This was released by ASTD recently:   http://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/66C9F457-69D7-44FA-B60C-9D6FFE438DB1/0/LTETpressreleasefinal.pdf 

The net of it is that economic pressures are driving more organizations towards e-learning.  Not really shocking news, but certainly a pertinent point.  That is, the whole purpose of technology is to enable efficiencies.  The whole purpose of learning is knowledge transfer.  To the degree technology can enable more efficient knowledge transfer; e-learning and the wide variety of forms it takes make sense.  When learning ceases to occur, so should the the focus on technology.  Efficient ineffectiveness doesn’t really get us anywhere.

In this economy (or any brighter one), every learning organization should be looking at how to use technology to drive knowledge transfer more efficiently…and hopefully more effectively too.

Early on in our business we learned that we were located in a “HUBZone” or Historically Underutilized Business Zone…doesn’t mean much to you?  It didn’t to us either.  But as we grow in our work with the federal government, we’ve begun to realize what it’s all about. 

HUBZones, or “historically underutilized business zones”, are regions designated by the SBA that the federal government is interested in investing in order to help foster greater community and residential growth.    There are many HUBZone areas throughout the country and nearly every metropolitan area has some segment of it designated as a HUBZone – and some rural areas are as well.  Because of the government’s interest in driving growth in these areas, a certified HUBZone company has competitive advantages in pursuing contracts with the federal government.  In fact, a certain percentage of business is targeted to be set aside for HUBZone certified companies. 

To be certified, you must be located in a HUBZone and TiER1 is.  You must also have a certain percentage of employees living in a HUBZone.  We have decided to make a strategic commitment to this program; we think the program is great as it allows us to continue our investment in our community and help attract outside investment (by way of government contracts) to help build up those around us. 

To acquire the certification we have set up a new legal entity, TiER1 Government Solutions.  TiER1 Government Solutions will be our “sister” company that specializes in HUBZone contracts and helps grow this segment of our business.  We’re excited about the impact this will have both on our ability to create learning and knowledge oriented solutions for the government and to continue to attract investment to the Covington area.

So we’ve got some of our best clients and best friends getting together for a little discussion on learning (our “learning roundtable”) in the morning, followed by some horseracing and, well, fun, in the afternoon.  Come join us!

A good week for TiER1 in the government sector…we got verbal approval on a couple of new deals with the department of defense and doors opened for a couple of others.  Whether it’s the aging workforce or movement of functions from one base to another due to the BRAC, knowledge transfer is the theme and it’s something we’re getting pretty good at.  Lots of solutions for us here, and lots more work to come.  If you know of anyone who fits the bill (instructional designers, technical writers, Creatives, knowledge management specialists), turn them our way, we’re going to continue to grow.

I just returned from Boston where I spent time with a leading health care organization.  It’s the third time in the past three weeks where discussions centered on mapping career growth for individuals and aligning training with competencies. 

While competency management is by no means new, we’re finding renewed interest in it for a number of reasons.  One reason is that organizations are realizing they are going to be faced with an exodus of significant knowledge in coming years due to the demographic shift and baby boomers leaving the workforce.  That’s going to drive a need for greater organization when it comes to developing the people who can take their place.  Another reason is that workers have much more mobility – you may only have people for a limited part of their career and the ability to quickly identify their competencies, address deficiencies, and align to their strengths will be critical in maximizing the value you get from them in the time they are there.

A third reason we are seeing this interest is from an economic development perspective.  As we go through this significant economic shift and try to rebuild our economy people will need new skills to contribute to new jobs in new markets.  The markets we compete in economically are rapidly changing on us and the skills to serve those markets will as well.  As a result we’ll continue to see state and local governments pushing for greater coordination and alignment of jobs, skills, competencies and training.  Stay tuned.

We engage with many organizations on the topic of leadership development and it’s approached from a variety of perspectives. They range from the viewpoint of a discretionary training investment to a strategic imperative vital to the growth of the business.

What’s become very interesting to is how leadership manifests itself in the current economy…and what organizations are doing to implicitly develop the character of leaders during these times. We can teach people all day in a classroom what they should and shouldn’t do in various leadership situations. But difficult times challenge the character of any leader and that is where real leadership is learned.

The opportunities presented to us for leadership development in the current climate are unprecedented. But unfortunately most organizations will miss them. Those organizations that have a real commitment to their future and to building the leaders of tomorrow can leverage the current climate to define what their organization is about.

