Who's afraid of blended learning?

This post was first published on the CCL corporate blog in three articles:

• Why leadership development traditionally uses less blended learning
• Excuses that prevent the adoption of blended learning
• Looking ahead

What is it with blended learning and leadership?
Ever since I narrowed my professional scope from 'all kinds of learning' to leadership exclusively, I've been amazed with the slower speed of adopting technology for leadership development, compared to other learning domains.  This seems true especially higher up the leader pipeline, where I've occasional encounter very emotional reactions against anything 'e'. No, I'm not saying that there are no e-learning components in the leader development blend today, nor am I saying face to face isn't very, very valuable.
The European E-learning barometer for example learns us that today already 7% of the e-learning audience is senior managers, 22% general managers and 6% high potentials, and that 37% of companies use e-learning components for management and leadership training. And the Bersin Leadership Development Factbook 2012 states that depending on the level, e-learning and virtual classes make up from 14 to 23% of the mix.
What I am saying in this blog post is that
1- There have been valid reasons why leadership development used less blended components over the years
2- But there are also a fair share of excuses and myths
3- Looking ahead, there can only be more 'e' in the blend

Reasons
These are three valid reasons why e-learning components - at least in the traditional sense- are needed less for leadership development.

• Leadership isn't about certification: the earliest learning technologies were all about streamlining learning processes, tracking learning progress, and handing out certificates for completed learning. Leadership isn't about certification in the form of a diploma, as the proof is in what you do at work not what courses you've attended. 
• Leadership isn't about compliance training: another big chunk of the earlier e-learning is all sorts of compliance training. I've got a very double feeling with compliance training. They are often the kind of boring and tedious e-learning encounters that have deeply disappointed and disengaged a generation of learners. Many of these courses don't really have much of a learning goal in the first place. Their goal is to check a box. 
• Leadership development isn't really about content either: more importantly, the first generation of e-learning systems were all content-centric and their goal was to massively disseminate knowledge in a consistent way. Of course, there is a place to learn from content and models to become an effective leader, but we shouldn't overestimate its importance. Our 'Lessons from experience' and subsequent research has shown that formal training only amounts for about 10% of developmental experiences and that experience and learning from others is far more important. That said, when friends of mine were suddenly finding themselves to manage a team, they all craved for very concrete content on how to deal with their new situation. There is also a need for very concrete performance support content such as the evaluation and approvals processes and systems and high performing companies often have this learning content available in a leader portal. But the more experienced leaders get, the less actual content is really needed, and much more reflection, self-awareness, sharing of experiences, stretch assignments, etc. In the end leadership development is about behavior change, not about knowledge spread.

Excuses
These and similar myths to date prevent a wider adoptation of blended learning for leadership development.

• "I'm a high touch person, not a high tech person": a lot of leadership development means the realization that we need to adapt our behavior to the situation, regardless of our personal traits or preferences. It's the same with the 'e'-stuff. I remember years ago when I got a new manager I couldn't find him in our corporate social network. It was as if he didn't existed. Similar to the phrase 'when a tree falls in the forest ' I'd like to suggest that if a person does not have a profile on the Internet, or you can't google them, they probably don't exist. (And I'm not even a millennial.) I also remember the first post of a colleague on our Yammer network: "so this is where you all have been hiding...". Ask yourself this as a leader: are you part of the conversation? Are you there where your people are? Because if they are online and you're not...  
• "Leadership is a contact sport, we need to see each other in the eye.":  this is absolutely right, but not exclusively. Virtual contact is contact too. And there's more of the latter. There is technology out there that allows us 'to be there when we're not'. Face to face might be the most powerful variant of human contact, it is not the only one, and not the only effective one. There is a lot we can learn from each other through social media, virtual events, mobile apps, etc. Using this social technology wisely will expand the number of people you 'touch' and vice-versa. 
• "E-learning is boring and doesn't work.": a few years ago I was discussing the 'brand image' of e-learning with a marketing expert. According to her the image was roughly along the lines of "I will be forced to watch boring page-turners, all on my own without access to experts, in my own time, and later be held accountable for knowing it". That's not a very engaging message indeed. And the e-learning industry is guilty of making its share of such learning, especially around the turn of the century. But we are 2013 already. Good blended learning now offers a richness of possible learning formats, uses a lot of interaction and video, is about connecting people as much as presenting content, and making the learning experience personal and applicable via job aids.

Looking ahead

• Learning technology is becoming more people-centric than content-centric. Social platforms, mobile apps and communication devices connect people with people. That's very good news for leadership development which is about getting work done through people anyway. Also leadership development will leverage these technologies.
• Tracking technology and analytics give us immediate feedback. For example, I have a watch that shows my pulse. It is a great personal feedback tool for when I'm in meetings. On a higher level, real time network analytic (aka the social fabric of leadership) will soon provide a real time thermometer into the health of our organisations. 
• Massive need for more and better leaders: finally, the need for more, faster and better leadership development -including to currently underserved audiences- is so big we cannot meet it without more technology.

These trends and needs and the technology on the horizon make me confident that going forward, the portion of the 'e' components in the leadership development blend will only increase. Leadership development may have been lagging in its adoption of the first wave of learning technologies, but the newer technologies are right up the ally for leadership as they are all about connecting people, real time insights and scale.

My final plea is that of the role-model. As leaders we've said to the others in the organisation they need to learn more through blended learning. That also means we need to set the example ourselves.

After all, who's afraid of blended technology? Not you and me, right?



Article leaders and technology learning myths:
Sources and further reading:

• 1st european elearning barometer 
• Bersin Leadership Development Factbook 2012 
• Blog post on 3 online learning myths 
• Toward Maturity 'Reinventing Leadership Development' report