Yesterday, I was talking with a Maverick colleague about one of our new yellow belt candidates, and she asked me: "Well, is (the candidate) a passenger or a driver?" "Passenger? Driver?" I said. "What do you mean?" "Does he only focus on meeting his own personal objectives or does he have a sense of responsibility to the organization’s larger objectives?" Passenger or Driver? The question is at the heart of the role Learning and Development (L&D) plays in organizations. I see a whole lot of passengers—great, talented people who are working hard at the their jobs, sometime very hard—but who don’t pick their eyes up from their desk to see the bigger picture of what the organization is trying to achieve. Drivers, on the other hand, are all about the mission. They are always looking up and out at the road ahead, making sure their L&D work is having a measurable and significant impact on employee job performance in a way that is aligned with the organization’s objectives. Here’s an easy way to identify an L&D Passenger All you need to do is listen for phrases like these: I’m not responsible for results. If employees don’t use the training I create, that’s the manager’s fault. You can’t really measure the impact of training. I don’t think this is the right learning solution, but if that’s what management wants, then who am I to say ‘no’? And here’s how to spot an Owner Listen for phrases like these: We gave this same training last year with no real results. Let’s rethink this situation and take a new approach. This process is complex and hard to learn. Let’s simplify it first. What you’re describing is not a training problem. Too Many Passengers in L&D The notion of passengers and drivers speaks to the heart of L&D’s value to the organization. For too long, L&D has turned its eyes downward, delivering training solutions that don’t do jack for their organizations. That has to change. Your organization, your industry, your country…heck…the entire world needs everyone in L&D to look up from their desks. We simply don’t have the resources any more to spend on elegant learning solutions that don’t achieve objectives. Lean Creates Drivers If you manage L&D and you want a staff of Drivers instead of Passengers, Lean gives you an entire methodology to do just that. Here are just a few examples: Reduce the Learning Burden. Lean demands you reduce the Learning Burden on your organization. You do this by consistently requiring people find new ways to make learning and processes visual, intuitive and obvious. Manage Learning Value Streams. Lean ensures that individuals in the Learning Value Stream aren’t putting their own objectives ahead of the Value Stream’s goal. Become Learner Focused. One of the most powerful Lean tools is the Gemba Walk, which makes L&D people become steeped in the learner’s work situation before designing a learning solution. In cases where we’ve helped organizations transform L&D with Lean, we’re seeing entire departments of former Passengers look up and become confident Drivers. (Yes, even the ones who have made themselves a cozy nest in the back seat.) Lean is a persistent, gentle influence that is designed to break through resistance. The Lean Learning Bottom Line L&D needs to transform itself into a profession of Drivers, not Passengers. Lean Learning gives you a methodology and tools to create that transformation.   A Special Note About the Term "Lean Learning" In pioneering the application of Lean to training and learning, we started out calling our methodology "Lean Knowledge Transfer." But, as good Lean practitioners, we are going through our own PDCA cycle and have discovered through our own Gemba Walks that "Lean Learning" is a more approachable and appealing name. Starting now, we will be using this term instead of "Lean Knowledge Transfer" and will be gradually changing it on all of our content. Going to SHRM Talent? I’ll be giving my presentation "Using Lean to Improve Onboarding: A Case Study" at the SHRM Talent Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Hope to see you there!   Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Passenger or Driver? appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Have you seen this video of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant doing her own version of the pre-flight safety talk? It’s hilarious. It’s also a perfect example of how the Lean Learning Value "Emotional Connection" can help you get employees to actually attend and learn from compliance training. Emotional Connection: The Secret to Successful Compliance Training The pre-flight safety talk has to be one of the world’s most ignored and despised forms of compliance training. Government regulations require that it be done, even though just about every single person on the plane has sat through it dozens, if not hundreds, of times. Yet, if you watch the passengers in this video, you’ll see something you’ve probably never seen before…everyone on the plane is paying rapt attention. The passengers probably didn’t realize it, but they actually learned the safety instructions that day. Why did people sit up and listen? Because the flight attendant’s patter was new. It was funny. It was engaging. That’s the Lean Learning Value "Emotional Connection." And for compliance training, it offers you a powerful way to get people to engage. Overcoming Disdain The thing about compliance training is, there’s usually a good reason behind it. (Like surviving an accident, for example). But the value often gets lost because it doesn’t immediately and directly affect the job performance objectives for which employees are rewarded. Those objectives carry a lot more emotional connection. And it’s not just the employees. Most organizations approach compliance with equal disdain, and the result reflects the attitude: terrible training. Boring. Complicated. Blah, blah, blah. Death