What Is Extended Reality?

Extended reality (XR) is a catch-all term for virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), all of which include using a device to overlay interactive information or present virtual information in a 3D capacity.

• VR: Offers a fictionalized space where the user wears a headset to enter and interact with the digital world through controllers or hand tracking
• AR: Presents interactive, just-in-time, or as-needed information that is overlaid on real-world items
• MR: Uses elements of both AR and VR on-site

The Rising Adoption of Extended Reality

We are starting to see more adoption of VR and an uptick in development for augmented programs and the metaverse. More tools are coming to market, more people are becoming familiar with the technology, and the cost or barrier of entry is dropping. As more people are working remotely, companies are asking themselves how XR might help bring people together and are exploring how they fit into their IT and learning environments.

Applications of Extended Reality in Learning: VR vs. AR

Many companies struggle when deciding which technology to use for which purpose. As we’ve been developing learning programs with elements of VR and AR, we’ve seen strengths in a few keys areas and applications.

Strengths of VR

VR is a great opportunity to allow someone to practice a skill they are unfamiliar with. Learning teams and designers can place the user into a fixed environment to learn about and practice a concept.

VR began in the learning environment as a way to onboard and orient new employees, but it has since become more nuanced. It can be an effective environment for both hard- and soft-skills adaptations and assessments where learners are demonstrating their ability to perform a task to open a valve, manipulate objects in a sequence, practice conversations with customers, or role-play.

Strengths of AR

The type of information offered through AR tends to be more valuable at the point of performance or at the moment of need. Learning teams and designers can create AR training and supporting information like interactive job aids to help a person needing a reminder during a task, to phone a friend or coach to collaborate or help with a task, and more.

The Efficacy of Extended Reality for Learning

Adoption of XR technologies has increased recently, with more XR tools available and learning programs happening in the industry, which is leading to more measurement. PwC recently published a study showing that learners were exponentially more engaged during VR experiences. One conclusion pointed to the VR headset creating an environment that is more focused with less opportunity for people to multitask. In addition, learners were more likely to complete an activity from beginning to end.

Additional studies and our own programs at GP Strategies are showing similar conclusions, supporting the case for XR learning programs and their effectiveness.

Challenges of Implementing Extended Reality

XR programs are not delivered the same way as eLearning, where one of the assumptions is that the learner has a laptop or desktop computer to access the program.

To deploy XR programs, companies need to build or supply some of the components, from acquiring headsets to the logistics of distributing and managing inventory. There are even options to rent headsets.

And more creative solutions are being developed every day. For an escape room experience during one of GP Strategies’ customer forums, we designed an experience that was distributed in a hybrid approach, where it could be accessed by headset or by desktop so learners could interact with the virtual host and VR environment in a few ways.

Another challenge is that companies need to orient learners to the technology itself, such as learning how to use the hand controllers and getting comfortable with the headset for the first time. Afterwards, it helps to debrief, talking about the experience and drawing parallels between the real world and the fictional world.

Developing for Extended Reality

Developing XR experiences requires new skillsets that will grow and develop over time. There are learning curves developers will go through, and the more teams use XR, the better the experiences will become.

In addition, it’s important to keep a balance of what is taught in the metaverse and virtual worlds with what is taught outside of them. Designers need to be mindful of the length and breadth of content. At the moment, many of our XR learning experiences range from 5 to 20 minutes and are used as part of a broader learning journey or learning experience.

The Future of Extended Reality

It’s unclear whether the future will mean new employees get a company-issued laptop and a company-issued VR headset. What is clear is that the technology is booming, the devices are more affordable, and AR toolkits are built into our phones. Being able to pull up a wearable device and use it on the job will become more and more expected by the learning audience. And as devices become more innovative and easier to use, obtain, and distribute, XR will become a more common and integrated tool within the work environment.

At the moment, we are in the infancy of XR. We are scratching the surface of the technology and its capabilities. Designers are getting better at developing XR experiences, and the tools are becoming more sophisticated to deliver them. We’ve seen companies rebrand around it. The question for the future is not whether the technology will be a part of the work environment, but to what degree.

For more on extended reality:

Podcast: XR and the Future of Workforce Transformation

Blog: Future Workplace: Viability of Virtual and Augmented Reality for Business and Learning Professionals

About the Authors

Tom Pizer

Director of Learning Technologies for GP Strategies Learning Solutions Group, has over 20 years of experience in the technical digital media field. He has an extensive background in a variety of creative and technical media, including digital media specification, production, testing, and implementation. During his career, Tom has created, specified, directed, and/or managed hundreds of hours of educational, instructional, and entertainment-based media and has served clients in a wide variety of markets including the federal government, trade associations, commercial organizations, and educational institutions. A key aspect of Tom’s responsibilities includes staying abreast of emerging technologies and in-tune with the latest development methodologies, standards, and practices. To this end, he takes part in monthly advisory meetings for several of GP Strategies clients to ensure that their courseware is of the highest caliber and meets rigorous development requirements. Tom is also the technical lead for several proprietary GP Strategies technologies that are designed to reduce overall development time while increasing the creativity and diversity of GP Strategies body of work.

“How can we provide business performance improvement support to our retail partners and distributors when on-site visits to their businesses are limited or restricted?”

This is one of those questions I hear a lot in our retail technical work. Successful companies continually monitor their business performance against a set of standards based on their brand values. Customers expect these standards will be met every time they do business with the company’s retail outlets.

As workforce transformation specialists, we rate meaningful quality standards as paramount to high-performing organizations. The free and easy site access manufacturers once relied on to support their partners is now less straightforward than it used to be, placing customer satisfaction, quality, and safety at increased risk.

Traditionally, industry subject matter experts from independent organizations or accrediting bodies would visit a workplace in person to assess performance and provide corrective actions, supported by coaching and mentoring, to help improve the business. We’ve been providing these services for decades—and we still do, in regions and circumstances where it’s appropriate.

But even after the pandemic’s onset, the business at hand never changed. Companies must still meet standards and improve performance, whether through audits, inspections, certifications, or stand-alone learning initiatives. The game changer has been the way we approach that work now, which has proven to be even more effective than traditional methods.

If your organization is experiencing similar challenges, ask yourself these questions:

• How do we ensure that our partners are meeting their obligations to the brand?
• How can we verify that our partners are meeting our standards if we can’t visit all of their facilities?
• Is there a better way to conduct standards assessments, one that saves time and money?
• Are we making the best use of the latest technology in achieving standards compliance?   
• Can compliance be achieved more simply in this rapidly changing environment?
• How sustainable and scalable are our current delivery methods?

It’s important to challenge traditional thinking, not only because it’s exciting, but because it’s a vital and reliable path to innovation. As you work to not only maintain the performance of your retail outlets but improve processes for greater efficiency and effectiveness, consider a few of these points.

