The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/21494
CASE STUDIES Adventures in Office 2007 Rollout Training: Tackling the Training Challenge by Jeff Ward, Director of Application Support at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. O ur executive director asked, “How long will an Office 2007 training class be?” “Maybe half a day for secretaries, but we’ll know more when we finish our design phase,” I replied. Truthfully, I wondered how we could pull this off. Moving from Office XP to Office 2007 was in some ways more challenging than the transition from WordPerfect 10 years ago. For the Office 2007 upgrade, we couldn’t do several days of training, even though we had far more application changes. Also, attorneys started actively using computers in recent years, which meant that the number of people we were required to train had mushroomed. The adoption of a more mature training philosophy also contributed to our angst. Our training management group had abandoned the naïve notion that training means babbling about everything you know; cramming tons of information into a tight timeline is a waste of time. “Learning is a process, not an event,” the adage goes, but we knew that our students and even some of our trainers would be resistant to a fully effective process. Ultimately, I wanted shorter “essentials” classes targeted to specific practice areas. I also wanted more floor support, where the learning of skills really occurs. And, I wanted more follow-up class opportunities — we called it “extended” training — where people could ask questions and learn more skills after they had spent some time working in Office 2007. Fulbright has a great training group. We have trainers in seven of our U.S. offices and in London. Combined, the trainers represent 100 years of service at Fulbright and many more years in the training field. But they could not be everywhere at once. If they were teaching Office 2007 42 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer “We developed a weekly process for upgrading groups of users.” SOLVING THE LOGISTICAL AND TECHNICAL CHALLENGES We developed a weekly process for upgrading groups of users. Monday was our prep day. Tuesday and Wednesday, we trained a group of secretaries and paralegals in a two-day morning class and then trained their attorneys in a two-day lunch class. Some partners who wanted focused attention attended private 20- minute sessions in the afternoon. Thursday and Friday, trainers walked the floors helping people as they developed their new skills. On these days, we also offered the follow-up extended training for any who were interested. essentials, they could not be walking floors or teaching extended classes. On the other hand, we didn’t want outside help. Rather, we saw this as an intimate process, where the legal staff would benefit from their personal relationship with our trainers.