by PowerPoint. E-learning course. Check the box. Learners feel and absorb this attitude. They disengage from the training and can’t apply what’s taught when they need it. And that’s bad for everybody. Try something new: Add Emotional Connection to your compliance training. You don’t need to hire a comedian (although that’s not a bad idea). There are lots of different emotions you can engage, and they can all be effective. Competitive Spirit - Turn the training into a game and have people vie to win. Shock - Show people what can happen if they don’t learn the content. But be careful…if you go overboard, people turn off because they think "that will never happen to me." Empathy - Use storytelling techniques but not by a professional trainer. Have someone who’s actually experienced the situation and/or the consequences tell about it. And if those don’t deliver the results you want, try a trick from one of my favorite books "Moonwalking with Einstein." Engage learners’ curiosity by harnessing the power of weird. The Lean Learning Bottom Line Knowledge sticks when we’re emotionally connected while learning. This is the fundamental reason why compliance training is such a slog — there’s little or no emotional investment in learning content that’s being presented. Create that emotional connection with your learning solution, and you’ll see much better results. Let’s ride!   Todd Hudson The post The Secret to Successful Compliance Training appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  So, Lean is all about reducing waste and improving efficiency, right? Actually, no. At its core, Lean is about developing, engaging, and inspiring everyone at all levels in the organization to think differently and exercise creativity in order to create more value for the customer. And, if your organization is implementing Lean, L&D has a critical role to play by creating learning solutions that get people to think differently and creatively. Getting People to "Think Lean" Lean transformation demands that employees learn to think in terms of what the customer values: What do customers want? What will they pay for? And in healthcare, where the customer relationship is more complex, how can patients get the best outcome in an environment of safe, affordable comfort? With this knowledge, employees need to learn how to "see" things that customers/patients don’t value, so that waste can be eliminated and replaced with what they do value. This is "thinking Lean," and here are some examples: A call center supervisor knows that customers who call are frustrated and value fast response to their problems. While "thinking Lean," she notices that the automated message that plays when customers dial the service line is long and contains unhelpful special offer information. In a hospital food service department, the person who delivers meals to patients knows that diabetic patients need to eat certain meals on a regular schedule. While "thinking Lean," he notices that those patients often receive the wrong meals, or the meals are delivered at times that are out of sync with their insulin schedules. At a food products manufacturer, a line worker knows that customers value the dark yellow color of their specialty hot mustard. While "thinking Lean" he notices that the mustard gets lighter as a hard-to-replace ingredient filter gets clogged. As you can see, these examples all show that the employees’ keen awareness of the ultimate value to the customer is driving what they "see" in their work and allowing them to spot potential ways to eliminate waste and add value. Getting People to Think Creatively In a Lean transformation, everyone should be creating new ways to deliver more value to customers and eliminating waste in the processes that create the value. From the above example, here’s where the creativity comes in: The call center supervisor creates a new automated message that shortens the time that customers have to wait to talk to a person and contains quick tips to help customers solve simple problems themselves The hospital food service worker devises a new delivery method based on hotel room service that allows diabetic patients to call for their meals and have them delivered 15 minutes later. The line worker at the food manufacturer thinks of a clever way to quickly switch out the clogged filter with a new one. And, of course, the challenge for executives is to create a work environment that connects employees to customers and that encourages and rewards creativity. How Can L&D ‘Teach’ Lean Thinking and Creativity? Lean Learning can be a powerful way to get employees thinking Lean and exercising their creativity. Your first step is to begin working with your organization’s Lean implementation teams. As you Map the Learnscape for the Lean implementation, pay special attention to how your learning solution will spur Lean thinking and creativity. You can create learning solutions specifically to encourage Lean thinking and creativity, and you can incorporate them in solutions that have other learning goals. If your organization is planning to implement Lean, get out ahead of it, so the Lean thinking skills are already in place by the time they’re needed. Remember, also, that when you implement Lean Learning, you are modeling Lean thinking and creativity for employees. Make sure they know that when you are doing your Gemba walks and deploying your learning solutions. The Lean Learning Bottom Line As an L&D professional, you can make a mighty impact on the success of your organization’s Lean implementation by teaching employees how to "think Lean" and how to exercise their creativity to find ways to eliminate waste and add value. Make Lean Learning the model and use it to demonstrate these new habits. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post How to Teach People to "Think Lean" appeared first on Maverick Institute.

