Maverick Stampede Newsletter, May 2010
Over 2009 and into 2010, I've been giving talks to industry organizations and running workshops and one thing is abundantly clear. This recession forced businesses to dramatically downsize their training resources and new approaches are necessary.
The frustrations I hear and the questions I get are consistent. To paraphrase...
"Our organization's need for training has never been greater. Budgets and staff have been slashed to the bone. All the learning technology options today are confusing. What's the right approach, especially for Gen Y new hires?"
Wow. That's a mouthful. The bad news is there's no silver bullet (Is the ever really?). BUT, 'lean' is a powerful framework to remove training waste and select the right approach(es). I sent out a copy of my 'Lean Learning Principles' with my last newsletter, but I've attached an updated copy for your reference.
One of the key principles on my list is 'Just in Time' learning. And I think it's an appropriate one to discuss today.
Teaching employees at the wrong time is wasteful. In fact, it's doubly wasteful. We waste not only the employee's time, but the trainer's time as well. Without practice and immediate application
employees forget what they're taught quickly, especially with everyone being soooooo busy.
When they actually need the information to accomplish a task in the future, they find a coworker explain it to them. So, training at the wrong time is actually triply wasteful.
This is particularly true for new hires. They join an organization and are quickly overwhelmed with everything they have to know. Organizational and cultural mores. Policies and procedures.
Technical information. The list goes on and on.
We want them succeed, but too often the solution we rely is days and days of classroom training run by either internal experts (now in short supply and very busy) or consultants (which doesn't fit into an already tight budget). It's an expensive, resource-intensive, one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't work in today's situation with today's learners.
Alternatively, we push onboarding activities and teaching to the new hire's manager, who's already working 10 or 12 hours a day. They do the best they can, but a lot can fall through the cracks. New hires wind up learning by trial and error. Often times creating more work than they're actually doing.
So, what's the right solution?
Well, here at the Maverick Institute, we took a crack at solving the new hire onboarding problem by applying 'lean learning' principles. Since the end of last year, we 'ate our own dog food' as the saying goes and created a process we call OnBoard Yourself.
We built a website to help new hires learn the basic skills and knowledge they need to get themselves up to speed in their new job. Perfect for today's downsized environment.
We organized content by topics and situations they're likely to encounter, so new hires can 'pull' what they need depending on their situation.
But, the problem with 'pull' is that new hires don't know what they don't know, so we structured content in a way that creates a 'clear learning signal'. We'd like them to know that by month 3 on
the job they should have learned these skills, met these people, etc, etc.
And new hires can learn in the format they prefer, a principle we call 'individualization'. For example readers can read while auditory learners can listen to podcasts.
These are just three Lean Learning Principles that we incorporated into our solution. Can you find more of them?
Check it at www.onboardyourself.com and let us know your thoughts. And, of course, if your organization is onboarding interns or recent college grads, we'd be thrilled if you used our website to
help them.
We offer free trials to hiring managers and talent management professionals like yourself, so you can check it out. And if OnBoard Yourself isn't a fit for your organization right now, maybe you know someone who could benefit. Feel free to forward this newsletter to them.
See you next month to talk about another 'Lean Learning' principle. Promise.
Let's ride!
The frustrations I hear and the questions I get are consistent. To paraphrase...
"Our organization's need for training has never been greater. Budgets and staff have been slashed to the bone. All the learning technology options today are confusing. What's the right approach, especially for Gen Y new hires?"
Wow. That's a mouthful. The bad news is there's no silver bullet (Is the ever really?). BUT, 'lean' is a powerful framework to remove training waste and select the right approach(es). I sent out a copy of my 'Lean Learning Principles' with my last newsletter, but I've attached an updated copy for your reference.
One of the key principles on my list is 'Just in Time' learning. And I think it's an appropriate one to discuss today.
Teaching employees at the wrong time is wasteful. In fact, it's doubly wasteful. We waste not only the employee's time, but the trainer's time as well. Without practice and immediate application
employees forget what they're taught quickly, especially with everyone being soooooo busy.
When they actually need the information to accomplish a task in the future, they find a coworker explain it to them. So, training at the wrong time is actually triply wasteful.
This is particularly true for new hires. They join an organization and are quickly overwhelmed with everything they have to know. Organizational and cultural mores. Policies and procedures.
Technical information. The list goes on and on.
We want them succeed, but too often the solution we rely is days and days of classroom training run by either internal experts (now in short supply and very busy) or consultants (which doesn't fit into an already tight budget). It's an expensive, resource-intensive, one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't work in today's situation with today's learners.
Alternatively, we push onboarding activities and teaching to the new hire's manager, who's already working 10 or 12 hours a day. They do the best they can, but a lot can fall through the cracks. New hires wind up learning by trial and error. Often times creating more work than they're actually doing.
So, what's the right solution?
Well, here at the Maverick Institute, we took a crack at solving the new hire onboarding problem by applying 'lean learning' principles. Since the end of last year, we 'ate our own dog food' as the saying goes and created a process we call OnBoard Yourself.
We built a website to help new hires learn the basic skills and knowledge they need to get themselves up to speed in their new job. Perfect for today's downsized environment.
We organized content by topics and situations they're likely to encounter, so new hires can 'pull' what they need depending on their situation.
But, the problem with 'pull' is that new hires don't know what they don't know, so we structured content in a way that creates a 'clear learning signal'. We'd like them to know that by month 3 on
the job they should have learned these skills, met these people, etc, etc.
And new hires can learn in the format they prefer, a principle we call 'individualization'. For example readers can read while auditory learners can listen to podcasts.
These are just three Lean Learning Principles that we incorporated into our solution. Can you find more of them?
Check it at www.onboardyourself.com and let us know your thoughts. And, of course, if your organization is onboarding interns or recent college grads, we'd be thrilled if you used our website to
help them.
We offer free trials to hiring managers and talent management professionals like yourself, so you can check it out. And if OnBoard Yourself isn't a fit for your organization right now, maybe you know someone who could benefit. Feel free to forward this newsletter to them.
See you next month to talk about another 'Lean Learning' principle. Promise.
Let's ride!
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