When we consider implemen ng mobility, organisa ons tend to be at different levels of comfort and

adapta on. This eBook is meant for individuals and organisa ons along a spectrum: from those considering
mobility for the first me, to those who have already implemented such training interven ons and are
considering improving their effec veness.

The eBook dis ls Upside Learning's 13 years of experience through 9 informa ve cases.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction 2

What is Mobility? 3

What Does Mobility Offer an Organisation? 3

Important Training Considerations 7

Applications in Business 9

Chapter 2: Basic Mobility Solutions 10

Conversion for Mobility: the Right Way 11

Conversion for Mobility: the Wrong Way 13

Designing for Mobility: the Right Way 15

Designing for Mobility: the Wrong Way 16

Chapter 3: Tapping the Potential of Mobility Solutions 18

Managing Learners Effectively 19

Managing Change Over Time 22

'Live' Performance Management 26

Chapter 4: Pushing into the Future with Mobility Solutions 29

Boosting Performance of Retail Workers 30

Sharing Success Stories 33

Chapter 5: Conclusion 38

To Sum It Up 39

About the Author 40

About Upside Learning 40

1
CHAPTER 1

2
 WHAT IS MOBILITY?
The most common way to think of mobility is to think of device mobility: i.e., mobility as delivery of
training on various mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile phones.

The trainings could be on anything from how to interact with a customer (so skills) to how to use a
so ware applica on (systems or procedural) to what an organisa on stands for (orienta on or code
of conduct).

However, when we step back and switch to considering mobility of learners, a bigger world of
opportuni es and real-life business relevance opens up.

What would this look like?

WHAT DOES MOBILITY OFFER AN

ORGANISATION?
There are three aspects that stand out as being remarkably a rac ve for given today's business
environment.

3
MOBILISING PEOPLE
Organisa ons constantly have to help employees move into the next level of performance, into new
roles and even into new structures a er acquisi ons and mergers, etc. This kind of transi on requires
more than a few scheduled 'bouts' of training (which we all know is itself hard to do for senior
profiles or for long). It requires sustained support, any me and anywhere. It also requires training
that is designed for various contexts: from crisp on-task support to overall performance improvement
over me.

Plus, learners would need access to a knowledge resource pool in the form of microlearning, small
learning nuggets and performance support modules that they can pick up whenever they can and
need. As this kind of training would run deeper and longer than formally scheduled sessions, this is a
basic way in which learner mobility must influence training design to make it follow suit.

4
MOBILISING RESOURCES

It doesn't ma er which department we're thinking of, whether it's a cost centre or revenue
generator: we're all piroue ng on shrinking budgets while trying to do more.

An approach to training that makes content more accessible while freeing up organisa onal resources
is definitely worth considering! Training delivery that leverages a BYOD policy frees up me, money
and hardware. The organisa on would need to focus primarily on just the virtual infrastructure
needed.

Training mobility and freeing up of resources can be thought of in terms of keeping the L&D
department more agile and responsive. By digitalising and suppor ng independent, self-driven
learning by employees, L&D can keep a lighter staff and focus more on managing resources for
learners, facilita ng learner produc on of content and be er knowledge sharing.

5
MOBILISING LEARNING

One way to look at the concept of mobilising learning is of course to make it available at any me and
anyplace. But another is to also make it available to stakeholders that we may not typically think of as
training audiences (customers, contract employees, local communi es, regulatory bodies, etc) but
whom we may s ll need to inform or create awareness among.

Another way to consider mobilising the learning experience itself is to leverage mobile devices to
create con nuous experiences by virtue of their omnipresence. The disconnec on between the
'learning' and 'doing' me could be significantly reduced, leading to a workforce that is self-driven
towards lifelong development and engaged.

6
 IMPORTANT TRAINING CONSIDERATIONS
When considering the design of training that uses mobility, there are three important factors to think
about:

 Time
 Place
 Context

The choices we make around these, the way we decide to use them, whether they pose limita ons or
opportuni es will basically dictate the outcomes—and a variety of them at that!

Time

It's easy enough to consider the opportuni es that me offers. The very word 'mobile' itself suggests
the quali es of con nuity and pervasiveness.

However, when thinking of how me is experienced by learners, mobility can help to telescope
experiences or compact them. It all depends on the design of the program. For something like an
orienta on-support that runs for the period of formal induc on and for a li le longer a erwards,

7
mobility can help telescope the training support un l the learner is really ready to step away from the
scaffolding to cope with the new environment themselves. But considering something like a just-in-
me refresher nugget delivered on a mobile device, the learner is basically recalling the more
exhaus ve training they had earlier, in a span of 5 minutes. In this sense, mobility can be deliberately
used to deliver varied learner experiences.

Place and Context

The mixed blessing of being able to receive work communica ons on personal devices has been the
subject of much produc vity-related debate. While the substance of the debate itself in not relevant
to our focus, the fact that there is such discussion is interes ng and most relevant. We get direct
insight and knowledge about the way that mobility has simultaneously blurred and emphasised work
boundaries.

On the one hand we can see how work has seeped into our lives and how its context can be
summoned at will instantly, even if we are in a totally different physical and mental space.

On the other hand, we see how external physical context can be reinforced powerfully through some
specialised mobile technologies like Virtual and Augmented Reality. The same device can effec vely be
used to establish the presence of our surroundings or give us the ability to dismiss it in a completely
construc vist experience!

Such varied opportunity is a strong invita on for a new approach to instruc onal design.

8
 APPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS
Seeing the versa le experiences mobility helps us create, we find it is useful for many common
business problems—simple and complex, opera onal and strategic. The image below could be
considered an overview of some of these applica ons.

