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summits
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11-13 April 2010
Château Élan Winery & Resort, Braselton, GA, USA |
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Arthur Paton Interview
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Changing demographics and emerging innovative technologies are redesigning learning and development programs in the corporate world. Chief Learning Officers (CLOs) today are able to utilize social networking sites, online forums of experts and the new generation of hand-held devices to transform the corporate learning experience and prepare more dynamic leaders to drive their organization forward in the 21st century. The challenge for CLOs however is that learning will need to be re-purposed or re-packaged for the new environment, Arthur Paton, Senior Learning Officer at the Motorola University maintains. Paton, a speaker at the marcus evans Chief Learning Officer Summit 2010 taking place in Georgia, April 11-13, 2010, shares his thoughts on e-learning, leadership development and long-term strategies for learning, training and development management. What are some of the challenges facing organizations today and what solutions could Chief Learning Officers provide? Arthur Paton: CLOs are facing lowered budgets, with many organizations having reduced their expenditure for training departments and resources. There has been additional outsourcing of workforce to other countries, therefore CLOs need to produce learning programs to maintain or develop the workforce in global locations at a much lower cost than before. In many cases these challenges have been met by non-classroom training, such as e-learning, computer based training and live seminars over the internet at various times of the day. With synchronous virtual presentations, people have the ability to ask questions to the presenter. These methodologies have tended to lower costs. E-learning can be created from many sources and enables people to learn at a time convenient for them. We have also seen the rise of social networking as a learning tool - social networking is familiar to most people in the form of Twitter, blogs, communities and forums and at Motorola we have leveraged those for business processes. These tools are also asynchronous and allow collaborative creation of new processes, methods and tools by a group that is not co-located. People can exchange information and receive knowledge. What is your outlook for the year? What trends or technologies do you see playing out, and how can CLOs get ready for those changes? Arthur Paton: One of the largest changes that will take place in the coming years is the emergence of additional delivery technologies. Over the last few years we have seen migration of learning to laptops or desktops, and we are seeing the beginnings of a migration of learning to hand-held devices. Mobile learning is a rapidly growing delivery methodology because of its convenience. This year we will see the release of a number of tablet computing systems and netbooks, which will enable a much more portable, user friendly and richer learning environment than a cell phone screen. The demographics in most companies are changing rapidly – the workforce is becoming more diverse and younger, and these individuals have different modes of learning. Many come from cultures that are more communal in learning. Therefore, we believe that social networking tools will continue to be a primary delivery methodology. The challenge for CLOs is that learning will need to be re-purposed or packaged into smaller nuggets for this new environment. Think of a Google search when you need an answer to a question – this new demographic is going to expect learning to operate like that. How can CLOs make the most of available funds, whilst also maximizing employee performance? Arthur Paton: This is always a challenge but it depends on the business model the organization has for its learning function. Some have an allocation from the business divisions and senior level methodology to prioritize the use of those funds. In that sense a lot of the decision making is out of the hands of the organization, and in the hands of the various business functions where it belongs; they have much more expertise in defining the business priorities. None of the business models in organizations I am aware of today are adequate for providing learning and development needed by the population. Thus the CLO has to ensure the senior leadership team of the organization is aware of the capability of their workforce today and what the capability will need to be in the future, so that they can influence budgeting decisions year-on-year. What long-term strategies in learning, training and development management would you recommend to CLOs? Arthur Paton: From our experience there is a set of learning and development solutions that cannot be outsourced easily. Internal processes, methods and tools that are proprietary to the organization cannot be sourced off the shelf, and in many cases it would not be strategically smart to do that. There is an undercurrent of new processes that normally arise from the day-to-day changes that all organizations implement which continually create a need for learning and development for those using them. Strategically this is what keeps the organization running. It is also difficult for consulting or outsourced organizations to address the senior leaders’ strategic level discussions of where the company is going. One of the controversial things in learning and development for a long time now, has been the measurement of learning results. In our experience, the best place to define the business impact of a learning solution is at the initial discussion with the sponsor - what they expect to change, what it would look like to them if it had changed, and what measurement solutions they would use to understand the difference taking place. These discussions help build a relationship with the sponsor. One of the future strategies for organizations in learning is to move learning from the learning management system into knowledge communities. We have started this effort at Motorola by placing some of the key processes and methods of information into such communities, all managed by experts on that topic. The implication for learning organizations is that rather than being the keepers of learning, they become internal consultants on the development of solutions. This may sound familiar to people who believe they are operating in that mode already but traditional e-learning organizations have gone to experts, captured expertise, hidden it in a binder in the learning management system and offered as classes at inconvenient times. This no longer make sense to me or to others in learning. We think that the experts should be the keepers of the learning, developing it in partnership with the learning organization. Strategically, the best way is for the organization to be the internal expert or consultant on the best way to provide learning solutions for any given topic, but communities of experts should maintain and update that knowledge as needed.
This unique forum will take place at the Château Élan Winery & Resort, Braselton, Georgia, April 11-13, 2010. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The summit includes presentations on learning best practices, keeping with technologies and re-skilling trainers to meet multi-learning styles. For more information please send an email to info@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website Please note that the summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.
marcus evans Summits are high level business forums for the world’s leading decision-makers to meet, learn and discuss strategies and solutions. Held at exclusive locations around the world, these events provide attendees with a unique opportunity to individually tailor their schedules of keynote presentations, think tanks, seminars and one-on-one business meetings. For more information, please visit www.marcusevans.com All rights reserved. The above content may be republished or reproduced – kindly inform us by sending an email to press@marcusevanscy.com |
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