• The practice of remote or virtual assessment is just as effective as short, intensive site visits in terms of performance evaluation. Additionally, the cost is typically a fraction of the traditional travel budget for field personnel.
• Coaching and corrective action can be conducted during the assessment process rather than as separate events, resulting in faster completion rates and better performance results.
• Retail outlet managers prefer to hold assessment-related discussions during quiet times so as not to affect production. Flexibility in scheduling and availability is key.
• Letting local teams self-assess using technology is often more efficient than on-site visits, resulting in greater program cost savings. Those tech solutions can be purpose-built or adapted from existing applications, depending on needs, timing, and budget.
• The verification process becomes transparent with greater consistency across large networks.
• Verification can be conducted from anywhere, allowing greater access to specialized expertise, a reduced travel schedule for senior subject matter experts (some of whom might rather retire or leave than continue traveling), and faster project completion.
• Video, photo, and data recording eliminates subjective or divergent interpretations of the subject matter. It also allows less experienced field team members to contribute with confidence and standardizes reporting as real-time digital business-intelligence assets.

There are nearly as many technology options for sale as there are logistical issues to solve for, and no one solution can address all needs. That’s why we find it helpful to remain agnostic when it comes to tech platforms—and why we make it a point to research all those options in depth and create strong working relationships with the folks who are best positioned to help us support our clients.

Of course, it’s often the case that a company has already contracted with a tech provider, and there’s a need to “make it work” with the platform in place. Fortunately, several of those strong working relationships I mentioned earlier are with the people behind the most widely used solutions in any given industry.

The big takeaway is this: the lack or limitation of physical access to your local stores or facilities shouldn’t hamper your ability to guarantee consistent performance support to your partners worldwide. Moreover, the technological options available (when combined with informed strategic thinking and solid tactical implementation) make it likely you can meet your business objectives while bolstering return on investment, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

About the Authors

Lawrie Martin

Lawrie’s career spans over 30 years, initiated by completing an automotive trade qualification in Australia and progressing through the retail industry to become recognized as an advocate for tackling skills shortages locally and internationally. Lawrie is passionate about making a real difference to industry, business, and people by empowering them to realize the potential to achieve their goals. Over the last 10 years at GP Strategies, Lawrie has developed strategies to overcome automotive and technical challenges. He supports our clients and teams by designing and delivering technical learning innovation worldwide.

Many organizations are experiencing an increase in turnover. With every employee departure, a piece of creativity, knowledge, skill sets, and company culture is lost. If organizations aren’t providing clarity in workforce models, sometimes worsened by some hybrid work models, it can create a disengaging experience.

With all the technology and data at our fingertips, organizations need to implement an effective strategy to capture and identify data that matters and use it to reduce skill gaps. Such a strategy will give business leaders the power to create a workplace of opportunity to keep employees aligned and engaged.

The Evolution of Connected Technologies

Historically, organizations have used a variety of technologies and different talent systems to accomplish the wide range of tasks and processes needed. These include human resources information systems (HRIS), learning management systems (LMS), project management platforms, operating software, and more.

These systems were rarely integrated, or they acted as disparate systems and only a few individuals had the ability to manually bring the data together. . . if there was time. The reason for disparate systems was the processes were seen as standalone. From payroll and time management, recruitment and talent acquisition, performance management and career development to learning, these have all been separate HR functions managed by different teams.

Technologies are evolving. These systems along with new platforms are starting to speak to one another and are bringing processes and the data from each together in new ways. This is opening the door for new opportunities, where the processes are more connected and where one process is clearly driving the demand for another.

Using Connected Technologies to Create Opportunity

Business leaders can harness the connectedness of these technologies to help improve organizational performance and simultaneously create opportunity for their employees. It depends on clearly identifying the problem and needs along with aligning and executing to solve them.

Business and Talent leaders need to start at the front end by answering key questions:

1. Organization perspective:
   1. Which job roles and skills do we need to stay competitive in the market?
   2. Which of our people match up to those job roles and skills?
   3. Are the people in the current job roles meeting demand?
   4. What specific skill gaps remain?
   5. Once we identify those skill gaps, what can we do to close them and ensure proficiency?
2. Employee perspective:
   1. How should employees explore available opportunities?
   2. How should employees understand the opportunities available to them within the organization and how they match up to the skills required for those opportunities?
   3. How should we design learning to close any skills gaps for those opportunities?

By answering these questions, business and talent leaders can map out where their organizations fall relative to the skills and competencies required to meet business demand, and they’ll understand the process for identifying and closing skill gaps.

Using Connected Data for Informed Leadership

Once organizations have a strategy and process to bring data together across systems and develop a competency and skill map for their organization, leaders will be able to provide greater clarity about the opportunities their employees have and where they may need to recruit to fill gaps.

Leaders will need to use this information to create a vision for the company and align to move in that direction. This will allow leaders to have a clear path and communicate information such as what roles are available, what skills are required for those roles, and what resources are available to upskill for those roles based on current skills.

From the employee’s perspective, they’ll know which specific skills they need, how they currently stack up against those skill requirements, and any existing gaps they should address by upskilling to fill organizational role opportunities.

The Need for Demand-Based Learning

Traditionally, learning has been a little rigid from an organization’s curriculum. While this type of training does have its uses (e.g., compliance training), this method runs the risk of offering training to employees already skilled in particular areas.

This situation has been changing for some time and is shifting toward determining what the organization needs to learn and when it needs to learn it. When business leaders determine the direction of an organization and can map their employees against current and needed skillsets, learning teams can more effectively design and deliver learning to develop and reinforce those needed skills.

Creating a Workplace of Opportunity

As HR technologies work with one another more effectively, bringing the organizational employee data together to make informed decisions and provide clarity is a critical need. By mapping the job role skills requirements against the employee’s skills proficiency data, leaders across the organization will be able to provide that clarity to each employee.

Integrating a connected technology strategy to inform leadership, map an organization’s capabilities, and design learning for needed skills will create a workplace of opportunity.

About the Authors

John Plusquellec

Vice President of Human Capital Technologies

John Plusquellec is the Vice President of Human Capital Technologies and has been active in the HR Technology consulting business for over 20 years. He and his organization specialize in supporting client’s HR transformations, from implementing new technologies to redesigning business processes across all industries to improve business performance.

No organization plans to develop surveys just to have response rates that are less than desirable. While doing research and planning to help one of my clients improve response rates for their Qualtrics surveys, I was struck that the overall strategy was quite similar to my background and experience in Talent Acquisition—namely, to ensure you truly evaluate any and all processes from the perspective of those who will be exposed to them. This keeps us honest in terms of balancing the type and amount of information we, as surveyors, wish to collect with creating an experience that facilitates candid feedback from a relevant sample at a robust rate of response. In other words, evaluate your survey with the process context and your desired demographic(s) in mind, and honestly answer the question: “Would I complete this survey?”

The employment application processes relevant to my daily consultative and configuration work are excellent examples of this premise. As prospective employers, we would like to know as much as we possibly can, as early in the process as possible, to support our hiring decision. However, if we design an application that is incredibly lengthy and detailed, we run a considerable risk of reducing our completion rate to a point where we do not have the pipeline needed to support a quality hire, or even a hire, at all. Similarly, whether directed at employees, applicants, customers, or prospects, surveys must strike an effective balance between data collection, scope, and likely completion rate. Remember, the most detailed questionnaire in the world provides NO benefit when left unanswered.

