225 - Where is Learning on the Radar Screen Today?

#225 - - - December 14, 2001 - - - 42,679 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Skills for e-TRAINERS �" Jan 9-11, 2002

Where is Learning on the Radar Screen Today?
By Elliott Masie

In today's distressed economy, where is Learning on the corporate "radar
screen"?

A year ago, the answer would have been easier. At that time, e-Learning
was seen as hot items, an intervention that could harness the power of the
new economy, the internet and deliver knowledge benefits anytime and
anywhere. CEO's were building e-Learning quotes and curves into
presentation slides. Investment proposals for high dollar, large scale
enterprise wide learning focused management systems were making their way
up the approval ladder. So, we would have placed learning in a highly
visible place on the "radar screen".

In today's economy, the image and location of learning on that screen is a
lot more fuzzy and there is a greater sense of confusion and anxiety
afoot.

The reality is that learning, training and development are proceeding
along quite strongly, even in contracting companies. The need to make
good selection choices, to cross-train remaining employees and to increase
the knowledge chain to customers is INCREASING the demand for learning.
And, the ability to deliver the learning, in part, via the internet, is
growing as an ASSUMPTION in many organizations.

We are seeing fewer organizations launch major enterprise wide, large
dollar, learning projects in the past few months. Instead, these have
been transformed into projects that often live in the Lines of Business,
or are implemented with less fanfare and less overt investment. Champions
of Learning in organizations are changing their language, to lower the
perceived early stage investment figures and to align closer with direct
impacts on either REVENUE or EXPENSE.

As we enter 2002, it will be a good time for our field to consider how we
will be perceived and resourced. In order to meet the DEMAND for more and
more learning, we will need executive level support and access to
resources. Justifying that in a deeply constricting organization or
economy will require good thinking on all of our parts. Yet, some
organizations are rapidly trying to "hide" the learning costs to avoid
being a target for formula cuts.

We believe that a strong learning culture and delivery capability are an
incredible competitive advantage in these tougher times. The amount of
training and learning will increase in coming years. So, how do we
position our field and industry?

The MASIE Center would like to create some dialogue on this chapter and
issue a free white paper in early 2002 that our readers could use
internally to gather support.

Would you take a few minutes and send me a note about how you are
positioning learning (or e-Learning) on your corporate radar screens?
Just send it to emasie@masie.com. Include a note if you would like us to
use or not use your name/company name.

We will post the white paper by January 15th.

Warm regards,

Elliott Masie

MASIE Center Events:
* Skills for e-TRAINERS, January 9 to 11, 2002, Saratoga Springs, NY USA -
www.masie.com

224 - Compare the Web Over Six Years; Speaking from My Desk; Doing Much More With Less

#224 - - - December 10, 2001 - - - 42,621 Readers
*** Elliott Masie's TechLearn TRENDS ***
Training, e-Learning and Collaboration Updates
Published by The MASIE Center www.masie.com
Host of: Skills for e-TRAINERS �" Jan 9-11, 2002

Happy First Day of Hanukah!

1. Compare the Web Over Six Years!
2. Speaking from My Desk
3. Doing Much More With Less!
4. e-Learning CONSORTIUM Open for Applications

1. Compare the Web Over Six Years!: It is amazing to look at how the
web, and even our own websites, have changed over the past six years.
There is a great, non-profit and free site, that will give you an
intriguing perspective. It has a stored archive of the entire internet
from 1996. You just go there and enter in the name of a website, such as
your organization’s or yahoo or others, and it will give you complete
copies over the past six years. Just go to The Way Back Machine at:

http://www.archive.org

2. Speaking from My Desk: As I am writing today’s TRENDS, I had to take a
break to give a keynote speech. Normally, that would be a flight and a
sports jacket. But, for the last 12 months, about 60% of my speeches have
just required a spin of my chair and a click of my mouse. For instance,
this morning I spoke to a group of several hundred participants in a
Conference in D.C. using a web conferencing tool. Tomorrow, I am
delivering a program for Sun Microsystems to a global audience, from a
headset at my desk. And, last week, I conducted about six sessions, from
consulting, to coaching to speaking from my office here in Saratoga
Springs. I am amazed at how rapidly we are seeing a growth of the
ACCEPTANCE of speakers and consultants working digitally. Even the
resistance to pricing that we saw six months ago has changed, as
organizations see the full value of accessing expertise from afar, without
travel restrictions. We have been experimenting with using a range of
synchronous and asynchronous tools to grow the flexibility of this form of
delivery. The next time you are planning your internal meetings, consider
bringing some of your organizational executives or outside experts in via
desktop to desktop or meeting room delivery. It grows your flexibility
and “walks the talk” of learning digitally. You will also be amazed at
how much easier it is to get the CEO for 20 minutes from their desktop!

3. Doing Much More With Less!: As part of our on-going monitoring of the
e-Learning industry, I’ve been making calls to Chief Learning Officers and
Training Managers to find out about their 2002 plans. The common themes
that are emerging are:

* Learning Departments need to do MUCH MORE with LESS! While training and
learning budgets are for the most part stable or slightly decreasing, the
demand side of expectations is growing rapidly. Businesses changing size
of workforce or shifting marketplaces are asking for quick and nimble
responses from the learning departments. The buyers in these groups are
still looking for new systems and content collections, but they want what
they are being asked for within their organizations, much more for less
(or slightly less).

• Integration is Key: Many organizations are now faced with huge
integration challenges. They need to integrate Learning and Content
Management Systems into enterprise wide systems. They need to integrate
the e-Learning projects and methodologies into the classroom offerings
that are still growing in demand. They need to integrate the demands of
lines of business into corporate strategy approaches. And, they need to
integrate diverse offerings from a host of changing vendors into a logical
and dynamic offering that makes sense to their workforce.

4. e-Learning CONSORTIUM Open for Applications: We have a limited number
of openings in The MASIE Center e-Learning CONSORTIUM. This is a group of
approximately 150 to 180 companies that are implementing e-Learning within
their enterprises or are supplying the industry with learning solutions.
The membership includes many of the Fortune 1000 companies and key
learning vendors. This is a vendor-neutral, no selling environment
focused on benchmarking and innovation amongst members. I work
extensively with the CONSORTUIM throughout the year and we have an
on-going set of meetings, working groups, reports and collaborations. We
have about 2 dozen openings due to changes in the industry and mergers, so
we are accepting a few new applications. Go to http://www.masie.com for
details. The cost is $5,000 per year and includes two admissions to
TechLearn 2002.

Programs From The MASIE Center:
* Skills for e-TRAINERS: January 9 �" 11, 2002 �" Saratoga Springs, New
York, USA. Taught by Elliott Masie. http://www.masie.com for info and registration!
* The Business of Learning: April 8 & 9, 2002 - Washington D.C.
Save the dates, details to be posted January 7th!