3 Ways to Re-Energize Corporate Learners

Many (if not most) of today’s corporate learners are suffering from too much of a good thing – an excess of available learning opportunities. Few corporations provide dedicated time for team members to complete learning related activities. Yet all learners, especially new hires or those changing roles, need to master basic job knowledge and core skills. Many require additional technical or product training or certification. Learners in departments such HR or Sales, or those on a leadership track, have their own specialized program requirements, including intensive soft-skills courses. Add corporate systems, process, culture, and compliance – and what one colleague calls “flavor of the day” initiatives – and it’s no wonder many corporate team members complain of learning overload.

Filter Failure & Lack of Context

But it’s not the volume of courses that creates a problem as much as how we serve them up to our learners. Referring to the flood of data available via the Internet, New York University new-media professor Clay Shirky famously stated, “It’s not information overload. It’s filter failure .” Similarly, mature learning organizations may offer hundreds of course titles. In order to avoid distraction and make the best use of limited time for personal enrichment, learners also need good filters that direct them only to courses that matter to them personally.

At the same time, learners require context – the larger perspective that shows how a particular learning opportunity fits into their individual path to success. Without that big picture view, it’s more difficult for a learner to see how all the courses in a curriculum build on each other, or understand how to apply course subject matter to their particular role.

The typical corporate LMS often fails on both ends of the equation, doing a poor job of either granular filtering or providing a larger context for learning. One colleague went so far as to post on Twitter that he felt the term “Learning Management System” is a misnomer; in cataloging and tracking completion of individual learning titles, an LMS really functions more as a course – not learning – management system. Filter failure and lack of context leave team members vulnerable to expending precious time on learning opportunities that don’t provide much personal return. Learners who jump from course to course without seeing a reward quickly burn out; these are the learners most likely to experience learning overload, and consequently become reluctant to sign up for any new learning opportunity.

Re-energizing Strategies

As a corporate learning professional, there are steps you can take to help overloaded learners break through the clutter and get back on track. Here are three places to start:

1. Clean house. Shirky explains that the publishing industry evolved as the reading public came to rely on editorial professionals to manually filter thousands of manuscripts, then print and promote only those that are worthy of our time and attention. In the same way, our learners rely on us to play the role of the editor in previewing all available courses and presenting to them only the most valuable learning opportunities.

With limited time for learning, less is truly more. Evaluate each course in your catalog, taking a “No Sacred Cows” approach. Is the course still relevant, or has it expired its proverbial “use by” date? Is time spent with the course still providing appropriate value to learners and ROI to the organization? Could multiple courses be condensed and combined?

Remember that even after course development costs have been recouped there is a cost to the organization in keeping a course around. Beyond obvious costs in maintenance and support, each “post-dated” course:

• Misappropriates Mindshare – taking focus away from more beneficial learning opportunities
• Creates Clutter & Confusion –making it more difficult for learners to find the most relevant courses
• Manufactures Fatigue – burning limited learning time that could provide greater ROI to the learner and your organization

Filtering the entire course catalog is your first step in directing team members to the right learning opportunities – not just courses that seem interesting, but those your learners really need to achieve their career (and your organizational performance) goals.

2. Clarify curricula. Your learners also count on you to provide a clear path through the recommended and required courses in your curriculum. They want to know, “Where do I start and how do I prioritize? What’s in it for me? Which courses promise me the greatest return on the time I am being asked to invest?” Map the courses in your catalog to specific roles and functions within the organization, at least at a cursory level. Then find a way to show team members how completing each learning opportunity gets them closer to a larger personal goal. Be clear and specific; save the heavy thinking for the coursework. Once you have completed your mapping, a department- or role-specific learning portal can be a valuable tool for guiding learners down the right curriculum path. 

3. Coach. Colleges assign academic advisors to help students set learning goals and monitor their progress. Think of ways to carry a similar personalized learning support model into your organization. If you don’t have an existing coaching program, here are a few ways to get started:

• Gather examples of team members willing to share positive corporate learning experiences. Be sure to capture specific examples of both how they used their learning on the job and the path they took over time to achieve their goals. Publish and distribute email and/or podcast success stories to inspire other learners.
• Recruit volunteer coaches; consider offering virtual “office hours” when they are available to answer questions and provide guidance.
• Launch a community of practice as a place for learners to share their own stories and coach each other toward meeting mutual learning goals.

Start small; seek help from above

If you are part of a large company, you obviously won’t be able to revamp the entire learning organization single-handedly. Look for low hanging fruit, tackling learning for just one department or job function as a pilot. Seek support from departmental sponsors. Educate management on how filtering and curriculum mapping efforts reduce learning overload and positively impact corporate performance. See if they will help carry the message from the top down of the new, streamlined learning focus. This may be your most difficult challenge of all, but one that can pay the greatest dividend in motivating team members with a renewed, positive energy and excitement around corporate learning.

Tagged: clay shirky, coaching, context, corporate learning, curricula, curriculum, energize learners, energize learning, filter failure, information overload, lms, ROI, shirky, Social Learning, some, training

Posted in: Thought Leadership