Five W's and a How of Learning

This is a story about learning.  I was in the middle of excellence, and it just took me a while to realize it.  

Last week, I was honored to give the keynote address at the Fall meeting of the Colorado Procurement Advisory Council.  The one-day event had 80-100 attendees from state agencies, higher education institutions, and local governments.

The Colorado Purchasing and Contracts Office, under the leadership of Cindy Lombardi, State Purchasing Director, provided updates on its Procurement Modernization initiative, protests and appeals, the status of statewide price agreements, the upcoming procurement card resolicitation, and personnel changes in the office.

The PAC Executive Committee gave an Excellence Award to a state procurement professional, with the nomination having descriptive words like professional, grace, integrity, and "shares knowledge."

And polling software was creatively used to preview topics for speakers and dispel procurement "myths." Really nice touches. They had breakout sessions on open record act requirements, ethics, and lessons learned from procurement disputes and litigation. What I witnessed was the excellent application of adult learning principles.

Adult Learning Principles

In Seeing Excellence: Learning from Great Procurement Teams, I devoted a chapter to learning. Teams need to learn by looking back at their projects, a process sometimes referred to as an after-action review.  But the chapter also discusses learning in its broader dimension.  Teams may develop training programs. They may also evaluate proposals that describe training that is required by a solicitation.

In the world in which procurement professionals work, effective learning is bolstered by use of adult learning principles to frame training. There is a heavy emphasis on leveraging adult students' experience, although it resides side-by-side with a competing challenge of sometimes having to unlearn old practices and beliefs.

Adults need to see the relevance of the training to their work. They also tend to be practical, and they want to be involved in managing their own learning. One of the governing principles taught by NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement in its training program is "make training learner-centered." And use a variety of experiential training techniques to tap into as many senses as possible. This sometimes is described as blended learning.

Through conversations, observation, and practice, procurement professionals learn at work, outside of formal classroom and online settings.

Most learning, 70% by some estimates, occurs informally, or as Chief Learning Officer magazine points out in its current issue, in the "workflow." Through conversations, observation, and practice, procurement professionals learn at work, outside of formal classroom and online settings. And learners are wanting shorter bursts of training with content available just-in-time. Technology can be an ally here.

The Colorado PAC meeting illustrated effective use of these principles. In Chapter 9 of Seeing Excellence, I proposed a model for adult learning. Allow me to explain what I saw at the PAC training, how it seemed effective, and what I personally could have done better to improve.

Why learn this? How does it relate to the job?

One of the guiding tenets of adult learning is readiness, having learners see the relevance of the training. In small face-to-face meetings this this can be done with a flip chart, using introductions to have participants summarize why they came to the class and what they hope to learn.

In some sense, there is a history of meeting the WIIFM ("what's in it for me?") in the PAC meetings, that always include relevant training. But the agenda for the event contributed. Its session descriptions summarized the content of each session in ways that triggered reflection about how the topic was important.

The PAC Executive Committee helped filter the WIIFM analysis also. They looked at my presentations and provided feedback. One possible topic, for example, seemed too lawyer-like to them.

Before the day's keynote, the use of polling helped illuminate relevance.

One polling question asked attendees whether project charters were used in procurements. (Their answer: not normally, but they might use them depending on project complexity.) Another question asked attendees whether they had ever disclosed estimated project budgets in their procurements. (Their answer: overwhelmingly most had.) This technique also allowed speakers like me know where the group was in terms of their experience and knowledge.

The use of these polling questions helped with the readiness for learning. The other part of the readiness equation is tapping into the attendees' experience.

What needs to be learned given prior knowledge and expertise?

Part of readiness involves assessing what is known already and adjusting the presentation or training accordingly. NIGP courses use student introductions and pre-tests as a way of gauging existing knowledge and experience. Large conference settings make it difficult to assess the range of experience and expertise in a room, however.

But the prior consultation by the State Purchasing Director with the PAC Executive Committee helped target content that wasn't already widely known. And the polling questions helped as well.

Before the afternoon session, polling questions again were asked. One centered around the attendees' knowledge about exceptions to open records act disclosure requirements. (Some learning was needed there, it seemed.) The other question started to explore the thorny issue of vendors offering lunch. (Almost unanimous agreement that in the context of the question, not a good idea.)

Here was an area where I personally could have done better. I was pre-loaded for a small-group discussion of the considerations in disclosing a budget in a procurement. I had an embarrassing experience with the issue in private practice; a client wasted money on a proposal that the agency could not afford. What I failed to account for at the PAC training: the vast majority of procurement professionals had no problem with disclosing the estimated budget. In retrospect, I'm not sure I needed to spend so much time on the issue.

