People often say that evaluation of learning is difficult. It can be hard to measure the impact of training using business metrics.

So why is evaluation difficult? One reason is because we accept the goals of the training because the topic sounds important. Perhaps you have heard a request like this, “We need training that develops agility, determination, grit, and innovation.” The person making the request often shares, “I just read a book that says these (insert XYZ) things are important in the ever-changing digital world.”

It is hard to argue with a person who asks for training to increase diligence, determination, and drive. The skills all sound like things that are needed to be successful.

One reason we don’t, or can’t, evaluate a training program is that we skip right to determining the modality, timing, and audience.

So let’s take a step back during intake and think about how we can determine success. Ask yourself and the person making the request, “What will people do differently after this training?” If the answer is that people will be more agile, determined, and innovative, then we need to dig deeper.

What we need is to take the goal, or desired skills, and convert them to behaviors and outcomes. Think of your employees’ behaviors as the on-the-job actions that they perform and you can observe. For example, how many consecutive times did a person follow the new process? This behavior shows diligence and determination. We can think of outcomes as nouns such as orders, decisions, reports, completed projects, proposals, and relationships. For example, how many orders were filled correctly in an hour? Each of these can be measured in number of orders, number of decisions, number of completed projects, number of relationships, or number of contacts with prospective customers.

We now have a list of behaviors and outcomes that we can measure before and after the training. Or we can compare the number of behaviors and outcomes with people who complete the training against those who don’t. We can answer the question, “Did the training have an impact on business metrics?” We now know because we chose behaviors and outcomes that have a business metric or have a direct link to a business metric. Another benefit of this approach is that we are creating relevant and applicable training. Your learners will really appreciate training that they can see directly how to apply on the job.

So the next time you are asked for training on communication, problem-solving, or creativity, take the time to dig deeper into what learners will do on the job, and then you will be able to evaluate training effectiveness.

About the Authors

Scott Weersing

What is learning analytics and why am I passionate about it? Way back when I was a newspaper photographer, I really wanted to know the who, what, when, where, and why about the story I was assigned to. I loved to find out more information so I could be in the right place at the right time in order to get the best photograph. The more information I had, along with personal experience, prepared me to take an impactful photograph. My journey to learning analytics follows the same path of asking questions and finding the right tools. When I started working in Learning and Development as an instructional designer, I always was curious about what the learners were going to do with the training on the job. Oftentimes, I would get a response from the SME that the new knowledge would just change behavior on the job. I guess I am a little cynical about the magic of training. Just wave the magic wand, attend the training, view the WBT, and your problems will be solved. I did not know the questions to ask to ensure that the training would be applied on the job, but my leaders noticed that I was curious and liked to ask questions. They asked me whether I would you like to be a performance consultant. After telling me what a performance consultant does, I said that it sounded great. Who wouldn’t want to solve business and performance problems with a series of interventions? It was my time as a performance consultant that I learned about the right questions to ask to get to outcomes and, in turn, I became fascinated with metrics. My favorite questions are still as follows: Can you tell me more about the problem? What have you have already tried to solve the problem? What would it look like after this problem is solved? What metrics or data do you have that show there is a problem? I became data driven to find the causes of problems and then track the solutions to see if we were moving the needle. The tools to find the root cause of a problem are the same tools to see whether the training is being applied on the job. I use interviews, focus groups, observations, checklists, and surveys to find out what is causing a problem, and then I use the same tools to find out what is happening after training and, in turn, making an impact on business outcomes. I would say that learning analytics and photography are similar in that you need to plan with the end in mind to collect the right information in order to tell a story and make an impact.

I have the awesome responsibility to share and evangelize how to integrate technology into training and learning experiences, using an outcomes focused approach to ensure there is an opportunity for business impact.  Because I get to work across clients and teams, I tend to present and talk a lot (sometimes longer than most probably want!).  But, I share what sometimes feels like the same message over and over again: the landscape is changing, learners expect on demand performance support, training is moving from classroom “events” to broader and blended experiences, etc.  I post on our internal collaboration site, email the decks on innovative solutions out to the business units, host monthly learning sessions, respond to requests, lead a book club, etc.  Yet, I am continually surprised at how our teammates still feel they are in the dark on what is going on.  Or they don’t feel empowered.  They often complain about the monotony of their projects or feel stuck by the conditions in the Statement of Work and ask why they are not being developed more.  They are often missing these “educational” sessions because of their project responsibilities.  Then, on the other hand, when the opportunity for creative freedom arises, I get feedback that there isn’t enough direction.

What is the miss here?  Why do so many feel like they are maxed out on contribution but are lacking in satisfaction?  Why do I feel like a broken record?  Building, sharing, linking, and posting is not working.  Is it me?  Or is this them?  Maybe it is both.

I think of the “Critical Mindshifts” that are happening and what is likely going on is that even though we are telling our business partners and clients to shift to the “On the Job Mentality”, many of us in L&D are actually stuck in the “Course Mentality.”  Our teams are WAITING – waiting for their organization and their leaders to GIVE them employee development and training.  They feel they do not have time (which is true to an extent), but they aren’t self-initiating either.

