Activity 8 – Learning new skills

[Change Consult Ltd]

Now have a think about your own experiences:

Q1. What are your experiences of the ‘learning dip’?

Q2. How did this experience affect you and others?

Q3. What would have helped you through the ‘dip’?

[Indra Singh]

My company has gone through a lot of change recently so i have been in a constant learning dip.

[Change Consult Ltd]

Thanks for your feedback Indra! Do you mind sharing how did you dealt with this?

[Indra Singh]

hello, I created my own notes and got help from a few of my colleagues. It has helped alot.

[Change Consult Ltd]

That is great news! Thank you for sharing your tactics with the group!

[Mette Schultz]

It can be Q&A sessions or a hotline to provide help quickly and prevent frustrations.

[Change Consult Ltd]

Absolutely Mette!

Q&A sessions are great! These can be at a set time over a specific period like a 10-11am slot over a 2 week period, or lunch and learn sessions set for 12noon-1pm or as and when required.

I like the idea of the ‘hotline’ – sometimes you just need to speak to a real person when you are stuck.

Fantastic suggestions!

[Colin Wheatley]

There are various ways to achieve this for easy or complex changes.

As already mentioned, QnA’s or FAQs are a really good way to communicate changes and how to resolve them.

Surveys: these are great to identify any difficulties in new systems and a general feeling of acceptance of the change. Which you can also add to the FAQs. I am never afraid to listen and adapt FAQs to items or circumstances that may have inadvertently been overlooked.

Communications countdown: I usually issue comms on a 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 week push basis for information. Pull info is great, but if pending users ignore the links, they will/may miss valuable information and may stay longer in the dip.

Floor walking: FW is great as it gets you in the weeds and then you are on hand to advise in the first instance or advise where additional information can be found.

Workshops or Training events: These I usually like to do in small groups, and can also break them up into smaller tranches and several events to aid learning, though this is dependent on any time restraints of course.

User groups: as discussed in the training, some individuals learn better when shown as new task. Knowledge Transfer, when conducted effectively, is always a preference. I remember when I took my ECDL, I was taking the Foundation Excel module at the time and the Trainer asked a person by the side of me, are you OK with what you are doing. They replied, yes I’m OK, I’m just watching what Colin does..

[Change Consult Ltd]

LOL – At least that individual was honest 🙂

My absolute favorite is floor walking. I typically allow Clients 2 weeks of floor walking after ‘go live’. Its great to spend time with users one on one during this time as they really open up about challenges or gaps in their knowledge. Some individuals are afraid to ask questions during training for fear of looking stupid, so floor walking in a sense assists with that and brings them out of the dip quicker.

Thank you for your contribution Colin – very informative and useful!!!

[Moritz Riewoldt]

My experience of the learning dip is when I had to learn a new software platform for digital marketing and I then had to understand the functionalities and new features. My performance first decreased because I had to learn the new skills. This experience impacted clients and colleagues because I had to get up ton speed to demo the new features to clients and I was not able to support my clients efficiently. I was helped through the learning dip with help from colleagues who were already experienced with the features who showed me how to demo these features. I also looked at the documentation for the new features. I got through the dip by practicing the demo a new few times before doing it live in front of clients.

[Author]

Posts