AD-HOC Learning - Acquiring Skills on Demand - Know-Center

HYPERWAVE WHITE PAPER
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong>
<strong>Acquiring</strong> <strong>Skills</strong> on Demand

Hyperwave White Paper
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Abstract
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> - <strong>Acquiring</strong> <strong>Skills</strong> on Demand
Johannes Farmer, Stefanie Lindstaedt, Georg Droschl, Peter Luttenberger
The fast-paced economy requires increased flexibility not only from companies but also from their
employees. Consequently, learning has become an integral part of daily work. Or stated differently:
<strong>Learning</strong> is a new form of work. But learning at the workplace is fundamentally different from “school
learning” as we know it. Generally seen as a conscious process, learning at the workplace is rather
unconscious: people want to acquire knowledge and skills that are necessary to accomplish work tasks
quickly and effectively. Most of the time they have no time for and are not interested in the underlying
principles and available theories as long as they can get their task done.
The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> approach bridges the gap between everyday work and learning situations. It integrates
training into the work processes by offering various resources to learn from each step. <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> uses the
work processes as a navigation aide to link work, knowledge, and learning resources task-specifically
together. In doing so, <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> helps to reduce the search space for work aides and at the same time
provides further information when it is needed.
In order to implement the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> approach within an organization, a flexible and versatile technical
platform is needed. Hyperwave provides an integrated knowledge management platform which supports
the document management needs of the work space, the collaboration infrastructure of the knowledge
space, and the didactical needs of the learning space. It is crucial that these three spaces can be
implemented on one technical platform in order to help overcome the cognitive and structural divisions
between them.
This White Paper presents the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> approach and how it works in practice. A case study shows how
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> was implemented on Hyperwave’s knowledge management platform and how it now supports
users at their project management tasks.
Bridging the Gap
Most people have experienced it at some point in time: applying new methods or skills acquired during a
seminar or an e-learning course to work tasks is not easy. For example, arriving back at work from a
week long seminar, the resulting workload can be overwhelming. Stacks of papers on desks, hundreds of
unanswered e-mails in mailboxes, minor emergencies, and so on. And before we realize it months have
gone by without us having applied much of what we have learned and were so excited about. Reasons
for this “not applying” typically are not only the work overload on arrival back to work but equally
significantly, the difficulty of applying the general methods learned to environment and special context.
Courses tend to convey the subject material in a fairly general way. This first has to be adapted to ones
company, context, and specific work tasks before it can be used effectively.
On the other hand, today’s knowledge work requires a fair amount of spontaneous search for relevant
information, using examples to understand how to apply it, etc. Unconsciously, much of the work we do
every day is learning. This unconscious learning is of a different nature and has many different properties
and goals than the conscious one experienced in a seminar.
These two types of learning represent the two extremes of a spectrum: on the one hand, many short
task-oriented unconscious learning experiences and on the other hand, few long general conscious
learning episodes. In order for an organization to function effectively and efficiently, it needs to provide
its employees with both ends of the spectrum but also with a means to bridge the gap, to guide them to
the type of information they need at specific moments to complete their tasks.
The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Approach
The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> approach closes this gap by offering the worker (learner) a variety of different information
relevant for his or her specific work tasks. This information ranges from simple example documents and
templates, checklists, how-to descriptions and skill-profiles, to e-learning courses and information about
seminars. <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> is task-oriented learning at the workplace and aims to be as application-oriented as
possible. Relevant, knowledge intensive business processes are used as a navigation metaphor that
provide the context of the knowledge transferred.
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> allows a different form of navigation through a knowledge worker’s environment. To understand
this, let us first regard what a typical workplace looks like. Figure 1 shows such a workplace and its
structure consisting of three separate spaces: A workspace, a knowledge space, and a learning space.
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The workspace represents the user’s desktop PC and shared document storage devices such as a
common file structure or a document management system. It contains the work documents which are
needed by an employee on a day-to-day basis, such as project related documents. The workspace is
typically structured according to a company’s organization and task structures (such as project
structures).
