This year, the GP Strategies blog was full of insightful and intriguing articles from our thought leaders and subject matter experts, covering everything from learning to innovation to technology implementation and adoption.
Our thought leaders spend time carefully researching and writing about what you are most interested in. Based off your input and engagement, we have highlighted the six blogs that you found most interesting. Check out this impressive line-up of content!
Julyan Lee, our Organizational Change Management Practice Lead, discusses five key areas to keep in mind as your organization implements its next big change.
GP Strategies’ Chief Learning Officer, Matt Donovan, explores best practices for providing quality experiences in hybrid work environments, how to build connected and cohesive teams, and how technology impacts culture in this featured video blog.
Three of our change management experts—Michelle Crowe, Carl Ramsey, and Kelley Rowland—unpack useful tactics for accomplishing change during ambiguous times, from asking the most difficult questions to addressing sources of resistance.
Stephen Egri, our EMEA Head of Solution Design, examines the democratization of learning, how to adapt to new shifts in the industry, and how to give learners what they need.
Our Director of Learning Technologies, Tom Pizer, shares his insights into the strengths, challenges, and future of extended reality for corporate learning.
As we move into the new year, our thought leaders will continue to provide thought-provoking and insightful blogs to help you and your organization transform and prepare for the future.
In the meantime, check out our award-winning Performance Matters podcast for even more helpful content.
About the Authors
GP Strategies Corporation
GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.
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Learn more about our talent transformation solutions.
Transformation doesn’t happen overnight if you’re doing it right. We continuously deliver measurable outcomes and help you stay the course – choose the right partner for your journey.
Leaders are often tasked to deliver more with their existing teams (or deliver the same with smaller teams) in service of increased profit margins. There are many ways to promote bottom-line growth, but for now, I’d like to share the story of how we collaborated with one client to accelerate value delivery in learning and development (L&D) by introducing a novel approach to strengthen an L&D team’s relationship with its business partners.
A major big-box retailer partnered with us to help its L&D team support the company’s IT department. The department was in the midst of an Agile transformation and had asked the L&D team to build learning solutions to align the employees and upskill them on Agile ways of working. (You can learn more about Agile’s original values and principles in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.)
In its role as a strategic partner to the IT department, the L&D team’s plan was to first collect all the information outlining the department’s new ways of working. Then, this team would launch a project to perform analysis, design, development, and implementation. However, this approach presented two key challenges. First, it would not support the rapid timeline the IT department had adopted for its Agile transformation. Second, in a sense, the traditional project plan would engender a “client and supplier” relationship—not quite the strategic partnership the L&D team was after.
As GP Strategies came on board, we proposed a new way to deliver learning solutions that met the demands of the business and enabled the desired partnership. Borrowing from one of the most effective Agile software development frameworks, we set out to establish the retailer’s first L&D Scrum team.
Why Combine L&D with Scrum?
The Scrum approach would empower L&D to support the IT department’s transformation immediately instead of waiting for the department to fully define its Agile approach for software delivery—which they expected would evolve over time anyway. The two groups would partner to develop learning solutions even as the IT department explored and shaped its new Agile operating model. This was possible because the Scrum framework provided the flexibility to deliver learning solutions in parallel with the creation of new ways of working.
As the IT department defined a part of its Agile operating model, the L&D team would begin developing the initial learning solution—not waiting for everything to be finalized—to support the IT department’s desired speed of transformation. The Scrum model and parallel timeline allowed the L&D team to share and empathize with the IT department’s transformation experience and provided a platform for true partnership. In moving away from the traditional project approach toward Agile learning-solution development, the company positioned itself to improve the learning solutions being developed.
For those not familiar with the Agile approach, it flips traditional project management on its head. In a traditional approach, scope is fixed, while cost and time vary. For example, if you want to build a house, you define the scope (a finished building) and then allocate a budget and a timeline to construct it—hopefully by an agreed-upon date. Then, the contractors all move on to their next project.
By contrast, in an Agile approach, cost and time are fixed, while scope varies. It is common for teams following an Agile approach to use the Scrum method, which timeboxes (or subdivides) work into short “sprints,” normally two weeks in duration. Each sprint should produce a deliverable that’s ready to implement in the business, so deliverables are defined and recorded in a “product backlog” (see Figure 1). This backlog is filled with a description of the components required to make up the learning solution and developed in tight partnership with the business partner, resulting in a prioritized list of work for the team. (I’ll describe the team itself a little further on.)
Once the product backlog is built, it’s time for sprint planning. The team identifies new deliverables for each individual sprint, allowing the scope of work to flex in response to changing circumstances. Those items are moved into the “sprint backlog” for the team to work on during the sprint. During the sprint, the team participates in the daily scrum, a meeting conducted at the same time and place every day that allows the team to connect, align on work in flight, and ensure they are on track to produce that sprint’s deliverables.
At the end of each sprint, the team conducts a sprint review with the business partners and other stakeholders. The objective is to publish the sprint deliverable at the end of the sprint, but feedback is also collected with ideas for refined or new deliverables added to the product backlog to be selected for a later sprint. Finally, the team conducts a sprint retrospective. This short “start, stop, and continue” reflection is intended to enable the team to continuously improve performance.
In the case of the big-box retailer, we started by building the team. The understanding was that due to the ever-evolving nature of technology, the IT department could continually benefit from new or updated learning solutions. So we decided to build a stable, high-performing team that would develop and implement learning solutions in perpetuity. This is another departure from the traditional project approach, which typically brings teams together for a defined period then shuffles people from one project to the next.
Driving teams through the “forming, storming, norming, and performing” process, only to dismantle them once they hit their stride before restarting the process for the next project, can be hard on productivity. In the Scrum framework, we don’t bring new teams to the work; our intent is to build the right team, then bring the work to them.
Without knowing exactly how many people would be optimal, we decided to start with three instructional designers. Next, we needed a product owner: someone to partner with the IT department, manage learning-solution intake, and prioritize the product backlog to meet the learners’ needs. The IT department provided the initial product owner with the idea that one of the instructional designers on the team would learn from the product owner, then eventually replace them. A Scrum master came from the IT department as well, planning to roll off once the team was experienced and effective in executing the Scrum model.
With the Scrum team set, we started developing learning solutions. As the team produced deliverables, we measured the velocity of delivery against the backlog of demand and timing of requests. This data informed the decision to rightsize the team to four instructional designers.
The Scrum workflow made it possible to start developing learning solutions even before all the new IT department ways of working were defined. It also broke up the work into small parts of incremental value (training courses or a learning experience) that could be delivered at the end of each sprint. Then, while the first course was being delivered, the Scrum team worked on the next course. This flow allowed the IT department to shorten its time to proficiency, evaluate the results of the learning solution, collect feedback, and adjust accordingly.
Figure 2: A diagram of our L&D Scrum workflow for the IT department at a big-box retail client.
