The secret behind effective online learning is to be interactive & keep the participants/audience engaged. Learning is a life long process which starts as soon as a child born into this world. Here’s a question, do you think how you approached learning as a child is the same as how you approach it now? No, of course not! Learning as a child and learning as an adult are two very different things, which is why we have two different terms for them – ‘pedagogy’ and ‘andragogy’. However, andragogy or adult learning principles are the foundations for an effective corporate online training design.
And why does it matter?
Teaching children is very different from teaching adults. For starters, children are free of pre-conceived ideas and prejudices which make them more open to learning. They are also curious to constantly learn new things, no matter how useful or practical.
Adults on the other hand, are selective about what they want to learn; their learning not driven by curiosity as much as by utility. And most importantly, adults already have years of experience and knowledge that shapes their perspectives and hence are not as open to learning as children.
All these characteristics of adults come into play during training. Understanding adult habits and expectations is the first step toward designing a successful adult learning program.
5 Principles of Adult Learning that your Online Training Needs to Address
1. The Need to Know – the ‘Why’ of Learning Do you remember your school years?
There were so many subjects to study – math, biology, history, language, and literature. And yet, we never really questioned why we had to learn everything, did we? After all, we were exploring our options then, learning anything and everything just because we are told that they will be of some relevance to us in the future. (Even thought I still can’t figure out how the endless torture of calculus is of any use to me.) But as adults, we don’t learn simply because we are told to, we learn only when we want to. Adult learning is not so much about exploring as it is about, ‘Why is this important?’ or ‘How will this knowledge benefit me?’ Corporate training is even more specific. Workplace learning is not implemented just for the sake of learning but because it serves to hone employees’ job skills. So, the first and most important rule for an engaging and effective online training program is to answer this simple question for learners – “What’s in it for me?” The best way to go about that is through SMART Performance-based Learning Objectives that inform learners what will be able to do (perform) after they finish a given course. Learning objectives need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Sounds complicated? Let’s simplify this. Specific: Learning objective should give precise and clear information on what the learner will be able to do by the end of the course. Measurable: Learning objectives need to focus on actionable results which can be observed and measured. Achievable: Learning objectives should be realistic and attainable. Relevant: Learning objectives should be relevant to the course content as well as to the learner’s job requirement. Time-bound: Learning objectives should convey the time frame in which the job needs to be done.
2. The Need for Self-directed Learning As we discussed earlier, teaching children is all about encouraging them to explore; to nurture their natural curiosity and find different and unique ways of gaining knowledge. But this exploration can’t be completely without direction – which is why children need hand holding and later as young adults, they are directed by academic curriculums and canons. But adults don’t – they prefer to walk their own road. Adult learning is most successful when it is self-directed and not forced. This self-directed learning can be driven by either interest or utility; but the reins need to be in the learner’s hands. How can your employee training be self-directed? Well…here are your answers. With the world becoming more and more digital, the line between work and personal life is getting blurred. And with the mobile revolution, accessing information has never been easier. Today’s employees prefer learning that can be accessed anytime and anywhere they want based on their convenience. With mobile learning, learners can take control of the ‘where’ and ‘when’ of their own training. Another way through which you can facilitate self-directed learning is through a learner-friendly GUI and free navigation. This will free learners from the restrictions of taking the course/module in the order dictated by the trainer. While some eLearning compliance courses are mandatory, you can always keep your course library open for employees who seek to take courses based on their interests.
3. The Need to Connect New Information with Existing Learning John Locke, the famous sixteenth century English philosopher, talks about the ‘theory of tabula rasa’ in his ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’. Tabula Rasa is Latin for a ‘clean slate’. According to this theory, the mind is like a clean slate at birth. When we learn as children, we do not have any pre-conceived notions of the world, or experiences which can influence our understanding. Hence learning is easy to absorb and doesn’t need much reflection or connection. However, learning as an adult is a completely different experience. Adults are by no means blank slates. They are the product of their education, environment, nature, and experiences. These factors influence our ability to learn. That is why connecting new information to prior knowledge is so important. Without building such connections, learning will become a fragmented process. There are many ways of connecting new information to previous knowledge within online training. Pre-assessments give learners an opportunity to recap what was already learned and check how much of it they remember. Refresher courses allow learners to reinforce learning after a long gap and help them beat the forgetting curve. You can also help learners connect between new information with previous training by maintaining a chronology and uniformity in training content.
4. The Need for a Problem-solving Approach We have already established that adult learning is driven by utility and that adults need to connect new information with existing knowledge. The fourth principle of andragogy is based on these two concepts. What drives adult learning more than anything else is a need to solve problems. To learn how to solve job-related problems, learners need to connect information gained from training to real-life applications. Online training is deemed successful only when employees can translate knowledge to job-skills. There is growing discussion within L&D on how learning processes can be made more experiential where learners don’t just passively gain information but actively experience learning. Here are a few instructional design strategies which can make that happen. Case studies: Learners are given a real-life/fictional problem. They get to understand the cause of the problem, how it will affect their work, and how to solve it. Branching Scenarios: Learners are presented with a scenario where they have to make key decisions, each decision followed by a specific consequence. This way employees will learn how their actions can have consequences. Simulations: eLearning courses are designed to mimic job environments and conditions to give learners an opportunity to learn, explore and practice in life-like situations.
5. The Need for Rewards and Motivators People often talk about how there is no reward without work. True! But the opposite is also true. The promise of reward is what drives most people to work harder. This is especially seen in adult learners in a corporate training setting. Friendly competition among peers and the gratification of winning is often the best motivator for employees to finish training with flying colors. Gamification elements in online training like reward points, leaderboards, scores and levels, as well as the good old incentives of bonuses and promotions increase employees’ self-esteem, influence, and growth.
