10 lessons learned about L&D from 3 years of Offbeat

Exactly 3 years ago today I sent the first newsletter issue of Offbeat. It's weird even thinking that there was no Offbeat before May 14, 2020. It's such a big part of me and it offered me so much that most times it ends up taking over my life － something I'm still learning to avoid.

But while I could talk for hours about the traps of being a creator and entrepreneur, today I want to focus on ? celebrating ?. Celebrating all that I've learned about L&D thanks to this small brand.

I'm going to be rough at times, so get ready.

Providing value in L&D means going beyond the traditional borders of our industry

Historically, we’ve been tasked with designing the list of trainings people will have to join throughout the year based on an annual “training needs analysis” and measuring metrics such as NPS and attendance rates. This required a limited set of skills and put us in a position of order takers. But we’re now learning more and more how this position doesn’t provide value to our stakeholders, our colleagues, our businesses, or to us.?

Understanding the system in which we operate (e.g. the industry, the business, the organization), helping our colleagues better grasp how their brains learn, facilitating social learning or reflection, and measuring metrics that matter has to become the new norm if we are to become more than a cost. All of these new tasks mean we should look outside of our own backyards, to systems thinking, behavior change, neuroscience, marketing, or product management, among others. And while it’s not an easy task, being perceived as a cost it’s becoming very risky － costs with no perceived added value will get cut fast in times of uncertainty and high-tech advancement, something we’ve seen happening in the past year.

Our industry moves with the speed of a (very) lazy snail

This realization came first from hearing that presentations delivered 20 years ago are still actual in 2023. In doing my own research, reading reports from early 2010 I realized that’s 100% true. Deloitte’s Human Trends report was talking about going from career ladder to career lattice, about DEIB, analytics, and others in 2011. The narrative is the same today.?

My understanding right now is that this is impacted by two big factors. One is that most organizations find it easy to SAY they care about people, but they find it harder to actually ACT on their promise. We are the ones caught in the middle, with promises of resources but with little additional support. The second one, and it pains me to say, is our own lack of skills & confidence － we’ve been used to being responsible for so few things for so long, that it’s damn hard to be brave, especially when we’re lacking support.

Something else that progresses with the speed of a (very) lazy snail in L&D? Technology

Let me share the conversation I'm hearing. People selling L&D tech are (extremely) frustrated about the level of skills and knowledge of L&D people. L&D people are (extremely) frustrated about the L&D tech available. There's so much frustration in the air, we could blow up all the balloons in this world.

All in all, everyone wants to ride the wave － the UX, the need for curation, and now the AI wave. We're slapping new tech into old L&D products and we're buying L&D tech without understanding the WHY. We overpromise and underdeliver on both sides, being trapped in a vicious cycle.

The market is overcrowded. Everyone is confused. The argument that the same is happening in other markets is annoying. Does this mean it makes sense? No, it doesn't.

For us, as L&Ds, the only thing left is to look very critically at our organizational needs and choose tech that's actually helpful. No politics, no falling for the latest tech, no buying a product because someone's a "friend of a friend". That's bull and we all know it.

It's 2023 and we still haven't learned to separate science from fiction

If I'll see one more post talking about how important it is to think of learning styles when designing learning, I'll go nuts. Literally, I'll go insane. I'm trying to always be very kind and keep in mind all the perspectives and points of view people share with me. But I get so mad seeing how we have this habit of taking the "theories" that "easily explain" human beings and just slapping them at every freaking thing we do.

Only because it makes sense, it doesn't mean it's true. Do your research! It's damn hard to read and understand research papers, I admit. But you have LinkedIn, you have your communities, just ask around. If you want to go pro, get a mentor or advisor that knows what they're talking about. Just stop wasting your time on "easy theories".

Adding L&D in a broken system won't fix the system

We're still perceived as being the people people. Bring L&D into an organization that's leaking employees and lacking productivity and BAM engagement & retention will grow, everyone will be happy, dancing, producing their best work, unicorns will throw up rainbows and we will live happily ever after.

Yeah, NO.

If your leadership, your processes, or your tech, among others, is shit AND you allow L&D no autonomy and shut them down when they show real issues, you will just burn cash with no return. Blaming L&D for "not delivering according to expectations" is cruel and unfair.

No organization is perfect, but as a leader, you have to be very intentional and transparent about WHY you're hiring L&D and take responsibility for the outcomes produced.

Learning is not L&Ds' responsibility

What the L&D function does is influence the system. Let me repeat that once again. L&D influences the system for learning to happen. Everyone is responsible for their learning journey and everyone is responsible for designing the system in a way that learning happens.

So as L&D, we have to pick up the slack of understanding the system, identifying the points of friction, and proposing solutions for the problems we're seeing. Remember my first point above? This is systems thinking, something we haven't traditionally used in our work. Hard? Yes. Useful? Damn yes.

As an employee, whatever your level is, stop blaming L&D for not being able to learn because you don't have a list of trainings readily available, or access to whatever e-learning platform. Just stop. First, you're learning every day even if you're not aware of it. Secondly, if you need some fancy learning platform, make your case, explain why you need it, and show what else you've done and the outcomes of your learning efforts!

Why are stakeholders still asking for quick solutions? Most of them have no idea how our brains work

I'm not blaming any individual for not understanding how their brain works. I'm (not so secretly) blaming dysfunctional educational systems, but I won't get into it.

Also, I'm not saying this is the only reason why we're still talking about one-off feedback or time management training. But until proven wrong, I still believe not understanding how behaviors change, how habits form, and how easily the system you're put in can influence both of these, is a big reason why we're still looking for and employing these quick solutions.

The best thing we can do in L&D? Bring the conversation into our organizations. In whatever form we can. Talk about it over and over again. Do what the educational system never did! Oh, and do that yourself. Remember my first point? This is about neuroscience and behavior change. Hard? Yes. Useful? Heck yes.

We don't need more content. We need more spaces for reflection & sense-making

We live in an era of information overload. I've been saying this at least a gazillion times every month for the past three years. There's no need for more content. There's a need for spaces where people can make sense of that content, and even more importantly, their experiences.

That requires time and intentional breaks from doing and consuming. I know how hard it is to change the narrative and I won't pretend I found a silver bullet. But whenever you're designing learning just think of how you balance new information with spaces for sense-making. People hold a lot of knowledge and experiences and they never get to use them because they haven't had the chance to reflect.

I don't have enough fingers to count all the things that influence your ability to learn

This one I had to learn the hard way. I went through some rough times over the past years, struggling with burnout, depression, and other smaller disorders too many times to count. While usually, I've been an extremely curious person, my appeal to learn new things has dramatically lowered.

As an L&D professional and as a leader you have to be aware of these factors, become better at identifying when individuals or groups are struggling, and act accordingly. Otherwise, you will only burn cash & energy and wonder why nothing is improving. Some things you might be able to influence, others are just out of your control. Still, being aware they exist will influence your design and interactions.

Finally, learning & supporting each other can make a BIG difference

I got to meet lots of people over these past three years. I rarely got an "I don't have the time to talk" and in return I try doing the same, giving my time to people as much as I can. People want to help, they feel valued and recognized when you ask them to share their knowledge. So don't be shy. Trying never hurts. It helped me, it can help you as well.

We really are a beautiful community. So why not use that to push our industry forward?

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What's next for me? I've dedicated 3 years of my life to building Offbeat and even now I feel we've only just gotten started. Over the past few weeks, we'll share more news about where are we going next and why you should be joining us on this journey.

I hope the next 3 years will be as exciting as the last 3. Maybe a bit easier. But just as exciting.

Thank you for being here,

Lavinia