The traditional approach would have required the IT department’s Agile evolution to be finalized and the full learning journey to be designed and developed before delivery, but the Scrum framework allowed the company to start delivering courses and realizing value after just a few weeks. Members of the L&D Scrum team told us they enjoyed the working model and were better able to empathize with the learners and deliver engaging learning solutions. The iterative Scrum approach also facilitated a tight partner relationship between the L&D team and the IT department during their Agile transformation. As a result of the learning solutions the L&D Scrum team quickly delivered, the IT department was able to launch its own Scrum teams, in turn accelerating its Agile transformation—exactly the business outcome the company targeted.
Since the introduction of Agile software development in 2001, countless organizations in multiple industries and disciplines have learned to borrow and bend Agile processes, flows, and tenets (in much the same way L&D teams know to curate learning content). These processes can present a highly effective way to help organizations move faster, save resources, and grow the bottom line.
So ask yourself: How could the introduction of Scrum methodology maximize the impact of your L&D efforts and strengthen your relationship with your business partners?
Bill Loudon, Director Business Consulting, has over 20 years of delivering solutions for Fortune 500 companies. He specializes in defining and executing initiatives, programs and projects that enable companies to achieve their strategic goals and objectives. Specifically focused on increasing productivity. He works with organizations to develop, implement, and adopt solutions to business problems. With a focus on people, process, technology, and data to bring those solutions to life. Bill is an expert in program/project management, agile at the team level and agile at scale. He has his MBA from Wake Forest University and Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Humboldt State University. Among his certificates are Six Sigma Black Belt and Project Management Masters Certificate from Villanova University.
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Over time, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) efforts have become pillars of many companies’ mission statements and communications. Everyone wants to ensure they’re doing all they can so their employees, vendors, and consumers feel seen, heard, and represented. But increasingly, talent professionals are realizing it takes more than good intentions to really move the needle on DE&I initiatives and allyship. If an organization is committed to doing more than just checking the box, how can it move beyond the performative to the practical business of creating a culture of inclusion?
In a recent Performance Matters Podcast conversation, Angela Peacock (pronouns: she/her/hers), global director of diversity and inclusion for fellow LTG company PDT Global, detailed the nuances between performative and practical DE&I efforts.
She explained that performative efforts can be extremely problematic, especially when weighing intent against impact. For instance, an organization posting a rainbow flag on its LinkedIn profile for Pride Month is well-meaning, but ultimately the external gesture is meaningless (and can cause real problems in employee engagement) if its internal work environment is actually rife with a culture of transphobia. Performative efforts, while usually undertaken with the best of intentions, typically do not eliminate barriers to inclusion and can lack a functional purpose. There is nothing transformative, and the effort can feel like window dressing—to both employees and consumers.
Practical DE&I
Real DE&I work, when done correctly, involves evidence-based planning, measurement, and accountability. Practical efforts begin with organizational self-awareness. A good assessment includes reflective questions such as:
How diverse is our group of executives and leaders?
How diverse is our board of directors?
In which areas of the organization is diversity lacking?
Are all our employees being compensated equitably independent of gender or race?
Are our recruiting efforts improving our organizational diversity?
Often, organizations’ well-intentioned DE&I efforts can be undermined by unconscious biases of those evaluating these efforts. Honest and thorough answers to the preceding questions will often tell the story of whether your organization is practically removing barriers for historically marginalized groups, or whether you’re simply going through the motions.
Don’t underestimate how powerful your employee engagement surveys can be in flagging the warning signs and how instructive they can be in prioritizing and planning your DE&I initiatives. It’s important to establish a baseline that measures two things: it needs to show how well you promote a culture of inclusion as an organization, preferably down to the level of departmental manager, and it should ask people to (voluntarily) disclose their diversity—their identity group or intersectionality. With these data points, you can start to map trends and evaluate your successes or failures in promoting DE&I.
But the fullness and usefulness of this data depend on the culture modeled by the organization and your leaders. If your past DE&I efforts have been performative, and your employees have seen no real impact, they will be less likely to disclose their real feelings and identity. However, if you tell employees what you’ll do with the information and how it will inform your actions, make it clear the results will enable the organization to do something meaningful and measurable, and then establish a track record of carrying through with those actions, people are statistically more likely to tell you who they are and how they feel.
Becoming an Ally
For those individual contributors without the situational authority to write organizational policy, there are still ways to encourage and support DE&I. Angela also joined us for a webinar (Allyship: Practical vs. Performative) in which she and her colleagues Hanadi Chehabeddine (she/her/hers), a certified inclusion consultant, and Alasdair James Scott (he/him & they/them), senior DE&I consultant and business psychologist, discussed ways in which anyone can help drive true inclusion.
The trio shared how allyship in support of any given community is an individual journey we take over time through three phases:
1. The starting zone—where these statements may apply to our mindset
I talk to others who look and think like me.
I avoid hard questions.
I deny discrimination is a problem.
2. The learning zone—where we start to expand our perception
I listen to others who think and look differently than I do.
I am vulnerable about my own biases and knowledge gaps.
I recognize that discrimination is a present and current problem.
3. The growth zone—where we begin to act
I surround myself with others who think and look differently than I do.
I identify how I may unknowingly benefit from the status quo.
I promote and advocate for policies and leaders that are inclusive.
The journey toward allyship doesn’t end, and we may find ourselves moving back and forth between zones at different times and in relation to different marginalized communities. But the goal remains the same: to show up as a true ally. There are many ways to do that, but our webinar’s panelists focused on these types of behavior:
The Cheerleader is a visible and vocal supporter of those in underrepresented groups. For example, this person might suggest another person for a project because of their skills when they’re overlooked.
The Amplifier helps to ensure that members of marginalized communities are heard, valued, and respected. This person promotes the inclusion of underrepresented voices in meetings, calls, newsletters, panels, and other high-profile events and interactions.
The Researcher proactively seeks various resources—rather than expecting an individual from an underrepresented group to educate them—to learn about the lived experience of those whom they are supporting.
The Intervener is someone who takes action to correct or call out problematic behavior and takes opportunities to defend others. They take time to explain the concern, ensuring there is understanding from members of the dominant group.
The Supporter can be viewed as a trustworthy confidant for members of a non-dominant group to share their perspectives, fears, joys, and concerns. They don’t question the lived experience of others and instead believe the truth in what they are told.
Blending the Organizational with Personal Allyship
Improving organizational DE&I and allyship efforts will create an environment of inclusion and psychological safety, which promotes not only stronger employee engagement but increased innovation. That ultimately reduces costs associated with employee turnover and can improve top-line growth for those organizations that implement their efforts in a practical—not performative—way.
In a market that increasingly expects accountability for proper DE&I efforts as a prerequisite for new and continued business, it’s important to have an experienced partner who can help ensure your initiatives make positive, real-world impacts. Contact us to get started today.
About the Authors
GP Strategies Corporation
GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.
