LMS = Lots of Monotonous Stuff

Historically we have approached corporate learning from two perspectives: either "complete this e-Learning module" or "go to this live training event." The trouble with eLearning content is that it's inflexible and live training isn't easily scalable, and both of these formats are just events rather than authentic learning journeys.

Event-based learning is an example of Learning and Development (L&D) working with the limited tools and resources that have been available to them, which has also made it difficult for L&D to be a serious business partner in a world driven by data. These methods are unable to drive change because they lack the ability to fully adapt to the learner and their needs over time. Instead, they ask the learner to adapt to the formats hoping that something meaningful will stick in the process. As a result, we rarely improve business outcomes by these traditional structures and, as a consequence, L&D has a difficult time connecting to any meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs), meaning that L&D often doesn't get a seat at the table when making organizational decisions.

The good news is that as learning technology begins to catch up with the needs of learners, L&D departments are starting to utilize these new tools to re-invent themselves by adapting to learner needs to drive organizational change.

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How do we hold ourselves accountable in supporting a learner's development?

How do we help learners to hold themselves accountable?

How do we encourage learners to take ownership of their learning results to drive business results?

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What is the role of L&D in giving learners the power to choose?

While it's great to have L&D validate quality and provide development guidance, don't forget that learning isn't just one group's responsibility (even if "Learning" is in your name). Ultimately the top three players in creating learner agency are L&D, Managers and ... [wait for it]... the learner themselves.

All three groups have a high level of importance in the learning equation, but at the core of learning is the question, "what does the learner need to know to be successful in the short (today), mid (next few weeks/months) and long-term (next few years)?"

By building this multi-layer multi-timeline learning ecosystem, you create the opportunity for learner agency. By leveraging learner agency you utilize one of the seven elements of creating High Impact Learning that Lasts, otherwise known as the HILL Model.

Let's take a look at some ideas for L&D, managers, and learners to have better learning experiences in the short, mid and long term.

Short-term needs connect with the question, "how do I do the job today?" Meaning that there may be simple Just In Time (JIT) style training that fills the small understanding gaps.

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L&D often fills this gap by creating content libraries/repositories for learners. The key here is that these libraries require high-quality, meaningful, easy to access, short-duration content that is readily searchable (these are your lego-blocks of learning). Also, these libraries should be curated; you don't walk into your local library and find a single book buried under a pile of books. However, this is how most Learning Management Systems (LMSs) look. Nearly no organization, just a content repository; otherwise known as a content graveyard.

If you're using Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, etc., let those tools be the larger learning repositories and only link to and feature meaningful content when it is needed. Leave it to the vendor to curate their own online experience and allow learners to search there as well (if they choose to). Have the providers send data back to a business analytics tool rather than the active LMS content repository. Libraries are best utilized when broken into subjects, so give your learners the opportunity to stroll down the halls of your corporate library of programs and learning clusters rather than force them to sort through piles of disassociated content.

Content questions to ask yourself:

• What content does your organization suggest?
• What is helpful content for people just getting started?
• What is your library experience? Easy to navigate or cluttered?

The cluttered library is often an issue of governance, such as missing tags and themes, no discernible order/structure, and potentially a lot of duplicate resources or resources that give conflicting strategies/methodologies. This is often because they were created by different vendors and at different times.

These issues are manageable but often require a reboot of the system with more order and user experience (UX) in mind. While daunting, a reboot can breathe new life into the system, and it becomes an opportunity to reengage with your learners; start slow though and design through feedback-based iteration.

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Managers can help short-term needs by having simple reference documentation (such as job-aids) available to their team. A lot of this is just knowing where to point people when they have questions. Ideally, the manager isn't the one creating and managing the content themselves, but it happens.

If you're observing this, be sure to give them a place to easily house this content and make sure that it is available to those who need it. Often, this content does not need to be on your LMS (as it will tend to lack a real learning objective); Sharepoint, your LXP or other business information repositories are often a better solution. The key here is to be consistent whatever your choice is.

Knowledge capture and sharing are the key here and making sure that managers have the tools available to reference problem-solving solutions is extremely important. L&D should focus on where they can supplement business process management with knowledge management and skills acquisition tools to help managers help their teams run more effectively.

Managers can also potentially take traditional business knowledge formats like PowerPoint and PDF documents and (with the help of L&D) turn them into interactive learning structures to better deliver critical internal knowledge content (for example, creating an interactive battlecard for sales). L&D thereby becomes a collaborator to help other business units achieve their results, which can be a direct KPI to validate L&D success.

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Learners will be at the mercy of whatever they can stumble upon. This is where social networking works in one's favor.

To achieve this, I often see community groups (Microsoft Teams / Slack / Yammer) where learners can share information and get help from the community. Use business communication tools (rather than learning communication tools) to solve this problem. The idea here is to go where the business is rather than bringing in a partial solution.

