Training & Development for a Competitive Advantage

     

     Often, training is viewed as optional and peripheral to core business functions. Yes, it's true that your organization may be able to survive without it, but the goal of any organization is to survive and prosper (Beach, 2006). Organizations need to continually innovate in order to carve out and maintain a competitive advantage. Financial and physical capital are tangible and usually visible to anyone who might be interested in knowing what resources your organization has. Today, businesses are concerned with leveraging human and intellectual capital to gain a competitive advantage (Noe, 2010). Training in and of itself may not be the answer, but Learning and Development as an organizational initiative can improve business outcomes. Experts agree that training is only effective when it's aligned to true business needs, so training professionals should always work collaboratively to identify them (Noe, 2010, Stolovitch & Keeps, 2004). When this happens, employee learning is strategic, new skills are transferred to the work environment, and organizational benefits are apparent in improved performance as well as time and money saved. When learning and development is a priority, the organization also makes gains by capturing and sharing knowledge so that it doesn't leave the organization when people do.      

     According to the American Society for Training & Development, U.S. organizations continue to invest in learning and development (Paradise, 2008), and rightly so. A recent study by the same organization involved 500 publicly traded companies. Of those, the companies investing the most in training and development realized a shareholder return that was 46 percent higher than the market average (Noe, 2011).  Table 1 includes some interesting facts and figures on the status of the training industry today (Kranz, 2008; Noe, 2011; Paradise, 2008). Is your organization committed to learning and development?



Table 1



References

Beach, R.B. (2006). Leadership and the art of change: A practical guide to organizational transformation,     Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications

Kranz, G. (2008) E-learning hits its stride. Workforce Management Online.  Retrieved June 28, 2012, from http://static-71-166-250-129.washdc.east.verizon.net/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/GENREF/W080200K.pdf

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee training and development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill
 
Paradise, A. (2008). State of the Industry Report.  Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development

Stolovitch, H. D., & Keeps, E. J. (2004). Training ain’t performance. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press

Hi everyone!  If you’re new to my blog, it’s a discussion space where I share information on topics germane to the Human Performance Technology and Instructional Design fields. By the way, I’m closing in on a master’s degree in this area.   I’ve taken a break from posting for a while, but I’m excited about getting back to it.  For the next eight weeks, I’ll be focusing on Workplace Training & Development topics like:  

• Planning for Needs Assessments
• Evaluation Design
• Tools for Trainers

 If the journey interests you at all, please follow me by subscribing to the blog.   I look forward to a healthy dialogue, so please feel free to comment on any of the posts. 

Scope Creep: Project Obstacle or Opportunity?

According to Lynch & Roecker (2007) less than 30% of software development projects succeed.  Success is determined by the triple constraints of time, scope, and resources with very few projects being completed on time, under budget, and within project specifications.   Like IT projects, Instructional Design projects often fall into the unsuccessful category, and most experts attribute these failures to scope creep (Stolovich, n.d.; Portny et al., 2008; Greer, 2010).    Scope creep refers to the expansion of a project’s initial scope based on changing needs, technologies, or supporter requests.   There’s a natural tendency for project team members to want to improve the project as more information becomes available (Portny et al., 2008).   Every change in the number or quality of project outputs affects the amount of time, money, and resources needed to complete the project.   Scope creep is normal for most projects and can be a good thing, but it needs to be managed.  In fact, most modifications are the result of changes in vision, budget, or needs.  Some degree of scope creep can be expected as it ensures the project deliverables are still relevant upon completion (Portny et al., 2008).    I can recall several projects that experienced tremendous scope creep while I was working on them, but I will focus on one for now.

I had the pleasure of working in a start-up high school a few years ago and was charged with creating an online magazine that was completely student-run.  Let me give you some background before diving into scope creep for this project.   The high school was designed on an early college model with curriculum directly aligned to those of historically black colleges and universities.  It offered college credits through these partner universities.   Because the school was designed as a full-day program on an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. schedule, students were scheduled to finish their high school diploma by the end of the junior year, leaving the senior year for earning college credits.   Classroom training happened in the morning and project work took place in the afternoon.  The school was also set up on a quarterly basis rather than a semester program so that students could focus on one subject at a time.  For instance, some of my students had Foundations of Writing and World Literature in one quarter.   Following classroom instruction in the morning, they would work on projects including the online magazine, personal business plan development, and the operation of a mall store.   Our student body was comprised of inner-city youth – many of whom did not have the prerequisite skills to succeed in a pre-college environment.  Instruction involved a lot of differentiation in the classroom, competing agendas, and distractions.   While the work was rewarding, the environment presented several challenges for school projects.  

With the online magazine, the initial scope involved topics germane to student entrepreneurship, the sponsor university, and business events.    As we began investigating and writing stories, faculty from other areas of the school suggested that we include stories on science fairs, sporting events, and community affairs.   All of these requests came before the site was active, and we needed to have it live by the end of the first quarter.  Moreover, we experienced lack of availability concerning some technical requirement, so the project was converted to a newsletter posted on the school website vs. being independent website.   The change in scope from an online magazine to a newsletter was easier to manage, so it saved some time, but the other changes involved more time and effort.   We did not oblige them all, but enthusiasm from the school’s founder moved us toward a broader, more inclusive scope.  I would say this was a change in vision.  We also experienced problems with changing priorities as a result of environmental factors and the addition of tighter time constraints with competing projects.   

