Founded in 1982, i4cp member-company Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. The company helps customers develop and deliver high-impact experiences that differentiate brands, build loyalty, and drive revenue across every screen, including smartphones, computers, tablets, TVs, and countless others. Adobe software solutions and technologies fuel content and applications that span powerful business applications and compelling entertainment. Adobe is listed among FORTUNE Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For.
The Conversation:
i4cp spoke with Justin Mass, Senior Learning Technologist for Global Learning, to learn about Adobe's Learning Labs, a new, agile approach to learning that launched in March 2010. We approached the conversation from the perspective of looking back over the first year - in which the Learning Labs have delivered best practices, tools, and information to over 1,800 participants - to discuss the program's launch, milestones, and lessons learned. Mass shared ideas and insights as well as best practices that other i4cp members might find helpful if they want to consider an implementation in their organizations, including step-by-step elements of putting together a virtual learning experience.
The Background:
The genesis of Adobe's Learning Lab concept grew from a year of significant change. Melissa Daimler, Adobe's head of Global Learning, recognized the need for a learning vehicle that could quickly respond to business needs and deliver learning in real-time. The Learning Lab (LL) concept, which Daimler designed to provide a meaningful learning experience in the amount of time people usually spend eating lunch, provides such a vehicle. This is achieved through monthly sessions in which panelists share experiences and best practices in a moderated story-telling format, allowing time for interplay between the panelists and peers. The Learning Lab concept was formed from the idea that employees would appreciate "quick, real time learning" with peers in a dynamic, yet informal setting.
A relevant, more informal learning solution that quickly puts tools in employees' hands was supported by senior leaders who not only loved the idea but wanted to participate as panelists in two types of Learning Labs—one focused on professional development for all employees and one focused on management development for managers at all levels.
At its core, the concept was about less time with HR and more time with each other. The LLs provide a relaxed networking opportunity that allows HR to "move to the background." Among the many wins that have come out of the past year is the success of the social collaborative approach and how that has influenced the design of other learning solutions at Adobe, focusing more on "Leaders teaching Leaders."
Adobe's Learning Labs are different from the more traditional workplace "Lunch & Learn" sessions in that the focus is really on sharing/capturing best practices from an expert panel comprised of Adobe employees who have proven ability in that particular topic. In a similar vein, they also leverage the company's Adobe® Connect™ technology to run the sessions, providing ongoing opportunities for participants to work with and gain expertise in the use of the dynamic web conferencing solution. The audience is encouraged to participate in the session using the interactive chat and polling capabilities of Adobe Connect.
The first Learning Lab, presented in March 2010, was designed for managers and titled "Engaging & Inspiring Employees." The focus was around the common question many managers were asking at the time: "What are some things I can do to re-engage my employees after a challenging period?"
"We have the real time relevance of topics tied to business needs. We try to make them fun and encourage the virtual audience to participate in asking questions of the panel," Mass says.
"One of the success trends we're tracking is around panelist participation. Early on it was a challenge to find panelists, but now that we've had some success, it's seen more as an opportunity for development and exposure as an ‘expert' within the organization," Mass says. Adobe not only has a leadership pipeline of talent but a "teaching pipeline"—a list of people who want to teach, contribute, and share their learnings through formats such as this. The panelist experience gives panelists a dedicated audience and recognition across a large, diverse, at times, global audience.
Adobe is also looking at summarizing key learning into blog posts and even sharing that knowledge externally via Twitter, blogs and social networks for greater reach within peer learning communities.
The Global Learning team has found that they are able to deliver more information to more employees via a virtual learning format, especially in cases where the number of participants in one session exceeds 200, which has happened five times over the past 12 months.
The Basics of Adobe's Virtual Learning Labs:
Adobe's Learning Labs are monthly one-hour virtual learning events that address specific/critical business needs or development skills for professional or management development. The topics are in areas such as Accountability, Career Management, Building Teams, and Development and are aligned with the rhythm of the business (The Development lab was just held after the annual performance review process when a lot of development discussions were taking place across the company).
The virtual learning session is delivered by using Adobe Connect and is presented as a discussion by a panel of Adobe experts focused on a specific topic and moderated by a facilitator. Participants may ask questions, respond to instant polls, and interact with each other during the session. Each Learning Lab includes a dedicated note-taker, who is charged with synthesizing learning nuggets and key points in real time, and dedicated technical support. The sessions are recorded and posted with summarized notes and are accessible to participants and those who are interested in the subject but were unable to attend the live session. A summary is also posted on Adobe's internal Global Learning Blog and allows conversations sparked in the session to continue.