1. Spaced learning 9. 'War for Talent' strategy

2. Knowledge sharing 10. Live performance support

3. Exper se capture 11. Customer educa on

4. Be er on-boarding 12. Organisa onal agility

5. Field force training 13. In-house training produc on

6. 70-20-10 development 14. On-demand training

Remote and offline

7. Building learning culture 15. learner management'

8. Change management 16. 'Live' coaching

In the coming pages we will look at various mobility solu ons and the business problems they
helped to overcome.

9
Chapter 2

In this sec on, we will take a look at simple and fairly standard solu ons in mobility, what they look
like when done right and wrong. This sec on also highlights the way in which mobility projects can be
set up to go well or wrong.

10
 CONVERSION FOR MOBILITY:
THE RIGHT WAY
INTRODUCTION
The most common star ng point for organisa ons stepping into mobility is to pick up an exis ng
course and convert (i.e. redevelop) it into a mobile-friendly format. This step usually is without any
significant content or curriculum changes because the course is fine as it is; it just has to be
deployable on more devices than only PCs.
But even in this seemingly simple solu on, there is a right way and a wrong way. The following case
illustrates the right way.

THE ASK
Our client is a leading facili es maintenance organisa on. They wanted to convert exis ng classroom
training into tablet-friendly online courses. The idea was that supervisors would carry tablets around
and use the devices to provide access to the training materials for a team or team member.

SOLUTION PROPOSED
The content was analysed and segregated into 3 types, all of which would be playable on the
supervisors' tablets:

01 02 03

Procedural Videos Standard eLearning Tranning Manual

The supervisor would further be able to share the reference cards and training manuals from the
video package to learners' personal devices. (Both would be provided in PDF format so that they
could be viewed on any device.)
The eLearning would be used to deliver training on topics related to HR, Induc on and Health and
Safety. The average module dura on would be just under an hour.
Given that the working environment was such that supervisors would not always have connec vity,
the content would be delivered through a content player app (for offline viewing). An organisa onal
portal was proposed for content and learner management.

11
WHY THIS IS THE 'RIGHT' WAY
NATURE OF CONTENT
This solu on, while effec ve, is not viable for just any content. This content happened to be simple
and straigh orward to understand. The cogni ve demand was low: observe, grasp, remember. There
was no complexity like having to associate with other prior knowledge or build on layers of exis ng
knowledge (e.g. founda onal principles and then advanced learning).
Similarly, the eLearning topics were not complex. Being mainly conceptual content, the basic
informa on was easily understood without the need for learners to repeatedly refer to the material.
The fact that the procedures were simple enough to take no more than 7-8 minutes to demonstrate
meant that this kind of 'showing on a tablet and teaching' was workable.
Such material that would be needed for repeated viewing was provided as separate standalone
chunks for quick reference.
The basic analysis and separa on of content into small, quick bursts was what made it possible to
ideate the en re solu on and to ideate it effec vely.

CONNECTIVITY
It was not likely that content such as the cleaning procedure for a hardwood floor was going to be
updated frequently. Even if supervisors weren't o en able to sync their tablets to get updated content,
it wouldn't become a showstopper.
The way the business func oned and the target audience profile, it was alright that learners didn't
have direct access to the content themselves and that they had to go through the supervisor's device.
It was possible to keep down the content bulk that was shared with learners to store on their own
devices. Had the output required a heavier format and file size, it could have posed a problem for
transfer.

ACCESS TO DEVICES
The fact that the organisa on was providing tablets to all supervisors meant there was no danger of a
team being cut off because a supervisor didn't happen to have access to a tablet on their behalf.

12
DEGREE OF RESPONSIVENESS
As the organisa on was providing the tablets, there was one simple and fixed set of specifica ons for
the main delivery pla orm. This didn't require a fully responsive output, which meant the cost was as
low as possible.
The real varia on in devices came for content shared with the learners. We had no way of knowing
the specifica ons for learners' personal devices, but since the nature of the content allowed a PDF
format, this poten ally complica ng factor was no threat to the cost of development.

CONVERSION FOR MOBILITY:

THE WRONG WAY
INTRODUCTION
This is a case which exemplifies the wrong way of conver ng an exis ng course into a mobile-friendly
format. In Upside's years of consul ng, we have seen that this par cular error is very common when a
company is preparing to embrace mobility. It's a 101 level error to look out for!

THE ASK
The training division of a certain mul na onal organisa on in the avia on sector decided to go on a
modernisa on drive. One of the changes proposed was to start offering courses on tablets apart from
the conven onal devices of desktops and laptops. The drive would target old courses s ll in use, and
courses to be developed in the future.

SOLUTION REQUIRED
The training division iden fied a course which was anyway in need of some minor content updates
(for regulatory purposes) to be converted into a tablet-friendly format as well.
The course chosen pertained to avia on regulatory content. The en re 3.5 hours of content was to be
converted.

WHY THIS IS THE 'WRONG' WAY

LARGER, UNADDRESSED PROBLEMS
The organisa on struggled with an unacknowledged problem: learners were inherently demo vated
about taking trainings. The organisa on's way of working was that shi hours were exhaus ng and no
me was made for training. Even when the training was a regulatory requirement, learners were
expected to put in extra hours of their own me for organisa onal compliance. No amount of
anima ons or new age training would address this problem.

13
OUTDATED THINKING, MODERN DEVICES
While the drive was to modernise the training by including newer devices, the design thinking was
very orthodox. The onscreen text had to be a verba m repe on of the audio narra on. The
naviga on had to be very strictly locked and controlled. The learner was given virtually no choices or
control a er entering the course.

