Workflow Learning
More Just-In-Time, Less Just-In-Case
DevLearn 2021
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Matt
Donovan
Chief Learning and Innovation
Officer at GP Strategies
Mike
Taylor
Learning Consultant
at Nationwide
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What brings you to
this session?
POLL/DISCUSSION QUESTION
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Agenda
What is
Workflow
Learning?
Why should
we care?
Workflow
Learning in
Action
Success
factors &
next steps
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What is
Workflow Learning?
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How do you define
Workflow Learning?
DISCUSSION
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Not a New Idea
“Increasingly software will be task
focused. Support for both task
performance and learning will
become an integral part of the
technological environment”
– Gloria Geary (1995)
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Ecosystem
“workflow learning is how
workers improve performance
in a business ecosystem.”
– Jay Cross 2004
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Performance Support
“Workflow learning is
embedding learning and
support in the workflow
to be accessed while
doing the work.”
– Mosher & Gottfredson
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Continuous Learning
“workflow learning
reflects a focus on
continuous learning”
– Josh Bersin
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Convergence vs. Divergence
“Learning I need at the
point of performance.”
– Matt Donovan (Just now)
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Yes, but what IS it?
Information Instruction Learning
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Shifting Focus
FROM
Formal learning
Top-down approach
Learning approach
Knowledge focus
TOWARDS
Informal learning
Bottom-up approach
Performance Support
Skill focus
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NEW ROLES for the Connected Learning Organization
MOMENTS OF
LEARNING NEED
1. Learn-first time
2. Learn-more
3. Apply/Refine
4. Adjust to change
5. React to Failure
EXPANDED LEARNER
ROLES
CONNECTED ORGANIZATION
LEARNING ROLES
1. Learning Connectors
2. Learning Bridgers
3. Specialists for Coaching
and Mentoring
4. Information Brokers
1. Consumer
2. Moderator
3. Curator
4. Contributor
5. Creator
6. Collaborator
Inspiration from: Rob Cross’ Work on Collaboration
Reference: “5 moments of Learning Need” Gottfredson & Mosher
EMERGING MOMENTS
• Innovate
• Grow for Next Role
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Why should
we care?
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Average shelf life of
a business
competency since
1984 in years
30 > 5
90%
of Fortune 500 list
in 1955 are gone
Average lifespan of
S&P 500 companies
dropped since 1920
67>20
50%
in the next 10 years,
of all S&P 500
companies will
disappear from the
list
Need for
Learning
Agility
Exponential Organizations | http://bit.ly/expoorg
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The pandemic has
dramatically increased the
pace of change.
A McKinsey survey showed that the pandemic had accelerated the overall adoption of
digital technologies by three to seven years in just a few months.
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how-covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever
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Course-based learning
performance degrades
rapidly over time.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1924649
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Lack of time for training
LinkedIn Learning’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report
Average is 1% or 24 minutes/week
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Learners want to learn
at their own pace.
94% per Towards Maturity 2019
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Many prefer to learn at the
moment of need
94% per LinkedIn Learning’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report
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What do people do when
they hit a roadblock in a
task at work?
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“I ask the person beside
me for the answer.”
https://blog.fuseuniversal.com/5-things-you-need-consider-to-build-a-really-useful-learning-culture
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Fewer than half of
respondents said their
systems facilitate the sharing
of learning with one another.
https://blog.fuseuniversal.com/5-things-you-need-consider-to-build-a-really-useful-learning-culture
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“Workflow Learning is
the democratization
of learning.”
– Mike Taylor (Just now)
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Putting the ‘flow’ in
Workflow Learning
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Work + Flow
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Courses and other
traditional approaches
don’t cut it anymore.
Company-Wide Visibility
Conversations & Discovery
across the org
Working Out Loud
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Outside The Company Walls
gateway in and out of org
Important to learn from outside
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No content
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Microsoft Cortana & Viva
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What Do You Think?
If you think about the core, the inner, the outer, and
the open loop, what other tools do your employees
use that you can leverage for learning?
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Goals
Structure
People
Characteristics of a
Learning Organization
Create
continuous
learning opptys
Promote inquiry
& dialog
Encourage
collaboration &
team learning
Empower
people toward
shared vision
Promote
inquiry
& dialog
Establish systems to
capture & share
learning
Provide strategic
leadership for
learning
↑
Organizational Knowledge
↑
Organizational Performance
Adapted from Watkins & Marsick | Sculpting the Learning Organization
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Getting Started
Meet with your
team/audience
Inventory the
tools/apps
everyone
is already using
Seek out how you
can connect existing
tools to augment
and automate them
Look for ways to
enable the flow of
knowledge/info
Promote learning in
the flow of work!
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A traditional approach
1. Comprehensive WBT at launch
2. Job aids
3. User manual
EXAMPLE:
Expense reimbursement
system rollout
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Example: Expense reimbursement system rollout
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Moment of
Learning Need
Trigger Design Consideration
Learn something
for the first time
System rollout
1. Light system overview
2. Performance demos of common expense reports
3. Where to get help for other moments
Learn/do more of
something
60-90 days
First expense report
1. Pulse out tips and best practices from peers
2. Pulse out additional demos
Apply and refine First expense report
1. Job aids easily accessible from system
2. Searchable set of tips and best practices
3. Peer network/wiki for sharing application and refinement
practices
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Example: Expense reimbursement system rollout
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Moment of
Learning Need
Trigger Design Consideration
Adjust to change
New code for an activity
Need to find a specific code
1. Job aids easily accessible from system
2. Help desk support
3. Peer support network
4. Searchable set of tips/best practices provided by system
owner and peer network
React when
something goes
wrong
Expense report is rejected
1. Searchable set of “What do I do when X happens?”
2. Help desk support
3. Peer support network
4. Searchable set of tips/best practices
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Apply 5 Moments of Need
Moment of
Learning Need
Trigger Design Consideration
Learn something for
the first time
Learn/do more of
something
Apply and refine
Adjust to change
React when something
goes wrong
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– W. Edwards Demming
It is not necessary
to change. Survival
is not mandatory.