The secret behind effective online learning is to be interactive & keep the participants/audience engaged. Learning is a life long process which starts as soon as a child born into this world. Here’s a question, do you think how you approached learning as a child is the same as how you approach it now? No, of course not! Learning as a child and learning as an adult are two very different things, which is why we have two different terms for them – ‘pedagogy’ and ‘andragogy’. However, andragogy or adult learning principles are the foundations for an effective corporate online training design.
And why does it matter?
Teaching children is very different from teaching adults. For starters, children are free of pre-conceived ideas and prejudices which make them more open to learning. They are also curious to constantly learn new things, no matter how useful or practical.
Adults on the other hand, are selective about what they want to learn; their learning not driven by curiosity as much as by utility. And most importantly, adults already have years of experience and knowledge that shapes their perspectives and hence are not as open to learning as children.
All these characteristics of adults come into play during training. Understanding adult habits and expectations is the first step toward designing a successful adult learning program.
5 Principles of Adult Learning that your Online Training Needs to Address
1. The Need to Know – the ‘Why’ of Learning Do you remember your school years?
There were so many subjects to study – math, biology, history, language, and literature. And yet, we never really questioned why we had to learn everything, did we? After all, we were exploring our options then, learning anything and everything just because we are told that they will be of some relevance to us in the future. (Even thought I still can’t figure out how the endless torture of calculus is of any use to me.) But as adults, we don’t learn simply because we are told to, we learn only when we want to. Adult learning is not so much about exploring as it is about, ‘Why is this important?’ or ‘How will this knowledge benefit me?’ Corporate training is even more specific. Workplace learning is not implemented just for the sake of learning but because it serves to hone employees’ job skills. So, the first and most important rule for an engaging and effective online training program is to answer this simple question for learners – “What’s in it for me?” The best way to go about that is through SMART Performance-based Learning Objectives that inform learners what will be able to do (perform) after they finish a given course. Learning objectives need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Sounds complicated? Let’s simplify this. Specific: Learning objective should give precise and clear information on what the learner will be able to do by the end of the course. Measurable: Learning objectives need to focus on actionable results which can be observed and measured. Achievable: Learning objectives should be realistic and attainable. Relevant: Learning objectives should be relevant to the course content as well as to the learner’s job requirement. Time-bound: Learning objectives should convey the time frame in which the job needs to be done.
2. The Need for Self-directed Learning As we discussed earlier, teaching children is all about encouraging them to explore; to nurture their natural curiosity and find different and unique ways of gaining knowledge. But this exploration can’t be completely without direction – which is why children need hand holding and later as young adults, they are directed by academic curriculums and canons. But adults don’t – they prefer to walk their own road. Adult learning is most successful when it is self-directed and not forced. This self-directed learning can be driven by either interest or utility; but the reins need to be in the learner’s hands. How can your employee training be self-directed? Well…here are your answers. With the world becoming more and more digital, the line between work and personal life is getting blurred. And with the mobile revolution, accessing information has never been easier. Today’s employees prefer learning that can be accessed anytime and anywhere they want based on their convenience. With mobile learning, learners can take control of the ‘where’ and ‘when’ of their own training. Another way through which you can facilitate self-directed learning is through a learner-friendly GUI and free navigation. This will free learners from the restrictions of taking the course/module in the order dictated by the trainer. While some eLearning compliance courses are mandatory, you can always keep your course library open for employees who seek to take courses based on their interests.
3. The Need to Connect New Information with Existing Learning John Locke, the famous sixteenth century English philosopher, talks about the ‘theory of tabula rasa’ in his ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’. Tabula Rasa is Latin for a ‘clean slate’. According to this theory, the mind is like a clean slate at birth. When we learn as children, we do not have any pre-conceived notions of the world, or experiences which can influence our understanding. Hence learning is easy to absorb and doesn’t need much reflection or connection. However, learning as an adult is a completely different experience. Adults are by no means blank slates. They are the product of their education, environment, nature, and experiences. These factors influence our ability to learn. That is why connecting new information to prior knowledge is so important. Without building such connections, learning will become a fragmented process. There are many ways of connecting new information to previous knowledge within online training. Pre-assessments give learners an opportunity to recap what was already learned and check how much of it they remember. Refresher courses allow learners to reinforce learning after a long gap and help them beat the forgetting curve. You can also help learners connect between new information with previous training by maintaining a chronology and uniformity in training content.
4. The Need for a Problem-solving Approach We have already established that adult learning is driven by utility and that adults need to connect new information with existing knowledge. The fourth principle of andragogy is based on these two concepts. What drives adult learning more than anything else is a need to solve problems. To learn how to solve job-related problems, learners need to connect information gained from training to real-life applications. Online training is deemed successful only when employees can translate knowledge to job-skills. There is growing discussion within L&D on how learning processes can be made more experiential where learners don’t just passively gain information but actively experience learning. Here are a few instructional design strategies which can make that happen. Case studies: Learners are given a real-life/fictional problem. They get to understand the cause of the problem, how it will affect their work, and how to solve it. Branching Scenarios: Learners are presented with a scenario where they have to make key decisions, each decision followed by a specific consequence. This way employees will learn how their actions can have consequences. Simulations: eLearning courses are designed to mimic job environments and conditions to give learners an opportunity to learn, explore and practice in life-like situations.
5. The Need for Rewards and Motivators People often talk about how there is no reward without work. True! But the opposite is also true. The promise of reward is what drives most people to work harder. This is especially seen in adult learners in a corporate training setting. Friendly competition among peers and the gratification of winning is often the best motivator for employees to finish training with flying colors. Gamification elements in online training like reward points, leaderboards, scores and levels, as well as the good old incentives of bonuses and promotions increase employees’ self-esteem, influence, and growth.
