its very nature, offers a variety of learning modes. But in order to create a great journey, we need to focus on how we can select the right channels for delivery, the hierarchy, and the ordering of information. We also need to carefully consider what binds those elements together.

Blended learning journeys will typically take place over a longer period than one-off training, so make the most of this time, add variation, and keep your learners invested. Here’s how…

1) Remember Tempo, Pacing, and Learning Modes

Creating a great blended learning journey begins with the components you put into it. With so many types of resources and learning available, this allows you to build a learning journey that is both highly effective and engaging.

A catalog of eLearning content simply won’t cut it. Resources alone do not make for an effective journey.

In the same way that you would break up an all-day (or several-day) training event with breakout sessions, group activities, workshops, and lecture-style presentations, it’s important to give blended learning the same treatment. It’s also really important to focus on the flow of the journey, and ensure you include time for activities as well as space to process and form connections.

Both the learning outcomes and the engagement levels will benefit from this variety. The human brain is wired to seek novelty, so changing pace, tempo, and learning modes is crucial. For example, you could look to incorporate a combination of:

• Animation/video
• Microlearning
• Coach/manager touchpoints
• Synchronous and asynchronous learning
• Space learning for hands-on practice of their new skills
• Challenges (individual or group)
• Reflective moments
• Self-assessments

2) Focus on Flexibility

The variety that comes with effective blended learning should also afford a good degree of flexibility for the learners. When considering the modes of learning you wish to include in your blended learning design, it’s worth considering the types of content learners can dip in and out of—especially if the journey you’ve designed spans a few weeks or months. This can help them to both access point-of-need learning and adapt the learning to their working schedules.

While all learners can benefit from this prioritization of flexibility, it will have a greater positive impact on time-poor employees. For example, employees who’re often on the go, have unpredictable schedules, and need to access a vast amount of information in order to fulfill their roles effectively.

This is where types of content like microlearning or even podcasts can be really useful. Anything that allows your learners to learn while they’re doing something else—traveling to a meeting, prepping for a call, etc.—will be a benefit to both the learner and your organization.

The most important thing is that you understand your learners, their challenges, and what their requirements are for this training before it’s designed. This will allow you to make it as easy as possible for them to do what you’re asking. Put yourself in their shoes and ask whether what you’re proposing is realistic.

3) Extend the Learning Journey Beyond the Initial Program

Line manager involvement and coach/manager touchpoints can bring so much to a blended learning program. This is even more important when it comes to ensuring the transfer of knowledge into the role once their training is complete.

Unlike other methods of learning design, blended programs allow for wider involvement and you should be making the most of that where you can. Whether you employ a coaching model to your training or get line managers engaged, adding these check-ins and touchpoints in the weeks and months following the program can boost information retention as well as assisting with sustained behavioral changes.

Line managers are all too often not made part of the process and therefore find a disconnect when it comes to supporting their employees. Designing manager touchpoints into your blended learning journeys provides managers with full awareness and involvement in the process. This enables them to much more effectively support your learners throughout and beyond your blend.

It’s also worth considering how you can create resources for your learners to access and come back to once the blended learning program is over. For example, access to digital instructions for use of a specific tool or system, PDF resources like infographics or slide decks for fast refresher training, and a clear go-to person(s) for ongoing assistance with the learning.

When designing a great blended learning journey, we have a duty to the learner that goes beyond the product or program itself. Therefore, we need to think of ways to support this ongoing learning in the workplace.

About the Authors

Alex Steer

I used to go to the Pride marches when I was younger. I would hop on a train to London, a place that terrified and mystified me at that age, in order to be somewhere that felt totally safe. At the Pride events, I was within a crowd of people that accepted you for who you wanted to be.

Though I knew I wasn’t gay, there had been men I had flirted with, embraced, and admired for their confidence in being true to themselves. Also, because of the incredible seduction of being wanted. When you are young and insecure, being wanted is difficult to ignore. All I knew at the time was that the idea of what was expected of me as a heterosexual male, felt wrong. Despite being only a boy, relatively, I felt the pressure of it and knew it was not a version of myself I recognized in any way.

