Reflection - Submission

Problem Description

I work for a company which is the biggest power generating company in the country. We have a big Learning and Development (L&D) Center called Power Management Institute located near the capital city. The institute caters to the L&D needs of a large number of executives who work at different power stations of the company spread all across the country. The Institutes is therefore in the area of executive education. I work in this Institute.

We found that with passage of time there was lesser interest in the programs run by us. It was getting difficult to get participants for our programs. We usually plan for a 25-30 participant batch size in each program but found that we had 10-15 participants only in many programs. Engagement levels of the participants was also visibly low. Moreover, there was growing concern in the company about the effectiveness of the programs run by us and company wanted that we somehow “measure” the learning quotient from each program.

Keeping above in mind, we wanted to bring in qualitative changes in our pedagogy and other related services so that our programs become effective and useful and generate enough interest so that our people opt for programs in sufficient numbers and benefit from it.

Tool Selection

We discussed the issue internally within the faculty members and decided that the best way is to involve our “customers” so that innovative solutions emerge from them rather than us giving the solutions. Our customers are in fact our own executives from our power plants who come to our institute for training. Fortunately, it was not difficult for us to get the customers to a design thinking exercise because they anyway come to attend our programs in our premises. We decided to utilise “Visualisation” technique to know from them “what –is”, “what –if” and “what-wows” in terms of L&D solutions that our Institute offers. We selected three groups of customers (Training participants) for this exercise. One at lower management (The Foundation program in Management Program), one at middle (Enhancing Managerial Competence Program) and one at senior level (Advanced Management Program). The groups had 18, 20 and 22 participants respectively. We asked the participants to visualise how a training program should look like, how a class room should like etc. We found this tool most appropriate because learning is a holistic experience including content, learning tools, ambience, seating arrangement, interaction levels etc and a visualisation tool could potentially give vivid view of how a learning experience should look and feel.

Application

For the exercise we divided them in 5-6 subgroups and gave them yellow post-it slips, chart papers, markers, sketch pens etc. Each group was given one hour time to ‘”draw” their vision of L&D (Learning and Development). We explained that they should not

bother about the quality of drawing and just use their imagination to draw free hand. Each group then discussed and drew sketches on yellow post-it slips. These slips were pasted on a big chart paper, one chart paper per groups. At the end of one hour exercise each group was asked to come in front and explain what each sketch meant. The exercise was great fun and learning combined. A group of faculty members listened to the presentations made by each group, took notes, asked questions. Each idea was given due attention. Several ideas came and we got several new insights.

Although the exercise went very well, we feel it could have been done still better if we had a mobile app in which people could draw using their finger on the mobile screen itself and all the drawings could be collected and sent to a central laptop/PC where it could be stored and projected on screen. This would also enable saving all the sketches for any future use.

Insights

We realised that the domain of Learning and Development (L&D) has undergone major change in recent times. There was more emphasis on programs being in tune with business challenges, simulation learning, case studies, experiential learning and delivery through variety of platforms like modern classrooms, smart boards, e-learning, m-learning, informal ambience and social learning etc.

Interestingly, there was also a vivid drawing about how a class room look like. We realised that class rooms will have to redesigned for enabling group seating, laptop charging, coffee corner, full wi-fi enabled printer and desktops, smart boards etc.

We learnt that we will have substantially alter the pedagogy (Training delivery methods) – class room learning which was about 95 % for our programs has to be reduced and proportion of e-learning and mobile learning has to be enhanced.

As a result of this visualisation exercise we have made several changes. We revamped our Training Need Assessment (TNA) process. We have subscribed to 2000 licences of Harvard ManageMentor, which is a renowned e-Leaning platform. We have also created our own e- Learning platform called e-Guru where we will have e-Library giving access to all employees to 25000 e-books and about 100, 0000 articles. We are also revamping our Knowledge Management system. We have also planned to conduct about 10 % of our programs through Video and Web Conferencing. We are planning to install 3-4 self-serve snack kiosks and coffee machines at various locations in the institute. Classrooms are being modernised and seating arrangement being reconfigured.

We have also introduced Pre and Post program tests in all our programs so that learning from the programs can be judged. These tests are computer based objective type tests which are administered before and after each program that we conduct.

Based on the visulaisation exercise which also showed need for a special program for young executives, a recent addition in our program portfolio is the innovative 7 module program aimed at enhancing capabilities of young promising leaders. The program is delivered to potential young leaders in a unique modular format comprising of modules

on seven diverse themes spanning from Excel modelling to Strategic management. Intensive project based learning is also an integral part of this program.

The Institute is getting new look and feel. We have generated enough buzz and interest is returning. We are already experiencing enhanced participation and learning from our programs. It will increase more as we implement more suggestions.

Approach

There were couple of things that we had decided. One, we could have done similar exercise within our own fraternity of faculty members of the Power Management Institute. But we thought that the solutions will be better if they come from the “Customers” (our executives whom we train) because they are the end users.

We chose visualisation because it was free and fun for all. People drew whatever they liked. Sometimes it is hard to explain in words but easy to draw. A picture is worth 1000 words they say !!!. But we also requested them to explain what they had drawn, because sometimes it is difficult to decipher what the person actually meant. So a combination of drawing and presentation of the drawing worked better.

Another thing we decided that we will learn at least one “implementable” step from each visualisation sketch. Each sketch was therefore valued and value was extracted from each individual effort.

It was a great learning and fun too !!!

