By Judy Umlas
I love my corporate title: Executive Director, Learning Innovations. Isn’t that mysterious? Isn’t that “out of the box?” Isn’t that just a great invitation to play in the sandbox of discovery, innovation, breakthroughs? But what does it really mean, and how can I “deliver” the goods in ways that assure that learning occurs for people and that it stays there?
Some of my most vivid experiences of learning as a child had to do with discovering mastery. In primary school, we were taught our ABC’s, and then how to sound out words and suddenly I found myself reading stories – actual stories with beginnings, middles and ends! They were about the antics of Dick and Jane, their dog Spot and their cat Puff. I know I am both dating and geographically locating myself (I’m sure you have your equivalent stories in Paris, Madrid or Bengalore), but if you remember those tales as I do, I suspect that you remember them with great fondness and definite nostalgia. They crept into our minds first, but were followed by our hearts and, I suspect, our souls. We learned with pleasure and pride and delight!
How do we keep that kind of learning experience going throughout our adolescent and ongoing adult lives? Certain teachers or instructors make their mark without a doubt, and practically guarantee learning. We all have our favorite teacher – the one who made learning come alive for us, who touched our souls as he or she escorted new and increasingly complex information into our heads. One of our company’s instructors gets comments on his evaluations from both men and women about (no kidding) wanting his genetic material in their offspring. Now is it because he is a handsome, well-spoken dude, which he is? Well at least to some degree. But I am convinced that it is more due to his energy and his fun-loving ways. He reaches people, and they “keep” the information, the techniques and applications that he gives them! They will probably keep these for as long as I have kept my stories of Dick and Jane.
So how do we create that kind of engaged and long-term learning in a corporate environment? In the mid 1990’s our company produced live, interactive, global satellite broadcasts with gurus of our industry: people such as Dr. Harold Kerzner, Dr. Joseph Juran, Dr. Eli Goldratt, Dr. Margaret Wheatley and more…and more…. We would have up to 10,000 people at a time participating live from locations around the globe. They were able to reach out to the masters and ask them questions during the three-hour events. They received information from the gurus’ personal PowerPoint slides and engaging delivery techniques, from the discussions among panelists – real people practicing what was being preached.
Did participants learn from these mega events? You bet they did! We were told by one company that gathered 500 of its employees in an auditorium to receive the broadcasts, that the down side was that people kept on talking about the programs and the thoughts they had stirred up, long after they ended and sometimes it was difficult to get them to go back to work afterward. These people were engaged, and were stirred intellectually and emotionally by the experience of “sitting at the feet of the masters” via television hookups. These were massive and costly productions, though, that took months to put together.
So we went in the direction of creating live, interactive web-based versions of our actual courses. Did people learn from these? You bet they did! How do I know? Those who took our Project Management Certificate Program via eLearning passed the PMP exam on the first try 100 per cent of the time, while those in our classroom courses only passed 97 per cent of the time. Eventually both evened out to about 97 per cent, but we discovered that people loved the experience and convenience of taking high level courses in their bathrobes on a Saturday morning, or in the evening after work and after dinner and after the kids went to sleep. So that innovation worked!
Well, if that worked, wouldn’t it be a learning breakthrough to create a self-paced, on demand learning experience of the same Project Management Certificate Program that people could use whenever they wanted, not just when the instructor was available?
After talking to many of our customers, we felt it would be, so we “innovated” again, this time with what I call (and I will probably get chastised for saying this) the “Disney version” of the PMBOK® Guide! (And I don’t mean it’s “Mickie Mouse!” Not the least bit, but it sure is entertaining, as well as effective and engaging!) So two years and two million dollars later, the PM eLibrary does everything under the sun to connect with learners: from pre and post tests, to drag and drop exercises, to flash animation, to cartoons, to constant interaction in response to material presented, it makes you learn! You just about don’t have a choice but to learn! And it does this on people’s own schedules and according to their personal needs.
So what’s next on the horizon? Since “Chief Learning Officer” is a title that many companies now have in their ranks, many of us are thinking about this. Well, I still prefer my own title and can’t wait for our company to create the next learning innovation arrow in our corporate learning quiver.
Please tell me what your company is doing to have people learn! I know I can learn a great deal from our community and it would be wonderful for us all to share this information. I would also love to get a hint of what’s just over the horizon in this exciting and worthwhile field of corporate learning. But I will always have my Dick and Jane stories in my heart.
Be well, and keep on learning.
Until the next time….
Judy
P.S. It isn’t too late to write and submit an original Project Management Poem for our contest! The prizes are worthwhile, helpful and fun! Please send your submission to pmpoetrycontest@allpm.com.
Judy Umlas, allPM co-publisher emeritus and continuing columnist, remains the heart and soul of this community and invites you to correspond. Her professional accomplishments are many.