Get in touch.
Learn more about our talent transformation solutions.
Transformation doesn’t happen overnight if you’re doing it right. We continuously deliver measurable outcomes and help you stay the course – choose the right partner for your journey.
This was originally published in May, 2018 and was recently updated.
Executive presence might be the most highly sought-after, hotly debated, and sometimes least well-defined characteristic of strong leaders. There is no doubt that the ability to have a presence is critical to leadership success. But what does it mean to have an executive presence? How can an organization move beyond a cursory definition and truly understand what’s at the core of this elusive leadership need?
GP Strategies has decades of experience in leadership development and employee engagement, and we have worked with and coached thousands of leaders. Our proprietary research, practical experience, and partnership with thought leaders have led us back to several fundamental truths about developing executive presence.
What is Executive Presence?
Although executive presence is a complex mix of several attributes—each deployed at the right time in the appropriate context—this strong leadership quality comes down to four core elements that leaders should care about.
Confidence
Sometimes referred to as “gravitas,” leadership confidence is about expressing oneself in a way that commands both respect and approachability. This is not about arrogance but about demonstrating a sense of positivity and control. It is about reassuring others that you, as a leader, have the competence to lead, to be successful, and to lead others successfully.
According to Pegeen Newman, Vice President of Talent Management at ComNet Communications, “A confident leader is credible and can bring others along with them. They don’t need to have all the answers, nor do they pretend to. In fact, a leader’s executive presence increases when they are comfortable publicly stating, ‘I don’t know.’”
Awareness
Awareness is a combination of self-awareness and awareness of others. It is about understanding who you are as a leader and how you come across to others. Awareness relates to emotional intelligence—the ability to read other people’s signals and react appropriately to them.
It is also the ability to put yourself in the shoes of your followers to understand how they are feeling and how they are being impacted by the world around them and by you. A leader with executive presence adapts and shifts into different roles. At times, they may need to demonstrate their leadership as the captain in the room. In other situations, showing vulnerability, demonstrating empathy, and sharing their concerns displays awareness.
Resilience
Resilience is the ability to handle challenges and bounce back from setbacks. A resilient leader maintains their poise under stressful circumstances. When leaders can remain balanced even in the face of resistance, their executive presence shines through. In the face of controversy or criticism, a leader must not only remain confident but also remain calm. Resilient leaders stay true to their values. Followers know who they are and what they stand for, and even in the face of significant challenges, influential leaders don’t waiver.
Barbara Pelly, who coaches senior-level leaders in this area, indicates, “The most effective leaders remain calm under pressure. They know what triggers them and can manage their responses while being honest with themselves and others. They can create an environment where people can feel confident about the future and their leader even in times of ambiguity.”
Effective Communication
Finally, confidence, awareness, and resiliency are not enough; a leader with executive presence must have the communication skills to convey all three effectively. They must be able to demonstrate that they are competent by appealing to people’s rational side. At the same time, their communication must create a sense of connection with the individuals they are interacting with. Communicating intentionally and authentically is critical.
Patrick Chenot, Executive Vice President and Chief Learning Officer at Havas Health and You, recalls one such leader: “I was drawn to him because he clearly communicated his vision and was likable. I could relate to him on a personal level but could also follow him due to his presence.”
You know you’ve been with a leader who has executive presence when you feel the impact of their message long after they’ve left the room.
Why Is Executive Presence Important?
Executive presence is pivotal for leaders and professionals aiming to inspire confidence, influence others, and drive results. Fostering executive presence can significantly enhance both individual and organizational success due to the following factors:
Recognition and Visibility: Leaders with executive presence are more likely to be noticed and recognized for their contributions. Their ability to stand out positively influences their professional reputation and visibility within the organization.
Influence: Those with executive presence can effectively influence and persuade others. Their confidence and communication skills enable them to drive alignment and commitment to organizational goals.
Problem-Solving: Executive presence involves maintaining composure and thinking clearly under pressure. This capability is crucial for effective problem-solving and making strategic decisions.
Increased Confidence: Leaders with executive presence exude confidence, which can be contagious. Their assurance and poise instill confidence in their team and stakeholders, fostering a supportive and empowered atmosphere.
Trust and Credibility: Executive presence helps establish trust and credibility. It signifies that a leader is competent, reliable, and poised, which is essential for gaining the trust of colleagues and stakeholders.
Conflict Resolution: Leaders with executive presence handle conflicts with tact and diplomacy. Their ability to navigate difficult conversations and situations ensures that issues are resolved constructively and efficiently.
How Can You Spot Executive Presence?
Identifying someone who has executive presence is doable, but you won’t be able to find them by reviewing a pile of résumés. Why? With effective leadership, it’s not “I’ll know it when I see it;” it’s more about “I’ll know it when I feel it and sense it.” Leaders who have this type of presence have authority but are not arrogant. They are confident without being brash. They are aware of others but aren’t too soft.
The ability to maintain this balance happens naturally, but it’s not something that can be codified. You’ll be able to identify an effective leader through the lasting impression they make on how you feel—not just about them but how you feel about yourself after hearing them or interacting with them. A leader with executive presence is memorable.
How is Executive Presence Developed?
This is a tricky question without a straightforward answer. Developing executive presence involves a foundational willingness to self-reflect, expand self-awareness, and continuously work on skill development. At the same time, the paradox of executive gravitas is that it is best served authentically. It immediately crumbles if individuals feel you are wearing a mask instead of authentically embodying that gravitas.
Strategies for Development
Nevertheless, leaders can do things to enhance the essential elements of executive presence outside of formal leadership development training. Practicing mindfulness can support the presence and calmness that convey confidence. Assessing and recognizing one’s emotional intelligence and areas for growth can improve awareness skills and mindfulness, increased emotional intelligence, and robust coping skills can improve resilience.
Finding trusted colleagues who will give you feedback in these areas is also important. Mentors can also play a critical role, particularly if they can see you in the workplace and see your skills in context. Perhaps most valuable is the support of an executive coach who can “hold a mirror” up to an executive and ask the tough questions that often lead to real breakthroughs.
Of the four elements, effective communication is the most tangible skill to develop. The key is to follow an intentional process that focuses on word choice, the use of metaphor, and connecting the message to your values.
Can You Be a Leader Without Executive Presence?
The short answer is yes. It stands to reason that not every individual with situational authority has the right presence. A leader without executive gravitas can be effective, achieve goals, and get others to follow them. But a leader with an executive presence inspires higher engagement and loyalty.
Still, some may see this quality as a differentiator in other ways. According to Chenot, “I believe executive presence could be a differentiator between an excellent manager and the far more elusive moniker of leader. It goes beyond possessing skill sets like discipline acumen, managerial ability, and even team building, to the far more aspirational skills like vision, confidence, and even communication skills.”
What is the Best Way to Build Executive Presence in an Organization?