In these challenging times, businesses both large and small have made, and are continuing to make, adjustments to how they work on a daily basis. Through speedy work-from-home transitions and major process overhauls, clients are continuing to maintain business-as-usual operations while providing the highest levels of customer service. These success stories have been remarkable to witness, and we would like to share a few things we’ve learned. Please watch the following short, five-minute video to learn the five key factors for minimizing disruptions to your business.
As the world fitfully rebounds from the Great Recession, many global managers are confronting a “new normal:” the prospect of slow growth for many years to come. Managing in this new era will be different – and much will rest on how willing CEOs and their executive teams are to stray from their comfort zone and challenge their traditional ways.
For the past two decades it has been possible (if not always achievable) to be successful simply by riding market growth. For most companies, those days are over.
To cope with these challenges, executives will need to question, reassess, and redefine their managerial thinking. They will have to reexamine the context in which they make decisions. Some basic beliefs and received managerial wisdoms will need to be challenged.
It is often said (correctly) that we must learn from past mistakes so we don’t repeat them. Less said, but equally valid, is that we need to learn from past successes. We have studied past recessions—as well corporate crises and successes— and have distilled what we learned into seven lessons for today’s leaders as they face the new era.
1. Focus on customers. The market research techniques we take for granted today didn’t exist in any meaningful way prior to the Great Depression. That was when Procter & Gamble pioneered the techniques that became the industry standard. Since then, many managers have cut their R&D and product development budgets during tough times, as well as market research. Such cuts can put their companies at a serious disadvantage.
The flip side is also true: A deep understanding of how consumers are responding to a prolonged downturn can lead a company to go beyond new-product innovation and change its fundamental business model, giving the company a decisive edge. Had Kimberly-Clark not continually monitored how consumers thought and behaved during the stagflation of the late 1970s, it never would have launched the Huggies brand of disposable diapers in 1977. The diapers became the top-selling brand by 1985. Similarly, during Japan’s Lost Decade, consumers turned more to discounters and mass merchandisers, a trend that Asahi Breweries rode to success. Tough times will focus your customers’ minds; you need to focus on your customers so you can take advantage of their changing attitudes and behaviors. If anything, a slow-growth period is when you need to increase market research.
2. Unleash advertising and marketing power. In tough times, advertising and marketing expenses – classified as discretionary – are usually among the first to get slashed, even before market research and R&D. The irony is that because so many firms cut their advertising budgets, advertising costs tend to fall during recessions – meaning that the few companies that advertise aggressively get much more attention at a significantly reduced price.
This increased attention at relatively low cost can be a powerful tool, as P&G again found during the Depression. Seeing an opportunity to reach its core customers – then referred to as “housewives” – by advertising on radio, the company launched the first daytime serial radio program in 1933, a genre that became known as “soap operas,” since P&G was advertising soap. Today, when competitors start to spend and try to catch up as better times return, it is either too late or very expensive.
3. Invest in people. Retaining the best talent will become an even bigger challenge as slow growth limits career advancement opportunities. It is important to actively manage the attrition of lower-performing employees in order to ensure that there are career opportunities for the most talented people. In the 1930s, leaders focused on securing jobs for the most skilled workers, mainly by reducing the number of working hours and, when necessary, shifting high-skilled labor to lower-skilled jobs to keep them on the payroll. They also added social benefits that in part compensated for lower wages. Today’s leaders will have to come up with innovative approaches that address not only compensation and advancement, but also solutions for issues as work-life balance and changing demographics.
4. Invest in the future through opportunistic mergers and acquisitions and strategic investments. A Boston Consulting Group study found that M&A deals completed during downturns – when premiums are lower and opportunities richer – outperform those completed during upturns by an average of 14 percentage points, relative to total shareholder return. To expand its leadership in the soap market, Procter & Gamble acquired 12 brands during the 1920s; it was preparing for more acquisitions when the Depression hit. Rather than abandon its plans, P&G pushed ahead – acquiring additional brands in the United States, Britain, France and Japan. P&G introduced more successful products during the 1930s than in the previous or subsequent decades.
DuPont followed a somewhat different path. With many of its suppliers failing, the company was faced with possible shortages of raw material. So it purchased one of the suppliers facing bankruptcy. This acquisition not only helped DuPont secure the raw materials it needed, it also provided DuPont with a range of specialized chemicals that enabled it to enter new markets — electroplating, refrigeration, bleaching, disinfectants and pesticides.
5. Employ game-changing strategies. With customers trading down and businesses cutting back, now might be the right time to develop a low-cost business model. It also might be the time to shift from selling products to selling services, or outcomes. Or a time to reinvent the business. IBM’s offer to lease accounting machines during the Depression was a game changer, reducing customers’ up-front capital expenditures, while building the customer base. To make the leasing business work, however, IBM had to develop an entirely new cash-flow equation, a different pricing and sales process (which involved making money on the machine card stock – rather like printer peripherals today), and a different approach to residual value and inventory management.
6. Be a leader. Successful leaders during the 1930s put significant emphasis on being visible to people at all levels in their companies. Richard Deupree of P&G spent significant time ensuring that employees understood the challenges facing the company and the approaches being taken to solve them. In tough times, employees are hungry for information and leadership. In an information vacuum, they will connect the dots in the worst ways imaginable.
Leaders set clear expectations. They mobilize the extended leadership team. They keep it real. And they drive results. Motivating the organization when tough decisions have to be made will require a well-balanced approach. Initiatives need clearly established milestones and metrics—and unambiguous ownership. Leaders need to track progress rigorously against those metrics and milestones, intervene when necessary, and communicate any changes in direction. Leaders also need to celebrate success and recognize team members who achieve the best results.
