Are Cultural References Stupid?

Last week, I was teaching students about introductory paragraphs—about the hook—to get readers interested in what they have to say. These are students at DeVry—students who work full time, attend classes both on site and online, and have some resemblance of a social life. I brought in an article I had recently finished—“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr for an example of using popular culture and making the connection between a well known movie/book/star/etc. with a point you want to make. Carr uses HAL, the supercomputer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. As I read the first two paragraphs, I realized I was glancing at a sea of blank faces. They didn’t get it.

Well, actually, they got the idea about the method Carr used, but not the actual reference. Not one student had heard of or seen the movie. I was stunned.

The next day, I receive an email with Tom Kuhlman’s latest posting from his Rapid e-Learning Blog. He titled his post “Is Google Making Our E-Learning Stupid?” and discusses Carr’s notion that we are thinking and reading differently due to the Internet and extended it to e-learning. Kuhlman states that “If these reports are correct, and we’re developing a new way of reading (or retrieving information), then this needs to be a consideration as we design our e-learning courses.” He goes on to give five ways to accomplish this, from pulling main ideas into focus to leveraging all forms of media.

It’s this last suggestion I wonder about. I agree that we should “incorporate graphics, video, audio, interactivity, and web-based technologies” into our e-learning, but it should be for a reason—to make a connection, to illustrate a difficult concept, to make a point poignant, to add relevance—not just to get learners’ attention. We need them to process. My question is that while using these technological tools, won’t we indirectly or directly make references to business culture, films, fashion, etc.?

Does this mean that unless we can connect to our audience and know what they feel is relevant, we may lose them? I am only ten years older than my students at DeVry. But in those ten years, a reference to a supercomputer taking over was lost. It made me wonder if the courses we are building for clients also have lost references in them. Do we need to make allusions to the latest Call of Duty game or add those features in our training so learners connect?

Building courses that are more interactive and engaging is something we should strive to better. But we still have to use those forms of media we understand and are comfortable with. Ever heard an older person try to use a “hip” word? It isn’t pretty.

Maybe referencing mediums you understand when you build courses gets your point across better than something you are unfamiliar with because you explain it well enough. Don’t forget, my students understood what Carr was trying to do in his article because he did it well, and they liked it even more once they understood the reference. In fact, use it to your advantage. I did. When my students didn’t get the reference, I told them to Google it right there and then so we could all discover what they could pull up by browsing.

Can we offer a similar kind of organic environment in training?

Onboarding is not new, nor is it the latest technique: So why are we still talking about it?

Hello? Does anyone know where my desk is? If this is how you started your first day at work, read on.



As Allen has just returned from the ASTD conference where we gave a presentation with Wachovia on onboarding new employees, it seemed an appropriate time to discuss this issue. It seems every place I have worked at frets over their onboarding process—is it enough/too much, does the employee feel connected/disjointed, does the training help/hinder, etc. And yet, onboarding isn’t a recent idea or the latest craze, so why are we still talking about it? Is it one of those mission critical issues that seems to be overlooked?

Well, that’s the rub. For most companies, onboarding has been a part of the company for years but hasn’t been updated. Or, it has been updated and now includes everything you will ever need to know—everything—oh, and you need to complete it in two days. Isn’t there a happy medium?

As we all have been a newcomer at one time, we know what would make an employee feel welcome and a part of the team without feeling overwhelmed, but it seems like common sense. And while it might seem like common sense, how many of you can say that your company does all it can to help their employees? After working with Wachovia and seeing their determination to make onboarding a success, I’ve written up a top 10 list for companies to consider when thinking about their onboarding process:

10. Yes, update! Think about it like this—how would you feel if you were a new employee and you were just given information that is no longer relevant? Would you feel welcome? Updating isn’t just about looking less ‘70s. So while the bellbottom pants in the scenarios may need to go, the current legal information on your policies and procedures is what is most important. And check your forms, especially ones that need to be signed, to be sure you are handing out the most up-to-date papers. Wachovia even took it a step further by making sure they could update their systems training so it would always reflect their current updates.

9. Prioritize. Does all information need to be given at once? Can it be spread over a few weeks to allow for retention of the material? While some items, like certain training or safety issues need to be addressed immediately, other issues could be extended over a week or two while the employee is settling in.

8. Provide a welcome front. Don’t just show new employees their desk, the bathroom, and the lunchroom. Introduce them to others in their department, those sitting around them, or those with similar interests. You did read about their other interests on the application—didn’t you? On a similar note, don’t talk poorly about clients or other employees in front of them. This just looks bad on you and your company—period.

7. Set goals. For you and for them. If possible and if there is a lot of training and an assessment, ask them when they believe they can complete the tasks. It might help them to already get a feel for completing something on time and it might give you an indication of their work ethic.

6. Allow for feedback. While they may not know your company’s procedures and processes, it might be a good time to help this transition for them to be able to discuss what they liked about the training at their previous company. This could give you an idea of what was working and even allow you to apply some really creative ideas to your training.