Executive presence is likely to remain on the top of the list of sought-after, strong leadership qualities. Hold on to the leaders who have it—they can be hard to find. Work with your leaders to cultivate the skills that can improve it. Know that it will always remain a little mysterious and more than a little bit elusive.
For more information, contact our leadership development experts to learn how coaching can help build an executive presence.
GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.
Get in touch.
Learn more about our talent transformation solutions.
Transformation doesn’t happen overnight if you’re doing it right. We continuously deliver measurable outcomes and help you stay the course – choose the right partner for your journey.
About a dozen years ago, I had an opportunity to take an idea we had generated while I was CLO of Sun Microsystems and spin it off into the market with a small team of former Sun employees. Although we ended up selling it to SuccessFactors/SAP before taking any investor funding, I was able to talk to nearly three dozen venture capital (VC) firms about our product and the learning industry. Looking over my notes, I remember very clearly one conversation with a VC partner who had just recently started investing in the corporate learning field. “What a fractured industry,” he observed. “So many mom-and-pop shops, and not enough suppliers to go in and solve big problems for companies.”
Sometimes it takes someone outside your industry to speak the glaringly obvious, and his words stuck with me as I subsequently went back into CLO roles, most recently at Visa. Finding suppliers who could solve big challenges, bringing in not only consulting, but also learning services and technology, was still the exception, not the rule. And this isn’t a trivial matter in today’s complex learning environment. I’ll give you two examples.
For almost any company that builds products or services for its customers, a standard learning offering is product training. In the pre-pandemic world, that could look like a product manager putting together a presentation deck and flying around the world giving the same presentation over and over. Or it could look like a page-turning e-Learning that your average salesperson avoided with distaste. Wanting to imagine something engaging and inspiring for our sales team, I talked to some of the most innovative learning professionals I knew and asked them who they recommended. That’s how I first came across LEO Learning, part of LTG. Eventually, we built an entire gamified world, combining capabilities that relied on content development from LEO and GP Strategies, with technology from Watershed, Rustici, and Gomo. Altogether, to deliver our award-winning gamified sales training, we used technology and services from at least ten different providers, counting our underlying LMS and learning delivery system. Launching only months before the pandemic, we were grateful to have a completely virtual solution in place that yielded a 432% increase in sales opportunities from program participants.
The second example was a development program for emerging executive women. This time, we were amid the pandemic and short-staffed. Not wanting to put more of a burden on our staff, I looked to GP Strategies to help us design, deliver, and support everything from program management to the talent decisions on who would attend to the facilitation of learning circles. I had always appreciated how well GP played with others, and in one contract, I was able to bring in a major university and a gaming company that taught the lessons of poker for business to support the curriculum. This time, we had at least six different services and technologies, but only one contract for anything that wasn’t part of our underlying technology stack. Without the full-service capabilities of what GP brought to the table, the program simply wouldn’t have been created, to the detriment of 40 emerging leaders and all those who may follow in subsequent offerings.
When I thought about this next stage of my career, it’s then no surprise that I wanted to be a part of something the learning industry has needed for so long—a big player who offers consulting services and technology. Even better, someone who can customize to my needs while offering simplicity in contracting. That’s what drew me to working here, knowing that the opportunity is so big to deliver meaningful results to our clients. What surprised me was how many—to me—hidden gems there were in this organization, and hopefully it will help make sense of why we’re moving things around a bit here to better deliver our capabilities to our clients.
I’ll pick just a couple of the hidden gems. I mentioned LEO Learning already, as it was the lead in building the product training for Visa. It was a European colleague who turned me on to their imaginative content development, including gamified solutions. Another one of our content solutions that offers an entire suite of DE&I learning and consulting capabilities is PDT Global, with an impressive array of both standard and leading-edge content. One of the most fun gems for me to discover was PRELOADED, with design capabilities that some of the biggest names in technology are using to define their own future offerings to the market. Bringing these capabilities into the fold of the GP Strategies brand will help us deliver an even broader set of integrated solutions to our 6,000 clients.
On the technology side, there were also some wonderful nuggets to discover. Not to cover them all, but I don’t think any CLO should be without Watershed’s capabilities for learning analytics, especially when combined with metrics consulting from GP. I now know that any LMS I use should be fueled by Rustici, so updates to content or the LMS won’t break due to mismatched standards.
There’s more, but hopefully you get a sense for how what were disparate solutions are coming together into a powerful new set of integrated offerings to solve big problems in the industry—so long overdue.
Karie Willyerd is the only CLO to have taken two companies to number one in the world. Most recently she was the CLO for Visa. Prior to that she was head of SAP’s global customer education business. She came into SAP when Jambok – a video-based learning platform where she was the cofounder and CEO – was acquired by SAP SuccessFactors. Dr. Willyerd served as the CLO for Sun Microsystems and head of talent or learning for Solectron, Heinz, and Lockheed Martin Tactical Air. Dr. Willyerd is a prolific author on the future of work, learning, and human capital leadership, with two best selling books and articles/blogs published in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and all the major learning trade journals.
Get in touch.
Learn more about our talent transformation solutions.
Transformation doesn’t happen overnight if you’re doing it right. We continuously deliver measurable outcomes and help you stay the course – choose the right partner for your journey.
Delivering quality and cost-effective learning opportunities to employees is a great challenge for many organizations. The push to constantly upskill, reskill, and remain competitive requires learning and development (L&D) initiatives to be agile and relevant. L&D teams are understandably leaning more and more on technology to deliver learning content.
Although organizations have a desire to shift their learning content from in-person to digital, instructor-led training (ILT) continues to have its place in the learning ecosystem. The need for qualified instructors to deliver training is top of mind for many learning organizations. For both in-person and virtual instructor-led training (VILT), organizations need capable people to engage learners and effectively deliver training.
VILT specifically demands facilitators with a high level of skill and comfortability with technology. However, it can be difficult to find or develop great instructors who can deliver the training and a positive learner experience in a cost-effective way. This is why the strategic sourcing of your training delivery through a managed learning services partner can become a key component to the success of your L&D operations and a competitive advantage to your company.
The Challenges of In-House ILT Delivery
The pressure to cut costs and the prevalence of digital learning technologies have dramatically impacted the use of ILT and VILT. Despite the downturn in popularity, organizations must still be able to provide effective ILT. There will always be instances when your people need in-person, hands-on experience with equipment and techniques that even high-tech solutions like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) cannot replicate. Not all training should be delivered in a self-guided, self-paced format.
This push to include as much blended, digital learning as possible is popular because it minimizes ILT, one of the most expensive means to deliver training. Many organizations have also dramatically reduced the headcount of their training staff in recent years in response to this digital shift, but there is still a deep need for ILT in most industries.
Here are some of the challenges of managing all ILT in-house:
Keeping a pool of qualified, engaging instructors and virtual producers with a variety of experiences and strengths on payroll can be very costly.
