Marc My Words: Testing Your eLearning Strategy

Is your eLearning strategy any good? Is it sustainable over the longterm? Does it sound nice, but has nothing to back it up? Or have you actuallythought this though clearly and are on your way to achieving your goals? Let’s findout.

I recently came across a great article in the McKinsey Quarterly (January 2011), Have You Tested Your Strategy Lately?The authors suggest 10 questions to answer in determining the effectiveness ofany strategy. I took eight of these and applied them to eLearning.

1. Are you clear on the customers of yourstrategy?

Training professionals (including eLearning professionals) oftenconfuse customers with consumers. In most situations, the customer is theperson who pays—the client orexecutive sponsor, for example. They are the ones who are backing the effort. Learners,for the most part, are the consumers of the program. While both groups shouldbenefit from the initiative, never forget that it’s the customer who is taking thebulk of the risk (along with you, of course).

2. Does your strategy tap a true source ofadvantage?

Too often, eLearning initiatives include a vast catalog of courses thatsometimes duplicate classroom programs or are provided just in case they areneeded. If you cannot demonstrate that the effort is yielding value as defined by your customer, why are you bothering? One program thattruly changes the direction of an organization may be much more valuable than acornucopia of programs that sit in an LMS just waiting for someone to enroll.

3. Does your strategy put you ahead oftrends?

It’s natural at times to be cautious in terms of what you want to doand what you expect to achieve. It’s quite another to be completely risk-averse.Waiting until everyone else is committed to eLearning, social learning,performance support, etc., guarantees that you will consistently be a follower,equipped with yesterday’s solutions to tomorrow’s challenges. Holding backuntil technology improves is a never-ending quest. Technology is alwayschanging, always improving. The key is to jump in, get started, and prepare forcontinuous improvement.

4. Does your strategy balance commitmentand flexibility?

Dogmatic approaches rarely work. Tunnel vision towards one particulartechnology, product, or process often makes us blind to new opportunities andnew ways to get things done. On the other hand, too many initiatives and toomany tools or approaches can waste time and resources. Develop a plan and stickto it, but don’t ignore signs that it’s not working. Keep in mind a proverbfrom the Old West, “When you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is todismount.”

5. Does your strategy balance expectations with resources and time?

Promising the moon sounds great for a while, but when you can’t getthere, the crash can be deafening. Let’s move everything to eLearning! We canconvert the entire curriculum in a month! No problem getting our 5,000 salespeopleto take the course by the end of the week! Heard any of these? Good eLearningstrategy walks a fine and difficult line—seeking to over-deliver withoutover-promising, all within a budget that is usually front-loaded with costs. Embarkingon an eLearning project, especially a large one, without a solid business planand business case that sizes it to realistic resources and expectations that allstakeholders can support, is a recipe for disaster.

6. Is your strategy contaminated by bias?

eLearning that looks too much like the classroom version, or reflectssomeone’s preconceived notion of what it is, rather than what it should be, canhave a devastating impact on eLearning strategy. Too many organizations try to shovelprocesses used successfully in classroom training onto an eLearning project. Trainingis training, right? Evaluation methods don’t change much, and the nature ofinteractivity often fails to take into consideration the unique capabilities ofa quality eLearning design. The result is a product that looks awfully like itsclassroom counterpart, with the emphasis on awful.

7. Is there real conviction to act on yourstrategy?

When some executive sponsors say they believe in eLearning, they reallymean it. But for others, their words don’t match their actions. This can be areal problem when trying to implement an eLearning program that is sustainable.Conviction to act is not something that’s needed only in the executive suite. Yourclient or customer’s level of conviction, especially at the front line, isessential as well. Are they involved in this project out of belief that it’sthe right thing to do, or were they told to do it and really couldn’t careless? But the Achilles’ heel here may be the conviction of your own trainingorganization. Do your people really believe in your strategy? Do you?

8. Have you translated your strategy intoan action plan?

The ancient Chinese military general and strategist Sun Tzu said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowestroute to victory; tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Bothstrategy and tactics are needed, but we often confuse the two. For example,getting a new LMS may seem strategic, in terms of cost and scope, but it ismore likely a tactic, designed to enable more efficient learning andperformance, which is the strategy. A good eLearning strategy talks about agoal state—what you want to achieve. Then you develop tactics and operationalaction plans to get you there.

What shape is your eLearning strategy in?

If, after applying these eight questions to your strategy, you arestill not comfortable with its clarity or sustainability, it’s time to getbusy. Use this checklist (and the McKinsey article as background) to strengthenyour plans, solidify your direction, enhance buy-in, and increase yourlikelihood of success. A great eLearning strategy won’t save lousy eLearning,but a lousy eLearning strategy guarantees that a great program might never seethe light of day.