To ring in 2016, ATD’s Leadership Development Community of Practice gathered to share a potluck of appetizers and predictions for the future. The evening began with a look back at 2015 and our hard-won lessons learned. Then we each made a prediction for 2016. The Wordle images below provide a glimpse of what our group of passionate leadership developers are thinking as 2016 gets underway. If you prefer a more linear view, check out the lists of lessons learned, trends, and predictions at the end of this post.

2015 Lessons Learned

Trends

Predictions

Notable Quotes

Here are my favorite quotes from the evening. Apologies for the lack of attribution for two of them.

“Leadership is capturing a dream we can all relate to.” –Gabe Hamda

“Leaders need to develop a palette of skills to draw on.”

“Leaders help people make mistakes and learn from them.”

Bonus Predictions
Our discussion was so robust, and so many people wanted to share their perspectives that Alok and I, who were facilitating and scribing, never got a chance to give our predictions. We promised the group that we’d do so here. So as a bonus, here are two more sets of predictions.

Alok’s Predictions:

• Expansion of Virtual Teams: Based on a survey conducted by SIOP recently, work is becoming more about “what” you do rather than “where” you do it. Virtual teams will increase rapidly in 2016 and engaging employees who are not in the same location will be a challenge for employers. This will also have implications for personnel selection. In recruiting, will employers now look for employees that are more engaged in their work vs. work environment?
• Overhaul of Performance Management: Will the performance management systems go through significant changes? More organizations seem to focus on the “developmental” aspect of performance management that fosters collaboration as opposed to forced distribution and rankings of their employees that promotes competition. Perhaps, and in addition to the supervisor who provides performance feedback, many employers will begin to think about a coach-like person who can provide developmental feedback.
• Resurgence in Employee Engagement: Many employers are starting to realize that engaged employees are not only productive employees, but these employees can go beyond their “job descriptions” to help their co-workers (and divisions and company) when needed. For example, these are the people who care and are committed to their organizations. Can employers select these kinds of individuals? Absolutely yes! There are many shelved and tailored assessments that can be administered to select individuals who are more likely to be engaged in their work.

Claudia’s Predictions

• Helping the Overwhelmed Employee: Current research from Deloitte indicates that “more than two-thirds of all organizations believe that their employees are “overwhelmed” with too much information, too many projects, too many meetings and phone calls, and an always-on 24 X 7 work environment.”  This theme also comes up in Josh Bersin’s predictions for 2016.  Being overwhelmed affects employees’ health. It keeps them from developing new skills and knowledge. And it takes away from families and communities. It can lead to broken relationships and half-baked solutions. In 2016, leaders must address this issue by simplifying workplace operations and helping employees focus.
• Gaming for Leadership Development: Gaming and gamification of learning have been frequent topics in recent blogs and articles. And research shows that there are many good reasons for using games for leadership development. Only games are able to emulate accurately the complex interconnected environment in which leaders operate. Gaming environments allow leaders to practice and apply multiple competencies simultaneously, and since they have fun doing so, they’re willing to practice more often. So, look for more gaming options for leadership development.
• ReImagining Learning: In his predictions for 2016, Bersin foresees significant disruption in corporate learning: “Employees are now in charge, video learning is everywhere, and hundreds of new learning tools and platforms are entering the market.” Many articles have been written about the need for change in learning and development. However, often organizational institutions and structures stop change from occurring. Technology gives us myriad options. Learning leaders need to guide clients and create environments that allow for new approaches for learning and performance support–for leadership development and all kinds of learning.

The Linear Lists:

2015 Lessons Learned

• There’s no such thing as job security
• Better to fire a bad customer (bad fit)
• Be proactive in anticipating change and transferring knowledge
• Motivating people to implement change is hard (planning is easier than implementing)
• Leaders have to see themselves as orchestra conductors
• Creating an environment for innovation
• In large organizations, move away from branding
• Organizations need to create succession pools and they’re not prepared
• Training isn’t the only answer (selection is important too)
• Training needs to be continuing
  -Engagement
  -Like military, sports, blue collar
• Need to differentiate between terms that are often confused
  -Learning, training, education
  -Consulting, coaching
• Identify skills gaps and offer development
• Leader sets the capacity (vision); manager develops
• Culture changes at the mid-level
• Lead people; manage things
• People working later in life: changing environment
• Goal and environment changing: how people are affected and how they affect the environment
• People retiring at age 30
• Things happen in teams
• Bring in diversity to make a better widget

Trends:

• Young leaders (less experienced) don’t know hot to work with consultants
• Multigenerational workplace: Leverage the best of all generations
• Organizations asking to evaluate/measure leadership development programs
• Millennials want to be promoted faster
  -What’s the backward path if they don’t succeed
  -How do we recognize potential
• Change the pipeline, change the organization
• Hybrid careers
  -Intense training
  -Job with high salary
• Data-driven decisions
• Experiential learning
  -Evaluating so get credit

