tl2 -- trends in learning within organizations (2017-1102) · learning and video content to the...

Trends in Learning Within Organizations © 2017 St. Charles Consulting Group All rights reserved. 1

Trends in Learning Within Organizations

Introduction This whitepaper discusses the key trends impacting learning within organizations today. When viewed in the broader context of the key trends impacting today’s work and workers, the trends discussed in this whitepaper are having seismic impacts on learning within organizations, and are presenting organizational learning and development leaders with many challenges both today and throughout the coming years.

The Trends Impacting Learning Within Organizations Trend 1: Workers expect learning to be readily available and accessible to them in a variety of modalities, as opposed to just instructor-led classroom training or even just e-learning. In response, workers are demanding – and organizations are investing in – an increasingly diverse set of training modality options. Driven in part by larger macroeconomic and demographic trends – especially the increasing number of Millennials in the workforce – workers are increasingly seeking more available, accessible, and engaging forms of training, regardless of the modality. Figure 1 shows how investments in various training modalities have changed over the last several years.


Figure 1.1 The Shifting Investments in Training Modalities

Workers are increasingly seeking “bite-size,” just-in-time learning content. Karl Kapp, Professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University, attributes the growing trend of micro-learning and video content to the ability to stream video learning content easily and quickly to learners, the availability of text messaging, and the research behind how learners can better absorb learning when it is delivered in small bits at a time. Small snippets of mobile learning material allow workers to build knowledge and learn skills by dedicating just a few minutes at a time. Workers can participate in training during a bus or train ride on the way to or from work. They can also squeeze learning into a few minutes at home without disrupting their schedules.2

In addition to the duration and immediate accessibility of the learning content, workers increasingly seek gaming environments in which to experience and participate in learning. Gamification’s appeal to computer-savvy Millennials is fueling this. Millennials have grown up playing computer and video games, and they gravitate towards experiences with game-like elements. Game-based learning also reflects the increased role of learners in controlling their own learning experiences.3 Deloitte experience is typical. By using gamification principles, Deloitte has seen use of its Deloitte Leadership Academy (DLA) increase. Participants, who are spending increased amounts of time on the site and completing programs in increasing numbers, show almost addictive behavior. Since the integration of gamification, there has been a 37 percent increase in the number of users returning to the DLA site each week.4

Although workers seek more micro- and just-in-time learning, they somewhat paradoxically continue to value more in-depth experiential learning. Experiential learning has proven itself over time to be the most effective means to acquire skills. When it comes to the systematic acquisition of the knowledge and skills needed to support business transformations, success depends on a combination of intellectual comprehension and hands-on experience.5 Experiential learning methodology uses critical thinking, problem solving and decision making to deliver a training module.6 Simulations use real-life scenarios that depict several challenges, which a participant will eventually face after the course. It is only natural that mistakes happen during the course of learning, and using simulations allows learners to have fun, try new things, and learn in a safe and controlled environment. The high focus on collaboration and learning from each other further benefits the participant because it increases engagement. On the other hand, since the participant is immediately involved in the problem-solving activity or event, the level of ownership of the outcome is high.7 To address business needs and satisfy the desire for lifelong development and more rapid advancement, many formal leadership programs are being supplemented with developmental assignments, external experiences, stretch projects, and


exposure to internal and external leaders. The percentage of organizations with strong experiential programs rose from 47 percent in 2015 to 64 percent in 2017.8

While all of this is occurring, organizations are simultaneously implementing both an increasing number of technology-supported learning events and an increasing number of face-to-face learning events. Despite the sense that “more technology is better,” certain larger organizations are investing in new physical training campuses. KPMG recently announced that it is investing $430 million to develop a 54-acre global training and conference center in Lake Nona, Florida, and plans to send 50,000 professionals to this campus every year.9 Unconfirmed rumors suggest that Deloitte is considering developing a second US-based training campus similar to its Dallas-based Deloitte University.

Trend 2: Because of the increasing volume of information and data in the world, and the increasing modalities and devices through which workers expect to receive their training, the systems and platforms through which learning is made available to workers face increasing challenges. Workers expect learning to be readily available and accessible through a myriad of ever-changing platforms and devices. Learning Management Systems (LMSs) are evolving radically to satisfy these expectations. In addition, learning content is experiencing a shortened useful life. As organizations build for the future, continuous learning is critical for success. For today’s digital organizations, the new rules call for an L&D team that can deliver learning that is always on and always available over a range of mobile platforms.10 Workers are increasingly expecting mobile-enabled and device-agnostic learning experiences. Given the speed of business today — and with information overload impacting nearly every professional pursuit — workers require information and knowledge just when they need it, in their desired format, and on the mobile platform of their choice.11 Modern workers expect to have instant access to the solutions they face in every part of their lives. Whenever they have a question, they search for the answer on their mobile devices. Workers understand the power of mobile applications and expect to find apps that help them live and work efficiently. As workers become increasingly dependent on their mobile devices, they are abandoning the traditional desktop and laptop computers that once powered the business world.12 With a Smart phone (and tablet) in hand, workers bring their own devices to work. Self-directed learning becomes easier, as each worker is always connected and able to find answers to anything. The impact is huge. Not only are learners choosing their own devices, but they are also selecting the software and sources they want to use for learning.13

