A few weeks back I had the pleasure of being at Training Journal's 50th Anniversary. There were a variety of key-note speakers delivering sessions on a range of topics. One of those was David James, former Director of Talent/L&OD at Disney, Founder of WeCommend and Learning Strategist with Looop. It was an engaging session with lots of thought-provoking content, just as all the speakers at the event, David certainly got me thinking. Thanks David! Great job.
It's often useful to look back on the slides of these events to reflect on the content that was shared and discussed. Reviewing David's slides from the day, this one jumped out at me today as being great advice for L&D.
We're all expected to do more with less and I thought these three points summed up nicely some of the ways we can do that.
Bite-Size Learning Events
I'm not saying that the days of full-day workshops or week long programmes are done. I think there is still and always will be a place for that. But does the pressures and pace of business always allow us to do that? Bite-sized learning events are becoming increasingly popular. Shorter, punchier sessions of an hour or two seem to be getting raving reviews as people have to spend less time out of their day job. It also means that their learning is much more focused on one or two key points rather than having a full 8-hour agenda to cram into their heads. I've seen organisations embrace this by using "lunch and learn" sessions, where short bite-size learning events are delivered over a working lunch. Technology helps with this bite-sized approach too. Virtual classrooms allow us to get groups together much quicker, without the need to travel, and facilitate engaging and interactive bite-sized sessions either as an isolated event or as part of a blended approach.
Free Content Online
How much content is there available online and how much of that is available free? Look at You Tube as a great example. The largest global video "university" that exists today. A great learning resource where, as you know, you can learn about all manner of things from communication and leadership skills through to how to fix your washing machine. How much does your L&D department look out for relevant content that will meet the development needs of your people? We have a huge role to play in curating credible relevant content and signposting our people to this. Yes it takes some work with IT to make sure the barriers and blocks to this content are removed. But the savings in time (both in design and delivery) make the effort well worthwhile when it comes to doing more with less.
L&D Teams Collaborating
They say that two heads are better than one. How much does your L&D Team collaborate? I guess they're already going to be great at collaborating with each other and with other business units. What about collaborating with L&D departments in other organisations? How well do they network with other learning professionals to gather thoughts and ideas? Again, technology has made this much easier with tools such as Linked In, Twitter and Facebook. It's amazing how many people are dealing with the same L&D issues in their organisations as you are in yours. Networking is more important now than it ever has been. There's industry wide events and Twitter discussions to take advantage of as well as the traditional face to face events. Connecting with professionals here on the DPG Community is also great, easy and effective way of staying in touch with what's going on in the wider world. It's free to sign up to and there's always some useful insights, discussions and shares going on. There's more reasons than ever to stay connected.
As we say, two heads are better than one. Thousands? Well that's just incredible!
So hopefully you've found this summary of just one of David's slides useful. Courtesy of Training Journal, you can find the others here. Perhaps you can summarise what one of them means to you?
So how is your L&D department doing more with less? Would love to hear your thoughts.
And to get more of a flavour of Training Journal's 50th Anniversary, check out this video from Learning Now TV:
Replies
Slow to this article, but definitely agree with the majority of it.
I feel like bite-sized learning events are really crucial to embedding skills and behaviour in organisations as there's a reluctance to value the learning generated by online content because it relies on the user to practice it in their own time.
Have bite sized events that allows people to learn and then practice one skill helps them build their confidence in using it when they get back to the workplace.
has anyone seen any other info or guidance on how to structure bite sized learning events to drive maximum impact?
Interestng post and I think this is where L&D is heading. I am currently looking at a framework which starts to use free resource out there on the Web. It has to be from a credible source, but a lot of learning can be obtained free of charge.
Youtube is a great resource. I personally have been challening fro a while when we get requests for excel training, in my opinion unless you are required to be an expert practitioner in excel for you job role, any functions that you me need to learn can be easily sourced from youtube.
The challenge being faced is the need by IT departments to lock down access to web pages or elements of the web that are seen as 'unproductive', there is a fear that by giving everyone access to youtube the entire work force will spend time watching videos of cats instead of working.
Hi Matt,
You can learn a lot from cats!
I agree with you on Excel. It's a massive topic and does everyone really need to know all of it? And when you put people through a course, how much can they remember at the point that they need that specific knowledge. A quick search on You Tube, and I'm sure you'll find how to do those pivot tables!
Perhaps there's an element of trusting adults that our IT friends need to have. I'm sure they have all manner of monitoring tools in place to check who's watching what and a gentle conversation and reminder for those that aren't being productive perhaps reminds people of the responsibilities they have to continue to have this trust placed in them!
I wonder if there's any great case studies out there where organisations have lifted the barriers on these tools previously thought of as un-productive and seen some effective learning happening as a result. Case Studies of what others are doing sometimes overturns some of these obstacles.
I'll let you know if I spot anything.
Doing more with less is definitely a good message to spread. I agree that blocking usage of things like youtube and twitter is short sighted. The people who might watch cats (how many of these videos are there!) won't hit their targets/KPIs and therefore will be identifiable so that they can be pulled up, disciplined, re-reducated or moved out of the company.
To use the Excel requirement as an example, at times using youtube or google can solve an instant problem which most people have. However if you are in on a course or in structured learning you might get to learn a few more things that compliment what you already know and wanted to know. The in-house training we organise is often focused on a particular team's needs so will use real work examples so can be more specific. Sometimes bringing people together in a room or virtual space helps spread more learning, rather than individuals learning what they need.
What i'm saying is, do more with less, make more media resources available but make sure its part of a considered approach to learning. All learning methods have their place if used wisely.