Moments that Matter

For years corporate learning has been defined by compliance, and, as a result, corporate learning has had an NPS that hovers from around negative fifty to negative twenty-five. To counter this, many organizations have taken the approach of adding developmental content in a manner that I like to refer to as the field of dreams. Organizations do this because they want learners to love learning, so they try to make finding learning easy.

The unfortunate reality is that the field of dreams approach tends to be a dump of all sorts of content (with little to no curation) with the hopes that "if we build it, they will come [and somehow be satisfied]." The lack of curation results in a lack of perceived value by the learners. Since there is little perceived value, learners avoid corporate development, and engagement tends to be around 5-10%.

Why is that?

The main issue here is that with the field of dreams approach, the learning has no sense of urgency. Learners rarely have the time to search out the knowledge within their organization and instead defer to the web's best JIT training tool, YouTube. Unless your corporate training strategy is heavily YouTube-focused, you're probably going to be let down by your training results.

If you want your developmental training to be successful, you need to connect it with a clear goal, achievement, or other tangible need. To address this, try to identify the moments that matter in a professional career and then create programs with reminders and learner marketing. Some of these needs will likely be around topics like becoming a first-time manager or onboarding, but they can also take the form of teaching how to code. The key here is that the programs need to align with the need on all sides (the learner, their manager, and the L&D organization).

Don't make the mistake of thinking that your company's core competencies are a need on all sides.

While competency models may be a need for the company, they are not likely to be a need for the learner. You'll need to connect this back to a WIIFM (What's In It For Me) for the learner to leverage urgency on a topic like this. If you cannot identify the WIIFM for the learner, you should revisit the program structure. Ask your learners, "is this helpful to you in your role" or a similar question.

Once you've identified these training opportunities, break the programs into milestones that learners can get a sense of achievement by completing elements of the program and then back-the-program-up with a robust learner marketing approach to keep them from becoming distracted over time and forgetting about the course.

Some additional tips:

Micro is great for reinforcing skills that already exist, but it's a terrible teacher of a new skill. Instead, research shows that you need to think in terms of more macro clusters to teach these skills. Make sure that these skill clusters are digestible in a given workday/week. Assume a maximum learning period of 30-45 minutes per week as an ideal bundle size for these small bundles. Comprise these clusters of micro-content that can be consumed in 5-10 minute daily learning sprints, with the ultimate goal of completing the cluster in a single sprint if needed. Additional associated clusters can be targeted over a more extended period of complementary sprints.

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Do not build giant SCORM learning modules using an authoring tool. Otherwise, you're likely to have a revolt (i.e., low completion) from your learners.

If a module is going over 10 minutes, ask yourself:

• What are the natural stopping points in this module?
• Am I trying to introduce too much?
• Should I break apart the learning modules into smaller segments? Discover, Demonstrate, Manipulate, Ponder

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Never run a critical developmental program in perpetuity. Give learners a deadline or set their own deadline; otherwise, other priorities will take over. This also gives learners the ability to push back on business by saying, "I need to complete this learning before X date. Otherwise, it will become unavailable."

This is also a nice psychological trick as end dates make something perishable which is an excellent tool for letting learners prioritize learning- rather than have work objectives constrain their time choices.

What does compliance teach us?

The good news is that compliance proves that a sense of urgency can be created. Compliance also proves that learning can have nearly 100% engagement.

The bad news is that most learners now hate corporate learning because of the unfortunate connotations associated with 'compliance.'

Take the good notes of compliance and try to incorporate them into your developmental learning. Compliance is not the best form of learning, but it does prove a point- L&D has the reach, and managers have the awareness to help drive learning, and by focusing on the moments of need, you can create training that leverages the learning needs of your employees as well. Ultimately, this will help employees be successful in their careers (hopefully beyond their current role), help the business achieve the outcomes it is hoping for, and improve your organization's learning maturity.

This article was heavily influenced by the HILL (High Impact Learning that Lasts) model, developed by Filip Dochy and Mien Segers. The goal of the HILL Model is to focus on how to make learning as impactful as possible. Reach out to me directly and I can share some additional insights.

-Jeff