The learning space stands for conscious learning situations, e.g. attending seminars and taking elearning
courses. The learning space is either completely outside any technical system or combined with
an e-learning platform. Sometimes information about available seminars is available through the
Intranet. The structure of the learning space mirrors the structure of the learning topics as it is seen by
course providers. It follows the didactical abstraction of the topic and provides generally no information
about the relationship of work tasks to courses. In addition, the available course material is fairly general
and has to be adapted to ones work context.
The knowledge space represents unconscious learning, application of past experiences (own and from
others) to new situations, spontaneous search for information and use of examples in order to
understand how to apply newly found information. The knowledge space of an organization is often
distributed over different systems such as the Intranet, a common file server, etc. Here the structure
again is different: Organizational knowledge often does not have one clear structure, but mirrors the
internal cognitive map of each person providing the knowledge. Often a mix of the organizations
processes, topics and department structures are found here.
Work <strong>Learning</strong>
Knowledge
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Search
Figure 1: The three spaces, a typical work place consists of
Based on the above description of the three spaces we can identify two main problems when wanting to
link the spaces together and provide a bridge from everyday work to learning:
Cognitive and structural disconnection between the three spaces: Each of the spaces has an inherent
structure which mirrors to some extent the mental model of the people who are using it.
Technical separation of the three spaces: Each of the spaces is implemented on a different technical
platform.
The technical separation of the three spaces can be overcome by choosing a platform which can support
all three different spaces equally well. In the following case study we have chosen Hyperwave’s
knowledge management platform to implement the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> approach because it is a unique platform
which readily provides support for document and content management, knowledge management and
collaboration, and e-<strong>Learning</strong>.
Worse than the technical separation of these three spaces however, is the first problem: The cognitive
disconnection between the spaces. It manifests itself in the evolution of totally different storage
structures – as described above. Knowledge as well as learning resources are not linked to work
documents and have a totally different structure than the work task. So, knowledge and documents exist
which could bridge the gap, but they are somewhere hidden in organizations’ IT-systems and networks
and lack the links to the work processes.
In order to provide a link between the three spaces and their structures, <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> moves, as it is
schematized in Figure 2, the work process into the center of the worker’s focus. Work resources (e.g.
document templates, forms, work supporting-tools), knowledge resources (e.g. checklists, guidelines,

how-to descriptions, example documents), and on-line training modules are aligned according to the
sequence of tasks. This forms a spectrum from work resources such as checklists and how-to
descriptions to in-depth and on-demand training-modules which can be used by the employees
depending on the requirements of their specific work situations.
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> aims at providing users on the one hand with as little information as sufficient and on the other
hand as much as necessary. In one situation a person just applies task-specific work resources such as a
meeting arrangement tool. In another situation a person might additionally use checklists - to make sure
nothing is forgotten. And in still another situation users really need introductory how-to descriptions and
follow references to work results of colleagues in order to be able to accomplish their task. And finally, in
some cases in-depth training is needed – here links to adequate on-line training courses can be followed.
Collaboration tools, like chat, discussion forums or video-conferencing enrich <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> and facilitate
discussions and elaboration of strategies.
By doing so the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> approach proves value in a variety of situations: An experienced person new to
the company can easily identify “how work is done here”. A novice to the task can find additional advice
on how to best perform the task. And whenever operational procedures change and work processes are
improved, these changes are immediately visualized and communicated to the people who are affected
at the moment in which they perform the task.
Templates
E-<strong>Learning</strong> Course
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Checklist
Work results
Experts
Figure 2: Deploying <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> – aligning work, knowledge, and learning resources
according to the work process
Case Study Know-Center
The Company
The Know-Center is Austria’s competence center for knowledge-based applications and systems. As a
connecting link between research institutions and industry, the Know-Center carries out problem-driven
and application-oriented projects in various fields of knowledge management together with and for its
partner companies.
The Initial Situation
In order to achieve standardization and to assure quality, project management processes and policies
were documented at the Know-Center. Over time they were updated and adapted to emerging needs.
However, they were not sufficiently applied on a regular basis. Especially, it proved to be extremely
difficult to communicate the changes to all affected employees in a timely manner. The management
realized that processes were improperly conducted and that people forgot things and skipped steps.
Many companies who are trying to establish quality assurance processes already know this problem: It is
time consuming to define them. But it is extremely tedious to ensure that they are really lived.