Organizations have long utilized LMSs to offer, track, and score courses for their workers, essentially utilizing them as a glorified database. Most LMSs are about managing tracking, reporting and control, and not about learning. If learners need any learning system in the future, it will be a system facilitating their personal development, offering them personal learning paths and interesting content that will fit their current needs. Some predict the LMS will be dead in the near future, if they aren’t dead already. One commentator states, “There might be a chance for survival of those systems, if they address the trend for personalized learning. However, I believe that the learner will be served by mostly new solutions and not by the current LMSs.”14

A new breed of technology has emerged that provides the ability to track organization-provided learning, along with experiential and learner-submitted content. At the root of this trend are new APIs, such as Experience API (also known as xAPI), that support the capture of the worker’s full learning experience. Learning tools pioneered by vendors such as Degreed, Pathgather, EdCast, Grovo, and Axonify provide curated content, video, and mobile-learning solutions, micro-learning, and new ways to integrate and harness the exploding library of external MOOCs and video learning available on the Internet.15 Organizations are also turning to collaboration tools, such as Yammer or Epath, that facilitate performance-based learning, informal learning, social collaboration, and knowledge sharing. All of the data collected by and through these


various platforms is serving as a significant source of information to understand the unique needs and desires of each learner and to present the right knowledge material and learning events to that learner in the right modality at just the right time.16

Trend 3: As learning becomes more self-directed and learner-controlled, the job of L&D leaders is changing. As learning becomes more self-directed and learner controlled, the job of L&D professionals is shifting from creating courses and scheduling events to curation – collecting, organizing, and disseminating information and learner-generated content. Because learners can find courses and content almost anywhere whenever they need it, basic training courses focused on skills and knowledge do not add value to the learner; that information is already available to them.17 In response, L&D leaders face an opportunity to leverage the full range of learning opportunities available to curate the best content for their workers. Instead of relying on internally designed training programs, which can take up a tremendous amount of resources, organizations can capitalize on selecting the best among the wide variety of MOOCs and other mobile and digital platforms to train workers. As for the content organizations believe they must develop in-house, L&D groups need to create more specialized content that is customized to their organizations and relatively “timeless” in nature. L&D leaders are also making less use of ADDIE and ADDIE-like development models and increasingly adopting Agile learning development to increase the speed and efficiency of their development processes.18

Trend 4: Workers and their managers seek learning content that develops new skills and competencies that align with the many macro-trends impacting work and workers. Because of the various macro-trends impacting work and workers,19 organizations need people who can lead teams and partner with the broader ecosystems affecting their organizations. This new type of leader must understand how to build and lead teams; keep people connected and engaged; and drive a culture of innovation, learning, and continuous improvement. They must also be able to lead a workforce that now includes contractors, the contingent workforce, and crowd talent.20 Today’s high-performing leaders need to display the following attributes: creativity, not planning; quick decision-making; getting closer to customers; globalization and diversity; embracing and driving continuous change; managing unexpectedness; and agility, not control.21

Our research shows that the global demands for learning content vary little from one geographic sector to the next. Figure 2 lists the three topics learners and L&D leaders most often request in each geographic sector of the world.

Figure 2.22 The Top Three Topics Learners and L&D Leaders Request


Conclusion The key trends impacting learning within organizations today, when combined with the key trends impacting today’s work and workers, are presenting significant challenges to organizational L&D leaders. To add maximum value, those leaders need to keep a close eye on both sets of trends while they prepare and refine an L&D strategy that both aligns with their organization’s overall business strategy and is capable of being modified quickly as learning within organizations continues to evolve.

Authors

Larry Durham is a Partner with The St. Charles Consulting Group. Larry is a visionary in the fields of enterprise learning and talent development. Over the last 25 years, he has worked with many Fortune 500 companies to co-create innovative talent development solutions that yield measurable business outcomes. His experience spans many industries, including technology, pharmaceuticals, financial services, telecommunications, media, hotel and leisure, utilities and energy, and retail and consumer.

Eric Pierce is a Managing Director with The St. Charles Consulting Group. Throughout his career, Eric has built an extensive portfolio of practical and wide-ranging business consulting experiences yielding accelerated and profitable business growth as well as outstanding leadership, executive, and managerial effectiveness, both at the individual and team levels. Eric invests the majority of his time at St. Charles Consulting providing strategic talent development consulting and leadership coaching services to the firm’s clients.


