In the modern workplace, middle managers are an essential part of the success of any organization. They have a dual role: They need to be able to maintain relationships with those below them in the hierarchy and those above them. At the same time, they need to be able to support their teams with coaching, guidance and mentorship. In short: They need to be leaders.

While some senior leaders recognize the value of middle managers as enablers and coaches, they aren’t always great at supporting them. Ceridian’s 2022 Executive Survey revealed that leaders aren’t always clear on how best to support their middle management teams — or how much support these teams actually need.

This article will explore how middle managers should and will change in the future, and how learning and development teams can use their know-how to build and curate learning pathways that are valuable and useful for this pivotal group of employees.

The role of middle managers is changing

Middle managers used to just manage. They were responsible for getting their teams to complete projects on time and within budget, but the bulk of their work was about keeping things running smoothly: ensuring that work was done properly, that employees were following protocol and that everyone was working hard enough.

But as times have moved on and resources have become scarce, middle managers have needed to shift and hone their focus on employee retention and training. This has been a real challenge as middle managers are also contending with their own learning needs, shifting from being technical experts and doers to influencers and leaders as well as the changing nature of work and employee culture.

As a result of these changes in the workplace, middle managers are now responsible for more than just keeping things running smoothly — they’re also responsible for helping organizations achieve their goals through new initiatives like diversity training or increasing engagement through programs such as job rotation that allow employees to learn new skills.

Managers have a big impact on employee retention and engagement — but only if they’re engaged themselves. That’s according to recent Gallup data, which found that only one in 10 managers are engaged in their work. And they’re not alone: Only 35 percent of employees are engaged at work either.

During a crisis or upheaval — such as the COVID-19 pandemic — things can change across an organization quickly. Middle managers have an important role to play that is often lost and forgotten.

Millennial and Gen Z employees are quickly becoming the dominant generations in the workplace, and they need more than just pay and benefits — they want an environment where they can learn and develop skills that align with their values. They want a supportive culture, which requires managers who will demonstrate and provide patience, emotional support, training, coaching — and yes — even playtime!

Middle managers play a crucial role in fostering employee engagement, but they often lack the training that would enable them to do so. According to a study by The Conference Board, only 19 percent of middle managers receive training in leadership and management. This can have a significant impact on workplace culture: Managers who receive no training in coaching and team development tend to harbor unproductive behaviors such as micromanaging, providing inadequate feedback and focusing on weaknesses instead of strengths.

By contrast, those who are trained in coaching techniques can develop into mentors who help their direct reports adopt strong communication skills and become more self-sufficient. They also learn how to be active listeners and meet their direct report’s needs. Focused training on these types of leadership topics can help middle managers create an environment where employees feel valued and engaged — which ultimately leads to increased productivity, retention rates and bottom-line results for organizations.

The middle manager role is vital to the success of organizations in 2023, so senior leaders need and must invest in this pivotal group’s professional development. This shouldn’t be your traditional manager’s leadership program — it should be something that they engage with as part of their daily work, not something they have to do in addition. Remember, these managers are overworked and burnt out. Adding lengthy training programs will only exacerbate their challenges.

The solution?

A growing learning modality that has increased in recent years is nano-learning. It is a way to deliver condensed information in an engaging format by providing soundbites or sentences of valuable and relevant content via platforms like Tik Tok, Twitter or YouTube. According to Joseph Rene Corbeil’s book “Microlearning in the Digital Age,” 90 percent of employees welcome a nano-learning approach compared to 72 percent for video training and as content length becomes shorter, employee preference increases.

When juggling multiple issues and challenges in a day, it can be difficult to find the time to sit down and take a thirty-minute e-learning course. It’s even harder when the training is boring and drawn out, so when it comes to learning, middle managers are in a bind. They need to get up to speed on new ideas, tools and processes quickly — but they don’t always have time.

That’s why there’s been a growing trend toward ditching the drawn-out e-learning modules and focusing instead on just-in-time resources like toolbox resources. These resources are focused on providing content, worksheets and informational brochures on popular challenges, ideas and processes that middle managers need immediately when they need them.

For example, let’s say that you’re a manager who needs to provide difficult feedback to an employee. You could dip into an online toolbox which contains an infographic on how to have that difficult conversation. Easy to read and access, this kind of learning is valuable as it follows Knowle’s Basic Andragogical Principles including immediate application, internal motivation and need-to-know learning. Just-in-time learning libraries give our middle managers the power to access development opportunities when they want and need them, which is the very definition of good corporate learning theory.

Middle management encounters the most employees, external vendors and customers. The ability to read people and their state of mind and give them tools to explore their untapped potential and thoughts is paramount to managing them efficiently and for the long term. Coupled with a coaching culture, middle managers will create a nurturing environment by unlocking the potential of their teams, driving performance and creating a culture where everyone thrives.

The benefits for organizations that focus on supporting the transitioning nature of their middle managers’ responsibilities are endless. Not only will they be empowering their most powerful group of influencers to succeed, they will also be building a culture that is steeped in support and development, two areas important to the largest employee groups: Millennials and Gen Z. Nano learning and just-in-time learning are also cost-effective, easy to implement and immediately valuable.

Times are changing, and so are traditional roles in the workforce. L&D teams must support and treasure this group, which has often been forgotten by leaders. Middle managers are the next generation of C-suite — we need to value their development like it’s our own.

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Once a familiar refrain, a “top-down” approach to dealing with dynamic changes at work is not an effective way to plan for a more resilient future. For true organizational impact and growth to occur, every employee needs to be invested in the cause.

Complex change is now a constant feature of the personal and professional lives of employees at all levels of companies. As such, learning and development leaders — especially chief learning officers — are asked to arm the workforce with the skills they need to thrive through uncertainty.

The unvarnished truth is that if we want to help employees build agility and resilience, deep psychological resources that bloom from the inside out, mandatory training or one-size-fits-all workshops aren’t going to cut it. 

Good news: There is new evidence about the effectiveness of coaching as a critical solution to this problem.

New research from our lab at BetterUp reveals that employees who received personalized coaching in the early days of the pandemic were more likely to develop an internal “resiliency buffer” they could tap into during the resulting times of tumult and change. Following two cohorts of 1,000-plus people in total over several months, researchers learned that coached individuals were four times as resilient as those in the uncoached cohort. 

In the toughest of times — the chaos of the earliest months of lockdown, pre-vaccine, with school closures, office shutdowns and sudden business pivots — those with coaching grew their resilience at an unprecedented rate, while those without it flailed.

In addition to resilience, coached individuals experienced a significant edge over uncoached individuals in other important areas like productivity (+129 percent), optimism (+112 percent) and life satisfaction (+129 percent) by a large margin. On the other side of the coin, data shows that uncoached workers experience declines in productivity in addition to hits to their life satisfaction and optimism. 

As company growth slows and budgets shrink, organizational leadership is asking their people to do more with less. Unfortunately, most organizations aren’t providing the right kinds of personalized, evidence-based support for their employees as they attempt to navigate continually evolving and unpredictable contexts — especially as they struggle with burnout and decreased well-being. For example, organizations have turned to traditional upskilling and wellness initiatives to help employees cope, but these approaches don’t deliver long-term change or tend to focus on acute intervention after a challenge has already occurred. 

Our new study reveals how coaching can be an effective intervention to help build proactive skills that employees can use over and over again as a response to pervasive uncertainty. 

The study also showed that coaching is incredibly effective at driving lasting behavior change both now and later. Coaching helps people build psychological capital that enhances their well-being and keeps them grounded, both in the present and the future.

With the help of a coach, individuals learn to do more than just prevent feelings of helplessness; they develop reframing and emotional regulation skills, as well as self-efficacy and optimism, which in turn lead to increased resilience in difficult situations and even spurred subsequent growth after the fact. Employees gain the strength they need to bounce back from challenges — and some even stronger because of those difficulties, a form of growth known as anti-fragility.

The success of organizations now rests on executive leadership’s ability to democratize access to resources that prepare employees for the future. We hope our study helps to shore up the evidence base needed to show that personalized development coaching is an effective tool to proactively build resilience to buffer the hard times and preserve employee productivity and well-being even in the toughest climates.

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If your organization is making a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and your teams are becoming more diverse, you are well on your way to accomplishing two very important steps in the DEI journey.

Now, for the next step: What does it take for managers to leverage the power of these diverse teams? And, how can you ensure they get the support they need to create an environment that makes employees want to stay? The answer is in cultivating inclusive management practices throughout your organization. In this article, I will dive into what this means, why it’s important and the guidance you can provide to managers to make it happen.

Diverse and inclusive teams have higher performance

But first, let’s be clear about why we’re doing this. As Moira Alexander, the author of “LEAD or LAG: Linking Strategic Project Management & Thought Leadership, ” says in her article for CIO magazine: “High-performing teams don’t just happen. They require keen recruitment, staffing, and training strategies—all of which should focus on creating a diverse and inclusive (D&I) culture.” But the effort is well worth it, citing this compelling research: 

• Research shows that inclusive teams perform up to 30 percent better in high-diversity environments, according to Gartner.
• Employee performance in diverse organizations is 12 percent higher than in companies with no inclusivity efforts.
• It’s estimated that diverse and inclusive companies are 60 percent more likely to outperform their peers where decision-making is concerned.

And if your organization has a strong focus on retaining and developing talent then be aware that according to research from Glassdoor, “more than three in four employees and job seekers (76 percent) report a diverse workforce is an important factor when evaluating companies and job offers.”

What is an inclusive culture, and why are managers so important?

In an inclusive culture, employees feel like they have a voice, that their opinion matters — and that different identities and varied points of view are seen as an asset. They believe decisions and processes are equitable and fair. They have a sense of belonging — and they see concrete evidence that diversity is valued and integrated into the very fabric of the organization, making the organization stronger and more resilient. 

And when it comes to creating an inclusive culture, there’s one group that’s more important than any other—managers. Why? Because they are a primary organizational conduit, yielding influence in multiple directions—their team, senior leaders and peers. And they are in a position to make a real difference. Research from Gartner shows that organizations with managers who put diversity, equity and inclusion into practice are three times more likely to be high performers, 1.5 times more likely to continue working for their employer and nearly three times more likely to feel included.

The bottom line: Managers can either play a crucial role in creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment, or they can become a significant detractor to real progress — the difference is in whether they are empowered with the guidance they need.

How to support managers to become more inclusive

Because managers are in a powerful position to make a difference, consider them your highest priority. Helping them become more inclusive means providing them with support that is suited to their unique needs. That includes working with them to set an educational foundation that enables a broad understanding of the advantages that can come from having a more diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment — and then equipping them with specific tools and concrete learning points they can use to apply inclusive management practices. Eighty-seven percent of employees are likely to make better decisions when in a more inclusive environment.

7 steps to managing diverse teams

As you work to help managers become more inclusive, here are seven steps that every manager can take to manage diverse teams more effectively.

1. Gain self-awareness and examine your own biases

Managing a diverse team starts with gaining a better understanding of yourself and becoming aware of your own personal biases. Remember that no one is immune from having biases. If you’ve lived a life, you have biases that are based on what you’ve heard, seen and your own experiences. The point of examining them is to weed out those that may be harmful to others and that may hold you back from enabling the full potential of your team. Take full advantage of educational opportunities available from your organization and intersperse this with moments of self-reflection to contemplate and reinforce what you’ve learned. And as you make your own self-discoveries, you’ll be in a better position to coach your team members to do the same. 

2. Be aware that diversity is not always what you see

Sometimes diversity is apparent, but not always. Things that make us different may be unseen, such as sexual preferences, religious beliefs, physical health conditions, mental health and certain disabilities. The way around this is to become aware of and sensitive to each person’s unique identity. Gain a better understanding of what each individual team member needs to succeed and aim to provide any needed accommodation whenever possible. Remember that as a leader, you are a critical conduit in your organization, and you are also in a position to be the most powerful advocate for your employees.

3. Consider diversity to be a team asset, because it is

The statistics listed earlier in this article offer a compelling case for the value of diversity, but let’s look at the reasons behind them. When you have a diverse team, you get the benefit of different perspectives. Yes, this can sometimes be challenging to manage, but it’s also very valuable. That’s because different perspectives can enrich conversations, put faulty processes into question, spur new thinking and prompt innovations. Your job as a manager is to harness the power of diverse thinking and channel it to craft innovative solutions and create new opportunities for your organization.

4. Hone your skills as an empathetic manager and make all employees feel understood

Research shows that empathy is one of the most important leadership skills a manager can have. It’s also critical for managing diverse teams. Today’s employees put a premium on ensuring that their work complements their life. To enable that to happen, create a safe space for employees to confide in you, so that you are fully aware of what’s working for them, and what’s not. Keep an ongoing pulse on your employees and consider such questions as: Do they feel included in the team and the organization as a whole? Do they have what they need to do their job well? Are they getting burned out and if so, what can you do to help? Use what you learn to engage and protect them, as they are your organization’s most valuable resource. 