In addition to the mere scope of information requested, we should also focus on four key questions to optimize response to the survey:

1. How is the survey presented?
2. Who is the survey presented to?
3. How is the survey organized/configured?
4. What happens once the survey is completed?

Let’s look at each in a bit more detail:

How is the survey presented?

How the survey is presented is formally called mode in survey terms. Perhaps the most important tenet here is keeping that mode aligned to your desired respondents. To again draw an analogy from my recruiting work, you do not hold a job fair for 5 a.m. breakfast cooks at noon and expect many to show up on time or at all on their first day, or at least not as many as would have attended had you held the event at 5 a.m. If your desired audience is tech savvy, then QR codes on receipts that lead to survey pages on mobile devices might be great, but perhaps not with demographics less familiar and comfortable with these tools. Another important aspect is to provide mode options whenever possible and avoid assumptions by piloting various modes and evaluating their performances on survey completion. Lastly, strike while the iron is hot, so to speak, and present the survey within a relevant process context either within or immediately following the process on which you wish to receive feedback.

Who is the survey presented to?

Next, who is being asked to take the survey, or the sample, must be considered. First off, your response rate will improve as you target the survey to a greater degree, as customers and/or employees are not apt to provide feedback on topics with which they’ve had no experience. For example, targeting a survey on the new onboarding process to employees hired in the past six to twelve months would provide a much higher response rate than if it were sent to the entire workforce. Also, try to track response rate by respondent demographic, and take into account loyalty, survey frequency, and a focus on providing positive experiences for first-time respondents to support higher completion rates for future surveys.

How is the survey organized?

Additionally, the way in which the survey is organized should be thought through to mitigate any barriers to completion as much as possible. Redundant, random, and confusing content, along with poor user interface (UI) choices, such as lengthy, unorganized drop-downs or misaligned question-and-answer fields, can significantly limit response rates. One exercise you may consider is to craft the report output you desire and work from that starting point when developing your survey. This may help you to focus on including just the questions necessary to support your informational goals and also help to organize the questions in a manner easily consumed by your target demographics.

What happens once the survey is completed?

Finally, there is the issue of what happens as a result of the survey, or at least the perception of this by those presented with the survey. There are the obvious results we see in our lives as consumers—complete the survey and get a free donut or be entered in our contest. Others simply state that the purpose of the survey is to improve “X” for those it is being presented to, thereby making it in their best interest to respond. We tend to see more success on consumer-focused surveys than perhaps those focused on employees. Organizations must be careful to manage expectations regarding potential outcomes from data collection and to take all necessary steps to make employees feel secure in the fact that their responses to any survey will not impact their standing as employees.

Overall, remember that only data that has been collected can be analyzed and acted upon, so response rate must be a key consideration in any survey project. Make sure you honestly evaluate how well you have aligned the data you want to collect and how willing and able your target demographics are to provide that information. A mile walked in their shoes may lead you to higher response rates and more actionable data.

For more on surveys:

Employee Survey: Does Your Strategy Measure Up?

6 Tips to Get Your Measurement Mojo Back

About the Authors

John Bestgen

John has over 20 years of HCM experience with a focus on Recruiting processes, analysis, and optimization. This includes solution development, system implementations, and ongoing improvement and support. John’s has the ability to provide a holistic, automated solution supporting the entire Recruiting process, including best practice solutions based on client experience with some of the largest and most successful organizations in the world . He currently resides on Cape Cod for the summer and is an active musician in his spare time!

Examples of Ambiguity in the Workplace

Ambiguity refers to a state of uncertainty. Ambiguity makes it difficult to make decisions or take action because something can be understood in more than one way. Some common examples of workplace ambiguity include unclear roles and responsibilities, vague communication, and inconsistent instructions or processes. When combined with constant changes in the workforce, these issues can create a breeding ground for chaos and inaction that results in a duplication of efforts, loss of returns on critical investments, and a culture that’s resistant to organizational change. 

Organizational ambiguity is frequently compounded in larger companies when several business units operate independently. While that autonomy can empower teams and help inspire innovation, it can also create a network of distinct, overspecialized systems and processes. These disparities come to light when companies go through enterprise-wide transformation. In these situations, big organizational changes can result in pockets of resistance among stakeholder groups that slow progress—or bring it to a screeching halt.  

The good news is that while ambiguity is common, there are strategies and tactics that can help deal with ambiguity and even create opportunities for an organization to thrive. 

How to Manage Ambiguity Effectively

Be Willing to Ask Difficult Questions

One of the most undervalued steps to overcoming organizational ambiguity is to ask questions. This may seem obvious and simple, but the practice is often overlooked. The saying, “You don’t know what you don’t know,” is as true now as it ever was, and gathering the right information is crucial to gaining clarity and making better, more informed decisions. It’s also important to ask questions that are outside the box. Often, the solution ends up being a creative one that wasn’t part of the original scope or plan.  

Asking questions—often difficult ones—can be the catalyst that sparks momentum in a project and clears up ambiguity. It can lead to the discovery of critical connection points and help innovate ideas that clear the way for better and faster decision making and organizational clarity and growth. 

Cultivate a Culture That Supports Innovation

The pulse of an organization is found in its culture, the values and environment where transformation either thrives or fails. Many companies are hampered by a culture that doesn’t allow for the scale of change their leaders desire. Where there are large pockets of resistance and a weak change muscle, ambiguity creates friction. To overcome this, leaders must work to promote a culture of innovation. When an organization embraces a growth mindset and has a strong change muscle, ambiguity can be seen as a welcome opportunity. 

Leadership and Ambiguity: Best Practices

Here are a few ways to encourage leaders and employees to adopt a growth mindset and develop the organizational change muscle:  

1. Talk about change and ambiguity transparently, not only highlighting the positives, but recognizing that change is hard, and resistance is normal. Most employees just want to be heard; they will likely engage more when they feel understood.  

2. Recognize failures or setbacks as opportunities to grow. This will help employees feel comfortable asking questions and proposing new ideas.  

3. Experiment with new approaches and new ways of working. Brainstorm as a team, then try out a solution. Discuss the results and us them to help drive continuous improvement.  

4. Admit that you don’t have all the answers. Reach out to experts for help and learn from them. Bring them in and collaborate.  

5. Lead by example and demonstrate a growth mindset in your daily work. You don’t have to have the job title of a leader to be one. 

Identify the Right Sponsors and Influencers

Make connections throughout the organization. Ambiguity often manifests because of missing links between the right people, with the right level of influence and authority. 

Do not leave important decisions up in the air for extended periods; that creates unnecessary confusion and ambiguity. Instead, establish sponsorship and identify decision makers at the beginning of discussions—especially in the case of an enterprise change involving multiple stakeholders. One way to gain shared understanding is to guide your sponsors and decision makers through an intent-clarification exercise with those stakeholders. 

