Author: Todd Maddox

Key Stakeholders: Chief Learning Officers, Chief Human Resource Officers, Learning and Development Directors and Managers, Corporate Trainers, Content and Learning Product Managers

Key Takeaways:

• Learning & Development (L&D) vendors offer a number of amazing technologies but minimal, if any, scientifically-validated best practices to guide clients on what to use when. This is an oversight and one that can be remedied by leveraging learning science—the marriage of psychology and brain science.
• Even the vendors beginning to embrace brain science stop at the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and medial temporal lobe structures that have evolved for hard skills learning. This is unacceptable as vendors effectively ignore people (aka soft) skills and the emotional aspects of learning that are mediated by different brain regions with distinct processing characteristics.
• To close the adoption gap in learning technologies, L&D vendors must start to embrace all systems of learning in the brain, and customers must demand better guidance and scientifically-validated best practices.

Continue reading Why Corporate Learning Solutions Ignore Brain Science and Create Corporate Adoption Gaps

For release 830am May 28, 2018

For more information:

Hyoun Park	Steve Friedberg
Amalgam Insights	MMI Communications
hyoun@amalgaminsights.com	steve@amalgaminsights.com
415.754.9686	484.550.2900

AMALGAM INSIGHTS MEDIA ALERT:  Starbucks is closing its stores and doing awareness training for all of its employees this week.  Learning researcher asks, “Is it enough?”

WHAT:  Starbucks says it’s closing its 8,000 stores tomorrow, May 29, for what it calls “a conversation and learning session on race, bias and the building of a diverse welcoming company.”

Todd Maddox, Ph.D., an Amalgam Insights Learning Scientist/Research Fellow, applauds the company’s commitment to ongoing training, saying that approach may work, but warns that unless the training is continuous, Starbucks runs the risk of backsliding:

“My hope is that the company utilizes training content that focuses on true behavior change, as opposed to simply teaching people to identify inappropriate behavior. I also hope that Starbucks goes beyond training during the onboarding process, and incorporates it as a regular, ongoing part of employee training. The brain is hardwired to forget and requires refreshers to consolidate information in long-term memory.

“Just as sexual harassment prevention and many other people skills are about behavior, so is unconscious (racial) bias and all other aspects of appropriate interaction. People skills matter in all facets of society and corporate life. It is time to embrace the science of learning and work to address these shortcomings with effective training.”

 

WHO:  Todd Maddox, Ph.D. has more than 200 published articles, 10,000 citings, and $10 million in external research funding in his 25+ years researching the brain basis of behavior.  He’s been quoted in Forbes, CBS Radio, Training Journal, Chief Learning Officer, and other publications on topics such as the use of virtual reality in workplace sexual harassment avoidance training.

 

Todd’s available for comment on this or other topics; if you’d like to speak with him, please contact steve@amalgaminsights.com.

 

Key Stakeholders: IT Managers, IT Directors, Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, Chief Digital Officers, IT Governance Managers, and IT Project and Portfolio Managers.

Top Takeaways: Information technology is innovating at an amazing pace. These technologies hold the promise of increased effectiveness, efficiency and profits. Unfortunately, the training tools developed to onboard users are often constructed as an afterthought and are ineffective. Technologies with great potential are underutilized because they are poorly trained. Learning scientists can remedy this problem and can help IT professional build effective training tools. Onboarding will become more efficient, and profits will follow in short order.

IT Onboarding Has an Adoption Problem

In my lifetime I have seen a number of amazing new technologies emerge. I remember the first handheld calculators and the first “flip” phones. Fast forward to 2018 and the majority of Americans now carry some of the most sophisticated technology that exists in their palm.

In the corporate world technology is everywhere. Old technologies are being updated regularly, and new innovative, disruptive technologies are being created every day. With every update or new technology comes a major challenge that is being poorly addressed.

How do we get users to adopt the technology, and to use it efficiently and effectively?

This is a problem in training. As a learning scientist I find it remarkable that so much time and money is allocated to developing these amazing technologies, but training is treated as an afterthought. This is a recipe for poor adoption, underutilization of these powerful tools, and reduced profits.

The IT Onboarding Issue

I experienced this dozens of times in my 25-year career as a University Professor. I routinely received emails outlining in excruciating detail a new set of rules, regulations or policies. The email would be laced with threats for non-compliance, but poorly designed instructions on how to obtain compliance. The usual approach was to ignore the instructions in the email and instead to use the grapevine to identify which buttons to click, and in what order to achieve compliance. I also received emails explaining (again usually in excruciating detail) how a new version of an existing software has changed, or how some new technology was going to be unveiled that would replace a tool that I currently used. I was provided with a schedule of “training workshops” to attend, or a link to some unintelligible “training manual”. I either found a way to use the old technology in secret, made a formal request to continue to use the “old” technology to avoid having to learn the new technology, or I asked the “tech” guy to come to my office and show me how to do the 5 things that I needed the new technology to do. I would take copious notes and save them for future reference.

