Next Action: Refocus, Re-skill L&D to Support Modern Business Needs

Disruptive business models are providing convenience andvalue, challenging previously accepted relationships between business andconsumers—and even disintermediating services altogether. Learning anddevelopment organizations (L&D) could do worse right now than to “helppeople do what they want to do, better.” But it is probably more likely that wein L&D will be disrupted from outside if we continue providing “solutions”that meet neither the requirements nor the expectations of how businesses andpeople work today.

Want some examples of disruption? YouTube, Spotify, Uber, andAirbnb disrupted entire industries because they help people to do what theywant to do, better. Now, of course these are more in the nature of providingvalue to individual consumers, whether to entertain or amuse, share videos,listen to music, get around, or conveniently discover and book accommodationwhen traveling.

What about providing value to business and to otherorganizations? I will not be the first to tell you that business today is morecomplex, unpredictable, and fast-paced than before. To this end, for people tothrive and acquire knowledge and know-how at pace, they need the supportof faster, more agile, and digitally equipped learning and development.

Refocus on what the business actually needs

New businesses disrupt an industry by looking at problems in adifferent way and challenging long-established norms and practices. Thedisruptive companies named above have done precisely this, and they have achievedhyper-growth and established themselves as mainstream players. L&D alsoneeds to look at problems in a different way and refocus on more than “learningneeds,” “learning solutions,” and “learning outcomes.”

For greater impact, and to remain integral to how the businessruns, we need to focus on precisely what people need to do in order to achievethe organization’s strategic goals; and we need to look for where there arecurrently performance gaps hindering the achievement of operational goals. Thisrequires us to challenge whether a generic presentation skills course or athree-day best-practice leadership development program will do this—or will they simply provide a temporarydistraction?

L&D has the opportunity to become the best-connected andmost effective department in any organization, although not by delivering programs and launching initiatives. Which brings meto the next level of refocus: to see past the “course” as our default solution.

What if courses weren’t the default?

As high-value as courses and programs seem to L&D (oftendue to the amount of time and money put into their design and delivery), employeesexperience them as if they are being scooped up on a production line, withoften just one solitary experience of that course. In this case, the value isextremely limited and unlikely to be at all transformative.Although I think it is fair to say we are nottransformed in the classroom or with online courses, we are “transformed by [our]efforts to respond to the demands of [our] environment,” which is the verydefinition of evolution, according to Oxford Dictionaries.If this is the case, then we should be looking for ways to support learning inthe workflow by providing online resources that help employees when they facetheir everyday challenges.

Once we throw off the shackles of the course mindset (as referenced by Charles Jennings), we can focus on activitiesand outcomes that impact the work itself, embed learning in the workflow, andhelp employees to grow by doing. This will not be achieved one class at a time, but by having the potential to touch everybody, every day. We can alsoprovide more agile responses to performance problems and opportunities forgrowth that can impact people today, rather than several months from now when aprogram has been researched, designed, launched, and finally attended!

So, rather than default to a course, think of how you (on yourown or in collaboration with colleagues and experts inside your company) mightproduce short, targeted online resources that have the power to inspire, show, or tell employees—whenthey are faced with specific challenges and in their moments of need—and helpthem to perform better right now. This would look like the best of Google andYouTube but with your organization’s proprietary expertise, knowledge, understanding, and know-how. If this is new to you, let me assure you this is veryeasy to do and very easy to get started. You can create digital resources—inminutes, with the right tool—that you can immediately share to those who needthe support in order to perform. You can also iterate and improve digitalresources in real time, meaning that they continually become more useful themore that workers engage with them.

How to create digital resources

The power in resources is that you can make them contextuallyrelevant to an organization or closely align them to what the business isaiming to achieve. You can use groups of resources to provide detailed maps ofwhat successful people are already doing in an organization, so that others canlearn from them.

Here is a simple example of this: You’ve just been promoted tomanager (woo-hoo!), and you sit at your desk on day one wanting to know whatyou should do now. So do you:

a)   Google it?

b)   Find out what people in comparable situations in yourcompany have done that was successful?

You could Google it,and you will find any number of experts saying, “You need to create a vision,” “Youneed to start coaching your team,” “You need to manage upward.” All thesethings are not wrong, but are they useful to you now? Finding out what others in your shoes have successfully donewould be a smart thing to do, but finding those people and eliciting theirexperiences is not likely to be convenient for you or for them, although itwould be of great value if you could do it.