Predictions

• Big Data
  -How to quantify
  -What’s the problem
  -Data analytic teams
• More coaching, but limited results
• Coming together as a team vs. virtual work
• Situational leadership will make a comeback
• New forms of Performance Management
  -Turn upside down
  -Difference between metrics and measurement
• More creativity in creating diversity
• Experiential learning
• More virtual teams
  -Better virtual technology
  -Better satisfaction
  -Better engagement
• People need to be together for soft skills
• Succession planning
  -Companies that don’t do this will fall off the map
• Increase in leadership curriculum in high school, college, and junior high
• Shelf-based expert systems
• Neuroscience and brain science
  -Connect people better
  -Conversational; civil discourse; intel
• Leadership and Development gear up to move data analysis to the front line
• Multigenerational issues
  -How to make it work
• Simplified focus and finish: basics
• Preventing fraud in accreditation
  -System of trust
  -Place to find people with the sills we need
  -Adhoc teams
• Companies will realize that leadership starts at the bottom
• More sophisticated onboarding
• Leverage diversity strategically

In the last blog post, I talked about five reasons we use simulations for learning. Can you remember what they are? Well, here are five more reasons to convince you of the power of simulations to enhance learning outcomes.

1. Allow learners to try on different perspectives and identities. In one simulation we conducted, a participant reported that his assigned role had forced him completely out of his usual approaches to conflict management. His character was a “yeller,” so he tried that approach to see how it felt and what results he got. He ultimately decided that his usual collaborative approach would be more successful, but he said he gained a better understanding of those who do use power and yelling to achieve results. Here’s what the research says:
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “Similarly, in organizational research, Brown and Starkey (2000) conceptualized play as a range of activities that allow organizational members to explore the threshold between the current situation and future possibilities. Based on these preliminary ideas, Ibarra and Petriglieri (2010) suggested that identity play involves the crafting and provisional trial of immature and unelaborated possible selves. This suggests that play may have a central role in leadership development processes, since it can enable individuals to become involved in identity play in which they are able to experiment, invent and re-envision themselves in the role of leadership by claiming different leadership identities. Thus, types of play that encourage identity play, such as role-play, simulations, and outdoor experiences, which provide structures in which the individuals have the opportunity to explore a new role, position, or leadership behavior, are likely to foster the development of a leader identity.”
2. Encourage learners to take more responsibility for their learning. Probably one of the most common reasons that people feel uncomfortable with simulations is that these activities take them out of the passive role of listening to someone else and make them take responsibility for what they learn. What you get out of a simulation depends on what you put into it. If you don’t engage and experiment, you won’t learn. Here’s what the research says:
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “Research by Kolb & Kolb shows that play encourages learners to achieve authentic and higher order learning by taking responsibility for their learning through creating game rules and conduct standards for themselves.”
3. Improve on learning from experience. It’s been said that experience is the best teacher. However, having an experience doesn’t guarantee that learning will occur. Often, people don’t take the time to reflect on what happened and what they could do differently, or they may be asking the wrong questions. Learning requires feedback and support to guide understanding and behavior change. Here’s what the research says:
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “Although learning from experience has been thought of as one of the major ways in which leaders can develop, McCall (2004: 128) points out that ‘[p]eople don’t automatically learn from experience. They can come away with nothing, the wrong lessons, or only some of what they might have learned.’ This is true for engagement in play as well. To allow people to benefit and learn the most from experience necessitates time and space for ‘inner work’ and reflection, to deepen awareness of one’s sense of self and enable consciousness raising. The opportunity to reflect deeply away from the day-to-day rush can contribute to the sense-making processes that enable learning from experience from what otherwise might be perceived as escapist activities (McCall, 2004; Mirvis,2008; Petriglieri & Petriglieri, 2010; Snook, 2007).”Simulations can also improve the learning experience by condensing events into shorter timeframes. For example, we recently conducted an adaptive leadership simulation that condensed into a single day the months and months of activity to rebuild a town after a flood.
4. Integrate skills in complex environments. We often use simulations as integrative activities to allow learners to apply and combine skills they’ve learned in separate sessions. For example, after a series of sessions on building trust, coaching others, influencing stakeholders, leveraging organizational culture, and managing change, learners participated in a simulation that required them to apply all of these skills to overcome a significant organizational challenge. Here’s what the research says:
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “Furthermore, play has been suggested to enhance learning of complicated fields, to contribute to the acquisition of new knowledge, and to synthesizing of distinct concepts and memory processes (Brown& Vaughan, 2009).”
   • In a Harvard Business Review article on games as online leadership labs, one game participant describes how the game equates to reality: “The closest thing I can liken the leadership of an 80-person modern raiding guild to is the management of a medium-size business,” says a World of Warcraft game leader, a former U.S. Army officer with a master’s degree in human resource management. “You need to allocate resources, construct balanced compensation for your employees, stay ahead of the competition, ensure growth, and keep everyone happy and productive while handling many other day-to-day details.”
5. Support the way the brain works. Simulations and games activate the brain’s reward system, which helps orient the learner’s attention and create connections between neurons. In addition, by giving learners multiple opportunities to apply new learning, simulations help strengthen new neural pathways. Finally, simulations often evoke powerful emotions, which research has shown improves memory and learning. Here’s what the research says:
   • Sitzmann’s meta-analysis showed that trainees learn more from simulation games that actively engage trainees in learning rather than passively conveying the information.
   • Bristol University professor Paul Howard-Jones has shown that the brain reward response of releasing dopamine can positively influence the rate at which people learn.
   • A study from the University of Montreal describes how emotions affect cognitive processes such as attention, long-term memory, and decision-making: “Positive affects are fundamental in cognitive organization and thought processes; they also play an important role to improve creativity and flexibility in problem solving (Isen, 2000). Reciprocally, negative affects can block thought processes; people who are anxious have a reduced memory capacity (Idzihowski, 1987).”