Also, leaders are probably failing on 2 fronts – they aren’t sending their people to training but aren’t facilitating the process to ensure their people are getting the development they need either.  How can leaders foster a conversation with team members, encouraging them to go to the book club, take the course on the next learning technology, or join a stretch assignment team.  And then, what’s most challenging – provide the time and space to do those things.

So now what?  Speak up!  Raise your hand!  Stand up for what you want, instead of waiting for development to happen to you.  Propose ideas.  Present at the next conference (yes, you are a SME and have something to say!).  In order to maximize satisfaction, we have to practice what we preach and shift how we approach our own development.

About the Authors

Britney Cole

Britney is a learning leader with experience in organization development, human performance, and corporate learning and has worked remotely, managing virtual teams for more than a decade. Britney lives in Minnesota with her husband and three small children (ages 5, 7 and 8) where she keeps warm with plenty of blankets and cozy hats. She likes to talk, so you might see her at learning conferences as a speaker. Britney has provided consulting for clients in the financial services, pharmaceutical, steel, chemical, media, technology, retail, manufacturing, and aerospace industries. She forms lasting partnerships with her clients helping them with learning design and architecture, content development, leadership and professional development, performance consulting, technology implementation, and change management. Most recently, she is helping pioneer new experiential learning methods and defining learning 3.0 taxonomy.

Digital transformation of learning and performance holds great promise but can miss the most important enabler—engaged, effective people. Just consider what we’re facing . . .

Corporate L&D is experiencing a remarkable transformation driven by a need to focus on employee performance needs and their job support preferences. We must meet employees/learners where they physically work and live if we’re to enable our organizations to change and innovate at a sustainable rate (with positive results).

Organizations that implement effective, evidenced-based performance solutions should see not only improved performance, but also higher employee engagement and retention.

How do we cope with the digital tsunami of learning and performance support tools and implement the best solutions for our unique environments? How do we make sense of the choices and avoid costly and/or ineffective efforts? There’s not one solution, but here are five strategies for you to consider:

1.  Focus on performance and sustainability.

2.  Walk a mile in their shoes.

3.  Balance high tech with high touch.

4.  Assess organizational culture and change management factors.

5.  Carefully implement, and then measure results.

Focus on Performance and Sustainability

We need to remind ourselves that the point of any effort is to improve and maintain job performance. But, when you’re faced with many new technologies and methods, it can be difficult to keep perfectly aligned to the performance goal. So, whether you’re approached by a vendor or someone in your organization, remember to be a strong advocate for solutions that meet your performance goals and that can be maintained.

Performance and sustainability should be the filters. Protect them. Support them. Define what success looks like to your sponsors and stakeholders. Make sure you have the evidence you need to make the right choices.

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes

To be effective, any technology we select must accommodate our workforces. And the appropriate selection and integration of digital knowledge tools begins with a deep and sustained understanding of the people doing the work and their job conditions. Whether it’s processing loans, building aircraft, or selling pharmaceuticals, we need to fully understand and feel what it’s like for the employees.

What are their challenges? How can digital tools help them right where they are doing the work? Is there research we can apply from similar challenges and environments?

Balance High Tech With High Touch

Once we select the right technologies and design a solution system, it’s important to consider their effect on human relations within the organization. Although a system may seem to enable maximum performance, it might be negatively impacting the foundation of human interactions that are vital for organizational success. If there are potential negative impacts, find ways to eliminate or balance them with more support and opportunities for personal, low-tech interactions. Direct human interaction will always be a pervasive urge.

Assess Organizational Culture and Change Management Factors

The most potent factor in successfully implementing technology is the management of the change required within your organization’s culture. Unless you can harness the best aspects of your culture, the introduction of the technology will be less effective and may actually fail. This is a common problem. Leadership and culture need to be the focus of your proposed digital learning and support tools.

Carefully Implement, and Then Measure Results

The whole point of introducing technology is to get results. So, make sure you’ve clearly defined success to the satisfaction of your stakeholders with the rigor you’ll need. If an organization is unwilling to measure results, they might be experiencing the pressure of other priorities and possible political influences.

So, tread carefully when you make your case and advocate a solution. As you move along, frequently gather data and adapt your approach. Measure and learn. Measure and make decisions. Be willing to change direction based on the data.

Our field is going through a remarkable period of innovation and experimentation. But, remember that fundamental principles of human interaction and performance will remain. Enjoy the benefits that the new tools can bring, but base your solutions on what makes the most sense for your organization and people.

About the Authors

Chris Lepine

Chris is an evidenced-based, performance-focused, senior instructional designer. He began his career as a public school teacher, and completed his M.Ed. in 2005 to launch his corporate work. Through the years, he has developed the skills to complete every aspect of the ADDIE process. He thrives on variety and, especially, collaborating with teams to make a positive impact on what matters most to our clients.

The connection of innovation and mindfulness might, at first glance, seem antithetical. How could the introduction of something new and different come from a focus on the present? If we are tuned in to right now, how can we create what’s next? If, through the process of mindfulness, we are focusing on less, how can we produce more?

