The Internet has transformed almost every aspect of our lives, from how we work and play, to how we connect with each other professionally and personally. This change is transformational on a scale rarely seen in human history and compares to the invention of movable type, the printing press and the ability to transmit recorded sound and images.
Based on this change, corporate learning and development (L&D) organizations need to recognize the three forces fueling the learning transformation that is happening now:
- Globalization
- Global access to markets and talent is reshaping the fundamentals of business operations
- Demographics
- Multiple generations (up to five by 2020) will be working side-by-side in organizations, creating a unique talent development challenge
- Social Media
- Connecting employees, customers, and partners for immediate communication
To attract, develop and retain a productive workforce in the face of transformational change such as this, your HR strategy should align itself to these three forces. Developing people in today’s work world means adapting rapidly to support the business’s imperatives. To do this, the L&D organization must adapt its business model. This affects everything, including:
- How learning is designed and delivered
- Developing on-demand learning requirements
- Reconsidering the shelf life of learning products
- Creating personalized learning
This means L&D will need to redefine, and in many instances, reallocate budgets to invest more in informal learning structures and new learning design models, including re-thinking the “traditional” definition of eLearning to consider:
- Social and collaborative learning
- Serious gaming
- Immediate learning
- Short content bursts rather than courses
- Availability on multiple devices
- User generated content
Professional learning roles are changing as well. Sample new skill sets for L&D include:
- Being adept at using the tools of learners
- Focusing on end results and less on event management
- More crowdsourcing
Sample new job roles for L&D include:
- Community gardeners
- Chief technologists
- App developers
The audiences L&D organizations support are now:
- Comfortable with weightless technologies such as mobile devices, tablets and laptops
- Expecting those technologies to be available to them at work and in their learning opportunities
- Valuing training and development, particularly coaching and mentoring
- Members of social networking sites
- Full of digital expectations, not necessarily digital skills
To support the global aspect of these changes, L&D needs to:
- Provide practice to proficiency by using interactive learning experiences
- Minimize the need to travel to training
- Use instructors to teach context and application, not knowledge or procedural transfer
- Use selection and on-boarding to increase employee speed-to-competency
- Help balance work:life integration
As we know, change can be difficult at any time for individuals, but also for organizations, because patterns are set and some are afraid of the unknown. However, change can be managed appropriately and aligned to the imperatives of the business as long as the team chartered with supporting learning are proactive and prepared for what’s coming.
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