NATURE OF CONTENT
The content was incredibly dense, heavy and lengthy. It was very detail-oriented, and because of the
nature of the field, learners could not just get by with using the details to build a sense of scope or to
modify their broad understanding of the topic; they had to actually remember many of these details.
The content needed to be referred to several mes.
The way in which the content was explained wouldn't help learners either. Where relevant rules or
laws were cited, there was no a empt to provide a suppor ng explana on that set context or
simplified the language. The learner had to deal with avia on and legal jargon. (The target audience
happened to be a mix of highly skilled and not very skilled workers.)

LENGTH OF CONTENT
Given the length was 3.5 hours, the only way this factor could have made the course worse was if it
were also to be delivered on mobile phones.
The business side, which provided the SME support, should have been educated be er about what
cons tutes good training. Everything the experts had learnt over the years was put into the course
with no a empt to keep the focus strictly on the business and learning outcome required. This was
inevitably going to be overwhelming for a learner to take in: what the expert learnt over years, the
learner would be force-fed in 3.5 hours.

QUESTIONABLE DEVICE CHOICE

Given the size of the course package, the fact that learners had to take the training in the work place,
that each screen was crammed with informa on, the choice to spend more money to deliver such a
course on tablets seemed illogical.

14
 DESIGNING FOR MOBILITY:
THE RIGHT WAY
INTRODUCTION
Designing for mobility starts before (and is more than) the presenta on of materials for smaller
screens. As with any shiny new technology or tool, what makes mobility meaningful and strategic is
not just the choosing of deployment devices, but more, how mobility serves the need at hand.
As many varia ons are possible in this aspect of design clarity, as in conversion. For illustra ve
purposes, we are again going to look at two simple examples that show us a 'right' way and a 'wrong'
way.

THE ASK
The world's largest beverage company came to us with a mobility requirement. They were conduc ng
classroom trainings for around 7500 frontline leaders. These were supervisory training programs on
management and so skills to help the frontline become be er managers and leaders.
Learners had to go through some pre-reading materials so that they would come in with a similar level
of basic knowledge, enabling classroom me to be used for exploring and prac cing topics in more
depth. The pre-reading, along with reference materials to be used a er the classroom training, was
delivered in the form of physical binders of printed documents. They wanted a more contemporary
delivery format that would overcome the limita ons of physical documents. The company wanted to
convert the physical materials into ePub3 format so that they could be viewed on mobile devices,
laptops and personal computers.

SOLUTION PROVIDED
eDocuments would be created in reflow layout as this would make them easier to read on smaller
devices and allow greater efficiency when it came to crea ng them in different languages (another
requirement from the company).

WHY THIS IS THE 'RIGHT' WAY

CLEAR AND EFFECTIVE SOLUTION ANALYSIS
The business purpose, drivers and needs were clearly captured by the company. They knew why they
wanted the change and what they wanted to achieve as a result of the redevelopment.

15
LEVERAGING EXPERTISE
Having clearly framed their need and iden fying a possible solu on, the company discussed both with
us, allowing us to build adequate understanding of their environment and training requirements. They
were open to hearing sugges ons from our experienced team of what could be improved, what value
adds we could create and what related capability we had to offer. This open-minded, collabora ve
way of working derived the best value for them.

TRANSPARENCY IN REQUIREMENTS
Clearly and openly communica ng all aspects of the work they wanted to do (visual redesign,
instruc onal and usability improvements, transla on) enabled both sides to nego ate keeping in
mind the actual volume of work involved, so that economies of scale could be leveraged and all of the
work could be done under one roof.

DESIGNING FOR MOBILITY:

THE WRONG WAY
INTRODUCTION
This is a case which exemplifies the wrong way of designing for leveraging mobility. The company that
raised the requirement was open and collabora ve, so together we changed the solu on to be
provided and fixed the training analysis flaws. However, for illustra ve purposes, the original
requirement is provided here.

THE ASK
A popular gym with a growing membership approached us. Apart from the regular gym membership,
they offered on-site face-to-face training for fitness trainers. The company wanted to move to an
eLearning medium to supplement the face-to-face training. Customers who signed up for the program
would be provided preliminary informa on before going for the face-to-face training. The assessment
at the end of the eLearning modules would help the gym see what level of understanding customers
were at, and what needed to be covered again in the face-to-face sessions.

SOLUTION REQUESTED
The gym wanted us to develop the eLearning modules for the preliminary informa on. The modules
were to be developed for deployment on desktops, laptops, tablets and mobiles. The modules also
had to be SCORM 1.2/AICC compliant.

16
WHY THIS IS THE 'WRONG' WAY
SOLUTION CLARITY AND COHERENCE
The customers who signed up for the program would receive face-to-face training me. They would
receive an eBook. They would get access to the eLearnings. As per the original solu on, all of these
would contain exactly the same content, yet the price of the program would naturally include the cost
of each component.
Luckily, as the point of contact in the project was very open to sugges ons, we modified this to a more
coherent business strategy. The face-to-face sessions would teach the basic concept (as these were
based on a proprietary approach to fitness used by this par cular gym). The eLearning was tailored to
only reinforce key concepts and mainly to provide prac ce exercises embedded in scenarios so that
learners could apply the concepts learnt in the face-to-face sessions. The eBooks then became
reference materials for the actual substance taught in the face-to-face sessions. The eBooks would be
provided last as a takeaway at the end of the whole program.

INEXPERIENCE WITH RESPONSIVE DESIGN

The gym was not used to eLearning in general. The cost of fully responsive material was nowhere in
their budget. They had assumed it would be a lot less than it really was.
Again, a er discussion, we proposed to go with a compromise of limited responsiveness as supported
by an off-the-shelf tool so that the cost would be within their range.