An online resource can act like a digital tap on the shoulderof people who have been successful when faced with the same challenge. Eachresource can answer a specific question or fulfill a specific need. A series ofresources together can provide a learning journey for people who findthemselves in unknown territory.

Three different types of resources

L&D organizations have traditionally been good atdelivering courses that pull together key theories and models, which delegates theninterpret for application in their own situations. L&D has also had a greatdeal of experience in providing instruction in formal learning settings. Thoseare just two of the resource types that you can create or curate and then sharein digital formats. Here are all three with descriptions and examples of whereand how to use them:

1.    Instruct: This is how you do X…

Use whenthere is one accepted or efficient way of doing something, such as an ITsystems procedure or financial accounting process—e.g., how to request annualleave or how to process your expenses.

 2.    Inspire: This is how I have done X…

Whenthere is more than one way of achieving an outcome and the approach requiresboth authentic and confident application in a dynamic setting, then rather thantelling people how to do something,it can be hugely powerful for experienced practitioners, employees, and leadersto share their stories and package these up as resources. This could apply toso many different facets of business life: from being a new starter to a newmanager, a new mentor, or any kind of specialist, and for sharing stories of progression within an organization, such as “Thisis how I’ve managed my career,” “This is how I quickly got up to speed afterjoining the company,” or “This is how I’ve influenced the direction of aproject.”

 3.    Interpret: This is how you could do X…

As ablend of Instruct and Inspire, you can create a resource as away to interpret commonalities of successful practice and make recommendationsto others. This section right here is interpretive because I am sharing theaggregation of my experiences with anecdotes from others, but you may take thisadvice and create a better way of doing so. For example: “Five top tips for giving feedback,” “How to prepare for adifficult conversation,” or “Three things successful employees know aboutmanaging their careers.”

A “resources-first” approach will change the focus and impactof your face-to-face events. Of course, there is huge value in bringing peopletogether, but by providing support (resources) when it is needed (in theworkflow), you bring people together to do what they do best and find mostvaluable: learning from colleagues’experiences, discussion, debate, challenge, and practice.

An important understanding about resources, learning, and performing

It’s important to understand that this is much more aboutsupporting performance within the flow of work itself rather than supplementinglearning from social interaction or learning from formal instruction. You maywish to relate this breakdown to the widely discussed “70:20:10” mix. In anycase, remember that resources are not so much about “learning” but about“performing.” You can and should incorporate practice and feedback (which areimportant to learning) into formal learning, perhaps as a follow-up event. Youcan immediately apply tips and insight gained from resources at the moment ofneed; this provides practice “for real,” and of course feedback also occurs at thatmoment. In the case of interpretive resources (item three above), you’reunpacking what works in your organization(and that context is critical!) to help influence the way employees think andthen act. The context is what makes the resources more valuable and more effectivethan, for example, magazine articles or generic videos. The power is inproviding a set of organizationally relevant resources that employees canaccess immediately when needed (a mix of interpretive and inspirational),providing a rich tapestry of learning experiences.

Curated resources

You can curate resources as well as create them, bringing thebest of the web to employees along with the context of why that curated sourceis important and useful to them, their work, and to the company at large.

For L&D, digital curation is a mechanism for sharing high-value resources, crafted from content and know-how that already exists elsewhere (either inside or outsidethe organization), the power of which comes once you apply the context andrelevance for the benefit of the end user.

The new focus and key skills for L&D

L&D needs to refocus and re-skill to truly influenceperformance, provide timely support during transitions, and build capability sothat an organization can achieve its strategic priorities.

To adapt, L&D professionals need to disrupt both their ownfocus and skill set before the disruption comes from elsewhere. We need tothink agile, digital, and contextualand take the opportunity to become the best-connected and most effectivedepartment in the business.

A resources-first approach—andjust enough digital know-how—will mean helping people to do what they wantto do, better, and helping them to perform more efficiently and overcome theirchallenges as they arise. This, in tandem with providing access to thecollective knowledge and know-how from the most successful andexpert employees within the organization, can support growth, galvanize culture,and purposefully increase capability.

Imagine what it would be like to potentially influenceeverybody’s performance, every day, and to become integral to how the businessoperates and grows, rather than continuing to impact very few employees, fartoo infrequently, with courses.

References