Our world is in transition—and so is the L&D industry.

That makes insight on designing effective learning experiences for a hybrid work environment invaluable. Our 2022 Trends Report, which was based on survey responses from more than eight hundred L&D professionals, backs up the statement. Some 53% of L&D professionals said their virtual/digital designs were less effective than their face-to-face counterparts.

Ann Rollins, a solutions architect with The Ken Blanchard Companies®, is responsible for bringing client learning experiences to life. Here, she shares from her recent webinar tips you can use to create transformative learning experiences.

Q: What is the state of the learner?

Ann: The last two years have been difficult. People are fatigued by the pandemic. It’s been a tough road.

Our challenge is to find ways to reach learners wherever they are. But we L&D professionals had little preparation for this. Delivering effective learning for people outside the classroom was a topic that received little airtime in our degree programs or on the conference circuit.

Q: What do L&D professionals think about their digital offerings?

Ann: They want more learner engagement, more social interaction, more learning, touchpoints that happen over time, and more integration into the flow of work. And they want more accountability for learners to finish training. The propensity is there to push out microlearning over time that may not have a cohesive thread and hope that we get the intended result. It checks a few boxes from the perspective of delivering more content, but this doesn’t create behavior change or lead to greater learner accountability. More content isn’t the issue; it’s experience, context and relevance that will move the needle.

I’d sum it up like this: It’s very easy for people to begin a training program and not finish. It’s very easy for learners to get tired. They don’t want to read articles. They want to know “How does this help me at work right now?” and “What can I do differently as an immediate result of completing what you’ve created for me?”

Q: What’s the first step L&D professionals can take?

Ann: You need to consider who you’re solving for. Your learners may be in their cars. They may be in an office setting. They may be at a home office. They may be on the move inside a manufacturing facility. The job is to reach them in a way that resonates.

At Blanchard, we believe that having a really good feel for who our learners are allows us to start out in a more powerful position. Knowing who we are solving for starts with creating personas that represent learners before we start envisioning and designing an experience.

Q: Tell us more about personas.

Ann: Personas have been around for a long time, but more recently—say, in the in the last five years or so—we see more and more L&D practices creating and using them as a keystone to their design work. They let us imagine a real person who is going to use the learning experience we’re building for them. Personas help us figure out a learner’s goals, their challenges, what makes them tick, how they show up for work, and how they use technology.

Ultimately, personas let us get really close to learners. When we do, we can better understand their needs and can design learning based on how they prefer to learn. And that lets us build extraordinary experiences no matter where the learners are.

Q: Now let’s talk about creating learning journeys.

Ann: It’s natural to think about the journey as the next step. At Blanchard, that’s not quite how we see it. Before we envision a learning journey, my peers and I take a really good look at what we call our Five Critical Success Factors for a Successful Engagement.

Key Influencer Buy-In starts with getting the sponsor actively involved. Best practices include having the sponsor provide a video that creates relevance for learners. Key influencers introduce and socialize the experience to help learners make a connection between what they’re learning and organizational objectives.

Strategic Integration. A tight communications plan builds on the introductory messaging from leaders and connects learners to what you’re doing and why. The comms plan should be designed in a way that keeps learners moving along. It’s not a one and done.

When we’re designing the experience, it’s more than just thinking about what people need to learn. It’s considering what they need to be able to do in the bigger scheme and the organizational impact of these new behaviors. We know that if we draw learners to create their own relevance, they’re going to be more engaged and invested.

Q: What are some key takeaways for Systematic Delivery, Blanchard’s third success factor for a successful engagement?

Ann: Systematic Delivery is really defining a comprehensive learning approach. We want a framework that uses spaced and blended learning. This creates an experience that doesn’t have a finite beginning and ending. We’re layering information, activities, experiences, and social learning in a continuum. And we’re being really smart about how the modalities blend. That is critical. It goes back to those preferred learning methods and designing an experience that aligns with what learners want and need.

Q: Follow-Up & Reinforcement is the fourth of Blanchard’s factors for a successful engagement. Can you elaborate?

Ann: Follow-up & Reinforcement should be holistic. Consider a curated playlist that includes opportunities for learners to practice and refine new skills. Or it could be about sustainment that happens over time, like using a scripted chatbot that will ping the learner and resurface content, test their knowledge, and provide nudges and guidance for them to apply what they’ve learned and try new things as part of the sustainment strategy.  