But mindfulness is not about completely emptying your mind with the goal of creating total vacancy. It’s about staying focused on what’s going on right now—clearing away distraction and being present—with your colleague, your friend, your family. Children see us not being present and call it out right away: “Mom. Did you listen to anything I just said?” No doubt our colleagues notice this as well. They are just too well mannered to call us on it.

While mindfulness can’t create innovation, it can provide the space for it.

Mindfulness at work encourages increased attention and elimination of distractions.. When we’re distracted, we make mistakes, personally accomplish very little, and feel less satisfied by the work we do. In this multitasking-and-distracted state we go through the motions of repeating the same actions and same ideas. We can be highly stimulated by the frenetic pace of our schedules, but there is no room in that schedule for something new to arise—no room on our to-do list for innovation. What the practice of mindfulness does, through the elimination of distractions, is to add some white space to our page or an open window to let the blue sky in—and with blue sky, the opportunity for something new to arise.

Mindfulness encourages noticing and letting go of judgments. Many of us have inner critics letting us know just how silly we sound before we say a word. Our inner critic can take a sledgehammer to our ideas. Before they fully surface, we dismiss our ideas as simultaneously too complicated and too simple. Not possible. A silly idea. Part of the practice of mindfulness is noticing those judgments and releasing their power over us. Through mindfulness, the filter of “that’s a bad idea” becomes more of a “hmmm…there’s an idea.” When the judgment is released, the thought can stay, or go, allowing ideas, likely some pretty creative ones, to stay within the realm of what’s possible.

Mindfulness at work encourages us to listen more closely to others. When we are present with others, we can focus on what they are saying. Listening mindfully is about giving others the space to share without interruption. The next innovative idea may not come from us but from one of our colleagues. And if we aren’t present and tuned in to what they are saying because we are trying to come up with our own next sentence, we aren’t open to a great idea.

Mindfulness requires practice, and there are things you can do to encourage it:

• Instead of plunging into your to-do list, take a few minutes when you sit down at your computer to take a breath and notice what is going on with all of your senses.
• Try to focus on one thing at a time. When you are on a conference call, resist the urge to review a presentation or answer texts. Leave your phone off or put it away during meetings.
• Take a moment to center yourself before a meeting or a workplace interaction. A mental pause and a deep breath can give you the opportunity to prepare to focus.
• Practice active listening. Notice what is being said as well as what is being communicated through body language, tone of voice, and eye contact.
• Listen mindfully. When you find your mind wandering to figure out what you are going to say next, tune back in to what is being said and stay there.
• Instead of responding, ask a strategic question to probe further into what the other individual is saying. You’ll find it helps you expand your thinking.

Without mindfulness, we are somewhere else. We are stuck to old ideas or thinking about what to say next. With mindfulness, we create a judgment-free space to allow our ideas, or the idea of others, to breathe. Mindfulness has the power to help us unlock new ideas, enhance creativity, allow innovation—but it can only happen if we find the space to let it in.

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.

The challenge of unlocking innovation from within starts, first, with rethinking a significant misunderstanding we commonly hold about what it takes to be an intrapreneur.

It’s tempting to imagine, watching Mark Zuckerberg stride out on stage in jeans and gray T-shirt, or Jeff Bezos with his clean-shaved head and shades, that top innovators have a certain style about them, and that how they look is an outward manifestation of inner qualities, some sort of clue to success.

Relax. You don’t have to start wearing hoodies and ripped jeans. To succeed as an internal innovator, you do not need to look, speak, or act like an entrepreneur. In fact, doing so is quite likely to put you on the wrong track. Some of the qualities that make entrepreneurs successful may actually work to the detriment of internal innovators.

Internal Innovation Is Not the Same as Entrepreneurism

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that internal innovators are just like entrepreneurs except they’re still drawing a paycheck from someone else. The challenge that they face—that you will face—is different, in quite significant ways.

• You have two jobs, not one. In all likelihood you will have to maintain ongoing management activities while simultaneously pursuing something new.
• You have one investor, not 40. Entrepreneurs typically pitch their ideas to 40 or more investors before finding a funder that fits the idea. You have just one funder—your employer—and must find the idea that fits that funder. This means you need to invest a lot of time understanding what kind of ideas your employer will support, sort through them for the best option, and get your pitch just right. To say this another way: While entrepreneurs seek supporters for their ideas, internal innovators seek ideas for their supporters.
• While entrepreneurs often lead the effort from the moment of conception to realization as a profitable business, internal innovators are rarely involved from start to finish. More often they advance the effort, and then pass off responsibility. Entrepreneurs run a marathon; you will probably run one leg of a relay race and then pass the baton.
• While entrepreneurs launch ideas quickly but struggle to scale, internal innovators struggle to launch but can scale with speed. Getting an idea approved takes more work from within a large organization, but once you get it going, you can grow it far more quickly.

So, what can we say instead about internal innovators and about the qualities that make them successful? Two questions to explore: Is there a pattern to how they work? Are there personal attributes they all share?

The Core Process

As to the first question: There is a core process that defines the internal innovator. It starts with the notion, validated by research, that first and foremost they are people who seize opportunities. They do so by doing four things well (see Figure 2.1).

1) They discover new opportunities.

