The Learning Advantage

Karen Mantyla

Description

When times get tough, why is it that the training budget so often gets slashed first? And more important, how can you change this pattern so that your training budget is protected—no matter the economic or business climate?

The Learning Advantage provides the answers to these questions through a series of case studies designed to help you change your organization's attitude toward learning by helping you make the clear link from learning to your company's bottom line. These case studies offer exemplary models of how to position learning for success by aligning learning strategy with business strategy and by leveraging the power of technology to deliver the best mix of training. Success stories come from a diverse set of leading companies, including:

Accenture's inspiring roadmap of how to develop a comprehensive learning infrastructure.

The Microsoft Xbox case study, which shows the nexus of strategy, application, and ROI in its breathtaking training challenge to get a global sales and customer service workforce ready for the Xbox 360 launch (includes access to an online, interactive exploration of Xbox 360 launch).

Caterpillar University's lessons on how it aligned strategy, technology, and employee development to build an award-winning learning institute with proven bottom-line results.

The U.S. Department of Labor's case study, which reveals how this federal agency blended technology with traditional learning for maximum benefit.

Sujets

• Strategic Planning
• Economics
• Business

Informations

• Publié par: Association for Talent Development
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781607282501
• Langue: English

Extrait

© 2009 the American Society for Training & Development
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
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ASTD Press is an internationally renowned source of insightful and practical information on workplace learning and performance topics, including training basics, evaluation and return-on investment, instructional systems development, e-learning, leadership, and career development.
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007931356 (for print edition only)
ISBN-13: 978-1-56286-503-0 PDF e-book edition ISBN: 978-1-60728-250-1 2009-1
ASTD Press Editorial Staff: Director: Dean Smith Manager, Acquisitions and Author Relations: Mark Morrow Editorial Manager: Jacqueline Edlund-Braun Senior Associate Editor: Tora Estep Editorial Assistant: Gina Del Priore Copyeditor: Scott Long Indexer: April Davis Proofreader: Kris Patenaude Typography Design and Composition: Kathleen Schaner Cover Design: Katherine Warminsky Cover Illustration: Getty Images
To Christopher The future is in your technology-supported hands
Contents Preface vii 1 The Real Value of Learning: Making the Link to the Bottom Line 1 Karen Mantyla 2 Transforming Learning at Accenture: Driving High Performance with Strategic Technology-Supported Learning Programs 9 Don Vanthournout, Chief Learning Officer, Accenture, and Kurt J. Olson, Director of Capability Solutions, Accenture 3 Blending Technology, Learning, and Strategy: The Ultimate End Game 27 Karen Mantyla 4 Blended Learning: A Strategic Application of Distributed Learning and ROI 39 Michael Hatt, Former Xbox Global Training Manager, Microsoft Corporation 5 Laboring Over Technology: Taking Steps to Select the Right Blend 67 Michael Gerwitz, e-Learning Project Manager, U.S. Department of Labor, and Michael Malehorn, Senior Manager, e-Learning Infrastructure, SI International 6 Managing Learning to Ensure Strategic Alignment with the Business 81 Fred Goh, former Director of Strategic Learning, Caterpillar University 7 The Case for Learning and Strategic Alignment 99 Karen Mantyla 8 Learning Styles: A Critical Component for Successful Learning Design and Delivery 111 Craig Mindrum, Strategic and Talent Management Consultant 9 The Future of Learning and Human Resources 135 Susan Meisinger, Former President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM 10 Creating Value for Your Organization—The Way Forward 151 Karen Mantyla References 153 About the Editor and Contributors 155 Index 160
Preface

In my 15 years at QUALCOMM, I have never been asked to cut the learning budget. It’s really important for all organizations to remember that people are the largest asset that they have. Development of people and making an investment in people even during tough times is critically important. We want to make sure that we attract great talent, we retain that talent, and we develop that talent. When times are tough, having people leave the organization is not something that organizations want to go through. We believe it’s really important to actually increase the investment that you have in employee development during times that are tough because that’s going to help your investment later on as a business and help your business grow.
—Tamar Elkeles Vice President, Learning and Organization Development QUALCOMM