In summary, both C²’s experience and extensive research show that games and simulations can improve learning and performance on the job. No one questions that an airline pilot would practice in a simulator instead of risking a real crash. Similarly, it’s important for a CEO to test out an approach to change management before risking an organization’s future.

The instructions had been given, the scene set, and the participants assigned their roles. As we walked to the breakout rooms, I chatted with one of the participants who sighed and said, “I hate simulations.”

That wasn’t the first time I’d heard that sentiment. When you announce in the lecture hall that participants are going to get a chance to practice what they’ve been discussing in a simulation, you can feel the dread ripple through the room. It’s the discomfort of having to move from contented passivity to active doing. It’s a very safe thing to watch a video, listen to an expert, or analyze a case study and think, “Oh, yes, I know how to do that.”  It’s much scarier to have to demonstrate your knowledge and skill. You might make a mistake. You will have to take risks. You might have to shift your perspective—even change your mind. And that is exactly why we do simulations.

More specifically, here are five reasons we use simulations in both online and instructor-led courses, supported both by our own experience and by the research:

1. Provide a safe environment to experiment and practice without serious consequences, while getting constructive feedback. We use simulations in leadership development to let leaders practice soft skills, such as conflict management, that can take time to master. Simulations allow leaders to experiment and make mistakes that help them to learn and grow.  Here’s what the research says:
   • Duke Corporate Education: “These games, both multi-player and individual, provide leaders a ‘practice field’ where risk taking is encouraged and different behaviors and strategies can be employed. They give leaders the chance to experience leadership and make mistakes in a place where the consequences are much milder and easier to recover from.”
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “Spatial boundaries, such as those around leadership development programs in which managers can explore in play (scenarios, simulations, role-plays, outdoor experiences, games and other forms of play) can encourage departures from existing norms and procedures by allowing people to suspend requirements for consistency and rationality, and, as they play with possibilities, develop new skills or self-images that can be transferred back to their day-to-day work environment (Brown & Starkey, 2000; Senge, 1990; Shrage, 2000).”
2. Improve transfer of learning to the job. In a simulation, learners actually practice what they must do on the job in a realistic context. While the environment may be slightly different, we aim to optimize the fidelity as much as possible. Here’s what the research says:
   • Duke Corporate Education: “Games provide a venue where leaders are forced to make decisions more quickly and operate at a different speed – an environment more akin to the increasingly fast-paced, competitive environment of most industries.”
3. Foster higher-order thinking skills and higher level of Bloom’s taxonomy. Simulations require active application of concepts and often synthesis and evaluation of key concepts as well as creation of new approaches. They take learners beyond passive listening to active learning at the highest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. Here’s what the research says:
   • Fengfeng Ke’s meta-analysis showed that instructional games seem to foster higher-order thinking such as planning and reasoning more than factual or verbal knowledge.
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “According to Winnicott (1971), play provides an opportunity for thinking spontaneously, using one’s imagination, transforming fragments of reality into a world full of action and adventure, skipping over missing information, and coping creatively with complex and unpredictable situations.”
4. Improve retention of knowledge. Because learners are more actively and emotionally engaged with what they are learning, they are more likely to remember it. Here’s what the research says:
   • Joseph Wolfe’s meta-analysis of the research on games and learning showed that the game-based approach produced significant knowledge-level increases over the conventional case-based teaching methods. (Note: The results of this study are also described in Ke’s meta-analysis.)
   • Jennifer Vogel’s meta-analysis showed that higher cognitive gains were observed in subjects using interactive simulations or games as opposed to those using traditional teaching methods.
   • Traci Sitzmann’s meta-analysis quantified retention of knowledge from simulations at 9%.
5. Foster Emotional Intelligence, empathy, and relationship building. Both our classroom and online simulations require learners to interact with each other to achieve the overall goal. So, collaboration and relationship-building skills are developed in addition to the primary focus of the simulation.  Here’s what the research says:
   • Research cited in an article in the Academy of Management Learning and Education: “As noted by Day and coauthors (Day, 2000; Day &Harrison, 2007), play can contribute to leader development by enhancing individual-level intrapersonal skills (e.g., self-regulation, building an inspiring vision), but the mechanisms above can also explain how play can contribute to experimenting and practicing more complex leadership skills at the interpersonal level (e.g., developing high-quality connections, building strong social networks, working more effectively with diverse groups of people of different ethnic, racial, cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds).”

