Reflect on 2-3 problem areas for target audiences that you are aware could benefit from a learning

plan.
This could be in the church, work, or even in a domestic scenario.

Problem Area 1: The employees of Duck River EMC will need to be trained on how to navigate and enter
data into the QuickScore software for the company-wide balanced scorecard.

Problem Area 2: The Sales Professionals at Arrow Exterminators will need to be trained on more
effective sales and marketing techniques to better promote products and services.

Problem Area 3: Duck River EMC employees have a lack of understanding of what an electric
cooperative is and what it means to work for one.

Consider the complexity of the learning need and target audience and determine which learning
orientation or blend of learning orientations would benefit the target audience and solve the problem.

Problem Area 1: The cooperatives balanced scorecard and the software are brand new to most
employees. This will be a situation where employees will need to watch videos or a demonstration of
how to use the software and then to practice it themselves. This will be a mostly cognitive process with
absorbing the new information contained in the strategy map and how that relates to the balanced
scorecard. The employees then will need to develop an understanding of how their jobs impact the
balanced scorecard and strategy map. There is also a constructivist component as well because the
employees must have a basic understanding of computer and internet use in order to navigate within
the QuickScore software and to enter data pertaining to their performance measures.

Problem Area 2: The Sales Professionals at Arrow Exterminators need to understand their products and
services, how to negotiate with customers, overcoming adversity, and proper customer service skills.
One challenge for this group is that Sales Professionals may not have previously worked in the pest
control area. They have to be certified with the State of TN in pest control, but they may not have any
field experience applying their knowledge. In order for Sales Professionals to be effective at their jobs,
they must fully understand the products and services offered by the company and how it applies to each
potential customers home. The approach to this training would be constructivist in nature because the
Sales Professionals would need to build upon their cognitive knowledge of pest control to construct new
knowledge in how it applies in the real world. Social cognitivism could also apply here because they can
learn from the pest control guys out in the field.

Problem Area 3: Cooperatives are member-owned entities that provide a product or service to meet the
needs of its members. Duck River Electric employees may not fully understand what an electric
cooperative is and how it differs from municipal or investor-owned electric companies. Employees need
to understand the history of how electric cooperatives were formed and the history of Duck River
Electric. Employees also need to understand how electricity is generated and distributed to members.
Duck River Electric purchases its electricity from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and employees
need to understand the history of TVA. This learning approach would be blended from humanism,
cognitivism, social cognitivism, and constructivism orientations. The various approaches would apply
based on the employees current level of historical and power generation/distribution knowledge. One
challenge for this training situation is that each employee comes from different education and work
backgrounds. There is also a large span of ages among employees.

Have some preliminary ideas of actual learning solutions you could use both in preparation for
discussing in this discussion and to bring up in you interview with the target audience in the next
activity.

Problem Area 1: The first piece of the training solution would be to introduce each employee to the
company-wide strategy map and balanced scorecard. Next, they would need to be shown their
departmental balanced scorecard and how their individual performance measures are related to the
overall balanced scorecard of the cooperative. The departmental introduction could be done in a group
setting with each department member present. The next step would be to do some one-on-one training
with each department member so they can understand what their performance measures are, how they
are calculated, and how they need to track the information each time period (monthly, quarterly,
annually). The next piece of the training would be to acquaint the employees with navigating and using
the QuickScore software. There are some training videos available from the QuickScore software
vendor, but they would not be specific to the cooperatives balanced scorecard structure. The best
option would be to create a short video in-house that would show how to navigate throughout the
software from a high-level. The next step would be to create a training guide or cheat sheet that would
have some basic instructions for the employees to follow when using the software. One-on-one training
would be most beneficial for showing employees how to key in the data each month/quarter/year for
their specific performance measures.

Problem Area 2: This training solution would be to hold training sessions with the sales employees so
they can listen to ideas from peers, watch and participate in role playing, as well as do some activities in
dealing with various types of customers. It would also be very beneficial for the sales employees to train
out in the field with the pest control employees so they can physically see how treatments are done,
what kind of situations they run into, as well as being aware of what kinds of questions to ask customers
so that they can better prepare the pest control employees to visit a home for treatment.

Problem Area 3: This training situation is more complex because it deals with teaching about historical
information, cooperative culture, power generation and distribution, as well as cooperative structure.
This is the training that I plan to put together for my capstone project for this degree program. I plan to
create different modules for each of the areas that employees need to learn. I will use resources from
the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), TVA, and other sources. There are videos
available as well as magazine articles, books, and more. I plan to incorporate many of these into the
training modules to teach the employees about electric cooperatives.

Reference

Merriam, S., Caffarella, R., and Baumgartner, L. (2007). Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.