O ne of the most stressful and frustrating moments in my more-than-25-year professional career was the moment I learned that my training budget was to be cut for "budgetary reasons." Has this happened to you? Given the critical role that workplace learning plays in the ultimate success of a company, I am sure you recognize the source of my frustration. At a time when maximizing the performance of the organizations’ greatest assets (employees) is so important, many organizations still follow the same budget-slashing pattern.
In my professional career as a training specialist, I’ve seen lots of training budgets cut by senior executives when the enterprise needed a budget adjustment. I bet if you did a random sampling of training professionals and asked, "What area is most likely to be cut when the budget shears are open wide?" they would say, "Training." I wonder how many readers are thinking the same thing.
Why does this knee-jerk reaction happen so easily when decisions are made at the executive level? Sadly, the reason is simple—many at the C level still believe training, learning, self-improvement, or any other term you choose to use is nonessential to the enterprise and, as such, is expendable.
The companies and organizations featured in this book are the exceptions to the rule. They have discovered the value of keeping training budgets aligned to strategy intact and ultimately make a good case for keeping them that way.
My role is to be the facilitator for these case studies. The goal for readers is to determine how they can apply these documented success stories to their own situations and organizations. If you can find one or more ideas that will help you keep training dollars in your budget, that’s your return-on-investment (ROI) for the book.
In each case presented here, you will see that the use of technology plays an important part in delivering the content as well as in the overall strategy of the enterprise. Technology might include creative use of the Internet or a website or the use of a learning management system to help create content to develop a workforce. An infi nite variety of ways exist to use technology as the backbone to accomplish strategic goals and justify maintaining stable training funding levels.
Signs of Changing Times
In late January 2007, several political candidates running for U.S. president started a series of webcasts to have a conversation with the citizens of the United States. Not only were the webcasts powerful, they implemented easy-to-use, web-based, blended learning concepts. These webcasts were part of each candidate’s overall strategic plan to get elected. The Internet played an important part of every candidate’s strategy. They each had their own web presence and YouTube site. In addition, some of them actually used Second Life and had avatars running around talking about their candidacy and issues. Technology was used as a powerful distribution tool to reach the people who make things happen and to engage people in the political process. And it worked.
With the power of technology, coupled with an integrated approach to creating a strategic plan, I can’t imagine that these webcasts or web communications would ever have been cut to save funds. Here was a way to provide an important learner (citizen)-centered approach to gaining knowledge about the issues at stake. I learned things I didn’t know and probably would not have learned had it not been for the use of Internet-based segments. Webcasts appealed to many different learning styles, including my own. I’m a visual learner; therefore, the video/audio format worked well for me. For those who prefer to read, there were references to websites for further information and updates. The candidates all developed websites, blogs, and used the Internet as a key part of communication for their strategic plan. They also had a debate with YouTube video entries—a first in a campaign process. Now, a new president of the United States has been elected who, in various ways, used technology as a critical part of his run for the White House.
This is a pure example of how creating a blended learning approach into a strategic plan can be viewed as an essential investment directly tied to the bottom line. In addition to webcasts, blogs, and interactivity (ability to ask questions), this blended learning approach includes research information, on-site opportunities, and more.
No Buzz Words
No buzz words will appear in this book. No cute phrases or "tricks of the trade" will be offered as a "how to" to get the dollars you need for your workforce training and development bottom line. There will be no "words du jour" because I want this to be a solid guideline on how to increase your chances of not only saving your training budget, but also creating an executive mindset that sees the strategic value of investing in learning and development. When those in the C suite view learning as a strategic tool to achieve targeted enterprise goals, the training budget is viewed from a different angle—that learning provides documented value to achieving strategic goals.
Correcting the Nonessential Label: Making the Case for the Value of Learning
This book should be used as a guide to thinking about and then reassessing how to position learning as a value-add in your organization—in other words, how to position training as a key factor in achieving the strategic goals of your organization. I have assembled learning advantage case studies of three of the most respected companies in the world—Accenture, Microsoft, and Caterpillar. By reading about their experiences, supplemented with the sophisticated online technology example from Microsoft, you will find lessons and inspiration to build respect for the learning advantage in your own organization. More important, you will see how to integrate and align learning with the strategic plan of your organization. In addition, I provide insightful stories from t