Clayton M. Christensen’s book The Innovator’s Solution (published by Harvard Business School) reveals some astonishing insights into the fragility of success. Being bigger, it seems, it not always better.
Examining the companies that appeared on Fortune’s “50 Largest” list between 1955 and 1995, Christensen points out that 95% saw their growth rates stall to the level of general GNP or lower. Of these “stalled” companies, only 4 percent successfully rose to a level even one point higher than GNP subsequently.
It seems that companies become victims of their own success. Too often – almost inevitably – they reach a certain size beyond which they are unable to innovate and grow.
What does this have to do with learning? Everything.
The FIFA Soccer World Cup is already a distant memory. Yet, although it may be over, the competition taught us two valuable lessons. One is that beautiful football can still win games. The other is that technological solutions are never implemented for their own sake. However smart the technology, in the end its use always stands or falls on a business argument.
Fans have long appealed for the use of technology in football to aid the referee’s decision making, and these appeals reached fever pitch in two matches in the World Cup. Fortunately, England’s 4-1 loss to Germany was probably not altered by the referee failing to see that Frank Lampard’s shot had crossed the line. Nor did the fact that officials missed numerous fouls in the Dutch-Spanish final affect the result.
If either match had ended differently, the calls for technology to be used in high-value games would have been even higher. The technology surely sells itself – already used in tennis and rugby, reliable technology support for referees’ decisions seems eminently sensible. Yet the governing body FIFA had refused to consider any form of aid for the referee before the World Cup, and adamantly stuck to this refusal immediately after them.
We recently presented our perspective on mobile learning at mLearnCon in San Diego. The main theme communicated was that mLearning should NOT be the act of transporting e-learning from a desktop to a smart phone. The golden rule we follow at CERTPOINT, is to leverage new technologies, such as the smart phone, for what they are good at. As we look ahead at M-Learning, the approach to content must change.
What is mLearning good for? A recent IBM study published in Training and Development Magazine gives us a clue. In 2009, IBM conducted a study to examine how its employees used their smart phones for their jobs and for skills growth. What they were surprised to find out was that mobile users rejected “e-Learning” delivered via their mobile phones and instead used their devices for job related support and access to late breaking information. As a result of the study, IBM shifted its focus for mobile learning from delivering formal learning modules to just-in-time performance support systems.
How can you get your voice heard and raise support for innovative learning approaches? With budgets tighter than ever, it’s a question facing everyone in L&D right now.
Laura Overton of Towards Maturity thinks she may have the answer.
At a recent CERTPOINT Virtual User Forum, Laura outlined her top tips for increasing the effectiveness of elearning. Her crucial point: you need to get managers on board.
Why is management support so important? Simple. In Laura’s extensive research over several years and across hundreds of organizations, one statistic stands out: 55% of learners say their line manager’s opinion influences their take up of elearning.
In other words, if you don’t have the managers on board, no matter how good everything else is, your learning program is likely to fail.
So just how do you get managers’ attention?
While the world waits for the football world cup to begin in South Africa on June 11th, learning professionals will gather in London on June 8th for an event that is just as significant (well, we think so anyway). The Learning and Skills Group Members’ Conference will be the meeting point for over 400 L&D professionals and once again CERTPOINT is proud to be a sponsor.
Times are hard – and that makes it a good time for L&D professionals to meet. They are under increasing pressure to do more with less. At times like these, contemplating our next step is often best done together.
As well as sharing their professional experience with each other, delegates will have the chance to listen to great names from the learning industry such as Jay Cross, Patrick Dunn, Jane Hart, Charles Jennings, Laura Overton, Nigel Paine, Donald H Taylor, Julie Wedgwood, and many others.
Not all learning takes place at the desk or even in the workplace.
To experience the lighter – and tastier – side of learning, CERTPOINT Systems recently hosted “The CERTPOINT Cooking Experience” at the Epicurean School of Culinary Arts in Anaheim, CA. A range of CERTPOINT clients came along to hone their cooking skills.
It was all part of their personal development efforts, of course.
A professional chef
guided participants through various Italian recipes, as they worked at nine different cooking stations creating everything from scratch. And I mean everything: Dough for the pizza, croutons for the Caesar salad, even the Vanilla Bean ice cream as a topping for the Chocolate soufflé. Kudos to the team that tenderized the chicken for the Chicken Piccata.
The culmination: Eating it all as we sat listening to “L’italiano “ by Toto Cutugno, and being pleasantly surprised that everything tasted so good. We complimented the chef instructor on her ability to guide the team through this complex process. She smiled, and graciously revealed that the secret to a good meal was “top quality ingredients”.
The bad news? Realizing I would be grounded for at least six days in Europe, so missing my son’s debut as the lead in Beauty and the Beast. The not so bad news? Although I am 4,000 miles from New York, I am stuck in beautiful Paris!
This trip was different. It was to be a short business trip – a few days of meeting clients before heading back to CERTPOINT’s New York headquarters. For the first time, I left my laptop at home. Instead, I decided to give my brand new iPad a road test.
And as my only device for running a global firm on, that iPad has had plenty of testing over the past few days.
The verdict?
The iPad passed with flying colors. Although I wish it had this feature and that feature, the bottom line is this: the iPad is a game changer. I believe it will change the concept of personal computing for ever – making the standard laptop a dinosaur.
Right now things are changing fast in the world of learning technologies. At a time when learning and development departments are increasingly told to do more with less, that could sound like bad news. When you are focused on working harder and improving efficiency, you have less time for planning and contemplating the big picture.
To take some of the load off for you, at CERTPOINT Systems we’ve identified what we think are the three key learning technologies issues that should be on your radar, three areas where L&D must prove itself over the next 12-18 months:
• Social learning
• Mobile technology
• Budgets, value and alignment
Are these threats or potential opportunities for L&D? Our free white paper suggests practical ways to make the most of these trends within your organisation. In fact, at a time when L&D is under more pressure than ever before, the potential offered by exploiting these trends is huge.
What do you use your Learning Management System for?
If your LMS is just a vehicle for delivering e-learning courses, you may be missing a trick. That was Catherine Farrar’s message on yesterday’s CERTPOINT User Forum.
Catherine is Black & Decker’s National Learning Technologies Manager, and over a one-hour online session, she explained how the power tools manufacturer gets the most from its Learning Management System. It has been using the same LMS – CERTPOINTVLS – for 10 years, to deliver true blended learning.
How does their model work?
How do you make the most of the learning tools you have in-house?
It’s a question on the minds of many Learning and Development professionals right now, as tough economic conditions are focusing minds on results.VQT3VRG9UCTZ
There are no easy answers, but one approach is definitely to make the most of what you already have. That’s what Black & Decker is doing. The power tools manufacturer is still finding new ways to deliver value from its Learning Management System (LMS) after 10 years.
We’ll be hosting Black & Decker’s National Learning Technologies Manager Catherine Farrar at our next webinar on March 11th, as she discusses how Black & Decker’s L&D team are expanding their range of activities even in these tough times.
About CERTPOINT
read more ...
-
Fluid communication, large organizations
08-17-2010 -
FIFA and winning the argument for elearn
07-26-2010 -
Lessons on mobile learning from mLearnCo
07-7-2010 -
Tricks for grabbing management attention
06-9-2010
