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Previous Meeting Notes - Learning & Development

Please note that going forward, meeting notes are included with the recordings of the weekly calls. View the latest recordings and research recaps here.

4/30/2020

This week’s Learning and Development action call hosted two special guests: Sarah Gretczko, Senior Vice President, Chief Learning and Insights Officer at Mastercard, and Joe Ilvento, Chief Learning Officer and WW Director of Talent Development at Commvault. They were interviewed by Kevin Oakes, CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), and new survey data was presented on the issue of collaborative overload during this coronavirus pandemic period. Here are four key themes that emerged:

1.     Return to the workplace planning is here. Two weeks ago an i4cp survey found that 65% of organizations had a team or task force working on their “return to the workplace” strategy, and likely that number has only increased since then. At the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) we have been curating a lot of resources on this, and this week we launched a new Return to Work and the Workplace page at our Coronavirus Employer Resource Center. This page includes i4cp’s new and robust Return to the Workplace Checklist, as well as over a dozen links to best practice articles and corporate practice guides, toolkits, and playbooks.   

2.     Learning and Development will have an important role to play. While some organizations might rely on their corporate communications team to simply provide information to employees on what has changed in the workplace, many will rely on the function is best able to help educate employees and change behavior: the Learning and Development team. Trainers, instructional designers, and L&D leaders are dedicated to learning, training, and behavior change.

Both Ilvento from Commvault and Gretczko from Mastercard stressed that their L&D teams will be very involved in designing content for the return to the workplace process, using various modalities from short training modules, to frequent digital reminders, and more, to both educate employees on new recommendations and requirements for their workplace life and help cement real behavior change. Leveraging the existing L&D infrastructure (LMS platforms, content creation tools, learning models, etc.) also gives organizations a measure of legal coverage that strong compliance programs can provide.  

3.     The pros and cons of collaboration during the pandemic. The latest i4cp survey of several hundred HR leaders was on the topic of collaboration and collaborative overload during the pandemic period. The largest percentage of respondents (39%) said that their level of collaboration with colleagues was at this point about the same as prior to COVID-19 and any shift in work that has taken place. But 29% said that the amount of time they spend collaborating with others is much higher than before, and they are feeling overloaded as a result. One major cause of this is the number of meetings (almost all virtual today), as 44% indicated they are in five or more meetings a day, and 20% said they are in seven or more a day. On the other hand, 17% of respondents said they are collaborating more now but that they feel energized by it rather than overloaded, and 9% said they are currently underutilized and would welcome more collaboration time. 

4.     Shift in L&D training approaches and topics. Both Gretczko and Ilvento shared how their organizations’ L&D functions have pivoted to best support the needs of their learners. As discussed on previous calls, there has been a clear increase in both virtual classroom (synchronous) training and self-paced eLearning (asynchronous) use. Gretczko described that a central focus of her team’s response to the COVID-19 crisis has been to provide curated digital learning experiences, with new topics of emphasis including stress management, working remotely, digital fluency more broadly. Leveraging the Degreed platform and in partnership with the business they are creating learning pathways in these and other areas, and see learning as a primary driver of employee experience and engagement.

Ilvento noted many L&D innovations at Commvault during this COVID-19 period, all aligned to their culture and values and with an emphasis on agility. Examples included leveraging text messaging as part of pre-boarding and for managers to drive engagement; modifying 60-90 minute training modules into smaller segments; using drop campaigns for some content reinforcement; and greater use of quickly assembled solutions as needed.  

4/23/2020

This week’s Learning and Development action call hosted two special guests: Cameron Hedrick, Chief Learning Officer at Citi, and Humera Malik Shahid, VP, Talent Development at Intuit. They were interviewed by Kevin Oakes, CEO and co-founder of the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), and new survey data was presented on “return to the workplace” strategies and planning. Here are four key themes that emerged:

1.     Return to the workplace planning is ramping up. According to i4cp’s latest survey (which included over 300 HR leaders from organizations of 1,000+ employees), 65% of organizations have a team or task force working on their “return to the workplace” strategy, and another 26% are discussing the need for such a team soon. Hedrick said that at Citi they have had this in place for many weeks, due to the global nature of their company, which includes operations in China and other areas further along the COVID-19 path. He noted they are taking a slow and data-driven approach to return to the workplace, taking some steps and then seeing the impact of each. Shahid noted that at Intuit they plan to survey all employees to learn their various needs, recognizing that a return to the workplace will not be a short-term, flip-the-switch approach, but rather a gradual process.   