Convinced yet? If not, stay tuned for our next blog post and five more reasons we use simulations. In the meantime, here’s some additional reading to inspire your thinking:

• Overcoming Resistance to Games and Simulations by Karl Kapp
• Barriers to Adopting Games in Corporate Environments by Karl Kapp

At a time when people are constantly asked to do more with fewer resources, organizations must encourage creativity and innovation. And yet, developing these capabilities continues to be elusive. According to OPM’s 2013 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, released in November 2013, only 35 percent of Federal workers believe that creativity and innovation are rewarded, with positive responses in this area down three percentage points since 2012.

Unfortunately, despite all the best intentions and training in the world, most organizational environments crush the first shoots of creativity before they can begin to bloom. The structures that make our organizations productive and effective, the foundation of what we consider good management—accountability, hierarchy, clearly stated requirements, risk avoidance, fiscal responsibility, controls, incentives and rewards—are the very things that can thwart any attempt at creativity. Let’s face it, when first proposed, new ideas can seem bizarre. Can you imagine 10 years ago, what you would have said if someone had come to you and told you that you could share your thoughts and activities with other people anywhere in the world any time of the day on a website called Facebook? What manager in his/her right mind would support something that reeks of risk? And yet, that’s exactly what is required if creativity is to flourish.

Obstacles to Creativity
Pixar President Ed Catmull has been studying creativity throughout his career, and intentionally cultivating it. In a recent book, Creativity, Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration, Catmull describes the obstacles to creativity in organizations and the ways that Pixar has found to overcome those obstacles, from simply changing the shape of a conference table to setting aside one day a year for organization-wide problem-solving.

Below are some of the obstacles to creativity that Catmull identifies. Which ones seem familiar to you?

• Fear
• Risk avoidance
• Not dealing directly with problems
• Lack of candor
• Hierarchy
• Expecting that everything will run smoothly
• Not leaving room for failure and actually punishing failure
• Not showing people that they matter
• Hindered communication and not listening to alternative viewpoints
• Expecting first drafts to be perfect
• Continuing to do what’s brought success in the past

Cultivating Creativity
In creating a culture of creativity, Catmull emphasizes the importance of selecting the right team for each project, saying that the most important thing is to put together a team that can solve problems together. And then, the manager must measure the team not by its successes or mistakes, but by its ability to solve problems.

Catmull also reminds us that “first drafts always suck.” So managers need to protect teams and support them as they go through the “mess” of experimenting and failing and trying again, and balance that protection with the necessity to meet project requirements. Managers must give teams the time they need to work through issues and solve problems along the way to a new solution.

An important part of protecting the team is making room for failure. In the U.S., we typically see failure as something bad, something that happens to people that aren’t good enough or prepared enough. But fear of failure can shut down creativity. In a recent interview on NPR, Catmull said, “Failure is not a necessary evil; it is a necessary consequence of doing something new. If you don’t fail, then you’re actually screwing up in a much bigger way.” By this he means that organizations that don’t embrace failure can fall behind and be eliminated because they don’t innovate. One organization that is embracing failure and teaching others to learn from it is Failure: Lab in Grand Rapids, MI.

Another important way that leaders can encourage creativity is to look for solutions throughout the organization and solicit ideas from everyone, instead of trying to do it all themselves or looking to a few experts. Often, those on the front lines may understand the problems more thoroughly, which gives them the best perspective from which to discover innovative solutions. Also, getting them involved in developing solutions will make it easier to get their buy-in to implement those solutions.

A Commitment to Creativity
My key takeaway from Catmull’s book is that organizations that cultivate a culture of creativity do so intentionally with a daily focus on what is inhibiting creativity and a commitment to removing obstacles no matter how difficult that might be. As Catmull says, “Unleashing creativity requires that we loosen controls, accept risk, trust our colleagues, work to clear the path for them, and pay attention to anything that creates fear.”

How can you cultivate creativity—or at least avoid crushing it—in your organization?

Ever since the eLearning Manifesto launch on March 13, I’ve been wondering:

1. How well do the courses I’ve developed adhere to its principles?
2. What are the best strategies for implementing its principles?

I started to work my way methodically through the principles to identify strategies that we’ve used successfully with our clients. But someone else is already doing that. And I found a more holistic picture was emerging—a model for leadership development that I’ve used successfully for multiple clients, both commercial and government.

A Performance-based Approach (Manifesto Principles 3, 4, 14, 16)
This model emerged from a need to translate leadership principles into specific practices for a manufacturing environment. It was developed from a performance-based perspective, starting with the questions: What must learners be able to do to lead successfully in the work environment? How will we know when leaders are successful? From the answers to those questions, we worked backward to create a structure that guides learners through the following stages:

1. Learning new principles and strategies
2. Applying these principles and strategies, with feedback
3. Practicing these principles and strategies in multiple contexts, with individualized feedback
4. Mastering these principles and strategies and integrating them into daily practice

The Blended Model
To come up with this model, we identified the best instructional strategies and technologies to support each instructional goal.

A Central Hub (Manifesto Principles 15, 22)
The central point for the model is a social media site where learners can:

• Get assignments
• Link to courses and resources
• Participate in discussions with others
• Post assignments

Prompts and Reminders
Email is used to welcome learners to the program and point them to the social media site. Regular ongoing emails prompt learners to complete upcoming assignments.