INTERNAL OWNERSHIP
The subject expert was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the material. He was
therefore the point of contact for the project. However, he was not the owner of the training from the
gym's side. There were many ques ons which were very important to development (such as did they
have an LMS to host the content) but which could only be asked by the project owner. As the
technical person was not easily available, project execu on me doubled as our contact had to wait to
get each answer.

Our learning was that we should help first- me users of eLearning and especially mobility appreciate
what extent of me, effort or cost they should realis cally be prepared to invest.

17
CHAPTER 3

In this sec on, we will take a look at mid-level solu ons in mobility. We consider them mid-level based
on factors like cost, solu oning analysis complexity, implementa on complexity, technological
sophis ca on, etc.

18
 MANAGING LEARNERS EFFECTIVELY
INTRODUCTION
A basic business need many organisa ons have is to be able to be er manage learners. A er the
advent of Learning Management Systems, this may seem a problem with an obvious answer. So why
has it reared its head again?
Well, it has and it hasn't. The typical context, in which learners access training from within the cyber
and physical boundaries of the organisa on, poses no challenge any more. But for organisa ons that
have to deal with a remote workforce or a workforce that is on the move (for example, a field sales
force); there are some interes ng new problems.
One of these new problems could be around connec vity: a field worker shouldn't be cut off from
training resources, especially performance support, just because they happen to work in a space with
poor connec vity. Okay, easy enough; we make the course accessible offline. But how do we then
track learners' paths from a training management perspec ve?

THE ASK
An American mul na onal conglomerate approached us with the need to manage its field force. Here
are the main challenges they faced:
 Accessibility of microlearning materials to learners on mobile devices when online as well as
when offline, with data being tracked in both cases
 ·A way to control content access to specific sets of learners and the ability to track comple on
of assigned courses
 ·A way to add new content as it became available

SOLUTION PROPOSED
The solu on created for the conglomerate consisted of several components engineered to provide a
seamless offline experience to learners through an offline content player app.
The training materials to be delivered through this app would be rendered xAPI-compliant. With an
xAPI-compliant wrapper app, you can launch/download content from any web link. And if you use this
in tandem with APIs from another system (say HR, or even LMS APIs), you can control permissions for
access to content.

19
Briefly, in the solu on provided, learner data is stored locally in the form of LRS statements. As soon
as the learner's device has access to the internet, the LRS statements are pushed to the LMS and the
learner's comple on status is updated.

Content
Hosted Server Excel Sheet

Database Admin Interface Data

Enterprise Admin Learner

App Local
Database

CONSIDERATIONS FOR APPLICATION

 Verb defini ons in the LRS statements must be dis nct and clear, because an LRS report places
importance on verbs. Having a rich but clearly defined dic onary of verbs to choose from is
cri cal for clear, collated reports without confusion about the learning ac ons.
 Analysing rich and custom statements poses its own challenge! The organisa on would need
dedicated me and training administra on resources to si through such data.
 Enterprise permissions and IT policies are worth considering at the very start: some mes, a
solu on may make perfect sense for a business unit, but group IT policies and firewalls may
restrict access to APIs, ability to write to servers and so on. It's be er to explore these aspects
right at the start.
 Curriculum design for corporate training is probably always more elegant when it looks at what
can be taken away than what else can be included, but this is doubly so for mobile device
delivery.
 The degree of responsiveness required may vary based on whether employees use personal
devices or enterprise-provided devices to access content. Naturally, the greater the level of
responsiveness required, the higher the cost of design and development.

20
  Managing versions of courses or updates to content may be a li le more complicated since
manual refreshing of the content from the user's side is required to load the changed content. If
learners are really isolated enough that there is a chance they don't receive a no fica on or
training email, they may not be aware this is required. So the me for which learners may be
without connec vity should be considered in rela onship to the nature of the training. (Can
they afford to see outdated material? What would be the consequence?)

SOLUTION SCOPE AND VALUE

This par cular solu on is interes ng for other another very important business context too.

PRE-BOARDING
The larger the company, the more in-depth orienta on has to be. Or, a company could be recrui ng
for a surge me, when the priority is to have people ready to take on assignments as soon as possible.
In these situa ons, you can't always wait un l the employee walks through your doors on Day 1 to
begin the orienta on program. In the War for Talent, the 'pre-boarding' could also help persuade a
new joinee to stay with their decision to join you and not reconsider their acceptance of your offer.
But where does offline mobility come into all this? Simple! You're dealing with a learner group now
that doesn't yet have access to your network and LMS. They probably haven't even been badged yet
— but here we are, talking of training them and teaching them the story of your company!
With a solu on like the one described above, you can manage even the people who haven't yet
entered the physical and virtual boundaries of your organisa on and create a much be er, more
informed Day 1 experience and op mise face-to-face me with new employees to cover what really
needs personal interac on.

21
 MANAGING CHANGE OVER TIME
INTRODUCTION
Any major organisa onal change, whether it is to product/ service offerings, customer experience,
internal processes, corporate strategy or company structure, happens over a span of me with impact
to several roles. And major change comes with its own complexity and needs: communica on,
coordina on, re-skilling, up-skilling, acceptance, management, etc.
It's also a reality that change takes me to implement, whether from the perspec ve of working out
the details in prac ce or carrying people along in the desired direc on and addressing concerns,
resistance and challenges. Even if people are enthused about the change, it takes me to realis cally
become change-ready and be able to func on in new ways.
For these reasons, change is tricky and must be properly supported by robust training and
development plans.

THE ASK
One of our clients, among the world's largest food manufacturing organisa ons, wanted to strengthen
adherence to its Code of Conduct. As an organisa on, this company prides itself on its ethical sourcing

22
and civic sense. It not only adheres to regulatory bodies' norms, it is also looked to by the same
regulatory bodies as an industry leader to help even define these norms.
It was therefore necessary from a corporate iden ty and reputa onal standpoint that employees truly
understand, apply and abide by the Code of Conduct.

