Curation Before Creation

This is the fourth of eight expanded articles from each of the points in the initial article in this newsletter, "L&D is Behind the Times: Here's How We Catch-Up." This article focuses on point #4: Curate first, create second.

------------------------------------

Most of us in L&D aren't short on requests to create new content, courses, webinars, and other learning solutions and we are happy to comply. After all, for many of us, the creativity involved in designing and delivering a solution is why we got into this work in the first place and what we love about our roles.

But impact and effectiveness in learning solutions doesn't always necessitate the creation of new offerings. Sometimes it means curating (organizing and serving up for ease of use) what is already available.

Designing a solution from scratch is generally a lengthy process involving multiple tools (design software, authoring tools, project management, creative libraries, etc.). Dollars add up quickly based on the cost of tools and wages paid. To be good stewards of the funding available, we owe it to our stakeholders and our organizations to ensure we aren't creating for the sake of creating, no matter how much we love the work. The decision to create should be applied strategically and thoughtfully.

So, how do we know when to create vs. curate? I find it helpful to start with a few key questions: Does this content already exist elsewhere? Is it accurate and sufficient? Is current content being utilized? If not, why?

Q1: What information/resources already exist? Are they accurate and sufficient? Think outside the box here. Most organizations have content tucked away in every corner. That content can be utilized for learning whether or not it is owned by the learning team. For example, in my organization, we can look at sales and marketing collateral, customer webinars, company website, and team process docs in addition to eLearning courses, access to Degreed, LinkedIn Learning, and GetAbstract book summaries. All of this content exists for company use. Who says we can only use it for one thing? We do our stakeholders a disservice when we simply add more content to the pile without first determining if we can repurpose what already exists.

Upon examination, if we discover the existing content is not accurate or sufficient, we dive deeper. Is it possible to simply, "Upgrade Existing Assets"? This action, taken from the Learning Cluster Design model emphasizes modifying what already exists instead of starting from scratch. If content can be upgraded to meet the need and we have the power to do the upgrading, let's get efficient by using our time and resources in that manner.

Q2: Are the currently available resources being utilized? If not, why? It's one thing to find existing content that fills the learning need. But if those resources are not already being utilized, perhaps the requestor didn't even know they existed, we must ask why. The most common reason for an underutilization of resources occurs when those resources are difficult to find. Either they are located somewhere that no one thinks to look or they are buried in a mountain of other content. Can an employee easily find what is needed in 2-clicks and 10 seconds? If not, creating additional content won't solve the problem. We will just end up with more of the same.

There is a direct correlation between how often an employee visits a particular content location and how likely he/she is to use that content. If we place our best content (or all our content) within a tool, platform, cloud location, etc. that our employees never visit, the chances they look for a solution in that location will be slim. I often hear learning professionals say things like, "We created a course on that last year and now they are asking again" or "That stuff is in the LMS, why are they asking for it again?" Spoiler alert, if no one uses the LMS, they won't have a clue what's in it. It's not about creating a new learning solution, but better exposure to the one that already exists.

What about when we bury good content? Consider this experience. In the past year, I had an employee on the team who wanted to get better at giving feedback. I went to our Degreed LXP with the hopes of finding a few key resources to share with her. My search for feedback landed me over 200 results! I had no way to determine which resources would be most helpful and lacked time to vet them all. What did I do? I promptly closed Degreed and messaged a colleague in my network who I knew had a good model for feedback. I'm certain there was something great in those 200+ resources from my search, but more wasn't better in this instance. Had there been a pathway curated for this topic or even a call out of top resources that were previously vetted, I likely would have used what I found. I didn't need a new resource created, just a better way to zoom in on what was needed.

Our solutions are only as good as the ability of employees to find and utilize them.

So let's get better at curating before we begin creating. Determining what exists, if it is accurate/sufficient, and ensuring it is easy to find. Then, we can spend our time creating when it is really needed, saving time and resources in the process.