Frequently Asked Questions

3. Where's the best starting place?

This will depend on the immediate needs of your organization and your ability to launch a successful project capable of demonstrating a major return. You have to pick your spots -- strategically and tactically.

As with all major new developments that are moving an enterprise into new territory, are seen as uncertain in outcome, or as a potential threat to key stakeholders, e-learning initiatives can meet with major resistance. For example, it is well documented that people often fear the possible technological and cost implications, worry about whether lots of technical training will be required or whether the organization has adequate technology-infrastructure and bandwidth, or use previous disappointments with e-learning (or what they have heard about e-learning from others) as implementation blocks. It is important to recognize this and plan accordingly.

The natural tendency in introducing e-learning is to look for the 'low hanging fruit' and focus on isolated projects or applications that can deliver obvious cost savings, improved customer service, reduced classroom training hours and time away from the job, etc. This has a lot of merit in that it can provide the base for contained experiments that demonstrate value and allow one to make a broader business case for e-learning in general. But the danger is that the focus on isolated projects will slow the implementation process and run the risk of being marginalized because there is no broad-based commitment and the overall stakes are low. As a result, one's e-learning development plan may be reduced to a project by project sequence of cost saving or technical applications, rather than being seen as a strategic means of creating new sources of competitive advantage for the enterprise at large...

One can make the case for e-learning on both strategic and operational grounds.

From a strategic perspective e-learning provides an excellent means of creating new learning capacities and improved competence across one's organization. For example, as industry observer Barbara Beach has observed "Successful companies deliver the benefits of e-learning -- smarter employees, return on investment, reduced risk, and faster moves in the right direction." To gain these results it is necessary to approach e-learning with a bold vision of what it can do as a general competence development tool that will contribute to the knowledge, flexibility and overall agility and ability of one's employees, as well as seeing it as a tool for delivering specific cost savings or improved business processes.

It's often useful to think about this challenge as involving an implementation paradox and recognize that in finding the right starting point or strategic approach one has to position and pilot e-learning as both a strategic AND operational initiative.

The NewMindsets view is that this paradox must be confronted from the start. Our recommendation is to begin the implementation process with full recognition of potential barriers and try to establish the strategic and operational potential of e-learning initiatives. We recommend a pilot-based approach, but one that is constructed around distinct phases of development to avoid getting locked into a pattern of isolated projects. The ability to show an early return on investment is crucial. Hence it is important to focus on high leverage projects -- often they are the obvious 'low hanging fruit' kind of application - but ones that have strategic significance. For example, launch an e-learning project on new competence development in an area that is a strategic priority for your organization, perhaps as part of a solution for meeting "360 development," rather than just commissioning an online course to improve a particular area of instruction. Also, try to avoid making major infrastructure investments in the early stages. They will kill your ROI and lock you into a restricted line of development. It's far better to purchase modest learning platforms and devote most of your budget to concrete applications - projects that will deliver a demonstrable early return -- and support them in ways that will maximize success. It is important to remember that it often costs as much to launch a small e-learning project as a fairly large one because of the up-front time, energy, planning, design and implementation support involved. Hence choose wisely and ensure that you survive early scrutiny on both cost and potential. (See the FAQ # 8 on ROI for further advice)

Back to main list of FAQ

print this screen