Unsupervised, unfiltered, and occasionally undisciplined Writer of Things that thrill readers with engaging stories created by a seasoned storyteller.
As we speak there is a new technology rage about to enter the stage, Learning Experience Systems (LES). This new technology entrant is a good thing. Yes, we are headed in the right direction. And yes, we are bringing learning opportunities closer to the Learner at the Point-of-Work. But still…I have to ask, are we really addressing the Other 95% or are we just dragging the 5% closer to the Point of Work?
Maybe I’m the one boxed in by technology. Maybe it’s my bias that makes me nuts over the alternatives we consider as innovation. LES can only be part of the answer to “something bigger”…something we are still not putting in the crosshairs…something outside the “box” – Sustained Workforce Capability – AND more importantly WHERE outside the box that target manifests – Point-of-Work. C’mon, you knew I had to be going here…
I am deeply buried in HR right now and steeped in the HR discipline, but I am, however…a Performance Ninja. I know who pays the rent. I know I am part of a cost center…an expense…and I know if I’m not contributing to solutions that generate revenue for the organization I have no room to bitch when the next down-sizing happens and I am once again hurled through the window of opportunity.
You’ll see it on their faces, and they’ll look up at you with questioning eyes and ask, “You mean this is not a training issue?”…and then you’ll dance like only a performance consultant can dance…right before spiking the folder full of verbatim interview responses like a wide receiver slamming a touchdown pass in the end zone.
The call-to-action for L&D is to have staff capable of operating comfortably and effectively in the domain of the Point-of-Work exclusive of being a SMEOEDT…SME of Every Damn Thing. This mission… should you choose to accept it…is to seek out individuals possessing the expertise of a performance consultant. Find one or develop one. Methinks having one in the mix is no longer an option if the L&D function has a prayer of breaking free of the limiting blinders of the traditional Training Paradigm.
In the event your brain immediately visualized training courses or learning events residing on your LMS…we have a potential disconnect here because “Training” in any form represents only the 10% in the 70:20:10 framework, and to make that even uglier, the 10% falls into the +/-5% of our 2,000 hour work year that Bersin’s research says we get each year in the form of formal learning. So what? That +/- 5% begs for what I felt was not researched…but leaves an obvious question – “What about the “OTHER 95%?”
We [L&D] don’t need to catch up to the disruptions in our digital technology as much as we need to catch up to that which our learners are asking.
There is no shortage of new innovation we seek to implement in our L&D discipline, and Micro-Learning is one of the most recent. Depending upon how one chooses to integrate “Micro-Anything”, the results can range from truly innovative solutions to merely applying more lipstick on the training pig.
You “train” a bear to ride a bike…and with enough bear treats and a Taser you can train a bear to ride just about anything. If that bear is “learning” anything at all, it’s how NOT to get shocked…and keep scoring bear treats.
We…L&D…are in a predicament because we don’t actively seek out predicaments. We cannot see them looking through the “wrong end of the telescope”. We don’t design solutions for predicaments…to be more precise…performance predicaments. And that, my friends, IS a predicament!