If I got an email detailing a new technology that did not affect my current system, I deleted it with relief.

My story is common, it suggests a broken and ineffective system, and it all centered around the lack of quality training.

This is not restricted to the University setting. I have a colleague who builds mobile apps for large pharmacy chains. The mobile app reminds patients to refill prescriptions, allows pharmacists to adjust prescriptions, and several other features. It is a great offering and adds value for his clients. As with most IT, he rolls out a new release every few months. His main struggles are determining what features to improve, what new features to add, and how to effectively onboard users.

He gets some guidance on how to improve an existing feature, or what new features to add, but he often complains that these suggestions sound more like a client’s personal preference and are not driven by objectively-determined customer needs. With respect to training, he admits that the training manual is an afterthought and he is frustrated because his team is constantly fielding questions that are answered in the manual.

The result: “Improved” or new features no one wants, and difficulty training users of the app.

Experts in IT development should not be expected to have the skills to build an effective training manual, but they do need to understand that onboarding is critical, and effective onboarding requires a training tool that is effective.

Key Recommendations for Improving IT Onboarding

This is where learning science should be leveraged. An extensive body of psychological and brain science research (much of my own) has been conducted over the past several decades that provides specific guidelines on how to effectively train users. Here are some suggestions for improving IT training and development that derive from learning science.

Recommendation 1 – Survey Your Users: All too often technology is “improved” or a new feature is released and few clients see its value. Users know what they want. They know what problems that they need to solve and want tools for solving those problems. Users should be surveyed to determine what features they like, what features they feel could be improved, and what problems they would like solved with a new feature. The simplest, cheapest and most effective way to do this is to ask them via an objective survey. Don’t just ask the CEO, ask the users.

Recommendation 2 – Develop Step-by-Step Instructions for Each Feature and Problem it Solves: Although your new technology may have a large number of features and can solve a large number of problems, most technology users take advantage of a small handful of features to solve a small number of problems. Step-by-step instructions should be developed that train the user on each specific feature and how it helps them solve a specific problem. If I only use five features to solve two main problems, I should be able to train on those features within the context of these two problems. This approach will be fast and effective.

Recommendation 3 – Training Content Should be Grounded in Microlearning: Microlearning is an approach to training that leverages the brain science of learning. Attention spans are short and working memory capacity is limited. People learn best when training content comes in small chunks (5 – 10 minutes) that is focused on a single coherent concept. If you need to utilize two independent features to solve a specific problem, training will be most effective if you train on each feature separately, then train how to use those two features in concert to solve the specific problem.

Recommendation 4 – Develop Training Materials in Multiple Mediums: Some learners prefer to read, some prefer to watch videos, and some prefer to listen. Training materials should be available in as many of these mediums as possible.

Recommendation 5 – Incorporate Knowledge Checks: One of the best ways to train our brain is to test our knowledge of material that we have learned. Testing a learner’s knowledge of the steps needed to solve some problem, or their knowledge of the features of your app requires the learner to use cognitive effort to extract and retrieve that information from memory. This process strengthens information already learned and can identify areas of weakness in their knowledge. This would cue the learner to revisit the training material.

How to Implement These Recommendations & Representative Vendors

Now that we have identified the problem and offered some solutions, key stakeholders need to know how to implement these recommendations. Several avenues are available. Key stakeholders can work with corporate learning and internal learning and development solutions, as well as with corporate communications from an internal marketing perspective. We at Amalgam provide guidance on the best solutions and how to implement them.

Solutions are available from companies such as: Accord LMS, Agylia Group, Axonify, Cornerstone, Crossknowledge, Degreed, Docebo, EdCast, Expertus, Fivel, GamEffective, Grovo, Litmos, Lumesse, MindTickle, Mzinga, PageUp, Pathgather, PeopleFluent, Qstream, Reflekive, Saba, Salesforce, SAP SuccessFactors, Skillsoft, Talentquest, TalentSoft, Thought Industries, Totara Learn, and Zunos. Over the coming months, I will be researching each of these and other offerings in greater detail and will be writing about how they support IT education.