SOLUTION PROPOSED
A Code of Conduct requires the most personal and organisa onal level of involvement and coopera on.
People not only must know the organisa on's stance in policy, but they must be able to 'see' things
through the same philosophy and lens to be able to respond in the spirit of the organisa onal code to
various real life situa ons. At mes, this could mean overriding personal ways of doing things to comply
with the organisa onal ways.
We consider this impossible to achieve with a mere one-off theore cal exposi on of what the
organisa on stands for. So we designed a training interven on to run over the course of a calendar
year, with mul -phase interven ons to provide scaffolding through a phased learning approach.
This is what the structure of the interven on looked like:

23
Even with such a long-running program (especially, in fact!) it is difficult to create con nuous and
constant involvement. There must be sustained learning over a period of me, across a range of
experiences and competency levels.
Leveraging mobility in such a solu on is what allows us to ensure that the training inven ons are
be er integrated into the learner's everyday life. The ability to deliver training for any dura on,
context and space, means that the materials are more readily available to trigger and generate deeper
understanding. And because mobile devices are so ubiquitous, from feeling sporadic, the
interven ons start feeling immersive and linked. They are easily available as even conversa onal aids
so that learners can truly engage – even over a coffee break – in a deep discussion of a topic or aspect
of prac ce.
Gentle push reminders can prod people into awareness so that even if they don't individually react to
the s mulus, they s ll have the experience of immersion in an environment that is con nually
engaging with the subject.

CONSIDERATIONS FOR APPLICATION

 The constant reminder and invita on to engage with the change can be double-edged. Is this
a change that people will panic about or just one that they will need help adjus ng
themselves to? The dominant reac on you an cipate will ma er!
 Changes are as closely ed with business compe ve intelligence as they are with clear and
informa ve communica on about the change. With mobile devices and their ability to carry
the details of the change outside the enterprise space, it may be good to consider in
curriculum design which aspects need high security and which ones less so.
 Change management and behavioural alignment do not have to be restricted to a one-way
flow of informa on from the organisa on to the individual: polls and surveys are easily
administered on mobile devices. Why not consider when what kind of poll would give a
realis c pulse of recep vity to the change? That informa on could also be drawn on for the
Training Needs Analysis and Change Management Plans from one phase to the next.
 For all that mobility may be leveraged, it may also be necessary and prac cal to create
opportuni es alongside for face to face sharing and resolu on of concerns. Each level has to
be convinced of the change to be willing to support the level below it in modifying behaviour.

24
SOLUTION SCOPE AND VALUE
So when else is such an immersive, phased learning approach helpful?

EXPERTISE BUILDING
Not all domains are created equal. There are domains like in avia on or pharmacology where the
amount of ini al formal educa on required for basic entry into the field is very high. And then there
are demands for the person to keep up-skilling.
There are other domains where ini al qualifica on may not be as demanding, say for example in
manufacturing technology or product design, but staying up-to-date on emerging developments in the
domain is absolutely essen al to be relevant and compe ve in the market place.
In both cases, the exper se to be a ained may start at different levels, but the goal to be achieved is
embedded in similar condi ons: repeated and ongoing grappling with understanding with no firmly
defined end in sight, where certain pieces of knowledge will make more sense only over me and
exposure to a range of experiences.

PROBLEM SOLVING, CRITICAL THINKING

Any senior management band in a domain will have to increasingly draw on more than only purely
domain-specific knowledge. Especially where abstract but fundamental thinking skills are required
(and we know they sorely are !), the required knowledge, skills and competencies will not be possible
to acquire with one-off trainings. There will have to be a development path that caters to ini al broad
and wide knowledge acquisi on, which then moves the person gradually (with support) to integrated
understanding and applica on competence.

PERFORMANCE SUPPORT

Some organisa ons face challenges in recruitment and so cast their nets wider, taking in people with
not-so-aligned skill sets. Some mes, there is also a need to take in contract or part- me employees.
There are further segments where high turnover is a given business reality. But even under these
circumstances, ul mate performance cannot be compromised (for example, outsourcing centres may
have among the lowest skill entry levels but are held to some of the strictest cost and produc vity
accountability).
What compounds the challenge of elici ng adequate performance is that the same employees may
also require more training – but there is a cap on how much classroom training or conceptual
eLearning may be possible. In such cases, long term self development supported by phased learning
and suitable organisa onal policies to incen vise individual ini a ve is the obvious answer. What
mobility can further do is provide live performance support in the ini al stages for beginners. Quickly
usable job aids, reminders and tools to self-manage and self-correct performance, short nuggets that
can be picked up on the go will help speed up the journey to competent performance.

25
 'LIVE' PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
INTRODUCTION
Some lines of work involve repe ve tasks that are quickly performed, which can also be quickly
evaluated. In these circumstances, it makes sense to also provide immediate correc ve feedback and
coaching if necessary. This helps to maintain be er levels of quality, con nuously improve calibre of
performance and, ul mately, be er customer experience.

THE ASK
We were approached for a mobility solu on for an interna onal chain of hotels. The chain has an
open culture in which managers sit with mixed groups that comprise several roles. Managers may
observe someone on the floor and spontaneously choose to sit with the employee and coach them
for be er performance. The requirement was for an app that would support managers in coaching
their staff in this 'live' manner.

