1. Embedding e-learning Engaging your organisation
Policing Learning Technologies Conference
2nd April 2008
Laura Overton
Director, Towards Maturity Project
Feedback from workshop delegates on the day is
included in this presentation in purple
Please do not reproduce without permission

2. How engaged is your organisation?1
With Learning in general?
Overall rate about 7/10 10
With Learning Technology?
Overall rate about 2 or 3 /10

3. Engaging your organisation with learning Technologies
What challenges to you currently face?
How do we measure outcomes?
Technical infrastructure
Managerial barriers – business rules and attitudes
Trainer capability and attitude
Learner motivation
Content not perceived to have value
No protected learning time
No Ownership/validation
Miss selling by managers ( mandated learning as interesting)
Enagement with learning
No senior management buy in or lead by example
Not integrated into other offerings
Bad experiences in past
Please see examples in resources (last page) of how other
organisations have addressed some of these issues

4. Challenges to increasing use of e-learning in next 3 years
2006 Figures
2004 figures
Cost of set-up, development and maintenance  
45%
22%
Reluctance by staff to adopt new technology  
43%
42%
Lack of knowledge about its potential use and implementation   (not asked in 2004)
39%
Lack of skills amongst staff to implement and manage eLearning
35% 4%
Lack of attractive, high-quality e-learning that supports our business goals   8%
e-learning too generic and not sufficiently tailored to our needs (not asked in 2004)
30%
Past experience of e-learning hasn’t fulfilled our expectations  (not asked in 2004
23%
Unreliable ICT infrastructure/low bandwidth 
Suppliers overemphasise presentation and style (not asked in 2004)
18%
Staff ICT skills  
13%
Insufficient staff access to computers to be worthwhile  9% 7%
Happy with current provision and no need to increase use  
Taken from Towards Maturity research with 200 organisations and 1000 learners
It is important to note that these are barriers to increasing use of e-learning within organisations who have had some exposure to learning in this way.
Barrier of IT infrastructure dropped from 28% to 23 %
Lack of staff ICT skills increased from 4% to 13%.
Lack of content increased from 8% to 35%.
Overcoming user objection remains at 43% (was 42%)
No need to change remains at 8%
Lack of people and skills to resource E-learning rises from 8% to 35%.
The most significant barriers are linked to staff attitude and training staffs skill in the use of e-learning rather than ICT access and ICT skill in general which are at the bottom of the list.

5. Where do we want to be?
Addressing challenges is like eating an elephant –it can be overwhelming but achievable if we do this one bite at a time:
identify your most pressing challenge
Is it something you can influence in short term? Long term?
What one or 2 things can you do to help?

6. Who are the most influential stakeholders in your Police Force?
Greatest supporters?
Greatest supporters across different forces included Project managers, in force learning mentors, chief officers, area commanders, trainers, learners
Greatest challenge/
gatekeeper?
This same list also appeared in other forces as the greatest gatekeepers
Via the elearning advisory group - can you start to encourage peer to peer engagement across forces eg get an engaged chief officer to create a podcast interview that can be used with others etc

7. Engaging Stakeholders – Who and why?
L&D staff
Senior Management
Build vision
Create priority
Define success
Sponsors within the force
Line Management
Own specific initiatives
Incorporate learning as part of solution
Influence management & define success
Influence and motivate individuals
Allocate time
Support
Learners
Local learning Champions
Each of the stakeholders will have a different impact on the effectiveness and should all be engaged although some may be more significant for you at this point in time
Need to understand the language they use, the pressure they are under and have a unique proposition for each. Typical communication strategies focus on senior management and learners but neglect line management , local sponsors and champions as key influencers
Participate in training
Apply knowledge
Improve performance
Motivate, engage and support
Ensure local relevance

8. Top 3 stakeholders
Taken from Towards Maturity research – these are considered to be the top stakeholders that influence success. Notice the shift to learners and managers as organisations mature
Those new to e-learning influenced more by Training Department and support functions (HR,IT)
Mature users place learners and line managers as most significant stakeholders in success

9. Engaging key stakeholders
Engaging appropriate stakeholders at the right implementation stages
Asking the right questions using the right language
Examples provided – using management to help define outcomes at the beginning
so that they are engaged before you get to demonstrating value
Use learners in design process
Use pilot evidence (from peers) to engage others in the main role out
Review your last pieces of communication to your audience
( , promotion web site etc)
Put a red line through any jargon - what are you left with?
( learning jargon or technology jargon)

10. Expectation of results L&D skills currency Learning Design
Business Need
Individual Need
Alignment to Strategy
Expectation of results
L&D skills currency
Learning Design
Supporting Learners
Assessment
Learner/business
Feedback
Measurement
Communicating benefit
Defining impact/
Results required
Learner Context
Work Context
Ensuring engagement
Building Capability
Demonstrating Value
Informal Learning
Empowerment
Learner’s environment
Motivation
Work life balance
Skills and Attitudes
Influencing Stakeholders
Peer to peer collaboration
These elements all contribute to a mature implementation of learning technology that delivers impact in the workplace.
They are interlinked and interdependent – if one is missing it will hold the others back – but they are not necessarily linear and some elements take place simultaneously.
Examples from this model are explored in more detail on
Business context
Technical environment
Managerial support

11. E-LEARNING SUPERFOODS Exercise REVIEW
The following activities are directly linked to staff impact, organisational impact and takeup of learning in an organisation ( from Towards Maturity research) TM
dimension
Current
activity
Future
PRIORITY
Provide access to a wide range of learning opportunities
Learner
context
Visibly demonstrate success within the business to help maintain resources allocated to learning
Demo
Value
Regularly communicate e-learning successes to managers
Senior Management regularly demonstrate commitment to e-learning
Work
Make change management an integral part of deployment and planning of learning technologies
ensuring
engagmt
Provide each new learning technology initiative with a specific identity and brand
Help staff quickly put into practice what they learn from e-learning
Building
Capability
Quickly implement new learning programmes across the organisation
Personalise the learning experience for each learner
Have a clear understanding of what types of learning technologies our internal IT systems can support
Learning technologies are used to improve the way we address business requirements
Defining
Need
Learning technologies are used to support talent management and succession planning
Identify and train local champions to act as change agents
The Towards maturity research highlights that these activities correlate directly to staff impact, business impact and take up of e-learning.
They also map to the dimensions of the towards maturity model. Whilst they are all interlinked, this provides a useful checklist to review current activity within individual forces – are there any areas that are not being addressed that would influence the key challenge identified earlier?

12. Action plan for 3rd April!
Challenge
Actions from workshop
Improving business impact of learning
Improving executive sponsorship
Capturing attention of time starved learners
Involving busy line managers effectively
Recognising and rewarding successes
Other

13. Resources www.Towardsmaturity.com
Please register to Towards Maturity for ongoing access to free case studies.
The following case studies may also provide insights to some of the challenges identified earlier:
BAE Systems – engaged learners and senior managers, address issues of previous bad experience, strong integration with work
Care UK - demonstrating value and aligning to needs, engaging learners and managers
Frontline – engaging stakeholder across locations, use of communities to link staff together, strong integration with work delivery, innovation
NHS – varying IT infrastructure, enaging business with design
Other employer stories also found at on Towards Maturity site