Key Stakeholders: Chief Learning Officers, Chief Human Resource Officers, Learning and Development Directors and Managers, Corporate Trainers, Content and Learning Product Managers

Key Takeaways: L&D vendors offer a vast array of innovative functionality and technology for their clients. Unfortunately, clients are overwhelmed by the breadth of offerings and desire guidance on what technology to use when, all in the interest of increasing adoption and the effectiveness of learning. An extensive body of learning science research exists that should be leveraged to provide clients with the much-needed guidance. This approach will reduce the existing adoption gap and improve the performance.
Continue reading The Adoption Gap in Learning & Development: How Learning Science Can Bridge the Divide

(Editor’s Note: Todd Maddox, Ph.D. has over 200 published articles, 10,000 citings, and $10 million in external research funding in his 25+ years in cognitive psychology. Maddox is available for interviews on this topic at info@amalgaminsights.com)

By now, I am sure you have heard about the incident at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, where two black men were arrested for waiting for a third man inside the store without purchasing any items. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson issued an immediate apology calling the arrests “reprehensible.” He’s gone further, meeting with the two men in person and apologizing, as well as saying that all U.S. Starbucks will be closed on May 29 for racial-bias education for its employees.
Continue reading Will Starbucks Make A $40 Million Training Mistake? The Psychology and Brain Science of Effective Racial Bias Prevention Training

Recommended Audience: Chief Learning Officers, Chief Human Resources Officers, Learning and Development directors and managers, Corporate Trainers, Enterprise Librarians and Content Managers, Instructional Designers, Corporate Communications, Product Managers with a Content or Learning focus.

Key Takeaway: L&D-based gamification is ignoring major swathes of personality and human motivation, which prevents most current business approaches of gamification from being effective.
Continue reading Why Learning And Development Efforts Misuse Gamification (One-Size-Does-Not-Fit-All)

Gamification entered the enterprise world in the mid-2000s. At the time, a number of startup companies (e.g., Bunchball, Gigya, Badgeville, Foursquare and SCVNGR, to name a few) entered the market with the promise of increased employee engagement through point, badge and similar compensation and incentivization schemes. These are collectively referred to as gamification. The underlying assumption was that people would complete tasks and goals more quickly and more accurately because the incentives were present.

These solutions targeted customer loyalty, sales enablement and some marketing initiatives, but the most successful applications were in sales. Despite raising significant capital, the majority of these companies folded because client’s internal adoption was low, and in many cases, these offering were no more effective than simply posting current sales results or sales metrics on the wall.
Continue reading Why Enterprise Gamification is Broken (The Psychological Science of Motivation and Effort)

Companies Mentioned: Axonify, Degreed, EdCast, Fivel, Grovo, Pathgather, Percipio, and Qstream

A recent study by Deloitte suggests that the #1 problem facing companies revolves around employee engagement, turnover, and the corporate culture, with 87% of companies rating these as important imperatives, and 50% rating them as urgent. Learning may be the key, with companies utilizing effective Learning & Development (L&D) environments showing higher levels of engagement, reduced turnover, and positive corporate cultures.

The operative term here is “effective” L&D. Stale textbook and slide show training is obsolete and ineffective. Effective learning content is compelling and engaging, is available in multiple media (text, video, audio), and is available 24/7 on multiple platforms (mobile, tablet, laptop, desktop). Effective learning content is readily available in short bursts to address a specific question without disrupting the workflow, or as a series of short bursts for a deeper dive. Many Learning Management Systems (LMS) are embracing these properties and are showing improvements in initial learning and proficiency.
Continue reading The Brain Science that Drives Corporate “Training for Retention”

Companies Mentioned: Deloitte, Salesforce, SAP, Cornerstone, Saba, Skillsoft, Fivel, PageUp, PeopleFluent, Talentsoft, Oracle, SilkRoad, IBM, Lumesse, Litmos, D2L, LearnCore, and Lessonly

Soft skills are “people skills”, and they are extremely important in the commercial sector. They involve showing and feeling empathy, embracing diversity, and understanding that we all have biases that we need to be aware of and keep in check. They involve effective interpersonal interactions and real-time communication skills and are relevant at all corporate levels. Whether office staff who interface with clients, office managers who interface with employees and their superiors, or the C-suite who provide the leadership and vision for the company, effective soft skills matter. An individual with strong soft skills can be an effective collaborator, leader, and “good” citizen. They not only know “what” behaviors are appropriate and inappropriate, but they know “how” to generate those behaviors and do so in a highly effective manner.
Continue reading The Brain Science of Effective Corporate Soft Skills Training

Key takeaway: Todd Maddox, Ph.D. uses his background in the psychological and brain science of learning to show how sleep deprivation affects employees’ working memory and executive attention. Both work and training environments should take sleep into consideration in developing high-performance and high-retention environments. Otherwise, sleep deprivation can ruin even the best-designed training environments.
Continue reading Differential Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Hard and Soft Skills Training