How many of us have experienced déjà vu? You know, that feeling that you’ve experienced a specific situation before? We all have. But have you ever considered that déjà vu has an antonym? I had not until I read Karl Weick’s article, “The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster,” last week. Weick explains that Vu Jàdé (also referred to as Vuja De) is when you experience a situation you have never experienced before, have no idea where you are, and no idea who can help.

When I read that phrase, I thought it was the perfect way to describe our current environment. This is exactly how most leaders and employees have felt over the past year of living in a pandemic—I know it’s how I’ve felt! Weick highlights how such an experience makes employees, leaders, and organizations vulnerable and causes panic by compromising decision making, sensemaking, and role structure.

So, how do you combat this experience? Weick recommends having “goals that transcend the self-interests of each participant,” nonstop communication (crucial to coordinating complex systems, especially during difficult times), and having a “formal and informal structure that enables quick reactions.” If you listen to GP Strategies’ Podcast, Julyan Lee and I discuss this idea further: these can all be addressed by trusting your organizational design (OD) and change management (CM) methodologies. OD and CM help organizations and individuals recognize both planned and unplanned change and strategize how to deal with them.  

COVID has produced an entirely new level of uncertainty. However, pay, benefits, working conditions, management, rules and regulations, personal and professional growth, processes and procedures, and organizational structure all continue to impact employee satisfaction. In turn, that impacts an organization’s ability to meet its goals. An OD methodology gives you the tools and framework; skilled OD practitioners can help you refine and leverage that methodology to find solutions that maximize the motivating variables I listed above.

It is natural for employees to be unnerved. Organizations need to double down on CM efforts to support their employees at an individual level. Employees will continue to seek what we at GP Strategies capture in our Reason, Role, Path, Partner (R2P2) model. More than ever, employees want clarity around what is changing and why. What are the risks? What’s in it for them and the organization? What’s required of them? What skills will they need to be successful? Do they have leaders they can trust? CM practitioners and methodology can prepare leaders to address these questions quickly and effectively. Methodologies, such as the GP Strategies’ Preventative, Proactive, and Responsive method, help organizations plan their CM strategy and properly prepare their employees for all of the changes to come, helping to prevent any unwanted or undesirable outcomes. Even with the best strategies, unintended consequences, or even worse, a vu jàdé experience, can still happen. But, if you have a methodology in place, you will have the tools to stay calm, apply what you know about CM, course correct, endure, and thrive.

About the Authors

Cedric Brisseau

February 1 marked the beginning of Black History Month, which brings back memories of being in high school February 1986 and getting kicked out of history class. Why, you’re wondering? What did I do? It was more what I said than what I did. I was being a typical teen, passing notes, talking to my friends, and being disruptive. This is before cell phones and text messages so note passing was what we did. My history teacher, of course, noticed my disruptive behavior and asked me a question about the lesson he was conducting. I was intentionally not paying attention and obviously didn’t know the answer.

My reasoning for not paying attention was not your typical teen just being a teen reason. It was not because I hated history—in fact, I love history. It was not my dislike for school either, because I thoroughly enjoy learning and have always been a copious notetaker. I was the student everyone came to for a copy of my notes. Was I a bit of a class clown? No. I hung around the class clowns and actively encouraged their rebellious behaviors, but I usually wasn’t the instigator. So why wasn’t I listening and paying attention to my history teacher, taking great notes, and avidly learning like I normally did?

Well, here’s why. It was the subject matter being discussed and not being discussed. It was February, Black History Month, and no Black history was being taught. No lessons of 1739, when the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina became the largest slave revolt in colonial America. (Greendyk, 2021) No discussions of the first Black US senator, Hiram Revels, in 1870. We were not talking about how one in four cowboys was Black; which is not widely known, since most stories told in popular books and movies never mention that. (Greendyk, 2021) Did we talk about Thurgood Marshall, the first African American appointed to the United States Supreme Court? Did we learn about Jack Johnson, the first African-American man to hold the World Heavyweight Champion boxing title in 1908? (Greendyk, 2021) No. Not even the lessons of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement were mentioned. None of this was being discussed. We were talking about the same dusty history stories I had been hearing about since junior high; Christopher Columbus discovering America, Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves and George Washington cutting down a cherry tree.

So when my history teacher asked me to answer his question, I couldn’t. I wasn’t listening. I did what teens do best; deflected with grand attitude. When I quickly told him I wasn’t listening, he didn’t like my answer. This was no surprise to him—he had been watching me pass notes and act disruptive. He snapped back and said that if I had been paying attention, I would have been able to answer.

My response back to my underpaid, overworked, and very brave (for even teaching high school) teacher was not thought out or methodical. It was a response from my soul, from my heart, and from my hurt. I just couldn’t understand why in 1986, in an integrated school in the suburbs of Chicago, with multiple nationalities and a significant Black population—why were we not talking about Black history at all in February? These were the feelings and thoughts rapidly swirling in my mind and resulted in me saying to my history teacher that if he was teaching something interesting to me, like my history, I would listen. I went on to say that it is February, Black History Month, and we should be discussing Black history, the history important to me. I asked him why he wasn’t teaching that.

Ok, 52-year-old Stephanie realizes there was a much better way to express my concerns, and maybe saying his lesson plans were uninteresting wasn’t kind; but remember, this was 16-year-old me.

Sixteen-year-old Stephanie had a valid point. My history teacher could have considered February as an excellent opportunity to introduce and then educate his students about Black history. There is so much history that is inaccurate, untold, and ignored. For far too long, our stories and our history went untold. Thanks to significantly rising racial pride, the 1920s was the decade of the New Negro for the Post-World War I generation. Carter G. Woodson, a noted African American historian, scholar, educator, and publisher created Negro History Week in 1926 commemorating the Black past to extend the public’s study of Black history. (Greendyk, 2021)

These efforts continued to increase in the 1940s within the Black community to expand the study of Black history in the schools. During the Civil Rights Movement in the South, some schools incorporated Black history into the curriculum, hoping to advance social change. (Greendyk, 2021)

So, 60 years after Carter G. Woodson created Negro history week, there I was in Bolingbrook High School expecting this history teacher to teach Black history. Well, it didn’t happen. Instead the teacher gave me a not so kind option of listening or leaving, so I of course made the only choice I felt would solidify my stance—and I left, in a very grand fashion. (Remember, I was 16.)