Having greater insight on project management skills, I might have done the following to better control scope creep on the magazine project:

·         Requested that story ideas be submitted in writing

·         Acquired approval for major scope changes from the project sponsor (school founder & principal)

·         Updated the project planning documents (schedule, budget, and resource allocation) to establish a new baseline for measuring project success

·         Monitored student progress against the planning documents

·         Tracked risks factors like the environmental concerns described above

Armed with this kind of detail, I might have been able to negotiate for more resources and time.  

In all, several editions of the school magazine were produced and the project provided hands-on experience for students to practice investigative and writing skills.   The expansion of topics made the newsletter more appealing to the entire student body, and it was well received.  

References

 Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Lynch, M. M., & Roecker, J. (2007). Project managing e-learning: A handbook for successful design, delivery, and management. London: Routledge

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Stolovich, H. (n.d.), Monitoring Projects [Video]. Laureate Education. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com.

Estimating Training Dollars & Cents

Instructional designers often function as project managers for teams of designers, graphic artist, subject matter experts, facilitators, and other stakeholders.  In leading the band, budgeting can be a high stakes activity; It's is a matter of walking through the project tasks and determining what resources are needed, when they are needed, and for what duration.   This process may sound easy, but oversights can be costly.  Armed with good information, project managers can translate hours, services, and materials into hard costs.  Following are a few internet resources to help with cost estimates:  

Don Clark’s website, Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition has a wealth of information on estimating training costs including development time.   The site also provides guidelines for instructor preparation time and a very useful cost spreadsheet that allows adjustments for the expertise level of the project’s instructional designer(s) and the complexity of the project’s multimedia components (Clark, 2010).  

Defelice & Kapp (2009) provides average development time statistics for various types of instruction.   Karl Kapp, one of the authors, is a well known expert in the instructional design field, but most interesting thing about this article is that it’s based on the collective experience of 47 practicing instructional designers.   The survey was done in 2003, and then again in 2009 to get a feel for the impact of new authoring software on development time.  Surprisingly, some of the more complex training designs take longer to produce with new software.  You can read the article for an explanation on why this is so, but the development time table included in the article is very helpful.  I can see using it as a reference on an ongoing basis.   

Chapman Alliance is a learning consulting company (Chapman, 2010).  They’ve compiled data collected from 249 organizations, representing 3,947 learning professionals in industries from manufacturing and telecommunications to insurance and higher education.  The research is presented in a PowerPoint presentation.  I found slide number 14 especially useful because it lists common tasks for instructional design projects including average percentages of total project time spent on each task.  For novice project managers in instructional design, this information can be helpful as a guideline.  It’s important to talk to your own team members, but it would be interesting to compare feedback against the Chapman survey results because it reflects feedback from a broad spectrum of learning specialists.  

Resources

Clark, D.R. (2010). Estimating Costs and Time in Instructional Design [Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html

Chapman, B. (2010). How Long Does it Take to Create Learning? [Research Study]. Published by Chapman Alliance LLC. http://www.chapmanalliance.com/

Defelice, R. & Kapp, K. (2009) Time to Develop One Hour of Training. ASTD. Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm

Communicating Effectively for Project Management

With project management, communication is about people skills, building relationships, getting commitments and managing them.   Communication is more than just words; it has to do with spirit, attitude, and often timing (Stolovich, n.d.).  When building relationships, it’s important to know your stakeholders as well as their preferences for communication (Allen & Hardin, 2008; Portny et al. 2008).  While it may not be feasible to cater to every stakeholder individually, it helps to know how the most important drivers and contributors respond to information delivered in various forms.   In the effort to get things done, it’s usually necessary to communicate both informally and formally.   Commitments that evolve from informal communication should always be put in writing (Portny et al, 2008; Stolovich, n.d.). 

The Laureate interactive learning media, “The Art of Effective Communication,” was an experiment in communication through various modalities.   I experienced the exact same message in the form of an e-mail, a voice mail, and video message, and I came away with some very different ideas about the urgency of the message.   In the real world, I think the face-to-face message would have been most effective because there would have been opportunity for both parties to check their understanding.   Communication is about sending and receiving information with the goal of understanding.  Unfortunately, understanding can be elusive in the midst of noise.  Messages are often lost or distorted as a result of the medium chosen to deliver them.  

The content of the message had to do with a co-worker requesting that a colleague give her an ETA on the completion of a report.  She explained through all three modalities that she needed the information in order to make her deadline, and used the exact same wording.      

E-mail

The e-mail request seemed to convey more urgency because it was in writing, and was sent to the colleague while s/he is possibly “in an all-day meeting.”  If I were in the position of the receiver and checking my e-mail on a break from the meeting, I would interpret the sender to be in a frantic state where she needs an update from me before the end of the day, or while I’m in the meeting.  In response, I might e-mail her back letting her know what the status of the report is.   If it were ready, I would send it to her.   