SOLUTION PROPOSED
The solu on defined evolved through many discussions with the company of what they planned to
use the app for, how their training system worked and what they further needed to be able to do.
The original requirement was for an app that would serve as a library through which to access
content. A er analysis and a few rounds of wireframing, the requirement was completely re-
evaluated to be a much more expansive set of features.
The app had to actually accommodate the following:
 Learner management for the regular training nuggets
 Content management for the regular training nuggets, performance ra ng descriptors and
training games
 Repor ng for different levels of management
 Leader board tracking for training games

26
The final solu on proposed consisted of these key components:

Download App

User authen ca on Portal/LRS

Coaching resources

Assennments data
Staff trends/reports

Reports
App User management
Storage Content
management

CONSIDERATIONS FOR APPLICATION

 One important considera on for any app-based solu on is whether a na ve app is required or a
hybrid app will do. While na ve apps may allow be er use of a device's par cular hardware, they
are much more expensive to maintain.
 In the absence of a clear requirements document or feature specifica on list, it is especially
important to spend me in the early analysis stage to derive what exactly is required in terms of
func onality. A wireframe can help generate conversa ons about user requirements, admin
requirements, backend and frontend features, types of content an cipated, etc. This will inform
key design, technology and deployment decisions.
 As before, enterprise permissions and IT policies are worth considering at the very start.
Some mes, a perfectly logical solu on may s ll not be a viable or compa ble one.
 User experience design should be factored into a later stage and separately performed by
designers. The business logic or programming module logic may not be the best basis for deriving
the flow of fields or arrangement of menus for an end user.
 The more complex the app considered, the be er it is to have staged produc on through set by set
feature development rather than wholesale itera on.
 Stakeholders required for project support from the customer's side are likely to be from mul ple
func ons than in conven onal eLearning.

SOLUTION SCOPE AND VALUE 27

SOLUTION SCOPE AND VALUE
This par cular solu on is interes ng for other business contexts as well.

70-20-10 SUPPORT
While this original context was for manual tasks such as cleaning and maintenance in a hotel, the
approach of 'live' performance support and correc on would work very well even for other contexts.
In a 70-20-10 model of development, where mentors are generally expected to be closely involved
with mentees, there is o en a gap in the system to monitor and capture how much mentoring has
actually happened.
An app-based tracking means that even a er something like a quick mee ng, a mentor and mentee
can sit together with their mobile devices and quickly see what aspects of performance the mentee
could have improved, iden fy suitable resources—and this can be captured.

CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT, SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

The trainings for such topics are notoriously prone to being shallow and 'fluffy'. As func onal, mature
adults, we know the 'theory' or 'principles' of proper interac on with fellow adults. Training therefore
seldom makes an impact on learners on the basis of just the content. Rather, the training can make a
huge impact if it is mely. Emerging from a hos le nego a on? A learner is going to appreciate advice
on conflict management a lot more at that moment than if randomly provided without a context to
instan ate the informa on—and what could be more persuasive than real life!

FIELD FORCE, APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING

Whenever we think of a er-sales service or any kind of site visit, typically the novice is sent out with
the veteran to learn the ropes of prac cal performance.
An app-based training support and performance evalua on system would be a powerful tool to
consider for such a context. It would help properly gauge the readiness of novices for independent
func oning, on the basis of data logged over me rather than an arbitrarily defined 'trial and support'
period.
In the case of domains where knowledge of various specialised procedures is required (say, home-
based nursing or healthcare visits) it can also help to have on-demand, staggered refresher training.

28
CHAPTER 4:

In this section, we will take a look at two very sophisticated and complex solutions leveraging
mobility, what makes them valuable, the breadth of business problems addressed and some
of the implementation considerations and conditions that make them unique.

29
 BOOSTING PERFORMANCE OF
RETAIL WORKERS
THE BACKGROUND
The client owns a chain of stores spread across the world. With their iconic branding, these stores are
instantly recognisable and the chain is one of the most popular convenience stores in the world. The
business is based on a franchising model.
The employees in the store are not direct employees of the company, but rather employees of the
franchisee. The company is therefore not directly involved in managing the staff but is directly
affected by the quality of their performance and ability to deliver the required store experience for
customers.

THE CHALLENGE
The parent company wanted to help franchisee employees perform be er. The basic nature of work
was simple enough: cleaning beverage dispensers, restocking shelves, tallying cash, ringing up orders
and interac ng with customers.
However, the main challenges came from the nature of the business model itself:
 Franchisee employees do not have access to the company's LMS (it's only available for direct
employees of the company).
 Franchisee store owners are given face to face training for every aspect of running the store so
that they can transfer their knowledge to their employees. However, the only material
available to directly support franchisee employees was a printed manual.
 The company had explored the reason that employees didn't consult the manual and
concluded that the material was too dry. Addi onally, the employees may or may not get me
dedicatedly for training (mostly, not).
 The franchisee store owners, while responsible for impar ng training, had no real support
materials to use in training apart from the physical manual.
 The franchisee store owners also struggle with the business reality of high turnover since they
mostly hire college graduates or people with low skill levels. These being contract employees,
they are paid by the hour so training is typically not seen as an investment as much as a cost.

30
THE ASK
We were asked for a solu on that would be economical, engaging for trainees and directly e back to
performance, thereby helping to make sure that franchisee stores operated efficiently.

SOLUTION SCOPE AND VALUE

A er idea ng the solu on for these demands, we also got to learn through interac ons with other
clients about a wider applicability and usefulness of this training interven on. We share some of these
contexts below to highlight elements that make the solu on effec ve in different situa ons.

ON-DEMAND PERFORMANCE TEACHING AND SUPPORT

Physical tasks can be of an incredible spectrum. From simple li ing and scanning of bar codes to
making surgical incisions to finely calibra ng delicate laboratory equipment, all of these come under
the wide bracket of 'physical' tasks. Naturally they each require a completely different skill level. But,
there are certain elements of learning – teaching techniques and requirements of prac ce – that put
them into one related group.