Ensure everyone has a voice and agrees on the purpose, vision, and goals of the initiative. Then discuss these questions: 

1. What is it? 

2. Why are we doing it?  

3. Why are we doing it now? 

4. What if we don’t do this? 

5. What is changing? 

Once everyone is on the same page, make sure sponsors and key influencers understand their roles and have a clear action plan for supporting the change. Employees will look to them as role models during the transition, so if the change is not perceived as important to the sponsor, workers will not make the time and effort to embrace it. 

Continue to Set Goals and Build Momentum

Set incremental goals. In a large-scale implementation, it is easy to lose sight of the end goal during a prolonged timeline. To gain momentum and maintain excitement, celebrate small wins along the way and think of creative ways to increase adoption and utilization. 

One way to do this is by piloting programs with small groups. Test the plan with a small group and get participants’ feedback! This helps to get a feel for how the program will be received by the larger group. Pilots can provide great ideas for improvement and help to identify any points of resistance or friction so you can start mitigating them early. Use that input to tailor the solution, change management approach, and communications plan for optimal results from your target audience.  

Ask for feedback and use it to assess progress against your metrics at each step of the way as you continuously look for areas to improve. Feedback is one of the most valuable tools in working through ambiguity and striving toward your goals. 

Uncover and Address Sources of Resistance

When so much effort has gone into creating practices specific to individual business units, expect resistance when the enterprise seeks alignment with an overall solution. Not all employees will want to transition from familiar and trusted processes. Resistance is often an indicator that more work remains in making the case for change. For some, the status quo is comfortable, and the benefits of adaptation just aren’t apparent. As you work toward the right approach for addressing resistance, understanding why it exists is half the battle. The most common causes of resistance are: 

1. Mistrust and lack of confidence 

2. Emotional responses 

3. Fear of failure 

4. Poor communication 

5. Unrealistic timelines 

A thoughtful strategy and purposefully executed communication plan will help employees understand the necessity of change and the value it will bring. Comprehensive measures (supported by a trusted and experienced sponsor) to mitigate the root causes of resistance will help reduce its effects. It may be unrealistic to believe all resistance can be prevented before the effort commences, but keep this in mind; the lower the resistance is before, during, and after the change effort, the higher the chances are for success. 

Embracing Ambiguity for Success 

Ambiguity can disrupt an organization by paralyzing your employees’ ability to move forward and perform their roles with confidence. However, with the right mindset, strong leadership, and a culture that allows employees to ask tough questions, ambiguity can foster powerful outcomes that propel your organization forward. 

In a sense, ambiguity is a bit like clay. It may be resistant at first, but with effort you can shape it into just about anything. In the space between intention and clarity, there’s room to improve, innovate, and iterate solutions for positive change. So, when your organization faces complex problems, lean into the discomfort, and look for those opportunities to thrive through the ambiguity. 

Learn more about how we can help you manage disruptions to drive more successful change. 

About the Author

Michelle Crowe

Michelle is a Business Consultant at GP Strategies who brings meaningful strategies and solutions to companies undergoing a transformational change. She works with enterprise leaders and managers to help drive, support, and sustain a change to lead to successful adoption within the organization.

Carl Ramsey

Carl Ramsey is a certified project management professional (PMP) and retired senior military officer where he spent over 30 years leading troops and solving problems. He brings that drive and experience to GP Strategies as a senior business consultant with over 14 years collaborating with clients to solve their most wicked problems while ensuring their current practices produce the greatest business value.

Kelley Rowland

You can find transformation everywhere. From how we travel via apps, to how we cook using YouTube, and even down to how we exercise using smart watches and trackers—it’s all around us, ubiquitous in our daily lives. Yet, the concept of transformation is nothing new in our world, and for Learning & Development (L&D), it’s no different. As businesses and job roles evolve, so does the way we learn and how we adapt to these shifts.

More recently, we have seen a rapid change of pace in the context of workforce transformation. There was a sharp rise in online training, which is making a lasting impression, but what does this mean for L&D and L&D functions? What do we really mean when we say “it’s crunch time for L&D?”

The Democratization of Learning Is Here!

Put simply, it’s time for L&D to reposition itself by being as relevant and as valuable as possible. Experience and performance have intersected in ways we have not seen before. Learners can curate and create their own learning content. By doing so, they can pick and choose what is relevant and engaging to them, and do so in a timely way. They are learning effectively and efficiently by themselves. So where do we as L&D functions come in? If they can do this on their own, what benefit can we provide?

Firstly, we must streamline the two elements of experience and performance to ensure we enhance the learning experience while showing real business impact. As a learning function, you should be asking yourself, what use are you to the organization you work for, especially in regards to the learners themselves?

Interestingly, when leaders were asked what the top challenge may be for learning functions by 2025, 43% said it would be the need to upskill their L&D team members. As the learner becomes more autonomous and accountable for their own development, L&D functions must become proactive toward and facilitate this democratization of learning by ensuring they can add value while allowing the learner to remain self-directed. Why would a company pay an L&D function to take people out of the flow of work to attend a training course when they could find the information they need from a short YouTube video? Unless you are offering a way for people to do their jobs better and faster—which is what people in general strive for—you may be missing the point of why L&D functions exist.

The Shifting Demands of the Learner

In a world of hyper information and cognitive overload, we are increasingly in search of memorable experiences in our day-to-day lives: things that leave a lasting impression in our hearts and minds. Now, we are seeing this need reflected in the workplace, too. For L&D, there is a growing need for learning experiences to be told as a story with an arc: something sticky, interesting, and personalized to increase engagement and deliver key messages with impact. For businesses to achieve this, they have to get to grips with their people. Who are they? Where are they? What motivates them? What demotivates them? What are their constraints? What has meaning and importance to them in their working lives, and even their lives outside of work? Before you can create any effective solution, these questions and more need to be asked; otherwise, you will be blindly building content that clearly misses the mark. This goes back to the fundamental point that the learner must be at the heart of everything we do; understanding them and their needs is crucial.

Data can help alleviate the struggles that sometimes come with this task. It can help us rationalize content, and tell us what it is that learners are asking for. You can use their interactions to inform your future decisions on what assets and materials are relevant and in demand, as well as recognizing materials that aren’t so effective. As learner and workforce performance data becomes more available and accessible, insight and value in these sources of information must be demonstrated in order to prove the effectiveness of solutions and how their outcomes align with strategic goals.

L&D as the Disrupting Force

So what can we do to adapt to the changes that are taking place? Well, first and foremost, we need to create disruption—in the right way, of course. We need to challenge the norms that are still there. Structured learning is a prime example. Classroom learning, live or online, is less likely to be a default choice of modality, especially to the modern learner. It tends to be less flexible, and learners don’t have the best opportunities to revisit what they have learned once the session is over. It does, however, provide a richness in social interaction that the digital world sometimes struggles to replicate.

Ultimately, the focus has to be on what works best for your learner. Prioritize that over leader preferences. Enhance that experience and cater to them while simultaneously providing useful resources, moments to coach, and other complementary assets to create seamless and enjoyable learning journeys. L&D should be the disrupter within its own business area to create and innovate. As we’ve mentioned, we are in a data-driven and date-informed age, so make sure you learn how to interpret it. What have your learners searched for? What have they spent the most time on? How did they react? Likes or thumbs down? Use that data for your own continuous improvement.