2.     Conservative approaches to returning to the workplace means blended and virtual learning is here to stay. Even when some roles that can’t work from home return to the traditional workplace, many that can work remotely will continue to do so for some time—either full time or in hybrid ways whether due to preference, flexibility, or the need to limit numbers for social distancing at the workplace. As a result, the recent surge in blended and virtual training will likely not be a blip, but rather here to stay for a long time to come. Hedrick noted that initially some of their L&D programs were paused due to the pandemic, but that they are ramping up now with virtual approaches being used and likely to continue to be prominent for at least 6-18 months. One key is to make sure the technology involved is hardened as an increase in IT security threats can be expected. Shahid said that at Intuit they had been already increasing their use of virtual training and that the pandemic has accelerated that shift. She noted that the L&D team has become very agile, creating in 3 weeks what used to take months. They are not sacrificing quality, but are recognizing that they can’t allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good—what matters is whether the learning outcomes will be achieved from what they provide.  

3.     Leadership communication is key. Return to the workplace strategies will clearly vary greatly from one organization to the next. What will be universal is the need for strong communication from leadership about what is being done to make employees feel safe, as ultimately perceptions will be key to morale, engagement, productivity. Both what is being done and why it is being done needs to be shared, with all of it anchored in the organization’s values, Shahid noted. At Intuit they have had a significant increase in leader communications, including weekly update emails and video updates via the Slack collaboration platform.  

4.     Expanding learning topics and resources. During the first couple weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organization’s L&D teams scrambled to update or create content on remote work and virtual leadership. Shahid noted that when it comes to good management, the what has not changed, on some aspects of the how. While these topics on aspects of virtual work are still a focus for many organizations, some are now also creating training on crisis management or updating existing content on change management. L&D teams have also surveyed the employees they support to find out what training and resources would be most useful during these times. Shahid noted that one area for her team has been supporting employees who are parents with children doing online schooling. Several participants shared resources in the chat on this, including providers such as Outschool, Revolution Prep, and K12.com. See also the curated list at i4cp’s page Resources for Parents Educating School Age Children at Home. 

4/16/2020

This week’s Learning and Development action call hosted two special guests, again both members of i4cp’s Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board: Karen Kocher, General Manager, Global Talent & Learning Experiences at Microsoft, and Michael Killingsworth, former L&D executive at ABB, Shell, and American Airlines. They were interviewed by Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst at i4cp, and new survey data was presented on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on leadership development and succession planning. Here are four key themes that emerged:

1. Self-development during isolation. Michael Killingsworth set the stage by sharing a great quote from author Henry David Thoreau, “We must first succeed alone that we may enjoy our success together.” He then led a discussion of the importance of self-development during this time of physical isolation. He described the various ways in which he is focusing on learning and development for himself, including networking (leader forums, webinars, and LinkedIn), formal learning (books, online courses, and from nature), coaching / mentoring (both self to others and others to self), and finally making sure to sustain these efforts through good calendar management, self-discipline, and proactive planning.

2. Book recommendations. During the discussion of self-development, several participants on the call shared books they are reading or re-reading during this time. Included were:

·       20-Minute Networking Meeting, by Marcia Ballinger
·       The Coaching Habit, by Michael Bungay Stanier
·       The Infinite Game, by Simon Sinek
·       Winning from Within, by Erica Ariel Fox
·       Great at Work, by Morten Hansen
·       The Culture Code, by Daniel Coyle
·       Barking Up the Wrong Tree, by Eric Barker

3. The importance of agile development. Karen Kocher from Microsoft noted that they have been very successful over the years developing effective learning experience, but that much of their focus had been on in-person learning experiences. Because of COVID-19, they needed to take a step back and work very quickly and very iteratively to create highly effective virtual learning opportunities. A key learning for her team has been a focus on agility while maintaining a high level of quality. Participants on the call shared the following additional perspectives on the need for speed:

  • Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.
  • What is needed is a mix of quick, heavy prioritization and rapid development.
  • More resources, less courses.
  • Curation of external content is important compliment the internal learning resources and tools.
  • Just in Time (JIT) is key: how do we get them what they need when they need it?
To determine what content is most needed, desired, and timely, use multiple sources of information: surveys, Teams/Slack channels, HR hotline feedback, employee resource groups (ERGs), etc. 4. Leadership / succession data. The latest i4cp pulse survey data was shared, with this week’s topic being the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on leadership development, succession planning, and talent risk. Key findings included:
  • Only 4% of those surveyed said COVID-19 has not had any impact on their organization’s leadership development programs, with only 7% saying the same for their succession planning / management process.
  • 70% said that leadership development programs have been rescheduled or delayed, 73% said that at least some programs have been delivered virtually, and 60% said they are encouraging leaders to leverage self-paced e-Learning programs where applicable.
  • 40% indicated that talent reviews that are part of the organization’s succession planning / management process are continuing but being conducted virtually, with 33% saying such meetings are being delayed or rescheduled.
  • While 27% said that talent risk for current leaders at their organization would increase somewhat or significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, even more (32%) said it would decrease somewhat or significantly.                          


4/9/2020

This week’s Learning and Development action call hosted two special guests, both members of i4cp’s Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board: Joe Garbus, Chief Talent and Inclusion Officer at Marsh, and Brenda Sugrue, Chief Learning Officer at EY. They were interviewed by i4cp’s CEO Kevin Oakes, and new survey data on virtual classroom training during the COVID-19 pandemic period was also presented—here are four key themes that emerged.

1.     Virtual classroom training is a major focus right now. Our latest pulse survey data included 60% of participants indicating a significant increase in the use of virtual classroom training due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with another 31% indicating a modest increase. Garbus noted that at Marsh the L&D team has been very focused on quickly training their trainers to be proficient with the virtual classroom modality, at the same time they work to migrate core content as well. He said they are learning a lot as they pivot quickly in this direction, and expect some of those learnings to carry through into a future where virtual training and remote work in general are more common.

Sugrue at EY noted they too are using virtual classroom a lot: running train-the-trainer programs, leveraging producers, and relying on their strong WebEx integration with Success Factors to manage it all. On the content side they have two levels: a light conversion approach that minimizes redesign work by giving the facilitation team new options, and a full conversion approach that deconstructs the entire program and creates a blended approach that uses a combination of virtual classroom sessions and asynchronous content where objectives don’t require live instruction or peer to peer interaction.

2.     Virtual classroom training has new challenges during this pandemic period. Beyond standard challenges with virtual classroom training (e.g., cultural resistance, making the programs interactive and engaging, and technology issues such as bandwidth lacking for consistent video), we asked call participants what was the biggest new challenge the modality is facing because of our shared situation with COVID-19. The results indicated a wide variability across organizations. 15% were overwhelmed by the need to upskill trainers and convert content, and 10% said the top issue was security concerns from the sudden surge in interest in the platforms involved—both indications of strong interest in virtual classroom training. However, 19% indicated a top challenge was people having too much fear, anxiety, or stress to learn effectively now. And the most common response, at 37%, was employees simply being too busy to focus on learning.  

3.     Some employees are a captive audience, eager for learning opportunities. While many employees are as busy as ever (including many L&D roles working on the training and conversion work mentioned above), others can’t work at full capacity during this time period—including in some cases employees working staggered shifts, as one session participant noted. At Marsh, the CEO pledged no layoffs, so this means some have time to devote to professional development. Garbus noted that many are hungry for content, especially in areas like growth mindset, mental health, remote work, etc. Some programs are so popular they have waiting lists. Sugrue also noted significant increases in learning content usage at EY during this pandemic period, including 40-100% increases in off-the-shelf content usage, a 20% increase in course completions, and a 40% increase in badges awarded. One of the session’s participants noted that they are also seeing an increase in the measured engagement with learning content—a further sign of a captive audience, eager for learning opportunities.

4.     Badges are a big hit at EY. Like many organizations, EY has rolled out a badging system for their employees that helps indicate proficiency in various skills and competencies—many of which are otherwise hard to measure or certify due to their granularity or lack of traditional systems such as degrees or certifications. Unlike most other organizations, EY has done more than experiment in this area, as Sugrue described the breadth and depth of their badging system. They have a strong governance model in place, which helps build confidence and value in the entire system. Popular badges include areas such as data analytics, blockchain, security, AI, as well as specialty domains such as manufacturing. They have a four-level system comprised of Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze badges, with various amounts of learning time, experience, and content contribution components required for each.