June 12, 2014 I’m just back from the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit 2014 in Los Angeles. Really inspiring to see how healthcare providers are improving experiences and outcomes for patients, and also to hear so many great stories about how nurses and techs are jazzed about their expanded roles in delivering better care with Lean. A high point for me was when John Shook, President of the Lean Enterprise Institute, wrapped up the event with a talk on the Five Questions for a Lean Transformation. Although he didn’t use our terminology, Lean Learning figured prominently! Here’s how: John’s five questions for a Lean transformation were: What value, from the customer’s point of view, are we trying to create? What is the work that needs to be done to deliver that value? How do we develop the capability to do the work that delivers that value? What leadership behaviors and management systems to we need to build the capability and manage the work? What basic thinking and assumptions underlie this transformation? By answering and addressing these five questions in this order, an organization can create a Lean culture more quickly and efficiently and is less likely to go off the rails or down a rabbit hole. Lean Learning falls smack in the middle of John’s question #3, How do we develop the capability to do the work that delivers that value? John’s approach makes crystal clear that there is a direct connection between developing people’s capabilities and delivering value to the customer. That’s the proper role of training and development. But in many of today’s T&D organizations that direct connection has been lost, and as a result, Training will create and deliver learning solutions for anything and anyone at any time. Lean Learning requires that training and learning professionals thoroughly understand the answers to John Shook’s first two questions BEFORE creating learning solutions. This is why we use methods like writing good problem statements, taking gemba walks and mapping learnscapes. By truly understanding the value your organization is trying to create and the work that needs to be done to deliver it, you can develop engaging learning solutions that are waste-free, full of value and deliver real results. Otherwise, you could spend days, weeks and months creating a learning solution that receives a collective shrug or, worse, an overwhelming "This was a total waste of time." The Lean Learning Bottom Line To help your organization develop capabilities that deliver real value, try screening your training requests with John Shook’s first two questions (above). Then show learners the connection between their improved capabilities, the work they are doing and the customer value they’re delivering.   Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Connecting Learning, Work and Value appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  June 19, 2014 It’s safe to say that every organization in the world today needs knowledge to flow freely and rapidly. Yes, every organization in the world. It’s that important. But in most organizations, there’s a force working against that goal, actively throttling learning and keeping that essential knowledge from reaching those who need it most. And you may be surprised when I reveal what that throttling force is: the training department. Grains of Knowledge that Can’t Get Through Picture corporate learning as an hourglass. The sand in the top bulb is the knowledge the organization needs: information about software, hardware, customers, products, regulations, policies and procedures; how-to information to create new skills and enhanced abilities. Think of each grain of sand as a piece of learning content. The empty bottom bulb of the hourglass represents learners. They’re standing there, hungrily looking up and waiting for the knowledge to drop. And in the middle, in the narrowest part of the hour glass, is the Training Department, slowing down the flow. Training Doesn’t Mean to Squeeze It’s just that there is more expertise and knowledge to transfer than any training department can handle with their team of instructional designers, elearning programmers and classroom instructors. So, it’s triage. Training does its best to pick and choose what to work on, which courses to create, which classes to teach. If something doesn’t make it this time , too bad. Maybe next year. After triage, Training takes the expert knowledge (learning content) and repackages it, pulling together the grains of sand to give it order and an attractive look, adding examples, quizzes and exercises. This can take weeks or months. A large international bank with an extensive e-learning staff told me that it took their Training department a minimum of 12 weeks to create one elearning course. (Picture the learners, standing under the top bulb, waiting three months for the learning they need.) Eventually, the repackaged knowledge gets approved and distributed to people through classroom instruction or through technologies like learning management systems