As companies grow and adapt to new circumstances, trends, and technologies, the bandwidth and availability of in-house instructors can become stretched thin.
Certifying instructors and maintaining their qualifications can be an expensive, time-intensive endeavor.
The rise in popularity of blended learning experiences means that trainers need to be able to effectively teach in a variety of formats, which is not always a reasonable request.
For global companies, the demand for in-person training delivered in a local language can be difficult to support and is often at significant cost to the company.
It can be difficult to forecast future learning needs, which makes it harder to find and manage resources when needs arise.
4 Reasons Strategic Sourcing Will Transform Your Training
There are several benefits to strategically sourcing training delivery through a managed learning services provider.
1. Training is more localized and learner focused.
Managed learning service providers have access to an expansive pool of professional trainers, which provides them the ability to quickly source the specific type of trainer you need. Having a pool of qualified candidates means you have access to instructors in a variety of geographical locations who have various skill sets, qualifications, and experiences.
Because you will have access to the specific type of instructor you need in a convenient location, training can be more localized and learner focused. To be effective, instructors must be well-versed in not only the content or procedures being taught but also the technology being used. In addition to providing skilled facilitators to deliver training, many managed learning service providers can also offer virtual producers with an intimate understanding of the technology to host and manage VILT sessions. Leveraging virtual producers helps reduce disruptions and improves the overall learner experience.
2. Training processes will be more efficient and more cost effective.
When you strategically source your training delivery, you streamline several important processes. Training partners standardize the expensive and time-consuming processes necessary to properly identify, select, onboard, qualify, manage, and evaluate instructors.
By leveraging standardized procedures and supporting technology, your training partner will be able to use their existing data and information to determine the best instructor for your specific training need. Your training partner will consider past instructor performance, availability, expertise, location, and experience level. Furthermore, leveraging the pool of instructors your training partner has provides a level of readiness not attainable when training delivery is handled within your organization.
3. You will be more agile and able to respond to variability in training demand.
By simplifying and standardizing processes, you can massively reduce the costs involved with finding the right person for a training need. Because your organization now has access to a pool of great instructors who can meet your specific needs in real time, your entire organization will become more agile and better equipped to react to changes in your industry.
The demands of training can fluctuate for a variety of reasons. When you strategically source your training delivery, you no longer need to be concerned with maintaining a full training staff. You can therefore focus on planning for future needs and optimizing current processes.
4. The administrative burden that L&D teams feel will be alleviated.
Performance management and maintaining training rigor requires a lot of valuable time and attention. In addition to finding and qualifying the right instructors for your training need, your training partner will also manage the performance of your instructors and provide necessary coaching.
When you strategically outsource so many time-consuming and cost-intensive processes, you greatly lessen your L&D team’s administrative burden. No longer concerned with finding or maintaining qualified candidates and managing performance, your L&D team can focus on more important endeavors, like planning for future training needs, optimizing current processes, and building new programs.
Strategic Sourcing Transforms the Training Experience
The value of strategically sourcing your training delivery is that you have access to necessary resources when you need them. Your training and your instructors can quickly adjust to and address new trends or training gaps that you identify over time. Meanwhile, you can focus on the big picture and the future of learning and development within your organization.
Outsourcing training delivery is just one of the ways you can achieve a competitive advantage through managed learning services. For more information about how the comprehensive and holistic services that a managed learning service provider offers can transform your workers and your learning environment, visit GP Strategies’ website.
About the Authors
Heidi Milberg, Vice President
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Whether you are a new leader learning the ropes or it’s your responsibility to develop leaders in your organization, it is a massive responsibility.
Organizations often take high-performing individuals and promote them to leadership or managerial positions because they excelled in their previous roles. While there’s nothing wrong with this, organizations also need to provide opportunities for new and veteran leaders alike to gain the skills needed to succeed in leadership-specific roles. They need the skills to get work done through and with other people. They need to know how to manage people, and people are complicated.
Without proper skill development, a leader can quickly experience burnout and high levels of dissatisfaction, which can greatly impact the engagement of their employees. Luckily, taking small steps to build leadership development can bring great rewards.
What Is Leadership Development?
Leadership development is a comprehensive process that cultivates an individual’s ability to effectively guide teams, make strategic decisions, and drive organizational success through enhanced self-awareness and people management skills.
While learning and development (L&D) refers broadly to everything an employee needs to do their job effectively, including technical and tactical training, leadership development addresses all of that and more. Instead of simply working toward providing training on specific skills to equip people with the tools they need for their role, leadership development dives more into the behavioral and psychological realms.
These questions are often explored during leadership development:
Who am I as a person and a leader?
What behaviors do I need to exhibit?
How do I facilitate the work of others?
How does my personality impact my impulses as a leader?
What does my team need, and how can I fill those gaps?
At its core, leadership development is ultimately focused on helping people expand the skills needed to manage people and projects, like team management, decision-making, building interpersonal connections, developing strategies, exercising innovation, and more.
Why Is Leadership Development Important?
Leadership development is crucial for organizational success because it creates capable, energetic leaders who drive employee engagement, foster innovation, and give companies a competitive edge. Developing capable, energetic leaders helps to attract and retain top talent, both within leadership and otherwise.
When people respect their leaders and feel supported by them, they are more likely to stay and invest valuable time in an organization. If leaders themselves feel supported, they are likewise more likely to stay. In this way, leadership development comes down to ensuring people have the tools they need to keep others engaged.
Investing in leadership development can deliver many measurable results across the organization, including:
Accelerating the development of high-potential employees.
Strengthening succession planning and internal promotion pipelines.
Improving decision-making at all organizational levels.
Increasing adaptability to change and market disruption.
Enhancing cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Building stronger client and stakeholder relationships.
Creating a more cohesive organizational vision and strategy.
Psychological Safety: A Key Result of Great Leadership
Another benefit of quality leadership development is that it can greatly impact overall company culture. It benefits people and organizations on multiple levels, from individuals and their teams to the entire organization, customers, and other stakeholders.
Having leaders who can build and maintain great team cohesion, engagement, and retention creates the conditions necessary for psychological safety. When people feel psychologically safe in their work environment, they feel they have the freedom and opportunity to take risks, be innovative, and embrace their creativity. Over time, this culminates in less employee turnover and more satisfied, high-performing employees, making achieving organizational goals and objectives much easier.
6 Steps to Develop Leadership in the Workplace
Developing a leadership development plan in the workplace can seem daunting. However, following just a few key steps can greatly transform your people and your leaders.
Define Good Leadership
Progress can only begin if everyone uses a common definition. To uncover what leadership might specifically mean for your organization, ask these questions:
Where do you see leaders most in your company?
What responsibilities do these leaders have?
Is leadership a key pillar in your organization’s mission or vision?
What characteristics do your most valued leaders have in common?