2) They evaluate and choose which opportunities to exploit.

3) They take autonomous action to move on those opportunities.

4) They mobilize resources while operating within a dispersed environment; that is, they are able to find the capital and talents needed to pursue an opportunity and rally those resources even if they do not have direct influence over their course.

In my upcoming book, Change the World Without Quitting Your Job, you will see those four process elements play out over and over. As we examine exactly what steps you need to take to bring your innovative idea to reality, and as we learn the stories of successful innovators in many industries, you will see that every one of them rests on the foundation of that core process.

But there is a more fundamental question we need to consider: What kind of person does it take to do those four things well? What are successful innovators like, and can their qualities be learned and emulated?

Six Vital Attributes

It’s easy to understand this frequent blurring of the lines between entrepreneurs and internal innovators. They do in fact have some things in common. But they are different in more, and more important, ways.

Traditional entrepreneurs are distinguished by three critical attributes:

• Innovativeness: the practice of exploring novel approaches and solutions rather than following accepted ways of doing things
• Market awareness: awareness of the external environment (competitors, customers, and industry) combined with a drive to help the company win
• Proactivity: a propensity to act before one is told to act, to “lean in,” to act autonomously

In simpler terms, we can say they are innovative, competitive, and proactive. Does that sound like anyone you know?

It probably comes as no surprise that research shows internal innovators share those three qualities as well. But it’s interesting that the same body of research shows they also exhibit three other characteristics that differentiate them entrepreneurs and make them uniquely qualified them to take on the challenge.

• Strategic approach to risk
• Political acumen
• Motivation

To bolster your chances of success, you need to consider carefully the extent to which you embrace these characteristics.

Calculated risk

Common public perception is that innovators are unabashed risk seekers. In pursuit of something new, they’re quite willing to risk capital, career, or both. This perception is not wrong. It has been well established that, on average, entrepreneurs have a much higher risk tolerance. Elon Musk, after selling PayPal, invested nearly all of his wealth to launch SpaceX. Ted Turner gambled his company numerous times as he built his media empire. And we admire them for it.

But internal innovators think differently. They may appear to take high-risk gambles, but actually they are very deliberate about when and how to do so. They excel at calculating risk then making thoughtful bets.

Internal innovators approach risk differently for a specific reason. Even if you are comfortable with risk, your company may not be. And since you are risking your employer’s capital, not your own, it’s your company’s risk profile that matters. That capital is usually backed by more conservative sources. Stock market investors tend to want growth without risk. Their risk-aversion drives through the board into the company’s top team and throughout the organization.

How do internal innovators overcome the intrinsic risk-aversion of their company? They can try to remove it by, say, transforming the company’s ownership structure. But it’s more realistic, and far easier, to find creative ways to de-risk your bets. You must figure out how to engineer ideas to maximize your upside while protecting your downside.

Political acumen

Remember that while entrepreneurs can shop their ideas to, on average, 40 investors before getting funding; internal innovators really have only one option—their employer. So winning support depends less on the quality of your pitch deck than the political work performed before the pitch to understand and align interests.

In a breakthrough study of what they call serial innovators, researchers Raymond L. Price, Abbie Griffin, Bruce A. Vojak, Nathan Hoffmann, and Holli Burgon conducted in-depth interviews with nearly 100 internal innovators. They found the key trait that separates successful internal innovators from frustrated ones was that they view the political challenge simply as part of the problem-solving process.

Here’s how they describe the successful approach:

Serial innovators described themselves as consciously ‘crossing the bridge’ from having a naïve view of the organization’s political machinations to becoming willing to engage the organization politically using their talent, creativity, and persistence. Their political actions usually emanate from a foundation of trust and respect, which must be built over time and across people in multiple functions at multiple levels of the organization. Then they apply a wide variety of political influence actions to help move the organization. They actively engage people across their organization. They position the product and the project in the context of the organization in a way that others could see the value and benefits. Then, they use both soft and hard influence actions to help others move with them. Politics, almost, become a natural part of what they do in order to ensure that their innovations reach the market and address the customer needs they so thoroughly understand.[i]

Your internal innovation journey, then, will look less like banging down the doors of funders and more like carefully navigating a complex, interconnected network of internal stakeholders. Hoby Darling, the Nike executive who led Nike+, the company’s digital business behind the Nike FuelBand, arguably the product that proved the mass market for wearable sports technology, put it to me this way: “When you work for a large company, you need to spend a lot of time lining up the cannons, but when they go off, they go off with a big bang.”

Your challenge as an internal innovator is to design a solution that will work in a system that has multiple stakeholders and is continuously evolving. Success depends, not only on whether the market will embrace your idea, but whether you are able to synchronize your idea with the motivations of internal stakeholders.

You will also have to balance between incongruent systems of rules—what is formally allowed and what is best for the company. This will force you to deal with unique ethical choices.[ii] Think of it this way: If you’re pursuing something that you know your organization would benefit from but would require a change in an existing policy or procedure, how do you move forward? Internal innovators often have to step outside of the norms, bend or even break rules, but they are very clear that they do so for the benefit of the organization.

