The Learning And Performance Ecosystem

More Direct, Effective, And Instantly Available

Today’s work surroundings is extra distributed and diffuse than ever earlier than. It can also be extra linked. Mobile units enable us to work virtually wherever. We converse digitally, meet nearly, and collaborate in on-line environments. Working remotely has been normalized throughout the international pandemic. At the identical time, we’re always coping with fast change, data explosion, and elevated variation and complexity in our work. These and different elements are driving the Learning and Development (L&D) enterprise operate towards an evolutionary leap that may finally change the way it operates, the options it delivers, and the impression it has on enterprise success.

Though nonetheless essential and helpful, the normal training strategy is now not sufficient. L&D should deliver an even bigger toolbox to assist studying, efficiency, and productiveness. Learning options have to be extra direct, efficient, and immediately out there—that’s, instantly related to the duty at hand, efficient at enabling profitable efficiency, and immediately out there to be used when it’s wanted. L&D should do higher at connecting folks, not simply with related instruction, but additionally with real-time solutions and knowledge, on-the-job steering, alternatives to share with colleagues, and pathways towards skilled improvement. For all this, a complete studying and efficiency ecosystem is required.

Ecosystem Defined

Too typically, folks consider a studying ecosystem as expertise. While enabled by expertise, a studying ecosystem is rather more. It is an surroundings that integrates working and studying seamlessly. It connects folks with data, steering, studying, colleagues, and specialists in ways in which optimize particular person efficiency and organizational productiveness.

In nature, an ecosystem is outlined because the connections between dwelling organisms in a shared surroundings. The surroundings should present the best mixture of air, water, warmth, and light-weight to assist the ecosystem and assist it thrive. In enterprise, a studying and efficiency ecosystem might be outlined because the connections between professionals in a shared work surroundings that helps studying, efficiency, productiveness, {and professional} improvement with the best mixture of content material, processes, and expertise.

For staff, the ecosystem gives mechanisms for studying, skilled improvement, data, steering, diagnostics, instruments, and different sorts of job assist. For L&D professionals, the ecosystem is an even bigger toolbox that requires an expanded set of processes, content material, expertise, and, maybe most significantly, an expanded skillset. The ecosystem requires L&D to be masters of efficiency evaluation, problem-solving, a broad set of design ideas and capabilities, and strategies for measuring impression. This is the primary in a sequence of articles that may try to deal with the assorted sides of the fashionable studying and efficiency ecosystem.

The 6 Components Of A Learning And Performance Ecosystem

A contemporary studying and efficiency ecosystem locations folks within the middle and surrounds them with six elements, every representing an strategy to Learning and Development: expertise administration, efficiency assist, data administration, entry to specialists, social networking and collaboration, and structured studying. These approaches might be utilized individually or utilized in any mixture to supply a complete answer for enhancing human efficiency and productiveness.

Figure 1: The six elements of a studying and efficiency ecosystem

1. Talent administration
   Talent administration options can embody many options. The most related to the educational ecosystem are profession improvement instruments, resembling competency-based self-assessment, 360 suggestions, and private skilled improvement plans.
2. Performance assist
   Performance assist options present data, diagnostics, and steering within the circulate of labor. Examples embody resolution assist instruments, chatbots, clever coaches, digital adoption options, and Augmented Reality options.
3. Knowledge administration
   Knowledge administration gives a searchable repository of extremely related, curated data within the type of a data base or wiki. Content can embody insurance policies and procedures, details about services, high quality requirements, pattern work outputs, instruments and templates, market intelligence, competitor data, and rather more.
4. Access to specialists
   Having this faucets the data and expertise that’s distributed all through a corporation. These options join the individuals who have to know with the individuals who know. They embody skilled directories, skilled session providers, and experience location and administration options.
5. Social networking and collaboration
   Social networking and collaboration allow folks to study from one another by sharing data, expertise, and perception. These can embody communities of apply, dialogue boards, blogs and micro-blogs, and collaboration instruments.
6. Structured studying
   Structured studying options train expertise and data with alternatives for apply, evaluation, and reinforcement. Solutions embody instructor-led, digital, and web-based programs, immersive and adaptive studying simulations, tutorial video games, and microlearning.

Your group’s studying ecosystem could not deploy all six elements, not less than not straight away. Every ecosystem challenge provides alternatives to develop the ecosystem.

Two Examples

A multinational enterprise gear firm engages its L&D division to assist with its strategic transformation to government answer promoting. L&D gives a complete answer that features a efficiency assist answer to help gross sales representatives with every step of the answer promoting course of; a data base containing market analysis, competitive evaluation, and gross sales collateral to help in preparation for buyer conferences; a training workshop enabling gross sales representatives to apply promoting to retired CEOs; and an internet mentoring program.

Knowledgeable affiliation engages its L&D group to extend member recruitment, retention, and engagement. After some information gathering and evaluation, L&D identifies a set of options demanded by its membership. It aggregates the affiliation’s casual studying content material in a centralized data base and applies a member-focused metadata taxonomy to tag the content material, making it extra simply discoverable by way of search. L&D then applies a machine learning-based suggestion engine to attach members with content material more than likely to be related to them personally. Next, L&D redesigns the training and assessments associated to its skilled certifications right into a set of smaller micro-credentials.

Conclusion

Modern studying and efficiency ecosystems supply a robust set of instruments and approaches for skilled Learning and Development. The studying and efficiency ecosystem mannequin locations folks on the middle and connects them with data, instruction, steering, and different sources to assist them study and carry out their work in methods which are extra environment friendly and efficient than ever earlier than. Organizations can develop their ecosystem capabilities one answer at a time, gaining government assist and credibility from the success of every challenge.

Image Credits:

Image copyright Steve Foreman and Marc Rosenberg, Ph.D., 2014.