7. Go on the offensive. Invest in success. We know times have been tough, but the best time to go on the offensive is when your competitors are weak. Consider IBM. During the Great Depression, business machine production fell precipitously, declining 60 percent from 1929 to 1932. At the time, IBM was a small player in the industry. But CEO Thomas B. Watson was convinced of two things: that the industry had a strong future, and that companies that were cash-strapped would turn to automation for cost savings.
Instead of cutting back, as most of its competitors did, IBM accelerated the development of a new, state-of-the-art accounting machine, launching it in 1930 (and a scaled-back, less-expensive model a year later). Starting in 1932, IBM committed 6 percent of total revenue to R&D and built America’s first corporate research laboratory. The company also added leasing to its arsenal, in turn adding legions of new customers who needed, but couldn’t afford to purchase machines. The investments paid off. During the 1930s, IBM launched three times as many products as it had in the previous decade. These and other Depression-era decisions gave the company a decisive, long-lasting advantage over its competitors. Its revenues doubled between 1928 and 1938, while industry revenues overall declined 2 percent. By 1938, IBM had leapfrogged from a distant fourth place in the business-machine industry to a close second, behind the now virtually forgotten Remington Rand.
Management teams are acutely aware of the increased pressure that comes with an economic slowdown. If anything, however, this reinforces defensive tendencies and promotes a mindset inclined to explain why growth is hard to achieve—rather than an attitude of actively seeking growth and a disproportionate share of the market.
This “crisis mode” reinforces attitudes that impede growth even in normal times. These attitudes promote a risk-averse culture that increases in parallel with the increasing cost of failure for any individual. Such attitudes also slow down decision making as managers seek extra reassurance before taking action and make leaders more reluctant to empower their top managers.
So then, how can companies overcome these obstacles? Strong leadership—which creates a climate in which the risk of failure does not overwhelm real opportunities—obviously helps. Even when funds are short, it is important to allow, and even encourage, experiments and pilot programs. Keep in mind that every dollar invested has even more impact as the competition scales back. The difference between success and failure, even in the best of times, often depends on knowledge. How well does the company understand the potential of new markets for existing products? Does the company understand how the recession has affected customers? Do recent economic developments and the emergence of a “new normal” mean it’s time to challenge the conventional industry wisdom and elements of business economics? Remember, the simple act of challenging business economics has led to innovative business models such as low-cost airlines, overnight delivery and online sales.
The Great Recession may be over, but an era of slow growth has begun and the new realities of business life have started to emerge. As with other major crises, the fallout from the Great Recession—and the financial meltdown that preceded it—will influence the global economy and the way business is done for decades.
But this is not necessarily bad news for all companies. Companies and their leaders will have to get used to heightened competition. Those who take the initiative, respond decisively to the challenge, differentiate themselves from less fleet-footed competitors, and execute their strategies with single-minded determination can still expect to grow. For those companies, the Great Recession and its new realities present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In these challenging times, businesses both large and small have made, and are continuing to make, adjustments to how they work on a daily basis. Through speedy work-from-home transitions and major process overhauls, clients are continuing to maintain business-as-usual operations while providing the highest levels of customer service. These success stories have been remarkable to witness, and we would like to share a few things we’ve learned. Please watch the following short, five-minute video to learn the five key factors for minimizing disruptions to your business.
As the world fitfully rebounds from the Great Recession, many global managers are confronting a “new normal:” the prospect of slow growth for many years to come. Managing in this new era will be different – and much will rest on how willing CEOs and their executive teams are to stray from their comfort zone and challenge their traditional ways.
For the past two decades it has been possible (if not always achievable) to be successful simply by riding market growth. For most companies, those days are over.
To cope with these challenges, executives will need to question, reassess, and redefine their managerial thinking. They will have to reexamine the context in which they make decisions. Some basic beliefs and received managerial wisdoms will need to be challenged.
It is often said (correctly) that we must learn from past mistakes so we don’t repeat them. Less said, but equally valid, is that we need to learn from past successes. We have studied past recessions—as well corporate crises and successes— and have distilled what we learned into seven lessons for today’s leaders as they face the new era.
1. Focus on customers. The market research techniques we take for granted today didn’t exist in any meaningful way prior to the Great Depression. That was when Procter & Gamble pioneered the techniques that became the industry standard. Since then, many managers have cut their R&D and product development budgets during tough times, as well as market research. Such cuts can put their companies at a serious disadvantage.
The flip side is also true: A deep understanding of how consumers are responding to a prolonged downturn can lead a company to go beyond new-product innovation and change its fundamental business model, giving the company a decisive edge. Had Kimberly-Clark not continually monitored how consumers thought and behaved during the stagflation of the late 1970s, it never would have launched the Huggies brand of disposable diapers in 1977. The diapers became the top-selling brand by 1985. Similarly, during Japan’s Lost Decade, consumers turned more to discounters and mass merchandisers, a trend that Asahi Breweries rode to success. Tough times will focus your customers’ minds; you need to focus on your customers so you can take advantage of their changing attitudes and behaviors. If anything, a slow-growth period is when you need to increase market research.
2. Unleash advertising and marketing power. In tough times, advertising and marketing expenses – classified as discretionary – are usually among the first to get slashed, even before market research and R&D. The irony is that because so many firms cut their advertising budgets, advertising costs tend to fall during recessions – meaning that the few companies that advertise aggressively get much more attention at a significantly reduced price.
This increased attention at relatively low cost can be a powerful tool, as P&G again found during the Depression. Seeing an opportunity to reach its core customers – then referred to as “housewives” – by advertising on radio, the company launched the first daytime serial radio program in 1933, a genre that became known as “soap operas,” since P&G was advertising soap. Today, when competitors start to spend and try to catch up as better times return, it is either too late or very expensive.
