Introduction: Preview of Coming Attractions
Larry Israelite
My wife and I watch a lot of movies. Not by streaming from Netflix or Amazon Prime, but the old-fashioned way—by going to a movie theater. Part of the experience we enjoy is sitting through the previews. The preview, of course, aims to make the viewer really want to see the movie. Wendy and I have a little “thumbs up/thumbs down” system that we invoke at the end of each preview. Sometimes the previews just aren’t that interesting (thumbs down). Sometimes we fear that that the producers have crammed so much into the preview that we aren’t sure there is anything left to see (thumbs down). But sometimes we are so captivated by the story, the characters, the cinematography, or some other element that we can’t wait to see more (two thumbs up). And that, perhaps in a more modest way, is my goal in this introduction.
What I offer you here is a preview of what’s to come. I hope to provide enough context to stimulate, tantalize, intrigue, or even outrage you. And I hope to help you identify the chapters that can help you solve an immediate problem or respond to a pressing need, and those that you may want to read at your leisure. In other words, I am trying to provide you with a way to access the content that is, simultaneously, easy and meaningful.
The order of the chapters is not accidental. But it is only fair to mention that it is different from the order I had originally planned. As I read and edited the chapters, a new narrative developed—one based on an approach to entering the world of lies about learning with a particular perspective that I hope you will find useful. That is not to say that one must proceed in the prescribed order. To the contrary, the rules have not changed. The goal is for you to read the chapters from which you will benefit most, just before your personal moment of need.
Part I: Lies About Learning in General
Chapter 1: Lies About Learners
If it weren’t for learners we would all have different jobs. They are, after all, our raison d’être. They are one of our key stakeholders—our most ardent supporters and most vocal critics. We seek them out for insight into and feedback on the solutions we create for them and the other stakeholders for whom we work. And, on some occasions, they can be pawns in the larger games of chess that happen in our organizations each and every day. But above all else, they are ever changing and always evolving. And that is precisely the issue that Annmarie Neal and Daniel Sonsino vigorously tackle in their chapter.
Neal and Sonsino propose that the current and, perhaps more important, incoming generation of learners are so fundamentally different from those whom we have served in the past that we have to rethink most of what we know about enabling workplace learning. In fact, we need to rethink almost all of our long-held beliefs and assumptions about talent management in general. While others can, and will, continue to argue about the similarities and differences among Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials, Neal and Sonsino focus on the impact that complete and total fluency with technology will have on learning. They explore in great detail the changes that will be required if we are to meet the needs of a workforce that is, in every sense of the phrase, digitally native.
Chapter 2: Lies About Learning Research
In theory, almost everything a learning professional does is based on some sort of scientific research. We do we what we do because professionals with the appropriate expertise conducted studies, evaluated results, and then drew and documented valid conclusions about what they learned. In most cases, the results, conclusions, and recommendations find their way into books, articles, and other documents that, eventually, guide professional practice. We know names like Skinner, Gagné, or Schank, and theories like behaviorism, cognitivism, or construtivism thanks to such research, and they and their theories, both individually and collectively, have forever altered the practice of our collective profession.
In his chapter, Doug Lynch argues that we have become a little sloppy in our approach to research. We have become, it appears, too willing to take on faith that the things we hear at conferences or read in the trade press (notice that I did not use the phrase “refereed journals”) are true. We have become less demanding than we should in asking for real evidence that backs up the claims being made. And, even worse, we allow well-publicized, but unproven, hypotheses to take on a mantle of absolute truth and alter the practice of our professions. Lynch offers suggestions for how we can become more critical of the claims we hear and more rigorous in how we determine the difference between truth and desire.
Chapter 3: More Lies About Instructional Design
Most formally trained instructional designers I know spend part of their workday defending the profession. In many cases these defenses aren’t overt. Rather, they tend to be more nuanced explanations of what they do, why they do it, what happens if they don’t, what difference it makes, and so on. If you are a trained designer, you know the drill—anyone can design. And even worse, each new tool, technology, generation, or almost anything else new and cool may simply eliminate the need for the rigorous application of principles—the art and science—of instructional design.
This isn’t new. Looking back on my career, I can identify specific times when pundits, prognosticators, and people with an agenda declared the end of instructional design. New developments in technology, they said, would eliminate the need, assuming there had been one in the first place. History, of course, has proven them wrong over and over again. As it turns out, products intended to enable learning require that people who understand learning, and how it occurs, be involved in creating it. Go figure!