Twenty-one years later, for my 20th year class reunion, I returned with my high school best friend and her teenage son. To my surprise, murals of famous and prominent Black people were painted on the walls. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Tears welled up and I fought back an ugly cry as I gasped. I am sure my grand exit out of my history class did not result in this change, but it felt good knowing that I stood up for what should have been. I was proud of Bolingbrook High School and excited that young, impressionable minds were going to see important, significant Black faces that formed Black History. They were celebrating the achievements and lives of Blacks, not just in February, but every day.

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.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have evolved over the past couple of years and have become more accessible for business and learning, both technologically and financially. VR and AR are two different ways of bending reality to demonstrate, visualize, and impart information.

Watch highlights from the interview.

Because they are often confused, here’s the difference between them:

• Virtual reality (VR): VR is a virtual environment that shuts out the real world and creates another virtual environment before your eyes. To experience VR, you need a special headset that immerses you in the new reality.
• Augmented reality (AR): With AR, the real world remains central to your experience and is augmented by virtual details. Normally, the virtual details are superimposed on the screen of a phone or tablet, enabling you to learn more about an object by pointing your device at it.
• Mixed reality (MR): MR is a combination of both virtual and actual realities, allowing you to interact with both at once.
• Extended reality (XR): XR is the term for when these technologies are used together. Now that the technology is here, it’s time to refine and expand upon it. We need to think about blending augmented and virtual realities, enabling hybrid learning experiences between virtual and face-to-face environments.

Many companies are interested in using AR and VR for learning and corporate use but don’t know where to get started. I recently sat down with GP Strategies’ Chief Learning and Innovation Officer, Matt Donovan and Tom Pizer, Director of Learning Technologies. We discussed where VR, AR and MR are headed, what software drives them, and how to dip your toe in now that the technology and platforms to support them are more accessible. Here are selected highlights from our discussion and you can watch the interview at the end of this post.

How to get started with VR and AR.

There are many tools on the market today to help develop content rapidly and lower the bar for entry. We suggest you start with an AR or VR training use case that’s meaningful and impactful to your learners. Keep it small and focused, and incorporate measurement. Also consider the tools and devices you’ll need ahead of time and how you’ll supply them to your workforce. After some practice you will be able to plan to scale, include ideas that worked well, and tailor the experience for your unique learning culture.

Is there a quick way to get started?

We suggest getting started with a simple test-and-learn approach and make it low barrier, meaning that it can be accessed on a number of different devices. It’s easier to do with augmented reality because of the devices needed. A simple test-and-learn approach will familiarize your developers and writers with the process and get the learners comfortable with the user experience too.

How do AR and VR fit into your ecosystem?

There’s so much disruption these days that the question is hard to answer. So start with what you are trying to accomplish. What is the most effective way to achieve those goals? Augmented or virtual reality training or operations will not always be the best answer. Also consider that every time you implement a new technology, there’s a culture shift. So be prepared for change management.

Which is better—AR or VR?

To determine whether AR or VR training is the best approach to use, consider the challenges your workforce is experiencing. Are your people struggling to perform their job at the point-of-work? AR will allow them to scan an object and get information in a just-in-time manner. For example, you can provide a mechanical technician with augmented learning that allows them to scan a machine part and learn how to replace it. On the other hand, VR allows the technician to explore, replace, and repair parts in a virtual scenario that doesn’t require equipment downtime or mechanical risk. It allows them to understand and practice the skill.

Here are some of the tools you’ll need.

Your developers are probably already familiar with some of the tools you can use, such as Immerse, CenarioVR, and Adobe Captivate. They can be implemented on a desktop or headset. They’re not hard to learn. Once you do, you can move to more sophisticated solutions that deploy on any mobile device, such as Unreal, Zappar, Layar and Unity.

Will all of this require new staff?

When GP Strategies started implementing VR and AR solutions a few years back, we refined our existing talent. Because our people were already experienced, upskilling was a viable option. It really depends on the team you have in place. Content creation for VR and AR, for example, is a whole different animal than traditional instructional design. So as you move into this arena, consider who can be upskilled and where you may have gaps in your team’s expertise.

Where is the future headed and am I too late?

You’re definitely not too late. If you think of VR and AR as a structure, we’re just on the first floor now. So it’s an ideal time to jump in. We’re still building and perfecting tools and techniques and we envision the growing potential of the AR, VR, and MR spaces. Also, AI is beginning to creep into the space; creating new opportunities to extend capabilities.

The future is bright for AR and VR. We’ve used it effectively for a variety of needs, from automotive sales training to continuity of business during COVID. As developers and users become more accustomed to the technologies, we foresee them as having a huge impact on modern learning.

Learn more about VR and GP Strategies.

About the Authors

Dennis Bonilla

Dennis F. Bonilla, currently Dean of the Wiley Education Services Global Academy and a Fellow of the Future Workplace Network, is an industry-recognized Digital Learning & Technology Transformation Strategist specializing in the integration of adult learning neuroscience, digital learning technologies and curriculum, data analytics, and corporate and higher education strategies for the modern multi-generational workforce. Mr. Bonilla also designed, developed, and launched the Red Flint Innovation Centers for the University of Phoenix in Las Vegas and Phoenix. His wealth of experience in delivering learning technology leadership and innovation spans a variety of industries including higher education, technology, energy, manufacturing, medical, biotech, telecommunications, and nuclear energy. He’s worked for and consulted at Fortune 100 companies in the technology, manufacturing, energy, and healthcare industries. He’s a veteran of the U.S. Navy, where he taught at the Naval Nuclear Power School and served three patrols in engineering operations on the USS Casimir Pulaski, SSBN 633 Blue Crew. He began his professional career as a training engineer for Westinghouse; teaching nuclear plant operations at multiple commercial power plants, both domestic and international. Mr. Bonilla is a member of numerous organizations’ boards, including the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce board of directors, SQUIGL board of directors, Los D-Backs Ambassadors Council, Microsoft Higher Education Advisory Board, Whole Systems, Inc. Board of Directors, and the Pandexio Board of Advisors. In July 2017, Mr. Bonilla was awarded the Insight Into Diversity Inspiring Leaders in STEM Award.

