Rosemary Lehman
Senior Outreach/Distance Education Specialist
Instructional Communications Systems, UW - Extension

"Initiating change is daunting"
(Peter Senge - MIT)

When the Decisions '99 conference convened, little time was wasted before we jumped into exploring the first of three key designated areas: I - Aligning Technology and Training with an Organization's Goals. We identified five essential strategies: 1) Employ "laser focus" and develop a focusing framework. The suggestion was to employ a four-quadrant focusing framework to identify what your organization does and doesn't do well and what customers (or learners) do and do not value.

Quadrant 1 -Do Well/Customer Does Value - This is a GO
Quadrant 2 - Does Not Do Well/Customer Does Value - Consider Partnering
Quadrant 3 - Do Well/Customer Does Not Value - Retarget
Quadrant 4 - Does Not Do Well/Customer Does Not Value - Definitely STOP

Continuously check focus, remaining flexible to refocus. In fact, create an obsession with focus; 2) "Hardwire" the voice of the customer (learner) into your thought process. Inventory for duplication of efforts and look at ways in which technology, and therefore technology training, can help; 3) Expand from the "old team concept" to universal collaboration; 4) Monitor for satisfaction; 5) develop long-term relationships and 6) Employ facilitative leadership.

In the process, consider the various "drivers" that are propelling the organizational technology and training process: 1) Business drivers - the importance of cycle time; 2) Technology drivers - the characteristics of technology that play into the picture, 3) Learning drivers - rising expectations and demands and 4) Learner drivers - how is learning changing and how do we change with these changes? What does this mean and how can technology become a tool for making connections? What role can Best Practices play?

"When we're through changing, we're through!"
(Carl Rogers - Educator, Adult Learning)

Discussion on key area II - Exploring the Economics of Technology and Training - was no less daunting, continuing to prod us to look at things differently. Questions we tackled were: In these rapidly changing times, how do we need to change? What are new economic and business models we can use to structure and predict the investment in learning within an organization? Old Models no longer workable (i.e. mechanistic) need to give way to more fluid ones. Suggested models ranged from production models to other alternatives - knowledge management, ROI, "flow" and hybrids. We determined that new models required new language, new terms and new outcomes and that successful models would place people at the center and look at performance and results. These models would also expand the learning experience to include the "before" and "after" of the event, what Elliott Masie called the "surround." These models would also include impact mapping and critical process skills and would integrate training as an essential organizational investment that would result in substantial returns.

In the major keynote of the conference, former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, also addressed this second key area. His saw as critical, the need to focus on people driving the technology, rather than technology driving people, and if people were to drive the technology, then training as an integral part of the organization was essential. Later, Peter Henschel's remarks, in his address on research and learning, followed this line of thought as well, but reminded us that we have much to learn about people and about training for learning via technology. More research needs to be carried out on "how" we learn and on the significance of the social and emotional dimensions of learning as they relate to technology. Closing questions that we all grappled with in key area II were - What are the core principles that can serve as our pointers and how can we work together to develop them?

"None of us individually can be as good as all of
us when we work together."
(CEO of Unileaver)

Finally, we looked at the implications of our discussion in the first two key areas and their impact on key area III - Developing Organizational Training Strategies. Major questions that challenged all of us were: How can learning and training decision makers create and implement an organizational wide strategy that can help create the appropriate and effective use of learning technology? How can we map a sane course through this maze of both real and hyped capabilities? How can we work together, share information, partner and learn from each other?

During the summary session of the conference, we recapped the valuable ideas concerning organizational alignment, training economics and training strategies and reviewed the numerous examples of Best Practices that participants had shared. We agreed that there were many connections that we could make between what we had learned in the context of the conference and the world of work, but that in some instances, we needed time, distance and continued discussion. We came away with new questions and an expanded network of people that we can continue to talk to about ideas, challenges, plans and partnering. The Masie Institute had not only set up excellent preparatory learning prior to the conference, but also developed 1) a Decisions '99 online chat room that will continue for a year and 2) a Decisions '99 track at its next conference. The dialog continues...

"We need to think less like a manager and more like a biologist."
(Peter Senge, MIT)