„4 seasons" - how to successfully

deploy e-learning initiative

Marek Hyla
Managing Director
e-Learning.pl
e-Learning.pl – key facts

e-Learning.pl is a business unit of House of Skills – the

biggest Polish training company in soft skills area

Our target market – multinational and Polish

corporations

Our focus:
• Technological support of complex development
processes delivered by House of Skills
• Consulting in e-learning deployment projects
• Custom content development

Our clients: Polish Telecom, Carlsberg,

Elektrociepłownie Warszawskie (Vatenfall Group),
Andersen Business Consulting, MasterCard, Polish
Railways, GlaxoSmithKline and others.
Who I am?

One of e-learning market creators in Poland

Recognized as an e-learning expert in Polish corporate
market
Designer of e-learning platform for both Internet and
mobile use
Experienced designer of e-learning content for both
children and adults
Author of two books about e-learning in Polish („E-
learning – from Idea to Solution” – 2003 and „E-learning
Guide” – 2005)
Speaker at Techno Business Forum (Tokio, 2001) and
HR Congress (Warszawa, 2004 and 2005) among others
 First Story Problems – barriers for e-learning deployment on red

Decision on investment
Decision on top-class
in e-learning
LMS implementation

E-learning team
created

Board’s objection!
„No more investment!
Show us ROI!”

LMS implemented,
configured and
launched

Start of internal
Content creation is marketing
time-consuming! Funds
needed to buy it Lack of will to
self-educate

Lack of content noticed

Decision to create
courses internally
 Second Story Problems – barriers for e-learning deployment on red

Decision on buying large

Polish daughter company
off-the-shelf e-learning
enters into the corporate
library by mother
e-learning programme
corporation

Local e-learning programme

created

E-learning initiative
threatened – decision on next
Questioning e-learning by
steps to be taken
managers as key entry barrier

Licences for content bought

Internal evaluation of entry

barriers

Lack of usage noticed

After one year usage still low

Start of internal marketing

 E-learning implementation is like a puzzle. You can throw the
Lessons learned whole box in the air and count on having it completed after it falls
down. You can pick a single piece and try to place it on the
board. You can also make a plan, start from the boarder, then
select similar pieces and step by step complete the whole
picture.
E-learning deployment is:
• time-consuming – so there is no reason to be hurry
• consisting of many steps – so sequence is important
• dependent – so these dependencies must be known
 What’s the purpose of e-learning in
organisation?

Business results!

The most frequent responses were: „We want to implement LMS”, „We want to shift training from
traditional to remote model”, „We want to cut time of training”, „We want to cut costs of training”.
Very few mentioned business results as a target of implementation…
If business results are the key issue so why so many companies start thinking about e-learning from
contacting with IT system provider?
 Entry Barriers There are many human-related entry barriers. They are
connected with either lack of knowledge or wrong attitudes or
approaches.

What has limited the use of e-learning at your organisation?

6% Don’t know

15% Market confusion

18% Efficacy of e-learning not proven

19% Lack of high quality content

24% ROI of e-learning has not been proven

25% Employees lack of Internet access

28% Lack of management buy-in

30% Employees not motivated to learn on-line

39% Cost

Sources: E-learning market research by IDC nad Training Magazine; Training Magazine, September 2003
 Stakeholders of e-learning deployment used to think about
Iceberg Model e-learning as a technological challenge. Comparing it to the
iceberg they are often not familiar with true challenges which are
hidden under water.

Key Challenges and their

measures
Soft
Cost Time
issues

TECHNOLOGY

CONTENT

employees attitudes, employees

PEOPLE AND abilities, managers attitudes,
ORGANISATION organisational culture, internal
procedures
 Four challenges => „Four Seasons”

Managers

Third season – „Winter” : to create

positive climate around e-learning

Climate
initiatives First season - „Summer”: to define
business-wise e-learning usage
(ROI-oriented business cases)

Business
e
Effectiv
environmen
s
ing Need t
e-learn
Internal
ment
conditions Abilli
ties deploy

Second season – „Fall”: to analize

abilities, requirements and obstacles
(in human and organisational
Fourth season – „Spring”: to
Will

dimensions)
motivate people to change their
approaches towards e-learning

Self-engaged
employees
 Are we going into this e-learning thing?
„Summer” - Needs What e-learning should be used for?
Why? What are my (me as a manager) benefits of
engagement into e-learning?
What business results should I expect from every
single business case?
Analysis of business environment
• Identification of business problems
• Selection of business problems which could be optimized
Strong involvment of managers
• Valuable and credible results
• Managers buy-in by understanding of e-learning influence
on business processes they are responsible for
 What are the entry barriers?
„Fall” - Abilities What are risks?
How we could overcome problems?
How much it will cost us to break them?
How breaking these barriers will influence our business?

Audit of organisation’s
conditions
• Deployment barriers related
to attitudes and to other
human factors
• Corporate barriers
(technology, culture,
procedures, etc.)
Design of projects which
will overcome identified
barriers
„Winter” - Climate

Working on attitudes of executives and managers

Working on effective involvment of managers
Important results of previous seasons:
• Hard data focused on business results – ROI as strong
argument for full engagement of managers
• Good understanding
of barriers related to
human factors –
possibility to design
approaches of shaping
attitudes of personel
Helping managers to understand the role of e-learning
(based on the results of the first season). Learning
managers to promote e-learning in their team and prepare
managers to overcome barriers of their staff (based on the
results of the second season). Working out models of
successful e-learning usage in every team and project
(hand in hand with managers).
 Helping HR team in changing HRM rules to support e-
„Spring” - Will learning initiatives (both push and pull). Helping Internal
Marketing Dept. in „selling” e-learning vision.

E-learning as a step into:

• Change of learning
culture from push to pull
• Permanent development
of the knowledge-based
culture (incentive system,
promotion system)
Internal marketing programme:
• Based on analysis of entry barriers (results of season 2)
• coordinated with managers’ actions (set up during season
3)
 Structured and planned implementation prevents from
4 Seasons Story pitfalls leading the project to the dead-end.

Execution of e-learning
Marketing of success project (selected from
designed business cases)

Internal marketing
of e-learning

Identification of business
Selection of business cases problems
for e-learning

Shaping working environ-

ment - influencing approaches
of employees

Involvment of managers –
sponsors, supporters and
e-learning angels

Shaping attitudes and

approaches of executives
and managers
Analysis of internal conditions
for e-learning deployment
Overcoming entry barriers
4 Seasons model vs. typical
implementation

Typical implementation Implementation in 4 Seasons

Lack of structure (no plan/strategy) Structured (planed actions)

Upfront investment in technology Investment in selected technologies
which seems to be necessary when necessary
Actions triggered by problems Actions to avoid pitfalls

Higher risk Lower risk – organic growth

Lower/no ROI ROI
Delayed effects Immediate effects
 Typical implementation generates up-front costs and many
Business Results additional investments for solving unexpected problems.
4 seasons approach gives an opportunity for planned and
justified investment and steady growth.
Typical Implementation 4 Seasons

Investme Usage
nt

Investme
nt Usage

Time Time
Cumulated cash-flow

4
Seasons

Time

Typical
implementatio
n
Conclusions

Successful e-learning deployment needs

implementation plan (or even implementation strategy)
A plan should focus on eliminating barriers (preventing
from problems)
Right sequence is a key – leverage on every single step
E-learning needs more
focus on people and
corporate culture than
technology
 Your partner in successful
e-learning implementation

Marek.Hyla@weknowhow.pl

www.weknowhow.
pl