Intrinsic motivation

One source of tension that continually pops up is compensation. Internal innovators often express the frustration that they could be making more money if they were building their businesses and driving their innovation independently. “I am torn,” one told me, “because I used to be an entrepreneur and I know that if I were doing this on my own there would be a significant potential payout for me. Because I’m doing it here, it’s not clear that my effort will be recognized or rewarded. I may get a bonus or a pay raise, but it will never be comparable to what the payoff would be if I did it on my own.”

But when I asked why he didn’t just quit and go out on his own, he candidly admitted that doing so would come at considerable risk. He didn’t want to “eat ramen noodles every night” or put his family’s financial security at risk. He made a conscious choice that he was going to forgo the potential payoff in exchange for a more predictable career path. His supervisor, who heads the internal venturing group, said that whenever he gets into discussions about compensation, he reminds his internal innovators that “they are not incurring nearly as much risk as they would have were they to do it on their own. What you get to do here is build an exciting career.”

As we will see shortly, even the best internal innovators face significant barriers at every step of the way. These barriers can be so discouraging that some people simply give up. Others keep going, finding a way around or through those barriers. What motivates them to persist?

There are several answers, as documented by numerous research studies. They may be driven by the opportunity to leverage the scale of the organization and create something new that they could potentially become the manager of, thereby accelerating their career path.[iii] They may be moved by the sense of purpose that comes from building something new.[iv] They may want to serve the greater cause of their leader or organization.

Sometimes all of the above, or a combination. But no matter their underlying motivation, all great internal innovators are passionate. They proactively drive and independently think to pursue their idea. They tend to serve a higher purpose, perhaps even greater than their CEO. They seem to serve an understanding of what their organization stands for and seek out opportunities to help their organization fulfill its potential in the world.

Are you an internal innovator?

All innovators face barriers that hinder innovating from within. Download my recent webinar with GP Strategies in which I outline seven key steps to unlock the value of your employees’ ideas, drive innovation inside your organization, and make sure the next “great idea” doesn’t go unnoticed.

[i] Raymond L. Price, Abbie Griffin, Bruce A. Vojak, Nathan Hoffmann, and Holli Burgon, “Innovation politics: how serial innovators gain organisational acceptance for breakthrough new products,” International Journal of Technology Marketing, Vol. 4, Nos. 2/3, 2009

[ii] Donald F. Kuratko and Michael G. Goldsby, “Corporate Entrepreneurs or Rogue Middle Managers? A Framework for Ethical Corporate Entrepreneurship,” Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 55, No. 1 (Nov. 2004), pp. 13-30

[iii] (Kirzner, 1973; Burgelman, 1991).

[iv] Cardon. (2009), Policy Sciences, 4:2 (1973:June)

About the Authors

Kaihan Krippendorff

Kaihan Krippendorff is the founder of Outthinker a growth strategy consulting firm. He is a former McKinsey consultant and author of four business strategy books, most recently Outthink the Competition. Kaihan is also a BlessingWhite and GP Strategies partner. Kaihan specializes in serving financial service, technology, and retail firms who recognize the need to move away from traditional linear models to embrace agile, digital strategies for the accelerating world. His clients include ABC TV, AIG, BNY Mellon, Citibank, Pershing, TIAA, Realogy, Microsoft, VM Ware, and Johnson & Johnson. Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammad Yunus has said, "Kaihan shows that with a compelling idea anyone can change the world" and that message has made Kaihan one of the most sought-after public speakers on the topics of business, strategy, and innovation. He earned his BS in Finance from Wharton Business School, BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, MBA from Columbia Business School, and holds a Doctorate of Science in Economics. For more information, visit Kaihan.net or Outthinker.com.

The majority of transformations promise benefits; they are the reward for the effort taken to transform. In many cases those “promised” benefits never materialize, efficiencies are not captured, people retain their old ways of working, or the transformed methods and practices require “work-arounds” that take equally as long as the old method.

The common theme of the missed opportunities above is that people have not changed their work procedures and habits to optimize the functionality or efficiency of the new methods and practices. They may have made a partial change and created a hybrid method. They are trapped somewhere between the old familiar way and the envisioned way of doing things. This state has neither the familiarity nor the comfort of the old way or the efficiency of the new way. Employees have adopted this hybrid as the new unintended way of working, and unfortunately, it has become their new habit. As we know, habits, once formed, are hard to break.

What can be done to stop your people ending up in that ineffective hybrid state? Below are three steps to help unlock the promised benefits of your digital transformation and to help your people avoid becoming stuck with an inefficient and unintended hybrid way of working.

Look past the launch of the new system or process. We all focus on the launch as the pivotal moment of the transformation; it’s a natural thing to do and something to celebrate. Looking past the launch to the behaviors you need from your people to capture the promised benefits is a more profitable place to focus. Yes, the launch has to happen, but it’s the changed behavior of your people that will deliver the benefits you were promised.

Have a clear vision of what the new behaviors actually are: What does good look like and when will you know you have achieved it? If you want your people to focus on higher value work after the routine processing has been digitalized, what do you want them to be doing? More importantly, what outcomes do you want them to create? If you want to capture efficiencies, what are your metrics and how does each individual contribute to the new success?