Voice Mail

The voice mail message with the same wording as the e-mailed conveyed less urgency.  Now that I could hear the sender’s voice, the issue seemed less important.  Her tone was relaxed and friendly. She spoke slowly, so I clearly understood that she needed and ETA on the report, but would prefer if I could send the report to her via e-mail.  If I had picked up this voice mail while on break from an all-day meeting, I would make sure I touched bases with the sender before the end of the day. 

Face-to-Face

With the face-to-face scenario, the sender came across as extremely casual.  I could now see her facial expressions and I could hear her tone.  While her words express a very important message, the fact that she was delivering it over a cubicle wall seemed to indicate a casual tone.   Moreover, she smiles while thanking her colleague for getting up to speed on the missing report.   How nice?  If I were on the receiving end of this communication, I would probably give my co-worker an update right away, and inquire with her about her deadline.  Depending on my work load, I would either try to get the report completed expeditiously, or I would negotiate for more time.

References

Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97.  

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Laureate Education (n.d.). The art of effective communication [Multimedia learning object]. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Stolovich (n.d.), Communicating with Stakeholders [Video]. Laureate Education. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

My Party Project Post Mortem

One of the best ways to learn and grow is by reflecting on past experiences.   Projects are no different in this regard, so I’ll reflect a bit on a personal project that was gratifying, but could have been pulled off with just a tad fewer glitches.   Some years ago, my daughter and son had graduations in the same year.  My daughter was completing high school while my son was finishing junior high.  Both had expressed an interest in having a party, but had also mentioned that they’d like some other types of recognition as well.   At the time, my son’s favorite line was,   “Of course, it doesn’t hurt if it’s green!”  

In deliberating over whether to give gifts alone or throw a huge party, I began to count the costs for invitations, food, decorations, new patio furniture, a tent, etc.  I began to visualize what the whole set-up would look like, where the food table would go in the backyard, who we might invite, who would handle the music, so on and so forth.  What I failed to do is commit to the project.  While shopping for new patio furniture and a tent with the idea of having guests eventually, I could not confirm whether we were having a party or not.   And believe me, the kids asked over and over again about our plans.   As the executive team member, sponsor, and driver for this project, I was unable to plan effectively.   I had not allocated resources in time or money, nor had I assembled a project team to work a plan.    I let my team know that we were indeed having a party about two weeks before graduation weekend, at which point they were very excited and began to pitch in wherever they could find a need.  The result was a huge shindig with over fifty guests.  We had great food, fun, and nice weather, but the event exhausted every ounce of energy I had.    Other complications included having to call for additional financial support from my ex-husband.  He was glad to help, but could have forked over the cash earlier if he had known about our plans.   I had also planned to coordinate games for the event, but I ran out of time.  

If I had approached this shindig from project manager’s perspective, I would have known that project management is about planning, organizing, and controlling (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008).   As cited in Lin (2006), Baumgartner (1963) defines project management as the actions involved in producing project deliverable items on time, within cost, with required reliability and performance.  A major part of project kick-off is understanding why the project is being undertaken, determining project outcomes and products, estimating resource requirement, and identifying stakeholders.  Stakeholders include anyone who is affected or interested in your project as a supporter or detractor.   Greer (2010) advises that all stakeholders need to be involved in a project early.  If they are not engaged early, the oversight can cause “re-work.”  As an example, I could have gone to the grocery store once instead of 3 times if I had known that my ex, a supporting stakeholder, could contribute resources.   A budget would have helped as well.  

Concerning planning, a project manager needs to have a good handle on all of the variables that affect a project’s success.  A five finger checklist of these variables includes time, resources, expertise, quality, and scope (Budrovich, n.d.).  Once a project is scoped, changes in either one of these areas necessitate modification in other areas.  If I had scoped the party project, I could have used something similar to a statement of work which is a written confirmation of what a project will produce and the terms and conditions under which the project team will perform the work (Portny et al., 2008).  In a professional organization, it’s generally used to gain project approval.  In this case, I could have used the agreement to let my children know what needed to be accomplished.  The formal agreement would have collectively moved us into a planning phase where our efforts would have been more focused.  Our project team could have allotted more time, resources (human, monetary, and otherwise) to make the event happen, and we could have mapped our plan with a schedule and responsibility matrix, and a communication plan.  In the end, I would have been much less exhausted, and the workload would have been more evenly distributed.    

References

Budrovich, V. (n.d.). Practitioner Voices: Barriers to Project Success [Video].                  Laureate Education. Available from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Lin, H. (2006). Instructional project management: An emerging professional practice for design and training programs. Workforce Education Forum, 33(2). Retrieved from http://voc.ed.psu.edu/projects/publications/books/Fall2006/WEF_fall2006.1.html

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Hello All,

For the next eight weeks I'll be studying Project Management with a focus on Instructional Design.  I'll be posting some assignments to this blog site.   I enjoy healthy debate, so please feel free to comment at any time.