3. Invest in people. Retaining the best talent will become an even bigger challenge as slow growth limits career advancement opportunities. It is important to actively manage the attrition of lower-performing employees in order to ensure that there are career opportunities for the most talented people. In the 1930s, leaders focused on securing jobs for the most skilled workers, mainly by reducing the number of working hours and, when necessary, shifting high-skilled labor to lower-skilled jobs to keep them on the payroll. They also added social benefits that in part compensated for lower wages. Today’s leaders will have to come up with innovative approaches that address not only compensation and advancement, but also solutions for issues as work-life balance and changing demographics.
4. Invest in the future through opportunistic mergers and acquisitions and strategic investments. A Boston Consulting Group study found that M&A deals completed during downturns – when premiums are lower and opportunities richer – outperform those completed during upturns by an average of 14 percentage points, relative to total shareholder return. To expand its leadership in the soap market, Procter & Gamble acquired 12 brands during the 1920s; it was preparing for more acquisitions when the Depression hit. Rather than abandon its plans, P&G pushed ahead – acquiring additional brands in the United States, Britain, France and Japan. P&G introduced more successful products during the 1930s than in the previous or subsequent decades.
DuPont followed a somewhat different path. With many of its suppliers failing, the company was faced with possible shortages of raw material. So it purchased one of the suppliers facing bankruptcy. This acquisition not only helped DuPont secure the raw materials it needed, it also provided DuPont with a range of specialized chemicals that enabled it to enter new markets — electroplating, refrigeration, bleaching, disinfectants and pesticides.
5. Employ game-changing strategies. With customers trading down and businesses cutting back, now might be the right time to develop a low-cost business model. It also might be the time to shift from selling products to selling services, or outcomes. Or a time to reinvent the business. IBM’s offer to lease accounting machines during the Depression was a game changer, reducing customers’ up-front capital expenditures, while building the customer base. To make the leasing business work, however, IBM had to develop an entirely new cash-flow equation, a different pricing and sales process (which involved making money on the machine card stock – rather like printer peripherals today), and a different approach to residual value and inventory management.
6. Be a leader. Successful leaders during the 1930s put significant emphasis on being visible to people at all levels in their companies. Richard Deupree of P&G spent significant time ensuring that employees understood the challenges facing the company and the approaches being taken to solve them. In tough times, employees are hungry for information and leadership. In an information vacuum, they will connect the dots in the worst ways imaginable.
Leaders set clear expectations. They mobilize the extended leadership team. They keep it real. And they drive results. Motivating the organization when tough decisions have to be made will require a well-balanced approach. Initiatives need clearly established milestones and metrics—and unambiguous ownership. Leaders need to track progress rigorously against those metrics and milestones, intervene when necessary, and communicate any changes in direction. Leaders also need to celebrate success and recognize team members who achieve the best results.
7. Go on the offensive. Invest in success. We know times have been tough, but the best time to go on the offensive is when your competitors are weak. Consider IBM. During the Great Depression, business machine production fell precipitously, declining 60 percent from 1929 to 1932. At the time, IBM was a small player in the industry. But CEO Thomas B. Watson was convinced of two things: that the industry had a strong future, and that companies that were cash-strapped would turn to automation for cost savings.
Instead of cutting back, as most of its competitors did, IBM accelerated the development of a new, state-of-the-art accounting machine, launching it in 1930 (and a scaled-back, less-expensive model a year later). Starting in 1932, IBM committed 6 percent of total revenue to R&D and built America’s first corporate research laboratory. The company also added leasing to its arsenal, in turn adding legions of new customers who needed, but couldn’t afford to purchase machines. The investments paid off. During the 1930s, IBM launched three times as many products as it had in the previous decade. These and other Depression-era decisions gave the company a decisive, long-lasting advantage over its competitors. Its revenues doubled between 1928 and 1938, while industry revenues overall declined 2 percent. By 1938, IBM had leapfrogged from a distant fourth place in the business-machine industry to a close second, behind the now virtually forgotten Remington Rand.
Management teams are acutely aware of the increased pressure that comes with an economic slowdown. If anything, however, this reinforces defensive tendencies and promotes a mindset inclined to explain why growth is hard to achieve—rather than an attitude of actively seeking growth and a disproportionate share of the market.
This “crisis mode” reinforces attitudes that impede growth even in normal times. These attitudes promote a risk-averse culture that increases in parallel with the increasing cost of failure for any individual. Such attitudes also slow down decision making as managers seek extra reassurance before taking action and make leaders more reluctant to empower their top managers.
So then, how can companies overcome these obstacles? Strong leadership—which creates a climate in which the risk of failure does not overwhelm real opportunities—obviously helps. Even when funds are short, it is important to allow, and even encourage, experiments and pilot programs. Keep in mind that every dollar invested has even more impact as the competition scales back. The difference between success and failure, even in the best of times, often depends on knowledge. How well does the company understand the potential of new markets for existing products? Does the company understand how the recession has affected customers? Do recent economic developments and the emergence of a “new normal” mean it’s time to challenge the conventional industry wisdom and elements of business economics? Remember, the simple act of challenging business economics has led to innovative business models such as low-cost airlines, overnight delivery and online sales.
The Great Recession may be over, but an era of slow growth has begun and the new realities of business life have started to emerge. As with other major crises, the fallout from the Great Recession—and the financial meltdown that preceded it—will influence the global economy and the way business is done for decades.