Obtaining Baseline Knowledge
Learners get baseline knowledge on leadership principles and strategies by reviewing prereading articles.

Applying Basic Principles and Strategies (Manifesto Principles 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 21)
Next, learners take an eLearning course that challenges them to apply basic principles and strategies to a simple case study and get feedback on their choices. The eLearning environment means that the case study must be fairly simple and straightforward, lacking some of the nuances of real life, but it’s a good start in applying basic principles and strategies.

At the end of the eLearning, learners get an assignment to apply what they’ve learned in their own work environments. They may have to analyze their work environments based on the principles that they’ve learned. Or, they may identify and solve a problem, or, look for an opportunity to use new strategies on the job. Learners post their completed assignments to the social media site so the instructor can review them to understand learners’ unique needs and tailor classroom instruction accordingly. Learners bring their completed assignments to the classroom session and continue to work on them there.

Practicing in Multiple Contexts (Manifesto Principles 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 16, 20, 21, 22)
The classroom session allows learners to practice new skills and knowledge with more nuanced examples and individualized feedback. Learners present the assignments they completed after the eLearning to get feedback and suggestions for moving forward. In this way, they learn while doing real work. In addition, the classroom session includes multiple case studies and simulations that allow learners to experiment with new knowledge and skills and practice applying them in multiple contexts, with individualized feedback.

Supporting Mastery (Principles 11, 13, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22)
After the classroom session, regularly scheduled virtual sessions deepen the learning and support transfer of learning to the job. At this point, responsibility for creating the learning sessions transfers to the learners. They take turns designing, developing, and implementing virtual or in-person sessions to discuss their progress, solve problems, and provide more in-depth information, with assistance from the instructor as needed.

Other support and resources are offered via links to resources, ongoing discussions with peers and the instructor, and event notifications on the social media site. Over time, this site can grow into a Community of Practice that learners can always turn to when they need support or information.

Regular email updates keep learners on track and emphasize key points.

A Flexible Blend
Over the past eight years, this blended approach has proven effective for multiple leadership development initiatives, both commercial and government. In 2010, it received a Bersin Learning Leaders award. In addition to adhering to almost all of the eLearning Manifesto’s principles, this blended approach allows leadership development to unfold as a process, as opposed to a one-time event, and it slowly transfers the responsibility for learning to the learners, empowering them to continue their development.

What strategies have you found effective for leadership development? What principles guide the design of your training programs?

Page-turners and text death and glazed eyes! Oh my!

Why does so much eLearning look more like shovelware than courseware, when the technology exists to do so much more? A number of factors conspire to make eLearning less effective than it can be:

• Budgets—eLearning is often selected because organizations want to train employees as cheaply and quickly as possible. And competition is driving the prices down. Designers and developers often have just a couple of days or weeks to throw together a one-hour course. Compare that to the budgets and timeframes for a two-hour feature movie. If Hollywood had to work with typical eLearning budgets, what would the movie experience be like?
• Resources—Sometimes adding interactivity and engagement requires resources and effort from the sponsoring organization. For example, an online discussion is a good way to get learners to think deeply about a topic and what it means for them. However, that approach requires a resource to review and comment on learners’ posts. If the organization doesn’t have that resource, it may have to settle for something less effective.
• Tools—The eLearning industry has developed numerous tools to make development simpler and faster. But these tools are designed with certain paradigms in mind, and they may box designers into basic “click to explore” or multiple-choice interactions. Many rapid authoring tools are based on PowerPoint, which seems to facilitate loading up screens with mind-numbing bullet points. It doesn’t have to. PowerPoint offers lots of functionality to create highly visual and interactive screens. But the path of least resistance can lead to text-heavy, non-interactive elearning.
• Paradigms and Comfort Zones—ELearning has worked a certain way for years now, with certain well-established features, like the Objectives screen and the Knowledge Check. So when clients ask for eLearning, that’s often what they expect. And they may feel uncomfortable trying something radically different. We all want to be innovators, but we don’t necessarily want the risk that goes with that.
• Subject Matter Experts Developing eLearning—It makes sense to ask the people who know the content to develop the eLearning, and the tools make that easy to do. But subject matter experts may not know the principles of effective learning and engagement. They care about their content. They want the learners to know everything there is to know about it. They may not be thinking about what’s most important or what learners need to do.

The Serious eLearning Manifesto
So the deck may be stacked against the conscientious designer, but that doesn’t mean we’re stuck with shovelware. And thankfully, some thought leaders in the elearning industry have decided to do something to improve eLearning, launching the Serious eLearning Manifesto on March 13, 2014. With the Manifesto stating that “We believe that learning technology offers the possibility for creating uniquely valuable learning experiences; we also believe, with a sense of sadness and profound frustration, that most eLearning fails to live up to its promise,” these thought leaders identify 8 values and characteristics of “Serious eLearning” and 22 supporting principles.