or mobile devices. This can take additional weeks and months. Training is a Knowledge Bottleneck When you look at it this way, it’s crazy. The last thing you want is a knowledge bottleneck, especially today where changing conditions and technologies require learning more and more, faster and faster. You want knowledge to be where it’s needed, when it’s needed and in whatever form makes sense for the learner almost instantaneously. The training hourglass approach will never accomplish this. It’s too clumsy, too slow, and there’s too much waste. So, what’s the alternative? Lean strives for flow, which is the uninterrupted creation of value to the customer, in this case, the learners. In Lean Manufacturing, flow means creating a product in response to a customer order as quickly and as waste free as possible. In Lean Healthcare, flow is a patient entering a care facility and moving through every step of their visit, from check-in to exam to procedure to discharge without delays, mistakes or other waste. No waiting rooms! In Lean Learning, we want learning content to appear where there’s demand for it. It passes, for example, from an outside expert to an inside expert to an employee to a supplier, gets incorporated into the work and improves performance as quickly as possible. And I’m talking hours and days, not weeks and months. For that to happen, Training must completely switch its focus from controlling information to unblocking and facilitating the flow of knowledge throughout the organization. Lean Learning does exactly that! Concepts like the learning burden and learning value stream help training professionals see new possibilities and change their roles to add more value to the learning process. The Lean Learning Bottom Line To create a true learning culture, Training must stop being a knowledge bottleneck, standing between experts and learners while controlling the pace of learning, and, instead, focus on removing obstacles to the flow of knowledge throughout the enterprise. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post The Surprising Thing that Throttles Learning appeared first on Maverick Institute.

June 27, 2014   Ever have a moment like this…you’ve learned something new and are applying it on the job and you’re thinking "I’ve got this. Yeah, I totally understand this." But, then, you stop and reflect on what you’ve done and, suddenly, it looks strange. Doubt creeps in. You start to wonder: Am I doing this right? It happens. Especially when you’re new to Lean. When you’re implementing Lean Learning (or any Lean process, for that matter), it’s easy to get disoriented. Lean is a new and very different way of thinking about…well…just about everything. It takes time to master the concepts, principles and tools and apply them in the right sequence. And when you’re under the pressure of work demands, it’s easy to say: I’ll use Lean on my NEXT project. This one really doesn’t need it. Luckily, there’s a great resource to help you find your way when you’re adrift in uncharted waters. It’s a Lean concept called "True North." Getting Yourself Back on Track True North refers to a set of simple principles that, like a compass, will guide you through the murk and confusion of a Lean change. This is especially important in the beginning when your end goal may still be elusive and you’re asking yourself: What’s this Lean thing going to look like anyway, when we’re done? True North is your "when in doubt, do…" guidance. In Lean operations and healthcare, True North typically revolves around principles like these: Create customer value Aim for perfection Have respect for people Continuously improve In Lean Learning, True North lies in what we call the Four Pillars: Learner Focus Speed Simplicity Aiming for Mistake-free Performance So, next time you find yourself at sea, all you need to do is stop and ask: Is my training solution learner-focused? Is it fast? Is it simple? Will it result in mistake-free performance? If the answers are "no" or "I’m not sure," then all you need to do is use your Lean tools—Gemba walks, learnscape mapping, SMART goals, etc.—to move in the right direction. Everyone On the Same Page True North is also a great way to align everyone in your Training and Learning organization, giving them a common purpose and a clear vision of what they’re trying to achieve. And if your organization is implementing Lean in other areas such as operations, the True North of Lean Learning will meld perfectly with their efforts to create value, aim for perfection and continuously improve in a culture of respect for people. The Lean Learning Bottom Line Can you get to True North perfectly? Probably not right away, but reaching for it causes us to stretch and achieve well beyond what we think we can do today. Let True North guide you as a compass would, always pointing you in the right direction and getting you back on track when you drift off course. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Are You Aiming for True North? appeared first on Maverick Institute.