Have you ever wondered how much perceptions are aligned with reality within your organization?

Take a look at some statistics and be certain that if you are not properly capturing and tracking data, the perception versus reality gap might be bigger than you expect.

• 89% of bosses believe employees quit because they want more money, but only 12% of employees actually leave an organization for more money.
• 58% of people say they trust strangers more than their own boss.
• 79% of people who quit their jobs cite “lack of appreciation” as their reason for leaving and 65% of North Americans report that they were not recognized even once last year.

Salesforce Research discovered that employees who feel heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to do their best work. Making sure that thousands of people feel that way is a big challenge, but Qualtrics XM^®, along with SAP SuccessFactors, may be the perfect tool to close the gaps that exist between feedback and action, and perception and reality.

The XM in the company’s name stands for “Experience Management”. Experience, by definition, is the impression left on someone after an event. Being able to capture that impression in real time is key to acting quickly and precisely on what really matters for any organization. The most successful companies know this. They are actively trying to predict and mitigate problems before they even happen by monitoring every interaction people have with and within the company. That is where Qualtrics XM comes into play.

Qualtrics XM gives you the ability to create robust surveys to capture data and provides you with powerful reporting tools, dashboards, and insights driven by artificial intelligence to guide you through action.

EmployeeXM (one of the four products Qualtrics offers) integrates seamlessly with SAP SuccessFactors and covers an employee’s entire life cycle by providing the tools needed to evaluate:

• The candidate experience from job research to the application and interviews
• The pre-onboarding and onboarding processes
• The day-to-day experiences with the company’s internal processes and culture
• The employee’s overall satisfaction with leadership
• And much more

Whether you need a quick pulse survey to track things like employees who potentially had contact with the new coronavirus before they come back to the office, or a long annual survey to steer your HR transformation strategy, Qualtrics XM can help you.

Start with mapping the problems you need to tackle, choose the right audience by leveraging SAP SuccessFactors’ operational data and events, and trigger Employee XM surveys that will quickly help you connect the dots and come up with an action plan.

Both companies are now working closely together to rapidly increase the integration capabilities between both platforms. More and more, this will reduce the amount of time needed between identifying the problem and resolving it. If you would like more information on how to implement Qualtrics XM or how it can positively impact your organization, leave a comment or contact us directly. Start leveraging your employee feedback today.

About the Authors

Nathan Botelho

Nathan is a certified SuccessFactors consultant passionate about technology and innovation. Working with Talent Management Systems since 2010 and specifically with SuccessFactors since 2012, he has plenty of experience in various modules, such as Performance & Goals, Succession & Development, Learning and Recruiting.

“Teachers affect eternity, no one can tell where their influence stops.”

—Henry Adams

In early 2020, much of the world shifted from in-person to virtual overnight, some struggled more than others. A silent agreement seemed to exist that we were in the situation together and we needed to stabilize.  But as time passed, stability was no longer sufficient. In order to thrive in this new environment, we had to relearn much of what we knew and how we approached our work. Learning was not immune to the change and seemingly accelerated in its evolution. The classroom and desk, iconic images representing education, suddenly and without warning were replaced with headsets and laptops. The stable environments where we learned, and the time and space allotted to our growth and development dissipated but our need to learn continued. As learning became a byproduct of the new virtual world, the feedback and messaging became “virtual learning does not work”. The challenge, however, is not with virtual learning, it is with those of us who design, develop, and deliver the virtual learning – we are the ones who determine whether or not virtual learning is successful.  And it can be successful.

One of the biggest reasons that virtual environments are not successful is the lack of engagement. In the virtual environment we tend to drop the activities that we did in person, possibly due to the restriction of time or maybe the lack of online design experience. But here is the reality: engagement and interactivity is the most important aspect of virtual learning that must be included to create a successful virtual learning environment. We cannot be delivering asynchronously to our learners, especially now. When we are together in a live virtual environment, the content and the opportunity to learn needs to be synchronous. It needs to be engaging, interactive, and it needs to have energy. Our learners are filled with distractions, probably more now than ever before. There is a lot going on in their lives and we are fighting for that attention. But attention alone isn’t the only reason engagement is important in a virtual setting, the other reason is the social component. In the virtual learning environment, we need to leverage the opportunity to create social connections for our students. Our session might be their only time that day to connect with someone else. They may be alone most of the time, some may not have friends they can see or may not have family around. When we are connected in a virtual learning environment, for some of us, this is our only connection. Take advantage of that opportunity, establish and create opportunities to build those social connections.

The tone of your session and the success is set from the very beginning. Establishing a connection, building trust, and creating an engaging environment at the open of the session can set us up for success and prime the learners to be involved. It’s equally as important to keep that energy level consistent throughout your session. Icebreakers are a great tool to use at the beginning of your session and energizers are a great tool to use throughout your session, especially after breaks or lunch to pull the learners back in and get them excited and energized to move forward.  Icebreakers and energizers can be used interchangeably – the only real difference is we call “icebreakers” the activity at the beginning of the session to break the ice and get learners connected while energizers are the activities we use throughout the session to keep learners engaged, give their brains a rest from content, and keep the energy level high. Here are some of my favorite icebreaker activities:

5 Icebreaker & Energizer Ideas

The Object of Me

Give learners 1 or 2 minutes to quickly find an item, wherever they are, that best represents them. Pick someone by name to share their object and pick someone else to guess what that object says about them. Continue the activity until everyone has shared. This is a great activity to learn more about your colleagues or fellow learners. Here’s an example to show how everyone can participate regardless of where they’re located. Recently, someone asked me to participate, and I wasn’t at home, I was in a new environment but I had just finished having breakfast. I didn’t know what could possibly represent me. And then I looked down at my plate, and I had a little piece of avocado left. And I realized I can use that, it represents me. It’s healthy, and it’s organic, and it has a little bit of good fat.

