Learning

Know Your Stuff? Share Your Stuff!

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It seems to be a fairly simple concept – effective training should be provided by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).  They bring knowledge, expertise and, most importantly, credibility to the topic at hand.  They also bring ‘real world’ experience that should help to bridge the knowledge gap for learners that can, sometimes, be pretty vast between the discussion of theory and the application of that theory.

SME acrostic - Subject Matter Expert
Source: Constantin Stanciu/Shutterstock

Using an obvious example, if a trainer was hired to teach trainees how to play hockey, they would have to show people how to skate, pass the puck, and handle the stick.  An effective trainer would not be someone who could just ‘talk’ about these skills or describe how to play the game. They would actually need to be a skilled hockey player themselves and be able to share what it feels like to learn and perform at a high level of expertise.

This concept seems to be taking hold in formal training processes, including post-secondary learning organizations.  It is not enough for a professor to provide theory, they must be able to bring some subject matter expertise into classroom learning in order for students to make the link between theory and ‘real world’ application.

A recent article in The Globe & Mail, highlights the effective use of subject matter experts in traditional business school environments.

Click Here to Read the Article

This article brings forth the wonderful opportunity that business executives can bring to formal learning settings.  It also presents the changing perspective that not all knowledge should be vested in one person at the front of the classroom in a formal learning organization.  It is clear that the more we can bring in the expertise of others into the creation of effective training models, the richer the shared learning becomes for everyone.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Thinking about your own learning experiences, how did you learn to drive a vehicle?
    • What theoretical concepts did you have to learn?
    • What were the practical steps that you had to learn in order to actually drive the vehicle?
    • Who taught you how to drive a vehicle and what expertise did they bring to that learning process for you?
  2. Have you been inspired by any SMEs during the course of your program studies? Who were they and why were they inspirational?
  3. Why does ‘real world’ application matter for effective training and learning?

Is Experience the Best Teacher?

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Source: Patsy Michaud/Shutterstock
Source: Patsy Michaud/Shutterstock

We have often heard the expression ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ when someone wants to relay how a certain experience has affected them.  Usually, the experience was unpleasant, challenging, or just very difficult and we want to have someone else understand how we felt.  Why?  Sometimes, when we experience a difficult situation we want to talk about it just to complain,  but we also talk about our negative experiences because we don’t want to go through that experience the same way, again.  Having a negative experience, especially one that causes us discomfort, is certainly a key factor in changing our behaviour in order to avoid repeating the same experience in the future.  One hopes that what we learn for ourselves, we might help others with as well.

Listening to someone’s negative experience is very different from living through the actual experience itself. A very effective training design technique which implements experiential learning, is being used at the Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences.  An “aging simulation suit’ is being used to train future healthcare practitioners.  The suit is designed in such a way that it literally allows someone to walk in the shoes of an aging person and to learn, through personal experience, what it physically feels like to be a patient or a client in a healthcare setting.

Click here to read the article and watch a video

Discussion Questions:

  1. Besides healthcare, what types of industries would benefit from having this type of sensory aging & mobility training provided to their employees?
  2. Have you changed something in your own work style because of how you felt someone treated you? What did you change and why did you make that change?
  3. From a customer service perspective, what other types of training tools could be used to relay the experience of aging?
  4. Why is this type of experiential training effective?

Links to Learning

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No matter what course you are taking, if you are using this textbook, you are learning about learning.

Hopefully, somewhere along the path of your studies, there have been some ‘ah-ha’ moments and perhaps some questions that have heightened your curiosity about adult learning styles and your own learning process.

Source: leungchopan/Shutterstock
Source: leungchopan/Shutterstock

Due to the benefits of digital technology, our collective ability to access learning as part of the Human Resources community has never been greater.  The shift to digital resources has forced us to move from being narrow and focused only on training,  into active and continuously engaged in providing life-long learning opportunities, no matter what organization you may serve.

With so many online resources,  it can be difficult to navigate what may, or may not, be useful. An excellent Canadian resource for on-going learning is The Institute for Performance and Learning, formerly known as the Canadian Society for Training and Development.  Through the institute’s website you will find good resources for work-performance related tools and an opportunity to become part of the larger community of certified learning and training professionals.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How has your own learning style changed over the course of your academic studies?
  2. Why has the Institute for Performance and Learning moved through a re-branding process?
  3. What benefit does additional certification, in the area of Training and Development, provide for you as a Human Resources Professional?

Leaders Loving Learning!

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Off-the-job training is not just for those at the start of their careers.  Recently, the Queen’s School of Business and FEI Canada implemented a program for senior financial executives called the Leadership Beyond Finance Program.

Source: StockPhotosLV/Shutterstock
Source: StockPhotosLV/Shutterstock

Click here to read about the Leadership Beyond Finance Program.

Even though the program is one that falls into the ‘off-the-job’ training category, it calls upon real-life situations and shared learning taken from ‘on-the-job’ leadership experiences.  All too often leaders have to go through very painful and public work related experiences that, if not handled correctly, will lead to disastrous results.  We have all seen or heard of organizational leaders who are put to the test in unsafe and unwelcoming waters with little opportunity to go back and fix mistakes made along the way.

This program offers a wonderful opportunity to share those painfully learned lessons through the experiences of others and, hopefully, alter the leadership approach for those leaders in the program to achieve better results.

In our studies about employee training and development, it is evident that the best learning takes place in safe, welcoming environments that provide an opportunity to practice what is learned before it is applied.

Effective leadership is definitely something that requires lots of practice and will continue to offer multiple learning opportunities along the way!

Discussion Questions:

  1. Identify three traditional off the job training techniques described in the article.
  2. Why do leaders need to learn to listen?
  3. How would Human Resources Professionals benefit from this type of leadership program?
  4. Identify one personal leadership skill that you wish you had an opportunity to practice before having to use it in a workplace setting.

Are You Mobile, Ready and Willing to Learn?

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To say that the power of mobile technology has changed our world, would be stating the obvious! Every single person who has a mobile device is holding a wealth of information, literally, in the palm of her or his hand.  With great power, comes great opportunity – Or does it?

Source: Purestock/Thinkstock
Source: Purestock/Thinkstock

The following article discusses how access to employee training can easily be provided through individual employee mobile devices.

Click here to read the article. 

Since the technology is already in place, it appears to be a natural step in the evolution of training methodologies to push workplace programs through mobile technology.  If employees are playing Candy Crush Saga during their ‘lunch breaks’ on their mobile devices, why not provide them with training applications and games that promote workplace knowledge at any time?

This is where the boundaries of work/life distinctions start to become blurred.  Just because the technology is able to provide the training, should employees be willing to participate?  What if the employee uses their mobile device to do work place training after working hours?  Will we need to pay for overtime?  Who owns the technology? Is the device the property of the employee or the employer? Will we need to track employee access patterns 24/7?

These questions will continue as long as technology continues to drive increasing changes into our workplaces.  Our job, as HR professionals, is to figure out how we can catch up to these changes.  We have the choice to, either shape how technology should be used or be shaped by the technology that we must use. We may not like what the later option looks like.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why would employees be resistant to workplace training through mobile devices?
  2. If you had to use your mobile device to access workplace training would you do so after ‘working hours’? If yes, why?  If no, why not?
  3. What types of training would be easiest for employees to access through mobile devices?
  4. What types of training programs do you think you would not want employees to access through mobile devices?