Sometimes, what leadership is for an organization is spelled out explicitly in a mission statement or something similar. Sometimes it’s not, and the sense of importance around leadership is implicitly woven into company culture. If, however, the role of leadership is not yet fully explained, be sure to take the time to consider what a good leader looks like for your organization. People need to know what to aim for.
Identify Who Your Leaders Are
Once you define what good leadership means for you, you can identify who your leaders are. It may be very clear who your leaders are based on how you have organized your people, but remember that not all leaders are in managerial positions or are people leaders.
You may have great leaders who do not have reports but are instead responsible for managing great projects, extensive collaboration, and leading themselves. These “leaders of self” are highly valuable and deserve leadership development opportunities as well.
Decide What Success Looks Like
Before establishing effective and achievable development goals for your leaders, start small and begin by defining what success is for you. This will look different depending on your company and specific goals. Still, many organizations decide to establish success early on by reaching a certain number of people with a specific training program. Others may define success as increased engagement, while others may define it as something else. In any case, think through your purpose for providing leadership development and consider ways to track it.
Introduce a Framework
The goal of all good leaders is to facilitate engagement and performance, and it’s important to have language and a guide for thinking about what that is and how it’s achieved. There are numerous frameworks and models for thinking about leadership and engagement; we at GP Strategies have developed our own popular model, known as The X Model of Engagement.
The X Model explains how employees can experience maximum satisfaction and maximum contribution simultaneously, resulting in maximum engagement, which benefits individuals, teams, and the organization.
Introducing ways of thinking to leaders and employees about overall performance objectives will provide everyone with a common vocabulary to use as a benchmark.
Begin Offering Small Development Opportunities
Initially, you do not need every cutting-edge platform or type of learning opportunity. The goal should be to provide development and training opportunities that fit into the flow of work and meet people at their learning need.
Scalability is another important consideration when choosing what kind of opportunities to provide. Can what you provide your leaders be adjusted so it is as relevant for that new manager as it is for a veteran leader of self?
Beyond formal development opportunities, simply bringing people together can have a massive impact on engagement. Arranging common readings of professional development books, hosting lunch-and-learns, and promoting mentorship programs are simple activities to organize that can greatly impact leaders and employee engagement.
Measure Leadership Development Outcomes
Deciding how to measure outcomes is a critical step of the planning process, and determining the best way to do it can feel elusive to many—so elusive, in fact, that some people don’t even attempt to measure outcomes at all. However, tracking progress is crucial and provides opportunities to make calculated adjustments later. Some organizations choose to piggyback off existing HR metrics, some decide to conduct surveys, and others develop entirely new systems for tracking leadership development results.
The best place to start is to consider what you already measure and whether or not leadership development may impact any of those metrics. You can always develop more complex systems to assess the effectiveness of your leadership development initiatives down the line.
Creating Leadership Development Goals
After you have a basic system in place to develop the leaders within your organization, your goals should shift toward optimizing the experience. Develop new goals as you introduce new programs or initiatives and the metrics that align with them. Consistently revisit what you are working toward and ensure that those goals align with your organization’s overall objectives and what your leaders need to thrive.
To help create a cutting-edge leadership development program that is scalable and aligned with your organizational objectives and cultivates high-performing teams, reach out to GP Strategies and discover how a workforce transformation partner can make this process as rewarding as possible.
About the Authors
GP Strategies Corporation
GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.
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The auto industry’s march toward electrification is not just underway; it’s in full swing. IHS Markit has estimated that battery-electric vehicles alone will represent between 25% to 30% of the new vehicle market in 2030.
The push for more electric vehicles (EVs) is coming from most automakers and, in some cases, governments. In the U.S., the Biden administration has set a goal of having half of all new vehicles sales consist of zero-emission or low-emission cars and trucks—or those that have battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, or fuel cell electric powertrains—also by 2030. And EV sales have been quickly growing, even amid slower new car and truck sales.
So, how are automakers responding? And where are dealers in this massive market shift, and what should they be doing? Outlining manufacturers’ plans and analyzing the current market provides insight into how dealers can adjust to this changing market in the showroom, in fixed operations, and in terms of how this affects the shortage of service technicians.
The Futurecast for EVs
Most automakers are shifting toward electric fleets to varying degrees, and some are even replacing older electrified models with new ones. The upcoming plans of most major original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) are bold and green-energy focused. Here are just a few examples of legacy automakers heralding this new era of EVs:
General Motors (GM) plans to stop selling internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2035 and to be carbon-neutral by 2040.
Mercedes-Benz plans to make all new vehicle platforms EV-only by 2025. The company hopes to have an all-EV lineup by 2030.
Honda plans to phase out ICE vehicles by 2040.
Stellantisis investing more than $35.5 billion in vehicle electrification through 2025. The company expects to have 40 all-electric and 15 plug-in hybrid models in the U.S. and Europe in that same timeframe.
Toyota Motor Corp., which has been hesitant to go all-electric, plans to have 70 electrified models globally by 2025.
Volvo will only make electric cars by 2030 and, no doubt to the chagrin of most dealers, says it will only sell them online. This “test case” of a new agency model—a direct customer-brand relationship that could lessen the perceived importance of dealerships and salespeople—will be watched very closely over the coming years by other OEMs to see whether they can get away with it, too.
The Current EV Market
Even as overall new vehicles sales fell during the coronavirus pandemic, EV sales climbed significantly. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), EV sales hit a record of 4.6% of all new vehicles sold in 2020, a year when overall vehicle sales declined by about 6% across the world. Further, in a Global EV Outlook report from 2021, IEA predicts the number of EVs globally will increase from 10 million to 145 million by 2030. Even though overall sales are slim in the U.S., EV sales did grow by 85% from 2020 to 2021 while the sale of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) grew 138% in the same period. And potential EV buyers are out there, according to Pew Research, which has reported that about 40% of Americans are somewhat likely to seriously consider buying an electric vehicle.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government is pushing for more EV infrastructure. With the passage and signing of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act near the end of 2021, the federal government is setting aside $7.5 billion for a network of 500,000 EV chargers.
The bottom line? EVs are here, and more are coming, whether dealers are ready or not.
How Should Auto Dealers Respond to the Rise of EVs?
The most pressing elements for automotive retailers are to prepare both practically and culturally, which can be difficult to do for multiple reasons. So, where should dealers begin?
Opt In to Training and Customer Education Opportunities
Both educating staff on EVs and learning about the EV customer are important. Dealers should understand that new customers will be coming to them for EVs, and that customers coming to buy EVs now will be different from the early adopters. Increasingly, EVs appeal to everyday people who are looking for new daily drivers, and owning one is no longer the countercultural lifestyle statement it was in the early 2010s.
Aside from learning about this new customer base, staff need to understand EVs themselves. Dedicated training on new EV models and features should be spearheaded by automakers to make staff feel more comfortable with these new products. A major component of EV resistance is simply a lack of information. Equipping dealer staff with the knowledge they need will likely quell the concerns of anyone still on edge or reluctant toward EV adoption.
