4 Tips to Transform Training

Exponential changes in technology driven by what I call the Three Digital Accelerators — processing power, storage, and bandwidth — are now reaching a stage that allows us to transform every business process, including how we educate and train our workforce. That is what I call a Hard Trend, it will happen. The Soft Trend, the future “if” or “maybe” is whether your organization will take advantage of it. 

So what does the future of corporate training look like? To get a clear picture, you first have to know a few facts:

• The majority of phones that professionals use worldwide are smart phones. In other words, your employees’ phones are actually multimedia computers connected to supercomputers in the cloud with Internet access.

• Tablets and smartphones are outselling PCs globally and employees have access to them wherever they go, including home.

• These smart devices will get exponentially smarter every year, giving us amazing new capabilities. 

Knowing these things, it’s time to rethink how to train your employees from here on out. Here’s how to do it:

1. Implement just-in-time training

For most people, the best way to learn something is by doing it. Just-in-time training enables just that. Rather than sit in a classroom or one-on-one with someone and learn, people can learn in real-time. With just-in-time training, they can access any element of what they need to know at the moment of need. If they have a question or need assistance, they simply touch an icon on their device’s screen and are connected to a live or virtual trainer who can help. If the trainer needs to see something to give assistance, the employee can aim the device’s built-in camera to the problem so the trainer can see it. This alone would accelerate learning and at the same time cut training costs tremendously.

2. Create interactive training materials

We now have the ability to create interactive training manuals and textbooks. In the past, e-books have been static, basically an electronic PDF of the book, but today they can be dynamic, with embedded audio, video, and links to other resources. As a result, employees can make decisions about which videos and resources in the training manual they need to view, essentially allowing them to personalize their training for their specific needs.

3. Measure training in 10 minute blocks

I recently heard someone say they watched “an entire TED talk” as if it was a long amount of time. Our attention spans are short and the list of things each of us must accomplish seems to be getting longer. Measuring the units of training in one-hour blocks of time is a standard and is in reality already obsolete. By taking advantage of the virtual, mobile, social, and visual revolutions that are already taking place, we should measure employees training units in ten-minute or less blocks that include a short focused lesson with an application tool.

4. Tap into gamification

Gaming isn’t just for kids. It’s a tool that can transform training and education. I’ve identified five core elements of gamification that when applied together can dramatically accelerate learning. They are:

• Interactivity: Regardless of someone’s inherent learning style, learning is much more effective when you’re interacting with the material instead of passively sitting there. When you learn by gaming, you’re interacting with the information and concepts and actually doing things. It’s no longer passive training.
• Immersion: Today, video games use interspatial 3D. In other words, you go into worlds. So instead of images popping out at you, you go inside them. That’s how games on the Xbox and other platforms have been working for years. This sort of technology gives an immersed effect, which engages people more.
• Competition: Humans are naturally competitive beings. When you’re sitting in class or doing one-on-one learning, there’s little competitive value. No one advances until the session is over. However, when you’re competing, as in a game, there’s an adrenaline rush that keeps you engaged and focused on the task at hand. In an effort to “win,” people master concepts faster.
• Self-diagnostics: Interactive, immersive, and competitive training modules record each person’s skill or knowledge level and progress accordingly. It knows where someone left off and gives next steps from that point when the person logs back in. This is the best way to allow for individual training and learning.
• Focus: When you’re playing a game, you’re forced to focus. You have to do A in order for B to occur. If you don’t do A, then you won’t get far in the game. Focus is the result of interactivity, competition, immersion, and self-diagnosis. When you can focus, you can learn virtually anything… and learn it fast.

Make Learning Social

Social media is not static, it’s dynamic, it is not about informing, it’s interactive and collaborative. When you integrate social with learning the learning is not only deeper, it is shared with others. Let’s face it, knowledge increases in value when it is shared. 

Embrace the new era of training 

The ideas mentioned here are already in use today. So what are you waiting for? Redefine how your company trains its employees. Since businesses spend large sums of money on training and education, anything that can accelerate or enhance learning will save both time and dollars. And always remember: if it can be done, it will be done; if you don’t do it, someone else will.

?2015 Burrus Research, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

DANIEL BURRUS is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous untapped opportunities. He is the author of six books including The New York Times best seller Flash Foresight.