E-Learning Diplomat

Training & Development, Jan 2005

Nick van Dam, global chief learning officer of Deloitte Consulting LLR believes e-learning can be successful in any organization, regardless of size, industry, or geography.

Nick van Dam's belief in e-learning is so strong that he decided to write a book about it. The e-Learning Fieldbook highlights successful e-learning implementations in 25 different companies.

The idea for the book came to van Dam, global chief learning officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP, in 2000, when he delivered presentations at several training conferences on the subject of e-learning. "Back then, people assumed that Deloitte's success with e-learning couldn't be duplicated by companies with smaller budgets, in different geographies, or in other industry segments," he says. "I decided to challenge those assumptions and change the perception that e-learning success is restricted to large global companies."

In speaking with van Dam, one quickly gets the impression that assumptions and "we've-always-done-it-this-way" traditions never go untested, especially when he sees them as standing in the way of business opportunities.

Since 2000, he has led the total transformation of training for Deloitte Consulting, a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu that delivers audit, tax, consulting, and financial advisory services worldwide. In less than four years, van Dam's organization has moved the company from learning based entirely on classroom instruction to learning on demand for the entire workforce of 20,000 employees in 59 countries. Deloitte has expanded available learning resources and dramatically compressed the time to market for targeted learning programs while reducing spending by 40 percent. Today, 75 percent of Deloitte's training is Web-based, available anytime to all employees in the firm.

Called Consulting Learning, Deloitte's training has received numerous awards including the London Financial Times/ Corporate University Exchange (CUX) 2001 Award of Excellence for "using technology to create a continuous learning environment," the 2002 Financial Times/ CUX Award for "innovative and best practices in learning," and the 2003 Fortune Magazine/CUX Award for "marketing learning."

CLO as business liaison

In every organization, according to van Dam, there are a number of key business initiatives to which learning can be linked: "At the end of the day, you need to prove the value of e-learning to achieving specific business goals." Van Dam believes the only way to do that is to stay close to the business. "It's critical to be close to the business, and for the learning organization to have relationships with leaders throughout the company," he says. "It doesn't really matter to whom you report, or whether it's a straight or dotted line to the head of HR or the CEO. Ultimately, you have to answer to the business stakeholders. And if your learning initiatives are isolated from business, you'll fail."

Van Dam credits his career experience in many different business areas, including software development, product marketing, sales, and consulting, in helping him to better understand business imperatives and to develop learning programs that are viewed as credible and valuable by business units.

Van Dam believes his HR experience -he was global director of human resources before he became CLO-has given him an insider's insight into how learning needs to support human capital initiatives. "If you're in learning, you need to understand that your plans cannot be completely outside of the HR framework."

However, van Dam cautions training and HR professionals attempting to map learning to a long list of competencies or capabilities required for specific jobs. He sees this as a time-intensive task that can never be completed because of the constantly changing dynamics of the business and available learning resources. Van Dam has found that it's much more practical to map courseware to basic, mastery, and advanced skill levels assigned to all Deloitte's job categories. According to van Dam, this pragmatic approach has made it possible for everybody in the firm to easily assess for themselves their mastery of virtually any job-related skill and what further learning they need.

Reaching out around the globe

One of the myths van Dam has gladly dispelled is that most successful e-learning is limited to North America, and that there are significant cultural differences which slow the adoption of e-learning in countries outside the United States. "Certainly, it is important to ensure that courseware is designed for global implementation-that is, the use of images, colors, symbols, and content is consistent with local culture and supports language requirements," says van Dam. "However, it's not fair to assume that you'll meet a level of resistance. When people criticize courseware as 'too American,' in my experience that's not the real reason for their resistance. As a European myself (van Dam is a native of The Netherlands), I can empathize. I believe that my international background has helped me to change minds." Van Dam has promoted greater acceptance by building relationships with global business leaders. He works closely with Deloitte's leaders for each of the consulting practices. They provide input regarding business priorities, which helps determine new learning projects and align them with business goals.