Remember Me

Find an image online, maybe one that is intricate and filled with many details.  Show the image to the learners for 15 to 20 seconds. Ask everyone to look at the picture and try and memorize as much as they can. And then after that 20 seconds, take the photo away and allow everybody to share what they saw. It’s a simple fun activity because there’s always going to be something a little bit different that each person sees. It helps us learn a little bit more about the way our learners think.

Optical Illusion

Find a fun optical illusion picture and ask learners to describe what they see. But remember – there are no wrong answers in optical illusion photos. If that is what they are seeing, that is their reality.

Virtual Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Another fun one I have been using, both with adults and children is Rock, Paper, Scissors. take a few minutes, get everybody on camera, and do a tournament of rock paper scissors. It’s a really fun, old-fashioned way to get people engaged. If you have a large group, you could utilize the breakout rooms to have tournaments. Take the winner from the breakout rooms and have a final tournament in the main room. Those who are “playing” in the tournament can keep their cameras on and those who are not can turn theirs off. This helps to easily identify who is playing.

Game Play

Games can be a great way to keep learners engaged and give them a mental break from content to reenergize. Here are some options:

• Search online for Trivia games
• Play 2 Truths and a Lie
• Play charades on camera
• Pick a popular song and find a version on YouTube that is played backwards and have learners guess

Best Practices

Ask yourself this question – when you are in a virtual setting, what is the time limit for you before you start to zone out? Maybe you pick up your phone, maybe you switch the screen…how many minutes has it taken you before that has happened? For me, it’s about five minutes. That’s my attention span when I’m not being engaged or my attention isn’t required. Whatever your answer is, that should be the baseline of how often we should be building in interactions. If we are getting bored at five minutes or seven minutes, most likely so are our participants. Practicing empathy in the virtual environment is critical for success.

3 – 5 minutes. This is the best practice for creating frequent interactions every 3 to 5 minutes. And it does not need to be a complicated activity, it can be a simple call for their attention back to the screen. For this to work though, level-set with your students at the very beginning of the session, let them know it’s going to be interactive. For example, I have a rules of the road slide that I use that covers my expectation for the conduct in the session. I clearly say this class requires your participation and you may be called upon. By letting them know that upfront this is happening, I’m setting the stage so that I can call on them, preferably by name, so that they are staying engaged. And that’s not in a rude or negative way. Using their name is another tip to make them feel recognized and validated,

Take into consideration the number of people in your session. The larger the group, the more challenging the activities become as more time will be required.  If a session is over 20 people, consider utilizing breakout rooms for longer energizers or icebreakers.  Groups over 20 are going to be designed for much differently than groups under 20 or even  5 people are going to be designed differently for 10 or 15 people. For example, open microphone discussions are going to be more challenging, the more people that you have. Even chat can be more challenging when you have over 20 people. So you want to be deliberate and intentional when designing and consider the size of your audience.

In addition to icebreakers and energizers, we can use nonverbal communications to create engagement opportunities in the virtual classroom. It could be as simple as asking a question and having students type the answer in chat or click on the agree or disagree / thumbs up or thumbs down button. Nonverbal communications tools are available regardless of the platform being used and are very powerful ways for our students to continue to engage with us. When we talk about engagements needing to be every 3 to 5 minutes, it does not have to be a full blown activity that requires you to stop teaching, it could be as simple as clicking the agree or disagree button. The idea is just to create some sort of engagement or interaction that draws them back into that virtual environment so that we can get their attention. Remember to consider your learners in everything that we do. The most important thing that we need in this world right now is empathy, not just for our learners, but for every human being. Design and deliver with our learner in mind will help to keep them engaged and lead to successful virtual learning experiences.

About the Authors

Keith Keating

With a career spanning over 20 years in learning & development, Keith Keating holds a Master’s Degree in Leadership and has experience in a myriad of areas ranging from Instructional Design, Leadership Coaching, Operations Management, and Process Transformation. More recently Keith has been leading clients on the development and execution of their global learning strategies. Regardless of the role, at the heart of everything Keith does centers around problem solving. He studied Design Thinking at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and found Design Thinking was a perfect tool to add to his problem solving "toolkit". Since then, Keith has been utilizing Design Thinking to help clients tap into understanding and resolving unmet customer needs.

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

A corporate university may seem either quaint or only for the largest of organizations, but in the wake of the current pandemic and the near-disappearance of in-person training, there is an opportunity to take specific learning initiatives or strategic business needs and develop digital academies focused on achieving those outcomes.

These academies take the immersive nature and structure of a corporate university and give it the strategic specialization of an agile project team. Digital academies, hubs, or campuses permit organizations to create programs that are focused on key initiatives, such as leadership development or sales enablement; areas that require a bit more attention than training in general.

At a time when companies are working through an accelerated digital transformation of learning, digital academies present an opportunity to put specific programs together to leverage the best blend of learning technology and content required by the learners, the subject matter, and the intended outcomes.

What Goes into a Digital Academy?

As previously stated, a digital academy is generally focused on a specific initiative or strategic need within the business. Another thing that often distinguishes them from other digital learning is an executive sponsor. This executive (or executives) provides the impetus for the strategic purpose and also elevates the academy’s profile within the organization.

The digital academy’s content must be rigorously curated. Participants should know that anything and everything they encounter is there to help achieve the stated purpose and is the most up-to-date, relevant material available. This requires a faculty, typically accredited or certified in the strategic area.

As the term digital implies, these academies should leverage learning tools and technologies to ensure that in addition to more formalized classes and courses, there are opportunities for self-directed learning and learning in the flow of work.

Brandon Hall Group conducts extensive research on the learning experience and digital tools, and found that organizations where learning strongly impacts organizational outcomes such as individual performance, employee engagement, and time to productivity are about three times more likely to have consistently used a blend of modalities that includes the following:

• Video learning
• Coaching/mentoring
• Informal peer-to-peer learning
• Microlearning
• Mobile learning
• Social/collaboration tools

Designing the Academy

A digital academy deploys a blend of tools that aligns with the program’s goals—and it’s never a one-size-fits-all proposition. The blend must be adjusted and evolve based on the changing needs of the organization and the outcomes, good or bad, of the learning programs.