The Know-Center continues to grow. To ensure the scalability of the organization more and more
employees have to be qualified as project managers. To achieve this, project management e-learning
courses are provided. Employees take these courses, but it showed that they forget too much of the
acquired knowledge until its application in real-world situations. And they have extreme difficulties of
applying the learned methods to their tasks at hand.

The management had to realize that their quality management initiatives (introducing and deploying
standardized processes) and qualification measures (providing e-learning courses) did not fulfil their
expectations.
The Objective
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> guides users at their work processes and provides task-specific work, knowledge, and
learning resources where and when they are needed. In the case of the Know-Center, <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong>
has been the answer to the questions:
How to deploy the processes so that users are guided through their work tasks and that the processes
are conducted properly?
How to provide the course material applied to the work context and on-demand when the employee
needs it?
The Approach
Figure 3 shows the life cycle of an <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> Environment. It starts with deploying <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong>.
Application is its utilization and since processes and knowledge are changing - in the improvement
phase, the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> Environment is adapted and extended to new emerged needs.
Deployment
Improvement
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Application
Figure 3: The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> life cycle
The three phases Deployment, Application, and Improvement and how they have been conducted at the
Know-Center are described in the following:
Deployment
The project management processes were examined. For each work step, relevant work, knowledge, and
learning resources were identified. Work resources are documents and e-mail templates. Knowledge
resources are how-to descriptions, checklists, contact information of experts, and exemplary work
results. And as learning resources, the proper sections in e-learning courses were identified.
As it is shown in Figure 4, these resources have then been aligned according to the work process.
Project-Report.template
Experience-Report.template
Conducting Meetings
Templates
E-<strong>Learning</strong> Courses
Holding Lessons-Learned
What to
address in the
Project- Report
Project Reports,
Experience Reports
Experts for
Lessons-Learned

Figure 4: Aligning work, knowledge, and learning resources according to the
Know-Center’s Project Close-Out Process
Hyperwave’s web interface in Figure 5 shows how the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> Environment was deployed. The
work process is presented in a simplified way. Simply clicking on one of the work-process’ steps, moves
the user ahead to a more detailed view. Below the work-process diagram, a table shows the roles that
are involved in the process. It tells who is responsible for conducting the entire process, who has to be
informed about the process’ status, who participates, who has to make a major decision, and, finally,
who is responsible to archive the results. The pop-up window is the legend of the roles in the table.
Application
Figure 5: The Hyperwave Web-Interface guiding a user through the work process
This section describes how users at the Know-Center are supported at the last steps in a project. It will
be shown how <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> helps with
• writing a final project report, and
• conducting a post-mortem (which consists of preparing and conducting a lessons learned
meeting in which project participants review a project and document the lessons learned).
The final project report documents the objectives, the approach taken, and the achieved results of a
completed project. Figure 6 shows the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> support during this task. The user is provided with the
document template. Depending on his or her expertise, he or she can choose between a checklist that
specifies the important topics to address, a detailed how-to description, and references to reports from
former projects.
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Figure 6: <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong>: Support for writing a final project report
Part of the process “Writing the final project report” is a review cycle involving the division manager. The
review cycle is supported as a workflow. At the review the division manager rates and attaches a
comment to the report. The comments and ratings help users to improve their writing skills and allow
them, to identify good reports from colleagues.
A project manager trainee at Know-Center has stated, “The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> Environment facilitates my
work. I get the right template, the how-to description makes me familiar with the task and with
references to good reports from colleagues – even at the first time – it was easy to achieve this task.
A senior project manager has said, “The checklist helps me to leave nothing out. The rating and
comments by the division manager give me feedback, which I then use for upcoming reports.”
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Figure 7: The Know-Center’s Postmortem Process
But <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> is much more than just supporting people at writing reports. How <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> supports at a
collaborative task is shown in the following.
Figure 7 shows the post-mortem process at the Know-Center, as part of the Project Close-Out as shown
previously in Figure 5. The process consists of preparing and conducting a lessons learned meeting. At
the lessons learned meeting, project participants analyze what went right and what went wrong. The
results are then documented in an experience report.