In her chapter, Mindy Jackson tackles this issue head on. In her spirited defense of her profession, she tackles the more recent developments that have given skeptics broader license to argue that instructional design is a quaint relic of an interesting, but largely irrelevant, past.
Part II: Lies About the Business and Management of Learning
Chapter 4: Lies About Managing the Learning Function
As it turns out, Albert Einstein did not say: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” The phrase first popped up in a slightly different form in, of all places, a Narcotics Anonymous document published in the early 1980s. Less than 20 years later, David van Adelsberg and Edward Trolley published Running Training Like a Business, which served as a clarion call to learning professionals everywhere that the days of inwardly focused, output-oriented training organizations were rapidly dwindling. Rather, they contended, training professionals must learn to measure themselves by the outcomes they deliver and, more important, by the value they create for the customers they support. In other words, these professionals had to hold themselves accountable to the same standards as any other business. Unfortunately, 16 years later, it may be that we are all insane, because, in far too many cases, we continue to do the same things we have always done, but we continue to expect different results—more respect, bigger budgets, sufficient resources, and the ever-elusive seat at the table.
In his chapter, Trolley argues that learning leaders can do much more to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and value of the products and services they deliver to their internal customers. But to do so, they must be willing to stop doing what they have always done and take a fresh look at everything, with an eye toward doing what is best for the organization, even if it means letting go of the functions and resources they have traditionally controlled.
Chapter 5: Lies About Learning to Lead
I have long listened to, participated in, and become sincerely disinterested in the never-ending argument about whether leaders are born, trained, or some combination thereof. And at the same time, there is the ongoing disagreement about whether managers have to be leaders, whether leaders have to be managers, or whether both are, more or less, the same. I suspect that there are several truths and lies about these issues, none of which will be resolved any time soon. It doesn’t really matter anyway. And nothing all that useful has ever come from the discussion. That said, I don’t expect the discussions to stop any time soon. And, perhaps, we learn something through the process; we refine our personal perspectives or philosophies with what we hear from and say to others.
Leaders—or managers, if you prefer—have their own conversations about their jobs and what it takes to do them well. And just as learning professionals develop points of view about our work, our responsibilities, and the best ways to learn how to fulfill them, leaders do the same. It is precisely this issue that Terry Traut addresses in his chapter—the stories new and experienced leaders tell themselves that prevent them from getting the development they need to increase their capabilities and the likelihood of success. He goes on to describe what learning and development professionals can do to help ensure that leaders take advantage of the available development opportunities.
Chapter 6: Lies About Learning Strategies
Like most people who work in discrete disciplines, learning professionals have a unique vocabulary to describe their work. Some terms we use have commonly accepted—or to outsiders relatively accessible—meanings. Most people will have a shared understanding of what the terms mean and, in many cases, the kind of work or work product they describe. But in other cases, the meaning is not as clear—for example, “learning strategy.”
We use that phrase frequently, but do we really know what it means? More important, do our clients—the ones for whom we create these “strategies”—understand what they are, why we create them, and what actual value they deliver? I would guess that most of us would acknowledge that we haven’t done a particularly good job of articulating this.
Tina Busch addresses this issue. In her chapter, she suggests that a learning strategy is the component of a larger business strategy that describes how employees will be made capable of delivering what is expected of them. She goes on to describe some of the biggest lies that learning professionals tell themselves, which, in turn, inhibit their ability to effectively develop, communicate, and execute learning strategies that deliver real value to their organizations.
Chapter 7: Lies About the Return on Learning
For some reason, the phrase return on learning is one of the third rails of our profession. If we talk about it at all, we do so only in small groups of our most trusted colleagues. We speak in hushed voices, looking over our shoulders to make sure that outsiders aren’t listening in, getting ideas, or developing expectations on which we may never be able to deliver. If it weren’t such an important issue, we might find this almost comical.
To the cynic, the problem is fairly simple: If we quantify the value of what we deliver, we may find out that we don’t deliver nearly as much value as we thought we did, if any at all. And if we are honest, we will acknowledge that it is far easier and much safer to take the position that training has some inherent value—that well-designed, highly interactive programs (classroom or otherwise) have intrinsic value. We say earnestly and often truthfully that our clients lack the ability, interest, or will to collect the information we need to quantify the value and impact of our solutions. So, in many cases, we just don’t.