Additionally, dealer staff also need to be aware of how to respond to the average consumer’s fears about EVs. A consumer concern not nearly discussed enough is the ease and safety of charging an EV. Dealer staff should be knowledgeable about local EV charging infrastructure, and it should be top priority for dealers to be able to explain the charging process of EVs—how it’s like plugging your phone in at night—to quell any charging-specific hesitations.
Garner Excitement
While it is becoming a great priority of automakers and dealers alike to train and familiarize sales personnel with EV products as soon as possible, generating excitement is a bit more subjective. There are, however, simple things that can be done to begin piquing interest if it isn’t already there.
Outside of simply educating others, creating community is pivotal. One way to garner excitement over this massive market shift is for dealership personnel to join relevant, local EV clubs and associations. These can be active, knowledgeable groups that could help auto retail personnel get accustomed to any culture that may be budding up or already exist around certain EV models.
To help further build community buy-in, dealers should consider creating a charging area for customers that serves as a welcome environment. Charging areas could be a communal destination to encourage not just EV service customers but EV owners in general to come and power up. This could be monetized at some point, but for the near future, it’s important to get owners to return to the dealership for simple charging needs, especially in the case that charging stations are compatible with multiple brands and models. Keeping EV owners close to the vest this way can provide dealers with an opportunity to entice owners of competitor vehicles to consider switching brands and, beyond that, continue to build the sense of community around EVs needed for long-lasting adoption.
Planning for the EV Future
While automakers are blazing a path for EVs, dealerships should consider not just how to prepare culturally, but also how fixed operations and even independent service shops will change. Franchise dealers have an advantage in being prepared to service their brand-specific EVs over independent shops that have, for a century, been servicing mostly ICE vehicles. Many OEMs are also building and only selling custom tools and providing service training to their own dealership technicians.
At the same time, auto retailers should anticipate that some service of EVs may not even need to take place in the service bay or at the dealership; they could easily happen at the customer’s home with a mobile unit. This could help dealers reduce infrastructure or at least not worry about building out a lot of new square footage or designated space for EV-specific vehicles.
In any case, the rise in EVs is coming at an uneven and uncertain time for the fixed ops departments as they deal with ongoing technician shortages. While EVs will likely lower the volume of repairs and service needed on vehicles, there will always be a need for service technicians, and the rise of EVs will not make this issue any less pressing.
As the exciting future of the automotive industry unfolds, properly planning and preparing will be key. All facets of the auto industry will experience a multitude of changes, and those who adapted, responded, and prepared as best they could will stand apart from those who simply braced themselves.
About the Authors
David Muller
David Muller is a writer at GP Strategies. He has more than 15 years of experience in print and digital media. His coverage of the auto industry has included writing breaking news articles, in-depth features and analysis.
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Agile. In technology and learning spaces, we hear this term, and about how it’s needed to achieve desired results, all the time. But what does agile really mean? Are people actually practicing agility, or do they just think they are? And if they are, are they doing it correctly?
As a provider of change management and user adoption services for technology implementations, we know many organizations are continuing to implement technologies but don’t always do it correctly or with the optimum support to achieve the results that they so desperately want. Forbes states that there is anywhere from a 70-95% risk of failure in digital transformations. That is extremely high! When we investigate the numbers they provide and the reasons behind them, they all have to do with people. Your people and their adoption of the new technology will make or break the success of your digital transformation.
To get a pulse on how our clients and the general audience really felt about the term agile, we conducted a few informal surveys* and found some interesting answers.
Agile and Technology Implementation
Before we hop into the numbers, let’s quickly define what agile means in the context of technology implementations.
Being agile is the process of getting users back to productivity and beyond as quickly as possible, minimizing the usual dip in productivity seen in many technology implementations, and enabling the learning team to drive high-value content, adapt to change, and function effectively despite real-world constraints. Basically, being agile means going back to basics. You want to enable your team to do their jobs well by stripping out all the unnecessary bureaucracy and red tape.
As many learning professionals will tell you, to be agile, you need to ensure that there is a steady stream of the high-value content being fed to your learners throughout any transformation effort. This is a central part of the user adoption strategy that a lot of organizations miss. Rather than creating an event at the end of the implementation for users to learn the new technology, learning should be experienced as a journey, not a seen as a destination. For any project to be truly agile, it must have three components:
Flexibility: The processes should be structured but lean enough for the team to adjust and react quickly to situations that arise.
Transparency: All members of the team and those being affected by the implementation should have visibility into what is happening, whether that be the actual technical aspect of the implementation for the team or a steady stream of learning content for the users. Transparency helps drive accountability from everyone involved, from the developers to the end users.
Clear guidance: Users should feel supported throughout the entire implementation. There should be minimal hesitancy for the learners in what they should be doing when the technology goes live.
In the end, an agile approach should ultimately provide constant learning for your users and facilitate a smooth landing of the new technology.
So, let’s get into the data.
When we polled our audience, 56% of them said that they had used an agile approach to user adoption.
Have you used an agile approach to user adoption in your organization?
When should the bulk of learning happen during an ERP transformation?
On top of that, 79% of people said that learning should happen throughout the entirety of the technology implementation. This was a bit of a surprise to us because while we know it to be true that learning should happen throughout an implementation, if 56% of people are using agile approaches to adoption and creating learning journeys throughout an implementation, why does Forbes say that so many transformations fail?
As practitioners of the agile approach to user adoption, we know that the most effective learning takes place when learners are engaged throughout the entire implementation process. But just providing content throughout the process doesn’t necessarily mean learners will be engaged. It has to be the right content, at the right time, in the right format. This allows learners to understand the change and the new system as it is being developed and deployed so that they can actively adapt as needed without impacting their daily routines so much that they just say “forget it.”
It’s great to see that organizations are ready and willing to use agile approaches, but it is refining those processes that will really make the difference.
Now that we’ve talked about using an agile approach to user adoption, let’s see how organizations are measuring the results of their transformations.
How do you measure the ROI of your digital transformation?
When we asked our audience how they measure the return on investment (ROI) of their technology implementation, 48% said productivity levels. There can be many right answers to this question depending on what your organization wants to achieve, but when you are practicing agility within your technology implementation, productivity after go-live will be your best indicator of success. Ideally, you want to at least achieve the same productivity levels as before the implementation but shooting for higher productivity to prove that the technology was worth the investment.
Lastly, we asked how long it took them to get back to productivity after their last technology implementation. 61% of organizations got back to their baseline productivity levels within two months of go-live. While two months is a good amount of time to achieve pre-implementation productivity, we have seen that using an agile approach can decrease that timeline even further, to weeks instead of months.
How quickly did you get back to productivity after your last technology implementation?