The results are impressive, with Sugrue noting a measured 2X higher retention rate for those participating in the program. The badges have been very empowering, helping many employees to get noticed for their skills and competencies, and now play a role in the promotion process. The organization has big goals for their badging system, such as awarding one million badges by 2025.

4/2/2020

This week’s Learning and Development action call hosted two special guests, both member’s of i4cp’s Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board: Rob Lauber, CLO of McDonald’s and Karie Wilyerd, CLO of Visa. They were interviewed by i4cp’s CEO Kevin Oakes, and new survey data on user-generated learning content was also presented—here are four key themes that emerged.

1.       Job role shifts and employee sharing provide immediate benefits and learning opportunities. While many employees are continuing to do their jobs just from a different location (at home), at some organizations tasks have shifted to accommodate surge activities. Rob Lauber noted that many in his L&D organization at McDonald’s have temporarily been switched from regular duties to helping support the general HR hotline. More broadly, in some regions (notably in Germany) McDonald’s has entered into a employee sharing partnership with Aldi grocery stores. McDonald’s has nearly 1,500 outlets in Germany, but during this COVID-19 pandemic, they do not have enough work hours to give their employees—whereas a grocer like Aldi has seen a surge in business given the massive demand for at-home food. Under the agreement, McDonald’s employees are specifically referred to Aldi on a temporary basis and can return to McDonald’s after the assignment.

While learning and development goals were not the main goal of either of these job-switching arrangements, it will no doubt be a side benefit arising from both. It could also lead to more permanent job rotation partnerships between McDonald’s and other companies in the future, given the same, similar, and adjacent skills between their restaurant positions and many others in retail, or amongst their supply chain, Lauber noted. This sort of approach aligns with McDonald’s proud history of being an early career platform for workers, that includes ongoing investment in their Archways to Opportunity program that includes second language programs, pay for online accredited high-school degrees, and higher-ed tuition assistance for many employees (over 50,000 thus far).

2.       Increased interest in virtual classroom and mobile learning options. As noted on prior weeks’ calls, there is clearly an increased interest in virtual classroom training. Lauber from McDonald’s noted that some in-person instructor-led training has simply been canceled for now, but that some programs are being shifted to virtual. Mobile device content is also important with such a dispersed workforce around the globe.

At Visa, Wilyerd noted that any remaining resistance to virtual classroom delivery is being chipped away by the COVID-19 pandemic. They were already looking for virtual solutions for some key training programs, and such approaches will only expand.

3.       Interest in user-generated learning content is increasing. i4cp conducted a pulse survey recently on user-generated learning content. Nearly three in ten respondents indicated their organization’s were big proponents, with another 15% indicated they are interested but struggle to get employees interested. The COVID-19 pandemic it seems will increase those numbers, as nearly one in five respondents indicated their organization is already leveraging user-generated learning content more during this time period, and another 25% said they plan to do so soon. Lauber from McDonald’s noted some of the same challenges to such content that came out in the survey, from lack of consistency, concern over incorrect information, etc., but also noted that in time such issues can be lessened through the right governance structures and partnering L&D professionals with the employee community to maximize content quality, timeliness, and volume.  

4.       Curation is key. Wilyerd is currently the CLO at Visa, but she has a long history with user-generated learning content, having been the leader of the Jambok product that eventually became SAP Jam. She noted that one issue with both standard self-paced learning content (courses, videos, etc.) and user-generated content is the sheer volume that is available. At Visa they are upgrading their Learning Experience Platform (LXP) to Degreed and focusing on reducing the number of learning pathways that organize their 90,000+ learning objects. To Lauber’s points earlier, they also have strong governance structures before content is posted to the company-wide catalog.

3/26/2020

This week we opened up the call beyond Learning and Development professionals, as our topics of remote work, virtual teams, and virtual leadership are on just about everyone’s mind during this time of COVID-19. 

