WIIFM or WIIFU: Writing learning outcomes for sustainability

Many years ago, as a young and innocent instructional designer, I was told that when writing a learning outcome to help shape a training course that I should make it clear to the learner WIIFM, or What’s In It For Me. I should explain in the outcome how each individual learner would benefit from the training, what they would be able to do better and how that would enhance their professional life. I imagine that something like this is what many of us in the learning and development field have been told to do.

So for many years I have done just this, but just recently came across some ideas which are making me question the wisdom of doing this. I am passionately committed to the idea of using learning and development in organisations to support strategies aimed at improving social and environmental sustainability, but also to help my fellow professionals push this agenda along in their organisations, particularly where it is not happening as quickly or as strongly as we might like.

What I found was a way of looking at personal values and how they relate to sustainability. Practising social and environmental sustainability is all about values, what is important to us as a society and me as an individual, so I was interested a report by the Common Cause Foundation which looked at just this relationship (https://commoncausefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/CCF_report_common_cause_handbook.pdf).

Drawing on considerable research into social psychology it proposed that the values we hold can be positioned according two axes as shown in the diagram provided. Horizontally we can put the values we hold onto a scale of what may be called extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic values are those which we hold because we think they are valued by others in our world — for example, we may feel that it is important to be popular or to conform with what everybody else does. Intrinsic values, on the other hand, are those which we hold to be important just because we think they are and without reference to other people’s opinions — for example, we may feel that having a strong family around us is important or that it is important not to live extravagantly.

The distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic is not necessarily clear-cut, and we may hold a value which has both extrinsic and intrinsic worth: for example, riding a bicycle to work rather than driving may be motivated by both an intrinsic value of it being good for the environment but also an extrinsic value of it saving money or making us look virtuous.

The model also has a second axis, from individualist to what we might call beyond self, which relates to such things as society and our environment. So valuing the community in which we live has both intrinsic and beyond self qualities, whereas valuing popularity is extrinsic and individualist.

This is an important model to consider in learning and development, because we often structure learning activities around desired behavioural objectives or outcomes, and these will often include some measure of success which is designed to appeal to values which we think will motivate the target group. The danger here is that whenever we appeal to a particular value we tend to reinforce the importance of that value, and push people further along these axes.

If we are looking to promote social and environmental sustainability we would ideally be promoting values which are intrinsic and beyond self rather than extrinsic and individualist. So even when planning learning and development for an activity which is socially or environmentally beneficial, we should avoid defining success criteria which define individual, externally determined measures and instead look for those which promote intrinsic and beyond self qualities.

How might this work? Well, if we were involved in a programme to promote active travel to and from work and to discourage car commuting, in the old model we might say something like “Following this active travel programme will help you to save money and look healthier”. But alternatively, we could suggest that “Following this active travel programme will help you contribute to a cleaner environment for all of us”. Or something like that.

It is clearly easier to write intrinsic—beyond self outcomes for learning and development activities that have a sustainability theme, but we really need to think about how to do it for each and every programme we have to design. Ask the questions: How can this programme contribute to social cohesion or equity, within the organisation or in wider society? How can this programme contribute to a better environment for all of us?

If it seems difficult or impossible to find answers to those questions, it may be time to question the rightness of the planned programme. Surely all learning and development should promote social or environmental sustainability in some way?

I think that focusing on WIIFU, What’s In It For Us rather than WIIFM could be a way for the learning and development profession to confirm its role as the moral compass in organisations rather than being an order taker for the rest of the organisation. Let's work towards that.

This subject and many more are covered in my book "Learning strategies for sustainable organisations" (https://www.routledge.com/Learning-Strategies-for-Sustainable-Organisations/Hopkins/p/book/9781032110707)