In this issue:

1. Training in Zero Time: An Interview with Dr. Keri Pearlson
2. Special Announcement!
3. Does Your Instruction Rate 5 Stars?
4. e-Briefs
5. The 2001 Learning Events Calendar

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1. Training in Zero Time: An Interview with Dr. Keri Pearlson, http://www.zerotimeinstitute.com

Dr. Keri Pearlson is keynote speaker at the upcoming WBT Producer 2001 Conference & Expo, April 18-20, Anaheim, CA, USA (http://www.influent.com/wbt2001). She is a founding partner of KP Partners, and president of the ZeroTime Institute and ZeroTime Consulting. Dr. Pearlson is the author of the highly acclaimed book, Zero Time: Providing Instant Customer Value - Every Time, All the Time!, which she co-authored with Raymond Yeh and George Kozmetsky. Influential Trends caught up with Dr. Pearlson to learn more about the notion of Zero Time and how the producers and providers of training and learning can provide instant customer value every time, all the time.

TRENDS: What is a Zero Time organization?

PEARLSON: It is an organization that has learned to be instantly responsive: an organization that has learned how to anticipate what their customers want, utilize their people, technology, and organizational systems in such a way that they are able to respond instantly.

TRENDS: Which competencies are critical to a company's survival in today's economy?

PEARLSON: By mastering the five disciplines of zero time:

1. Instant Value Alignment - companies no longer pursue market share by trying to satisfy every single customer.
2. Instant Learning - learning is a natural part of work, not separate from work.
3. Instant Adaptation - organizations fully empower individuals to create value for the customer while aligning them with the group purpose and direction.
4. Instant Execution - organizations need processes that can be executed instantly.
5. Instant Involvement - zero time organizations take extra steps to ensure success by developing meaningful partnerships.

TRENDS: Your book discusses Instant Learning as "a natural part of work, not separate from work." How can we as designers and developers of learning make this a reality?

PEARLSON: I believe that the promise of e-Learning is not in the substitution of training and training systems. The promise of e-Learning is the integration of knowledge management and training with work processes. The way companies do this is by thinking about the processes of their workers and what they are being asked to do, and by analyzing the types of information that are needed to do those processes. Organizations need to ensure that that kind of information is available and in many cases pushed out to the workers at the time they need it, instead of pulling out workers, away from their jobs, to get the information.

A good example of this is at Dell Computer (http://www.dellcomputer.com) in their Dell Learning organization. They have figured out a way of integrating knowledge nuggets in the work process systems themselves - they call this "stealth learning." When workers need information, it is sitting there in front of them, at the assembly line on a computer screen. This is the true power of the Internet and computer networks - pushing out information at the right time.

TRENDS: In what ways will the Internet be the vehicle to launch Zero Time companies?

PEARLSON: The Internet plays 2 roles: 1) motivation for companies to figure out ways to become instantly responsive. The dotcom upstarts come online and rewrite the business rules. The old guard organizations have had to figure out ways to respond. The new rule is that you have to be instantly responsive; and, 2) a company does not have to use the Internet as a vehicle for delivering their processes, but it takes real creativity to do without it. An example of this is Progressive Insurance (http://www.progressive.com). They were looking at ways to increase market share and business. They realized that the biggest problem is the claims process. If you have an accident and have to file a claim there is a high emotional factor, and lots of stress with the process. Naturally, at the accident scene there are lots of uncertainty and bad feelings. Progressive's solution was to have a claims adjuster show up at scene at which the he takes pictures and collects details of the accident. He assesses the damage and then cuts a check. The Progressive customer leaves with a check for the repair amount (best estimate of repairs), and the claims process is executed instantly! This is not an Internet process, it is a business process of putting accident claims adjusters in the field. What makes the customers happy is that the process happens instantly.

For a company to be successful in the new economy, it has to rethink things in a very fundamental way, how it interacts with customers, suppliers, partners, how the organization interacts with itself, how its processes and learning systems work. The answer is mastering the zero time disciplines.

Hear more about how you can apply and master the Zero Time disciplines at Dr. Pearlson's keynote address at the WBT Producer 2001 Conference & Expo, April 18-20, Anaheim, CA, USA. For complete conference information and convenient online registration, visit http://www.influent.com/wbt2001.

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2. * * * SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! * * *

As you make plans for you and your team to attend the WBT Producer 2001 Conference & Expo, April 18-20 (http://www.influent.com/wbt2001), register your manager for the WBT Executive Summit, April 18-19, (http://www.influent.com/wbtes2001) which is co-located with the WBT Producer 2001 Conference. The Executive Summit is designed exclusively for learning executives by bringing together the world's most progressive companies in a two-day dialogue about the strategic and business issues related to successful e-Learning. The added value for your manager is that registration for WBT Executive Summit also provides admittance to the WBT Producer 2001 Conference & Expo! Your manager will have the experience of participating in two leading industry events for the price of one! Visit http://www.influent.com/wbtes2001 for complete Executive Summit program information and convenient online registration.

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3. Does Your Instruction Rate 5 Stars?
By M. David Merrill, Utah State University, merrill@cc.usu.edu

With the Internet, a click of a button will enable us to reach information on almost any subject. Often this information is labeled "instruction." Many of these sources are called "courses." However, merely labeling a Website "instructional" does not make it so. Charging tuition, calling it a course, or even asking a few multiple-choice questions does not turn information into instruction.

What is instruction? Clearly it involves information, but it also involves much more.

The Internet is loaded with thousands of Websites offering courses. Go to a few of these portals and take the sample course that is offered. What did you find? Are the courses effective? Do they teach the skills that they claim to teach?

Here is what I found. I went to a popular learning portal that offers hundreds of courses by many different authors and companies. The sample course was "Elements of Market Strategy." The displays are very attractive, the screen design is pleasing, and the navigation is easy to use.

A typical screen presents a brief piece of text, an attractive graphic, and the narrator reads the text on the screen. From time to time there are inserted multiple-choice questions. Mastery tests in the course require the student to answer five multiple choice or true/false questions which require the student to remember information that was presented.

What is my evaluation?

The course presents information about marketing. However, there are no examples for the concepts presented. The assessment is merely a few remember-information questions. Following the instruction, it is unlikely that the student will be able to recognize new examples of any of the concepts defined since no examples were presented during the course, and there was no practice in identifying examples of the concepts taught. In short, the material presents some information about marketing but it does not teach.

How does this course rate on our five stars ranking system?

This course gets NO STARS: There is no problem to solve, there is no activation of previous knowledge or experience, there is no demonstration of the skills taught -- only information, there is no application of the skills taught - only memorization, and there is no integration of the skills taught with the learner's on-the-job performance. No stars for Elements of Market Strategy.

How does your instruction stack up? Register for Dr. Merrill's one-day workshop, "Does Your Instruction Rate 5 Stars?" on Tuesday, April 17, at the WBT Producer 2001 Conference & Expo, Anaheim, CA. Visit http://www.influent.com/wbt2001 for convenient online conference and workshop registration, and complete conference details.

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4. e-Briefs

A year ago Trends brought you information about the Commission on Technology and Adult Learning. The final report was slated for release on February 13, 2001. Here's an update: the ASTD (American Society of Training & Development) and NGA (National Governor's Association) internal review processes of the Commission's final report have resulted in a decision to revise and refine the content of the report. Plans for public release are tentatively expected to occur in April, 2001.

If you have news to share with the community, please send an email to Rosie Smith at rsmith@influent.com.