Curating Talent/ Selecting the Expert Panelists:
Finding the right panelists is critical to the success and credibility of each Learning Lab, so it's important to know who the leaders are within your organization. They may not always be the ones who are the loudest or most popular, so Adobe tries to leverage other means to find them—including, as an example, survey data and recommendations from other leaders.
Adobe approaches every virtual learning session as an opportunity to identify future panelists. They look to the chat pods and the answers participants share.
Adobe sees current learners as leaders of tomorrow. They look for bright, ambitious minds, and invite them to participate in future Learning Labs. Developing a deep panelist bench and a "teaching pipeline" will ensure Adobe can sustain their efforts no matter what delivery frequency they choose.
The Adobe Global Learning team considers diversity and gender balance critical to seating a panel and then aims for three or four panelists in each session to allow enough time for everyone to contribute.
Including photos of each panelist participating in upcoming Learning Labs helps the remote audience put a face to the name and adds a visual that helps humanize the virtual learning experience.
Best Practice Sharing:
Sharing best practices is one of the best ways to transfer knowledge. Where possible, Adobe facilitators ask follow-up questions to the answers given by panelists to ensure they're extracting something valuable for learners.
For each one-hour session, Adobe targets at least two actionable best practices they hope learners will take away from the session. These don't have to be predetermined, but it's good practice to ask learners in a poll before they exit the session what they're taking away. These results will also help seed questions and content for future LLs where appropriate. Leveraging real time feedback from learners helps rapidly iterate and improve learning content.
Question Design/Architecture:
A dynamic discussion can't happen without compelling seed questions that challenge panelists to go deep in their responses. It is important to spend time brainstorming questions and validating the best ones with your team and other trusted peers and leaders in your organization in advance of presenting them to panelists. Adobe tries first asking/answering panelist questions in a team meeting to test/validate their strength.
Blocking Script:
While Adobe Learning Labs have presentation slides, the Global Learning team strives to use only 3-5, giving more time for panelists to share their ideas, with a focus less on slide content and more on discussion. A blocking script is an operational tool Adobe uses to support the LL team which highlights transitions between slides, transitions between the presentation deck and polls or other layouts, and is labeled so that everyone knows when they have to execute on a task. Because this happens behind the scenes, it ensures learners receive a world-class experience with a seamless flow between slides, other content and various layout types.
Chat/Questions/Share Pods:
Where possible, the participant audience should be brought into the conversation with panelists in real-time. This requires a dedicated person monitoring the chat/question pod, synthesizing questions and ensuring the facilitator asks the panelists. While it's difficult to get to every question, pulling a few from the chat pods sends a message to the audience that the panelists are listening and they're part of the conversation.
Polls:
Adobe uses polls periodically throughout the LL session to pulse engagement with learners. They aim for 75% participation in polls. By starting the session with a poll, you'll set the tone and expectation that it won't be a passive learning experience. Poll results should be displayed in real time to learners, where possible. This allows learners to calibrate their thinking with a random sampling of their peers.
Recording/reuse:
Adobe records each session and makes recordings available not only to participants who attended, but also to others who could not make it. Including a summary of key take-aways and best practices with the recording can help others quickly determine in advance if the topic is something worth the investment of their time. In addition, posting the full notes from the session offers a quick reference to learners who can't commit to viewing the entire recording on-demand.
Informal Learning Opportunities:
The Global Learning team also looks for ways to cross-pollinate. "It's not every day that you'll have access to a captive audience. Make the most of your final moments together to evangelize additional resources, links, recommended readings, articles, and other learning opportunities," Mass recommends.
Following are Adobe Global Learning's must-haves for running a successful virtual learning session:
* Expertise behind the curtain (operational excellence): Delivering world-class learning in 60 minutes means using every second wisely. If you're serious about delivering an exceptional virtual learning experience, dedicate a support team to help pull it off.
* Facilitator - Focuses on guiding the discussion and translating/reframing panelist answers into best practices.
* Note taker - Takes notes in real time, summarizes key learnings and best practices, posts notes in real time into a share pod for all participants to see and copy/paste into their local notes.
* Chat/question pod monitor - Monitors questions from learners in real time and shares them with facilitator through dedicated facilitator pod (visible only to internal LL support team). This allows facilitator to focus on targeted questions and not have to wade through tons of comments and questions.
* Technical support - Having someone available to help troubleshoot technical issues like, possibly, the audio, removes the technical burden from the learning team so they can focus on delivering an exceptional learning experience vs. helping someone figure out why they can't hear the audio.
* Technical dry run - A day before the event bring everyone together for 20-30 minutes and walk through slide & pod transitions, ensure all content is uploaded properly and use the blocking script so everyone knows and feels comfortable with his/her role.