Co-hosted by Kevin Oakes, i4cp's CEO, and Tom Stone, i4cp Senior Research Analyst, we shared i4cp's latest survey data on the extent to which organizations have shifted to remote work in the past few weeks. Learning leaders from i4cp's CLTO Board and others on the call shared what their organizations are doing to support this rapid change, including how they are supporting their new virtual leaders and managers. The conversation, including in the chat, was very robust—here are four key themes that emerged. 

1.       Remote work has exploded. Everyone knew this on some level, but our latest survey data is striking: 

  • The percentage of organizations with a relatively low number of people working remotely (1-24% of workforce) has shrunk from 74% pre-COVID-19 to only 11% now.
  • The percentage of organizations with over half of their employees currently working remotely has swelled from a meager 8% to a significant 73%.
  • The percentage of organizations that are 100% work-from-home has quadrupled from 4% to 16%.

2.       Support for remote work is evolving just as fast. Recognizing that for many workers this is their first experience with working from home, leaders at most organizations have by now curated ample resources, guides, tips, etc.—with some stating that people are complaining of too much information. Some organizations have to be more creative than others, such as healthcare organizations that need to work around telemedicine regulations, and some that already had a lot of remote workers are clearly ahead. A good starting place for any organizations that do not yet have a simple guide for remote work is Microsoft’s Remote Work checklist.

One tip that resonated strongly on the call was to make sure to hold non-business virtual meetings that are more social and fun in nature. Business needs to continue as much as possible during this time, but recognizing the stress people are experiencing is critical to maximize productivity, engagement, and morale. i4cp held a virtual St. Patrick’s Day holiday gathering on Zoom, and our teams are regularly holding morning coffee chats and happy-hours. Participants on the call shared many other virtual meeting types to consider, including birthday celebrations, retirement parties, exercise sessions, riddle/game gatherings, and more.

Many organizations by now also have a chat and collaboration tool available, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams. These tools are useful for traditional teams in an office, but are vital for virtual teams to work productively. They not only allow for one-on-one text chatting, but also support persistent chat groups that can be formed around a department, a project, or a common interest area. With modern features like video-meeting integration, file sharing, and more, such platforms are seeing a major increase in use during this time of COVID-19.

3.       Remote work will likely grow, but never be this hard again. There has always been a learning curve when someone starts to work remotely for the first time, whether a couple days a week or full-time. What is making this period so challenging is that it is being forced up so many employees, around the globe, all at once. And on top of that, we have issues that remote workers typically don’t have to deal with: kids at home from school all day, every day; grocery availability and other conveniences curtailed; and in some cases, the stress of knowing that a friend, family, or colleague is sick with the virus. The mantra from the chat on the call was that everyone needs to be patient and kind, and assume the best of intentions during this time (good advice for all times really!).

Given this current reality, it is impossible to know for sure what will happen in the future regarding remote work. Will the current experiences be so challenging that people will not want to continue to work from home if they can help it? Or is the genie now out of the bottle, and even with the difficulties today, many employees will expect some flexibility to work from home in the future? Participants on the call were polled and there was a mix of views. Many said future remote work will only be slightly increased from the time before COVID-19, but about the same number indicated that their will be a significant increase in the future due to shifted expectations, positive productivity results (after an initial adjustment period), and reduced barriers (technological and cultural) regarding remote work.

4.       Virtual leaders need to step up, but they also need support. Those who lead and manage remote workers and virtual teams have long known there are different skills they need to use than their traditional counterparts. i4cp research found that the top skills of this kind are digital fluency, facilitating collaboration, cultural agility, helping others build a strong network. Those who suddenly find themselves with remote workers and a virtual team to lead for the first time need support, including access to training on best practices—something i4cp research found few organizations provide, but that high-performance organizations provide 4.5x more than low performers.

On the issue of facilitating collaboration, call participants agreed that this is as important as ever during this time of increased remote work. Employees can easily suffer from collaborative overload, especially given the new reality of work and in light of all of the distractions and stressors mentioned above. Call participants agreed that now more than ever employees need to be careful to not cause collaborative overload by placing too many demands on their colleagues, and leaders need to create a safe environment where employees feel safe to raise collaboration problems and concerns (a next practice that few organizations do according to i4cp’s collaboration research).      