5. Lunch? It’s their first day and they probably don’t know anyone. Why not take this time to invite them to lunch with a few others to give them a space other than work to get to know each other. This could make them feel more comfortable and they will definitely appreciate the offer. If you have to eat at the company, make sure they have people to sit with.

4. A room with a view—or at least a space. Before they arrive, try to be sure they have a desk, locker, or whatever it is that they would need for their day to proceed smoothly. Make sure that if they are replacing another employee, the other employee’s belongings have been removed and the area has at least been wiped down.

3. Make time. As busy as you might be, make time to see for yourself that your employees are settling in okay. Then, check back with them later in the day to be sure they are busy enough and don’t need anything. This shows you are genuinely interested in the investment you just made by hiring that employee. And let’s face it—you are or you wouldn’t have hired him/her. Something Wachovia worked on was a blended training solution that allowed time with instructors as well as a one-on-one mentor.

2. Reward reward reward. This can go both ways. Have a timeline for 1 week, 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, etc. to check in with your new hires to see what they feel is missing and what they like. Find out how they would like to be rewarded for exceeding their goals and reward them accordingly. While many like financial bonuses, others like dinner certificates, awards at luncheons, or just acknowledgements at the next staff meeting.

1. Be honest. While this might sound like something you’d find in Cosmopolitan magazine, it’s at the top for a reason. Be honest about the job qualifications and the expectations from the beginning. Know what you want from your employees and clearly define those expectations. This was one area Wachovia excelled. They included specific expectations in the training as well as communicated the vales and visions their company believes in. Along these same lines, allow your employees to be honest with you. If they see something that can be improved, they should feel confident they can be honest about it—not rude or impolite—just honest. You and your employees will be much happier if you start with a true open door policy.

So this is my wish list on the top ten things a company could do to ease their employees into the company smoothly. I know there are still some companies out there that don’t have a process and believe onboarding really isn’t important to their success. I say talk to companies like Wachovia where they saw the value in onboarding because of its intrinsic connection to employee retention. Ask them how much money they’ve saved since they began this new training. Then, take a look at this list again and see if there isn’t room for change within your own company.

Veteran or Pretender?

Bear with me as I illustrate something that is fairly self-evident: Hard-earned experience is extremely valuable. For us as a company, 27 years of experience helping our clients develop successful corporate training initiatives has allowed us to not simply become experts, but has shown us what works—for us as a company, and for our clients. A quarter-century of being tried and tested has allowed us to develop and prove processes and best practices that give our clients an unparalleled level of service. Obviously, that’s valuable to our clients—and it’s why the vast majority of them stay with us year after year.

Pretty simple. Experience = Value. Problem is, because it’s so obvious, every vendor is going to try to make it look like they have experience. Granted, there are a number of our competitors who have almost as many years in the business as we do. Interestingly, they tend to be solid companies—like us, there’s a reason they’ve stayed in business for so long. And, to be fair, an additional number of our competitors are strong, viable businesses, even with less than ten years under their belts.

Yet, it’s plain to see, scores and scores of training companies, e-learning vendors and custom content developers with very little experience exist in the industry. So called “mom and pop shops” litter the landscape. That’s fine—after all, every vendor has to start out small. The difficulty for training decision makers, though, is sifting through them all to discover the legitimate businesses, then sift further to find the vendors they can trust to make them successful.

Certainly no one is going to lie about the number of years they’ve existed as a business. But when it comes to how some vendors present themselves, I can tell you there is definitely “fudging” going on out there. How do I know? Because of what our website traffic data tells us. Now, I hesitate to share some of this, but I think it helps to illustrate my point, and to serve as a warning.

As you probably know, we offer a Knowledge Base with case studies and white papers on training, as well as several other items, via this website. We offer the information freely, without any obligations other than to register with a username and valid e-mail address. Interestingly, a mind-numbing number of small, mom and pop shops, Indian vendors, consultants, and even larger competitors register for the site. No problem, we’re happy to offer the info to anyone in the industry who wants to learn. Besides, some of these competitor-visitors may be simply gathering competitive intelligence, which I won’t begrudge.

Thing is, though, we’re able to identify which items they download, and it most often tends to be our white papers, where they can educational information relating to the industry as a whole. Expectations would be that a competitor would download case studies to get an idea of who we’re working with and what sort of projects. Yet, most competitors don’t download even one of these documents. Instead, they seem to be looking to be educated.

Further, doing some reciprocal intelligence gathering, it’s been very surprising to me the number of these competitors who have taken content and concepts from these white papers and other sections of our website, tweaked them, and called them their own. Keep an eye out for those touting “rapid needs assessments” that tend to sound a lot like our ANSWER Analysis. There’s probably a reason why.

Perhaps the worst offender was an Indian vendor (to remain nameless) that spent a lot of time on our site. Then, two months later, the vendor relaunched their site, which, lo and behold, looked like our site, was architected like our site, said almost exactly word-for-word what our site says, even included a Flash piece that launches their “portfolio” that looked and functioned like ours. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I’m here to tell you, we are very, very flattered.