The Possibilities
The Serious eLearning values and characteristics and supporting principles aren’t necessarily new. But what the Serious eLearning Manifesto does is to capture them succinctly in a simple online list. As an industry, we now have a common set of standards that is endorsed by eLearning practitioners and professional organizations. The principles can serve as a simple checklist to keep eLearning on the path toward effectiveness. And we now have a tool to educate clients out of their comfort zones so that they will embrace innovative learning strategies.

Serious Learning
As new technologies and the proliferation of mobile devices expand our ability to reach and support learners, staying focused on effective learning design principles becomes even more important. These principles will guide us to find the best ways to use technology to improve human performance. The focus always needs to stay on the learning goal, leveraging available technologies in the most effective way to meet that goal. From that perspective, the manifesto may be better named the Serious Learning Manifesto or the Effective Learning Manifesto.

How Does Your Courseware Measure Up?
Take a hard look at your own courseware in light of the eLearning Manifesto principles. What might you be able to do differently to make learning more effective?

Over coffee one winter morning, the conversation turned to the subject of teleworking. Six women from various Government agencies and contractors compared their teleworking experiences. Their perspectives encapsulate the current state of teleworking, something particularly relevant during this Telework Week.

Participating in the discussion were:

• M from the Department of Defense. M had been forced into teleworking after the Navy Yard shooting. She found she liked it more than she thought she would. She got more sleep and got more work done. Technology was a challenge. It could take minutes for emails to open or send. System updates could be done only on the network, so she fell behind until she could take her laptop into an office and hand it over to IT for a few hours. She found that some people abused the privilege and basically disappeared, not responding to phone calls or emails. Her group made it a point to stay in touch by meeting in person every week.
• V from the Department of Labor. V oversees a group that is telework-ready, but finds that no one is really interested in teleworking. She says that their office culture is based on face-to-face interaction and long hours in the office. She teleworks occasionally—for example, when waiting for a repairman. When she teleworks, V feels that she must work harder to prove that she is being productive.
• S with the U.S. Geographical Survey. S has a telework agreement and has teleworked consistently one day a week for several years. For a while, she stopped teleworking because she felt that she was missing out on activities in the office. But she has recently started teleworking again. Her team uses Instant Messaging to stay in touch when teleworking. S finds that seeing her coworkers’ names on IM and knowing they’re just a click away helps her to feel less isolated at home. S works with large files, so sometimes the technology can keep her from being as productive as she’d like to be. Like V, she tends to work harder and longer when teleworking to “give her boss more.”
• C is a contractor who has teleworked consistently at least one day a week for almost 20 years. When her children were younger, telework gave her the flexibility to get her work done while taking care of her family. Now that her children are grown up and there are fewer restrictions on her schedule, she tends to go into the office more. She still finds, though, that telework gives her uninterrupted time to get her work done.
• T from the Department of Defense. Ten years ago, T wrote her master’s thesis on telework, and she has long been a strong supporter of it. While she does not often telework herself, 75% of her office is telework-ready, and she oversees several staff members who telework consistently one day a week. She finds it no harder to manage teleworkers than other workers. She finds that they are often more responsive than those in the office. Also, since some of her staff are field workers, she is used to managing people whom she doesn’t see often. Her philosophy is, “If you can’t trust them to get the work done outside of the office, how do you know they’re doing something when they’re in the office?”
• Then there’s me, a contractor. I’ve teleworked for much of my career, often working from home almost 100% of the time. Like C, I found telework gave me the flexibility to support my daughter’s schedule when she was younger. I still prefer telework when I need to concentrate on a difficult task. The quiet of my house gives me the focus I need to get that work done. I also like to telework when I have a tough deadline to meet. Eliminating the commute adds a couple more hours to my day. In the past five years, I’ve enjoyed a hybrid arrangement, teleworking three days a week and coming into the office two days a week. That arrangement gives me the best of both worlds—the relaxed focus of the telework environment and the camaraderie of the office.

Some Key Themes
In our discussion of telework, some key themes emerged:

Telework is great for employees, giving them back the time they usually spend commuting and providing a distraction-free work environment. But telework can be harder for managers, who have to be more proactive in how they make assignments and ensure accountability.

It’s less clear how useful telework is for the organization. With just one- or two-day telework arrangements, agencies cannot reduce space and save energy. Also, they can lose the informal communication that occurs in the hallways and at the water cooler. On the other hand, telework helps address the problem of limited parking. And it may help eliminate unnecessary meetings— dispersed personnel are less likely to call a meeting “since we’re all here anyway.”

Teleworkers tend to work harder in their home offices because they feel that they have to prove that they’re being productive.

To be successful at telework, you need to have a tangible work product to produce and a firm deadline. Also, you need to be responsive to telephone calls and emails, getting back to people as quickly as possible.

Some positions are not appropriate for telework. For example, staff workers who must respond immediately to on-site requests should stay in the office.

While there is plenty of technology to support telework, from telephone and email to Instant Message, GoToMeeting, and Skype, technology can also be an obstacle to effective teleworking. Sometimes connecting to office networks and staying connected can be difficult and frustrating. File transfer times can be slow, and it can be hard to access shared drives. Stringent security requirements also interfere with a seamless telework experience.

