An interview with Andy Hasoon

Citation

(2008), "An interview with Andy Hasoon", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2008.08122aaf.001

An interview with Andy Hasoon

An interview with Andy Hasoon

Andy Hasoon has built a number of successful training and technology businesses in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. In 1996, he founded Progressive Learning, and as MD, he and his team organized specialized training and learning events. From 1999-2001 he was CEO and co-founder of CourseLeader, and built the company into the fourth largest buyer of IT training in the UK, delivering solutions for a wide range of organizations including Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco, Barclays, Bloomberg and Reuters. He is Chief Executive and co-founder of Fifty Lessons, a learning resource that delivers lessons from some of the most accomplished leaders from around the globe.

What was the inspiration behind Fifty Lessons?

The inspiration behind Fifty Lessons was a simple one. We wanted to film the world’s top business leaders and capture on film their most important business lessons so that we could pass on that hugely valuable wisdom, knowledge and experience to help aspiring leaders successfully address their toughest business challenges. By combining the power of storytelling and the most powerful media platforms we felt we could equip these leaders with the knowledge they need – when and how they need it – so that they could be more accomplished business leaders.

Why do stories make a good training tool?

Video is a really engaging medium, and storytelling is proven to increase retention and recall. Combined, they are a powerful learning mix. Think about it: we have been using stories to pass on knowledge from father to son, mother to daughter, teacher to pupil for thousands of years.

We filmed Professor Jay Conger, a Harvard Business Review author, and he states, “Stories have enormous power in terms of recall. If you look at statistics, or at PowerPoint, or at documents, what you discover from all the research is that there is almost no recall. What will be remembered are a few compelling stories that you share with your organization and with your team. And those will guide them when they are far away from you – which, by the way, is much of the day.”

You can find Professor Conger’s lessons on our web site: www.50lessons.com/solutions.asp?show=organizations&detail=why50lessons&sub=1

Which of the leaders featured in Fifty Lessons do you most admire and why?

One of the first leaders we filmed was Sir Bob Reid. Prior to the interview we had been internally debating how to ask him a tricky question. He has a disability with his arm and we wanted to ask him how that had affected him over the years in doing business, how he had learnt to handle the disability and what lessons could he pass on to others. As this was a sensitive issue, we spent hours thinking of ways to ask him questions to get what we wanted out of him. Anyway, Sir Bob came in to the interview room, sat down in the chair with extreme energy and said in a deep Scottish accent, “Right then, are we ready to begin?“ We said yes and off he went … “My first lesson was when I lost my hand in a meat grinder at the age of nine … .” Sitting in the back of the room watching that interview gave me goose bumps because I knew we were on a journey to capture very rich and engaging content that could really help people improve their business and social lives.

The second leader who for me is fantastic is Jerry Roche, one of the best headhunters in the world. He has a lesson called “Service Beyond the Call of Duty”, which has three stories in it about why it is vital that everyone in business gives good customer service, whether you are an employee or the CEO. The story I love most is about Sam Walton who founded WalMart. Sam apparently got a letter from an irate customer complaining about how bad the four tires that he had bought from WalMart were. Sam personally sent back a letter to this person saying, “I am really sorry that you had such a bad experience shopping at WalMart and in consideration please accept these four tires from me for your inconvenience”. Regards, Sam Walton. PS WalMart does NOT sell tires”. What I love about Jerry’s lessons is that for me this resonated with my belief that we should all give extreme customer service if we are to win in business today.

Fifty lessons comprise a variety of media, including podcasts and books. Do you think “blended learning” is the most effective type of professional learning?

I think in today’s world you need to access the learning you want, when you want it, in the format that best fits your learning needs. When the words “blended learning” were introduced to the learning market we ran a campaign that offered “fruit smoothie drinks” to learning professionals. At the time we wanted to get the point across that to have a balanced learning diet you need a combination of ingredients “blended” together. In today’s world we have to digest information and learning fast and the Fifty Lessons solutions achieve that objective highly effectively: the content is five minutes long, it is engaging, and you can access it via multiple media where and when you want it.

How is Fifty Lessons intended to be used by organizations?

There are thousands of events that trigger learning in an organization and we have a myriad solutions that allow the deployment of Fifty Lessons content to one person or to the whole organization. It is a highly effective way of getting learning messages aligned to your strategic objectives and to your people. Our content can be used at the desktop, on devices (iPods, mobile phones), at home, at work, on the move, i.e. in all the different ways in which the people of an organization can absorb learning quickly, but in an engaging and memorable way.

If pre-recorded lessons can be so effective, then where does that leave the role of the traditional “classroom” trainer?

A total of 50 per cent of the world’s learning is face-to-face education. That is never going to really change because teachers, professors, trainers and educators teach best face-to-face, and we learn well in that environment, hence schools, colleges and universities. However, teachers need stimulating tools and content to help engage their pupils or students. Our content fits that requirement by bringing experiences and real life stories that the teacher has never had a chance to experience, and that can elucidate to the students a wider canvas of learning. And, as we know, experience is one of the best teachers. Plus as we get older we learn to teach ourselves, and Fifty Lessons content brings rich engaging content to anyone who chooses to participate.

In your opinion what are the biggest obstacles to effective learning and development in organizations?

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  Passivity, i.e. people who do not want to learn. Getting them engaged is the hardest obstacle. Stories really help here.

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  Time, i.e. we need to absorb information fast in today’s world. Our Fifty Lessons five-minute bite size chunks of learning is the modern equivalent of the aspirin or Tylenol for the modern manager.

Where do you see development and learning in organizations in, say, ten years’ time?

Do you and your kids read the back of cereal packets when you are having breakfast? Well, in time you will be able to talk to it and say “what have I got to learn today” and the screen on the back of the cereal packet will be sent via the WiFi network a series of videos, visuals and audio information that will help you absorb succinctly and efficiently the first key things you need to begin your day. Then as you move to your mode of transport to get you to the office (in a car that drives itself) you can verbally or type answer your emails. Once you have dealt with your administrative issues you will have a quick learning session to bring you up to speed on what you need to learn for that important meeting that afternoon with your best customer.

A lot can happen in ten years, but let me simply say that learning will become increasingly incorporated into one’s day-to-day work; it will be increasingly engaging, interactive, and multi-media based; gaming and simulations will gain in popularity and use; we will see avatars used to help people learn from different scenarios, in action learning settings. Peer-to-peer learning will continue to gain momentum and may become the “norm”. And learning communities will evolve to be value based (as opposed to network based) i.e. we will be able to tap into specialist communities and have active conversations with others to help us learn. Whatever happens in the next ten years, learning will continue to develop to adapt to our needs and frankly, I think it will be exciting.