Remember, relevancy is king.

As the world faces a reskilling emergency, L&D functions must evolve and adapt to remain relevant – if they don’t, they simply get left behind. Outsourcing an L&D partner can be an effective strategy for transforming your workforce and can help ease your transition into the new world of work. It can help you achieve your goal of adding real learner and business value. It can help you keep pace.

Still unsure if it is crunch time for L&D? Ask yourself, are you and your team ready?

If you need support to take on the new world of work, let’s talk: http://www.gpstrategies.com/crunchtime.

About the Authors

Stephen Egri

Head of Solution Design EMEA

“There is no such thing as a bad question, it’s just a matter of how you ask it.” With a passion for design, technology and an eye for too much detail, Stephen is a believer in the creative we all have inside of us. A listener and a problem solver, life is about making sense of the situations we find ourselves in and creating a way forward that makes things better in what we do each day. Stephen has spent his entire career in learning and performance with a background in IT, Operations and Consulting and currently is our Head of Solution Design in EMEA.

Failure can become our most powerful path to learning

if we’re willing to choose courage over comfort.

—Brené Brown

Organizations are demanding more from learning teams. Ways of working, customer needs, and competition are constantly changing. Business leaders are looking to learning and HR partners to help build adaptability and agility into the workforce and organizational structures. All industries are having to do something different from what they did in the past. It’s critical for learning leaders to choose courage over comfort by learning new skills, rethinking design and delivery, and creating new ways to enable performance improvement.

The future of learning is to become a more integrated strategic partner to business leadership.

Across GP Strategies, we put together seven learning trends based on what we’re seeing with our customers and partners that learning teams should consider adding into their strategies for 2022.

Learning Trends

Learning Trend 1: Enabling the Hybrid Workforce

The dynamics of how, when, and where we’re working are changing. When we think about this year and what’s next for the future of learning, the focus must be on enabling the hybrid workforce and those who support that workforce. The key to support the hybrid workforce is the concept of intentionality. This means learning practitioners shift how they design learning for what the audience needs and how the organization approaches those needs.

Working virtually isn’t new. Learning has had a virtual component for some time, from virtual instructor-led training (VILT) to web-based training (WBT). But organizations are transforming the concept from what was once an accommodation to an intentional strategy they now embrace at scale. When working and learning virtually, employees used to bear the responsibility of making up the differences in productivity. Companies are now working through how to design for a remote and local workforce, creating a more shared responsibility.

A challenge of hybrid working and learning is designing to drive productivity in a way that doesn’t lead to burnout. Learning practitioners need to help establish equity in the experience for those who are at a distance and those who are in the room. It’s not about having one session for virtual and one session for local or in-person. Learning needs true hybrid experiences with both virtual and local.

When WBT started, many organizations wanted to move all training to WBT. Although WBTs have many learning benefits, relying only on them creates issues. In a similar way for hybrid, it’s about how we work and perform together, finding the right mix, and bringing in enabling technologies and strategies to work for all learners. It’s critical not to simplify learning to focus on only virtual or in-person learners. Learning practitioners need to create a robust, equitable experience for all participants.

Learning Trend 2: Evolution of Learning in the Flow of Work

We’re starting to get more visibility and access into workflow data with the rise of employee experience platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Viva, and Salesforce Slack. These platforms are broader than learner experience platforms; they provide a connection point between learning, work, and talent engagement.

These technologies help create virtual rooms with collaboration and productivity tools. Learning teams need to take advantage of these tools and design and evolve how learning can be used with them effectively. Instead of employees leaving their work environment to learn, these tools bring learning into the work environment.

Using calendar data, performance data, and more, these programs can help predict what tasks employees need to know or learn, and when. They also provide opportunities to access and build performance networks, which can create opportunities for crowd-sourcing solutions to problems, micro-coaching and mentoring moments, and more. However, it’s important to be mindful of collaboration overload. Learning teams need to design with a careful balance so these programs don’t become draining, overwhelming, and counterproductive.

Learning Trend 3: Focus on Upskilling for Learning and Development

One of learning and development’s main goals in any organization is to build programs to upskill employees. But it’s important to also look inward. In 2022, it’s critical for learning practitioners to upskill themselves. Learning practitioners need to deepen their skillsets and move outside of comfort zones. The following are four examples:

• Data analytics and measurement: Develop skills to set up a measurement architecture that is repeatable and helps answer complex business and performance questions.
• Learning technology and cloud-based platforms: Learn how to use user data, share it securely, and get the most out of existing and new systems.
• Business and commercial acumen: Integrate best practices and understand from other areas of the business to outline how we compete and how we win.
• Marketing and communication skills: Implement skills to improve enrollment, build adaptable learning journeys, help employees take ownership, and get employees to understand the system.

Skills like these will help to both prove learning worked and improve future learning while building in adaptability as demands change. These skillsets will continuously evolve and it will help to start learning new skills now.

Learning Trend 4: Expanded Application of Immersive Realities and Play with Purpose

Virtual reality (VR) has been one of our learning trends for some time and it is becoming more attainable and viable than ever before. The technology has evolved, and it’s time to evolve the design.

VR and extended reality (XR) offer ways to explore difficult concepts and tasks in safe environments. The immersive and collaborative learning aspects are moving into more soft skills applications, including team-building escape rooms, problem-solving, critical thinking, and teaching empathy and communication.

The VR and XR space will evolve quickly in the next year. As organizations build custom virtual spaces, designing these experiences with storytelling principles will help organizations develop them and learners connect with them.

Learning Trend 5: Designing for Inclusion as a Competitive Advantage

Accessibility should not be an afterthought. In the United States, 26% of the population and 19% of college students self-identify as having a disability. Ensuring equitable, inclusive, and accessible programs starts with identifying any barriers that prevent a learner from accessing information or performing job functions. Once learning teams identify the barriers, they can shift the way they provide access to learning opportunities.

Accessible design doesn’t have to be a major undertaking. There are small steps that can help, and implementing them at the beginning of the design process will have a large impact. Accessible design should be collaborative throughout the journey to make corrections as issues arise.

As part of the idea of learning trend 2, building performance networks is an excellent opportunity to provide accessibility and to crowdsource capabilities across the entire employee base. These networks can increase connection through micro-coaching and mentoring. Bringing people together with different experiences and experience levels creates opportunities to learn, develop, and apply skills in new ways.

Integrating accessible technologies, strategies, and resources is critical to engage the entire talent pool.

Learning Trend 6: Rise of the Boundaryless Academy

Corporate academies and universities are coming back, but not just for the internal employees. Companies form these academies by bringing in industries, higher educational institutions, and other corporate entities together to build relationships, fill skill gaps in advance, and potentially reach target new hires before they have even applied for a position.

This idea flips the concept of protecting learning and intellectual property to become a tool to educate, attract, and retain talent. The boundaryless academy brings in both internal and external expertise to reach across traditional boundaries. Some organizations are even incorporating accreditation and are designing these academies with micro-credentialing and certifications.