31
However skilled the task, if it is physical (as opposed to, say, cogni ve) a solu on must include
demonstra on of the mechanics and prac ce. There is also generally a right way and a wrong way. For
simpler physical tasks, just covering these aspects is enough to teach the task. And that's what we did
for a client who is a household name in cleaning products. The client wanted franchisee staff to learn
how to use the various product offerings: simple animated videos delivered in the manner of this
training solu on took care of rapidly on-boarding several new employees and making them job-ready.

SUPPORT STAFF TRAINING

The solu on has value also for industries where external, physical job condi ons and environment
have a major impact on performance. This could be, for example, responding to physical threats and
violence in the workplace or reading cues to make best use of space. We were approached by one of
the consul ng Big Four to provide this solu on for a major hospitality chain in the US. The hospitality
chain wished to teach its staff design thinking as an innova ve approach to improving guest
experience. In their case, it made sense to recommend the same delivery mechanism but for an end
product that used virtual reality.

ORGANISATIONAL AGILITY AND WORKPLACE SAFETY

In the case of another service industry giant, one of the largest facili es management companies in
the world, some of their staff have to work in nuclear sites, some in factories and some in hospitals. In
each loca on, the way in which staff has to respond to threats and safety hazards is different and is
unique to the environment and its par cular risks.
So how do we effec vely simulate or demonstrate safety procedures and spill hazards in a nuclear
plant? How do you train someone first to work in this nuclear plant and then get them just as ready
two years later to work in an automo ve factory? Augmented reality delivered in this training delivery
solu on makes perfect sense.

SOLUTION RECOMMENDED
This was the solu on provided to the ini al client, who wanted a low-cost but effec ve performance
oriented solu on. (The more sophis cated varia ons described above are based on this same delivery
mechanism but leverage much more advanced technology.)
For the retailer, the idea was simple. The various tasks would be made into quick nugget-sized
animated videos. These videos would be hosted on an externally accessible server. Each video was
associated with a unique QR code. The codes would be placed in logical physical shop spaces: for
example, the bar code scanning tutorial's QR code would be stuck on the scanning machine. The idea
was that a learner would scan the code on their personal mobile phone using the device camera. The
image would be read on a simple app that would trigger the corresponding web link for the
anima on. And so the learner would get to see the related video for the machine/ space they
scanned.

32
WHAT MAKES THIS SOLUTION STAND OUT?
The key to this solu on is in the training delivery mechanism. The logic is simple and elegant but
technological complexity can s ll escalate fast! If an organisa on were using augmented reality for the
actual training material, the corresponding triggers would have to be carefully planned and integrated
into the environment. This is where mobility can be used to manage the complexity by providing
simpler workarounds.
Not all contexts would merit the expense and investment of actual VR/AR dedicated hardware, so it
may be possible to consider using apps to trigger the VR/AR material.
Similarly, the infinitely wider reach of mobile devices (compared to dedicated specialised hardware)
means that organisa ons can also look at using such interven ons as part of customer engagement
and customer educa on programs.
So the main considera on really becomes about the cost or consequences of performance failure –
how much should the organisa on invest in specialised hardware?

CONCLUSION
These are just some of the interes ng possibili es that can be layered on to a simple but robust
delivery pla orm. The simplicity of the delivery mechanism is what gives cost flexibility in considering
actual training development.
For a truly workable version of such a solu on, some ques ons to consider would be: would a simpler
workaround be sufficient? What is the nature, complexity and level of danger or hazard associated
with this physical environment?

SHARING SUCCESS STORIES

THE BACKGROUND
One of the world's largest technology solu ons providers (offering enterprise so ware and hardware
solu ons) came to us with an interes ng problem.
Their business is driven by a consulta ve selling model. Salespeople in such a specialised and hi-tech
domain do more than just learn the product line and its specifica ons. A er picking up in-depth
domain knowledge (usually backed by corresponding formal qualifica ons), they also perform varying
level of technology consultancy to solve enterprise problems.

33
THE CHALLENGE
The organisa on wanted to leverage the exper se of its star performers. They wanted a way make it
easier for their especially successful sales people to share their experiences with others in the Sales
organisa on (i.e. and peers).

THE ASK
We had to deliver a solu on that would address not only the organisa onal challenges, but also make
it user friendly so that people could easily use it to upload the knowledge they wished to share, and
s ll others could find and access the informa on effortlessly.
But before ge ng to the details of the solu on, let's look at why this is a significant training
interven on.

34
SOLUTION SCOPE AND VALUE
This par cular solu on has a much wider scope of applica on and use than just one enterprise's sales
problem.
Here are some more contexts which other small, medium and large enterprises may relate to.

KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION
In-house knowledge produc on that is on-demand, highly relevant and applicable because of richness
of context, with a low cost of produc on is a dream desired by any organisa on. However, the tools of
produc on and the effort required are the usual deterrents. With a solu on that puts the easy-to-use
tools in employees' hands, the dynamic is completely transformed, making it a 5 minute prepara on
to be able to create a knowledge capture.

LEVERAGE EXPERTISE OF RETIRING GENERATIONS IN THE WAR FOR

TALENT
As the struggle to acquire and retain talent con nues, it is more important than ever that companies
be able to concretely capture the exper se of good performers. We can no longer bank solely on
mentoring models because the overall propor on of younger, less experienced staff to more senior
and experienced staff.
Rather than lose the prac cal and field-tested knowledge of the genera ons due to re re soon,
companies will need to generate the knowledge implicit in their heads to have a shareable, ar culated
knowledge base. A solu on that addresses the fundamental knowledge produc on barriers therefore
has long-term and strategic poten al.

