Workplace Learning: Unnecessary Compromises? Part 2

Recap

• In part one of this blog we looked at the limitations of current workplace trianing modalities, namely: eLearning, In-person, Custom VR, and Off the Shelf generic VR.
• Although each have a role to play in the overall workplace training offering, it's clear that there are no solutions which offer none or few compromises for training which is:
  • Engaging and effective 
  • Scalable and digital first
  • Offers content specificity and flexibility
  • Represents sustainable value within an L&D budget 
• Although there have been piecemeal solutions to some of these compromises, the underlying flaws of these methods are so engrained we believe there’s limited meaningful evolution that will occur without a new approach.

Is there another approach?

• Clearly what's needed is a new way to think about this challenge. A point of view not based on compromises but one based on combining the strengths of current solutions to create a new category of workplace training solutions. And, importantly, one that unleashes the full potential of the training creator.
• What if there were solutions which combined the strengths and had none of the compromises of the current approaches? 
• It sounds too good to be true, but thanks to the confluence of a number of new technologies and broader L&D trends, a new category of workplace training is emerging.

It's called the Digital Experiential Training category, and has a handful of market ready solutions to offer. Let's explore what makes this new category so valuable.

The Digital Experiential Training category

• This new category of workplace training offers solutions which aren't just an incremental improvement on certain aspects of the current state. Solutions in this category are radically different, they eliminate, or substantially reduce, all of the limitations with current solutions. In practice, that would mean it would offer the L&D professional a way to provide training which is:
  • Engaging for learners and provides effective outcomes
  • Fully customisable and specific to the organisational context
  • Scalable across geographies and hybrid work models
  • Standardised and easy to align with policy and processes
  • Convenient to create, edit, deploy, and manage, ideally an internal capability 
  • Represents real value to the organisation

What does this look like?

• As the name suggests, solutions in the DET category will be 'digital first' and provide training experiences which are experiential in nature. Given these requirements, any solutions seeking to take advantage of this new category would need to have the following essential elements: 
  • Self-authoring Only: 
    • Solutions relying on outsourced effort will never be as cost effective, flexible and responsive as an internal capability.
  • Future-proofed: 
    • Solutions in this category will need to be 'future-proofed' and recognise the reality of adopting new learning technology; this means allowing for the creation of valuable content today, but ensuring that that same investment is still relevant and impactful tomorrow. 
  • Experiential by Design:
    • Experiential training has a strong background in the learning sciences and it suggests that adults in particular learn best by playing an active part in the experiences they partake in. This means digital training content must be seen as an experience that the learner: A) feels they are a part of, and, B) has control of key outcomes that occur. Given this requirement, interactivity and immersion become essential to delivering effective training outcomes.

• • SME Empowering:

• • • Our view of the new category sees the empowerment of SME's across an organisation as key to unlocking the complete value of a training solution. Conversely, any solutions requiring specialist internal skill sets will be of limited value for all but the largest organisations.

Sound interesting?

Facilitate will shortly release a much more in-depth paper on the topic of workplace training solutions and their compromises. There we will expand on the new training category called Digital Experiential Training, providing more evidence of the underlying logic, what it looks like in practice and examples of organisations who are already using solutions from this category. Stay tuned.