Conducting a lessons learned meeting can be a challenge. It requires a fair-minded moderator, who
encourages honest and positive criticism and prevents any search for scapegoats. On this account, two
neutral participants are asked to moderate the lessons learned meeting and to take the meeting
minutes. The project manager’s only responsibility is to assign a lessons learned facilitator and a scribe
and to introduce them to the project. The lessons learned facilitator then composes a “screenplay for the
meeting”. He or she collects the topics to be discussed. These are the project phases, collaboration and
communication between participants, cooperation with the customer and so on. He or she also defines
the perspectives the meeting participants will be asked to take when reviewing the project. For example,
a participant may be asked to assume the customer’s perspective and to evaluate the benefits of the
project and its conduct from this point of view: How good was the cooperation within the project? How
well were the customer’s needs understood and taken into account? How easily could the achieved
results be translated into business value?
Since the lessons learned facilitator himself or herself was not part of the project team it is important to
involve the project participants in the meeting’s preparation:
The lessons learned facilitator prepares a first-version screenplay. And as it is shown in Figure 8, he or
she publishes it to the project’s Team Workspace, and invites to review and discuss it. In this way,project
participants can add further issues to be dealt with.
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Figure 8: Postmortem – Inviting project participants for discussing the screenplay for the lessons
learned meeting.
Figure 9 shows how the lessons learned facilitator can prepare him- or herself for the Lessons learned
Meeting moderation. He or she is provided with a choice of e-<strong>Learning</strong> courses on meeting skills and
creativity methods. And if a question is not answered by the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Environment - an intelligent
“Frequently Asked Question”-module helps. Users enter their question and the system searches for the
answer. If the answer does not fulfil the user’s expectations, the question is instantly forwarded to a
dedicated subject matter expert. The expert’s answer is then added to the FAQ-list.
Improvement
Since the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Environment at the Know-Center provides convenient work resources like templates it
is used by all employees alike – novices as well as experts. This ensures that a process change is
communicated immediately to all the employees applying it.
In case a user gets stuck within a work task and the process description does not provide a proper
answer, the FAQ-module can be consulted. If the answers obtained are still insufficient, the question is
instantly forwarded to subject-matter experts. Their answers, together with the question, in turn become
part of the system and are available to all other users.
From the Know-Center’s organizational developer’s point of view, the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> improvement phase
comprises:
• imparting process changes to users
• improving the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Environment by identifying process weaknesses and lack of knowledge
on the basis of the FAQ-module’s question-answer pairs
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Figure 9: <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong>: Support at preparing the Lessons learned Meeting as part of the Postmortem
process.
From the human resources development perspective, <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> brings along the benefits described in the
following. <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> applies the structure of people’s work processes to E-learning course material. People
can study topics in-depth following two ways: either via the traditional way, going through the courses
and following the topics’ hierarchical structure and applied didactical principles. Or people follow the work
process and access the learning modules according to their relevance for the specific process steps.
Doing it this way, after having in-depth knowledge acquired, work can be continued with examples from
the knowledge space and the provided work resources.
The improvement phase includes the evaluation of the <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Environment – analyzing its benefits and
value for users and the organization. There are two kinds of evaluation. The user-centered one
investigates the users’ satisfaction, how helpful and supportive <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> is for the particular work
processes. The result-oriented evaluation measures increases in work process results’ quality and
decreases in time spent on particular tasks.
At the Know-Center, evaluation happened informally. Users were asked about their satisfaction and ideas
for further improvements. The benefit for the organization is evaluated in the long term. Here a
significant decrease in project management mistakes is to be expected.
Large organizations will probably apply systematic census and analysis of performance and quality
increases. Independent of how the evaluation is conducted, the results can be used for process
improvements and more tightly focused qualification measures. Achieved results and working documents
from the work processes can be didactically extended and become so essential parts of the learning
content. At the Know-Center for instance, the task “Preparing the Lessons learned Meeting” has gained
much improvement. In particular the discussions foregoing every lessons learned meeting have been
very fruitful. People requested to extend the lessons learned meeting with a discussion about their
acquired new knowledge and build-up expertise during the project. This has enriched the experience
report with skill profiles of the participants. Now a competence/skills matrix is evolving at the Know-
Center. Discussion points, where people had a common understanding that they rather waste their time
than bring some benefit were removed. These changes have then been integrated into the learningmodules.