In the long run, though, it’s a larger problem for you, the leader of training initiatives. You shouldn’t have to be forced to sift through so many imitators. So, continue to do your due-diligence and weed out the pretenders early on. If you’re looking at a “smaller” or “newer” vendor, ask them early on about their experience, where and how they’ve developed their processes and practices. Legitimate ones won’t couch their inexperience, pretenders will exaggerate. Legitimate vendors, whether start up or long-standing, will be able to smartly and succinctly speak to your issues and challenges as experts—something that’s tough to fake. They’ll point to projects they’ve worked on similar to yours, and they’ll show you how that experience will help them help you.

Go with anyone else, and well, you’re gambling. Which is as obvious as the original point: Hard-earned experience is extremely valuable.

Training for a Recession

From the start of 2008, the “Big R” has been tossed about liberally by the media. The favorite wording tends to be “Looming Recession." Are we headed for, or are we in a recession? Depends on which publication and which economists are talking – not to mention which day of the week. In fact, just yesterday, Fed Chief, Ben Bernanke stated that while economic growth was “sluggish,” he doesn’t foresee a recession. Regardless, one thing I think we can all agree on is that the economy is certainly in a slowdown, and looks to continue. Economic “uncertainty,” has come to roost. What does that mean for all of us in the world of training?

If you’re like most, the first thing you think is, “Prepare for cutbacks—or worse.” In fact, as we reach out to companies in our marketing efforts, we’re encountering affected training departments. It seems pretty much a given that, when times are hard, training is the first to go. But is it really a given? Is there anything training departments can do to not only avoid the chopping block, but to help their organizations weather the storm and come out stronger at the end? Of course there is! After all, if learning and development isn’t valuable enough during the lean times, how can it be valuable during the fat?

We know the value training brings because we have a strong understanding of its effect on the performance of human capital. I like this statement from Ed Stewart of Southwest Airlines concerning their training recession strategy, as quoted in an October 2003 T+D article:

"Any [airline] can fly 737s to different cities. Our secret weapon is people, so we still had to invest in them."

Fact is, whether or not they are a “secret weapon,” people are undoubtedly the key to a company’s success. Ensuring they perform well shouldn’t even be a question. But I’m preaching to the choir. Which is the point of this post. If we want to weather this storm, we need to preach and prove to the rest of our organizations our worth. Here are a few ways to do just that:

Do the Numbers
Now’s the time to get your data together. Make it concise. Make it prove your initiatives’ worth—whether you’re talking ROI or qualitative or soft returns. As competition during a recession becomes fierce, quality increasingly becomes a key differentiator. Be prepared to show concrete numbers where your department will directly impact that quality. In the long run, numbers speak much louder than any other talk. If you don’t believe that, have a chat with the CFO. Which leads us to the next item…

Talk to the Right People
Fortunately, trends show senior managers are recognizing training’s worth. Don’t take it for granted, though. The CEO certainly needs to understand your worth. But so does the remainder of the C-level suite, all of whom need to be advocates for training. Take for example, the CFO. S/he can help you understand what numbers you can directly affect in relation to value and organizational growth. Work with the CFO to get your numbers straight and to prove your value to him or her. Certainly, the CFO will be one heck of an advocate.

If one advocate is good, a team of advocates is even better. Work with your company’s business unit leaders. Review the successes your programs have had as well as the impact to their units. Seek to understand where they expect your greatest impact to be—particularly in this year of economic downturn. Remember, business unit leaders are peers and face the same chopping block you do. Be their consultant by demonstrating how training can help their department avoid the pitfalls of a slow economy.

In short, make yourself invaluable to the business unit leaders, and you’ve made yourself invaluable to the entire company.

Tighten Your Belt
You can expect training will be required to cut back, just as other departments. Since it’s a foregone conclusion, be proactive. Don’t wait to be told where, how and how much. Figure it out yourself, put it into numbers (see above), and take it to the CFO and CEO (and your team of advocates, for that matter) now. You’ll not only show you understand the upcoming impacts, but you’ll also demonstrate your department is a “team player.” On top of that, you’ll gain significant trust, and trust is the currency that buys you a spot at the table when senior management seeks advice.

Be Consistent
Now is not the time to start trying wild and/or unproven methods. Yes, the industry may still be going ga-ga over Web 2.0, the Wii or some other such buzzwords, but if you’re looking at untested ground, switch your focus back to what’s already working, what can give you the numbers and proof you need. Besides, you can always try these ideas when times get better, as they surely will.

Look to Past Recessions
What companies survived past recessions? Of those, which came out stronger? Look to those winners and find out what their training organizations did. Model and adapt them to your company’s particular needs and your department’s specifics.

No Time Like the Present
Hopefully, you’ve already been doing all the above. If so, congratulations—you and your company are on the path to not only survive any economic uncertainties, but to come out stronger and more competitive when the economy cycles back to strong growth.

If you’ve been lax in the outlined areas, feel comfort that you aren’t alone. But don’t feel too comfortable. Now is the time to get on it, before things get worse, before decisions are made without your input. Today is the day to make your plan. Tomorrow is the day to implement it. For your good, for your team’s good and for the good of your whole organization, make your move now.

Have your own good ideas for how training departments can tackle recession issues? Share them and we’ll post some of the best ideas.