What is the performance gap you have to bridge to get the promised benefits? The design of a bridge is determined by the size of the gap to be spanned. It’s the same with a performance gap. How radical a change in behavior are you seeking? Is it an evolution of skills and knowledge or a revolution requiring a completely fresh mindset? How adept at dealing with change are your people and how fatigued by previous change initiatives are they? All of these factors need to be considered to ensure a successful adoption of the behaviors you need to capture the benefits promised by the transformation.

To increase the chances of capturing those benefits, consider the three steps above and accurately assess the ability of your people to bridge the performance gap. By ignoring these factors, you risk your people rejecting the new way of working and the “system” protecting itself. Employees might also only partially adopt unintended hybrid behaviors stuck somewhere between where they were and where you want them to be.

The easier thing to do is to focus on the “hard” system launch—the harder and more effective way is to consider how you can capture the promised benefits via changed behaviors. What would your ROI be on time invested in working through these three steps before you launch your digital transformation?

About the Authors

Ian Croft

I have always been fascinated by performance excellence. Obviously, we don’t call it that when we watch our favorite sports team/heroine/hero winning at their sport or while we watch an amazing artistic performance—we just enjoy the moment. For me, that moment is frequently followed by these questions: • How did they do that? • How hard have they worked individually or as a team to be that good? • What do they do that others don’t do that makes them successful? Being a Performance Consultant with GP Strategies allows me to explore those questions with clients on a daily basis. I was born and raised in the UK and moved to the US at the start of 2007. My career started with a UK-based bank where I specialized in commercial banking. It was the chance to help clients build successful businesses that attracted me to commercial banking over the other alternatives on offer. I spent several years working with clients on expansion strategies, restructuring their businesses, and working through the day-to-day challenges of running their businesses. I moved into commercial banking training during 1998 after completing an MBA. That’s when I found my true passion: helping people become the best they can be at what they do. I moved to a global bank during 2000 in a training role and became a Learning and Performance Consultant with responsibility for four of the bank’s businesses in 2003. In this role, I traveled internationally, delivering training and working with the four businesses to solve performance issues. My final role with the global bank was as Head of Commercial Banking for North America. After leaving banking, I became a Solution Architect within the Global Learning Solutions division of a major consultancy firm. This gave me the opportunity to work with diverse clients on learning and performance issues and indulge my passion for helping clients improve the performance of their businesses. I have been with GP Strategies since 2016 and truly love what I do here. Each day brings fresh challenges as I partner with clients to solve performance issues at individual, department, divisional, or organizational levels. I live in Delaware with my wife Elaine and our dog Charlie. I am an avid cyclist and can be found out on the roads of Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland most weekends.

This summer, I had the amazing opportunity to be one of six college students working for GP Strategies as a Learning Experience Designer Intern. The six of us were based at the GP Strategies Headquarters in Columbia, Maryland, working with Britney Cole and Ann Rollins. The intern program lasted 12 weeks, and all six of us knew we were in for a great summer!

When I walked into the office for my first day in late May, I had no idea what to expect. In the weeks leading up to the start date, I had been asked countless times what I would be doing at this internship, and my answer was the same every time: “I know my title, Learning Experience Designer Intern, and I know where and when to show up for my first day, and that’s about it.” I knew GP Strategies designed learning and training courses for other companies, but I didn’t really know what role I would play in making that happen. Would I be creating content? Designing a course from scratch? Assisting the people who would be designing the courses? Or would I simply be getting coffee? Well, as it turns out, it was all of the above (although I am happy to report that the only person I had to get coffee for was myself)!

We did a little bit of everything this summer. Our main project was presented to us on the first day of training; we were to take a BlessingWhite course on Giving and Receiving Feedback and turn it into a MOOC. All six of us worked on this project and spent a large part of our summer brainstorming, creating, and editing our content for this course. In addition to that, I worked on a course to educate GP Strategies employees about 508 Compliance and the different types of learners to accommodate. Another group worked on a chatbot that employees could use to get information about the company and answers to FAQs.

We also got the unique opportunity to create a virtual reality tour of GP Strategies’ Headquarters. This project was my personal favorite because, let’s face it, it was amazingly cool! We were able to get access to a 360 camera, which we took around the office and the areas surrounding the office to film footage and take pictures to create a virtual tour. I learned how to use the editing software, CenarioVR, which took my love of video editing to a whole new level! Virtual Reality is such an emerging technology right now—I am so excited that I get to add that skill to my résumé.

I am so thankful to be a part of this amazing internship; it presented us with numerous opportunities. We were told to share our ideas freely—Britney and Ann wanted our feedback and opinions! Our creativity was never stifled, and we were encouraged to think outside the box. In fact, the VR project was a result of one of the interns asking if we could get some experience with filming for VR. One intern had an idea for an internal MOOC and was given the go-ahead to start designing it. I saw an opportunity for an interesting blog post, reached out, and now I’m sitting here writing it. We had the chance to make this internship much more than it was originally intended to be and create our own opportunities, and I think I speak for all my fellow interns when I say we definitely did that! This summer taught me more than I expected, and I am heading into my senior year with a lot of very useful and very cool new skills!