BETTER ON-BOARDING AND ROLE READINESS TRAINING

This considera on is hardly new, but it con nues to grow more urgent. There is a strong requirement
to onboard people effec vely yet in lesser me, using fewer resources. But every person star ng a
new role also knows that the on-boarding training comes with a predes ned transfer challenge. No
amount of training in advance can completely prepare you for the job. This is where an explicit, easily
accessible resource pool of experience captures and prac cal guidance can be of huge help,
addressing the instances and prac cali es that an on-boarding by nature cannot.

70-20-10 AND REAL PERFORMANCE SUPPORT

Many organisa ons, especially large ones, have migrated towards a 70-20-10 model of employee
development. However, most only address training and knowledge needs from a learner perspec ve:
there is hardly any support for the mentors. While knowledge support can of course be much lesser
for mentors, it would certainly make their mentoring more defined, disciplined and efficient if they
had resources created by their own peer group available to them in easily shared forms.

35
KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND ITS BENEFITS
The value crea on applica ons we've looked this far have been about the outcome of knowledge
crea on. But impressively, the very process itself is of great use. Building the discipline of ar cula ng
what we know, as much as possible, pushes us to work in more rigorous, examined and objec vely
be er ways. Rather than sweeping all superior performance into the grey zone of “just knowing” and
“intui ve knowing”, organisa ons can encourage prac oners of different domains to actually
generate, evaluate and share their knowledge. There are any number of studies extolling the virtues
of metacogni on and how it paves the way for exper se to grow.
A knowledge produc on tool can nurture the prac ce of metacogni on by removing tradi onal
barriers and become a tool to also carve out a genuine learning culture.

SOLUTION RECOMMENDED
For the technology solu ons client, the design proposed was app-based. The idea was to leverage the
in-built camera func onality of laptops, tablets and mobiles as primary produc on tools. The sales
prac oner would be given various tools to aid in planning, structuring and ar cula ng a prac cal,
focussed knowledge nugget. Once they were ready with what they would speak about (and how),
they would simply access the app, provide camera permissions, record themselves and upload the
video with accompanying materials to the app. The app would be a pla orm on which the nugget
would be tagged and categorised so that it would be archived properly for easy search and retrieval
on an external server.
Someone who wanted to access the nugget would also use the app. They would search or browse in
the viewing menu using custom search terms and/or meta tags. The nugget chosen from the
corresponding search results would be retrieved by the app from the server and streamed to the
viewer. Viewers could also manage their consump on by crea ng playlists, ge ng no fica ons for
topics of interest, etc.

WHAT MAKES THIS SOLUTION STAND OUT?

Apart from technology (programming, server management, responsive design, usability and so on),
there are other implementa on aspects of such a solu on that make it a high-end solu on which
however may not be for everyone.
For one thing, the organisa on would have to dedicate a team of moderators to manage the
knowledge produced. There would have to be some kind of a quality team as well to audit the
material and even perform detailed but low-level valida on like accuracy of meta tags used.
An organisa on that is considering pu ng knowledge produc on tools in the hands of employees
must also realis cally consider: does it have a suitable culture for such an ini a ve? Is there real
mo va on for employees to make the extra effort? Is there accountability and recogni on for efforts
made? For example, how would this feed into appraisals or talent development programs?

36
CONCLUSION
These are just some of the interesting considerations that open up conversations along many channels, leading
to fundamental organisational changes to support and truly reap the benefits of such complex, multi-directional
solutions.

For a truly workable version of such a solution, it must be tailored for the unique environment, policies, culture,
business objectives, etc. of each individual organisation.

37
CHAPTER 5:

38
 TO SUM IT UP
As we've seen, mobility can help with solving a very wide number of organisa onal problems—if done
right!
Here are some of the basic things to keep in mind if you are considering adop ng a mobility-based
solu on:

 Do you really need it? What problem do you want it to solve?

 Have you realis cally es mated the resources needed?
 Have you considered the infrastructure and environment in which the solu on is to be
deployed? Is it worth ge ng the solu on validated once or exploring more op ons?
 Have you considered if another business problem could also be tackled with this one solu on?
 Have you adequately considered the pros and cons of a par cular solu on?
 Even if the solu on is perfect and elegant, would the people targeted be open to such a
solu on? Is it in keeping with the prevailing culture?

Clearly, these are the simple though important ques ons. There are several specific considera ons
depending on the nature of the par cular requirement, which is where (you know this is coming!) —
we encourage organisa ons to talk to us! There's nothing like a good conversa on for us to
understand how best to help you.

39
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amit Garg
Director - Custom Learning Solu ons

Amit is a mobile learning aficionado. An avid learner of mobile and technology himself, he helps
organisa ons understand and implement mLearning. He also helps them in taking wiser decisions in
eLearning by leveraging his 16+ years experience in the learning solu ons domain.
He was listed amongst the top ten eLearning movers and shakers for 2013 and 2014 in the World list,
was on top of the Australia-Pacific list for 2013 and 2014, and con nues to be ranked amongst the
top ten in 2015 and 2016.
Amit holds an Engineering degree (IIT – Kharagpur) and Management degree (XLRI – Jamshedpur),
and has earlier worked in Process and Automo ve industries.

Mridula Ramesh
Associate Manager Instruc onal Design

Mridula has worked in ID for 10 years. Before that, she worked in various fields from human rights
advocacy to game design. The logic behind the seeming randomness is that she is passionate about
crea ng order from chaos.
As an ID, she has had the joy of working on a variety of projects - corporate and K12, ILT and
eLearning, conven onal and crea ve. She has also conducted classroom trainings. She has mul ple
interests - psychology, gardening, design theory, poli cs, feminism, music and cri cal theory are a few -
and is an unabashed idealist. She thrives on variety and transla ng theory into prac ce. Mridula is
proudly powered by filter coffee.

40
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