I wanted to be free to cry, and not just when I was sad or in private. I wanted to cry at the beauty of the world, or when a story filled me so full of any feeling that something must surely burst inside of me. I wanted to love people openly, flirt, dance, and wear things that were pretty and flamboyant. Pride, for a time, was a rare space that gave me the confidence to do those things. It gave me that confidence because it felt safe.

The background to this was my anxiety, which at the time was a crippling fear of everything and everyone. Ordinary conversations with strangers would flood my body with everything it needed to flee or fight. My hands would shake, my voice would break, and at the worst times, the tears would become an involuntary and crippling response to a body so exhausted in the moment that it didn’t know what to do.

I would go to the marches with a friend (also a Lex) who was confident and outgoing, but reserved. She had a great tolerance for her awkward friend who would tag along in these strange waters. A silent watcher off to the left, safe in her presence and given license to learn to socially-swim through her natural buoyancy.

I lost contact a little with Lex over the years, both the friend and also the part of me who was the flamboyant Lex, and not the reserved Alexander. During this time, I was spurned a few times by less-tolerant elements of the community for being undecided. Sadly, I lost my confidence and stopped going to the marches; and when I did, little by little, I packed away the flamboyant parts of myself and the brave parts of myself. The parts that went to London and fought to find a different version of myself were allowed to atrophy. Excuses came to hand more quickly than anything else, not just to other people, but to myself.

There were some lonely years in this space.

Growing older, you can easily build layers of compromise around yourself like armour. Everything becomes easier with practice, and life gets a little smaller, the problems a little more mundane. The good thing about this is it’s a relatively safe space to confront yourself. It is easier to be honest about who you are and your failings, not to mention ask for help where you need it.

I’m in this space now, and as an adult I can recognize and own my identity as a bisexual and genderfluid human being. Through the Employee Resource Group (ERG) at GP Strategies I have reconnected with a community I had lost, and for the first time in many years, I want to return to Pride again. I want to be in the crowd to cheer all those who continue to put themselves out there despite the unfounded hatred people pour at them. To stand opposite those with signs of hate bearing signs of love.

It has also been a good space to look back on my journey and understand how it has shaped me and the lessons I can learn from it. Chief amongst those is the contrast in energy it took to be in a space like pride, where I felt the safety to be truly authentic, against the alternative. Outside of that safe space there was the ever-present choice to either be myself and live with the energy sapping fear of it bringing harm to me or masking myself. It takes no small amount of energy to constantly filter how you present and to maintain a facade.

It is a lesson that translates most easily for me when I am working with teams; both as a leader and as a team member. What am I doing to ensure every member of my team feels safe to be themselves, included, and engaged? I know that when I feel I am part of an inclusive team, then I quickly move from cautious and reserved to confident and creative. Pride is a fantastic example of the energy and creativity we can generate when we are all seeking to elevate each other instead of focusing on suppressing ourselves.

About the Authors

Lex Musgrave

It’s been a tumultuous year in automotive retail by all accounts, so now’s a great time to take stock of the salesperson’s role. We know buyer behavior is changing, but I wanted to hear directly from dealer-owners and general managers: how is the sales role changing, and what implications does that have for recruitment, reward, and retention? I interviewed and chatted with dealers across several Asia Pacific markets who operate in metro and small-town locations. Despite the diversity in markets, there are some common themes, and there are two major paradoxes at the center of the deeper changes currently underway.

Paradox 1: Centralized dealer CRM vs. salesperson as a social media presence

Buyer research has largely moved online, but there are two opposing trends for how dealers engage with digital shoppers. Most dealers have centralized CRM for both pre-sales lead generation/lead handling and ongoing owner communications. Dealers want control of those customer relationships and want to deliver a consistent experience, minimizing the variability that existed when salespeople controlled those relationships.

