Reports from Training 2010

I am at Training 2010 in San Diego this week.  The next few posts will be from this conference.  Not all coherent, I am sure, but rather in not fashion.

Tom Stone’s “Overcoming Obstacles and Objections to the Use of Web 2.0 in Organizations.”   I have loved Tom’s sessions at other conferences and expect this will be great as well.

Obstacles and Objections:

Culture & Change issues

Productivity concerns

Connection with L&D

Purpose issues

Control issues

Measurement issues

Technology issues

He is providing ‘advanced common sense.’  I love that.  That is so true.  Sometimes in new situations it is hard to use old common sense – but it still applies.

“Culture eats strategy for lunch.”  You can have the best plans possible, but if your culture is not ready, it won’t go as planned.

1)   “Our overall org culture is not ready”

You are behind – sort of.  Because these are not new technologies (10+ years old some of them) but not many orgs are not up on this.

Use each tool where appropriate – he skipped over this point because of sake of time, but this is SO HUGE!

2) “Change will be slow.  How can we speed up transitioning to Web 2.0?”

Do a pilot – give more people a real experience and get an early win. (See the webinar later this week on how to roll out).

Seed content and retire old tools.  Tom had great success with this at ElementK.  In fact he uses the word ‘force.’  Force indeed.

Get those who might be strong into other tools or methodologies into this early and get them to be champions.

3)   “Our people aren’t techies”  They won’t understand how to use it…”

Create training classes on how to use it.

It is new, but it isn’t hard.

4) “Nothing major happens without key decision makers championing it, and our leaders aren’t Web 2.0 people”

Is it really true that nothing happens without them?  Question that.

Fear factor: Show them what your competitors are doing with Web 2.0 / Social Media.

Find case studies that show the likely benefits.

USE IT YOURSELF – I can’t stress this enough!  Tom is so right here.  If you are not a prolific user, how can you explain it?

5)   “Our younger workers will get it, but what about our older staff?”

Conduct a Boomer Survey for their insights and concerns.  Really, get to know what they think.  Include them.

He failed to point out that these tools are age agnostic when you integrate them into work processes.  I have found that the age factor doesn’t matter much in the end.  Sure, they may gripe more, but if they find it useful, they use it.  Read “Diffusion of Innovation”  In the first few pages it gives 5 ways adoption happens for anything.  Age is not one of those factors.

6)   “Using Web 2.0 is a time waster”

Personally, I hate this objection because it is so shortsighted.

Tom says that it is their work ethic.  Agreed.  If they were wasting time before, they will now.  If not before, they won’t now.  Tom’s slide says, “People are too busy to waste time – or should be!”  Amen.

Tom points out that a lot of this is replacing, not adding to their work.

7)   “Web 2.0 tools will produce too much info…”

Define your scope (Excellent). Be specific in your topics, initiatives and define scope closely.

He didn’t mention that this information can be found and delivered to me by person or topic.  Right now EVERYTHING gets pushed to us.  So using the new tools with the old paradigm is wrong.  It won’t work the same.

8)   Web 2.0 is very different than training.  What are they good for?”

There is a need for ILT, eLearning and this as well.  Focus ratios will change, but we will need all of it.

He points out (correctly) that training is a subset of learning.  “You need to stop thinking in terms of training only.”  !!!!!!

Not meant to replace formal training and supplement, not replace.

9)   “What about the traditional roles in L&D of trainers, ID & SMEs?”

We will have a need for all of them.  It will just shift the mix.

10)  “We intended it for purpose X but they use it for purpose Y”

‘”Be glad that you have found the  more valuable use!”

After, validate that there is still a need for the original purpose and build another plan.  But don’t shut down if they are using it.

11)   “We already tried it and it didn’t work”

See THIS post.

Basically, he says to find out why it didn’t work.  Poor communication? Poor purpose? Did you reward and incent?

Me: Actually, the more prevalent case is that they have not tried this exactly, they have tried other things, like a KM software and it didn’t work.  That jumps into another full session.

Not many have tried this and have completely failed.  They may not have been as widely successful as you thought, but few totally fail

Then he goes through a list of business goals and technologies to consider.  Great list.

12) “Who can create content”

Do not allow anonymous.  Tom talks about limiting initially to a number of people or certain people.  I don’t agree with this.  If you do, you are limiting access.

13)   “Will we allow people to post just anything?”

Actually, yes.  “Be clear regarding scope, and don’t allow sensitive information to be posted.”

14)  “How do we know the information created will be accurate?”

Do you trust people to use email properly?  Same thing here.

A lot of information is experience.  Capture that!

15) “How will employees know what is appropriate to post and what isn’t?”

Do they know that in emails?

16)   “What about user generated content behind discoverable for legal proceedings?”

“Same issue for existing tools, right?”

Easy to roll back changes.  Archive.  Flag content.  More visibility so now you know what is going on – more visibility into that,.

Clearly indicate disclaimers.

17)   “ROI”

He points out the 90/9/1 rule and applies it to the organization.  But I say that is wrong within organizations.  It is fine for outside, but not for internal orgs.  If you scope it correctly and integrate into how they work, it can be MUCH higher.

18)  “ROI for learning” specifically

Point to case studies.  Prove the value!  Look to competitors. Change in time for onboarding, change in training costs.  Speak in their language.

19)  “What kinds of security constraints will we have?”

Authentication, Authorization.

20)  “Should all tools be from the same platform?”

What are your integration goals?

If you would like is slides, feel free to email him.  Or better yet, ask him on Twitter