Here are some valuable ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning.
* * *
According to
Forward-thinking organizations are increasingly offering employees at all levels, across the enterprise, the opportunity to learn at work.
This helps their workforce build the portfolio of knowledge and skills needed to thrive in today’s fast-paced and complex environment. These learning opportunities are available on demand, meeting learners in the moment, enabling them to rapidly acquire new skills that they can apply to their own work, and that support their organization’s strategy, needs, and culture. The best of these learning opportunities acknowledge the time-pressures that today’s learners are experiencing, without disrupting their everyday work life. In a recent post, my colleague Jeff DeSmet highlighted a number of scenarios where organizations we partner with are providing quick and easily consumed learning opportunities that can be deployed at scale, to flexibly address their organization’s learning needs.
Learning at speed and scale happens collectively, but within each individual’s own time, pace, and space; to work effectively, special attention must be given to motivation and engagement. Focusing on relevance as well as the learning experience are essential to achieving impact at scale.
How to motivate your learners – and keep them engaged
Learning at work is motivated by purpose. Linking learning to development plans, professional goals and career aspirations provides each learner with a path to achieving a meaningful goal and personalizes learning at scale. Finding ways to hook learning into your performance management processes demonstrates its significance to individual learners and to the organization. That combination gives meaning and relevance to learning and shouldn’t be overlooked as a motivator.
Designing learning for speed isn’t about reducing learning, it’s about creating learning opportunities that are right-sized. This means providing content that will fit into the time an individual has allocated for learning in their already jam-packed schedule. With ten minutes after lunch earmarked for learning, a learner might view a three-minute video on a topic that’s important to them, and then spend the remainder of their time reflecting on what they’ve just watched – and on how they can apply it. And, right-sized doesn’t have to mean all content is three-minute bite-sized. Right-sized is about respecting learners’ available time and providing the right amount of content to get the job done. A learner might have time to read a longer article that takes a deeper dive into a topic that’s piqued their interest, so be sure to vary the content length.
Right-sized content matters. So does right-shaped content – meaning the content is available in a range of formats that work for all different learning styles and can spark broad engagement with variety. A long-form article may be perfectly suited to one learner, but a turn-off for other colleagues who prefer listening to a podcast, viewing a video, or reading a shorter “how-to” article. Having content that’s right-sized and right-shaped will engage all learners and motivate them to stick with their learning.
Peer interaction when learning is individualized and self-paced
Peer interaction is critical to learning, and that holds true even when learning is individualized and largely self-paced. Peer interaction is easily built into cohort-based learning, but it can also be embedded when learners are acquiring new skills and knowledge on their own schedules. You can encourage your learners to connect with their peers using internal channels (like Teams or Slack) where they can compare notes, ask for advice, bounce ideas off each other, and encourage each other to try new ways of working. You can also formally set up learning pairs or small groups to connect with and learn from each other or collaborate on a project. Individualized and self-paced learning doesn’t have to mean learning alone.
Learning at speed and scale
Deploying learning at speed and scale will help your organization build the skilled and knowledgeable workforce today’s environment demands. The key is to pair self-directed learning with motivators and support structures that encourage follow-through and keep learners engaged.
What are you doing to engage your learners?
* * *
Deanna Foster is director, Global Design Center of Excellence, at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at Deanna.foster@harvardbusiness.org.