Assuming you've accounted for the experience level of students, and they are ready for learning, how should the topic be engaged?

How should the topic be engaged to guide experience, promote reflection, and allow application?

One of the most useful courses I ever attended was the NIGP train-the-trainer course. The course used Stolovitch and Keeps' Telling Ain't Training, an excellent book that covers a good deal of learning theory while offering practical solutions and approaches. I am a retired military officer who started my foray into creativity with accetate overhead slides and ended it with PowerPoint. The course essentially forbid the use of PowerPoint, having us learn about other training techniques. I learned there to love flip charts!

But in a large conference setting, the physical environment sometimes constrains the training approaches. I visited the room the day before the presentation and talked with conference center staff. I learned that round tables would be used in the general and breakout sessions. Yeah! This allowed me to integrate some small group discussions into my afternoon presentations.

I was also delighted to see that they would use dual screens in the general sessions. This room was wide rather than long, and the dual screen arrangement solved the problem of the back half of the room not being able to see anything projected.

Sometimes, I use aviation themes in training about teams. In fact, if the topic and physical setting allow it, I engage an audience member in a short Microsoft Flight Simulator flight to illustrate team concepts. But if the audience can't see the instrument panel and outside views on the screen, the only people having fun and learning are me and the "pilot"! The room here was thoughtfully arranged, and we had a successful mission.

One approach that worked well for me in workshops was what I'll call "speed learning light." I was introduced to the idea by Carol Hodes, NIGP's Executive Director of Knowledge Management, when she did a session for instructors called "speed learning." It allowed multiple groups of 6-8 to engage topics and circulate among the topics at 15-20 minute intervals. A facilitator at each topic station captured ideas on flip charts, and after the "interval training," the group met as one to discuss the insights. At the PAC meeting, I didn't have time for interval training, but I did put up five topics for discussion. The attendees moved to a table of interest for discussion. It worked well, I just wish there had been more time.

Who can help assess whether the learning happened?

To me, assessment is the most challenging part of the process. In NIGP's face-to-face courses, a post-course test is taken individually – no grading! – and the students discuss the answers as a group. In a conference setting, there isn't time for much assessment.

What was effective though, in the PAC meeting, was the emphasis on networking. I used interactive sessions to invite students to comment on and share experiences about topics. Those kinds of sessions showcase attendees who have thought about subjects and are willing to share their perspective. Adequate time for networking permits conversations that can help attendees assess their learning.

The final general session at the event was especially good.  The polling software was used to pierce some myths.  The ensuing discussion about the true/false choices also revealed those who might be a resource for helping attendees assess their learning. 

Where can more be learned about the topic?

Adult learners sometimes want to know where they can learn more about a topic. When leading learning sessions, find articles that are relevant and share them with the attendees. At least then learners have content they can refer to later. In my afternoon session, I explained how to find articles on the various topics that we had discussed, lessons from procurement protests and litigation.

Here I could have done better. Had I included references and hyperlinks on the slides, attendees could have written them down if they were interested. I spent too much time describing online search strategies!

When can the knowledge or skill be practiced?

Try as I did, I didn't get to this part of the adult learning model. Here's what I could have done.

I could have ended by asking the attendees how they could practice what they learned. Debriefing after awards was one topic of particular interest. One student shared her experience: how she called an incumbent who was not awarded the follow-on contract. (Those situations are ripe for bid protests.) She explained her approach, expressing appreciation, showing respect, and offering the contractor an opportunity for a debriefing. But this needs to be practiced, and attending a debriefing, then having a mock debriefing before your first one, is a way to practice.

Seeing Excellence in the Colorado PAC meeting

I was surrounded by these learning events, but it wasn't until after the PAC meeting that it dawned on me. From readiness, to a variety of methods of engaging the attendees, to networking providing assessment and additional learning opportunities, Cindy, her office, and the PAC Executive Committee demonstrated the effective use of adult learning principles.

When people are hanging around continuing the discussions during breaks, something's going right.

The real struggle in training is to set the conditions for students to create the tacit knowledge that goes along with the explicit knowledge that comes from books and policies (and PowerPoint!). One of the more engaged sessions I saw was a group of attendees talking about proposal evaluation with Kay Kishline, a former State Purchasing Director, who had many years of experience writing protest appeal decisions. When people are hanging around continuing the discussions during breaks – as they did with Kay – something's going right! Kudos to Cindy Lombardi for inviting Kay.

This conference had the conditions that promoted individual learning.  It was one of the better conferences I've attended. Great Team!  Great leadership! I saw Excellence yet again . . .