teach your team to fish: how holistic learning makes performance gains stick
TRANSCRIPT
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Connect:!Alex Khurgin
Director of Learning, Grovo [email protected]
Booth 404 at DevLearn
Learn more:!grovo.com/organizations
Training Magazine
Empowering the digital workforce
February 12th, 2015
Connect: [email protected]
Learn more: grovo.com/organizations (212) 924-2579
Question:
A. We’re not tracking or noticing any difference in performance after we train
B. There’s improved performance after training, followed by a noticeable drop off soon after
C. There’s an increase in performance after training, then a plateau and eventual decline
D. Performance always improves and stays at optimal levels well after the training period
What is the duration of the performance gains you sustain after training?
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Training’s Roller Coaster Effect
• Training and classroom learning results in temporary improvement in performance, almost always followed by declines or learning plateaus
• 80% of learning is forgotten within 30 days1
• 90% of new skills are lost within a year2
• Fewer than 15% successfully apply what they learn3
A feast of training sates a team but once
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…Leads to a Digital Skills Gap • The half-life of most professional skills is only 2.5 years4
• Only 1 in 10 workers consider themselves proficient with the digital tools they use every day5
• This is leading to a skills gap costing the economy 1.3
trillion dollars annually in lost productivity6!
• Current training methods are clearly NOT achieving the desired results !
You keep feeding your team fish, yet they’re still hungry
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There are two approaches:
Keep feeding your team ALL THE TIME
OR:
Build a team of FISHERMEN
Let’s examine some examples that use one or both:
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Learning We Know WORKS:
What do these learners have in common?
• Military Basic Training • Professional and Olympic Athletes
• Living Abroad to Learn a Language
• Method Actors
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• Military Basic Training • Professional and Olympic Athletes
• Living Abroad to Learn a Language
• Method Actors
FORMAL / STRUCTURED
FORMAL / STRUCTURED
INFORMAL / SELF-DIRECTED
INFORMAL / SELF-DIRECTED
IMMERSION! “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.”
–Alexander Pope
Learning We Know WORKS:
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Immersion is the Best Way to Learn • Can be structured or self-directed — but should be deeply meaningful
• Realistic practice enables you to reach top performance
• The efficacy of a learning environment is tied directly to how closely it approximates reality7
• Your learning environment primes you socially, emotionally, and
physically
• The result is more than just knowledge: its wisdom / fluency
“Fluency”
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Our Brains are NOT Like… Our Brains ARE Like…
1. University of Southern California Marshall School of Business "Media consumption to average 15. 5 hours a day by 2015." ScienceDaily 2013.
Our Thoughts Create a Web of Associations
Immersion is Like a Full-Body Workout For Your Brain
Disciplined, structured practice massages every cortex in your brain, building the strength and connections of your web so you solve problems faster8 – aiding performance and retention. THEREFORE:
• Multisensory channels imprint knowledge through application9 • This connectedness leads to enhanced memory functions • More perspectives provides multiple pathway to a solution
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FORMAL / STRUCTURED INFORMAL / SELF-DIRECTED
• Workers aren’t motivated or committed to continuous improvement
• They’re conditioned to believe they will be given training
• Self-directed learning only happens outside of a work context
“Feeding the team all the time”
“Building a team of fishermen”
1. Colby Swayer..edu http://www.colby-sawyer.edu/news/language-study-research.html
2. The New Learning Architect,”The Opportunities & Constraints Have Changed” 2011
2. SkillSoft survey, Shepherd, Clive (2011-01-12),The New Learning Architect p. 21
Barriers to Immersion
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• Costs millions (billions?) of dollars
• Takes too long and is inefficient (athletes spend 6 days a week training for only a few minutes of game time / soldiers train for combat they may never see)
It’s IMPRACTICAL!
And Neither Work Well: Formal/Structured Informal/Self-directed
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It’s FANTASTICAL!
Shakespeare Alexander Pope
Holistic Learning Is…
A systematic approach that simulates immersion and leads to self-directed, continuous performance improvement and fluency.
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An organized approach to a disorganized process
What do we mean by systematic? • Formal, wholly controlled, methodical
• Even informal learning is tracked and controlled
• Mission • Intellectual • Physical • Psycho-social
What do we mean by simulation? By taking into account all the contexts of a performance
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It’s when you:
What is Systematic, Simulated Immersion?
Feed your team enough to sustain the process of them LEARNING TO FISH FOR THEMSELVES
EXAMPLES: • Quantitative performance like “30% lead increase” • Qualitative performance like “Better Team Communication” • Actually catching enough fish to eat (not just learning about “fishing”)
Focus not on knowledge, skills or topics, but the actual performance you desire — the results of which are only helpful if they’re continuous and repeatable.
Start With The Act Learning is Not Enough
PERFORMANCE:
** Learners, required to perform, are more likely to engage with the training
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Make the mission explicit, with real business context, so learners can rally around it and believe in it. If there isn’t a strong mission or motivation, reconsider your training.
