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The Impact of Strategic Approach
November 21, 2008
By Alice Shepherd
With EE, Microsoft has gone far beyond traditional classroom training and even online working sessions. Learning includes developmental activities engineers can do on the job, which amount to ideas and suggestions they can incorporate into their work to develop their capabilities. The problem for Microsoft, or for any organization attempting to step outside the formal learning arena, is how to manage these informal activities. How do you track mentoring? How do you motivate on-the-job learning? How do you focus knowledge transfer that happens through community-of-practice activities such as blogs?
The learning and development strategy Microsoft has created involves linking development activities to competencies within a comprehensive career development structure. Learners can manage and track what they consume in formal training, developmental activities they perform on the job and through events, such as conferences and gatherings of experts where people learn from each other. Individual learning plans differentiate between learning through training, learning from others, and learning by doing, while integrating the three approaches into a comprehensive development program.
Sadykhova gives the following example. "If I choose to develop my analytical problem-solving skills, I can schedule a job task as a developmental activity on my learning plan, such as a root-cause analysis of a specific real life problem. My learning plan also will include attending a session on the basics of root-cause analysis led by a deep expert in the field at the next EE annual forum. On the same learning plan, you will see a traditional learning activity, such as a formal course that teaches root-cause analysis. Thus, my learning plan includes all three distinct types of learning, identified as activity or event, and aggregates them around one competency: analytical problem-solving."
The Engineering Excellence team has provided every engineer with content and functionality to develop a learning plan that aligns with his or her career goals and is based on their chosen path within the Microsoft career model. "Our career model goes beyond the traditional competency models," Sadykhova said. "It is a systemic and systematic way of providing people with a set of competencies, experiences and typical performance results that are expected at different career stages, so they know what it takes to move from one stage to another."
These competencies, experiences, and typical performance results make up Career Stage Profiles, creating the foundation for the organization’s talent management strategy, which guides its managers and leaders in providing employee learning and development. For the engineers who consume the learning, the model provides the prescriptive guidance they need to advance in their careers. "Generally, people don't want to be told what to do, they just want to be supported," Sadykhova said. "And when you give them a path that guides the development of their careers and a set of experiences that coordinate with each career stage, it becomes very enabling and empowering."
Implementation Through Partnership
Creating the strategy was one thing. Implementing it was another. To make this work, EE needed a learning management system (LMS) that could handle its complex engineering environment and its threefold learning strategy. Microsoft needed a learning technology that was nimble and flexible enough to manage diverse learning topics and deliver them to a diverse audience. It also had to be built on Microsoft technology architecture so it could be customized and packaged as needed.
But when the EE team members went out into the marketplace to find an LMS, they discovered they were ahead of their time. The systems available could handle a lot of training requirements, but none had the capacity to deal with their complex requirements in a fast and cost-effective way. Eventually, they turned to TrainingPartner, an LMS from GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc., a company that provides enterprise learning management solutions to corporate, government, and institutional clients. "Microsoft has taken a very unique, forward-looking approach to learning in and out of the classroom," says Justin Hearn, GeoMetrix’ president. "TrainingPartner met their basic functionality requirements while giving them the ability to create their own processes. Another factor that contributed to their choice of TrainingPartner was that it is built on Microsoft technology, giving Microsoft EE the desired flexibility to customize it and push out diverse learning programs to its engineers."
Approximately three years ago, Microsoft EE and GeoMetrix began the implementation process for TrainingPartner. The first step for GeoMetrix was to define the scope of the EE project and create a project plan. Then, both GeoMetrix staff and third-party consultants worked with the EE team to implement the project plan. The first version of the application was rolled out after about 10 months in June 2006.
Since then, GeoMetrix has continued to work with Microsoft in a support role. "Our relationship with GeoMetrix feels like a partnership rather than a consumer relationship," Sadykhova says. "Each side really listened to the other with genuine openness so we could understand each other’s perspectives. Any issues were resolved for our mutual benefit. Every vendor does deep dives into technology, completes features reviews, and does user acceptance testing," Sadykhova said, "but not everyone builds a relationship on a foundation of trust. Having a strong relationship is particularly important with a project scope as complex as ours."
TrainingPartner is a good fit for Microsoft EE's forward-thinking, strategic approach to learning. The learning management software is flexible enough to serve as a foundation for career model-based learning and development and allows Microsoft EE to serve its audience in a way that is aligned with its learning strategy. With slight modification and customization to suit the EE environment, the software manages the organization's three distinct types of learning and development—learning through training, learning from others, and learning by doing.
Beyond Boot Camp
Many organizations still associate learning with compliance training or basic types of training such as orientation programs. Microsoft's EE team takes a strategic rather than tactical approach to learning and training. For learning organizations that want to diversify their strategies and take development to a whole new level, innovative, flexible learning management technologies are available that can facilitate learning administration and create a rewarding experience for learners.
Editor's Note: Read more about Microsoft's learning management system alignment strategies at Trainingmag.com.
Alice Shepherd is a Southern California-based business-to-business journalist specializing in training and development topics. For more information, visit www.tradepressservices.com or call 805-496-8850. To learn more about GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.’s learning management system, TrainingPartner , call 800-616-5409 or visit www.trainingpartner.com
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