Decentralising learning helps to build strong learning cultures

Leaning in to user-generated content to empower your people

Decentralisation

Successful, modern L&D teams should now be facilitators of learning, rather than order takers. We have historically seen L&D teams fall foul of not challenging enough, ultimately resulting in producing content for the sake of it. What’s useful to your people on the ground and what is delivered to them often differ, and this is a huge issue if people then can’t find what they’re looking for or find the wrong things. Their trust in what you deliver becomes tainted. This is why creating and enabling a decentralised learning ecosystem is so important.

Ultimately, by focusing on environments which empower learners, foster collaboration, and provide a diverse range of learning opportunities tailored to individual needs and preferences, L&D teams can show real impact on the overall employee experience.

Decentralising learning is about loosening control and providing greater opportunities for your people to share knowledge and upskill. In organisations where decentralisation is embraced, you tend to see less formal, standardised curriculum and more collaborative learning approaches which put the end user front and centre. We’ve seen this in companies like DECIEM, Ted Baker, and Ann Summers who have all provided opportunities for their staff to upskill on demand.?

Putting your people’s knowledge first

Decentralising learning means individuals have greater autonomy and agency in shaping their own learning experiences, whilst shaping those of the teams and people around them. They are empowered to choose their learning pathways, resources, and strategies based on their individual needs. The emphasis is on providing learners with flexibility to engage with materials that best suit their individual needs in the moment, whilst still ensuring a balanced and comprehensive availability of learning experiences.?

This approach can also make your end users your subject matter experts, your advocates and your gurus. Why should learning content only come via L&D? The best examples we’ve seen of social learning really lean into your people power, and their willingness to share what they know with others. Sharing your personal life online is something many of us do via social media, so why not share your professional knowledge and experiences in the same way?

Utilising a platform like THRIVE which allows individuals to create user-generated content ultimately feeds into your learning culture, and that vision of what learning actually is can begin to change. It’s not about a single point of time, or completing a piece of eLearning, it’s about the whole journey from searching for knowledge, producing it, and consuming it. So if you’re looking for more flexibility, empowerment, collaboration, and connection this is certainly the way to go.

How can you make decentralisation a success?

It can be difficult for people to let go of more transactional approaches, and you have to work hard at bringing people along on the journey with you. But if you’re committed to this approach, and let’s face it, if you know how people learn effectively, you’ll know that this approach will lead to greater impact, then it’s worth the time to set it up correctly in the first place.

Coordinate

There’s still a need to set goals and align with our organisational objectives, but the delivery of training, creation of content, or skills development does not need to always come through the L&D team. Oversight of what learning is going on in the business is key, and coordination - often with line managers and leadership - is the best way to obtain this. Everyone should understand what they’re working towards, so an element of orchestration and coordination is required. Creating the right environments, both digitally and in-person is vital. There’s no point in creating a more social learning experience if your tech just won’t support it.

Budget and plan effectively

If you’re looking at your tech stack and you’re thinking “I don’t think this will support my approach” then it’s time to start thinking about changes you can make and the budget you’ll need to get there. But remember: it often starts with hearts and minds not money. Thus means you need to plan in effective stakeholder management, change management methods and time to raise user awareness to help people on this journey.

Be comfortable with creativity

So often learning teams are hardwired to believe that training or content needs to look a certain way and fall in line with company branding. This can be a real barrier, particularly when you’re encouraging user-generated content and knowledge sharing. Allowing people to utilise the tools they have available and to just give it a go can lead to some real magic happening. It also makes it more personal and individual stories can really shine.

What do you think?

Overall, decentralized learning can offer a number of benefits for end users, and that’s really key here. If you’re asking people to spend time investing in their own development, you want to provide them with as many opportunities as you can for them to do this. Providing that autonomy and flexibility may require more up front thought and time investment, but it’ll reap the rewards further down the line when your employees start to learn from each other, collaborate more easily across the business, and ultimately begin to create the learning culture of dreams.

Do you think decentralisation is the way forward? Are you already doing it? We’d love to hear your thoughts on here or connect with Helen on Linkedin to chat.