Learning Trend 7: Sustainable Integration of Innovation as a Capability

Not everything needs to be as innovative as the assembly line, but with the rate of change increasing regularly, organizations need a process for sustainable innovation that builds agility. When putting a process in place to explore and test innovative solutions, organizations can move from reactive to proactive drivers of positive change.

The following are three key considerations when establishing a process for innovation.

1. Set realistic expectations for innovation. Challenge assumptions and create a set of realistic goals to achieve.
2. Integrate a scientific, repeatable process with testing or pilot projects.
3. Adopt new strategies and technologies with deliberation and care.

The Future of Learning

The first rule of a modern learning experience is that learners must take accountability for the learning journey and learning practitioners need to foster that idea. Top-down learning won’t satisfy the needs of the entire workforce. Learners need to feel like part of the process. Learners need to be empowered.

To empower learners, learning practitioners need to design and deliver learning with more open-ended journeys in mind. Programs need to deploy learning and resources in creative ways for when and where they are needed. And these methods and needs will constantly evolve.

By building new skills, designing for modern learners, and implementing a process for innovation, learning teams will build the programs of the future.

If you found these helpful, Matt Donovan, Chief Learning and Innovation Officer elaborates on these learning trends and the future of learning in his recent webcast, delivered with our friends at ATD.

About the Authors

Matt Donovan

Chief Learning & Innovation Officer

Early in life, I found that I had a natural curiosity that not only led to a passion for learning and sharing with others, but it also got me into trouble. Although not a bad kid, I often found overly structured classrooms a challenge. I could be a bit disruptive as I would explore the content and activities in a manner that made sense to me. I found that classes and teachers that nurtured a personalized approach really resonated with me, while those that did not were demotivating and affected my relationship with the content. Too often, the conversation would come to a head where the teacher would ask, “Why can’t you learn it this way?” I would push back with, “Why can’t you teach it in a variety of ways?” The only path for success was when I would deconstruct and reconstruct the lessons in a meaningful way for myself. I would say that this early experience has shaped my career. I have been blessed with a range of opportunities to work with innovative organizations that advocate for the learner, endeavor to deliver relevance, and look to bend technology to further these goals. For example, while working at Unext.com, I had the opportunity to experience over 3,000 hours of “learnability” testing on my blended learning designs. I could see for my own eyes how learners would react to my designs and how they made meaning of it. Learners asked two common questions: Is it relevant to me? Is it authentic? Through observations of and conversations with learners, I began to sharpen my skills and designed for inclusion and relevance rather than control. This lesson has served me well. In our industry, we have become overly focused on the volume and arrangement of content, instead of its value. Not surprising—content is static and easier to define. Value (relevance), on the other hand, is fluid and much harder to describe. The real insight is that you can’t really design relevance; you can only design the environment or systems that promote it. Relevance ultimately is in the eye of the learner—not the designer. So, this is why, when asked for an elevator pitch, I share my passion of being an advocate for the learner and a warrior for relevance.

Back in the day, eLearning started as a way to get information out to a large audience, and it proved to be a useful method for tracking course completion. In the early days, it came in the form of a CD-ROM. People would run the disc and go through a course. This was especially useful for learners who couldn’t always have access to an instructor.

But the approach to the early courses were very book-like. We grew up with textbooks, and so the courses offered followed this idea with clicking the “next” button being synonymous with turning the page. You open the course, start in the beginning with a table of contents, work your way through the material, and by the end you understand American history, Shakespeare’s Hamlet, or the importance of corporate compliance.

And that’s still how companies often approach e-learning today. It’s something we start at the beginning and go all the way through. And, at the end, we’re supposed to know something we didn’t know before.

There were and are benefits to this approach, if information is your primary goal. Compliance training was an easy candidate, and the book approach to eLearning was a comfortable way to give out information that you could be assured was consumed.

Over time, eLearning moved from those simple page turners to interactive screens and interesting graphics and began to involve the learner in the experience—to a point. That point seemed to focus everything on the concept of “interaction.” If the learner was interacting with the content, they were learning (we thought), and for many years the industry seemed to settle into the idea that if a learner could click something onscreen, they were learning. We’ve found interactive learning doesn’t always translate into actual learning.

The Evolution of eLearning for Customer Need

The definition of eLearning has evolved and expanded due to customer need. Learners want smaller bits of learning? We’ll make it in bite-sized chunks. Learners want communities where they can discuss the learning? We can deliver an online experience complete with conversations in discussion boards.

Instructional designers are addressing these needs and expanding our designs further to answer questions like:

• How do I create an effective learning experience for different moments in that learner’s journey, such as when information is new, or when it needs to be applied in the flow of work?
• How do we make learning portable and effective?
• How can learning be combined and recombined to create new experiences?

One of our customers, for example, thinks of learning like individual LEGO® blocks: different, reusable, pieces of content brought together in various combinations to form customized overall experiences.

Today, as always, eLearning needs to be designed and delivered to meet the diverse needs of the learner. So, what is evolving now? Learners expect to receive learning and information in easily digestible methods “just-in-time” to meet their needs.

eLearning for the Modern Learner and a Variety of Needs

One key way eLearning has changed is it has shifted some of the responsibility onto learners, who increasingly demand relevant experiences. Just as they rely on the internet for more and more information, learners want to be able to control how, when, and where they access the learning needed for their jobs. This brings up the concept of accessibility for all learners. As we learn more about the evolving needs of the workforce, eLearning must evolve to keep pace, and we must bring learning to everyone who needs it.

In response to ever-evolving learner demands, learning professionals are taking a page from other areas such as their marketing partners or technology partners and thinking more about modern strategies to help inform employees where and how to access learning content.

eLearning Is No Longer a Closed System

It has always been the job of an instructional designer to know the learner and deliver what’s best for them. The growth of the learning field means that learning professionals must gain new skills, keep abreast of new technologies, and have a current understanding of the learner (micro preferences, on-the-go mobility, accessibility, etc.).

We used to think our job was to create a course where the learner logs into the learning management system (LMS), moves through the entire course from beginning to end, and then logs out. Learning accomplished!

Instead, let’s consider learning experiences that are closer to a molecular structure, which can be recombined into something else, either through our broader design or by the learner themselves. Let’s take a step back and think about breaking the boundaries and changing the way we traditionally view eLearning as a closed system.

Instructional designers need to think of ways to remove barriers to learning—whether that barrier is an LMS or the limit of our own belief in what is possible. The designer needs to consider ever-evolving goals. It is less about learning information and more about applying relevant, meaningful learning whenever, wherever, and however it is needed.

About the Authors

Judy Lowder

Learning and Development (L&D) professionals can sometimes find themselves in situations where their solutions fall short of the desired learner experience due to errors in content or other inconsistencies in the learning solution. Results that are not aligned with intentions quickly erode the value of any strategic initiative and can ultimately result in a significant backlash. We all like to think that perfection is possible to achieve in any important effort that we take on. Unfortunately, perfection can be a desired destination that is extremely difficult, and arguably impossible, to reach. When inevitable imperfections find their way into our prized solutions, conducting a thorough Root Cause Analysis (RCA) can enable L&D organizations to take a proactive position towards continuous improvement, phase out errors, and bolster the prestige of solutions.

