The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/67910
The End of Training? We've all been there. We schedule training classes for new technology and no one shows up. Then we endure the murmurs in the hall that the new system doesn't work, listening to "problems" with solutions that were fully explained in training. We've tried everything to improve attendance, from drawings for techno gear to nasty memos from the managing partner. Still, very few attorneys regularly attend training that we are certain would improve their productivity. But what if attorneys and their attendance habits aren't the real issue? What if we are applying outdated, ineffective techniques to solve problems in a rapidly changing culture? If we concede that our current training techniques are like an abacus in a world of differential equations, we would be staring at the end of training as we know it. How Did It Get to This? Training has always been a struggle in law firms, but what has changed to drive us to the conclusion that training as we know it is past its prime? After all, people have been training in classrooms for hundreds of years. Why, suddenly, is this time-honored tradition so ineffective, especially in law firms? The answers lie in the world around us, which has changed in several significant ways: The Economy, Duh: During the last several years, law firms have seen unprecedented downsizing of both lawyers and staff due to the economic downturn. There is enormous pressure on lawyers to produce high-quality, low-cost work. Ironically, in an environment where lawyers and their support staff need to learn to be as efficient as possible, they view traditional training as requiring time they don't have available to invest. Few are willing to spend precious hours in the classroom or with online seminars to learn about technology. Technology Is Now a Utility: Lawyers who have entered law firms in the past several years have grown up with technology in their lives. Most can't remember a time without a computer or the Internet. Few had formal computer training; they were self-taught. To this generation, a computer is like the television or telephone — no training required. The generation entering law firms over the next several years will have grown up fully immersed in the world of computers. They will prefer social networking over email. They will have always had a mobile phone. They will have checked their grades online and collaborated with their classmates on Google Docs. They will have completely integrated technology into their lives with little or no formal training, and they will expect that experience to continue as they enter the workforce. The Priorities of Millennials: This generation, also known as Millennials, has several other unique characteristics that make them bad matches for traditional training techniques. They are more focused on nonwork priorities, such as family and helping others, than having a successful, high-paying career. Therefore, they will resist long after-hours training classes. They place much more emphasis on mentoring and peers for learning, and crave frequent feedback. These tendencies translate into a desire for much quicker payback on the investment of their time than traditional training can provide. If you ask a Millennial how they solve a computer problem, you get answers like "Google it" or "Post it on Facebook" or "Text my friend." These methods are reinforced because they usually provide the quick gratification of a nearly instant answer. The Bring-Your-Own-Technology Trend: Driven by a new generation or perhaps simply complementing it, the bring- your-own-technology trend threatens to reshape how firms think about provisioning and supporting technology. A firm that fully embraces this concept will allow its users to choose which technology and which applications they will use to get their job done, believing that most folks already own some form of technology with which they are comfortable, and therefore more efficient. While it sounds like chaos to many in IT, the net effect on traditional training is even more devastating. How does one train a class full of people who may be using completely different systems to accomplish the same purpose? How Do We Respond? If the world around us is changing dramatically, should those who specialize in education simply change vocations and leave users to their own devices (pun intended)? That likely isn't the case; we need to reinvent how we influence learning in some very specific ways. Simplify Tools: First and foremost, the tools users rely on must be simplified. Microsoft published research when they released the Ribbon Interface with Office 2007 that indicated about 90 percent of new feature requests were already in the software. Folks simply couldn't find them. Their response was a new interface. Others may have argued that the software had become bloated with features that are rarely required by most users. If you examine the success of apps on the iPad, you see that most apps are extremely easy to use, requiring only a few minutes of training before the user is productive. If apps are easier to use, they will require less intensive training. As experts in user experience, perhaps educators can be key consultants in the quest to simplify tools. Support Choices: One effective way to reduce the need for training is to allow users to make their own choices about which applications will allow them to best do their jobs. This works because those who have grown up with computers likely already have applications they prefer for word processing, number crunching, communications and several others functions. Of course, to make this strategy work, IT must figure out how to safely, securely and effectively support the law firm's business in this type of environment. Entire white papers have been devoted to the challenges of this approach; while that thorny problem is beyond our scope, the benefits the approach brings to the firm's training needs are worth considering. Build a Social Network: It has been true since the dawn of technology that many users are more likely to ask a fellow Peer to Peer 63