July 10, 2014 A Guest Post by Maverick Institute Co-founder Tamara Greenleaf I live in Oregon, where the summer bounty of fruit is so amazing that we dream of it all winter long. Especially, oh especially, the cherries. Every other year or so, I go crazy and can 20 pounds of them. Nothing is better than pulling out a jar of those sweet, little orbs when the summer sun is only a distant memory. And, speaking of distant memory, that’s a real problem with summer canning. It’s a complicated process with many steps. The results are dire if I don’t do it correctly (botulism, anyone?). And since I only do it once every two years, it’s easy to forget the steps. So, how can Lean Learning help me with this? Standardized Work: A Lean Concept The first thing to recognize is that canning is a classic example of the Lean concept "standardized work." Standardized work is a documented best practice of doing something. It can be the best practice of doing almost anything, from inserting a stent into an artery, to installing a truck bumper, writing computer code, or loading a delivery truck. When you have a well-documented best practice, you can easily: Teach it to others. Continuously improve it to create a new and even higher standard for the work. Quickly and easily remind people how to do work that is only done very occasionally (such as canning or inventory or seasonal activities). When you create standardized work, you need to document three things: The inventory needed to do the work. The time(s) it takes for the work to be done. The sequence of steps needed. Once you have that information, you can very easily create a Lean Learning solution to teach and/or remind people of how to do the work. My Lean Learning Solution for Canning Cherries For my canning, I made a simple job aid for myself—a digital document with detailed inventory and step-by-step instructions—so I can just follow the exact steps for my best practice. Here’s what I did: Supply List Before I made my job aid, I used to wrack my brains trying to remember everything I needed. Now, I have a detailed checklist of every pot, pan, bowl, tool and utensil I need. On the morning when I start canning, I simply refer to the inventory list and pull out everything so I can wash it all at once. Formula List After wrestling for years trying to estimate quantities, I started to write down exact quantities that I used in the years before. Based on that data, I was able to come up with some pretty good guidelines, for example… 20 lbs of raw cherries equals 14 quarts of canned cherries. Or 12 pints & 8 quarts. Syrup needed for 20 lbs: 9 cups sugar + 21 cups water. This keeps me from running out of syrup or having too few jars. Shopping List This list has everything I need to buy: jar lids, cherries, sugar, spring water for the syrup with correct quantities. No more trying to think it through and calculate quantities (which can create the Lean waste "defects" in the form of omissions and addition errors). Step-by-Step Instructions With Detailed Notes Here’s an example of my detailed notes: Run the dishwasher the night before so it’s clean and ready to sterilize my jars. Start sterilizing the jars 45 minutes before canning begins. For things that require visual judgment, I take photos with my cell phone and digitally paste them right into the list. If a particular action is needed, I also could make a video. Continuous Improvement and a Learning Solution that Supports It Each year, while I’m canning I pay special attention to what is confusing, irritating or stressing me as I’m working, and I change the job aid for my standard work so it’s better, clearer and easier next time. For example, I always used to forget to run and empty the dishwasher the night before so it will be available to sterilize my jars in the morning. It was a little thing, but it threw off my timing by the 90 minutes it took to run the cycle and clear the dishes out. So, last year, I wrote it into my job aid. No more problem! The key point here is that, for my learning solution, I chose a digital document that is easy to create, access and update. I could have, for example, done a video, but a video would be hard to update and time-consuming when I need to quickly look up, say, a syrup formula. Standardized Work and Lean Learning Standardized work makes processes more and more simple as they are continuously improved, and therefore easier to learn. This reduces Training