Beyond the content and modalities, the overall learner experience is critical in a digital academy. Because it is so focused, there should be a cohesive, coherent experience to everything. Most important is the ability to provide context and personalization.

Looking again at Brandon Hall Group research, organizations where learning has a strong impact on a variety of outcomes are more likely to feature learning experiences with these characteristics:

• Contextualization based on learner requirements
• Opportunities to practice/apply knowledge
• A method to reinforce learning concepts
• Methods to gather learner feedback
• Personalized learning plans that allow learners to track their progress
• Learning recommendations based on learner information
• The ability to search, explore and discover learning opportunities

Additionally, these companies provide learners with the expected goals and outcomes of the learning and link the learning to their personal objectives.

Measurement, Aligning Goals, and Preparing for Impact

Because the academy is built around a specific purpose, it’s critical to properly measure its impact on those outcomes. Simply measuring the number of participants is insufficient. Completion data has very little value unless it is combined and analyzed with performance, behavior, and outcome data.

In Brandon Hall Group’s Learning Measurement Study, just 24% of companies say that most or all of their learning programs are designed based on specific, defined metrics. With a digital academy, the metrics are defined by the stated purpose of the academy, making measurement simultaneously simpler and more critical than generic learning programs. Since the academies are based on strategic initiatives from the business, those are the overarching goals. They then need to be converted into behavior and performance outcomes, which can then be translated into learning outcomes.

A mature measurement strategy supports a successful digital academy by enabling learning leaders to demonstrate its impact. Proper measurement ensures continued improvement of the program, as well as elevating the academy’s profile as a strategic driver of business outcomes.

A digital academy is an appropriate approach for any organization seeking to focus on a strategic area of the business. Whether it is leadership development, certification of professional groups, software development, or any area that demands a more in-depth learning strategy, the concept provides a way to bring the learning to the next level. Learning strategy and technology company LEO Learning, the first company to consider digital academies, offers these guidelines.

Digital academies:

• Are well-known learning initiatives within an organization
• Tend to focus on a specific learning initiative
• Deliver multiple programs and learning pathways
• Deliver multimodal learning
• May include content curated from outside your organization

About the Authors

David Wentworth

Where’s my learning data?

The push to SAP’s SaaS Learning module has been successful for nearly everyone but it does come with some downsides. By design (and to support stability of the platform) the SAP suite doesn’t make bulk exports of large amounts of data easy or even possible in some cases. There are very common and practical reasons for this in a shared computing environment like the SAP cloud. But knowing the reasons doesn’t help to solve the challenges.

Out-of-box solutions provide options but they all have their drawbacks:

1. The API’s present features allow users to retrieve data in a manner designed for integration (one or two at a time and in response to specific API “questions”) not bulk data exports. They are designed to answer questions like “show me this student’s learning plan” and not questions like “show me all the students that have this item on their learning plan”.
2. Some tools that are presently available and are candidates for a bulk export, like Integration Center, do not use learning data yet. While it is on the roadmap to add this data source, the date is not yet firm.
3. Some of the previous “cheat” methods, like using a custom report, is fraught with risk as SAP will be sunsetting the PRD tool sometime soon. Even if you ignore the tool removal risk reports can be clunky, slow, and fragile.

This makes feeding a hungry business intelligence tool, having Learning-driven integration events, or even getting a large portion of the data in a meaningful way not presently supported by the SAP Learning API extraordinarily difficult.

Enter data services

SAP has a separate offering that can satisfy the need for large scale data output from the Learning module. It’s called data services. Rather than trying to feed the data though a small pipe (like the APIs), data services are flat file exports of the table deltas from the Learning module data model. The data is delivered via Secure File Transfer (SFTP). This allows far more flexibility with the delivered size of the data and creates significantly less strain on the Learning module.

While you get access to a significantly larger volume of data here the trade is that the client end is responsible for more of the effort. There needs to be a place for the data to land, and the client must build and maintain the process to consume the data in a meaningful manner. There’s no “pre-digestion” of the data. You get it as raw flat export files that you must manage. With this responsibility comes ultimate flexibility. Even though you have to do everything to manage the data coming in you can do whatever you need to do in order to make it fit your consumption needs.

Important bits about Learning data services:

• The tables are bundled in three table groupings (SAP calls them “packages”). Package A is the most commonly used set of tables. B offers the somewhat lesser used tables and C the least commonly used tables. Pricing is based on the selected packages of tables.
• This is an out-of-box offering from SAP. There is no real customization possible to the offering except the ability to select the table packages.

What do I get?

Once you‘ve signed up you will receive these files via SFTP delivery:

• A full extract of all requested tables in your selected packages. This will allow you to “prime the pump” on your receiving side to have a set of base data to work with.
• A set of delta files (typically delivered nightly) that are an extract of the data rows produced for each table in your selected packages over the course of the delta period.
• A set of key files (also typically delivered nightly) that are just the columns comprising the primary key of the tables in your packages. This will allow you to detect deletions from the table because delta files do not include action flags. So you would not see deletions there

How does it work?

SAP will conduct a mini-project with you to ensure that the data is delivered properly and that your consumption process is working. While they do not help with the development of the receipt side of the process, they are available to answer questions about the delivery aspects. Once you have signed off on their delivery you are ready to go into production:

1. You will request a full extract of the tables you have paid for by raising a ticket with SAP support.    
2. Your SAP project team will enable nightly delta and key files for your feed from your production instance.
3. Your data receipt process picks up the files from the SFTP delivery site and consumes them.

Why should I worry?

As always, there are risks to consider for any integration:

• Deltas can get out of sync with your main data destination. This can be remedied in different ways depending on your consumption process and its implementation; though you would be wise to retain the delta files for a week or two to allow you to catch up if necessary. The emergency fix would be to enter another support ticket to get a full extract to allow you to reset your baseline.
• Remember, your data will be delivered exactly as it is from the database. If your data contains special characters or carriage returns it will be present in the extracts. Be sure your consumption process can handle them (and has robust error handling in general).
• In that same vein, full extracts are only delivered on demand via ticket request. They are typically an exception (or at least a very occasional regular occurrence) and usually need to be managed differently than your standard delta files.