3/19/2020

The second of our series of weekly COVID-19 coronavirus business response video calls for learning and development leaders was well attended, and not surprisingly as we were joined by a special guest, Elliott Masie, the founder of the MASIE Center and a long-time industry analyst and thought leader. i4cp CEO Kevin Oakes and Elliott led a dialogue on a range of issues and concerns for L&D leaders in these unprecedented and challenging times—here are four key themes that emerged. 

1.     Learning and development can really step up and be heroes to their organizations. The L&D community has great skillsets for what is needed now—people really need to learn new things quickly, from how to work from home, to new practices like social distancing/etc., and in some cases rich skillsets such as trainers who need to switch from the in-person classroom to the virtual classroom.

Elliott gave the analogy to one of his favorite movies, Apollo 13, and specifically to the scene where the NASA engineers dumped all of the same equipment available to the astronauts in the damaged spacecraft on a table to creatively problem solve for a situation they never planned for. Similarly, L&D professionals need to “work the problem” and think creatively with the tools at hand. 

Elliott recommends they think very broadly and beyond traditional training, and instead become a performance and learning support function. Fortunately for many this will be an acceleration of change already underway, and not a sudden nor temporary shift, as this focus aligns with many existing trends in the industry already, such as the increasing focus on learning in the flow of work, performance support, micro-learning, etc. Elliott recommended thinking differently by coaching leaders to have virtual coffee meetings in the mornings or similar calls at the end of the day. In general, L&D needs to stay focused on helping people feel and be productive, noting that many are afraid for their jobs now, while also warning against the trap of becoming the group therapist.

2.     For some there will be great opportunity for upskilling in the weeks ahead. Kevin noted that one CLO recently suggested that this feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity, with so many captive learners to upskill / reskill. Elliott agreed, but stressed that the timing needs to be right: if people are stressed about just making it through each day, and have plenty of work to still do, then now isn’t the time to focus on upskilling (or any optional training). One call participant in the chat put that point well: “My reality. . . trying to figure out what our (internal) customers want, have an appetite for, and can handle.”

We asked a poll question on this topic, and 23% said they were using this time to focus on upskilling or reskilling the workforce, and another 32% were thinking about doing so. One call participant noted that they have some employees who can’t work from home, can’t work at the office (due to safety concerns), and who they plan to retain—so providing upskilling opportunities is perfect for them during this time. And one call participant even noted the connection to other trends leading to the need to upskill anyway, such as the growth of automation and AI leading to job role changes. 

3.     L&D professionals need to support virtual leaders, remote workers, and virtual training. For proponents of remote work and virtual classroom training, this current period offers both a great opportunity and some risk. In many cases, leaders will discover that employees can be very productive (or even more productive) when working remotely. The same holds true for virtual training when it is delivered by trainers who are skilled at delivering in an online environment. It is important for L&D to provide support to these endeavors, because the risk also exists that if remote work or virtual training do not go well in the coming weeks, that skeptics will be emboldened to dig in and say “I told you so… virtual doesn’t work at our organization!” 

4.     L&D can enable connections and content. Some L&D professionals have noted a resurgence in the use of their LMS or LXP platform, as employees with newfound downtime quickly wanted learning content on working remotely, time management, handling stress, or a range of other topics. Additionally, the opportunity to leverage the employee base to create content is understood by several organizations. This week we polled call participants on whether they are enabling greater user-generated content than before: 28% said yes, and another 28% said they were thinking about doing so. Elliott noted an uptick in this area but stressed that perhaps more important than connecting people to new content was helping to connect people to each other. In other words, don’t expect employees will necessarily want to learn or upskill by taking asynchronous e-Learning modules on their own, but rather might want virtual classroom or other team-oriented learning activities and coaching to ward off any creeping loneliness or isolation.

LinkedIn Learning has made available a free set of 16 video e-Learning programs focused on remote work, leading virtual teams, the common tools used (Zoom, Teams, etc.), and more.

3/12/2020

The first of what will be a series of weekly COVID-19 coronavirus business response video calls focused on learning and development professionals and their concerns, questions, and challenges. There are unique immediate and future impacts to organizations' learning and development strategies, e.g., the need to quickly develop virtual team leaders, increasing the use of virtual classroom and other alternative training options, and much more. The call was attended by over 30 learning and development leaders, including some members of i4cp's Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board.

The following are four key takeaways, followed by a collection of the resources shared during the call in the text chat. 