In contrast, we are now seeing salespeople build their own online presence through the likes of Facebook and Instagram. This includes creating their own content (presenting products and offers) and investing in mini marketing plans (such as paying for their own promoted posts). Some dealers even provide financial support for this marketing.

Paradox 2: Less call for memorized product knowledge vs. more complex products

Most shoppers now come to the showroom already knowing what they want—if they visit the showroom at all. At the final stage of their purchase decision, when they want to verify their online research, they might want some advice to help put their decision into context, and they ideally want to feel comfortable with the business they will buy from.

However, buyers now have an increasingly steep learning curve when it comes to their new vehicle, especially with the infotainment system. Owner guides run into the hundreds of pages. Dealers are employing a number of methods to address this, including employing product experts or scheduling a “second delivery” to review features and technology.

We can see that the traditional, all-encompassing sales role has continued to fragment. Gone are the days where we sought that elusive unicorn of a salesperson, who possessed a superhuman set of skills, combining amazing empathy, encyclopedic product knowledge, sharp negotiating skills, and the attention to detail to oversee the pre-delivery and vehicle delivery.

Almost every dealership I spoke to has separated pre-delivery into a separately staffed process. This move recognizes the increasing complexity of pre-delivery and its importance to customer satisfaction, as well as the desire to remove salespeople from unprofitable work.

Although some dealers report that employee turnover is as high as ever, others are finding it easier to attract new sales recruits. The image of the industry has improved over time, with salespeople now viewed as more professional and customer focused. The democratization of product knowledge makes the industry less intimidating for individuals with little or no technical background. In markets where social media is the dominant channel to connect with buyers, automotive retail is highly attractive to individuals who already know how to promote online.

Recommendations

What should be done to address these trends and to take advantage of new opportunities? Here are our recommendations:

1. Grow social media skills
   Although selling online and through social media is now mainstream, the gap between average and world-class performance is still wide. Improving the quality of content, learning what promotions work in your market, and increasing lead response skills are all areas where performance improvement should result in tangible sales gains.
   
2. Reassess how you recruit and retain
   With the fragmentation of the sales role, less need for stored product knowledge, and the move to digital, it’s time for a clean sheet of paper when it comes to recruiting. Rethink what skills and experiences you want in salespeople. An entrepreneurial-minded professional with a side hustle selling vintage clothing online has a directly transferrable skill. Someone who mobilized a community on Facebook to clean up a local canal also has relevant skills and experience.
   
   Equally as important, take a fresh look at whether all elements of your work environment, culture, and pay structures are attractive to the people you want to recruit today.
   
3. Reassess how you train
   The fragmentation of the sales role demands separate learning approaches for separate roles. A product expert now has vastly different training needs than a salesperson. Training content, delivery modality, and cadence should now be customized to each role.
   
   A product expert needs instant access to new product and competitor information in an easily digestible format. A salesperson needs access to coaching for digital selling skills and relationship building anytime you see a drop-off, or are looking for improvement in performance.

In speaking with dealers recently, it’s become clear to me that these trends are playing out differently in various countries and locations. There is no single right way to respond. But the trends are profound, and each retailer will need to consider and act within their local context.

About the Authors

Scott McCormack

Scott is Vice President of Thailand, Philippines & India with GP Strategies Corporation. His 28-year career in the automotive industry spans the Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Prior to joining TTi Global (a division of GP Strategies) in 2012, Scott spent 20 years at automotive manufacturers and distributors, in a variety of finance and marketing, sales, and service leadership roles. He’s lived and worked in New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand (twice), India, Saudi Arabia, and China. Scott brings deep experience from both the OEM and retail perspectives to bear on improving automotive performance. Scott’s home is in Bangkok, and he is a senior leader in GP’s APAC automotive practice.

From the early days until now, OCM has been perceived as a nebulous process. However, the discipline has grown exponentially from being known as the “soft stuff” to a tactical mechanism to achieve project implementation success and business results. Yet today, there are still challenges with OCM being widely accepted and embraced as a necessary practice for a vast amount of IT projects. Oddly enough, the challenges I have personally experienced have not been related to OCM execution. I have had great success with clients seeing the value of OCM engagement throughout a project’s life cycle. They often wonder how they have gone for so long without an effective way for dealing with the human side of technology implementations.