About the Authors

Hannah Davis

Hannah is a Learning Experience Designer Intern at GP Strategies for the summer of 2018. She a senior at Salisbury University studying for a dual-degree in Communications (with a focus in Public Relations and Journalism) and Psychology and a minor in Marketing Management. She hopes to work in Public Relations or Social Media Marketing after graduation. At GP, she has contributed to projects centering around Giving and Receiving Feedback, 508 Compliance, and Virtual Reality.

By Samira Abdul-Karim, Consultant , and Cameron Froude, PhD LMFT

Teamwork is an important tool in every industry. In customer service organizations in particular, teamwork can be a critical factor in producing the best outcomes for clients, customers, and patients. In service industries, clients often present a specific problem. The best service providers don’t only consider the problem presented, but also consider the whole client, customer, or patient when developing a solution.

What does it mean to consider “the whole client”? It’s about understanding what the client does, what they want to do (their goals), and what’s getting in the way. The inquiry goes beyond the symptoms in order to decipher the source. This is where your team becomes valuable. Each professional in your organization brings a level of expertise and perspective, and plays a specific role in meeting the client need. While many of us are able to collaborate with an individual, or complete our specific task and then hand off the work to another department, we are not as good at truly working on a cross-functional team to accomplish a goal. Organizations, leaders, and professionals are often ill-equipped to work effectively across functions and doing so would require a new way of working.

So how can cross-functional teams collaborate and engage in order to provide the highest quality experience to clients and customers? Here are some recommendations to consider with cross-functional team building.

Cross-Functional Team Building

1. Center the goals – Rigorously keeping the needs of the client and the goals of the team at the forefront will allow the team to stay focused. The team’s first priority should be to provide the best outcome for the client. When challenges arise, revisiting this value can help clarify avenues for action.
2. Assemble the right team – When working across disciplines, it can be tempting to include everyone in order to maximize the expertise on the team. However, large and unwieldy teams can impact the engagement and effectiveness of the team. Identify your core team and then determine other professionals that need to be consulted at specified junctures.
3. Decide on decision-making – It is easy to fall into the traditional dynamic of one leader and decision-maker. But on cross-functional teams, that dynamic can undermine the value that interprofessional teams bring. As an individual leader you are often held personally accountable for the decisions you make. In an interprofessional team, the entire team is accountable for the outcome. Thus, the team must select a decision-making process that capitalizes on each of their contributions. The team may still select to create a leader role, but accountability remains with everyone.
4. Know each other’s skills and scope – Understand the expertise that each team member brings and their role in serving the client. Authenticity is paramount here in order for there to be alignment and clarity around roles. Trust in the skills and contributions of each team member, and getting clear on the value that they bring allows the team to operate with fairness and transparency. Not clarifying this can lead to unhealthy conflict, questioning, and lack of trust.
5. Welcome healthy conflict – The diverse perspectives of diverse teams can lead to powerful outcomes. These outcomes do not emerge without challenges. Team members with dissimilar worldviews might approach situations from very different vantage points. Admiration for a different viewpoint could quickly lead to resentment and frustration. Engaging in healthy, open conflict facilitates frank discussions about a variety of ways to examine a problem without allowing differences to be a barrier. Invite dissent in the spirit of the best solution.

A Case Example

Let’s apply these cross-functional team building ideas to a healthcare scenario. In this scenario, a patient arrives for a primary care visit. After initial intake and testing, the patient receives a diabetes diagnosis. Centering the goal in this situation would mean focusing on the needs of the patient in order to produce the best possible outcome in treating this disease.

Building a cross-functioning team ensures that the whole patient is considered, not only their physical ailments. The integrated staff for this patient includes a physician, a nurse practitioner, a medical family therapist, a care coordinator, and a health educator. In this scenario, this low-income patient is experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder. Considering the specific situation of this patient, the physician, care coordinator, and medical family therapist will serve as the core team, while the nurse practitioner and health educator will be consulted at designated times as members of the extended team.

The team values consensus and selects that as their decision-making process. This means that they need not always agree, but must always align on the appropriate intervention before commencing and communicating with the patient. The team meets to clarify best practices based on their knowledge and expertise to treat the patient. They collectively develop a treatment plan, complete with the social supports necessary to serve this low-income individual. The extended team is consulted and provides input before the plan is finalized.

The extended team disagreed on the order of the steps in the treatment plan. Team members openly shared their perspectives. Disagreements were not personal; they were clinical. Healthy disagreement led to members considering alternate viewpoints and integrating varied worldviews and perspectives into the plan. Utilizing these effective teamwork strategies led to improved patient care and increased cohesion among team members.

Lessons for All

Leveraging the diverse skill sets on an integrated team is challenging and requires commitment at all systemic levels. Effective teamwork exists on a continuum and requires team member engagement in daily tasks, each other, and goals. Putting teamwork and customer service together can be as frustrating as it is rewarding. The harmony among individuals from different professions can take time to achieve and takes work to sustain. Whether serving a patient or delivering a product or service to a client, considering the full range of their needs and developing a strategy to support and sustain the delivery makes for better quality outcomes and builds client and patient loyalty. All industries should consider lessons learned to determine which professionals in their organization can be leveraged in order to achieve this goal.