What’s next?

Wrangling the large amount of data your Learning module produces can be difficult with the normal out-of-box tools. Using the Learning data services offering can be a reasonable answer to data-starved integrations, reporting tools, and other interfaces.

Based on my experience, working with a preferred and experienced vendor will help make your transition to Learning data services much easier and will help you to avoid some of the pitfalls. If you are interested in learning more about Learning data services or have more questions, visit https://www.gpstrategies.com/ or leave a comment below.

About the Authors

Chris Olive

“Specialization is for insects.” – Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love My parents were both technology focused teachers when I was a kid, and my father was a high school math teacher so in the ‘80s he was the “computer teacher” too. This meant I was lucky enough to have an actual computer in our house, an Apple //e. I clearly remember my father bringing home the sample programming exercises (in Basic!) for me to practice. From there, I moved on to entering the example programs from the back of computer magazines myself and tinkering with them. It was this that made me realize that the flexibility of the computer made it the ultimate tool to solve problems. I also read a lot of science fiction when I was a kid. They were mostly the “classics” of the genre from the 1950s or so. I clearly remember Heinlein’s exhortation and that the main characters were inevitably able to do just about anything they needed to do to survive with their wide-ranging knowledge of multiple subjects. They knew metallurgy, biology, survival skills, hunting, cooking, sewing, and more in a large array of skills. I resolved to do the same. While I have not come close to mastery in all these skills, the notion of the “Renaissance Man” drove my early desire to learn as much as possible about as many things as possible. This led me to the Jesuits and their idea of “care for the whole person” and eventually led me to have my undergraduate education at Loyola College in Baltimore (now called Loyola University Maryland). Combining both technology and the humanities helped put perspective on how computers and other technology really were just tools and that we were solving people problems even though we were using technology to do so. That remains true even now with the clients I help. They are just trying to overcome an obstacle and the method to fix it is immaterial. I happen to use technology as a tool for much of the time but there are human fixes that can be applied to human problems too. At the bottom of every request there is a person trying to do their job. Sometimes they don’t really know what the source of their frustration might be which is why I always start by asking “What is the problem you’re trying to solve?” I figured if it was good enough of a starting place for Richard Feynman it would have to be good enough for me. Once these problems are clearly outlined, they are solvable. I enjoy helping people and solving problems. These things all work together.

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

In January 2021, Fosway released its latest report, “The Power of Virtual Classrooms in a Post-Pandemic World.” In this blog, GP Strategies learning expert, Geoff Bloom, and Senior Director of LX Strategy, Andrew Joly, reflect on the report and discuss what the future of virtual learning might look like.

Initial Thoughts on the Report

Geoff Bloom: Based on our clients’ experiences and what we’ve seen over the last year, everything in this report seems fairly obvious at a high level. We conducted some of our own research in June 2020, and what came out was the clear importance of virtual classrooms. We’ve discussed the importance of virtual classrooms for years, but over the course of the pandemic, they have really come into their own.

Andrew Joly: Everything in this report completely maps with everything we’ve seen in key strategic pivots in learning in 2020. It would be fair to say that in the years prior to the pandemic, we’ve been focused more on asynchronous learning components—video drama, eLearning, etc—than live delivery. However, global clients at the front of the pack in terms of learning strategy were already well-versed in the world of virtual classroom delivery. In those organizations, the key pivots seen in the last year were instead focused on refining their distance learning strategies and adapting any remaining face-to-face (f2f) training into live online delivery. 

The Use of Technology and Tools

One of the stand-out statistics from the report was that 70% of organizations used Microsoft Teams to deliver their virtual classrooms and workshops, while only 10% deemed it suitable for their purposes. 

GB: Systems like Teams and Google Meet are designed for broader corporate use, not necessarily virtual learning delivery. Both of them integrate well with their respective cloud or online storage, allowing for easy file sharing and collaboration. 

While Teams, for example, may not have all of the tools available to deliver top-tier virtual learning, there are plenty of features available. It’s important to remember that there isn’t a virtual conferencing tool that does everything perfectly. A lot of organizations are relieved to just have something in place that they can use. And when it comes to expanding your virtual learning repertoire and adding more elements to learning design, there are plenty of tools with specific functions (like virtual whiteboards) that integrate well with Teams and other such systems.

AJ: There is a considerable difference between tools like Zoom, designed for smaller-scale meetings where everyone contributes, and things like GoToWebinar designed for large-scale webinar delivery. Each work for different types of virtual learning sessions. Classrooms or webinars, which I would classify as more than 30 people, would suit a GoTo-type tool, whereas more interactive workshops (less than 30) may be better suited to things like Zoom, Teams, or Adobe Connect.

It’s also worth considering what using these tools does to and for the facilitators. Switching to virtual delivery can be a bit of a ‘sink or swim’ scenario for facilitators and the capabilities of L&D need to be reassessed and in some cases, rebuilt. We learn fastest when we’re dropped in the deep end, and it’s my belief that many organizations have adapted well. 

But the skills needed to facilitate a virtual classroom or workshop are vastly different from those required in-person, and I wonder if this has contributed to the responses in the report. You have to be much more organized and structured in your delivery. Unless you’re a pro, like Geoff, with plenty of experience in online delivery, it can be much more challenging to orchestrate activities off-the-cuff in a virtual setting.

Learning From Sudden Digital Transformation

One of the quotes in the report reads:

“Virtual delivery has put a magnifying glass to the whole learning experience, especially the design of sessions and programmes”

During the conversation, Andrew asked if we could see virtual best practices crossing over into live learning delivery in the future.

GB: When it comes to virtual classrooms and workshops, there’s nowhere to hide. As a facilitator, you have less control and visibility over who enters the digital space. A sponsor or resident expert, for example, could drop into the session at any time, so you need to be much tighter in delivery, the technical side of things, and with fact-checking. 

