And the learner is...

I remember one organisation in particular. We had spent around 6 months in careful conversations with the Learning & Development team to initiate a new data analytics programme (it was an apprenticeship programme, when data analytics apprenticeships were very much a new thing). After much stakeholder management, reassurance, demo-ing the programme and sleepless nights, we got the green light.

Our immediate client was super excited as well. It was a really well put together programme with excellent tutors and coaches. A chance to extend Government backed programmes into the 'new' world of digital and data. The Chief People Officer was excited too - this was the future of apprenticeships in the UK after all. As a result, the CEO was excited too and had high hopes.

Launch plans were put in place. Participant names and email addresses ceremoniously transferred to our onboarding team. Welcome emails were sent out, webinars booked in diaries.

So it was something of a rude shock when the initial reaction from a good chunk of the participants in email exchanges prior to the launch was on the lines of "I was told to take part, but I'm not sure why" or (even worse) "I've been told to come along to the first few events and if I don't like it then I can drop out".

This feeling, which some of you may know, is not a nice one: when one's own genuine enthusiasm and excitement on behalf of new participants in a programme is reciprocated by...cold indifference, maybe tinged by some passive aggressive dismissiveness.

What had gone wrong?

The answer was that none of us had paid nearly enough attention to what the people who the programme was "for" were like. What their situation was. What kind of people they were. Where they were in their careers. What it would be like for them to be asked to commit to something challenging and time-consuming, where the very act of participation would signal that they still needed to improve.

We all - client and us alike - assumed that they already knew and understood that this was a great programme that would turbo-charge their careers into the future. We were carried away by our own enthusiasm.

I learned the lesson well: however brilliant your change or learning programme is, unless you have thought and planned systematically for who the actual participants are and how they will feel about it, you create significant (and unnecessary risks).

This is why the section on The Learners is such a vital component of the Learning Canvas, the tool that I have developed to help organisations plan, sense check and deliver better, more resilient learning programmes.

I was able to use this recently with a client in a way that has made an important difference. The client was determined to improve the diversity of the people applying for and participating in their qualification programmes. We knew that finances were an issue (to participate in the programme meant you could not do full time work), but only by spending time looking at feedback from the target group did we realise that how the programme was currently delivered upfront (with an emphasis on the theoretical background) was putting off those who were not of a particular academic/university mindset - the very people they wanted to target.

So they have changed their programme structure, in a way that preserves the rigour and integrity of what they hold dear, but in a way that will also boost their much-needed diversity.

Email me on [email protected] if you are involved in a learning programme that you want to be stronger.