Individual and group coaching are great reinforcement measures that allow us to build on the foundation and add rigor and accountability to the experience as learners are integrating new learning into new ways of working. Coaching also knocks down silos and helps learners create peer networks they otherwise wouldn’t have. It creates an additional pull for learners to continue to do the work. Coaching is crucial hallmark in many of the journeys we’re implementing for our clients today.

Simulations are another valuable option. They help with knowledge acquisition and draw learners to apply what they’ve learned in a safe environment. Simulations also challenge learners to show what they might do in a future workplace situation.

Q: Demonstrate Tangible Value is the fifth element for a successful engagement. Tell us more.

Ann: Start by asking the question What does success look like and how are we going to measure it?

Immediate surveys can measure a learner’s confidence and capability, or knowledge and readiness. But the real measures of performance change come later. We recommend a follow-up at 60 to 90 days out to see if the learning made an impact. You also want to discover what content, resources, and tools learners are using, how they are helping, and which are making the biggest difference for them.

For instance, if I am having goal-setting meetings regularly with my people, and I never had them before training, we can track that and see how having more frequent goal setting conversations is moving the performance needle at the individual level.

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Want to hear the rest of the conversation and take a deep dive into a selection of innovative learning journeys created by our Blanchard teams? Access the full webinar recording to see journey examples, hear about new ways to reach your hybrid learners, and get the tools and templates Ann shared with the community in the live event!

That’s not a big surprise to Ann Rollins, a solutions architect with The Ken Blanchard Companies.

“Most companies employ newsletters and email as the number one way to reinforce learning,” says Rollins, “even though they know having managers hold learners accountable is the best method.

“Including different people in the organization requires more mindshare, but we know it pays off. If you’re not engaging organizational leaders in this way, you’re leaving money on the table.”

Rollins also suggests focusing on two important aspects of the learner experience (LX) when thinking about reinforcement strategies.

“In the case of leadership development, leaders need both a mindset shift and skills. If you don’t take the time to set the context and get to the mindset of the leader, you’re just teaching them to fight fires. The challenge is how to deliver both in tandem. That’s where good LX design comes in.”

Rollins recommends that L&D professionals take a marketer’s approach and build a learning content funnel that starts with awareness at the top, knowledge in the middle, and skill development at the bottom of the funnel.

“At the top of the funnel, we might place a brief article on challenging assumed constraints. For the learner who wants to learn more, we would provide some additional resources.

“From there, the learner could access a collection of assets that layers on, builds, and extends the learning experience—it’s going from a first blush to dipping their toe into the middle stage of the funnel. If the learner wants some additional skill development and tools, they can sign up for a 90-minute session that is very specific to challenging assumed constraints, which is the bottom of the funnel.

“This is the opt-in approach. We use curated content to generate interest. And when people want to learn more, they have a clear path to a short-form, virtual experience and then a deeper dive option to get the tools they need.”

Would you like to learn more about best practices in design and reinforcement?  Join Ann Rollins for a webinar on December 15: Designing Effective Learning Experiences for a Hybrid Work Environment

Rollins will share strategies and techniques for successfully navigating the challenges of learning design in a time when people are fatigued with virtual life, fighting distractions, balancing priorities, and constantly multitasking.  Use this link to learn more.  The event is free, courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

An ongoing challenge associated with the shift to virtual classrooms has been a perception that current virtual learning designs are not as effective as the face-to-face designs they are replacing. In fact, 53% of the leadership, learning, and talent development professionals surveyed in the October/November poll conducted by The Ken Blanchard Companies felt their current virtual designs were less effective than their face-to face designs. That’s a challenge, considering that most in-person classroom design use has been put on hold while virtual design use has exploded.

In a recently released report on 2022 HR / L&D Trends conducted by The Ken Blanchard Companies, more than 800 leadership, learning, and talent development professionals shared how COVID has impacted in-person, virtual, and self-led learning delivery modalities. Respondents indicated:

• Prior to COVID, in-person instructor-led training was used 70% of the time, with virtual instructor-led training and self-paced elearning splitting the remaining 30%.
• During COVID that situation radically changed, with virtual instructor-led training taking the top spot with 57% of delivery, self-paced elearning at 24%, and in-person instructor-led training falling to 19%.
• Post COVID, survey respondents expect virtual instructor-led training will continue as the top delivery mode at 40%, in-person instructor-led training will rebound somewhat to 34%, and self-paced elearning will settle in at 25%.