So, in my opinion, the biggest challenge OCM practitioners face today is executives not putting OCM in the budget process when projects are being considered. What I have seen recently is key decision makers who purchase the bare minimum of OCM services with a hope and a wish that their internal resources will be capable of executing OCM plans when the consultant is gone.

There are two aspects of this challenge I would like to focus on. One is getting these key decision makers to really invest in what has been proven to make IT projects more successful. Second is getting sales teams to truly articulate the value of OCM during the pre-sales process. OCM cannot be positioned as a nice-to-have or an add-on. I liken the experience to purchasing a car. You go to the dealership, find the car of your dreams, begin negotiations with the salesman, and reach an agreement on the deal. Then, you get to the finance department, and we all know what happens back there: add-on after add-on until the cost you thought you agreed to is now way beyond what you intended to spend. So now you decide to forgo those add-ons, or you purchase the bare minimum to feel like you are still getting a good deal. What I am saying is that OCM can’t and shouldn’t be a back-office add-on that isn’t a part of the original deal. It needs to be positioned as an essential part of the deal that makes the car perform the way it is designed to, and without it you won’t get the full extent of what you paid for.

Therefore, two critical mindset shifts need to occur to address this challenge. First, sales teams must position OCM as a necessary component of the project. It must be positioned as the high-tech fuel that makes the car reach optimal performance. Just as important, key decision makers must see the value of OCM and not leave it off the table just to save a few dollars. If you buy a Ferrari, you expect it to perform like a Ferrari. You wouldn’t skimp and put regular unleaded gas in it because you realized just how much the car cost and want to save a buck or two. You want to get the most out of your purchase, and you want that car to perform as designed and expected. So you use the highest-octane fuel you can get at the pump to meet those goals and expectations. That high-octane fuel is OCM. The value is there. It has been proven time and time again through countless studies and surveys. Sellers just need to sell it, and buyers need to buy it. During the deal negotiation, both parties need to agree that it is essential to the IT solution performing at its best, as if it were a high-end sports car ready to hit the road.

About the Authors

Julyan Lee

Julyan is the Organizational Change Management Practice Lead at GP Strategies within Platform Adoption. His focus is on executing the OCM disciplines of Prosci, ADKAR, SAP Activate, Infor IDM Methodologies in both waterfall and Agile project environments. He is responsible for building GP standard OCM processes and methodologies, and ensuring uniformity in their application across OCM resources and their projects. He also supports business development teams in their sales pursuits, in formulating OCM solutions and proposal responses, and presenting to clients.

I was born in Oklahoma. My parents and my sister were also born there. Most of my relatives still live there and I just returned from a trip to Oklahoma.

As a child, I was always so excited to drive from the suburbs of Chicago to Oklahoma to visit my cousins, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It was so different from where we lived.

I never knew much about the history of Oklahoma. I knew we were of Native American descent, as I heard stories from my parents about their grandparents and great-grandparents. I knew they grew up in a segregated society where they could not go to school with whites. I knew my parents didn’t have all the advantages I took for granted like a television, private telephone, indoor bathroom and a washer and dryer. Despite the challenges, they were happy and content and didn’t feel like they were missing out unless it was pointed out.

On this last visit to Oklahoma, my focus was on my parents. They have moved back to Oklahoma to retire. They are getting older, so I wanted to hear everything about what they remember about growing up in Oklahoma. I wanted to see for myself where they grew up and how they lived.

One of the trips we made was to a town called Rentiesville. My Grandma Wedgeworth was a Rentie. Rentiesville was one of 50 All-Black towns in Oklahoma and one of 13 that still survives. When the land run of 1889 opened more land to non-native Americans, Black people came from the Old South to Oklahoma to get some of this free land and make a better life. By 1920, Oklahoma had more than 30 towns that were considered All-Black. So much history here that I never heard about or learned about.