5. Seek out education in inclusive management practices

There are specific approaches to inclusive management that require education. It’s easy to say that you want to become more inclusive, but you as a manager have a unique set of needs that require you to have special strategies, tools and guidance. Such education (both through the organization and your own study) can help you know when you need to intervene in a situation, what changes you may need to make to your own behavior and how to cultivate an inclusive management team environment where everyone can thrive. To successfully manage diverse teams, you will need to be well-versed in inclusive management practices, such as recruiting and hiring, facilitating team meetings, resolving conflicts, evaluating internal candidates and creating equitable advancement.

6. Provide employees with leadership development opportunities 

As part of your aim to appreciate and leverage the unique identities and qualities of your employees, take the time you need to better understand their career aspirations. This will enable you to work with everyone on their personal career track. As you do that, assess where there may be opportunities in your organization for an employee to take on an increased leadership role. Consider cross-functional team opportunities around specific efforts. Providing employees with a chance to take on a new role will help them (and you) to better understand their areas of strength and opportunities for skill-building.

7. Become an active listener and seek out feedback

Perhaps the most important quality of managing diverse teams is to be an active listener. The days of managers barking out orders are long over. Managing diverse teams means creating an environment where people learn from each other, each person is heard, all opinions are welcome and collaboration is enhanced by canvassing different ideas and approaches. Finally, managing diverse teams is more effective when managers are not just open to receiving feedback, but are actively seeking it out. The best combination is to do this both informally (regular check-ins with individuals as well as the whole group) and more formally (through pulse surveys and 360 evaluations).

Concluding thoughts on supporting managers

Lastly, it’s important to know that inclusive management and specifically managing diverse teams may not always be easy — but it will always be worth the energy, time and effort it takes to do it effectively.

Moreover, like anything else, it takes practice to become an inclusive manager. And there will be a certain amount of trial and error, which is a normal part of the process. Work with your managers to help them cultivate a sense of empathy and humility, give them the guidance they need to fix their mistakes and instill a willingness to always keep trying.

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In venues both large and small, show producers know that optimal staging can transform great performances into immersive experiences that delight the senses. After all, who can resist the magnetic allure of dazzling lights, palpable sound quality and imaginative backdrops?  

Your learning and development crew can captivate its audiences, too, by deploying engaging technology and innovative approaches, but before you can begin casting new solutions, be sure you’re not just chasing the hottest new technology or trend, but instead solving a real need. 

Instead, deliberately build a diversified tech stack that supports your production both on- and off-stage. This includes investigating unaddressed challenges that show room for improvement by considering process enhancements, identifying modernized (and effective) tech solutions and pinpointing process inefficiencies. 

Think strategically. This is a long-term endeavor that requires careful calculations to weigh the cost of new approaches or technology implementation against the return on your investment and the shelf life of the solution. Decisions like these will require your learning design and operations teams to rehearse together. 

Invest wisely in your production playbook

Formalize an innovation pipeline that cycles new solutions through phases of testing, piloting and operationalizing. You may even consider creating a dedicated role to manage this process holistically — researching solutions, testing approaches and measuring effectiveness — while also scanning for novel solutions to everyday pain points.

By establishing an easy-to-follow process, it will be much simpler to implement future-of-learning technologies that may include the following:

• Digital adoption platforms.
• Augmented reality learning solutions.
• Next-level video creation tools that produce content for you with simple text inputs. 
• Portable, all-in-one video production equipment that enables subject matter experts to transfer knowledge quickly to learners. 
• Artificial intelligence tools that simulate life-like interactions and offer personalized digital coaching. 

It will take time and effort to thoroughly test solutions, but calculated rollouts can empower your team to push limits on what’s possible and realize the value — saving time, cutting costs and improving outcomes. 

Cast new tech with care

Trendy tech can seem like must-have headliners, but they may not be the right answer right now. This brings us to an important point: You must harvest data to make an objective decision and recognize when some innovations might not be the right solution to solve your team’s goals and your audience’s needs.

Thoughtfully develop business cases and proofs of concepts to demonstrate ROI potential before you buy. This may include metrics that focus on measuring the following:

• Cost or time savings.
• Quality enhancements. 
• Increased client or customer satisfaction. 
• Boosting the performance of your learning audience or teams.  

Timing really is everything 

Timing is an important factor in identifying which technologies to add. This is especially true when faced with rapid change when agility is essential. Business realities resulting from the recent pandemic proved this. Learning teams found themselves pivoting from providing in-person classroom experiences to fully virtual training almost overnight. Not only did the learning content have to support this sudden shift, but it also had to be underpinned by the appropriate technology.  

Now business norms are trending toward a hybrid workforce solution, showing us the importance of paying attention to the world around us and asking intuitive questions that may include: 

• Is this solution flexible enough to meet the needs of tomorrow’s disruptions? 
• Can it be adapted to solve multiple use cases? 
• What is the potential longevity of this solution? 
• Do you have the right resources, skills and capacity to successfully implement this tech?    

Don’t overcomplicate your production

Ensure your tech choice does not overcomplicate the need it fulfills. Do you need a high-cost virtual reality simulation for a smaller, short-lived initiative? Or could a simplified roleplay technology effectively meet your needs in that instance?

Consider the specific ROI you’re looking to achieve. Weigh your choices and identify your most pragmatic choice before you commit. 

Some of the best innovations work behind the scenes

Not all technology stars were made for the spotlight, so be careful not to overlook backstage solutions. Think of how you provision learners to your learning management system, or how you reset training environments for cohorts. 

Could the steps you take today be simplified or automated to reduce repetitive-task workloads? You know — those thunder-stealing tasks that take hours of manual work. Not only could such interventions save you time, but they could also reduce naturally occurring instances of human error.

Engage with your software development team and share details about such processes. You might find that their knowledge holds the keys to faster, more accurate completions — while also freeing your team to focus on higher value tasks that help your workforce grow and feel challenged.  

Keep your definition of innovation inclusive

As exciting as it is to debut the latest technology, it’s important to recognize that innovation does not always come in the form of a new technology. Innovation can be as simple as using an existing tool or technique in a different way.

For example, to personalize learning, see if you can develop pretests that use custom templates built into the content authoring tools your team uses daily. A simple solution like this may deliver the right amount of personalized training needed to reduce your learning audiences’ seat time while optimizing their experience. 

Write your screenplay for success 

Whether it’s new technology or innovative approaches, in establishing a new process by continually scanning for opportunities and remaining diligent, you can solve real problems while maximizing your return on investment.

Remember: Just because a technology is touted as the latest and greatest trend, does not mean it is the right solution for your organization right now. When you innovate in the right places, you and your audience can sit back and enjoy the experience. 

This is the fifth article in the series — The Great Talent Show: A Time for Learning to Shine. 

The Great Talent Show is coming soon to organizations everywhere. While many have pointed to a talent movement often termed “The Great Resignation,” not all have reflected on the new priorities and needs of the talent that are at its root. This reflection presents an opportunity for learning and development teams to enter the spotlight. If there was ever a time to shine as L&D professionals, that time is now.

But how can organizations ensure their learning troupe doesn’t simply get a ticket to the show and is instead cast in a starring role? 

In this article series, learning experts at ADP — this year’s CLO LearningElite Organization of the Year — illustrate the multifaceted ways learning organizations can influence real results that impact the business while also supporting talent in reaching their full potential.

Read the other articles in this series: 

• “Run learning like a … startup” by Andrea Elkin
• “Get more standing ovations with learner-optimized design and delivery” by Heather Granger and Carol Munir 
• “It takes two: Staying in step with stakeholders to deliver meaningful performance improvement” by Alwyn Klein
• The art of learning innovation: Blurring the lines between realism and abstract thinking to achieve visionary outcomes by Matthew Pellarin

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Learning and development leaders have plenty to consider right now. Upskilling and reskilling at faster rates than ever before are roundly agreed to be crucial for corporate success.

Perhaps understandably, changes in working practices resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic will have led many organizations creating or purchasing more learning content as means of meeting their upskilling and reskilling targets.

But, for learning content, more is not more. The more content you make available, the longer it takes your people to find what they need when they need it.  As their trust fades, the less likely they are to look. 

And, worse still, the more content there is, the less appreciation that learning is not all about content, but also about learning from peers and primarily about learning through real-world experience.

Our Content Discoverability Framework is intended as a practical tool for organizations to help their people to find learning content they need, when they need it. 

This framework may be most useful to ensure that multidisciplinary teams don’t drop balls when sharing responsibility between learning tech teams, content owners and business partners. Different skills are required to apply the elements of the framework.

The five elements of the framework, in order of application, are:

• Applicability
• Awareness
• Navigability
• Personalization
• Help

Applicability

Focusing on high-quality content that is relevant to your organization is an obvious but often overlooked first step to help people find what they need. The less irrelevant content you have, the more readily the other elements of this framework will apply.

A first step and probably the most cost-effective route to relevant content is to put learning content standards into place, accompanied by sensible governance processes.

At their simplest, these should pose two questions:
• Is a learning intervention truly the solution for the issue that has been identified?
• Do we already have resources designed for that purpose which we could use or adapt?

And, three set learning intervention requirements:

• A clearly-defined target audience.
• Objectives — describing what people will do differently as a result of participation.
• Measures of success in meeting those objectives.

To save duplication and outdated content obscuring the relevant, you will also need a learning content management process which stores editable source files with naming conventions to help identification, the details of the business owner and set review dates for the owner.

Purchasing third-party content libraries allows access to generic content which is managed and updated by the vendor.  AstraZeneca has successfully used Filtered’s Content Intelligence to ensure that content which is procured is relevant and its relevance quantified, all relative to the organisation’s priority capabilities and the specific skills they comprise.

Possible metrics: coverage of key skills; cost; cost per relevant asset.

Awareness

Once you have measures to ensure applicable content, you need to ensure that people know that it exists and where to find it.  While performance consulting and ensuring the application of standards that fall within the traditional expertise of learning professionals, building awareness and engagement are complementary skills, for which some teams hire dedicated marketing professionals. 

This is not a one-off activity associated with launching platforms.  

Awareness messaging needs to be a constant drumbeat, embedded in your operating context, in the same way that your company continues to market its offer to clients and potential clients, relating to their needs in the context of their markets. It is also intrinsic to your approach to learning culture — how do people become aware of, understand, discuss and share learning?

Some of Filtered’s clients have found that email campaigns with vibrant, high-quality surprising content can be hugely effective at spreading the word.

Possible metrics: average monthly active users, proportion of workforce who are aware; open rates, click-through rates and downstream positivity about the learning experience.

Navigability

In the same way as we have an expectation of the layout of public buildings we visit, learning content architecture should be intuitive to navigate. Contributing factors to navigability are uncluttered landing pages, sensible and consistent naming conventions, with governance rules and processes to ensure application.

Tagging to a relevant taxonomy will also make a huge difference to searching for the content you need within the structure. Think carefully about the skills taxonomy that makes sense for your organization. Is it joined up with talent initiatives? Does it include terms that people actually search for (the most common search terms across corporates are still: excel, agile, leadership and project management)? Is it reasonably future-proofed (skills of the future, extensible and flexible)? Finally, what about things that aren’t skills, such as behaviors, values, topics, themes, tasks? Should your taxonomy be limited to skills? 

Tagging of content to skills is an area of business where algorithms really have overtaken human level performance. Find a vendor that knows their stuff and is willing to prove it.

Curation of learning pathways is now an important mechanism to direct the attention of your people to curated content. Again, algorithms can be used to help to accelerate the process.

Possible metrics: NPS score for the LMS/LXP; search success percent; tagging accuracy; survey feedback for pathway users.

Personalization

Much has been made of the potential of learning experience platforms, and indeed of some commercial content vendor platforms, to deliver personalized experiences.  

For this potential to be realized, tagging to a relevant taxonomy is necessary, but not sufficient.  

Also required are meaningful user profiles, built from a combination of HR system information such as role and location, and user-generated data such as skills, career interests and levels, influencers they follow and other activity on the site.

But be warned: The impact of personalization is much harder to prove on learning systems than on much more popular media and social media platforms. For one thing, those platforms enjoy a tremendous amount of traffic. And for another, they are optimized for clicks and plays. In L&D, we are trying to optimize for much more worthy and much more difficult: performance improvement.

Possible metrics: percent of returning users; NPS score.

