Josh Bersin
Californian Josh Bersin may have got into e-learning “accidentally” but what makes him tick is his prudence and a measured approach to technology in business learning and training. Having experienced traditional sales training early in his career, Bersin marvels at how much learning has been transformed.
“I love what technology can do in corporate learning. I wasn’t even thinking of a career in e-learning. I joined a US software company – LMS – responsible for product management and marketing,” he explains. He went on to become its chief operating officer.
This made him understand more closely the nature of software companies as well as the wonders of technology. However, in 1998, LMS was sold to DigitalThink, an e-learning enterprise solutions firm that addressed corporate training and education needs.
“DigitalThink was a big name and it invested heavily in e-training, believing technology had the potential to wipe out the traditional learning model. But I was laid off in the 2000 stock market crash. I researched why it failed and what is the best way of adopting e-learning and yet remaining risk-averse. That’s how I got interested in this field.”
Four years later, based on his studies and experience, Bersin authored the “Blended Learning Book” – informing professionals of best practices and proven methodologies. “Even today people tell me the book is relevant to their e-learning strategies.”
With his former colleagues at DigitalThink, Bersin analysed the business learning market and realised corporates needed guidance on enterprise learning and talent management and acquisition. He set up Bersin & Associates, offering an end-to-end advisory services programme. Its president and chief executive, he says: “Our aim is not just to develop ultra-tech learning modules for corporates, but to create pragmatic tools that enable them to make specific decisions and align learning with their business objectives.”
Bersin loves his job for two main reasons – the opportunity to speak to global professionals in charge of business learning and to understand their models, and the chance to help them create effective learning systems. And to further engage with the European market, Bersin attended January’s Learning Technologies conference in London. What does he think about the UK learning sector? “The European e-learning market is at a different stage of maturity to the US one. It’s better at formal learning than the US but slower to adopt new technologies.”
He thinks this is because European learning models are older and more established and that’s why their experience in mentoring is more mature and effective. “Also, people here are closer together and it is easy to have a lot of face to face interaction.”
He would like to see similar maturity on the other side of the Atlantic. “UK enterprises have a more holistic approach to business learning and training while US corporations tend to gravitate too much to technology and ignore the human aspect of learning.
“One of the flaws of e-learning is that it gives you the technical skills but the human aspect is missing. That’s why it is not best for soft skills like leadership.”
But he is fascinated by the way technology allows businesses to bring together lots of factors in different combinations to gain desired results. “There is no one way or best way. Research, analysis and understanding of one’s own objectives will help us form a unique combination and gain from it.”
He is keen to see the uptake of collaborative, informal and social learning. “While instructor-led training will not go away completely, you can use Twitter, video sharing, pod casts, virtual learning in a training process. In addition, mobile learning platforms, content sharing platforms and use of simulation in corporate learning could bring more efficiency.
He says technology in learning changes constantly. “Currently we are going through a social networking revolution. The problem is that people have grandiose expectations of new technologies. They always did.
“These tools will improve something in the learning segment, but we still don’t know what. This concerns me. Companies are at the bleeding edge, they have to understand there could be a fair number of failures.”
Businesses must understand the risk tolerance, budget and nature of their business before implementing new strategies, he says. “If you are a large bank with a conservative yet effective training model, why risk it? But if you are a software company, then capture every competitive advantage because if you wait to see how things unfold, competitors would steal your market-share.”
Although judicious, Bersin is no pessimist. “This recession has thrown up tremendous opportunities. It is an exciting time to be in the industry and experiment with cheaper yet impactful alternatives – like informal and virtual learning technologies.”
Already writing his next book, on talent management, Bersin’s secret lies in making technology integral to his profession yet being discreet about it. Perhaps that’s why only he can juggle five PCs and a BlackBerry and still read, exercise, watch movies and go skiing.
Archana Venkatraman is a reporter on e.learning age