L&D can have a direct impact on minimizing the implication of the error through an in-depth analysis and successfully implementing the necessary corrective actions identified in a well-conducted RCA.

Example of an RCA in Action

Routine Recovery to the Aircraft Carrier

Everything was routine during our flight. The skies were clear. The seas were calm. Our assigned mission was a success. Our only remaining task was to land our A-6 Intruder on the deck of the USS Enterprise safely. Steve, my Bombardier/Navigator (B/N), and I enjoyed subtle change of colors from the late afternoon sky as we orbited overhead the ship. Since we still had an hour left of daylight, we anticipated that our recovery to the ship would also be routine.

We then received a curious call on the radio from the ship’s tower, “Lizard 506, switch to your Squadron’s maintenance frequency.”

As Steve made the switch on the radios, we looked at each other wondering what this was all about. Steve checked in to Maintenance, “Lizard Maintenance, this is 506. What’s up?”

The Maintenance Officer then gave us the news, “Hey 506, we are going to ask that you do a straight-in approach to the ship. We suspect that a large flashlight may have been left in your aft compartment bay. We recommend that you minimize your maneuvering to prevent any possible damage to your flight control cables.”

As we each did a double-take, Steve acknowledged the instructions, “506, roger. We’ll switch to approach for the straight-in.”

With this, I gingerly set up for a smooth, straight-in approach to the aircraft carrier. As I carefully worked my way into position, I noticed the clock on the instrument panel showed that it was 7:20 p.m.

I then commented to Steve, “I bet they noticed the issue during the shift change tool inventory.” Steve agreed, “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Thankfully, Steve and I successfully recovered to the ship without any incident. After we landed, a maintenance crew discovered the missing large flashlight in the aft compartment bay of our aircraft. A potential aircraft accident was avoided.

As L&D practitioners, we don’t always learn about the impact training interventions have, but they can have significant implications. It’s critical to design learning to improve the organization’s metrics, and it starts with fully understanding and analyzing the root causes and behavior changes.

Analyzing Failure

It’s human to make mistakes, and we live in a complex world where mistakes are a natural product of our behavior. So, what can we do? The L&D community does not have the same level of consequence as carrier aviation necessarily; however, for both large- and small-scale L&D operations the results can still be significant. When these issues arise, conducting an in-depth analysis can be instrumental in helping minimize the chance that the error will happen again.

In his book, Black Box Thinking, Matthew Syed provides his perspective on learning from failure:

“Failure is thus a signpost. It reveals a feature of our world we hadn’t grasped fully and offers vital clues about how to update our models, strategies, and behaviors. From this perspective, the question often asked in the aftermath of an adverse event, namely ‘can we afford the time to investigate failure?’, seems the wrong way around. The real question is ‘can we afford not to?’

What Is an RCA?

RCA is an in-depth analysis of why an unexpected error occurred. The types of root causes to these errors often fall into several categories that include flawed processes, flawed systems, improper deviations from processes, or flawed tools.

The goal is to leverage the RCA process to minimize the likelihood of making the same mistakes over and over. Effective RCAs look at the incident from a holistic perspective and, in many cases, the mistake is merely a symptom of a broader issue.

Why Should We Conduct RCAs?

Learning professionals oversee the creation and delivery of content that ultimately is consumed and applied by learners, business partners, and other colleagues. When something is wrong, it is our nature to fix the most immediate issue of concern. Once the emergency is properly addressed, it is easy to shift seamlessly back to normal. To truly establish a system of continuous improvement, we must look beyond the tactical aspects of the issue and address it from a strategic perspective.

Here are three reasons why L&D organizations should conduct RCAs.

Errors Impede the Ability to Provide Valuable Experiences that Help Learners Improve and Grow

As L&D professionals, we constantly strive for a valued experience that enables learners to overcome impending hurdles successfully, allowing them to improve and grow in their role. Inadvertent flaws in our carefully designed solutions erode the learner experience, increasing the challenge of realizing this growth. RCAs allow you to fully explore the nature of these errors and establish processes to prevent repeating them in the future.

The Complexity of Learning Tools Makes It a Challenge to Prevent Errors

The learning landscape is constantly changing. Software solutions that include learning management, content authoring, social learning, mobile learning, and virtual classrooms all have their own individual quirks that can lead to errors. Rather than allow the many challenging subtleties of these solutions to manifest themselves into unwanted errors, RCAs provide a proactive means to highlight these subtleties to ensure their proper use going forward.

Learners Are Turned Off by Flawed Content

In many business environments, the number of consumers for content can quickly reach into the tens of thousands and beyond. As a result, the consequence of a content failure can be significant. Smaller organizations that do not operate on this larger scale still have stakeholders that can become frustrated with flaws—especially ones that are repeated. Successive problems can have a significant effect on the level of confidence of stakeholders. Over time, data collected from RCAs can point to trends and gaps in process. Over time, learners’ confidence increases as these gaps are subsequently corrected.

How to Conduct an RCA

A well-conducted RCA requires the right mindset that strives to look beyond the immediate issue and allows the crucial details to bubble up. A solid approach leverages the following key steps:

Gather All Relevant Details

Comprehensive data can make the difference in accurately determining the true root cause. During the early analysis, it is important to understand the true scope of the issue:

• How was the error discovered?
• How many learners were affected?
• How was technology involved?
• Did any existing processes/procedures come into play? How were they followed? Who are the owners?
• What are the actions that occurred after the error was made?
• Did any unusual pressures (time constraints, staffing challenges, etc.) play a role?
• Has this issue ever happened before?
• What was the level of experience of the people involved?
• Were multiple organizations involved? How do they coordinate the work?

When interviewing the people involved, it is important to establish an open atmosphere. The goal of the RCA is not to place blame. Instead, the goal is to see what truly caused the issue and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.

Analyze the Root Cause and Corrective Action(s)

Once all the details are collected, time should be set aside to analyze the data. What are the contributing factors that led to the incident? Did the actions before, during, and after the incident help mitigate the error, or did they make things worse. How robust are the processes? Were there any challenges to properly leveraging the processes or procedures?

Taking a holistic view of the circumstances enables a more accurate determination of the root cause and any necessary corrective actions.

Review and Communicate the Results of the RCA

Once completed, the draft results should be reviewed with the key stakeholders and relevant individuals involved. This review is crucial to ensure that the data was accurately interpreted and that no other uncovered details exist. Revisions are common at this stage. Once the final report is complete, a broad communication should be provided to the affected areas of the organization(s) to ensure sufficient awareness. A record of the final report should also be filed and made available that allows people to call it up in the future.

Enabling Excellence Over Time

As L&D professionals, we strive to enable performance excellence within the organizations we support. We celebrate when our solutions deliver measurable results to the business. Likewise, we are disappointed when the high standards are missed due to circumstances that are ultimately within our control. Despite our best intensions, we are susceptible to errors. If we do not proactively go after the mistakes that stand in the way, our solutions suffer. As I have learned from the aviation community, a proactive mindset regarding errors can enable excellence over an extended time.