Help

Finally, if the system hasn’t got the user to the learning content they need together, you need a viable back-up plan. It should be clear when and how to be in touch with someone, and how long it will take to receive a response. This should be for a bare minimum of users as the huge majority of your workforce’s discoverability needs should be provided by the previous four elements of the framework. 

To conclude

The benefits of succeeding with learning content discoverability are enormous, including employee engagement, fulfillment and purpose, and organizational productivity.

We will continue to test and iterate the framework and invite you to use and repurpose it, and share your experiences in doing so.

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We now have multiple generations in the workplace, with vastly different aspirations, perspectives and needs. It’s little wonder that some generations don’t exactly see eye-to-eye. Yet, we have to find ways to co-exist and work effectively together, and learning leaders have a significant role to play in creating a seamless, multi-generational workplace. Why? Because learning and development is one of the few things that cross all ages and generations — we all need to build skills, no matter what stage we’re at in our careers. It’s a great equalizer in many ways, and a bridge that can be built across generations. 

Personalization is a good start

That said, the best learning leaders discovered a long time ago that personalization is key when it comes to high learning engagement. And that rings especially true when developing a learning program that caters to Gen X and Gen Z alike. They are such vastly different groups that a one-size-fits-all approach will quickly fail. You cannot make a Millennial fit into a Boomer’s box. 

You might be wondering what those differences are. Let me give you a brief overview of how each generation in the workplace today views learning and career development. 

Boomers are credential-driven

First, you have the Boomers. They are typically a highly educated generation, in the traditional sense, so they value accomplishments and credentials. They desire to learn from proven experts, so anyone with the right credentials, and they will look for respected, high-profile institutions for further study. They prefer to attend in-person courses but have become more used to using online learning and new technologies in today’s hybrid environment. That said, this generation can really be defined as compliant learners — they are used to being told what to learn and when to learn it. Their comfort zone really is in command and control leadership and compliance training. They tend to focus on learning that helps them do their job better today (performance support) instead of learning to prepare for their next move (career mobility). 

This generation is typically seen as more rigid in their working identities and they can find it a challenge to pivot quickly to new roles or employers. It’s also worth noting that post-pandemic, Boomers are retiring at record levels, and this is causing something of a brain drain in many organizations.

Gen X wants control

They are followed by Generation X, who are approaching the middle of their careers and who typically grew up with working parents. They are the first generation on-track to be worse off than their parents in terms of retirement preparation. This generation dislikes micromanaging, so they would prefer a more self-directed learning plan. They also look for information and practice rather than pure theory, and they want to know exactly how learning will benefit their career. They aren’t intimidated by new technologies. Gen X are pragmatic learners. They understand the need and importance of compliance training, but they want L&D to make learning easy and accessible so they can direct that learning themselves.

Millennials turn to peers

Then we get to the much maligned Millennials. This avocado-eating generation typically grew up with helicopter parents and familial input is critical to them. They will turn to family or friends (their chosen family) when making big decisions about where to study, what to learn, promotions, employers and more. Like Gen X, they want to be informed about how learning will improve their career prospects.

Millennials are social learners. They have grown up with social media and are influenced more by others on what to learn. They understand the power of collective intelligence and team work, so their learning reflects this style. 

Millennials are known for a short attention span of around 12 seconds. This makes them particularly keen on bite-size learning and gamification that makes their learning more interactive and dynamic. Because of their close family and friendship ties, it comes as little surprise that Millennials enjoy peer-led learning and they often want social media elements to be present in their learning environment. They are a digitally-savvy group that expects technology to be present throughout their lives. Learning leaders need to invest in a seamless consumer-grade learning technology stack to meet these expectations. However, this should be complemented by some face-to-face contact which Millennials still value. 

Millennials are hyper-focused on career development and see jobs as an opportunity to grow their skills and career prospects. A whopping 87 percent of millennials rate “professional or career growth and development opportunities” as important to them in a job. This is great news for learning leaders, as they have an already bought-in and eager cohort who are ready and waiting to upskill. You just have to provide them with the right learning opportunities. 

Gen Z demands digital

Finally, we have Generation Z, who are just entering the workforce. I dub these the rogue learners, because they have a clear distaste for compliance training and they expect leadership to explain the relevancy of what they are learning. Notably, Gen Z also don’t care much for credentials and traditional academic achievements like going to university. 

They’re constantly asking “What’s in it for me?” and they need to have a sense of purpose in their learning — especially when it comes to career mobility. This is a shift from older generations who would only apply for their next role when they met all the required skills. Gen Z expects their employers to prepare them for their next step. Both Gen Z and Millennials are known for their relative lack of loyalty to any employer that they feel isn’t doing enough to progress their learning and career. 

Gen Z are true digital natives; they don’t remember a world without the Internet and their workplace expectations definitely reflect this. Their tactics for learning are strikingly dissimilar to Boomers’ and Gen Xs’ methods. For one, because of the rise of social media and “snackable” content, many Gen Zs expect content to be ready, on-demand, at the click of a button (or, more commonly, a swipe of a finger). 

Gen Z wants a more immersive learning experience, where they are in control of their own learning and where they have hands-on experience to back up theoretical knowledge. Only 38 percent of Gen Z prefer to learn by seeing (reading materials, for example) and 12 percent enjoy learning by listening (to online talks or lectures). In contrast, 60 percent of Gen Z say that working through a problem helps them to learn and 64% like peer-to-peer learning via discussions and debates. 

Learning to suit all ages

Clearly, learning leaders have a vast audience to cater to. It is impossible to have a single learning strategy that meets the needs and expectations of these very different generations. However, there are seven common threads you can weave throughout each group.

No. 1: Clear career paths are vital. For all generations, knowing where they’re headed gives them a clear reason behind learning. This is particularly relevant if you’re moving away from traditional top-down, mandatory training into something more learner-centric and self-motivated. 

Even Boomers who are headed for retirement need to feel invested in learning — if not to further their own careers, then to pass on their decades of experience to others. Explain to (or show) each learner how a learning pathway or new skill can translate into an upward move or new career, by linking skills to career opportunities, having senior execs talk about their learning journeys and showcasing “learners of the week/month”. 

No. 2: Learner knows best, or do they? Self-directed learning requires learners to understand their personal career goals, learning preferences, and how they learn best. A major step before implementing your learning plans, therefore, is to give people time and space to reflect on their goals and learning style. 

One of the first actions that former CHRO of Unilever, Leena Nair, carried out before executing a new learning strategy was to invest in “discover your purpose” workshops. Speaking at Degreed LENS 2021, she explained how 150,000 Unilever employees were able to take part — and why the tactic was integral to the overall success of the learning strategy. “When we know our purpose, we feel more anchored and have a better learning mindset. Gives you strength, courage, and you can go on to do great things,” she said. 

Coaching can also come into play here. But you don’t need to invite a coach in to speak with all of your employees. Upskilling managers to coach their teams can be just as effective. 

No. 3: Pick-your-own learning. Giving people the autonomy to choose their own learning resources can help you meet the different preferences of each generation, while tapping into Gen X’s need for control and Millennials’ and Gen Z’s digital-first culture. The best learning systems now provide a range of learning content, from short blogs to podcasts, or formal courses and in-person learning, and all tracked in a single place so everyone, from Boomer to Gen Z, gets their learning efforts recognized. 

No. 4: Practice makes perfect. Reinforcing theoretical learning through practical experiences is something that’s important to Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z. It also helps to mitigate the forgetting curve (if not practiced, 90 percent of what you learn will be forgotten in a week). Plus, it deepens a skill by coming at it from more angles than just theoretical teaching. 

You can provide these kinds of experiential learning opportunities during the work day through projects, special assignments, volunteering, and temporary workstreams. Another practical way to reinforce learning is by encouraging someone to teach a colleague — in medicine, this is known as “see one, do one, teach one” and it’s a beneficial way to build relationships between people as well as help someone master a skill. 

No. 5: Try mentoring and coaching. Closely linked to the above point, mentoring can provide opportunities for different generations to meet, work closely together, and improve their skills. Reverse mentoring can help older generations get up-to-speed with the latest technology, trends and organizational processes. Meanwhile, mentoring between a Boomer and younger generations can help to pass on some of their knowledge before retirement. It may also bridge the understanding gap that’s been reported between some generations and that may be adding friction to your workplace.

No. 6: Find learning influencers. Younger generations place greater trust in recommendations from their peers, so you can leverage this by encouraging key people across the organization to recommend learning content. This might be a line manager (employees turn to their managers 73 percent more than their L&D team) or it could be “influencers” in different departments, offices or locations. Look for the people who often advocate for your learning content, who regularly share what they’re learning and who are vocal about wanting to further their skills. Use them as your cheerleaders to get everyone else interested in the learning opportunities on offer. 

Remember, every employee in your organization has an expertise. Give them a megaphone to show off that expertise and soon you will find that you have an army of internal trainers who will informally produce and share content.

No. 7: Start a two-way conversation. Open, clear communication between L&D teams and learners will help you understand how well your current opportunities and resources are meeting your workforce’s needs. Make sure you ask a good representation of your workforce (all ages, seniority, minorities, genders, etc.) so you can see exactly how effective your learning strategy is for everyone. 

Millennials and Gen Z value regular feedback, so having mechanisms in place for managers to gather feedback from teams on a weekly basis or at project completion will help to fulfill this need. Better still, equip managers to offer relevant learning opportunities when giving this feedback, saying something like: “You’ve done a great job with project managing the team for the first time, would you like to formalize this experience with a short course on ‘The Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management’?”

Hitting the mark

Considering your learning strategy through the eyes and experiences of each generation is a good habit to cultivate. Not only will it help you better hit the mark with today’s workforce, but it also makes your learning strategy more resilient against future changes. If you consistently communicate with learners of all ages from across your organization, you’ll be better able to spot new trends or opportunities to evolve your learning strategy. 

It’s an unavoidable fact: Your workforce is ever-changing. We will all age and new generations will emerge. The only way to meet the learning needs of each generation is to be open to listening to them, let them direct their learning and give them the right resources to succeed in whatever life stage they are in.

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The best learning organizations go beyond basic training for staff. By investing in learning and development across the business — for employees and customers alike — the company is set up for sustained success.

Many organizations, including the 54 finalists in Chief Learning Officer’s 2022 LearningElite awards, recognize that learning is a long-term investment and impacts the whole business. Their commitment to corporate L&D and hard work were recognized at the annual LearningElite Gala on June 22, 2022.

One of last year’s finalists, ADP reached the top spot this year.

With clients as its North Star across the business, the learning functions at ADP focus on helping those clients realize the full value of ADP’s solutions and services, and enable the development of the associates who support them.

“As a functional learning organization within ADP, it really does rest squarely on our shoulders: the ability to enable clients to succeed in the products and services that they leverage from us,” says Andrea Elkin, vice president of enterprise learning at ADP.

Learning as a business

Just like the broader company, the learning organization runs as a business, relying on rigorous data collection, using balance scorecards and adhering to processes in order to demonstrate value, growth and continue to innovate, Elkin says.

“We really do invest in making sure that the learning that we deliver, that the learning that we produce, delivers a return to the company,” Elkin adds.

While the learning organization focuses on enabling the 60,000 associates at ADP, it also never loses sight of the client, providing them with the best service possible via training ADP associates, but also through learning programs for the clients themselves. This goes beyond basic training: the ADP learning organization also created a centralized LMS for clients.

The client learning experience is about getting the most out of ADP. Elkin referenced a foundational principle at — that caring about your people is paramount. When you truly care about your people, they will make sure that everything is cared for, to the best of their abilities, including your clients.

The leadership development function enables leaders at ADP to also expand their knowledge and continue to become better leaders and businesspeople. Topics they cover include developing inclusivity, breaking biases and becoming a strengths-based organization.

Structured strategy

ADP’s learning organization runs like its broader business, especially when it comes to strategy. By focusing on the same strategies of individual business divisions, as well as the company as a whole, learning leaders gain buy-in from the teams they serve and also reinforce the business strategy on multiple levels.

That alignment starts with a mission statement in the learning organization’s strategy, which is to help its clients, associates and company thrive as the products, technologies and business practices transform. Ultimately, the goal is to drive an effortless and dynamic learning experience that positions stakeholders for success.

“We feel responsible, the learning group, for ensuring that ADP can seamlessly change, improve and innovate, and we’re going to make sure everybody’s ready for that,” Elkin says.

ADP’s learning strategy contains three pillars of success: transform, perform and partner. These all contain the nuts and bolts of a strong learning strategy — providing the right tools, guidance, encouragement and continuous improvement.

But the most important piece is execution or being accountable to speed, quality and partnership across the business, “so that we can execute with excellence,” Elkin says.

