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March 05, 2010
Posted by: Howard Hills
Keywords:
blended learning,
involving managers,
managers support,
managing change
The leadership and involvement of top management in e-learning matters; in 2007 the Towards Maturity study (page 37) showed that organisations where Directors were directly involved in e-learning estimated a 43% improvement in business impact over those where Directors were not involved. The Driving Business Benefit study (Page 41) has evidence that direct involvement of Directors in e-learning is linked to e-maturity, those at the top are twice as likely to have Directors involved as those on the second tier of e-maturity.
Leadership matters, and the direct involvement of top managers in learning has a major impact on the success of learning. This is clearly demonstrated in this case study from Hammonds Furniture; a progressive and expanding company with a high quality product.
The technology they have implemented is very simple, essentially podcasts delivered to mobile devices supported by workbooks and face-to-face mentoring sessions. The result: Increase in sales volume of 24% (for comparable quarters); average order size increase of 14%; growth in gross margin of 3%.
These improvements happened in those areas where the learning was implemented and was one of the factors contributing to a significant business impact. The key ingredient in this success is the face-to-face mentoring which started with the Chief Executive mentoring his Directors through the learning material and they mentored all the staff involved. Learners presented what they had learnt back to the Directors and the CEO; the CEO was an enthusiastic user of the material frequently listening to the podcasts as he drove from location to location in his Aston Martin.
The Towards Maturity research in 2008 revealed that organisations where Directors are users of e-learning rate e-learning’s Business Impact at 57% and the impact on Staff at 65%, where Directors have no involvement in e-learning this drops to 43% and 53%.
Leadership matters.
This case study was contributed by Enterprise Leaders where you can find out more about the technology.