  1. Empowering virtual managers and leaders. Many organizations are updating their existing e-Learning programs on leading virtual teams, tweaking them slightly for the current context, and encouraging all effected managers and leaders to take or retake the programs. Others are quickly pulling together virtual classroom sessions on this topic, leveraging experienced virtual team leaders who can share known best practices—after all, many organizations have had at least some virtual teams, and therefore virtual leaders, for a long time. Some key points include:

    • Communicating regularly, including announcements, expectations, progress on goals, etc.
    • Modelling desired behavior and expectations, both regarding technology use (Slack, Teams, Yammer, Zoom, Email, etc.) and more general work from home skills (e.g., taking breaks as needed, staying goal focused, etc.)
    • Creating or updating team operating agreements (e.g., norms, expectations, etc.) in the context of working remotely. Doing this helps to increase transparency-at-a-distance so that trust can grow.
    • Setting up virtual check-in meetings, both for business needs of department and project teams, and for virtual meetings that are more social in nature to give a relief valve for stress and help humanize the virtual work environment for those not accustomed to it.
    • Curating and sending proactive tips, on both psychological/behavior as well as technological aspects of working from home.
  2. Focusing on the logistical aspects of working from home. Some organizations are conducting an inventory of all available equipment, most notably spare laptops that can be deployed to make working from home easier. Beyond this, some are expanding work from home roles beyond those with laptops by allowing employees to take desktop computers, monitors, and other hardware home for an extended period of time. Others are rotating which individuals will work at home on each day.

  3. Transitioning from in-person ILT training to the virtual classroom. While some organizations indicated they are simply cancelling in-person ILT training for now, others indicated they are quickly evaluating which programs they might transition to the virtual classroom (Zoom, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.). Here are some key actions related to this:

    1. Some organizations are quickly creating job aids of known best practices for the re-design and delivery of high-priority programs, in some cases including time-sensitive onboarding sessions.

    2. Trainers themselves also need to be evaluated as not all have the skill or even the aptitude to quickly transition effectively from the in-person classroom to the virtual classroom. A tip shared was pairing a more experienced instructor to help and provide coaching/feedback, or pairing two trainers together and having one serve as the online producer while the other facilitates—and then flipping the duties during the next training session.

    3. Some are using this moment to re-evaluate what parts of an in-person ILT program truly need to be provided synchronously and socially, with a live instructor. Some content can likely be shifted to documents, videos, e-Learning, etc. and other segments can be provided later as performance support, micro-learning, etc. Only those objectives that are best learned socially with each other from an instructor need be delivered in a virtual classroom session.

    4. Some additional virtual classroom tips shared included using virtual ice breakers, ensuring inclusivity, the warning not to lower expectations, and making sure to explore and use your virtual platform features, e.g., break out rooms, chat forums, whiteboards, polls, etc. 

  4. Re-Discovering the LXP or LMS. Some organizations noted that for many employees, they understandably do not have time right now to focus on professional development. But others noted that some job roles will have down time in the coming days and weeks, whether working from home or still in the office, and so they are using this opportunity to re-introduce their Learning Experience Platform (LXP) or Learning Management System (LMS) and the wealth of content and other learning and development opportunities that these provide. Some also noted the use of these or other platforms to encourage greater user-generated content or expert knowledge sharing, e.g., especially on timely topics such as virtual leadership, tips on working from home, etc.

  5. Curated Best Practice Example Articles 


    Other Resources


    Virtual Classroom Training

    World health Organization: Online training as a weapon to fight the new coronavirus
    This is a free learning resource available to anyone interested in novel coronavirus on WHO’s open learning platform for emergencies. 

    ATD's new Virtual Training Resources center, which includes articles by several virtual classroom thought leaders.

    Additional free resources from one of the ATD thought leaders above, including platform checklists for Zoom, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc., written from an L&D perspective, as well as conference presentations, articles, etc.

    Virtual Meetings (and Training)

    If you use Zoom, here is the link to their many resources to learn the platform. Similarly, if you use WebEx, here is the official knowledge base from Cisco.

Thomas Stone
Tom is a Senior Research Analyst at i4cp, with over two decades of experience as a writer, researcher, and speaker in the learning and development and broader human capital industry. He is also author of multiple books, including co-authoring Interact and Engage! 75+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars (second edition from ATD Press, 2022).