The learning organization is structured to mirror the business structure, so the learning professionals can best focus on each business unit and their unique needs. By collecting data and with the help of the learning team’s project management office, the learning function can adjust its team as needed to quickly enhance learning for the various business divisions and support them effectively.

“We’ve got our finger on how we can flex and we can leverage our teams to offer the most value to the business,” says Alwyn Klein, senior director of centers of enterprise operations at ADP.

Staying ahead of the curve

As much as ADP aims to serve the learners of today, it also prepares itself for the learners of tomorrow. Workforce planning helps with executing strategy for the learning organization itself, ensuring there is enough time for the learning function’s team to examine its processes for further optimization.

The learning organization also focuses on its own advancement of its staff, developing their skills to stay ahead of what the business needs for the future, says Klein.

An internal annual learning summit includes a whole day of focusing on learning initiatives, and there’s also recommended programming in learning design, project management, facilitator excellence, performance consulting, technology and more.

This focus on internal advancement of skills is important to the team, “because investing in what we do and keeping our skills ahead of the curve has value for the entire company. I sometimes think that that’s an area of opportunity for other organizations,” Elkin adds.

Investment in innovation

ADP’s learning organization budgets for innovation and experimentation.

“We’re constantly scanning for internal opportunities, internal efficiencies, ‘how can we get better at doing what we’re doing,’ at the same time as looking to the outside world,” Klein says.

This goes beyond technology that was intentionally designed for learning and education.

One example Klein shares is around improving knowledge management search technology. Because pages now load 81 percent faster, ADP staff and clients are consuming performance support articles 39 percent more. This advancement in search functionality is helping staff find solutions more quickly, enabling them to perform their jobs better.

Other technologies ADP taps include augmented reality for onboarding, such as guiding new hires through setting up their equipment and meeting the people on their teams. Additionally, robotic process automation has helped automate repetitive tasks, helping to reduce manual work so teams can focus on the bigger picture.

As part of its efforts toward personalizing the learning experience, the ADP learning organization is exploring artificial intelligence that can share recommendations for problem-solving while in the flow of work. For example, surfacing a product guide to a client in their moment of need.

Prioritizing these technologies and new strategies helps the learning organization deliver great training and performance support. A continued commitment to resources supporting innovation delivers in areas such as shortening time to competence for new hires, shortening onboarding, improved results and a strong return on investment.

Moving forward, Elkin says that the learning organization is looking to inspire all ADP associates to share their expertise internally.

By tying learning to bottom-line results, more individuals outside of the learning function will be inspired to help the development strategy. “I want us to move from producing to enabling learning at the organization,” Elkin says.

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With the recent hurricanes affecting Nova Scotia and Florida, you might wonder how companies mobilize during the recovery process. Restoring the lives of the people impacted by a disaster and addressing the damage, in many instances, falls on the property adjuster — the conduit between the insured and the insurer. Meanwhile, training, managing and directing resources falls on operational managers.

Sedgwick, the largest insurance claims management company in the world, has developed a program to build the future bench strength of its property claims leadership — generationNext Management. In this article, we discuss our model for collaboration between instructional design and students and the real-time impact it has on program direction and outcomes, including skills, engagement and team building.

Educating the industry’s future adjusters 

Eight years ago, we recognized a need for advanced training for claims professionals specializing in complex losses. We began building a masters-level program designed for the industry and supported by experienced leaders. The goal was to fast-track an elite education in claims adjusting by synthesizing leadership’s knowledge into an engaging, hands-on program. 

In 2016, generationNext launched its first invitation-only advanced degree in claims adjusting. Sedgwick invited carrier clients to nominate candidates for participation — sharing knowledge within the insurance industry. Based on the success of the program, Vale Training, a Sedgwick company, was engaged to develop an additional layer of the program’s technical and management syllabus.  

Developing the program outline 

In the early stages of designing the management program, the pace of learning was established to include three in-person sessions for one week, supplemented by several virtual sessions to conclude within a year. Each session was based on a central theme related to Sedgwick’s talent and growth strategies, segmented into dimensions of the market in a tell-show-do model of engagement and closing each day with an executive viewpoint. The first two sessions factored in the following topics:

Session No. 1: Critical thinking and decision-making

• Financial acumen – Profit and loss analysis
• Growth – Clients, service expansion
• Property products – Development, exceptional service, technology solutions
• Culture – Emotional intelligence, hiring, setting goals, delegation, empowerment and managing multiple generations
• Innovation – Artificial intelligence, business impact, disruptors

Session No. 2: Profitable growth

• Mergers & acquisitions strategy and valuation
• Acquisition integration strategy
• Service portfolio
• Operational excellence team activities
• Corporate finance
• Margin expansion

Through a collaborative effort, these operational excellence activities created an environment of safety and trust. The teams encouraged leadership to expand the scope of the program to include a series of projects they felt could substantially grow the business. The decision was made for the operational projects to extend to the final session as a capstone to the program.

From an engagement perspective, the standard classroom dynamic supported our objectives. With representation from the U.S., Canada and LATAM, the group spanned seven business units. Students were encouraged to share and lead various elements of the program. Each morning began with a poll about expected outcomes for the day, which served as a tool for presenters to better serve the interests of the class. The poll, which was available on participants’ smartphones, was also used to structure the executive viewpoint at the close of each session. Leaders reviewed and emphasized key points from each session and used the morning poll as a guide to make sure all areas had been sufficiently addressed. Polling became a tool not only to capture information but provide real-time voting analytics on concepts and ideas, facilitating deeper discussions. 

Living our values 

The sharing of common values proved to be a significant contributor to the information learned and the projects students choose to take part in. Colleagues’ feelings, thoughts and experiences were not only respected but embraced. Teams were selected by associating disparate functions and regions to emphasize individual contributions and eliminate groupthink.

We reinforced accountability by being transparent and delivering on our commitments. This collaboration enabled meaningful connections built on mutual trust — working together as a unified team toward a shared purpose. This process also helped students form networks beyond an individual’s region or business unit. 

Technical infrastructure was a critical element in the success of the program; we infused various techniques and technologies, each designed to enhance absorption and extend the learning. 

• Virtual sessions were used as preparatory information and collaboration forums. Video, chat and screen-sharing were encouraged to build familiarity with technology, concepts, and class relationships. These same sessions allowed for the inclusion of multiple executive guests to share insights. One particular result was a video pitch each participant made to introduce themselves – role, location and a personal perspective on their relationship to Sedgwick.
• Live polling provided immediate feedback that drove conversations and the direction of the program.  The team embraced the use of the technology for ideation and reactions that were displayed and then ranked for interest and importance. The tool, originally designed as a simple icebreaker, became a platform heavily leveraged and ultimately used to inform subsequent learning sessions. Additionally, an infusion of learning technology has deployed surveys for feedback and the planned implementation of adaptive learning to extend knowledge well beyond scheduled events. 
• Blended teaming was a critical strategy that yielded cross-pollination of information, resulting in shared strategies, infrastructure, and client relationships. This concept facilitated the introduction of service lines into new markets and optimization programs with global reach. From a participant perspective, this strategy delivered lasting relationships built on sharing, trust and accountability.

A common element of all generationNext programs is cultural discovery. Each live setting includes a field trip to an environment that showcases unique architecture, technical innovation or team strengthening.  

Two examples of recent trips include the Piquette Avenue Plant — where Henry Ford established a room for innovation that yielded the design of the Model T and facilitated introduction of the automated assembly line — and the Dallas Cowboys World Headquarters and Practice Facility, which showcased the importance of team building and living and exhibiting a brand’s experience.

Investment in education

Recognizing the need to support career development, entry level programs including apprentice, intern and trainee have been established by Sedgwick to attract new talent to the industry. In 2022, the proprietary training and development program, Sedgwick University, was re-imaged for colleague personal and professional growth — it is the foundation for our culture of learning.

Colleagues can learn and grow on an ongoing basis with more than 15,000 courses on demand, as well as training specific to roles. For those who seek educational opportunities outside the organization, Sedgwick University provides tuition reimbursement for colleagues pursuing academic degrees and reimbursement for professional licensures, certifications and designations.

All Sedgwick University offerings are also available to colleagues starting from their very first day at Sedgwick. This investment will serve Sedgwick and the industry by establishing skills to support insureds and effectively adjudicate claims.

Results that matter

At this stage, leaders and participants agree that generationNext has met its learning objectives. In measuring program outcomes, scores for “relevant and beneficial to my role” and “able to apply the principles to improve my work” each placed in the high 80 percent range. Lastly, the program resulted in a 50-point improvement in concept knowledge upon completion.

Looking ahead, Sedgwick plans to continue the program and reap the benefits in terms of colleague learning and development, and the impact individual capstone projects can generate for the future.

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Since the pandemic hit, enterprises have been actively transforming business models and adopting new technology to stay competitive. Instinctively, organizations usually need to redesign critical job roles to support such pivotal change for the business goals.

Often, managers rush into implementing the job redesign by simply deploying employees into the newly redesigned job roles. They perceived those employees possess the adequate skills, desired behaviors and tools needed to succeed and perform to expectation in a short period. Unfortunately, the reality is not the case, and they rarely perform to expectations.

To hasten the closing of skills gaps for the redesigned job role, some leaders attempt to simply send the impacted employees for external courses to upskill or reskill may even render the transition ineffective and costly.

There are multiple facets in order for a redesigned job role to be successful. One critical success area would be an integrated strategy for developing a skills transition roadmap coupled with support conditions of the redesigned job role and its desired behaviors. This strategy will focus on three components that enable a more sustainable job role skills transition for the impacted employees. They are:

• Job skills transition roadmap
• Minimum viable skills journey map
• Redesigned job role support network

Let’s explore these in detail.

Job skills transition roadmap

Implementing this comprehensive transition plan ensures smooth and adaptive adoption by the workforce. When designing the transition plan, it is crucial to identify the right category of job role the worker is transitioning to. One approach is to adopt a targeted job skills transition roadmap.

Organization stakeholders play a critical role in co-creating this roadmap for implementation. The goal is to engage them to co-create iteratively and chart the vital components for the job role skills transition effectively and sustainably.

There are five primary containers in this roadmap. The top row consists of skills identified as the current skillset, desired skillset and transitional competence. The bottom containers are the desired behaviors and support systems that serve as enablers for the transition journey.

How does this work?

Organization stakeholders and managers conduct a skillset analysis to determine the current skillset and desired skillset needed. This analysis is carried out collaboratively and transparently to enlist impacted employees, their supervisors and stakeholders to capture holistic and objective inputs for this purpose. Leaders and impacted parties work together iteratively to determine what skillsets will be needed to deepen or develop new ones to achieve the desired skillset.

Within the list in the desired skillsets container, there is a group of skills known as minimum viable skillset. The MVS is a set of skills identified at the minimum level required for the job holder to perform the redesign role successfully without any problems or assistance. MVS aligns with impacted employees’ areas of need in skills development of integrated process performance goals, technology adoption and new ways of work.

The transition competence container is divided into a minimum of two main phases for job skills development that targets the acquisition of MVS. In the first phase, the skills selected for development are based on the current skillset closest to the MVS found in the desired skillset. In the second phase, the chosen skills are generally new or more complex than in the first phase and target the remaining MVS.

Generally, the timeframe is fluid for implementing two phases as it depends on the proficiency, complexity and operational requirements of the skills targeted for development. For more detailed planning, enterprises can consider adopting workplace learning and development plans for structured and applied skills development in the two phases.

Next, organization leaders work with respective line managers and supervisors to select a suitable behavior profiling tool for the impacted employees. The chosen profiling tool is recommended to adopt behavior dimensions that can be applied to different occupations, such as agility, compliance, cooperation, delivery, efficiency, influence, innovation and resilience. This profiling outcome is a vital piece of guiding information that shares succinct insights about the desired behaviors for impacted employees of what they should do more or less in this transition.

The final container is to provide a cohesive set of considerations for creating supporting resources that would facilitate impacted employees’ skills development and performance at work. These performance and innovation considerations explore work relationships, activities, learning and growth and the supporting organization resources. The MVS journey maps will provide further detail on the next segment.

The following illustrates an example of a job skills transition roadmap from an HR administrative manager to an HR business partner manager within the same company. The skills titles and proficiency levels are referenced from Singapore SkillsFuture Framework.

Minimum viable skillset journey maps

The MVS journey map offers a holistic framework of how employees can progress in their skills development from learning to performance. The four main stages in the MVS journey maps are awareness, practice, application and naturalization.

• Awareness – focus on familiarization of tasks and concepts.
• Practice – focus on training the skill, on practicing the skill to meet performance.
• Application – focus on applying the skill learned on actual work tasks, solve problems and adapt changes when applying the skill.
• Naturalization – focus on mastery in using the skill for performing the job, continuous improvement.