EXAMPLES: • ACTORS: Desire acceptance / accolades / Academy Award • SOLDIERS: It’s war time / life or death • LANGUAGE LEARNERS: Survive / thrive in a foreign country • ATHLETES: Championship / gold medal ** Learners internalize a motivation which encourages SELF-DIRECTION
Have a Reason & Communicate it This is “Mission Critical” for Training
MISSION:
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Perspectives offer a 360° view of training.
• Not “methods” or “ways” of training; these are cognitively variant modes of engaging with the content
• Break learning into “tracks” so it’s organized in a way that
it can be explored systematically and exhaustively **Content is SELF-DIRECTED (learners can go as deep as they’d like)
A) Use Different Points of View “Fish” for Contexts & Perspectives
INTELLECTUAL:
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(How Does it): Perspectives Tackle a Subject from a Variety of Angles
• CONCEPTUAL ………………….…………...….. “Why is Evernote So Popular?”
• PRINCIPLES/BEST PRACTICES:..... “Keep Your Evernote Account Secure”
• PROCEDURES/HOW TO: …………..………. “Create a New Note Via Email”
• CONTEXTUAL/IN-PRACTICE:….“Interview with an Evernote Power User”
• METACOGNITIVE: ……………………………………“Beta Testing Evernote”
INTELLECTUAL:
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(How Does it): Learning “Tracks” Create and Deliver Organized Content
INTELLECTUAL:
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Content as a single serving or a school of fish…
**SELF DIRECTED learners can orient themselves in the content / review or skip ahead based on experience
• Employ granularity: the lessons should be small, self-contained
units or “holons” that function alone and as part of a larger whole
• Separate content out into “Need to Know” (general / background) from the “Point of Need / Performance Support” to eliminate “fluff”
• EXAMPLE: Lessons are like single bricks that make up a “holarchy” of a building
** Encourages SELF-DIRECTION because learners focus in order of importance: what they need to when they need to
B) Design Lessons as “Holons” Break Fishing Down to its Essential Parts
INTELLECTUAL:
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Use Experiential Learning / Simulation It Won’t Stick if You Don’t Take a Dip…
PSYCHOSOCIAL & PHYSICAL
• Use instructor-led content / blended learning
• Design the activity to be realistic and authentic
• Relate the activity to a larger task
• Use a format that makes sense for the activity
• Give the learner ownership over the task
** Injects SELF into the learning; encourages reflection and testing of one’s ideas
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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used
when we created them
Albert Einstein
Create an Emotional Impression Who and What Was Einstein Like?
PSYCHOSOCIAL & PHYSICAL
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• The trend towards micro media and microlearning offers content in short, bite-size chunks for ease of consumption and delivery
• Cloud-based technologies allow for accessible, on-demand content, weaving training into real life and performance scenarios
• Online lessons let you learn at your own pace for a self-directed, digital immersion
The Time Is NOW (Microlearning Finally Makes Holistic Learning Possible)
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• Holistic is the great equalizer: useful for a wide range of learners, experts and non-experts
• Until now, training has only serviced elite LEARNERS
• Instead, holistic learning grooms top PERFORMERS
It’s For EVERYONE: With Holistic, ANYONE Can Become a Top Performer
RECAP:
Holistic learning is the only thing that will work for a digital audience in a permanent way.
CONGRATULATIONS: YOU’VE TAUGHT YOUR TEAM TO FISH FOR A LIFETIME OF MEALS!
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Holistic learning is...
A systematic approach that simulates immersion and leads to self-directed, continuous performance improvement and fluency.
Connect:!Alex Khurgin
Director of Learning, Grovo [email protected]
Booth 404 at DevLearn
Learn more:!grovo.com/organizations
Training Magazine
Empowering the digital workforce
Feburary 12th, 2015
Connect: [email protected]
Learn more: grovo.com/organizations (212) 924-2579
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1. Via Learning Solutions, “Trends in Blended Learning : Evolution of Learning Design and Technology”
2. Salas, Eduardo, Institute for Simulation and Training as quoted in the Wall Street Journal
3. Brinkerhoff, R. O., Apking, A. M. (2001). High impact learning: Strategies for leveraging business results from training
4. Deloitte Human Capital Trends, Switzerland, 2014
5. The Harris Poll: The Digital Skills Gap, Harris Interactive Inc., May 14, 2014)
6. Commissioned Harris Interactive Survey, 2014 (Grovo) based on average 50K salary, 21% of time wasted due to inadequate digital skills (IDC)
7. Hritz, Connie. “Virtual reality: immersive learning simulations are more than game play. They offer many benefits both to the learners and the organization”, 2013
8. Perdue University, Nairne, James S. “The Myth of the Encoding -Retrieval Match”
9. Hritz, Connie. “Virtual reality: immersive learning simulations are more than game play. They offer many benefits both to the learners and the organization” 2013
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Colby Sawyer College, “Language Study Research: Cultural Immersion vs. Technology-Driven Classroom Learning”
Shackleton-Jones, Nick . The Learning Elimination Team: http://www.aconventional.com/2014/10/the-learning-elimination-team.html
Association for Talent Development, “Q&A with Ken Spiro: Simulations and Experienced Based Learning”
References and Resources