Overall, these numbers were not all that surprising to us and seem to be on par with what the industry is showing us. There is a bit of discrepancy when it comes to organizations claiming to use agile approaches to adoption in their technology implementations and the success rate stated by Forbes. Based on our knowledge and experience, this is a direct reflection of using an agile approach versus using an agile approach the right way.
Preparing and guiding your learners through the change and ensuring that they have the right information to adopt the technology will be pivotal in the success of your next technology implementation.
*These numbers were obtained via four LinkedIn surveys posted and monitored by GP Strategies in 2022.
About the Authors
Brittany Jordan
Brittany Jordan has over 10 years of experience in applied behavior analysis, leadership, and business solution planning. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management, a Master of Science in Marketing Research and Analytics, and most recently has become a Certified Scrum Master through Scaled Agile. Brittany is currently working towards a certification in User Experience Design.
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Transformation doesn’t happen overnight if you’re doing it right. We continuously deliver measurable outcomes and help you stay the course – choose the right partner for your journey.
This blog article was written prior to LEO Learning becoming part of GP Strategies.
All learners deserve an education that is meaningful, relevant to their jobs, and applicable to the wider world. To traditionalists, this means equipping them with the knowledge and skills they need to complete tasks effectively day to day. However, the real lasting value of learning is its ability to change lives for the better. The most valuable learning solutions are those that liberate cohorts from places of insecurity and fear: those that enable people to share knowledge as learners so they can forge deeper links as human beings. They blend diverse individual perspectives to create collective understanding, all while maximizing engagement and sprinkling a bit of fun into proceedings. Such learning solutions are all delivered in a thoughtful, considered manner—one that takes into account accessibility needs, an organization’s cultural requirements, and—most critically—the learner’s life outside of work.
Of course, learning designers need to create engaging learning experiences, but this needs to be done within a framework that puts learner wellbeing first. This should be a learning designer’s primary concern if they are to effect transformative changes. Human-centric learning is based on the idea that the more a learner enjoys an experience, the more likely it is that they will feel increased motivation, engagement, and productivity at work. And if the effect of this positive experience is amplified exponentially, prospects for learner wellbeing begin to improve.
It’s appropriate then to consider an educational practice that centers on learner wellbeing and emphasizes self-actualization. bell hooks was a prominent social activist and educator whose work celebrates education as a practice of freedom, encourages critical thinking, and considers the intersections of race, gender, class, and (pop) culture. Particularly relevant is her theory of engaged pedagogy, which she would apply in her teaching practice. It’s a model of teaching that encourages students and facilitators alike to connect the knowledge they share with one another in the classroom to real-world experience.
This approach encourages intellectual and personal growth in a physical classroom. A so-called ‘transgressive’ model, it subverts instructional norms by seeking to establish a mutually beneficial relationship between teacher and student. This creates a learning space where knowledge is designed as a collective rather than imparted by a facilitator to the learners.
While bell hooks’ approach has been practiced in physical classrooms across the globe, we’re yet to fully understand how engaged pedagogy can translate into digital arenas. This shouldn’t surprise us too much, because a learner is unlikely to enjoy the same rapport with a teacher as an insentient piece of digital learning. But can a ‘teacher’s’ lack of sentience prohibit engaged pedagogy from taking place at all? This is becoming an increasingly salient question now online learning content is becoming more popular. For digital learning interventions that focus on some of the key social and ethical themes of hooks’ work, engaged pedagogy’s application in a physical classroom is an excellent reference point.
Here are three things that learning designers can do to replicate hooks’ model in a digital space, improve learner experiences, and boost learner wellbeing.
1. Provide Facilitator Support Via Video to Personalize the Experience
Digitally replicating the electricity of what hook describes as a liberatory classroom—particularly for large cohorts across multiple time zones—can be challenging. hooks’ model requires synchronous engagement, and facilitating this kind of virtual space is a significant undertaking. This is especially true when designing for learners who are used to face-to-face training delivered by facilitators who are as charismatic as they are credible. Such learners may be skeptical about online learning and will need reassurance from their virtual facilitators that their needs can be met. Digital facilitators can use video to record insights, questions, and feedback in direct response to learner activities.
This ensures there’s still a personal element to the learning experience even though learners aren’t in the same physical space. Seeing a familiar face providing commentary in a digital arena serves to reassure learners and replicate the kind of pleasant interactions many will be used to in a face-to-face environment.
2. Social Learning: Encourage Learners to Share Compelling Stories
Engaged pedagogy requires facilitators and students to share stories and experiences to create and shape knowledge based on collective experience. By forming meaningful bonds that avoid traditional classroom hierarchies, learners and facilitators are more likely to understand a topic holistically, rather than ‘by the book’. Consider setting up a virtual learning space where all learners can complete a course and then, as a supplementary exercise, share good practice examples and links to relevant real-life stories and case studies. It is this free-flowing exchange of ideas between all participants that can form meaningful bonds. And on a practical basis, high levels of learner engagement alleviate pressure on the facilitator because the forum will operate more like a cooperative.
3. Harness the Power of Pop Culture to Ground Complex Subject Matter in Accessible and Relatable Ways
Everyone wants to feel happy, and no one likes to feel that the same old dry training is being imposed on them unnecessarily. Engaged pedagogy challenges standard pedagogical practice in its incorporation and insistence on spontaneity and joy—particularly through the considered use of pop culture references. Why? Not only because, as hook said, “popular culture is where the pedagogy is,” but also because it’s a deeply ingrained element of our social lives, something that touches virtually everyone in one form or another.
For example, imagine you’re designing an eLearning course on ethics in molecular biology and complex gene-splicing processes. Suppose that you’ve completed user research to validate an assumption about your learner cohort: that they’re all at least familiar with the scientific themes of Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park. You could gladly—but of course judiciously—incorporate pertinent Jurassic Park references throughout. The primary task of a learning designer is to engage and educate their learner group. However, the risk of not exciting them at all far outweighs the risk of potential disengagement due to them seeing a velociraptor meme that articulates a learning point. Learning designers must be mindful that pop culture flexes to the vagaries of fashion. But they need to be even more mindful not to roll out the same old dry material that will disengage learners before they’ve even ‘hit next to continue.’
Final Thoughts on Boosting Learner Wellbeing
It’s clear that considerate digital learning designers can localize hooks’ model of engaged pedagogy in virtual spaces. This is important because, while more learning content is accessible digitally than ever before, many learners remain skeptical of the benefits of online training. To address this skepticism, digital learning designers can tailor the learning experiences they create to more readily replicate teaching methods in physical environments—specifically those observed in liberatory classrooms.
To boost learner wellbeing, learning designers should first strive to maximize learner engagement and normalize the notion of fun in learning content. Not only will this likely improve learner outcomes, but more pressingly it will help nurture personal and intellectual growth among learner cohorts and ultimately boost learner wellbeing.
Want to learn more about boosting wellbeing for your learners? Get in touch with one of our experts.
About the Authors
Victor Verster
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