Learning communication tools work best when focused on a topic, whereas 'help!' groups tend to be more general, and conflating the two just makes everything less clear for everyone.

Champions drive these 'help!' groups by directing others to solutions. It's essential to create a culture of "kudos" for those who assist others. If the organization encourages the practice, it will create virtuous cycles. If the organization does not, these informal communication lines remain but become more siloed.

Allowing people to stand out by giving guidance and assistance also helps L&D and Managers to know who their natural network builders are, which is vital information to track if you are trying to pursue servant leadership in an organization - or what Adam Grant calls "Givers". These are the people who may not always be the top performers, but they help everyone around them to do better.

Companies often struggle the most with these mid-term goals because they require the organization to think about socially structured programs (rather than just stand-alone content). Resource-constrained L&D departments often have neither the time nor the money to deliver these programs at scale successfully.

A major limiting factor for delivering these programs en masse is that traditional LMSs and even most Learning Experience Platforms (LXPs) are not friendly towards activity-based, experiential learning. Traditional LXPs have a lot of trouble with more in-depth learning formats because they require more macro structures to drive change. So 100% microlearning often is not the best format but can be a good complement when used in moderation.

Some examples of this longer format learning need are onboarding, managing for the first time, or durable (soft) skill development, as these experientially based topics take time to develop.

In each of the above examples, there are likely multiple small elements that are cumulative in nature and often focus on both Attitude and Aptitude.

• In onboarding, you can think of these smaller elements as your week 1...2...3 to the 30/60/90 subject matter.
• In managing for the first time, it can be preparing and delivering performance feedback or learning how to be a coach, dealing with ambiguity, etc. All of the elements build-on and complement each other to create success.

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L&D often gets its best mid-term results by offering activity-based, cohort-driven, blended programs. The goal here is not to do full career development but rather to give people the ability to self-select into developmental programs that align with their interests and needs.

Two ideas for L&D to begin approaching these development concepts are: by working with functional skill areas within a company (sales, customer service, finance...etc.) or by taking an adaptive approach to capabilities. Once you know the populations and metrics for success, start building out the programs from there.

It's essential to take an iterative approach and build these programs modularly- rather than build full academic curriculums all at once. If you take a modular approach, you will likely discover transversal courses/skills that only need minor contextual adaptation for different groups of learners depending on their function. For example, nearly everyone benefits from customer service and project management training but internal and external facing employees will need this message contextualized differently.

Within this modular approach, L&D should develop associated programs set to run anywhere from 1 week to 3 months, depending on the context. These programs should ideally be blended using an activity-based Program Platform (Josh Bersin's category for the next generation of LXPs) to maximize the learning efficacy.

Suppose they are just content dumps without engagement opportunities. In that case, they will often not return the results that the organization is looking for and may even be viewed as compliance by learners. Do your best to integrate a community aspect into these programs. Have focused events (virtual and face-to-face) where learners can meet, gain clear guidance on expectations and demonstrate the skills they have acquired (60-minute events seem to be the industry norm). Also, be sure to support built-in asynchronous social learning activities that do not require learners to go to an actual event. Too many live events will conflict with busy work schedules- only use events when you need some specific trigger to happen (i.e., kickoff event, demonstration of skill event, closing event).

Lastly, develop a schedule and marketing approach for letting people know when these courses will be available. Get in the habit of sending monthly communications that let the organization know what programs will be offered, when they will be offered, the time needed to participate, and why they're important.

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Managers need to become familiar with the programs available for their employees, help their people enroll in the courses, and give learners the time required to effectively participate in these longer format learning modalities.

Managers are often faced with questions around development and how to progress in an organization; if done well, these mid-term structures mentioned above can give managers a tremendous developmental tool to encourage their team's growth. All the more reason to have an outstanding governance structure, so only high-quality options are available for your managers to recommend.

As a side note, L&D should work with managers so that they can have a high-level awareness of the courses their employees are taking (i.e., be aware of the subject matter and deliverables of the course) so that managers can better mentor their employees. Becoming more mindful of the content that their employees are learning helps managers to connect training to business objectives and better drives business outcomes.

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Ideally, your organization should offer assessments to allow learners to understand their strengths and opportunities so they can self-select into developmental courses as they become available.

L&D should also be reaching out directly to learners and collecting feedback about the programs being offered. Some relevant data for L&D to collect from learners:

• What is the Net Promoter Score of the course?
• What was the most exciting aspect of the course?
• What element of the course did the learners get the most out of?
• What are the Stop/Start/Continues of the courses you are running?
• What are the Win/Learn/Changes for the learners who are taking the course?
• How was the timing of the course?