Do you see an opportunity for better or more teamwork in your organization? What is it, and what gets in the way? Comment below.

About the Authors

Joe Meyler

With the news that Adobe will stop supporting the Flash Player plug-in at the end of 2020 and browsers disabling it in 2019, training and development teams will need to look to their existing learning assets to determine how much they will be affected.

We’ve created a presentation to help work through the strategy, process, and mobile-first design to address this change.

Next Steps

To effectively minimize the impact these changes will inflict on course libraries and learning assets, consider these next steps:

• Inventory your courses.
• Determine your overall strategy and timeline.
• Consider new modalities in your conversion process that will increase engagement and retention.
• Plan for mobile learning needs with a responsive design course structure and navigation.
• Seek guidance on leading strategies that optimize learner experience and make the conversion process seamless.

While converting courseware from Flash to HTML5 might not be what training and development teams want to focus on at the moment, it does create an opportunity to audit courseware and to convert courses using a mobile-first design. Consider asking yourself what courses should be transitioned, which ones should be retired, and which ones should be upgraded.

Click here to learn about GP Strategies’ Flash conversion solutions.

For innovative solutions in action, visit our Innovation Kitchen.

About the Authors

Tom Pizer

Director of Learning Technologies for GP Strategies Learning Solutions Group, has over 20 years of experience in the technical digital media field. He has an extensive background in a variety of creative and technical media, including digital media specification, production, testing, and implementation. During his career, Tom has created, specified, directed, and/or managed hundreds of hours of educational, instructional, and entertainment-based media and has served clients in a wide variety of markets including the federal government, trade associations, commercial organizations, and educational institutions. A key aspect of Tom’s responsibilities includes staying abreast of emerging technologies and in-tune with the latest development methodologies, standards, and practices. To this end, he takes part in monthly advisory meetings for several of GP Strategies clients to ensure that their courseware is of the highest caliber and meets rigorous development requirements. Tom is also the technical lead for several proprietary GP Strategies technologies that are designed to reduce overall development time while increasing the creativity and diversity of GP Strategies body of work.

You have done your due diligence and examined both the needs of your organization and the strengths of potential enterprise systems. You have made your selection and begun to implement your solution – now what?

To get the most out of your solution and your investment, your organization must shift its focus towards becoming as agile as possible, with a workforce that is fully equipped to take on their new challenge. But what does that really mean? What is an agile organization, anyway?

An agile workforce is one that can quickly respond to changes in marketplace conditions or to shifting technology and new competitors. An organization can only be the sum of its parts, that is – the sum of its people. So in order for your organization to be truly agile and able to adjust to a changing marketplace, your workforce must embody those characteristics in their own jobs.

During the periods before and after go-live, user adoption needs to be a major focus of your initiative. Often, members of your workforce may resist change and even be fearful of change – perhaps fearing how massive changes to the organization will affect not only their ability to perform their job, but also the potential of their job being eliminated. This fear of change can be mitigated, however, and positive energy can be injected back into your workforce if the proper steps are taken.

Here are some of the things your organization can do to empower your users throughout change, ultimately leading to a more prepared, more engaged, and more agile workforce:

• Effective communications: Messages about the state of the change, the reasons for the change, and the effect of the change on the employees should be clear, frequent, and authentic. If the workforce truly believes in the change and understands their individual roles in the change, then resistance will be mitigated.
• Cross-training and rotating job roles: An organizational change is an excellent opportunity to do a little bit of cross-training and to teach the different members of your team to handle different roles. This lessens the effect of any potential turnover and widens the skillset of your employees while creating increased efficiency.
• Giving workers autonomy: When you’re riding in an airplane, you don’t particularly care what gizmos the pilot has to press to make the plane work – as long as you end up in the location printed on your ticket. The same principle applies within a well-run organization. If employees are engaged and invested in the success of your initiatives, then they will find a way to meet those objectives. With the freedom to make choices within boundaries and to develop processes that they know to be effective, your workforce will feel confident in their work and help your organization meet its goals without over-management.
• Offer access to performance support tools: To keep the workforce as agile and as efficient as possible, there needs to be a way for workers to solve problems on their own as they encounter them. With modern technology, online performance support tools are a life raft for the inevitable choppy waters. Not only do modern performance support tools allow users to access just-in-time answers to on-the-job conundrums, but they help give users the confidence to solve problems on their own and prevent delays, frustration, or even turnover.

Even with these tips in mind, it is important to take a step back and look at your change initiative from the most important asset you have – your workforce. How will change affect their jobs, their stress levels, and ultimately their lives? Proper user adoption is key to any change initiative, and its value in your long-term return on investment cannot be overstated.

About the Authors

Derek Levandowski

Derek Levandowski is a Field Marketing Specialist with GP Strategies, focused on Technology Adoption and Human Capital Management Services. He joined the GP Strategies team in February 2017 after three years with Maverick Solutions, a Division of GP Strategies. A New York native, he currently resides in Wake Forest, North Carolina with his wife Melissa.