Question: Why is there so much interest in Achievement Stories as an output of learning and development initiatives?

Answer: Great question! As you’ve seen in our last few Learning Alerts, there has been a great deal of focus within Fort Hill on achievement this year. We thought it might be helpful to discuss why we see Achievement Stories as such a valuable asset to the learning and development community. We also want to share some exciting news about a new innovation we have been working on to support the collection and sharing of Achievement Stories.

Research

In the latter half of 2011, Fort Hill set out to discover the greatest problems experienced by learning and development leaders. We first conducted interviews with over 50 L&D professionals from around the globe, focusing on identifying problems or challenges related to their learning and development initiatives.

The thematic analysis of those interviews identified six challenges (I guess we have a thing for the number six!) that were consistent and pervasive enough to warrant further investigation:

Of these, we concluded that demonstrating business results was a challenge that nearly all learning leaders experience regularly and where few are satisfied with existing solutions. Because few currently available products, services, or methods are adequately addressing this problem, most learning leaders agree that having the ability to clearly articulate the ways learning initiatives produce results for the organization would be of significant value.

Solution

One thing we heard in the interviews is that demonstrating business results often requires both qualitative and quantitative data, which can be difficult to collect. In our work over the last decade, we’ve consistently seen how a well told story that illustrates how a participant used their learning to create something valuable in their organization is a very simple and powerful way to demonstrate results. This led us to the development of Achievement Stories as the basis for a solution to this problem.

We also repeatedly heard that any tool participants are expected to utilize must be easy to use and work within their existing systems and processes. This led us to envision a tool that would allow the requesting and submitting of achievements to take place over email, a process that is both familiar and completely mobile. The tool would also ask participants to rate each other’s stories, which would create a crowdsourced, ranked order of the most compelling achievements from the group. Having participants determine which stories are most compelling creates a social environment where participants are learning from their combined achievements and, at the same time, providing learning leaders with examples that best demonstrate the results taking place.

Validation

Having determined a specific problem and a possible solution, we proceeded to conduct a series of surveys to probe further. Surveys were completed by over 600 respondents, including learning leaders, business leaders outside L&D, and learners themselves. The purpose of this validation was to confirm that each group of respondents was aware of the problem and saw value in the solution.

We asked each group of respondents to:

Over 70% of learning leaders indicated that a tool like this would create a lot of value or solve one of their biggest problems. Business leaders also confirmed such a tool would be similarly valuable. And, perhaps most importantly, greater than 75% of learners themselves said that this tool would be somewhat or very valuable to them.

In addition to seeing the value of such a tool, 75% of learners said they would be able to submit an example of an achievement resulting from an initiative.

Learners also confirmed that they would be interested in and comfortable with seeing and rating the achievements submitted by their peers.

In all cases, each group indicated that they are capable and would find value in participating in a collaborative process for collecting and rating achievements from learning.

Social Data Collection

One thing that has always been lacking in the traditional top-down means of collecting data (surveys, interviews, etc.) is that the person providing the data rarely has access to see and learn from the input of others. This is why we are so excited about the crowdsourced method of collecting and identifying the actions, achievements, and results occurring after L&D initiatives. It truly represents an improved way of collecting data. Engaging learners to share and rate the results they’ve achieved creates a social environment where they are seeing and learning from each other’s successes.

Thank You!

We would be remiss if we didn’t thank all who participated in this research by either agreeing to be interviewed or by completing a survey. It is this research and our experience working with many of you that helps us understand how and where to focus our efforts.

Please visit Fort Hill’s Booth #932 at the upcoming ASTD 2012 International Conference in Denver this May to learn more about our exciting new product, We Achieve™, which helps demonstrate results from learning by engaging participants to describe an achievement made after a learning initiative. If you would be interested in piloting We Achieve with one of your programs, please email me at tanner@forthillcompany.com. We would love for your participants to be able to experience the social power of achievements!

Additionally, be sure to attend our upcoming complimentary live webinar, “Using Achievement Stories to Demonstrate Value Delivered and Improved Performance” on Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 11:00am EDT, where details on using Achievement Stories to create added value for participants, managers, sponsors, and learning leaders will be shared.

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