In some cases, policy may discourage teleworking. For example, those who are telework-ready may be required to work on snow days while others enjoy a free day off.

Working in the office is what most people are used to, so it can be hard to break out of that comfort zone. Some people like dressing up for work; it makes them feel more serious and professional. And some people like the physical separation of work and home—a clear line between work and non-work. They call it the “Friday feeling”—that euphoria of knowing that your work is done and you can go home and relax.

In general, people don’t like the idea of hoteling. They want to have their own space in the office—a place to hang pictures and personalize, to make their own. They don’t want to have to share with someone else.

In our “either/or” culture, we may have artificially drawn a line between teleworking and not teleworking. While telework offers clear advantages, there are also advantages in bringing people together and getting things done through informal office relationships. It’s doubtful that the work environment will ever go to 100% teleworking. A hybrid arrangement allows us to realize the best of both worlds.

What work arrangement do you prefer? How does your organization’s culture support your preferences?

It may be said that the road to ineffective training is paved with good intentions. As you develop training in your organization, be aware of these seven training traps that can derail your best intentions for improving performance. 1. The Information Dump Many organizations put their experts in charge of training, which makes sense—the experts have the knowledge; let them disseminate it. The trouble with experts, though, is that they think everything about their subject is important. The result is a massive information dump that leaves the target audience with glazed eyes and no sense of what to do with all that information. Behavior can’t change under those circumstances, so training hasn’t happened. An instructional designer can work with your organizational goals and the target audience’s needs to determine exactly what information must be conveyed, and the best way to convey it to achieve your training goals. The target audience will leave the training with 5–7 key things to remember and a plan for putting new skills and knowledge into action. 2. The Why Should I Care? Closely related to the Information Dump is training that does not seem relevant to learners. The training sponsor may assume that what’s important to him/her is important to everyone. But if learners cannot see a clear correlation between the training and what they care about, they’ll check out. The first step in developing effective training is to understand your audience and what matters most to them. Then you can draw clear connections between your content and audience needs and help learners see how the training will help them achieve their goals. The result: people who are engaged and motivated to learn. 3. The Sit and Listen Our educational system is based on the “sit and listen” concept. Most of us grew up in classrooms where the teacher talked and we listened and took notes. That approach has been proven to be less than effective. But it’s what we know, so it’s often where training starts. But as psychiatrist William Glasser pointed out, “We Learn . . .

• 10% of what we read
• 20% of what we hear
• 30% of what we see
• 50% of what we see and hear
• 70% of what we discuss
• 80% of what we experience
• 95% of what we teach others.”

So, if you really want your people to learn something, you need to make them active participants in the learning. Get them discussing, experiencing, and even teaching others. The type of activity that’s appropriate will depend on your training objectives. You may be able to get away with the “Sit and Listen” if you just want people to be aware of something. But you’ll have to hone a focused message so you can be sure that they remember key points. If you want to take learners higher up Bloom’s taxonomy into the realm of applying, evaluating, synthesizing, and even creating, you need to provide activities that allow them to do those things and get meaningful feedback. 4. The This Is What We’ve Always Done Several years ago, a client asked me to create some e-learning on international culture and protocols for people traveling overseas. As I began to understand what my client wanted, I realized that e-learning wasn’t the best solution. It was too linear and guided. The target audience had specific questions and wanted to get answers to those questions right away. They needed something more flexible, so I suggested a wiki. My client’s response, “What’s a wiki?” To answer that question, I built a quick wiki for them using some of their content. And they instantly saw that a wiki was the right choice to meet learners’ needs. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of how you’ve always delivered training. But technology has opened up a wide variety of options. The key is to be very clear about what you want to accomplish, and then work with an instructional designer and technologist to determine the most effective way of achieving those goals. Like my client, you may find that your first solution wasn’t necessarily the best one. 5. Death by PowerPoint Much has been written about the evils of PowerPoint, but it’s not the tool as much as our inability to use it effectively that is the problem. Working memory has an auditory and a visual component, so if you want to maximize what learners can absorb, you need to provide substantive visuals, along with the explanation. Bullet points aren’t visuals. They just clutter up the auditory side of working memory.  So, why do we use them so much? Because it’s easy to throw words on a slide. It can be difficult to design a substantive visual that captures a key concept. Instructional designers and graphics designers can help you to turn bullet points into visuals that will make information meaningful and memorable to learners. 6. Let Them Find It With Google and the Internet, we all have a great deal of information at our fingertips. So, many would argue that we don’t really need training anymore. People can just get the information they need when they need it from the Internet. But that’s kind of like saying that we don’t really need roads anymore because we can just buy machetes and bushwhack our way through the forest. The trouble with the “Let them find it” approach is that it can be time-consuming for learners, and they can get lost in all the information that’s out there.  Well-designed training is the super-highway to performance—the shortest distance between where you are today and where you want to be. 7. Technology for Technology’s Sake There’s no doubt that technology has revolutionized training, offering numerous options for disseminating information and building skills. Organizations can go beyond the classroom with technologies that allow learning to occur before, during, and after a training event. The challenge is to not be seduced by the wonders of technology. Sometimes clients come to us because they want a technology-enabled solution just so they can say that they’re using that technology: “Yes, we’re doing mobile learning.” But rather than looking for a reason to use a specific technology, you need to start by being very clear about your performance goals and target audience needs. Then you can apply the right technology to meet those goals and needs effectively. And sometimes technology may not be the best solution. Job aids aren’t exciting, but they can be effective. Choose the right solution for the training need, and you’ll have more dollars left for projects that require technology. Instructional Designers as Guides As you can see, even the best of intentions can have unintended consequences. There’s a good reason that people fall into these traps. At a certain level, they make sense. An instructional designer can guide you through the myriad choices in training design, help you to avoid the traps, and lay out the path to training that meets your organizational goals efficiently and effectively.

