“That won’t work for us.” A DemoFest participant said thisto me a few years back as I started to explain Kaplan’s microlearningapplication. Considering that I was only two sentences into my summary, I foundher response to be super abrupt and a bit awkward—so much so that it has stuckwith me for several years. First of all, I wasn’t trying to sell her anything.The fact that my project “won’t work” for her didn’t really matter. Sure, Iwould have liked her vote and a high five, but I didn’t need her to run out anddo as I do. Second, and more importantly, I hadn’t said nearly enough for herto judge the potential applicability of my approach in her organization.
Not the first time, won’t be the last time
By no means was this the first time someone told me that anidea wasn’t agreeable, but it did make me pay closer attention to this responseas I engaged within the industry. I heard it now and then during my conferencesessions on knowledge sharing. I read it in chat streams during webinars ongamification. I saw it in blog comments about microlearning and replies onTwitter related to BYOD (bring your own device). This all made me wonder. Werethese L&D pros in a position to make snap judgments about the applicabilityof the content being presented? After all, would they have been in attendanceif they were subject matter experts or had already tried the exact same thingin the past? What could this penchant to rush to judgment mean for ourindustry?
Of course, there are L&D professionals out there with asolid understanding of their business and a strategic vision who can quicklydetermine how an idea may or may not apply to their company. However, this islikely the exception rather than the norm. In more cases, I believe we simplyknow what has and has not worked in the past and therefore apply our existingmental models to new ideas. “We cannot solve our problems with the samethinking we used when we created them.” Thanks, Einstein!
The snap judgment challenge
A “that won’t work for us” mentality represents afoundational challenge for L&D organizations struggling to provide value ina constantly changing workplace. An unwillingness to consider new approacheswill cause you to miss out on great ideas along the way. It can also limit yourawareness of the latest developments within the field and therefore reduce yourlong-term value as an L&D pro. Furthermore, snap judgments may indicate alack of influence within the organization, especially if your criteria aredefined by stakeholders outside L&D. Finally, I fear that this mindset maydemonstrate potential misplaced value on the part of L&D. Sure, the abilityto say yes or no indicates power, but deriving your value to the organizationfrom this power is a recipe for long-term failure.
For me, this all comes back to the importance ofcollaboration as a core principle of modern workplace learning. Every team,organization, and industry likes to think it is special. However, in real life,most companies are trying to solve similar problems that are foundational tothe way work is done today—regardless of team, organization, or industry. Wemust escape the organizational bubble and open our minds to ideas that may seemunconventional or even contradictory to our current approaches.
Now what?
Here are a few practical ways L&D pros can overcome the“that won’t work for us” mindset.
Stay vulnerable
Vulnerability is essential for learning. This is just astrue for L&D as it is for the people we support. We must acknowledge thepotential for new ideas and recognize that—even if we have extensive experienceand knowledge of our business—we can be wrong.
Put new ideas into context
Whether it’s a salesperson or a conference presenter, theperson sharing a new idea with you likely doesn’t understand your businessnearly as well as you do. Therefore, rather than taking their idea at facevalue, you should add context to the conversation. Provide them with backgroundon your organization’s challenges, goals, limitations, and past approaches sothey can reframe their explanation accordingly and help you make an informeddecision regarding applicability.
It may not work here, but what about over there?
Maybe gamification—as an example—won’t work right now for aparticular part of your organization. No one said every idea has to work for every employee right away. Whenpresented with a new idea, consider potential variations within yourorganization and the value of applying flexible strategies. If there is apotential match, pilot a new strategy with a select audience and leveragecontinued success to stimulate organic growth.
Look for the secondary idea
When I talk about the power of knowledge sharing within anorganization, I don’t require every employee be granted permission topersonally contribute content. There are plenty of organizations that see thisas a risky proposition and prefer to take a more measured approach. That said,shared knowledge should still be a basic component of every learning ecosystem.Who does the sharing and what is shared can vary as needed. When handed a newidea, you don’t have to apply everything exactly as presented. Dig into theconcept to understand both the strategic foundation as well as the tacticalside so you can apply your context and find elements that may be useful withinyour workplace.
Seek out “that won’t work for us YET” conversations
Maybe your employees aren’t mobile. Maybe they don’t haveaccess to mobile devices, and you can’t allow employees to formally use theirown for work purposes. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t understand BYOD and how youcan leverage it to support modern workplace learning and performance. A bigpart of staying relevant in our field is seeking out ideas that we can’t applyin our work right away. However, we can use this awareness to incrementallyimprove our methods and build toward the possibility of applying new ideas inthe future. I may not be applying augmented reality in my work right now, but Iam definitely paying attention to Pokémon GO to see how it influences consumeracceptance of this technology.
I was speaking with a peer tonight as I wrote this article.The topic was movies. He told me The Beaverwas a terrible movie. I asked, “Have you seen it?” He said, “No.” Hmmmmmmmmm…
The tendency to rush to judgment certainly isn’tnew. It seems even more accelerated in our media-rich modern culture. We havebecome increasingly accustomed to forming opinions using limited sourceinformation in favor of past experience. While this may feel good in themoment, it is unlikely to lead to positive long-term outcomes. As L&Dprofessionals, we must avoid the “that won’t work for us” mentality if we hopeto keep pace with workplace evolution and provide continued value to ourorganizations.