Each stage has a set of components with key pointers and practices for adoption that may be illustrated as goals, learning, actions, touchpoints, learner needs, pain points and supports presented incrementally. 

I have developed three interrelated MVS journey maps (learner, learning and support) for enterprise usage. The following infographic for an MVS journey map is learning.

Redesigned job role support network

Within this strategy, the minimum viable skillset journey map is also bolstered by a redesigned job role support network that is holistic to make the transition effective and sustainable.

As shown in the illustration above, for any support network to succeed, the various roles in the organization are critical in providing the right motivation and guidance and making accessible resources. Every stakeholder in the network may support the impacted employee in areas of work performance, value creation of the role, learning needs and motivation aspects, thereby enabling higher chances of a frictionless job redesign transition. 

The takeaway

In essence, the roadmap provides actionable insights on 1) building a job skills transition map and 2) identifying the minimum viable skillset for enterprise goals in business and workforce transformation, thereby delivering a sustainable impact for the organization.

The MVS journey map provides a guiding framework for leaders and managers in planning a more comprehensive implementation of the skills development plans to achieve the desired business outcomes.

Lastly, the process of employee skills development and transition to the redesigned role is iterative, and it is imperative to build a strong support network to make the change lasting.

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Nowadays, it sometimes feels like the 21st century learner won’t even stay in their job, much less in the classroom. As learning and development professionals, it is our responsibility to design learning content to meet them where they are at, with their unique gaps. If we have learned anything from our journey toward a post-pandemic world, it is that people want options. When it comes to developing leaders, the same holds true.

Unfortunately, time and money are wasted every year forcing leaders through classes they may not need, and likely will not benefit from. Why do we do this? We believe that all leaders must all possess the same skills to be successful, so clearly, we must train them in these areas to ensure that they will be able to grow and be successful. If every would-be leader came to us as a blank slate with no knowledge, skills or abilities, then this might just work. 

But over the past year, it struck me: Rather than developing leaders through a series of required, standardized training, we would be better served to assess leaders in a series of competencies that are required to be successful in their jobs. Then, we could build content to help them grow only in the competencies where they have skill gaps.

For instance, let’s assume that to be a successful leader, you must be skilled in communication, motivation, accountability, performance management and strategic thinking. With a group of blank-slate leaders, we might be tempted to build classes around these five competencies and require all new supervisors and managers to attend these classes. The problem is that not all leaders come to us with the same level of proficiency in each of these skills.

Now, imagine that we are delivering learning to three new supervisors: Barry, Sue and Maria. If Barry excels at communication but struggles in the other four areas, perhaps he should spend a considerable amount of time learning about those competencies and practicing them in his daily work. Although it is likely that spending any time in training on communication skills would not be beneficial for him.

Sue may struggle in motivation and performance management, but have some skills in the other three areas. It may be valuable for her to spend less time in communication, accountability and strategic thinking, but she will still likely need to work somewhat on each of them.

Meanwhile, Maria may have vast experience with each of the five competency areas, and not require any training or formal learning whatsoever. So why are we putting them all through the same standard training?

Leadership development of the future needs to be individualized, flexible and oftentimes asynchronous. This could look like a series of content that builds on itself — beginning with the most fundamental concepts being delivered in online, self-paced classes, to more intermediate skills being facilitated in live classes. As learners continue to grow in knowledge, they may begin to teach others, and eventually may become subject matter experts. 

If I want someone with no experience in accountability to become a subject matter expert, that will never be fully achieved in the classroom, and will likely take years. However, if we break it into smaller steps, we can teach them about accountability and why it is important through a series of online modules. We can facilitate them through a live class to discuss how to hold other people and themselves accountable. 

There may be a series of intentional work assignments, coaching and mentoring sessions or opportunities for them to shadow or work with others who have mastered the art of accountability. Eventually, they may begin sharing what they have learned with others who are less skilled, as well as collaborating with their peers on how they find success in accountability.

To cross that final hump into subject matter expertise, though, there must be a desire that comes from within the individual to transition from consuming content on accountability to creating content. They give the keynote speeches, write the articles and become the person others go to for their take on how to hold people accountable… after many, many years of work and learning.

Looking back to Barry, Sue and Maria: If we wanted all three to become subject matter experts in accountability, Barry may likely need to begin with the online modules. Sue may benefit from starting with the live classes and some intentional work assignments. However, Maria may be able to begin discussing the concepts of accountability with her peers and may be someone that Barry and Sue could come to for some coaching and mentoring.

The key to all of this is learning where your leaders are at and offering enough content for them to stay engaged in learning without wasting time or money!

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Training, without learning transfer, is arguably a waste of budget and time. So, what does training need to achieve learning transfer? How do we ensure the operationalization of what was delivered, so it becomes the new way of doing things? 

Delegates take in what is delivered during a learning experience and then they must let it out to express it, to test it, to practice it and get good at it. If they do enough of this over time, it will become their default way of operating. In essence, they need to do things afterward. It’s not enough to pass an exam or to just remember for a while what was learned — and then forget it.

If delegates don’t do something with what they learned, it will die and slip away like a phantom in the mist. In the classroom, you can bring the content to life, engage people and get them excited. But, how do you keep it alive beyond the event, and long enough for it to become relevant, useful and used in a real-world scenario? 

Think back to a task that you used to do one way, and now do a different way. How did that happen? For most of us, this follows fairly predictable stages. We come to realize, or someone tells us, that a task could be done a better way or the right way, and alongside that there is a desire to at least give it a go to see what happens if we do it differently.

We may need to learn something and then experiment. If that seems promising, we try it again a few times and see what results we get. We reflect on what happens, and we compare our results to what other people get. We consider the pros and cons of doing it the new way in comparison to the old way. If the change looks good, we keep doing it the new way which embeds it, and often improves it, through ongoing practice.

For many of the behavioral changes we make in our lives, much of this process is out of our conscious awareness, and yet it happens. The length of the process, the number of steps and the content of those steps will vary depending on the complexity of the behavior change, the motivation to make the change and the size of the gap between what we were doing and what we decided to do instead.

Given this process needs to happen for an employee to change their behaviour, how can we deliver this process to them? The typical L&D question is, “how do we deliver this content?” But a better question would be, “how do we deliver this behavior?”

Let’s assume we have done a behavioral needs analysis and determined the set of desired behaviors that we want to deliver. And, of course, as part of your BNA, you have defined what evidence will be visible when those behaviors are in operation. You now have your outcome defined and measurable. By the way, make sure you get that behavioural outcome and the measures signed off by the executive sponsor.

You now know the destination, and the current position. Next, you need a set of turn-by-turn instructions to guide people on their journey from the current position to the desired destination. Their journey needs to be filled with all the activities that will help them learn the new behaviours and practice them to ensure those behaviours become embedded and sustained over time.

As soon as you start talking about a sequence of activities that is designed and orchestrated over time to achieve a specific outcome, you are talking about a workflow — a sequence or series of steps to achieve a desired outcome or goal.

This is what we want. We want a repeatable sequence of activities that will guarantee someone gets from where they are to where we want them to be. But specifically in our case, the start and end points of this journey are behavioral rather than positional. To separate this kind of workflow from all the other workflows that are used in business, I use the term “learning workflow.” You might also call it a behavioral change workflow, though that does not roll off the tongue so easily. 

We know from decades of research that some learners, usually only a few, do change their behavior after a learning experience — most specifically training. When you investigate, you will find that these people made some decisions and took some actions to practice and utilise what they learnt on the course. In effect, they proactively created their own learning workflow, which is why they were successful in changing their behavior.

If you want the majority of learners to change their behavior, your L&D team will need to design and provide a learning workflow that guides them through the steps they need to take to complete their journey. In my experience, learning workflows work far more effectively when there are many small activities rather than a few bigger activities. This has implications when you seek to scale this across dozens or hundreds of learners, even for a relatively simple set of behavioral outcomes. 

When you start considering all the activities that, for example, a new manager needs to do to embed all the new behaviors they will need to be effective as a manager, it becomes obvious you will need some digital help in the form of a learning workflow platform. An LWP can deliver your activities, track their completion, involve other stakeholders and apply behavioural measures. Since most of these workflow activities are not consuming learning content, a typical learning system won’t do what is needed.In summary, we need learning transfer to follow a learning intervention if the learning is to have any impact. Learning transfer is dependent on behavior change and generating reliable behavior change is dependent on using a learning workflow. Therefore, you need a learning workflow wrapped around your training to achieve learning transfer and business impact. Hence, this article’s title: Learning transfer requires a learning workflow solution.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has “micro-waved” the transition to an impermanent workforce, an economy where the remote workforce is now a more significant percentage than ever envisioned. That switch happened as quickly as it took for the COVID-19 pandemic to become a global threat to human health. The switch to remote/hybrid working, remote learning, remote socializing, remote shopping and more all happened in a heartbeat.

To seize the new opportunities that our changing environment presents for individuals and organizations, both will need to reconsider their approach to learning. Building new skills and being able to apply these quickly and effectively is essential to survival. What is clear is that we don’t have the luxury of thousands of evolutionary years to adjust to our changed circumstances. The changes to our current environment have been abrupt, decisive and severe – demanding permanent adaptation.

Education and training providers and HR leaders have had to analyze the pandemic’s challenges on organizational learning, and reorganize how learning and development interventions are delivered. These are some of the critical factors that need reflection in our new normal:

Superficial vs. Extensive. Some subjects may require a high level of understanding, while others may require deep immersion for learning and application to take place. Learning strategies and interventions will require critical thinking around this aspect. For example, how do technology-enabled learning and “nano sessions” fit in, and when would it be appropriate? What are the learning goals? Some topics may require a build-up or progression, going from a basic, introductory level to an expert level with time or role transition. How will your organizational learning strategy cater to this aspect? If one considers a “Know, Do, Be” framework, and if a new skill requires both knowledge and doing, how will the learning content and delivery mechanism be structured in the future? Some generic, open enrollment courses may no longer be appropriate in this changing environment. 

Developing knowledge vs. Developing skills. Technology and non- or semi-customized content have their place in developing an understanding and basic (foundational) knowledge of certain topics. Research has shown that social media learning and access to web-based information can sometimes be a distraction and take away from “deep work.” Individuals and Corporates need to understand that:

• Awareness, understanding, knowledge and ultimately insights and skilled application of this is a process. Knowing how to build a process that enables this is critical, or else the effort on knowledge creation through learning is wasted.

• Learning design and delivery principles differ for skills building and knowledge acquisition. Learning design and facilitation processes – whether tech-based or person-based – need a different approach when skill-building is required.

Access to learning through technology platforms. Technology can facilitate broader access to learning; however, on their own, learning technology platforms do not accelerate learning. To enable effective learning, technology must be part of a more systemic learning eco-system that includes things such as rewards (the “what’s in it for me”), building blocks from one intervention to the next and post-learning support.  

What vs. How of learning. Since the pandemic, the focus has been on a push to restart learning and prevent learning stalls. However, the focus has been on the how – technology access and solutions, communication platforms, etc. While the intent may be good, the focus must be on the what of learning and the how. 

What do you as an individual need to learn? Learning activities must be linked to business and personal objectives and outcomes. What are the most critical skills one needs to learn? Simply having platforms and vast amounts of available content is misleading and deceptive. It is like having many adverts on web pages that take us to different paths through constant clicking behavior. We lose sight of the original objective of what we were looking for and get side-tracked. 

Organizations will need to think about three layers of learning content and access methods: 

• Thoughtfully curated by the organization for business fit.
• Semi-curated with the learner having some control of what they learn.
• Open for all, where the learner makes all the choices of what and how they learn.

Employee-centric learning approach. There must be a match of learning to organizational objectives as well. Non-curated, open content on platforms is great for focused and deeply aware employees but may not work for everyone, especially in cultures where self-direction is not very strong. Moreover, too much open, non-curated content, driven by non-contextual algorithms, is as detrimental to choice-making for the learner as is too little quality content

Generalized offerings vs. Customized ones. Making generic platforms and content available helps get to a base level of knowledge and awareness for employees and managers, but it does not necessarily provide enough depth for creating differentiated impact in a role. It also does not help in career-building or moving ahead with building deep and relevant skills for the future.

Informal and social learning. Learning can happen anytime, anywhere with those around us as sources of inspiration, knowledge and experience. Social learning takes place through observation or instruction in a social environment. Informal learning is a more impromptu form of learning. It usually happens “on the fly” and is often the unforeseen side effect of everyday activities. Organizations must leverage the opportunities to learn from different types of communities – peers, external networks, professional and academic bodies, etc. Does the design and delivery of the learning intervention leverage communities that can accelerate learning? There are huge possibilities to learn from different types of communities for all. By overinvesting in other aspects, we miss out on the intangible benefits of communities in our learning focus.