It’s interesting to take a look at the organizations (formal and informal) you’re a part of and ask the question of how future leadership is being developed and defined through the events of the current economic climate.  The future cultures and character of organizations are being defined every day.

We deal with lots of forms of knowledge transfer.  Our classic forms of ILT, e-Learning and other types of performance support are great formats for delivering structured knowledge to meet well-defined objectives.  That said, peer groups formed to facilitate learning and knowledge sharing are a method that has tremendous value.

For the past two years I’ve facilitated a monthly roundtable of small business owners in a peer-based learning format and the power of the approach is pretty significant.  First, it allows for more real-time learning to occur since participants can address specific issues or areas of business that they need more knowledge on at the given time.  Second, it allows learners to learn from other practitioners, people dealing with very real challenges similar to their own.  Third, the format allows for a great deal of reflection; often we know how to solve our own issues, we just need a forum for working through them.  Finally, it relies heavily on a tried and true method of story-based or experiential learning.

Heare are some suggestions for running an effective peer learning group:

1. Develop a format for identifying issues and topics for discussion.  Our format includes a brief update from each participant where topics and current issues are put on a white board and then prioritized for discussion.
2. Develop a format for addressing topics or issues.  This can include a limited presentation by one member; question and answer sessions; experience sharing; a “lightning round” to share best practices; or other structured techniques that draw participation and balance the discussion.
3. Use a timekeeper to structure discussions.  After a format or structure has been identified, develop time guidelines to keep participants from dominating a discussion.
4. Focus on experiences.  The sharing of experiences and stories drives a great deal of learning.  It causes other participants to reflect on their own situations and to re-apply lessons and ideas to their own world.  Ultimately the transfer of ideas and concepts from one context to another drives both learning and innovation.
5. Hold each other accountable to discussions and actions.
6. Develop a plan for subsequent meetings and topics.
7. Monitor the health of the group.  Keeping a peer group vibrant and growing is important to foster continued learning.

Ultimately one of the best ways to develop yourself personally and professionally is by learning from peers.  Whether it’s in a formal setting as outlined here, or informally by networking with peers in your field and drawing on their thoughts, ideas and experiences, peer-based learning is an invaluable (and also cost effective) way to continue your own development.

Who’s the Customer?

Ultimately all business transactions are about the exchange of value. A vendor provides a service or product of value to an organization who ultimately adds value to it, creates something else of value and passes it on to another organization until ultimately a “consumer” receives value…which is the ultimate end of the value chain. Or is it the beginning? Since that consumer also, presumably, is a producer of value exchanging their knowledge and/or labor to some company that gets value from it in exchange for cash. And in this virtuous cycle lies a constant exchange of value where money is the arbitrary medium used to quantify the value created.

So ultimately it begs the question of who really is the customer? In a barter economy, both parties were clearly customers – each producing products of value to each other and exchanging them, possibly just to be exchanged with someone else for something else of value. Money helps reduce the friction of an economy allowing us to exchange more goods and services for more goods and services. So why, in today’s economy, does the party providing the money constitute the role of customer?

In my opinion it doesn’t. Both parties in each exchange are customers of each other. Philosophically that means we have to treat vendors, suppliers, contractors and most certainly our own associates and employees as though they are our customers. They are all “buying money” and paying for it with their service…which we combine and turn into something more valuable for our clients. This mindset is critical and we see it every day in our own best clients. Those organizations – and individuals – who get that partnering together makes for the best outcome, that having an interest in each other’s success ultimately leads to the success of both of us, are the same ones that consistently have high performance and thrive in their own marketplace. It’s not a coincidence. Understanding that we are all part of a large value exchange and not in an isolated value stream that flows one direction, is critical to understanding how to succeed within it.

What does this have to do with knowledge? Ultimately learning and knowledge in business are contextual. Too often the learning processes of organizations are very disconnected from the functions that drive value. Ultimately learning and knowledge transfer in an organization are only worthwhile activities to the extent that they create value – for the organization’s customers by providing better products, better quality, etc. OR for the organization’s investors by providing more efficiency in the company and thus better return on the capital (i.e. “value”) they’ve exchanged with the company OR for the organization’s employees who are being compensated for the value they contribute both by the cash (salaries, bonuses, benefits etc. they receive) and by all the intangibles they receive…such as training, education, and personal development. In all of these cases learning and knowledge transfer are value-creating activities in a broader value-exchange. All of us are charged with understanding how what we do ultimately contributes value to others and also knowing how to appropriately quantify that value so we can invest in it appropriately.