While I was there, I saw on television advertisements about the upcoming 100-year anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa massacre. One of the worst massacres in the history of the United States. What? One of the worst in the USA, right here in Greenwood, Oklahoma, 1 1/2 hours away?

How did I never hear about this? My parents grew up in Oklahoma, so I asked them about this. In fact, their history teacher was a famous Civil Rights Activist, Clara Luper. I was sure they knew all about this and it was taught to them in their All-Black school, yet they knew nothing about it. They told me it was never discussed or even mentioned. My Mother said she first heard about it when they moved to Chicago. They heard of a place in Tulsa called the Black Wall Street, where Blacks were entrepreneurs and the community prospered. They were told that everyone in the town was killed but did not have clarity on exactly what happened in Greenwood. No one talked about it, just like no one talked about the 50 All-Black towns in Oklahoma; more than any other U.S. state.

So, what happened? According to the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum, on the morning of May 30, 1921 a young black man named Dick Rowland, age 19, was riding in the elevator in the Drexel Building at Third and Main with a young white woman named Sarah Page, age 17. The details of what followed vary from person to person. Accounts of an incident circulated among the city’s white community during the day and became more exaggerated with each telling.

Tulsa police arrested Rowland the following day and began an investigation. An inflammatory report in the May 31 edition of the Tulsa Tribune spurred a confrontation between blacks, many of which being WWI veterans, and white armed mobs around the courthouse where the sheriff and his men had barricaded the top floor to protect Rowland. Shots were fired and the outnumbered African Americans began retreating to the Greenwood District. In the early morning hours of June 1, 1921 Greenwood was looted and burned by white rioters. Governor Robertson declared martial law, and National Guard troops arrived in Tulsa. Guardsmen assisted firemen in putting out fires, took African Americans out of the hands of vigilantes and imprisoned all Black Tulsans not already interned. Over 6,000 people were held at the Convention Hall and the Fairgrounds, some for as long as eight days. They were threatened and told to never speak of this or there would be consequences.

Twenty-four hours after the violence erupted, it ceased. In the wake of the violence, 35 city blocks lay in charred ruins, more than 800 people were treated for injuries and contemporary reports of deaths began at 36. Historians now believe as many as 300 people may have died.

In order to understand the Tulsa Race Massacre, it is important to understand the complexities of the times. Dick Rowland, Sarah Page and an unknown gunman were the sparks that ignited a long smoldering fire. Jim Crow, jealousy, white supremacy, and land lust, all played roles in leading up to the destruction and loss of life on May 31 and June 1, 1921. ¹

We have to know history to grow from history. Educate yourself, your friends, your family, your children, your spouses, your community and let these conversations happen. Get comfortable with the uncomfortable conversations and help reveal the truths that lie within our elders.

I firmly believe that this history should be taught in schools. The more exposure we have to the truth, the faster we can heal as a nation. Together, we can lift up one another and Allies can truly understand what needs to be done and why. We can’t rely on schools to teach everything. I hope the marking of this horrible anniversary begins a renaissance of uncovering more truths of Blacks in America. Creating a ripple effect of unconditional love for one another. Opening the doors to equity, repair, and healing. As our President Joe Biden stated earlier this week in Tulsa, Oklahoma, “With silence wounds deepen.” Let’s break the silence!

1. https://www.tulsahistory.org/exhibit/1921-tulsa-race-massacre/#flexible-content
2. Image source: https://www.loc.gov/item/95517018/

About the Authors

Stephanie Wedgeworth

With over 20 years of experience in facilitation, sales training and new business development, Stephanie has been delivering powerful product demonstrations on vehicle design, engineering, performance, hybrid technology and safety. Her imaginative marketing and training programs cultivate a successful and entertaining group dynamic by encouraging cohesion which garners results. She loves mentoring and helping people through effective, targeted collaboration. Stephanie is also a holistic health practitioner and plant based chef. Her other passion is nutrition and healthy eating.