The current or traditional ways of organizing work and learning have been dramatically redefined post-pandemic. So too, have the requirements of skills and mindsets. It is time to reimagine and reboot our approaches to organizational learning from basic models to delivery and technology, to provide learning solutions that impact people and business outcomes.  

In the words of Winston Churchill, “never let a crisis go to waste.” For those able to find opportunities in our post-pandemic world, an innovative new world of work and learning awaits those who embrace it, adapt and thrive.

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Learning and development leaders who find themselves in a new role should take time to become well-acquainted with the business goals, stakeholders and learning culture within their new organization. Doing so will allow them to plan and operationalize their next steps seamlessly.

If you find yourself in this situation, prepare for success with these three strategic steps.

Identify the business strategy

Before developing or enhancing an organizationwide learning strategy, it is imperative to determine your new organization’s business objectives. Doing so will enable you to align all L&D initiatives to business goals and ensure that your learning program generates a respectable ROI.

To do this, you will need to conduct some research. First, determine if your company sends out a yearly or bi-yearly mission and vision statement. Many organizations will send this in the form of an email or will hold town halls or an all-hands meeting to communicate their strategy. If a meeting recording is available, watch or listen to become familiar with the organization’s current business goals.

Part of this research should include meeting with business leaders to learn more about the organization’s business strategy. Determine the key players and stakeholders developing these goals and set up a time to interview them. This can be an informal conversation, but the goal is to get a deeper understanding of what the business hopes to achieve, both long- and short-term.

Once you arm yourself with this vital information, you must next identify how the business goals are measured. Often, you can trace these metrics back to KPIs. However, KPIs may not be updated if your organization has developed a new business strategy. Determining how the goal is measured is essential to ensure your learning initiatives generate a positive ROI.

Now that you have defined the metrics associated with the business goals and objectives, you should map out the behaviors learners will need to demonstrate to meet these measurements. This area of focus is centered around performance, which is where you will target your learning strategy. There are various ways to do this, and an excellent place to start is to work with talent acquisition to review the job descriptions of employees within the organization. Frequently, job descriptions will provide enough information for you to identify behaviors that translate to success on the job. You should also consult with managers, coaches and leaders to determine the necessary behaviors to achieve the business’s performance metrics.

Once you have identified this information, you will take this analysis further and correlate these behaviors to competencies. To do this, identify the skills necessary to perform the listed behaviors. Think of these as the knowledge needed to perform the actions that are pivotal to the success of the business goals. The table below illustrates a sample alignment from an impact map for a health insurance company. 

Once you have completed this process for all of your organization’s business goals, you will have the framework for your organizationwide learning strategy.
 
This process is critical to the success of your learning business. It will ensure your learning initiatives are strategic, generating an ROI for the organization and making your learning business vital to the organization’s health.

Conduct a stakeholder analysis

As a learning leader, a significant part of your role will be to work cross-functionally with organizational stakeholders to achieve a common goal. Part of this work includes gaining buy-in and approval from internal and external individuals who hold a vested interest in L&D at your organization. To do this, you must know whom you need to influence, keep informed or communicate with regularly. Determine who will be champions of your learning business, whom you need approval from to operationalize your strategies and who could potentially roadblock your projects.

There are many tools out there to assist you in this process. Using a tool like a stakeholder analysis power grid is a helpful way to identify your stakeholders and determine how closely you should work with them.

Since you are new to the organization, you should work with a team of people who can help you develop your grid. Ask your hiring manager who you should work with to do this vital task.

Keep in mind that it is natural for your stakeholders to shift throughout the year. People will take on new roles or projects within the company, new people will join the company or individuals will leave the organization altogether. Therefore, it is recommended that you reassess your analysis once every six to 12 months to ensure you have an accurate view of who your stakeholders are and how much influence they have.

Once you have mapped out your stakeholders and determined their level of influence, you can use this information to create a communication and collaboration plan to put into place when you begin to draft the learning strategy. 

Assess the maturity of the L&D organization

Your primary role as a learning leader will be to build or enhance the learning culture within your organization. You can determine the cultural gaps by evaluating the maturity of your learning business.

Analyzing the maturity of your learning organization will indicate if a clear vision for learning exists. It will inform you if the learning line of business is reactive or proactive. As a result, you will be able to determine the strength of the learning business, including how collaborative it is, who is responsible for learning results, and what goals there are for it. Through this evaluation, you will be able to determine how learning is measured within the organization.

Your analysis will give you a clear view of the work ahead of you. The higher your organization ranks on the scale, the more functional your learning business is. If you find that your learning business ranks lower on the scale, you likely have the opportunity to make your learning business less reactive and more proactive.

As you did with your impact mapping and stakeholder analysis power grid, you should work with a team to rank your learning business. Bring in perspectives from across the company to get an accurate picture of how others view the strengths and weaknesses of the learning business.

By analyzing your learning business, you can create a learning strategy that aligns with the business strategy, is supported by the right stakeholders and drives profits.

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For the past two decades, and more increasingly in the past three years, there has been a growing emphasis on the use of e-learning. Many e-learning advocates argue that not only is e-learning less expensive than bringing employees together in a classroom, but is also a more effective learning method than face-to-face instructor-led training. Some e-learning zealots have even claimed that e-learning is always the better solution to learning needs.

E-learning, in my view, certainly can be an effective learning method for some subjects and an effective adjunct to instructor-led training in many other instances. There is no doubt that e-learning can reduce costs for participant travel, for building and maintaining classroom facilities and for instructors. But there are many instances in which face-to-face instructor-led training is still the best solution to learning needs. In this article, I present 10 advantages for face-to-face instructor-led training that cannot be matched by any form of e-learning. 

Advantage No. 1: Focus

When employees attend an instructor-led training session in a classroom, they are better able to focus on what is being taught. Compared to participating in an e-learning session, synchronous or asynchronous, from their workplaces, they have fewer distractions in a classroom setting. People are not stopping by their office, their phone isn’t ringing, they are not getting signals from their PCs that they have a new mail message, etc. They are therefore more able to focus on the live training than if they are taking any type of e-learning in their offices. I have seen too many instances where an employee clicks through e-learning screens while “multi-tasking” and are accomplishing little if any learning, although the company’s learning management system may give them credit for completing the e-learning course.

E-learning advocates have recognized these problems and have attempted to resolve them by including frequent short quizzes or polls that require the participants to “pay attention,” but the fact remains that there are many more distractions for the learner in an e-learning environment than in an actual classroom.

Advantage No. 2: Confidentiality

A good classroom instructor will create a safe environment for learning and get the participants to agree that anything that is said or done in the classroom is confidential (“What’s done in the classroom stays in the classroom”). For example, in a management training class, a participant may want to discuss a specific problem he or she is having with a particular employee. In an asynchronous e-learning environment, this isn’t possible. In a synchronous e-learning environment, the manager may be leery of talking about a specific employee problem because they don’t know who else is participating in the class and is worried about the discussion becoming known by that employee.

Advantage No. 3: Practice

Some of the better e-learning programs I have seen provide opportunities for practice of new skills via simulation exercises, and some of these simulations are very good. However, they cannot duplicate having students in a classroom practice their newly acquired skills with the instructor and each other. 

For example: I have taught coaching skills to hundreds of managers around the world, and one lesson I present is to have participants bring a current or past problem into the classroom for which they feel they could benefit from coaching themselves. During the class, they are coached by other participants using what they are learning. When the participants see that they can be helped by coaching, they are much more likely to use the coaching techniques they are learning when they return to the job. This experience cannot be duplicated with e-learning.

Does this mean that e-learning cannot be used to teach coaching skills?  E-learning can present much of the material that I teach in the classroom — for example, how to ask good coaching questions, how to set the proper environment for coaching, etc. But, you cannot duplicate the practice of those skills in an e-learning environment.

Advantage No. 4: Adaptability

A good learning and development instructor can adapt their content to the specific needs of the participants in the classroom. For example, while a training program may focus on a full overview of a topic, members of the class may point out one specific area with which they continue to have problems. A good instructor will follow the lead of the class and help them find ways to solve that problem. With asynchronous e-learning, there is little adaptability to address this type of issue.

Advantage No. 5: Individual attention to participant needs

In a face-to-face instructor-led class, the trainer may notice that one or more participants is having specific problems, either in understanding some topic or in applying the learning to their particular situation. A good instructor will watch for signs of these problems and will offer to help those participants during breaks or after class. E-learning instructors, even using synchronous e-learning, can’t read these types of body-language signs.

Advantage No. 6: Establishing a dialogue

With asynchronous e-learning, there is no opportunity to ask questions of an instructor. Even with synchronous e-learning, participants may type a question for the instructor, but there is little opportunity to ask a follow-up question or to establish any type of dialogue with the instructor or with other participants. In many face-to-face classes, these types of dialogues, when they take place, can add a huge value to the participants by being able to dig deeply into a subject that interests the participants. 

Advantage No. 7: Learning from other participants

In every class or conference I have ever attended, I have found that at least half the value I receive comes not from the L&D content (no matter how good it may be), but from my informal interaction with other participants, during the class, at breaks, or over lunch, dinner, or drinks. While on-line discussion groups can offer such opportunities for informal interaction, they cannot match the experience of interacting face-to-face.

Advantage No. 8: Building personal relationships

It is virtually impossible to build a personal relationship with an instructor or other program participants using e-learning, but it happens all the time with face-to-face instructor-led training. These relationships can lead to sharing experiences, job offers, personal coaching and reinforcement as two or more people try out what they have learned on the job — and even to marriages (yes, I have a documented case).

Advantage No. 9: Breaking down silos

Getting people from different business units and functional groups together in a classroom can help to break down the silos that inhibit cross-unit dialog and cooperation. At one company, a management L&D program that brought people together from different business units around the globe resulted in two managers from different business units developing an idea for a new company business that resulted in a new business unit that yielded hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new revenue. That new business unit could not have been created by either of the business units alone. In many other cases, I have seen problems solved more quickly because a participant was able to get help from another person in a class instead of sending a request up through his business unit, across the top level to another unit, and then down that hierarchy to get the help that was needed.

Advantage No. 10: Building a personal network

This is an adjunct to the previous advantages of breaking down silos and building personal relationships. For example, in a leadership development program I designed and led, we brought together 36 high-potential mid-level managers from multiple business units, geographies and functional areas. At the end of the first session of this program, several participants remarked that even if there had been no educational content, just having the opportunity to build a network with the other participants would have been worth the company’s investment in bringing them together for several days.

There is no doubt that e-learning can be an effective training method for specific topics. But the e-learning zealots who argue that all classroom training can and should be replaced by e-learning are overlooking the many unique benefits of bringing together a group of employees in a classroom.

This article has presented 10 advantages that face-to-face instructor-led training has over e-learning in its many forms. I am certain that there are other advantages I have failed to mention in this article, and I would appreciate hearing your ideas on the subject.

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The times are challenging our paradigms. Uncertainty and disruption don’t look like they are going away any time soon.Previously well-established learning and development best practices are quickly becoming obsolete, and L&D professionals are being called to respond speedily to new and fluid situations. How do we effectively develop leaders in this context?

Paradigms that do not work anymore

Preparing leaders for future opportunities: The future is coming at a more rapid pace. Needs are being felt now.

Classroom-based leadership development: Sitting through class is a distraction from where meaningful learning is really happening — at work!

Mandated participation: Participation alone does not equal learning, and being required to attend learning programs can affect participant motivation negatively. Participation without motivation = time wasted.

What will work, then, you ask? 

Below are some alternative ways of thinking that I have tried and tested that could inspire you to see leadership development in a new way. 

From waiting in line to being in the front line 

One of the fastest ways a learner can learn new skills is to work with someone who is an expert on those skills. It doesn’t need to be a full-time job experience. It can be a task or a temporary assignment.

An organization’s top leaders are a fantastic resource for leadership skill development. Turn them into multipliers of learning by creating immediate opportunities for others to work with them (beyond their immediate team), observe them and experience their wisdom in action. 

Less training, more learning

This is a slogan I adopted from a very wise former colleague. By training, I mean classroom-based experiences. Classrooms — virtual or in-person — are poor reflections of reality. When we remove people from their real work environment to go through classroom-based training or skill-building, we profoundly impoverish their learning experience and limit what they can learn and how. Even high-quality, classroom-based experiences, facilitated by exceptionally skilled instructors, cannot capture 10 percent of the complexity participants will find in real work life.

Cut down on the classroom time and give people an abundance of opportunities to do something new and challenging — preferably under the supervision of someone who is a really good leader (see first paradigm shift above). 