So yes, I think virtual delivery forces L&D teams and facilitators to really assess what they are putting out there. This can go one of two ways: people will either become more cautious or perhaps more ambitious as the technology provides opportunities that haven’t been available in live sessions.

As terrible as the circumstances for this all has been, this is the most exciting time for L&D in over 40 years. We have so many new possibilities and significantly wider adoption of learning technology as a means of delivery: 97% of respondents to the Fosway survey are using virtual classrooms as their main form of delivery. 

AJ: There’s an extent to which this can be seen as a new start for L&D. Similarly to the invention of PowerPoint, the availability of the tech doesn’t necessarily mean your delivery or learning will improve. It’s still very much a case of getting out of this technology what you put into it. 

The technology itself isn’t the be-all and end-all, but it can be a fantastic gateway to learning transformation. We’ve had clients come to us and essentially say ‘we think we’re doing ok, but we know we can do better. Can you help us?’ And we’ve helped a number of organizations develop what was previously a several-day, in-person course into multiple virtual classrooms or workshops.

GB: Something to also consider here is the democratization of learning. Geographically dispersed workforces can now interact in a single session. The learning is much more widely available across organizations, and they can save a lot of time and money on travel. More employees can access the same training.

Want to know more about how to transform and enhance your virtual learning delivery? Get in touch to speak with any of our experts.

About the Authors

Geoff Bloom

Geoff is a Principal Consultant and has worked in learning technologies and learning design and delivery since 1980. He joined LEO (now GP Strategies) in 2008, and has worked with a comprehensive range of clients across industries to deliver learning content, and define and evaluate a variety of learning strategies. Geoff was heavily involved in designing the NHS Leadership Academy, working alongside KPMG and the Universities of Manchester and Birmingham to develop over 1,200 hours of blended online content for a Master’s in Healthcare Leadership program. In addition, he has worked on a range of blended leadership initiatives for clients including Volvo, British Airways, and BP. Geoff holds an MBA. He enjoys watching rugby, swimming, and going to see live music. Follow Geoff on LinkedIn.

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.

The digital age has greatly affected the ways Learning & Development (L&D) has served employees over the past decade. The advancement of virtual learning, modern learning, and the focus on learner experience has never been greater. Then came COVID-19, accelerating change at a pace beyond expectations, particularly in the financial services sector.

With branches and global headquarters closed, banks have continued to operate with minimal disruption to their operations and customers and, as Barclays Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley put it, 60,000 Barclays staff have been working “from their kitchen tables.” When you think about it, it’s quite a feat that large institutions like Barclays reacted so quickly.  

The Heart of Transformation

Barclays is just one recent example of how banks have had to transform how they behave and service their customers and, to be fair, one of the more unusual ones. In the last decade, the Financial Services sector has changed enormously, whether through compliance and regulatory commitments following the economic downturn of 2008, the digital transformation of banking services, or disruption from emerging fintechs and challenger banks like Revolut and Monzo. These days, “change” is a badge worn with honor by the most successful institutions.

At the heart of transformation are the change practitioners who support the business in their efforts to anticipate or react to the shifting sands of customer needs. They set a strategy for change and implementation, with a program-based, often agile approach to drive and embed change .

In recent times, the cultural aspect of change (hearts and minds) has been more carefully considered, particularly in global banking organizations where change transcends borders and ways of working. John P. Kotter in the HBR said, “Change sticks when it becomes ’the way we do things around here,’ when it seeps into the bloodstream of the corporate body.” It is when change impacts every single individual and with close strategic collaboration with communications, HR, and Learning & Development, that the outcomes have been most effective in delivering change and the desired results required.

Digital Transformation Has Created the Modern Learner

As banking continues to transform its products and services to meet ever-changing customer needs, there has been an interesting parallel that has emerged internally in the organization among its workforce in how learning habits are changing. There’s even a term for it, modern learning, and you guessed it, the modern learner. In 2016, ATD defined a modern learner as, “Someone who is in an environment where content changes fast and learning needs change even faster. Modern Learners want answers right away and rely on a wide variety of sources to find the answer. In other words, almost everyone today is a modern learner!”

Digital transformation in the workplace coupled with digital transformation in our personal lives (the proliferation of mobile devices, immediate access to information, Google, YouTube, even the Internet of Things) has created the monster that is the modern learner and L&D has had to up its game to feed the beast.

L&D in Financial Services has been undergoing significant transformation over many years. Learning takes place in more than just the traditional classroom. Virtual and online learning adoption increases every year, particularly this year. Course curricula are morphing into learner journeys and pathways. Content is curated before it’s created. Learning management systems are giving way to learner experience platforms. Learning in the flow of work is enabled through performance support and a variety of informal resources and assets like learning-specific chatbots. eLearning is microlearning, and we channel learning experiences through advanced learning ecosystems  and tech stacks of platforms and apps. Learning is accessible, and adaptive, and design is agile. Big data and analytics are gradually intersecting learner and performance data sources to create insight and enable more data-driven decisions; and all the while the exemplar L&D department is invisible in the process. Oh, and I didn’t even mention virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), or learner experience (LX) and experience design (XD)! Phew!

Visibility and Influence of L&D

Even taking all of L&D’s advancements into account, the successful transformation of L&D will not be measured by how sophisticated the learning environment is, but whether the learner is performing, is engaged, and is being listened to. In the annual Learner Intelligence Report by Emerald Works, they stated that during COVID-19, “almost 80% of employees responding to our survey indicate that their strongest motivation to learn at work is in order to do their jobs faster or better.” They go on to say that “by far the greatest influencers on this motivation for learning is their manager (35%), colleague (15%) or coach/mentor (14%). HR or L&D don’t really feature, at just 1%.”

These statistics are both interesting and telling. Interesting because the motivation to learn doesn’t appear to be based on salary increase or career progression, and telling that L&D plays such a tiny part in influencing learners; but then by their own admission, they still aren’t clear on the needs of the learner.

To be fair, L&D may not feature as an influencer simply because they aren’t visible to the learner, but that doesn’t mean they are not active in the background, supporting managers and colleagues, and providing or enabling coaches and mentors.

