Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I am Agile Coach with the mission to support the Agile journey for non-IT operations in a bank. My  favorite project is Onboarding new colleagues. The challenge we were given was to decrease the  staff turnover in their first year in the company from 27% to maximum 5%.  Therefore, we started to  look at the end-to-end journey of our new colleague from job searching to end of probation period.  Based on what we discovered during What is & What if steps we created the project vision:  to make  our new colleague excited and happy to BE involved and FEEL engaged in our organization where  he/she BELONGS! The initial estimation of 1.0 MEUR/year regarding the impact created by the  decrease of staff turnover from 27% to 5% changed to 2.3 MEUR/year as we figured out that, by  implementing the project vision, we can decrease the burnout risk for the entire organization and  the time-to-market product launch while increasing the work-life balance. Now the challenge  became how we, as organization, could be able to create & deliver a consistent experience  throughout the entire journey. How can we make sure all stakeholders involved in the process HR,  Hiring Managers, Buddies, new colleague teams and from other departments would behave in a  manner that creates a sustainable and consistent onboarding experience for our new colleagues?

Selection

We prototyped tool kits for different stakeholders and we wanted to test our key assumptions:  stakeholders are aligned, the tools are relevant for the experience they want to create and they are  user friendly, so we don’t need to build up a complex training plan to support the new onboarding  experience. Another thing that we wanted is to shorten the feedback loop. Therefore, we decided to  go for a Learning launch: a series of workshops with representatives from each stakeholder’s  category and a trial period. Based on Ed Hess Learning launch process presentation, we stated our  hypothesis in the project vision, we made our key assumptions, we prioritized the tool kits to confirm  during the workshops and the trial period the stakeholders got what they need to create the  sustainable and consistent onboarding experience.

Application

We decided to apply the Learning launch tool in two steps:

1. Lab conditions: invite the stakeholders in workshops to get acquainted with the tools and

test them

2. Real life conditions: to apply the tool kits in creating experiences for new colleagues.

For the first step, we set a target group: managers, buddies and helpers who have in the next three  months new colleagues to onboard. We had 70 people in the target group: 20 managers, 20 buddies  and 30 helpers and we organized seven 4 hours-workshops, 10 participants/workshop. The purpose  was to give enough time to each participant to test the tool kits and to tell us what works and what  doesn’t work. Each tool had an introduction, a description and detailed instructions on how to use it.  We expected to get from the workshops a good-to-be-used tool kit for each stakeholder category.

For the second step, we focused on gaining feedback from real life application of the tools in creating  the onboarding experience of the new colleagues. The purpose was to shorten as much as possible  the feedback loop by mirroring the experiences from all actors involved new colleagues, their  managers, buddies, helpers and HR. Although the entire process took three months, covering the

probation period, each tool was assessed at the time it was used. In this way, the feedback loop/tool  amounted for maximum three days.

Insight

By applying the learning launch tool in two steps, we learned two lessons:

1. Although each tool kit was relevant in itself, the entire package led to decision paralysis. We

were asked to figure out a way to deliver the right tool kit at the right moment.

2. “Less is more” is an universal principle: keep all materials at instructions – HOW to – levels in

bullets; for those who need or want more, offer references and links to a document library

Therefore, the main insight of the Learning launch was the tool kits are useful only if they follow the  Just in Time principle: to offer only the needed information at the right time and in the right quantity.

Approach

We chose this approach because we wanted to get a not altered or influenced feedback by  stakeholder’s competence in creating the experience for the new colleagues. Based on the insights  we gained from the first step of the learning launch we integrated the tool kits in a Micro-learning  platform and we created a journey for each stakeholder category, giving them the right tool, written  at “HOW to” level, at the right moment. Practically, using this approach, we were able to respond  fast to the stakeholders’ needs. It gave us the opportunity to fail fast and cheap, by testing one tool  kit at a time. Using other tools – like surveys – could keep us blind for three months, as no one would  be happy to answer to surveys on a weekly basis. A survey is a one-way communication while  Learning launch is very interactive, giving us the space and time to understand at a deeper level the  feedback we received. So we thought that Learning launch is the most appropriate tool to use at that  step of the project.