In his chapter, David Vance forcefully argues that we are making a crucial mistake by not aggressively pursuing and implementing a comprehensive strategy for calculating the return on learning. He describes in detail the importance of rigorously measuring the economic value of the products and services we provide, and then systematically lays out the excuses we make—the lies we tell—for not doing so. Finally, he provides recommendations for beginning the return on investment journey.
Part III: Lies About Technology and Learning
Chapter 8: Lies About E-Learning
There is no single topic in our profession about which more has been written and less has been said than e-learning. Starting in the early 1980s, every few years a new method of delivering training through some form of computer technology has captured the headlines—and, unfortunately, the hearts, minds, and pocketbooks of our learning colleagues. Pick your technology, and, beyond any shadow of a doubt, it was expected to replace whatever media you were currently using, allowing you to create learning products more quickly and less expensively, drastically reduce the length of the learning experience, and produce unimaginable increases in learning outcomes. And, of course, things never quite worked out that way.
Why? Because the fundamentals of good learning design don’t change, no matter which technologies we bring into the mix. And in our fervor to do well, we sometimes forget this. We look for shortcuts, not from laziness or ill intent, but from our intense desire to respond to the needs of our customers, who want what their customers want: solutions that are good, fast, and cheap—all desirable goals.
Industry pioneer Michael W. Allen tackles the lies about e-learning with his unique perspective of someone who has been there from the beginning, helping shape an entire industry. He carefully describes the e-learning myths that have developed over the years and identifies what to do about them.
Chapter 9: Lies About Learning Technology
Hyperbole is rampant in learning technology. Claims about its future usually sound the same: “This [new technology] will change the face of education forever,” or to paraphrase a very well-known learning pundit and columnist: “MOOCs will revolutionize corporate learning and development.” Both statements are, of course, exaggerations that have been used for emphasis and effect. And, unfortunately, they have had an effect.
Over the course of my career a similar pattern has emerged. Some new (or reframed) learning technology is released to an unsuspecting public and an alleged new revolution is set to begin—or so say the people who released the technology or those who hope to somehow profit by discussing it or providing consulting for it. To be clear, all involved have a job to do. Product producers need to sell. Pundits need to provide insight, advice, and perspective. And consultants need to make a living. But it may be that we all get carried away with the excitement and develop unfulfillable expectations.
In a very honest and introspective discussion of this issue, Elliott Masie provides a thought-provoking analysis of the factors that contributed to the proliferation of lies about learning technology. More important, he presents a clear and compelling approach for thinking about new learning technologies and concrete methods for identifying how they can deliver real value in our organizations.
Part IV: Wrap-Up
Chapter 10: Lies About Learning Pronouncements
Here is a funny line that appears in almost every quarterly report or financial statement: “Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.” In fact, these documents often devote an entire section (typically named “Forward-Looking Statements”) with lots of legal mumbo jumbo to reiterate, in far too many words, this point. So, more or less, the only part of these documents that we can count on being accurate and truthful is the numbers.
But I get it. One should never assume that a company that has been successful in the past will continue to be so in the future. It does, I suppose, make me a little sad everyone doesn’t know this, but that’s my problem.
In this chapter, I explore, with the help of an unnamed co-conspirator, some of the pronouncements that we hear or read almost daily, many of which should have been prefaced by the sort of caveats that appear in financial statements: The public should not rely (or act) on anything the company says about what might happen in the future because it could all turn out to be complete and utter fiction. Some of these statements are taken as such absolutes that learning professionals reframe their budgets, change their strategies, or make major investments in technology. In other words, I dissect the statements that have a real impact and try to set the record straight about what they mean and how they should be interpreted.
Chapter 11: Final Words
The final chapter is an attempt to place some context around the lies discussed in the preceding chapters, those that could have been but weren’t, and those that we tell ourselves. I would be lying if I said my task was easy, because we do complicated work in a complicated world. As I have said many times before, we all wake up each day and try to fight the good fight, to deliver solutions of substance and value so that our customers can deliver on the expectations that have been created for them.
Earlier I said that the book has been designed to be used as a personal performance support tool. So go ahead and read the chapters in the order that makes the most sense to you. I might suggest you read this one last. But no matter the order, I just hope you find this chapter—and the others before it—useful.