For this week's paper, we were supposed to imagine we have an opportunity to lead post-COVID digital transformation in our area of expertise/responsibility in our organization. What changes would we want to lead and why? What technology or technologies would we see having the greatest potential to help actualize the changes? What do we see as the major barriers?
As a leader at our organizations, I am tasked with this type of innovation and digital leadership and there are several things we are doing post-Covid. Some are bold, some are small, but for the most part, they are all things that we had to live through with Covid and think we can deploy much quicker if there is another severe pandemic or another cultural and business disruptor.
We realize now that not only are we at risk of another (serious) global pandemic, but we need to be ready as an organization to better support learning for our essential workers in the energy industry. Just like in early 2020, energy industry workers were not able to take two weeks or more off as a response to a lockdown or serious pandemic. The energy sector needs constant support and whether in lockdown or not people need to have electricity and power to support modern life. Our organization makes it possible for the workers who support the energy industry to stay safe and be able to access their job sites. The pandemic has shown us that we need to be able to provide this support even if things are locked down.
Additionally, our customers have come to expect that they can access learning at any time. There are expectations that have come about due to competing demands from other organizations in our industry, then there are expectations that our learners bring with them from having seen them in other areas of their lives. Whatever the case, our learners expect now to be able to be trained regardless of lockdown or if there is a Covid uptick. As stated in Wade (2020) "the requirement to work and socialize via technology pulls technology skeptics and Luddites into the information age" (p. 10). We have been expecting the onrushing of new digital demands through more and more "digital natives" entering our workforce and learning community, the Covid pandemic seems to have accelerated the need for more digital options.
Some of the different tools we’ve developed include a live online proctoring capability that provides the same process and delivery system that our clients have come to expect when they come to our brick and mortar store, which can be found in our live online proctoring tool as well. They can access training at home, in their car, where, or whenever and they will be proctored and guided through the training. As mentioned in the Hybrid and Online Learning portion of the Educause Horizon Report by Pelletier et al. (2022), learners have "discovered the benefits of being able to do things from anywhere, and (their) appetite for online and remote options as consumers is likely to persist" (p. 7).
Much of what Wade (2020) discusses regarding the skeptics we have anticipated as an organization and we are explaining away any intrusiveness by the need to ensure compliance, and working to make our systems overly intuitive and easy to access to that the skeptics who do not want the information gathered on them and who don't trust organizations looking over their shoulders understand the limitations within which we work. We also are trying to get our virtual classroom network to be more robust. We’ve completed several courses this way, but we are not seen as market leaders in this space the way we should be. The barrier for entry for these styles of courses are relatively easy now and we see our clients creating their own systems rather than coming to us. My goal in this regard is to take the virtual classroom to a higher level than they can achieve by:
- Utilizing technology and digital tools aggressively and effectively,
- Maintaining and securing a curriculum for instruction that leverages the tools and can track success and react to dips in that success, and
- By providing the service during times and with trainers that our clients would have a hard time matching.
Our organization remained open to help train essential workers in the energy industry through the Covid experience and became a model for how to sanitize, protect, and service clients and learners safely throughout the pandemic. Our goal in this next phase of the pandemic, one that as Wade (2020) writes could include 4 different scenarios, is to be ready to deliver no matter what the future might bring. Staying open safely has been achieved, staying open safely while delivering quality training that meets our client's needs and demands is our next goal. Although we are hoping for as Wade (2020) states a "Global Marketplace" scenario, where the "world quickly moves on from the COVID-19 pandemic" we are planning for all of the scenarios so we can adapt as necessary.
References
Pelletier, K., Mccormack, M., Reeves, J., Robert, J., Arbino, N., Al-Freih, M., Dickson-Deane, C., Guevara, C., Koster, L., Sánchez-Mendiola, M., Lee, S., & Bessette, J. (2022.). 2022 Educause horizon report; Teaching and Learning Edition. Educause.Edu. Retrieved May 17, 2022, from https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2022/4/2022hrteachinglearning.pdf?la=en&hash=6F6B51DFF485A06DF6BDA8F88A0894EF9938D50B (Links to an external site.)
Wade, M. (2020). Scenario Planning for a Post-COVID-19 World: Make sure you are prepared for the new normal. IMD.
No comments:
Post a Comment