Reflection on Our Routine Aircraft Carrier Recovery

The next day after our “routine” carrier landing, I met up with Mike, the First-Class Petty Officer who had been working on our jet prior to the flight. Mike let me know that he had been the one that left the flashlight in our jet. He had no explanation to the error, other than he just screwed up. The look on Mike’s face showed me that this was a painful conversation. I asked Mike, “Did you catch the issue during the shift change tool inventory?” He said, “Yes, it was then I recognized that I left the flashlight in the jet.” Had it not been for the tool control procedures that were designed from the result of the US Navy’s commitment to RCAs, our “routine” flight might have had a significantly different ending.

Although the level of consequence between carrier flight operations and strategic L&D initiatives are significantly different, the approach to minimizing future errors is valid for both environments. Rather than glossing over missteps, L&D organizations can realize long-term, exceptional performance by applying RCAs to them. Eliminating future mistakes may be impossible; however, we can have a direct impact on minimizing the implication of the error through an in-depth analysis and successfully implementing the necessary corrective actions identified in a well conducted RCA.

About the Authors

Greg Renner

Your digital DE&I learning program is no longer shiny and new. Employees are torn between remote and office working, and learning professionals are stuck there with them: do they stay the course with digital training programs, or should they go back to doing what they know?

The pandemic may have finally forced organizations to go digital for their learning, but that move wasn’t easy for everyone. Some things were done in a rush. Much of it was done without taking advantage of the full potential of digital learning formats. Many made do with slideshows and notes hastily dropped into an authoring tool.

This approach was fine in a pinch, but just as the world at large no longer sees the novelty in a video call catchup with friends and family, your digital inclusion learning approach needs to be better if it’s going to remain an important pillar of your approach.

Because just as the future for many workers won’t be either remote or in-office, but a hybrid of the two, the answer to “virtual” or “face-to-face” is, of course, somewhere in between. Blended learning and the concept of flipping the classroom will be particularly important in the transformation to come.

Here are four steps that will help you shake things up and stay relevant.

1) Create Learning That Serves Sociological Needs in Addition to Technological Ones

Our staple learning format has become live-virtual sessions. Using a range of technologies to deliver not just instructor-led learning, but a blend of other approaches such as digital whiteboards, breakout rooms, polls, videos, and live chat. Trying lots of different things in this way really helps to serve a range of learning styles—a far cry from that “slideshow to authoring tool” pipeline.

But even this leaves room for trying something completely new! During 2020, we decided to repackage our live-virtual allyship, race awareness, and inclusive behaviors material into a “virtual escape room” format. Functionally, it’s a live-virtual environment and we even begin the session as we would any other Zoom session.

However, we gave it a narrative twist: the session gets “hacked”, and the participants must work together in breakout groups and learn about the content through the activities within the room. However, more than that, the extent to which they demonstrate inclusive behaviors during the course of the session is something we’re able to discuss during the debrief.

This kind of approach helps you make the concepts so much more tangible. Ultimately, the virtual escape room idea was a perfect fit for the circumstances we found ourselves in: everyone was really feeling that need to connect with people and with others.

2) Think About How You’re Going to Give Hybrid Workers the Same Quality of Experience

Hybrid working is a reality for many organizations now. On any given day, there could be some employees in the office and some working from home. It’s likely that your hiring practices have changed along with people’s working patterns. For example, you may have teams that are more dispersed than they previously were. All of this makes mandatory, in-person training less realistic—enforcing it is unlikely to win you any friends.

At first glance, the solution to this might be to run the in-person session and give remote workers access to it via a way to dial in. But is this giving them a good experience? Surely not! They’re missing out on the conversations in the room, and getting a less engaging experience overall.

The key here is to work with facilitators and create a more even playing field for both in-person and virtual attendees. Removing the instructor from the classroom and having them dial in helps achieve this. The instructor will be broadcast across all venues, but you’ll still have a facilitator in the classroom and another on the conference platform who will promote discussion and relay questions back. This gives both modes of working the same access to the expert. This thinking should be applied to other aspects of the session. For example, if you run a poll, you could use an app so all attendees interact in the same way.

3) Embrace Flipped Learning and Help Your Learners Apply New Knowledge

There will always be a place for trainers and subject matter experts. However, we also know that many people actively seek out and learn things through platforms like YouTube and even TikTok. Ignore this trend of enthusiastic learners perfectly conditioned for video learning at your peril! As a result, trainer and SME roles have to evolve into a new space—namely, flipped learning.

Flipped learning is the idea of reversing the roles of classroom events and embedded resources, and in a sense, reversing the roles of trainer and learner. The resource should be given before the event rather than after, giving the learner the opportunity to learn the foundational information before the live virtual or face-to-face session.

4) Focus On Getting Flipped Learning Right

This process will require a cultural shift. You may reasonably ask “people don’t work for free, so won’t they just skip the resources?” Possibly, but only if you continue to treat the resources as an optional add-on. Set the agenda for a new inclusion training culture by scheduling the pre-work in people’s diaries just as you would the training session. Let people know why you’re doing this, why it’s a requirement, and why they should be excited about it.

Another area of concern may be how easily accessible your resources are to employees in the field or on the shop floor, without reliable Wi-Fi or a company-allocated device. A microlearning approach could be more suitable for this audience. You could break down larger topics and distribute them to personal devices via chat programs such as WhatsApp, or show them in team huddles and other group gatherings ahead of the training session.

Successful flipped learning also relies greatly on the skills of your trainer, who needs to be able to facilitate conversation and ensure everyone participates. This isn’t to say that people should be forced to contribute verbally if they’re not comfortable doing so, either because of their personality or because culturally that expectation isn’t there. However, the trainer should look for opportunities to bring in a wider range of learners via other channels such as whiteboards and chat boxes throughout the session.

Flipped learning has a two-minute rule: every two minutes, there should be some form of interaction with the learners. Voting, reacting, participating in a poll, etc. It’s about providing a wider palette of ways to interact with the session and trainers using those interactions to keep the discussion going.

It’s Time to Flip Thinking as Well as Classrooms

By using the best tech suitable for hybrid environments and focusing on giving learners the best experience whether they’re in the room or in front of a screen via a flipped-classroom approach, you stand to build a more personal, authentic, and practical learning environment.

About the Authors

Nic Girvan

A leader of impactful and unique learning innovations, Nic Girvan is GP Strategies DEI, Director of Learning and Delivery. With over 20 years’ experience working within Learning & Organizational Development, Nic blends her expertise in adult learning theory and general psychology to create hard hitting and inspirational interventions, that promote culture change and transform working environments. As a previous award winner for innovative instructional design, Nic is driven by the desire to lead her learning services to deliver truly impactful and ground-breaking DEI interventions. Not one to shy away from ‘unusual yet successful’ learning shake ups, Nic inspires her services to break industry boundaries and move beyond ’tick box training’. A truly inclusive and authentic leader, Nic works closely with both instructor-led and digital design teams to ensure her services offer not only return on investment but go beyond client expectation. A committed thought leader for effective training efforts, she regularly publishes blogs, articles, and thought pieces to promote the importance of effective training investment and transformative DEI upskills.