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Conclusion
This White Paper has presented <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong>: the idea, the approach, and its implementation on
Hyperwave’s knowledge management platform. <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> is a means to improve knowledge worker’s
effectiveness and efficiency. The two application cases (final project report writing and post-mortem)
have shown how this has been achieved at the Know-Center. The Hyperwave knowledge management
platform with its set of collaboration tools is the ideal basis for deploying <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong>. Table 1 gives a
condensed overview of how different users in the Know-Center Case Study are supported at their various
working tasks. Figure 10 shows how Hyperwave brings the work space, knowledge space, and learning
space together. Concluding this paper, from the organizational development approach <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong>’s benefits
can be summarized as following:
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> provides training on demand: The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Environment guides users through their work
processes. When users encounter lack of knowledge at certain work tasks, they are pointed to adequate
online training.
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> addresses real work situations: Online trainings generalized in order to be applicable by a
wider range of situations. But <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> provides references to real-work tasks, where the imparted
theory can be applied instantly.
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> provides guidance in different levels of detail: Users have different strengths and
weaknesses in the various knowledge domains. The <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Environment gives task-specific
instructions, in introductory form for first-time users and in an outlined-form for advanced users.
<strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> imparts process and policy changes effectively: <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong> does not only train
novices. It also provides work resources and knowledge necessary for experts. On this account <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong>
is applied by every user and as soon as a process changes or a policy is updated it is instantly
communicated to the user and can be applied immediately.
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Project Managers Project Staff Moderators Human Resources,
Quality Management
• Occasional assessments of staff
performance
• Selection of future project
managers taking test results
into account
• Support for Audits
• Reduce cost of training material
through recorded classroom
sessions
• Provide training on general
principles such as conducting
negotiations
• (To be followed by real-world
exercises)
• Provide basic training such as
MS Office, how to conduct
research, etc.
• Make annotations to raise
issues
• Provide general project management
training
• Tests
Hyperwave eLS
(<strong>Learning</strong> Management)
• Conduct meetings, with
participants at distributed
locations
• Ability to re-play recordings of
virtual classroom sessions and
video conferencing sessions
• Overcome geographical boundaries
• Reduce the need to travel
• Extend the availability of experts
Hyperwave eCS
(Virtual Classroom,
e-Conferencing)
• Track project history • Make sure there is one wellestablished
space for each
project
• Selection of future project
managers provided project
management was carried out
• Access to Task list
• Access to Calendar
• Communication and exchange of
experience with other project
managers (peer group)
• Project status and project plan are
always available
• Available documentation is
guaranteed to be up-to-date
• Provide work resources (such as
templates, check lists, policies) in a
Hyperwave Team
Workspace (HTW)
(Team Support)
• Provide overview of status of all
projects (management view)
• A very condensed view on the
project
task-oriented fashion
Hyperwave eKnowledge
Portal (eKP)
(Personalization, Views)
• Relief for experts when there
are recurring questions
• Collect feedback on current
issues of concern
• Which questions were asked
throughout the project
• Provides starting point of all
required resources taking the
persons background into
account (new hire, similar
projects from the past, etc)
• Get help more quickly
• Confidence that the answer is a
good one
• Expert finder
• Work can be performed more
efficiently since experts have better
availability for project staff
Hyperwave Interactive
Knowledge Center
• High quality of answers
(Semi Automatic Q&A)
• Work is performed in a more
structured fashion
• Work performance can be
measured more easily
• Task list • Learn about business processes
related to the project under
consideration
• Training tied to the work process
“just-in-time” and “on-demand”
Hyperwave
Workflow Option (HWF)
(Process Modeller,
Workflow)
• Track project history • Reduce cost of training through
existing documents and
information: turn proven
documents into course material
• Full-text search across a very
wide range of documents
• Storage and access of learning
resources
• Provide controlled access to
documents (access rights for critical
documents and controlled changes)
Hyperwave IS/6
(Document-,
Content Management)
Table 1: Know-Center Case Study: <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> <strong>Learning</strong>: Role-specific work and learning support by underlying Hyperwave products
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Figure 10: <strong>AD</strong>-<strong>HOC</strong> Integration of Work, <strong>Learning</strong>, and Knowledge: How Hyperwave brings the spaces together
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