From required to desired

Let’s admit what we all already know: Required participation doesn’t work for leadership development programs. People can fake their attendance in multiple ways if they don’t believe they need that program, or don’t understand — and accept — why they are being asked to attend. 

Or they can be really annoyed when they are forced to participate in a structured learning activity at a time when they are under tight deadlines or have top priority work at hand. I would be! 

Will learning take place if someone feels their time is being wasted, or is flustered because of work urgencies? Motivation to learn is an essential condition for learning. Allow your people to opt in and choose what they want to learn, and when.

The learning marketplace: A practical example

In a previous work engagement, the HR team and I heard from functional leaders that they sometimes had tasks they needed to get completed quickly, but they did not want to assign those tasks to their team members because they were already at full capacity with other priorities. Those tasks were not sufficiently large to justify the hiring of another employee or even a consultant. Sound familiar?

At about the same time, we heard from employees in the emerging leaders program that they would like to learn more about the various different departments of the organization. 

These two seemingly separate needs came together into a successful initiative that I would describe as a learning marketplace. Partnering with our L&D leader, we used the organization’s intranet to create a space for functional leaders to advertise tasks for which they needed help, including a brief description of the scope and number of hours estimated to complete it. 

Employees interested in a cross-functional experience could express interest for tasks they believed they could accomplish, assuming they would receive some guidance along the way. 

With the support from their direct supervisor, employees would then take on this temporary, developmental assignment. 

Leadership is often more effective when a leader has broader knowledge of how an organization works. The learning marketplace allowed emerging leaders (and others) to broaden their familiarity with the various departments of the organization, to try out something new and to use strengths that they may not have been aware they had — an all-around learning win. 

When L&D budgets are at risk

Uncertainty in the economy often comes with reductions in budgets and workforce. The shift in thinking described above and the learning marketplace example can be accomplished under limited or even reduced budgets.

The essential part of all of the above is you, the capable L&D professional and leader, willing to see what doesn’t work anymore, let go of the past and collaborate across the organization to create new and nimble ways to attend to the urgent needs of your organization.

Moving forward
If you are interested in exploring more of how to use experience in leadership development, I would recommend looking at “Experience-Driven Leader Development,” by Cynthia D. McCauley, at the Center for Creative Leadership. I am also a big fan of CCL’s 70-20-10 model of leadership development, which emphasizes the importance of combining experience in the acquisition of leadership skills (70 percent ), with learning from others (20 percent) and classroom-based instruction (10 percent). Best of luck.

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Sandra Humbles considers herself “a Yorkshire girl.” Born and raised in Northern England, she went to an all-girls grammar school, and was the first in her family to attend university. She developed a passion for science early on, and pursued a three-year degree in biomedical sciences with an extra year spent working in a public health lab.

When she graduated with a first-class honors degree in microbiology and virology, she envisioned a future spent in labs and health centers. And for a while, that’s what she did. In the early ‘90s, she worked for the Wellcome Trust, a health research nonprofit, which was a pioneer in the development of HIV diagnostic kits.

That work made her realize how helping individuals secure accurate diagnoses could slow the spread of the AIDS epidemic, preventing others from getting infected. “I was starting to have a multiplier effect in the work I did through the application of science,” she says.

But she knew she could do more. So, she started looking for opportunities to work with companies whose core value was putting patients and science first. “It was no surprise that led me to Johnson & Johnson,” Humbles says.

That was 32 years ago, and she’s been with the global pharmaceutical company ever since.

Science, sales and learning

Despite her scientific background, Humbles spent her career at J&J primarily on the business side. She worked in sales, marketing, strategic planning and provided strategic support to the company’s group chairs and general management. But throughout all her roles, her work ethic and focus were driven by her desire to make a difference for people and patients.

In 2010, she transitioned to the training function, running med tech courses for the sales organization, and providing surgeons and physicians with education about new products and procedures. In that role, she led major digital transformations, bringing artificial intelligence, augmented reality and virtual reality to surgeon education.

The merging of technology and science to enable education triggered her next career evolution. “I realized if we’re doing this with our surgeon population, why do we not use it to make a difference for all J&J employees?” she says.

That idea spurred the next decade of her work.

“Sandra is an extraordinary leader,” says Michael Ehret, head of global talent management for J&J. He appreciates how Humbles is drawn to complex organizational challenges like those J&J is facing as it focuses on the future. “She is excited to create an enterprise solution for learning and development across an almost 100 billion dollar, 135-year-old company,” he says.

He recalls that he and Humbles started imagining a highly digital, highly connected, personalized learning environment for J&J 10 years ago when they both worked together in the Somerville, New Jersey office. “At that time learning was decentralized, and Sandra helped drive organizational alignment toward that vision,” he says.

That journey has come to fruition. In September, Humbles was promoted to chief learning officer, where she is now launching a global, companywide digital transformation of the learning experience across J&J. And she’s using all of her scientific training and business experience to make it happen.

“Everything J&J does is grounded in science and what the patient needs,” Humbles says. That vision extends to how and what people learn. While salespeople, marketing teams and business leaders may be focused on bottom lines, revenue streams and sales results, they meet those goals by understanding the science, the disease journey and the patient experience tied to these products. Her goal as J&J’s CLO is to make sure all employees can communicate with these customers in terms that are relevant and meaningful to their needs.

“One of the reasons I moved into this position is that I have that business lens, but I never forget that the customer is the surgeon, the patient, and the people on the front lines,” Humbles says.

A digital future

Humbles has already had a major impact on the entire L&D organization, rethinking how the learning organization functions, what training is delivered, what content is available and how employees find what they need to support current and future career needs.

“Sandra is a dream-maker,” Ehret says. “She can be very strategic, but she has the ability to translate that strategy into actions and activities that bring it to life.”

In her first year as CLO, she reformed the L&D organization into a centralized operation, bringing together leaders from each department to create a unified learning environment led by the J&J Learn leadership team. “We wanted a connected ecosystem with the learning leaders who sit in the business to partner with the learning leaders on my team,” she says.

Once the learning leaders were aligned, they focused on a single challenge: Creating a learning platform that would be accessible to everybody, support development of identified skills necessary for key roles and create content for employees at every stage in those career paths, from entry level through executives.

“Sandra did a great job pulling those teams together and getting everybody on the same page about what we have to build,” says Gordon Curphy, managing partner at Curphy Leadership Solutions, who is working closely with Humbles on this transformation.

Along with learning leaders, Humbles partners with HR leaders focused on employee experience, med tech teams who inform the content and IT experts who ensure the new digital learning environment will be accessible, intuitive and embedded in the flow of work. “Having these groups working together, we can really imagine what the future state could be,” she says.

Through these collaborations Humbles team developed a strategic roadmap for enterprise training, with programs designed to meet the unique needs of every department. “It ensures that all learning experiences and content is exactly what (employees) need to do their jobs,” she says.

These efforts culminated in the launch of the new enterprise and learning capability driven by the centralized learning organization.

The new learning environment is built around five key practice areas: Leadership, digital skills, diversity, equity and inclusion, wellbeing and professional skills.

The five areas set the foundation for the J&J learning landscape, and inform content decisions within the learning technology ecosystem, including what training is created or curated.

Sprint to the end

The digital transformation will take several years to complete, but Humbles’ team is following an agile approach, rolling out features over time as a way to deliver immediate value that is constantly evolving.

“We are operating like a software organization,” Curphy says. Content developers and subject matter experts deliver new content and updates in sprints that are uploaded in batches each quarter. Then, they decide as a group which batch of content to focus on for the next quarter.

The initial roll out, which began in August, 2022, is built around an enterprise operating model and the J&J Learn Technology Ecosystem.  The operating model captures insights from learning leaders across the company, which are then aligned with business requirements and the L&D department’s technology ecosystem. “We’re putting in place a competency model based on necessary skills so that we can help our learning community upskill their people for today and tomorrow,” she says.

Curphy credits Humbles’ leadership style for the success of the project to date. “She is clear about what needs to be delivered and holds people accountable for making sure these things happen,” he says. “It has been really powerful because a lot of folks didn’t have this empowerment in the past.”

It’s an interesting approach in a global pharma company, which has to simultaneously push the boundaries of scientific innovation within a highly regulated environment. “Safety and health are huge parts of the credo, which makes for a risk averse culture,” Curphy notes. “That also plays out in the support functions which can make it difficult for people to try new things.”

In a company of this size and industry, leaders can often get tangled in red tape, losing months waiting for approvals and permission. But Humbles is a savvy navigator, and she has the confidence and authority to make things happen.

When someone on her team faces an obstacle, she asks them to find a solution, and then gives them the freedom and resources to do it. She holds them accountable for the results, checking in periodically to be sure things are on track. “It was hugely liberating,” Curphy says. “The vast majority responded very positively to this kind of a culture.”

A new talent marketplace

That empowerment will soon extend to learners, thanks to the intuitive learning platform and navigation. Once complete, the platform will allow learners to define the skills and interests they have today, their career aspirations and what content they can access to fill personal or professional gaps. Artificial intelligence tools will use that information to guide them to content and help them build a plan for their future.

Humbles likens it to the Netflix of learning. “If someone wants to skill up in a particular area, they’re getting channels on learning journeys that are completely connected,” she says. “It puts the learner at the center.”

The platform will also offer access to a talent marketplace where employees can find projects, gigs and mentors to help them hone their skills. Users will be able to tell the system what kind of experience they want — or what type of employee they are looking for to take on a project — and the platform will provide a match within 48 hours.

And when an employee finishes all of the learning experiences and reflections in a specific category, the career navigation tools will help them identify new job possibilities and impending vacancies using the skills ontology, so they get to opportunities that match their aspirations.

Humbles is currently working with learning leaders across the company to curate and refine content libraries to create learning journeys for every employee using the J&J Global Service Center to hone design and deployment.

“Our strategy and innovation practice areas are setting the standards and developing content for AI, then the global service center ensures effectiveness, efficiency and experience,” she says.

While Humbles may have built a career as a learning leader, the science and innovation coming out of J&J is what truly inspires her. “Knowing that we make a difference in patients’ lives every single day is what has kept me at J&J for 32 years,” she says. “It’s a company that really cares.”

All photos by Sam Rayward.

Photos by Nids Dahiya

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Senior leadership and HR professionals often feel they must maintain a serious demeanor at all times to be seen as credible in their roles. However, research has found that humor plays a strong role in not only connecting with employees, but also building trust, resilience and strengthening workplace relationships over time. Bridging humor and learning can make for a memorable experience that helps employees better retain the information they are exposed to during learning and development sessions and experiences. 

Humor has long played a role in how I have connected with colleagues at all levels, but I wasn’t aware of the researched benefits of humor at work until I first read “Humor, Seriously: Why Humor is a Secret Weapon in Business and Life” by Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas. Their in-depth research around the benefits of humor and levity at work confirmed what I had long observed unofficially: Humor bridges formal and informal power structures and working relationships to create common ground, strengthen connections with colleagues, and helps those unafraid of bringing levity into the workplace be seen as stronger and more confident, credible leaders in the organization. 

For L&D professionals, immense amounts of time are spent discussing the most innovative learning technologies, the best learning management systems and delivery methods, and other technical capabilities. However, while these tools and approaches are critical for the successful delivery of L&D, if the participants are not engaged with the content or connecting with the facilitator, they may be less likely to retain (and thus, use) the skills they are developing or growing. 

Creating instant connection through an opening story or anecdote that brings out some laughter from the beginning is an easy implementation that can have an incredible lasting impact. Whenever I am presenting to an audience, the first thing I do is make sure they know this is a place they can laugh – we don’t need to shy away from levity in the space we are in. On the contrary, not only should we embrace it, we should actively work to include it.

Convincing employees and leadership to dedicate time and resources to L&D activities can be an uphill battle. If employees and leaders are leaving these sessions and not feeling connected to the content in a positive manner, we know they are likely less inclined to retain and utilize the learnings in a tangible way that demonstrates a significant ROI for building and facilitating the sessions. 

Last year, Taneasha White wrote about the influence humor can have on the retention of new information; she noted that when information is presented with humor, not only are participants more likely to connect with and understand the information, they are also more likely to retain and share the information with others.

As you build your next learning sessions, consider implementing an icebreaker that brings some levity in a non-traditional way. Instead of the tried-and-true ice breakers such as “two truths and a lie” or “what would your superpower be?,” consider having participants share their idea of a hilarious email sign off, such as “Heavily Caffeinated, Ashley.” Instead of the anticipated “Sincerely,” or “Warm Regards.” 

In one training session we all created our HR taglines like the reality Housewives shows. The winner? “In HR, we don’t just know the tea; we serve it piping hot!” Cheesy? Yes. Memorable session? Absolutely. This type of approach with levity allows people to share pieces of their true personalities where they are simultaneously encouraged to have some fun, get to better know those around them and create an instant connection. 