Glossary

• Baby Boomers: Although there is no precise definition of the Baby Boomer generation, it is generally defined as those people who were born between the years 1946 and 1964. The Baby Boomer generation is followed by Generation X, Generation Y (Millennials), and Generation Z.

• Curate: The word “curate” means to select, organize, and look after. A “learning curation process” is a process by which L&D leaders would select, organize, and look after the various pieces of learning content the organization uses.

• Game: “Adding game elements” to learning – or the “gamification” of learning – involves applying the typical elements of game playing – point scoring, competition with others, rules of play – to the learning activity to encourage learners to engage more frequently and actively with the learning content.

• Generation Y (Millennials): Millennials are the generation following Generation X, and are generally defined as those people who were born between the years 1980 and 1996.

• Generation Z: Generation Z is the generation following Generation Y (Millennials), and are generally defined as those people who were born between the years 1997 and the early 2000’s.

• Modality: A “modality” is defined as the particular mode in which something exists or is experienced or expressed. A “learning modality” is the mode in which the learning exists or is experienced by the learner. Certain examples include in-person classroom-based or instructor-led training (ILT); virtual instructor-led training (VILT), which is training conducted by a live instructor and broadcast through an Internet-based platform; computer-based training (CBT), which is also commonly known as eLearning or Web-based training (WBT). Learning modalities can be synchronous (the instructor and learners are present for and complete the training at the same time) or asynchronous (the instructor and learners complete the training at various times).

• Platform: A platform is a group of technologies that are used as a base upon which other applications, processes or technologies are developed or operated. A platform ordinarily includes the basic hardware (the servers and other computers) and the software (the operating system) on which other software applications run. A learning technology platform would include the hardware and software L&D leaders use to curate learning content and learners use to develop and contribute learning content, as well as collaborate with other learners.

• Social: Social networking is the use of websites and other online technologies by people to communicate with other people and to share information, resources, and other data.


Endnotes

1 “Corporate Learning in 2016 – Ten Trends Shaping the Future,” J. Bersin (February 2016). 2 “Four Challenges of Mobile Learning in Corporate Education,” J. Peters (eLearning Industry) (October 6, 2016). 3 “Gamification,” TrainingIndustry.com Training Topics Wiki (April 26, 2017). 4 "How Deloitte Made Learning a Game,” J. Meister (Harvard Business Review) (January 2, 2013). 5 “Experiential Learning: What’s Missing in Most Change Programs,” C. Benkert and N. van Dam, McKinsey Insights (August 2015). 6 “8 Reasons Why Experiential Learning Is The Future Of Learning,” R. Jayaraman, eLearning Industry (October 24, 2014). 7 “8 Reasons Why Experiential Learning Is The Future Of Learning,” R. Jayaraman, eLearning Industry (October 24, 2014). 8 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte University Press (2017). 9 “KPMG: Innovation, Recreation Drew us to Orlando for Global Training Center,” P. Brinkmann, Orlando Sentinel (January 9, 2017). 10 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte University Press (2017). 11 “Mobile Learning: Driving Business Results by Empowering Workers in the Moment,” V. Rao and R. Srinivasan, Future of Work (November 2012). 12 “Four Challenges of Mobile Learning in Corporate Education,” J. Peters (eLearning Industry) (October 6, 2016). 13 “5 eLearning Trends Leading to the End of the Learning Management System,” K. Spiro, eLearning Industry (February 25, 2014). 14 “5 eLearning Trends Leading to the End of the Learning Management System,” K. Spiro, eLearning Industry (February 25, 2014). 15 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte University Press (2017). 16 “5 eLearning Trends Leading to the End of the Learning Management System,” K. Spiro, eLearning Industry (February 25, 2014). 17 “5 eLearning Trends Leading to the End of the Learning Management System,” K. Spiro, eLearning Industry (February 25, 2014). 18 “5 eLearning Trends Leading to the End of the Learning Management System,” K. Spiro, eLearning Industry (February 25, 2014). 19 See “The Changing Nature of Work and Workers,” St. Charles Consulting Group (2017). 20 Global Human Capital Trends, Deloitte University Press (2017). 21 “Corporate Learning in 2016 – Ten Trends Shaping the Future,” J. Bersin (February 2016). 22 “Most Requested Development Topics,” Global Trends in Talent Development, Association for Talent Development (ATD) (2015). This report is based on responses from 1,373 organizations throughout the world, 845 from North America, 119 from Latin America, 129 from Europe and the Middle East, and 280 from Asia-Pacific.

tl2 -- trends in learning within organizations (2017-1102) · learning and video content to the...

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