But this is not necessarily bad news for all companies. Companies and their leaders will have to get used to heightened competition. Those who take the initiative, respond decisively to the challenge, differentiate themselves from less fleet-footed competitors, and execute their strategies with single-minded determination can still expect to grow. For those companies, the Great Recession and its new realities present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
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Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate. The creators of the theme are happy with the response and have vowed to create further themes exploring the same concepts
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Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate. The creators of the theme are happy with the response and have vowed to create further themes exploring the same concepts.
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Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate.
Meh synth Schlitz, tempor duis single-origin coffee ea next level ethnic fingerstache fanny pack nostrud. Photo booth anim 8-bit hella, PBR 3 wolf moon beard Helvetica. Salvia esse nihil, flexitarian Truffaut synth art party deep v chillwave. Seitan High Life reprehenderit consectetur cupidatat kogi. Et leggings fanny pack.
Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate. The creators of the theme are happy with the response and have vowed to create further themes exploring the same concepts
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Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate. The creators of the theme are happy with the response and have vowed to create further themes exploring the same concepts.
Exercitation photo booth stumptown tote bag Banksy, elit small batch freegan sed. Craft beer elit seitan exercitation, photo booth et 8-bit kale chips proident chillwave deep v laborum. Aliquip veniam delectus, Marfa eiusmod Pinterest in do umami readymade swag. Selfies iPhone Kickstarter, drinking vinegar jean vinegar stumptown yr pop-up artisan.
Meh synth Schlitz, tempor duis single-origin coffee ea next level ethnic fingerstache fanny pack nostrud. Photo booth anim 8-bit hella, PBR 3 wolf moon beard Helvetica. Salvia esse nihil, flexitarian Truffaut synth art party deep v chillwave. Seitan High Life reprehenderit consectetur cupidatat kogi. Et leggings fanny pack.
Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate.
Meh synth Schlitz, tempor duis single-origin coffee ea next level ethnic fingerstache fanny pack nostrud. Photo booth anim 8-bit hella, PBR 3 wolf moon beard Helvetica. Salvia esse nihil, flexitarian Truffaut synth art party deep v chillwave. Seitan High Life reprehenderit consectetur cupidatat kogi. Et leggings fanny pack.
Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate. The creators of the theme are happy with the response and have vowed to create further themes exploring the same concepts
Meh synth Schlitz, tempor duis single-origin coffee ea next level ethnic fingerstache fanny pack nostrud. Photo booth anim 8-bit hella, PBR 3 wolf moon beard Helvetica. Salvia esse nihil, flexitarian Truffaut synth art party deep v chillwave. Seitan High Life reprehenderit consectetur cupidatat kogi. Et leggings fanny pack.
Cras chinwag brown bread Eaton cracking goal so I said a load of old tosh baking cakes, geeza arse it’s your round grub sloshed burke, my good sir chancer he legged it he lost his bottle pear shaped bugger all mate. The creators of the theme are happy with the response and have vowed to create further themes exploring the same concepts.
In these challenging times, businesses both large and small have made, and are continuing to make, adjustments to how they work on a daily basis. Through speedy work-from-home transitions and major process overhauls, clients are continuing to maintain business-as-usual operations while providing the highest levels of customer service. These success stories have been remarkable to witness, and we would like to share a few things we’ve learned. Please watch the following short, five-minute video to learn the five key factors for minimizing disruptions to your business.
As the world fitfully rebounds from the Great Recession, many global managers are confronting a “new normal:” the prospect of slow growth for many years to come. Managing in this new era will be different – and much will rest on how willing CEOs and their executive teams are to stray from their comfort zone and challenge their traditional ways.
For the past two decades it has been possible (if not always achievable) to be successful simply by riding market growth. For most companies, those days are over.
To cope with these challenges, executives will need to question, reassess, and redefine their managerial thinking. They will have to reexamine the context in which they make decisions. Some basic beliefs and received managerial wisdoms will need to be challenged.
It is often said (correctly) that we must learn from past mistakes so we don’t repeat them. Less said, but equally valid, is that we need to learn from past successes. We have studied past recessions—as well corporate crises and successes— and have distilled what we learned into seven lessons for today’s leaders as they face the new era.
1. Focus on customers. The market research techniques we take for granted today didn’t exist in any meaningful way prior to the Great Depression. That was when Procter & Gamble pioneered the techniques that became the industry standard. Since then, many managers have cut their R&D and product development budgets during tough times, as well as market research. Such cuts can put their companies at a serious disadvantage.
The flip side is also true: A deep understanding of how consumers are responding to a prolonged downturn can lead a company to go beyond new-product innovation and change its fundamental business model, giving the company a decisive edge. Had Kimberly-Clark not continually monitored how consumers thought and behaved during the stagflation of the late 1970s, it never would have launched the Huggies brand of disposable diapers in 1977. The diapers became the top-selling brand by 1985. Similarly, during Japan’s Lost Decade, consumers turned more to discounters and mass merchandisers, a trend that Asahi Breweries rode to success. Tough times will focus your customers’ minds; you need to focus on your customers so you can take advantage of their changing attitudes and behaviors. If anything, a slow-growth period is when you need to increase market research.
2. Unleash advertising and marketing power. In tough times, advertising and marketing expenses – classified as discretionary – are usually among the first to get slashed, even before market research and R&D. The irony is that because so many firms cut their advertising budgets, advertising costs tend to fall during recessions – meaning that the few companies that advertise aggressively get much more attention at a significantly reduced price.
This increased attention at relatively low cost can be a powerful tool, as P&G again found during the Depression. Seeing an opportunity to reach its core customers – then referred to as “housewives” – by advertising on radio, the company launched the first daytime serial radio program in 1933, a genre that became known as “soap operas,” since P&G was advertising soap. Today, when competitors start to spend and try to catch up as better times return, it is either too late or very expensive.
