Thursday 3 April 2014

Job-aids...gone crazy?!?

Just-in-time Learning is a toolbox of learning experiences that creates a pull-system in the organisation and eliminates waste. But it isn't so standardised and it isn't so time-consuming and it isn't at all boring. It is a new age of learning. It is learning when you need it and where you need it. Think job-aid.. gone crazy! (What do you think of that for a slogan?)

I started my journey with JITL by observing where motivation hit me to learn more... one day I was working in PhotoShop and couldn't manage to cut out an image. Instead of opening a monstrous book about PhotoShop or ordering the book and waiting one week, or calling and harassing a friend or reading through a million Adobe forums, I went directly to YouTube and watched a 12 year-old very pedagogically give me 3 steps to solve my problem. (for the record, yes, I began to dislike 12 year-olds and yes, I can help you cut out an image). The ease of using YouTube was key. I knew the tool, I was confident there was a smug 12 year-old out there, and I knew it would take seconds.

It isn't unlike the problems I see when working with various sales organisations. They have 1000+ products in their portfolios and they are expected to position themselves as product specialists while out in the field. And the information they get is curated from Subject Matter Experts that love what they do... and possibly the 1000000 powerpoint slides that come with it. They run a week-long course to help sales professionals and in the end, sales professionals either don't need the information because the product changes or the need for it does, they don't remember the information, the learning budget is tightened or it is simply easier to sell something less complex. There are a bundle of reasons.

That is why Lorensbergs is wrapping itself in the Just-in-Time Learning toolbox. Small snippets of knowledge, skill and motivation over a spaced amount of time. Letting the brain focus on the result instead of how and where and what information to seek. Here are our JITL principles.

How are you and your organisation getting just-in-time?

-Chris

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