Waste, the Learning Burden and time to competency. Take a look around at your organization. How much of what is being done could be treated as standardized work? As a learning professional, you can make it your mission to create learning solutions that support the development and continuous improvement of standardized work. Your learning solution might be a digital job aid like mine for canning. Or a series of very short cell-phone videos or photos. Just remember to choose the simplest effective learning solution that will be easy to update as the standardized work is continuously improved. And, of course, if you really want to get Lean, work with people to "fool-proof" standardized work in order to eliminate the need for learning altogether. (See Todd Hudson’s blog post "Visual Intuitive and Obvious.") You will avoid a lot of training waste and save your learning resources for more complex learning needs.   Tamara Greenleaf, Maverick Institute Co-founder The post What Canning Cherries Taught Me About Lean Learning appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  July 25, 2014 In my conference talks, I often say one of the ultimate goals of corporate learning is that employees will never make a mistake on the job. And, when I say it, I always get a big mix of laughs, snorts, and head-shaking. "Never happen," people say. Well, go tell that to UPS. Recently the Wall Street Journal ran two articles about the UPS Circle of Honor, which is an award given to their drivers who remain accident-free* for 25 years. In 2013 alone, they inducted 1,500 drivers into that circle! (*Accident-free is defined as not having any avoidable accidents, so, for example, if a driver is rammed from behind by someone texting, the driver isn’t penalized.) It’s hard enough for an individual driver to go that long without an accident, but a driver who is out in traffic every single day? All day? On a time-sensitive delivery schedule? For 25 years? It’s almost impossible to imagine. And yet… 1500 drivers in 2013. How Do They Do It? With the right kind of training. The WSJ article doesn’t mention Lean Learning, but the training that it describes by UPS is packed with Lean Learning value. Here are a few examples: Alignment - UPS chose the right method for learning. The article says, "Originally, 30% of UPS drivers failed the tests and quizzes given after traditional training methods. Training…switches out books and lectures for more hands-on learning." Emotional Connection - Newbie drivers spend 20 minutes climbing on and off a truck, learning how to use the handrail. They experiment with using and not using the handrail, while a machine measures the pressure on their knees, demonstrating that the handrail makes it safer and better ergonomically. This creates emotional connection and personalizes (another Lean Learning value) the training in a visceral way that is far more powerful than just telling the learners "this practice is good for your knees" ever could. Instant Gratification - UPS set up a simulated neighborhood where newbies practice driving the trucks and making deliveries. In this learning environment, they can ask questions in the moment of confusion and receive immediate correction for mistakes. (Learn more about Lean Learning Values with the Quick Reference Guide on our Resources Page.) In all, UPS drivers are required to learn and apply 600 practices that create safety and efficiency. That’s a huge training objective! Yet… I’ll say it again…1500 drivers with a 25-year perfect record in one year. And you can bet the rest of their drivers are doing pretty well, too. What Can You Learn From This? First and foremost, mistake-free performance IS possible. Set your expectations high! Second, get creative with your learning solutions (and measure the results). Do you automatically default to classroom, elearning, or video out of habit? Are there ways you can add Lean Learning Value to get better results? Third, create emotional connection and personalization by appealing viscerally to your learners whenever possible. The Lean Learning Bottom Line Mistake-free performance IS an achievable goal for training. Don’t be afraid to stretch for it, especially when you’re dealing with job (or patient) safety. Lean Learning can get you there. Let’s ride!   Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post You CAN Train for Mistake-Free Performance appeared first on Maverick Institute.