3. Invest in people. Retaining the best talent will become an even bigger challenge as slow growth limits career advancement opportunities. It is important to actively manage the attrition of lower-performing employees in order to ensure that there are career opportunities for the most talented people. In the 1930s, leaders focused on securing jobs for the most skilled workers, mainly by reducing the number of working hours and, when necessary, shifting high-skilled labor to lower-skilled jobs to keep them on the payroll. They also added social benefits that in part compensated for lower wages. Today’s leaders will have to come up with innovative approaches that address not only compensation and advancement, but also solutions for issues as work-life balance and changing demographics.
4. Invest in the future through opportunistic mergers and acquisitions and strategic investments. A Boston Consulting Group study found that M&A deals completed during downturns – when premiums are lower and opportunities richer – outperform those completed during upturns by an average of 14 percentage points, relative to total shareholder return. To expand its leadership in the soap market, Procter & Gamble acquired 12 brands during the 1920s; it was preparing for more acquisitions when the Depression hit. Rather than abandon its plans, P&G pushed ahead – acquiring additional brands in the United States, Britain, France and Japan. P&G introduced more successful products during the 1930s than in the previous or subsequent decades.
DuPont followed a somewhat different path. With many of its suppliers failing, the company was faced with possible shortages of raw material. So it purchased one of the suppliers facing bankruptcy. This acquisition not only helped DuPont secure the raw materials it needed, it also provided DuPont with a range of specialized chemicals that enabled it to enter new markets — electroplating, refrigeration, bleaching, disinfectants and pesticides.
5. Employ game-changing strategies. With customers trading down and businesses cutting back, now might be the right time to develop a low-cost business model. It also might be the time to shift from selling products to selling services, or outcomes. Or a time to reinvent the business. IBM’s offer to lease accounting machines during the Depression was a game changer, reducing customers’ up-front capital expenditures, while building the customer base. To make the leasing business work, however, IBM had to develop an entirely new cash-flow equation, a different pricing and sales process (which involved making money on the machine card stock – rather like printer peripherals today), and a different approach to residual value and inventory management.
6. Be a leader. Successful leaders during the 1930s put significant emphasis on being visible to people at all levels in their companies. Richard Deupree of P&G spent significant time ensuring that employees understood the challenges facing the company and the approaches being taken to solve them. In tough times, employees are hungry for information and leadership. In an information vacuum, they will connect the dots in the worst ways imaginable.
Leaders set clear expectations. They mobilize the extended leadership team. They keep it real. And they drive results. Motivating the organization when tough decisions have to be made will require a well-balanced approach. Initiatives need clearly established milestones and metrics—and unambiguous ownership. Leaders need to track progress rigorously against those metrics and milestones, intervene when necessary, and communicate any changes in direction. Leaders also need to celebrate success and recognize team members who achieve the best results.
7. Go on the offensive. Invest in success. We know times have been tough, but the best time to go on the offensive is when your competitors are weak. Consider IBM. During the Great Depression, business machine production fell precipitously, declining 60 percent from 1929 to 1932. At the time, IBM was a small player in the industry. But CEO Thomas B. Watson was convinced of two things: that the industry had a strong future, and that companies that were cash-strapped would turn to automation for cost savings.
Instead of cutting back, as most of its competitors did, IBM accelerated the development of a new, state-of-the-art accounting machine, launching it in 1930 (and a scaled-back, less-expensive model a year later). Starting in 1932, IBM committed 6 percent of total revenue to R&D and built America’s first corporate research laboratory. The company also added leasing to its arsenal, in turn adding legions of new customers who needed, but couldn’t afford to purchase machines. The investments paid off. During the 1930s, IBM launched three times as many products as it had in the previous decade. These and other Depression-era decisions gave the company a decisive, long-lasting advantage over its competitors. Its revenues doubled between 1928 and 1938, while industry revenues overall declined 2 percent. By 1938, IBM had leapfrogged from a distant fourth place in the business-machine industry to a close second, behind the now virtually forgotten Remington Rand.
Management teams are acutely aware of the increased pressure that comes with an economic slowdown. If anything, however, this reinforces defensive tendencies and promotes a mindset inclined to explain why growth is hard to achieve—rather than an attitude of actively seeking growth and a disproportionate share of the market.
This “crisis mode” reinforces attitudes that impede growth even in normal times. These attitudes promote a risk-averse culture that increases in parallel with the increasing cost of failure for any individual. Such attitudes also slow down decision making as managers seek extra reassurance before taking action and make leaders more reluctant to empower their top managers.
So then, how can companies overcome these obstacles? Strong leadership—which creates a climate in which the risk of failure does not overwhelm real opportunities—obviously helps. Even when funds are short, it is important to allow, and even encourage, experiments and pilot programs. Keep in mind that every dollar invested has even more impact as the competition scales back. The difference between success and failure, even in the best of times, often depends on knowledge. How well does the company understand the potential of new markets for existing products? Does the company understand how the recession has affected customers? Do recent economic developments and the emergence of a “new normal” mean it’s time to challenge the conventional industry wisdom and elements of business economics? Remember, the simple act of challenging business economics has led to innovative business models such as low-cost airlines, overnight delivery and online sales.
The Great Recession may be over, but an era of slow growth has begun and the new realities of business life have started to emerge. As with other major crises, the fallout from the Great Recession—and the financial meltdown that preceded it—will influence the global economy and the way business is done for decades.
But this is not necessarily bad news for all companies. Companies and their leaders will have to get used to heightened competition. Those who take the initiative, respond decisively to the challenge, differentiate themselves from less fleet-footed competitors, and execute their strategies with single-minded determination can still expect to grow. For those companies, the Great Recession and its new realities present a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The secret behind effective online learning is to be interactive & keep the participants/audience engaged. Learning is a life long process which starts as soon as a child born into this world. Here’s a question, do you think how you approached learning as a child is the same as how you approach it now? No, of course not! Learning as a child and learning as an adult are two very different things, which is why we have two different terms for them – ‘pedagogy’ and ‘andragogy’. However, andragogy or adult learning principles are the foundations for an effective corporate online training design.