(Contributed by Bob Tarter)

What do you think of when you hear the word “drone”? Military operations? Amazon’s new package delivery service?

Applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
Those applications are just the tip of the iceberg for the unmanned aviation system (UAS) industry, which will be growing exponentially over the next couple of years. Businesses, law enforcement, and Government agencies are all scrutinizing unmanned vehicle technology, envisioning a wide variety of uses from search and rescue to hurricane warnings to medical equipment delivery. Fast Company includes unmanned vehicles as one of its world-changing ideas for 2014. The technology “is such a game-changer,” says Gene Robinson, president of RP SearchServices, a non-profit that applies drone technology to help law enforcement agencies.

The Training Need
For training companies like C², this emerging technology represents an exciting new market. Someone is going to have to train people to fly, manage, program, and repair unmanned vehicles. Someone is going to have to explain the new regulations for a new industry. Someone is going to have to educate the public and ensure safety. And before the technology becomes widely used, someone is going to have to help the engineers think through its human factor aspects. With our background in training for manned vehicles, such as the A-10, B-1, B-52, C-17, and EC-130, C² has a wealth of expertise to bring to the world of unmanned vehicles.

Right now, the industry is limited to public-use agencies—primarily military and law enforcement. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is working to have regulations for commercial use ready by 2015. That’s when the training need will be at its peak, as people must learn the new skills, new roles, and new processes for a whole new industry. Research and Markets predicts that the unmanned vehicles market will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.17 percent over the period 2012–2016. The Association of Unmanned Vehicles International (AUVSI) projects the number of jobs related to unmanned aerial vehicles to top 100,000 by 2025.

C²’s Unmanned Aviation Division
To prepare for that future, C² has established an Unmanned Aviation Division, headed by Dr. Bob Tarter, a retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General, FAA VP for training and safety, and former Delta Airlines pilot.

Training Questions to Consider
As Bob and his team create the framework for C²’s Unmanned Vehicle training, some of the questions they’re considering include:

• How different is the skillset for an unmanned vehicle operator from that of a manned vehicle operator? What new training models are needed? What basic concepts of aviation must still be taught?
• Will training have to be different for unmanned air, ground, and maritime vehicles? Or are the systems and tasks basically the same?
• How can non-visual operations be simulated?
• How can unmanned vehicle pilots detect and overcome any delays between their actions and the vehicle’s reaction?
• What tools or processes are needed to overcome any perceptual gaps of a pilot who is not in the same environment as the vehicle being operated?
• How will unmanned vehicles avoid hitting other vehicles, people, or structures in the environment?
• What type of security protocols will be in place to ensure that unmanned vehicles are not compromised by another operator?
• How will organizations using unmanned vehicles convince the public that these vehicles are safe and will not intrude on their privacy?
• How will weather affect the use of unmanned vehicles?
• How many unmanned vehicles can one operator manage safely at a time?
• What regulations will unmanned vehicle operators need to follow?
• What kind of emergency training will be needed for unmanned vehicles? How can unmanned vehicle operators recognize a crisis from a distance?
• How much does previous piloting experience transfer to operating an unmanned vehicle?

C²’s Vision
C²’s vision is to implement an adaptive training curriculum that is tailored not only to the vehicle but also to the operator and his/her level of experience. We are investing now to address the unique training challenges of unmanned vehicles, such as:

• Availability of training areas/National Airspace System (NAS) integration
• Frequency spectrum management
• The rapid proliferation of numbers and types of unmanned systems in response to wartime demand
• Differing organizational perspectives on vehicle operator qualifications, sensor operator qualifications, and support personnel requirements across the growing number of systems in all classes of unmanned vehicles
• Lack of operator interoperability and universal design standards for unmanned-systems control stations

Ready for the Future
Today, the thought of thousands of UAVs flying around our airspace making deliveries, finding people, and doing other odd jobs may seem like science fiction. But that reality is here, and C² is ready to train a workforce that doesn’t exist today—the workforce of the immediate future.

Today on Federal Tech Talk, CEO Dolly Oberoi spoke with host John Gilroy about today’s organizational challenges, and how instructional design makes the difference in helping people learn new technologies, decipher the Affordable Care Act, work in a multigenerational workplace, and prepare for a future with unmanned vehicles.

Click here to listen to Dolly’s interview.