As you progress through learning activities, make sure you are creating a space that invites and rewards regular use of humor and levity. Humor shouldn’t feel forced, or it will not resonate with participants and could have the opposite intended effects when it comes to connection building or retention of learning. Use humor at natural moments to build trust and credibility with participants and the information you present. Humor doesn’t always have to be cracking jokes – smiling, making participants feel comfortable embracing humor when moments of levity arrive, laughing at others’ (appropriate) jokes – all of these bring comfort to the learning space. 

Let’s be honest, it is instantly more memorable for most of us when we have fun during a training session. I don’t know a colleague who wants to spend an hour, or multiple sessions, in an environment where they feel they must put on their “super serious professional face” for the entire time, or that if they crack a smile they will be seen as not taking the training material seriously.

I witnessed this firsthand in a recent DEI training I conducted with a former colleague – participants knew this was a serious topic, with significant impact potential at their organizations. Yes, DEI training is and should be taken seriously and is incredibly important. However, feeling like you can’t go in and have some fun with even the most serious topics is where L&D can steer the ship into places you’d rather not venture. 

Which session would you be more likely to attend – “DEI: Impact of Unconscious Bias” or “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Show me Where my Bias Falls?” Even the titles of those two sessions show a marked difference in the facilitator’s approach to learning journeys for participants, but also demonstrates you don’t have to compromise levity to increase retention, engagement and the sharing of learning. 

A positive, enjoyable learning experience that includes humor can make participants more likely to encourage colleagues and others to attend L&D sessions. Start with small steps to integrate levity into your L&D approach. Make sure to track results of engagement with and retention of the material before and after you make a conscious effort to implement humor in your work. 

Are participants responding more favorably overall? Are they more likely to share the information learned with others or apply it day-to-day? What was the key moment they felt engaged with the session and the facilitator? You may be surprised how much a simple light-hearted moment can have a long-lasting impact in your organization.

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The trending subject of quiet quitting certainly received its share of media coverage this summer. My colleagues and I sensed there was something very familiar about it, and quickly realized it was a new term for the topic of a live streaming event our company hosted in 2012 called “Quit and Stayed.”

We described the problem as workers being “checked out”— doing the bare minimum to collect a paycheck and unwilling to use their discretionary energy for the benefit of the organization. The event was well attended by more than 5,000 registered viewers from 70 countries. Evidently, people found the topic as interesting ten years ago as they do today.

There are two schools of thought on why quiet quitting has once again become a widespread problem. Some folks blame the workers themselves for not going above and beyond what’s required. They say they are clearly lazy, they lack ambition and termination is the only solution. But others (like me) see it as a problem with leadership. We believe if leaders were more in tune with the needs of their team members and more focused on meeting those needs, quiet quitting would be far less common.

Here are two sobering numbers from Gallup research:

• 48 percent of American workers are either keeping their eye out for job opportunities or actively job searching. 
• 51 percent of people who had voluntarily left their job said that in the three months prior to their exit, no leader — including their own — had spoken with them about their job satisfaction or their future with the company. 

There’s no doubt in my mind that these two statistics are intertwined. The sad — but also encouraging — fact is that a great number of these people would have stayed with their organization if it had a relatively simple management strategy in place for employee engagement and retention: regular one-on-one meetings that included stay interviews.

1-to-1 is a powerful ratio

One-on-one conversations, for just 15 to 30 minutes every week or two, are powerful in their simplicity: They bring two people together so they can get to know each other as human beings. There’s really nothing more important than sitting and having a conversation with each person on your team. You are taking time to focus on that individual and to listen so they know they are being heard. Over time, these check-in conversations lead to higher levels of trust, more job satisfaction and genuine, sometimes lifelong, relationships between manager and direct report. 

When I’m talking to a person on my team, I’ll usually ask them if there is anything I can do for them. They know I really mean it, and they seem to appreciate the question and respond well to it. This can often spark a comment about work or a question that relates to how they feel about their job, which can naturally turn the conversation to other topics that might be brought up as part of a stay interview. 

Here’s an example: Let’s say your direct report drops a hint during a one-on-one meeting that things aren’t going as well with their job as they would like, and they are getting frustrated. Ask them what they need to be happier in their role, what could keep them with the company and what might cause them to leave. Listen carefully and take notes if necessary. Speak frankly with the person about how valuable they are to you, to the team and to the organization. Let them know you don’t want to lose them — it’s possible that something you say right now could be the reason the person decides to stay with the organization. Discuss next steps and schedule a follow-up meeting. 

In their book, “Hello Stay Interviews, Goodbye Talent Loss: A Manager’s Playbook,” Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans share this cautionary message: “If you’re not yet holding stay interviews, you are guessing at what your talented people really want — from you, from the team, from their work. You could be guessing wrong. Stay interviews are just one of many strategies in a successful manager’s playbook. But they are absolutely foundational to engaging, motivating, recognizing and retaining talent.”

Remember: A common answer to the question “Why are you leaving?” in exit interviews is: “Nobody asked me to stay.” If people don’t know that you value their contributions and want them to stay with the organization, they’ll assume you won’t care if they leave. Make sure your people know how much you appreciate and value them. You don’t want a great team member to check out before you have taken the time to check in.

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Have you upgraded from offering just learning events? Let’s hope so, because we all know that one-and-done training doesn’t work. Our brains need learning spaced over time and in the moment of need. 

Perhaps you now offer blended learning, learning journeys or learning experiences. Unfortunately, you’re still behind the times, and likely making less impact than you’re hoping for. To deliver more value for the business and your learners, take modernizing one step further. Shift your learning offerings from training to learning clusters.

A learning cluster is a group of learning assets that target on-the-job behavior change for a specific business need. Learning assets are learning offerings that can be as big as a multi-week class, or as small as a two-minute video or interactive PDF, and used at the moment of learning need.

Degreed’s 2021 research report, “How the Workplace Learns,” revealed that employees use formal learning about once a quarter. Yet Degreed also reports that employees are learning every month, week and sometimes, everyday. If our learning and development offerings are used so irregularly, we lack impact on the job and L&D becomes irrelevant. If learners need to learn more often, how can L&D apply our learning expertise to guide and support these learners?

A growing number of L&D professionals and organizations are shifting to learning clusters as their primary deliverable, instead of only delivering formal training.

L&D’s modern deliverable

By definition, formal training or learning programs have a start and end, and are typically prescriptive learning. Alternatively, learning clusters are groups of learning assets that are presented to people to help them achieve a goal or do their job better.

Learning clusters are differentiated from typical training offerings because clusters:

• Focus on changing specific workplace behaviors that benefit the business, often in a measurable way. 
• Put employees in control, with L&D’s offerings as their go-to support system. Employees choose which learning assets to use (or not use), with very limited required training or training paths, with “performance” as the primary requirement or driver.
• Are grouped to be easily found, and cover three learning touchpoints: social, formal and immediate.
• Are designed to meet the learning needs of key learner personas, who have diverse learning needs, and who are most likely to make a difference for the business when they change their on-the-job behavior through learning.
• Address the five moments of learning need: apply, change, solve, new, more.
• Provide L&D with a strategy for choosing (or not choosing) new technologies from among the thousands of new offerings. 

Think about it: When you offer blended learning, a learning journey or a learning experience, are you still offering a single curriculum or asset? And, if you already offer multiple assets, are you expecting learners to follow a sequence or come to your platform to find the assets? If you answered yes, learning cluster design can take you to a higher level of impact. 

As you move to learning clusters, you will offer multiple assets, when, where and how learners most want and need them. And, it’s up to learners to decide which assets to use, and when. After all, they are the ones learning and applying their learning on-the-job.

Easier to deliver

Learning clusters are typically easier to design because learning assets do not contain every crumb of content. Assets are created in an agile fashion over time, so deployment begins sooner. Compare that to typical training programs that need to be fully designed and piloted before deployment. In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing modern workplace, L&D rarely has that kind of time. Learning clusters are the modern agile L&D approach.

An example speaks a thousand words

Here is an example based on a real-life learning cluster design:

The situation: Last year, new-hire retention improved after a peer-coaching program was put in place for new-hires. Not all teams used the peer-coaching approach, and success varied by coach. After research uncovered which coaching practices consistently had a positive impact on retention, L&D recommended the program be rolled out companywide with upskilling for peer-coaches. The L&D team delivered a learning cluster to achieve the upskilling.

Change: The L&D team established an SPO as part of the Change Action. The final version of the SPO read like this:

By expanding the new-hire peer-coaching program and by upskilling coaches, the business will benefit from a 15 percent reduction in turnover within the next year. Desired behavior changes that we expect to see on the job include:

• A 90 percent completion rate of the onboarding checklist by both peer-coach and new-hire. 
• Weekly meetings for the pairs on their calendars for the first two months. 
• More peer-coach and new-hire pairs are visible in the office. 

Learn: Through interviews with stakeholders and potential peer coaches, the L&D team learned more about their learners and identified three learner personas whose upskilling could make a big difference on the results. Each persona had significantly different learning needs: 

Know-it-all Noel: Seasoned peer coach who believes he’s effective now, but skips key steps. 

No-time Tam: Wants to be a peer coach, but lacks skills and worries about lack of time.

Development Dan: Likes to develop himself and others, good mentor, prefers face-to-face learning.

Upgrade: Last year, in a two-hour face-to-face class, peer-coach volunteers learned how the program worked. Now, the class was quickly upgraded for the next round of hiring. To modernize it, L&D did things like chunking it into a shorter class with heavy use of hyperlinks to job aids and resources.

Surround: Learning assets were selected to target each learner persona’s needs with at least one asset at each learning touchpoint. Peer-coaches choose what they need, when they need it, at a new “Peer-Coaching” webpage. One e-learning course is required.

L&D’s learning cluster design is visualized below, with a “Learning Cluster Venn Diagram” and a summary table of assets and their targets.

Track: Because measures were sorted out during the Change Action, it was clear what the goals were, how to get the data and who wanted to see which reports and at what frequency. If anything was off-target, L&D could quickly get things back on track without waiting for end-of-quarter reports. The Annual “Share Our Success Stories” lunchroom posters added the human stories that backed up the numbers reports. 

Key differences between modern learning clusters and training

Learning clusters go beyond one-and-done. Design begins with the end in mind by identifying the link between learners’ on-the-job behavior and what the business wants to achieve. Notice in the example that assets address not only first-time peer coaches needs, but also learning needs when applying the skill and when needing additional learning or refreshers. 

Learning clusters focus on learner needs by going beyond learner demographics. Instead, we seek to understand learner personas’ unique learning needs so we can better support them. Notice in the example that there are assets for every learner persona, but each asset isn’t one-size-fits-all, covering all personas. We can break away from our classrooms and, instead, place learning assets where the learner is likely to be, when that moment of learning need strikes. This deep understanding helps L&D choose the right technology, and perhaps justify new technologies to reach learners at their learning need moments. The idea is to help people do something on the job, rather than just learn something.

Learning clusters are designed with a holistic view to achieve behavior change. Our brains need spaced learning and in smaller chunks, aimed at our learning needs. Notice in the example, we imply that different assets have different content, and though there may be an asset that tries to “cover it all”—  with this approach, designers aren’t forced to cram everything into one asset. Nor are learners required to try to learn things they already know. With this approach, we’re more likely to deliver business results and behavior change, than if we depend on a single training, no matter how well designed it might be. 

Perspective from LCD practitioners

There’s a growing group of LCD model practitioners. These practitioners tend to fall into the following categories. Which group might you fall into?

• It’s breakthrough thinking. These practitioners are reorganizing their L&D staff to deliver learning cluster offerings. The oft-mentioned breakthroughs are, first, using learning clusters to gain authority beyond the classroom, and second adopting a new paradigm that L&D’s goal is to achieve OTJ behavior change instead of achieving learning alone.
• It’s the next step in our modernization journey. Others find that the LCD model moves them further along the path to modernization by providing them the much needed thinking and process to go beyond blended learning, e-learning, VILT and videos. It helps by tweaking their use of learner personas, focusing more clearly on on-the-job change or discovering new ways to measure learning impact.
•  We needed this codification. Some LCD practitioners say that, intuitively, they were already doing things that are built into the Learning Cluster Design model, but didn’t have a name or consistent process for it. The LCD model codifies their process, making it more repeatable and helps them bring team members on board with these concepts. They also appreciate the new LCD language, which works when used with stakeholders to gain more support, a stronger reputation and improved relationships.

The next question is: Will you take the plunge and modernize by offering learning clusters instead of simple training? What difference do you see between learning cluster design and what you do today, that can help you and your organization?

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