Extending Learning through Yammer

Take a look at the two machine parts in this picture.  They are Vacuum Deck Blower Motors.  When presented next to each other side by side, it is pretty easy to see that they are not the same.  The one on the left is slightly taller.  If you were to go inside the housing you would see that they have different constructions and different controllers.  That is because they are made for different machines and they are not interchangeable.  But if you didn’t have them standing right next to each other, you might easily mistake one for the other and place the wrong one in the wrong machine during maintenance or while making repairs.  Some of our service representatives have made that mistake.

Of course, when they go through training they are instructed on the differences in usage and labeling so they can recognize and install the right part into the right machine.   Fortunately our equipment is pretty reliable which means there might be a long interval between the time service reps receive this training and the time they might actually have to make this repair.   It is easy to see how they might forget what they’ve learned and install the wrong part.

That is one of the frustrations expressed by the Technical Training Instructor who leads the class in which this is covered.   He is an excellent instructor.  He covers everything the reps need to know, gives them a chance to practice doing it, and provides appropriate feedback before sending them out into the field.  He had been doing this for years and hoping for the best, until he discovered Yammer.   Now he extends the learning beyond the classroom by sharing tips and tricks that the service reps can easily access off of their laptops or mobile devices at the point of need.   The picture of the vacuum deck blowers is actually part of a job aid he attached to a post in the Yammer group he recently created.  In the short time since this group has been up and running, he has been able to share pictures, videos, and job aids -  and generally give the service reps the benefit of his expertise at the point of need.  At the same time, he is learning from them.  He is learning about the challenges and the most common problems they face in the field.  This information allows him to incrementally improve his classroom training approach and materials.

Praying for the Right Answers

A few months ago, the Catholic Church decided to make text changes in some of the hymns, prayers and responses in the Sunday Mass. Apparently the intention of these changes is to have the English translation of the Mass more accurately reflect the Latin from which the Roman Missal was translated.

Now as a life-long Catholic, I am pretty much on autopilot when it comes to delivering my responses during the Liturgies of the Mass. The new word changes just don’t feel normal or natural, so it will probably take the second half of my life to commit them all to memory.

As I was looking around in church today, I could see that my fellow parishioners are pretty much in the same boat. Many of the devoted have been at this much longer than I have, so I can imagine the challenge of breaking away from the old habitual responses and replacing them with new phrases is even tougher for them.

Of course, the Church has updated the prayers and responses in the Monthly Missalettes that are scattered about the pews, but that alone is not enough to help people through this change. To provide additional support, the Church has created a double-sided laminated card that you can pick up and quickly scan when you find yourself getting tongue-tied or out-of-synch with the rest of the congregation during those moments when your voices should be joined together harmoniously.

Today, it was obvious our parishioners are relying more heavily on this card than the Missalette. As a workplace learning professional, this just reinforced for me the importance of helping the employees in my company to get simple answers to work issues into their hands when they need them. For quick answers, a good job aid beats a good manual any day. Similarly, using instant messenger or other social media tools to quickly connect with subject matter experts at the point of need, beats sitting through a formal class that is disconnected in time and space from the moment real answers are needed.

The bottom line is that we in the workplace learning industry need to continue to capitalize on the social media tools and technology that allow us to imbed learning into the workstream so that our workers are getting the right answers when they need them and we are all singing from the same hymnal.