August 7, 2014   "This training is lame. That guy hasn’t done that job in a thousand years." "They put us in a room and made us watch videos for, like, whole days. It was so basic I spent half the time playing Candy Crush on my phone." "So we had to do this e-course, right? I made the window small and put it right next to another window streaming last week’s ‘Walking Dead’." If you’ve been trying to onboard and train millennial employees using traditional methods, you’ve probably heard quotes like these and worse. One thing this generation excels at is letting you know when they don’t like something. But that’s a good thing. Because the problem isn’t Gen Y. It’s your training methods. Natural Lean Learners Millennials are natural Lean learners. All the things we teach in our Lean Learning certifications, they do as easily as breathing. Here are just a few examples of how they reject training waste and demand learning value. Over Teaching Drives Them Nuts - Gen Ys won’t "suck it up" and power through hours and hours of learning content just because you say they have to. Their brains aren’t wired for it. They think in 140-character bursts, #hashtags, and emoji. Delay Makes Them Google, Gossip, and Guess - Think your Gen Y is going to wait around for three weeks waiting for you to create a training course for something they need to know? No way. They want learning content NOW, and if it’s not easily available, they’ll go out onto the web looking for it. Sometimes that’s a good thing. Other times, you have no idea whether what they "learned" is accurate. They Decide Who is Credible - This is the generation that learns from bloggers and their friends on Facebook. They don’t care whether your expert has a Ph.D. or a title. Their respect has to be earned in other areas, such as regard among their peers. Remember, this generation grew up with overpacked schedules. They’re used to a fast pace, they switch gears like lightning, and they have little ability to tolerate "wasting time" doing things they don’t perceive as important. What Does That Mean for Your Training? You can hope to create good onboarding and training for millennials by trial and error, one program at a time. But why re-invent the wheel when Lean offers you a proven, systematic approach to eliminating training waste and increasing learning value in ways that perfectly respond to the needs of Gen Y? Creating an onboarding program for millennials is the perfect Lean Learning certification project. A number of our certification candidates have done so with great success. (See our case study "Saving Big Dollars with Lean Learning: How a candidate’s Black Belt project for new-hire training is generating more than $1 million per year in cost savings.) And if you’d like to get the jump with onboarding, we offer more help through the fully customizable Onboard Yourself handbooks for new hires and interns. OnBoard Yourself is just like it sounds…it helps millennials take charge of their learning while building a network of colleagues that will assist them throughout their career at your company The Lean Learning Bottom Line Millennials are natural Lean learners. Orienting your training to match their learning styles will bring better and faster learning to your entire organization. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Why Gen Ys Are Lean Learners appeared first on Maverick Institute.

September 3, 2014 Level one assessments are those "smiley" sheets learners fill out after a workshop or class. They ask questions like: Did the instructor provide adequate time for questions? Was the room comfortable? Did you have enough time to complete all the assignments? Those assessments are training waste, pure and simple. Think back to when you learned the most valuable lessons of your career. When I reflect on mine, the most powerful learning experiences were the most unforeseen, uncomfortable, and chaotic. …yield crash, merger mutiny, supplier bankruptcy, losing a key customer… No, the instructor did NOT provide adequate time for questions. (It was a VP yelling at the top of his lungs). The room was NOT comfortable. There wasn’t nearly enough time to do everything required (even though we worked long into the night and all weekend). If someone had done a level one assessment of those learning moments, it would have been a sea of frown faces. Learning and Comfort Have Nothing to Do with Each Other If truly powerful learning happens when things are least comfortable, why obsess over providing pleasant formal learning experiences? Chairs so plush you could fall asleep. Lunches so big you almost fall asleep. And content so boring you want to fall asleep. The data on formal learning retention is abysmal; some studies show it to be as low as 15% after three weeks. Every class, workshop, and elearning course are essentially the same. Completely unmemorable. Blah, blah, blah. And I’ll bet you a cushy chair that those same learning activities received excellent level one assessments. Don’t Strive for Comfort. Strive for Engagement. I recently spoke with one of our Black Belt candidates who attended a three-day mediation and negotiation course where the last day was Saturday! Throughout the three days, attendees (many of them busy doctors) arrived on time; came back from breaks, lunches and the occasional emergency phone call with alacrity; and even stayed late. Why? The days were filled with well-structured, challenging, and sometimes emotionally-wrenching role-playing activities. She told me that, in some cases participants begged the facilitators for more time so they could fully resolve their situation. Now, that’s engagement! If you create learning solutions free of Training Waste and abundant in Lean Learning Values, then a smiley sheet afterwards is an unnecessary extra step. The Lean Learning Bottom Line Stop obsessing over comfortable chairs, good snacks, and pretty handouts! Create challenging, distinctive learning experiences that engage participants and deliver real results. Let’s ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post Stop Worrying About Level One! appeared first on Maverick Institute.