The starting points for any instructional designer or Learning & Development manager creating a learning plan or curriculum are the target audience and the learning objectives. Agreed, right?
Yet there is another step, more specifically a question, that is all too often skipped: “what are the business objectives?” This is where the really essential problems and challenges of your organization can be deduced from. As a Learning & Development manager, you therefore need to take a proper look at them.
Align your learning objectives with your business objectives
Tom, learning & development manager at AllCorp, was told by a learning partner that they had created some very attractive e-learning courses, including one on ‘productivity’. Tom is interested.
Management at AllCorp already noted that productivity within certain departments is not optimal. According to Management, too many hours are devoted to tasks that should be mere routine for employees. Tom gets a bargain offer from his learning partner and decides to take his partner up on it quickly.
Good thing Tom doesn’t choose the e-learnings simply because they are attractive. He thinks about the business goals of his organization. Increasing productivity is apparently one of them. However, to achieve real business impact, something more is required.
A central L&D question: what really plagues the business?
Two weeks later, AllCorp distributes the new e-learning course within the organization. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the desired effect is completely absent. Tom, of course, wonders why…
The e-learning that AllCorp purchased was responding to a generic business problem: productivity. What AllCorp and Tom did not do before the purchase was to analyze that problem more thoroughly and tailor the learning materials accordingly.
The focus of the purchased e-learning was on time management. In reality, that only really benefited a few employees. In fact, the main reason for the lack of productivity that AllCorp copes with is: poor communication.
Since COVID-19, remote working has become more and more common at AllCorp. Everyone still does their share of the tasks properly. What they do much worse, however, is pass the proverbial ‘baton’ afterwards. One employee communicates (as requested by the team manager) via the Microsoft Teams channel, the second does not yet feel completely comfortable on Microsoft Teams and prefers to communicate via email, a third uses the Microsoft Teams channel but is not concise enough in his messages… Yet someone else places his work on the server and assumes a little too easily that his colleague will take a look there in time to pick it up. And so on. It is therefore essential to uncover the fundamental problem and to start looking for learning solutions from there.
Look for modular learning solutions
As said, the fundamental problem of the business, the lack of productivity, is rooted in a more specific problem: inadequate communication. However, even that problem, turns out to have multiple facets. Not every communication problem fits under the same heading. Different employees have different working points.
AllCorp employee 1 communicates as requested by the manager.
AllCorp employee 2 lacks tool knowledge.
AllCorp employee 3 does not communicate clearly and concisely enough.
AllCorp employee 4 simply forgets to communicate.
AllCorp employee 5 may have several work points.
The modern workplace is evolving faster than ever. Problems and challenges are only becoming more multidimensional. Learning & Development can rarely address these with one straightforward course
Use a flexible learning platform
So take on learning in your organization structurally and provide modular learning paths that can be personalized for different target groups. This is perfectly possible with a flexible learning platform (LMS). At Neo Learning, we structurally support numerous large organizations with the Totara LMS. In terms of content, we support Learning & Development managers with microlearnings and complete learning campaigns. We do this thanks to the versatile expertise within our team of Instructional Designers, Copywriters, Graphic Designers and Developers. Wondering what we can do for you? Feel free to contact us.
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