And why does it matter?
Teaching children is very different from teaching adults. For starters, children are free of pre-conceived ideas and prejudices which make them more open to learning. They are also curious to constantly learn new things, no matter how useful or practical.
Adults on the other hand, are selective about what they want to learn; their learning not driven by curiosity as much as by utility. And most importantly, adults already have years of experience and knowledge that shapes their perspectives and hence are not as open to learning as children.
All these characteristics of adults come into play during training. Understanding adult habits and expectations is the first step toward designing a successful adult learning program.
5 Principles of Adult Learning that your Online Training Needs to Address
1. The Need to Know – the ‘Why’ of Learning Do you remember your school years?
There were so many subjects to study – math, biology, history, language, and literature. And yet, we never really questioned why we had to learn everything, did we? After all, we were exploring our options then, learning anything and everything just because we are told that they will be of some relevance to us in the future. (Even thought I still can’t figure out how the endless torture of calculus is of any use to me.) But as adults, we don’t learn simply because we are told to, we learn only when we want to. Adult learning is not so much about exploring as it is about, ‘Why is this important?’ or ‘How will this knowledge benefit me?’ Corporate training is even more specific. Workplace learning is not implemented just for the sake of learning but because it serves to hone employees’ job skills. So, the first and most important rule for an engaging and effective online training program is to answer this simple question for learners – “What’s in it for me?” The best way to go about that is through SMART Performance-based Learning Objectives that inform learners what will be able to do (perform) after they finish a given course. Learning objectives need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Sounds complicated? Let’s simplify this. Specific: Learning objective should give precise and clear information on what the learner will be able to do by the end of the course. Measurable: Learning objectives need to focus on actionable results which can be observed and measured. Achievable: Learning objectives should be realistic and attainable. Relevant: Learning objectives should be relevant to the course content as well as to the learner’s job requirement. Time-bound: Learning objectives should convey the time frame in which the job needs to be done.
2. The Need for Self-directed Learning As we discussed earlier, teaching children is all about encouraging them to explore; to nurture their natural curiosity and find different and unique ways of gaining knowledge. But this exploration can’t be completely without direction – which is why children need hand holding and later as young adults, they are directed by academic curriculums and canons. But adults don’t – they prefer to walk their own road. Adult learning is most successful when it is self-directed and not forced. This self-directed learning can be driven by either interest or utility; but the reins need to be in the learner’s hands. How can your employee training be self-directed? Well…here are your answers. With the world becoming more and more digital, the line between work and personal life is getting blurred. And with the mobile revolution, accessing information has never been easier. Today’s employees prefer learning that can be accessed anytime and anywhere they want based on their convenience. With mobile learning, learners can take control of the ‘where’ and ‘when’ of their own training. Another way through which you can facilitate self-directed learning is through a learner-friendly GUI and free navigation. This will free learners from the restrictions of taking the course/module in the order dictated by the trainer. While some eLearning compliance courses are mandatory, you can always keep your course library open for employees who seek to take courses based on their interests.
3. The Need to Connect New Information with Existing Learning John Locke, the famous sixteenth century English philosopher, talks about the ‘theory of tabula rasa’ in his ‘An Essay Concerning Human Understanding’. Tabula Rasa is Latin for a ‘clean slate’. According to this theory, the mind is like a clean slate at birth. When we learn as children, we do not have any pre-conceived notions of the world, or experiences which can influence our understanding. Hence learning is easy to absorb and doesn’t need much reflection or connection. However, learning as an adult is a completely different experience. Adults are by no means blank slates. They are the product of their education, environment, nature, and experiences. These factors influence our ability to learn. That is why connecting new information to prior knowledge is so important. Without building such connections, learning will become a fragmented process. There are many ways of connecting new information to previous knowledge within online training. Pre-assessments give learners an opportunity to recap what was already learned and check how much of it they remember. Refresher courses allow learners to reinforce learning after a long gap and help them beat the forgetting curve. You can also help learners connect between new information with previous training by maintaining a chronology and uniformity in training content.
4. The Need for a Problem-solving Approach We have already established that adult learning is driven by utility and that adults need to connect new information with existing knowledge. The fourth principle of andragogy is based on these two concepts. What drives adult learning more than anything else is a need to solve problems. To learn how to solve job-related problems, learners need to connect information gained from training to real-life applications. Online training is deemed successful only when employees can translate knowledge to job-skills. There is growing discussion within L&D on how learning processes can be made more experiential where learners don’t just passively gain information but actively experience learning. Here are a few instructional design strategies which can make that happen. Case studies: Learners are given a real-life/fictional problem. They get to understand the cause of the problem, how it will affect their work, and how to solve it. Branching Scenarios: Learners are presented with a scenario where they have to make key decisions, each decision followed by a specific consequence. This way employees will learn how their actions can have consequences. Simulations: eLearning courses are designed to mimic job environments and conditions to give learners an opportunity to learn, explore and practice in life-like situations.
5. The Need for Rewards and Motivators People often talk about how there is no reward without work. True! But the opposite is also true. The promise of reward is what drives most people to work harder. This is especially seen in adult learners in a corporate training setting. Friendly competition among peers and the gratification of winning is often the best motivator for employees to finish training with flying colors. Gamification elements in online training like reward points, leaderboards, scores and levels, as well as the good old incentives of bonuses and promotions increase employees’ self-esteem, influence, and growth.
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