As I’ve been working with several customers over the past couple of weeks, the question keeps coming up: what are some good ways to sustain the impact of training after the initial classroom sessions are done?

I did a little online research and talked with an eLearning expert, Patty Stillwell, who I’m working with on several training projects. Here are some great ways to use technology to keep the initial excitement of in-person training alive while sharing business wins:

1. Give business managers exercises and surveys that they can push to learners using a survey tool. Learners complete and submit the survey, and results are shared with managers. This is a great way to measure classroom retention, ongoing change and provide recognition to those learners who find great business applications.

2. Create a wiki or blog for learners to share thoughts, ideas, new ways to use the training, etc. Encourage learning leaders who have successfully applied the training concepts to initiate the “dialogue” and support participation by others.

3. Implement a private channel for downloadable video or audio of lectures, recorded conference calls, presentations, etc. Utilize format-neutral options that work with a wide range of devices.
Develop short podcasts to share scheduled information updates or high priority notices (trends, competition, etc.)

4. Use your website to offer new tools and training updates with downloadable documents
Conduct Webex meetings and online discussions to foster collaboration between groups that may not otherwise interact.

5. Use Second-Life environments to expand learners’ understanding of changes throughout the company, supply chain and customer base.

Here’s a great list of 101 ways to know your software project is doomed. From Codesqueeze.com via Michael Krigsman.

A few of my favorites:

#25. Project estimates magically match the budget
#35. Your manager thinks MS Project is the best management tool the market offers
#46. Your manager thinks being SOX compliant means not working on baseball nights
#50. Your manager spends his lunch hour crying in his car (true story)
#79. Budget for testing exists as “if we have time”
#100. You have been 90% complete 90% of the time

My suggestion for #102: Your manager believes the software salesperson who says, “Training’s included.”

Finally, a decent explanation for the uneasy feeling I get when I hear the phrase, “It’s not about the technology.” Put simply, it’s an oversimplification.

This feeling was articulated in a recent article by Andrew McAfee about the frequently over-used phrase, It’s Not About the Technology. He says,

Searching for this exact phrase yields about 1800 results on Google Blog Search, 17,700 on Google Web Search, and at least one book title. I’m sure I’ve said it myself a few times, although I try not to.

People usually mean one of two things when they say INATT; one of them is correct but somewhat uninformative, and the other conveys a lot of information, but is incorrect and even dangerous. The correct-but-bland meaning is “It’s not about the technology alone.”

I too have said INATT, because it’s a lot more provocative than what McAfee points out is the “correct-but-bland” meaning. For those of us in the fields of user acceptance, training, and change management, it’s an easy way to draw attention to - and puff up - our otherwise under-appreciated disciplines.

So, I started thinking: what’s a more interesting - and provocative - way to say It’s Not About the Technology alone?

Some completely inappropriate ideas:
All technology and no people makes Jack a dull boy.
Ask not what your technology can do for you …
It’s not about the technology, it’s about time for lunch (yikes)

Enough, already.

Let’s hear some real ideas.

Stop the virtual presses! The IBM CIO Leadership Forum, in a recent survey of 170 CIOs from around the world, discovered that, “In order to ensure organizations growth and business innovation, there should be a cordial relationship between the CIO and the CEO.”

So that’s the missing piece; if only we could be more cordial with one another, imagine what we could accomplish.

This astounding finding is further supported by another breakthrough discovery, this time in IBM’s 2006 Global CEO study:

The IBM 2006 Global CEO study indicated that CEOs who incorporated business and technology reported greater customer satisfaction, speed, and flexibility than their less integrated peers. According to the latest IBM Global CEO study conducted among 750 CEOs, 80% of the CEOs considered business and technology integration to be important.

It is possible, I suppose, that the CXO Today article’s, author (the always insightful Mr. CXO Staff) unintentionally watered down the survey’s results with his characterization of this essential relationship.

On the other hand, it could be that the author inadvertently submitted his summary of the 1976 Global CEO study (since that’s the last time a story like this should have qualified as news).

This stuff seems especially amusing to those of us in the custom training business, since we frequently find ourselves bridging the gap between IT and business. To us, it’s kind of like “discovering” that the engine in your garage should be attached to the car if you want to get to the store.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve known some fine IBMers, and even developed thoroughly cordial relationships with some of them. This kind of research, though, doesn’t do much to boost IT consultants’ credibility.

Finally, anyone who bought either of these surveys, please let me know so I can change into my white pants and put the results in better context.