But still, herein lies the real need, the real problem for L&D. All of this transformation, while there is merit in it, does it move the dial? Does it measurably improve the performance of the organization? Does L&D give learners what they need?

Customer-Centric Mindset of Transformation in Learning

In the age of the user and customer experience, we all understand and want to be customer centric, but in L&D are we truly learner centric? The voice of the learner is at the heart of modern learning. Modern learning is driving the transformation of L&D, therefore the voice of the learner is what transforms L&D. It’s not just about providing the right conditions that allow people to learn. It is ensuring that the content they search for and engage with is right for them, right when they need it, in the right format for them to use it, and it achieves the right outcomes that improve performance.

Peter Drucker said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Whether it’s the process of understanding organizational goals or measuring the performance of employees, the future success of L&D transformation hinges on the closest, deepest connections with its learners, listening to their needs while using data to drive the right decisions.

The bells and whistles of transformation are great, but solving employee problems with simplicity is even better.

About the Authors

Stephen Egri

Head of Solution Design EMEA

“There is no such thing as a bad question, it’s just a matter of how you ask it.” With a passion for design, technology and an eye for too much detail, Stephen is a believer in the creative we all have inside of us. A listener and a problem solver, life is about making sense of the situations we find ourselves in and creating a way forward that makes things better in what we do each day. Stephen has spent his entire career in learning and performance with a background in IT, Operations and Consulting and currently is our Head of Solution Design in EMEA.

The Importance of Communication

If you manage employees, you need to talk to them. That’s a no-brainer, right? Yet, manager-employee conversations are more of a myth than a best practice in many organizations. Many of the managers we interview sheepishly acknowledge that they should have more regular sit-downs with their team members, but a variety of excuses (e.g., “Not enough time,” “Mired in my own work,” “Never get around to it”) stand in the way. 

That’s too bad, because our research suggests that dialogue is at the heart of high engagement and sustainable performance. 

Understanding the “Playing Field”

Talking about the weather or last night’s game won’t hurt, but as a manager, you need to focus your conversations on what we call the “playing field” of the employee’s job — where organizational and individual interests intersect. Our X Model of Employee Engagement illustrates how maximum job satisfaction and maximum job contribution relate to employee engagement. 

Types of Employee Engagement Conversations 

There are three types of employee engagement conversations that you can initiate using the X Model: performance reviews, career discussions, and engagement conversations. Each plays a specific role in driving employee engagement and business performance. Don’t wait for your organization to mandate them. Perfect timing and order are less important than actually talking. Start now. 

Performance Reviews

This discussion is likely to be on your list already. Like many managers, the annual performance review may fill you with dread — but it doesn’t have to. 

The performance review is primarily about what your employee needs to deliver to drive the organization’s success (and your own). It is an opportunity to review results, provide feedback, and confirm expectations. It is also the time to talk about the development needed to achieve even greater success in the employee’s current role and upcoming projects. 

Although performance reviews focus on maximum contribution (the organization’s side of our X Model), remember that the greatest performance improvement results when an individual’s values and talents are taken into account. And although you’re on the hook to conduct one performance review every year with each employee, performance feedback should be immediate and year-round. 

The Career Discussion

The career conversation is more about what your employee wants. Although it is heavily weighted toward the individual’s side of the engagement equation (maximum satisfaction), career development must happen in the context of the business. Your employee’s personal aspirations need to be fulfilled while addressing an organizational need. It’s not your job to develop free agents. 

If you’re like many of the managers we’ve talked to, you may fear career conversations more than performance reviews and find yourself asking:   

• What is your employee looking for?  

• What jobs are actually available?  

• What if you don’t have the answers?  

• How will your team perform if this person takes another job down the hall? 

Your goal as a manager in career discussions is to support, not control. Help employees clarify what they want, build on strengths, address career liabilities, and help them identify development opportunities for future roles, networking contacts within the organization, and other ways to take control of their career success. 

The Engagement Conversation

The engagement conversation can shape and improve both performance reviews and career conversations. It is a factfinding approach focused on the employee’s drivers of satisfaction and contribution. 

An engagement conversation is not a feedback or targeted coaching session. It is a time to discuss topics that will make you a more effective coach and help the employee better manage their own engagement. 

Key Questions for Engagement Conversations 

When initiating an engagement conversation, focus on asking questions related to key aspects of the employee’s relationship with their work and with you as their manager. Here are some ideas to get you started:  

Satisfaction Questions:  

• What type of assignment energizes you most?  

• What do you like most about your job?  

• What drags you down? 

Contribution Questions:  

• What questions do you have about how your job fits with the company’s current strategy?  

• What questions do you have about where you should focus your time and effort?  

• What challenges do you face? 

Talent Utilization & Development Questions:  

• What skills and knowledge would you like to use more?  

• Where would you like to grow?  

• Where do you think you need to grow to do your job better? 

Collaboration Questions:  

• What ideas do you have for increasing your satisfaction and contribution?  

• What do you think you can start doing, stop doing, or continue doing?  

• What would you like me to start doing, stop doing, or continue doing? 

Final Reminders

In all three conversations, don’t forget to acknowledge the employee’s efforts and your partnership. What special quality or recent accomplishment can you recognize? What can you say to personalize your commitment to this employee’s success? 

As tempting as it may be, don’t try to jam all three types of conversations into a one-time 60-minute time slot! If you’re not in the middle of organization-driven performance reviews and if your employees aren’t lined up outside your door requesting career coaching, schedule engagement conversations with your team members and start the dialogue today. 

About the Authors

Mary Ann Masarech

Mary Ann Masarech spent the first third of her career writing, designing, and marketing skills training for top-notch consulting firms. She acquired a broad Mary Ann is the Lead Consultant for GP Strategies’ Engagement Practice. In this role, she leverages her extensive experience with instructional design and client experience to create practical tools and strategies that clients apply worldwide to create successful businesses and thriving workplaces. She is also co-author of The Engagement Equation: Leadership Strategies for an Inspired Workforce (Wiley, Oct 2012), and a founding member of the Norma Pfriem Urban Outreach Initiatives, a not-for-profit that addresses food insecurity and education for underserved adults and children. Mary Ann is a graduate of Wesleyan University.