Long-term learning goals often take the form of degrees and certifications that require a lot of time and effort to complete. Managers, leaders, coaches and mentors should work with learners to identify a learner's trajectory. The irony is that while companies take this long-term perspective with their corporate strategy, they rarely take this approach with their people. Instead, the long-term focus for individual employees is most often backward-looking in the form of an annual review process.

Have you ever had a developmental conversation that goes beyond "what will you achieve this year?"

Probably not...

If you have, there are the follow-up questions, "how were you supported in your development during that period?" and "did anyone hold you accountable beyond the first year?"

Again the answers are most likely, "probably not." Below are some ideas on how you can create better long-term approaches for learning.

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For L&D, long-term learning investment tends to be tuition reimbursement programs. Why not take this external format for long-term development and turn it internally by aligning with other business units to build meaningful internal programs in a corporate university structure and make it universally available to your employees?

L&D's strength is that it has experts in learning design/pedagogy. The other departments have Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who are silos of useful information but only have limited ways to share it.

Collaborate! Tear down the silos and democratize the information.

Do knowledge capture activities and translate that knowledge into documented developmental programs tailored to the greater organization's upskilling needs. Once that step is completed, turn that knowledge into full internal certification programs based on strategic, customized content unique to your business.

The critical mistake that organizations who want to "learn in the flow of work" make is assuming that content equals learning. However, this does not work effectively for more in-depth skills development. High-quality content is only one aspect of effective learning programs; without ownership of the programs and the buy-in from your population of learners, content alone is always doomed to fail (even with the best AI available in the world) because it only represents 10% of the 70:20:10 equation. By taking a more collaborative approach with other business groups, they become extensions of the L&D, and L&D becomes a vital business partner for any transformative growth initiative or core business need.

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For long-term team development, managers should continue helping teammates with the more traditional goal-setting skills like utilizing methodologies such as SMART. Managers also need to become familiar with the learning formats that work best for their team members; this can mean recommending going to conferences, doing MOOCs, reading books, etc. Hopefully, L&D is providing learning in multiple formats as well (video, written, interactive, social, etc.) to give learners options on how best to digest the knowledge. The core of the message is that today's managers need to understand that there are multiple paths to success. Their role as a people manager is to help their employees find the better path- not to force them down a path because it is convenient for the organization.

From an HR perspective, managers should be well-aware of the internal steps needed for their employees to do things like acquiring a degree (i.e., how to do tuition reimbursement), obtaining professional certifications...etc. L&D and HR need to make sure that both managers and learners can easily find and understand this information. They should also be asking managers and employees what additional developmental opportunities should be added to the repository of solutions.

The interconnected nature of work requires managers to proactively make connections for team members, meaning that managers need to be both social and informational hubs for their employees. Ultimately, managers should be helping their employees create a network of people and experiences to make better decisions for themselves. If you're promoting from the culture of 'kudos' mentioned before, this structure is much easier to implement.

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The key for learners is to make sure they have environments where they can connect with people who are doing the things that interest them. I've worked with companies with communities of practice around maintaining certifications and getting access to higher education. If done well, they can become a substantial value-added component of an organization.

Long-term goal setting is often a challenge for individuals, so it is vital to help them set up a timeline of short-term goals (i.e. get paperwork completed, research the top 3 places to study X, etc.) to get them to their desired outcome. The key here is that a long-term vision requires you to set up smaller term measurements of success; otherwise, the vision will become a mirage.

Another suggestion for creating long-term learner engagement is to give learners the opportunity to instruct other employees on topics they are familiar with. In its most simple form, the act of putting together documentation as a PowerPoint or PDF is often one of the best teachers a person can have. This also helps the organization to develop and maintain knowledge within an organization.

The next step of this would be to have employees work with L&D to create and directly facilitate these courses. This "teach" method helps to give recognition, develop a subject matter expert network, and expands the reach of L&D in an organization.

Learner Agency:

Learners need to have choices in how they would like to pursue their learning and development. They need to understand the "what's in it for me" (WIIFM), and then they need to be supported over time rather than pushed down one path or another.

All of the examples above are from my experiences, and they are by no means exhaustive. The whole concept of Learner Agency is to bring in and adapt to more situations that drive success, rather than selecting the winners and hoping the strategy works. You have to be able to admit that what you're doing could be better (or could even be wrong). Just be sure to collect and understand the data to know if what you are doing is working or not.

I want to hear some of your suggestions around how you've adapted learning to give learners the power to develop themselves. Please comment below or email me with your suggestions.

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Much of the above is built around the HILL (High Impact Learning that Lasts) model, developed by Filip Dochy and Mien Segers. And the research completed by Louis Deslauriers,?Ellen Schelew,?Carl Wieman.

Please also reference my previous article on using urgency to drive learning.

-Jeff