Improving Virtual Designs

Ann Rollins, a solutions architect for The Ken Blanchard Companies, reviewed the report in preparation for a webinar on Designing Effective Learning Experiences for a Hybrid Work Environment.

“The report shows us that as a facilitator you can’t just show up and talk for an hour,” says Rollins. “The content must be compelling enough that people want to be there. They have to be able to put the content to good use at the end of the session, and the overall experience has to be very engaging.”

In looking at the top ways they would like to improve virtual designs, a majority of survey respondents identified more learner engagement, more social interaction, and more learning touchpoints over time as key improvements.

More integration with the flow of work and more accountability to finish was mentioned by 46% and 38% of respondents, respectively. And between 29% and 21% of respondents desired improvements such as easier-to-use technology, ease of access, better overall program quality, and more video content.

Putting the Learner in Control

From Rollins’s experience, the well designed learning experience of the future will be more of a toolkit.

“Learners either are directed or self-select when they see a performance outcome they know they need to deliver on. Have them listen to a quick podcast or watch a video from an executive to provide background. Then give them some tools to help them along—self-assessments with guidance for going forward or other job aids—and layer in some actual opportunities to practice and apply the skills they’ve learned.

“We’re giving learners a lot more control that way. It’s a different way of thinking. It’s taking the original legacy learning course, blowing it apart—literally dis-aggregating it into discreet, individual assets—and then building those assets into a new story.

“It’s putting the learner in control—but with some expert design to help them along the way.”

You can learn more about this year’s survey results by downloading the 2022 HR / L&D Trends eBook. And you can discover how to create more engaging virtual designs by joining Ann Rollins’s December 15 event, Designing Effective Learning Experiences for a Hybrid Work Environment. Both resources are free, courtesy of The Ken Blanchard Companies.

As I think about what it means to wrap up this year, I reflect on the goals I set for myself and my team and celebrate the progress I’ve made personally and professionally. (As an example, my 40^th year has been my best yet! If you want to know more, feel free to send me an email and I will share how shame has lost its grip on me.)

While looking back on what I’ve learned is certainly useful (I’ve learned a lot), I also realize that I need to open the aperture and think about the future. What goals shall I set in 2022? What should I prioritize for my team? With that, I add planning sessions with each of my team members in which we will create development plans, talk career, and dream big—even for a moment—before the new year hits and we are all back at work executing, checking things off, and making what we hope will be a meaningful difference in the world.

So, as a learning professional who cultivates the leadership and human skills needed to create an empathetic, inclusive, and high-performing workforce, what is your priority as you shift your focus to 2022? Really, it should be just one thing: your people. Just them. Not the solution, not the platform, content, technology, or modality.

Often when we think of priorities, we start to list out initiatives such as:

• We need a new leadership development program
• We must increase engagement in our learning platform
• We need to re-evaluate our content strategy so it’s more micro
• We must create a coaching culture
• We need to include more simulations to engage our audience

Every item above is likely a worthy pursuit—but in the current way it’s framed, each one becomes about the solution, not the humans we are desiring to impact. When we focus only on the what, we tend to lose sight of our ultimate goal, which can cause us to design and build something that misses the mark.

For example, there is huge value in re-evaluating a content strategy, but why is it necessary? What outcomes are you trying to achieve? How does a content strategy actually have meaningful impact on your audience? If you create short videos, podcasts, and interactive content without really understanding who is going to consume them and what value they’ll provide, you are simply generating more content for a platform no one touches.

So instead of listing your goals from a solution perspective, try to reframe them from the perspective of the individuals you want to impact. When you start with who and keep people at the center, you may rethink your solution. For instance:

Voluntary separations are increasing. Exit interviews indicate our leaders’ inability to build trust is a root cause. How might we help our leaders understand their role in engaging and retaining our best talent?

• The solution could be a leadership development program, but it could also be an initiative where data shares and targets select individuals for coaching.
• The solution could be an organization-wide focus on trust, including the behaviors people need to demonstrate to build trust with others.
• The solution could be an acknowledgement from senior leaders that all the change in the past two years has shifted our focus away from our people, prompting every leader in the organization to have re-engagement conversations with each of their people.

When the solution becomes about people and the outcomes you want to achieve, you’ll start seeing more energy from your team members. People are better able to connect the work they are doing to a purpose that is inspirational and meaningful.

So this year, first reflect on and celebrate the progress and the impact you have made on the lives of the people around you. Now pivot to the future and identify the individuals you want to have an effect on in the coming year. Then—and only then—determine the solution.