THREE GOLDEN RULES FOR LEARNING THAT WORKS
For all our clients, we drive relentlessly towards delivering the best possible solution for the available budget.
Often we are required to design a project that delivers a highly personalized learner experience at significant scale—reaching hundreds, potentially thousands, of individuals.
This presents a challenge: How can we deliver at this scale without losing the power and value of intimate, human-to-human connection?
To achieve this, we believe that an effective learning architecture must follow three unbreakable “golden rules”.
1
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
70% of workplace learning comes from on-the-job experiences.
Using the principles of action learning we construct interventions around real work in real time.
Skilled facilitators are assigned to project teams working on real challenges facing the business. The facilitator is empowered to intervene with carefully structured open-ended questions. This can be done in person or online—and at scale, through developing an internal cadre of accredited "player-coaches" from inside the business.
Our goal is to encourage a mindset of deep reflection and enquiry, helping participants develop and apply the skills of open-minded, assumption-challenging and humble leadership. This is a critical component of the adaptive leadership required at all levels in today’s highly unstable and unpredictable work environment.
2
LEARNING FROM
EACH OTHER
20% of learning at work comes from social interaction with peers, co-workers, bosses and mentors.
Our digital platforms and in-person interventions are designed to maximize opportunities for peer-to-peer learning. This is achieved through break-out groups and structured discussions (both live and online) mediated by expert facilitators.
Online and mobile learning design ensures that learnings from individual and group cross-functional experiences are documented and distilled (typically via video "war stories"). This content is made available on demand across the organization, through an ever-expanding library of bite-sized “micro-learning."
In this way, learning is operationalized and leveraged. The digital platform functions as a “force multiplier” to maximize and sustain long-term impact.
3
KEEP CONTENT FRESH & RELEVANT
In order for a large-scale solution to have maximum impact it is essential to generate a regular and frequent infusion of new and engaging content. News, commentary, stories and case-studies can be sourced and published to support learning and keep it fresh.
Learn Interactive's “newsdesk”-style approach deploys experienced journalists, working with approved contacts inside our client's organization to source the most relevant and exciting content. In this way valuable experiences are rapidly shared across the enterprise, and a positive culture of learning from each other takes root.
Ultra-lean media production processes, coupled with in-depth content knowledge and world-class storytelling skills enable us to deliver truly “sticky” content that people genuinely enjoy—and keep coming back to.
A HIGH-TECH/HIGH-TOUCH JOURNEY
The learning experiences we design are anchored in real work in real time, blending technology-based learning with a high-touch, personalized experience.
This High-Tech / High-Touch learner journey can be delivered at significant scale. This is achieved by developing internal capacity for coaching and mentoring which in turn serves to foster a truly effective and sustainable coaching culture throughout the organization.
From learner cohorts featuring first-time supervisors through to the executive level, we design differentiated learning experiences, incorporating a rich and powerful mix of modalities:
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Online & mobile learning (synchronous and asynchronous)
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Face-to-face group work (“action learning”)
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Peer learning circles (“social learning")
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One-on-one coaching
OUR UNIQUE METHODS PROVIDE HIGHLY INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCES FOR “THE MANY” AS WELL AS “THE FEW.”
The slideshow below (8 slides) provides an overview of a typical learner journey:
A SUSTAINABLE COACHING CULTURE
A critical part of our offering is to develop and upskill internal “player coaches”. These individuals are offered structured training to act as moderators (for group discussions) facilitators (for action learning) and, where appropriate, coaches (for one-on-one follow-up).
They will also be encouraged to make themselves available in a less formal capacity, providing a non-judgmental sounding-board for those coming up behind them in the organization.
"50% OF SENIOR LEADERS BELIEVE THAT THEIR TALENT DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS DON’T ADEQUATELY BUILD CRITICAL SKILLS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CAPABILITIES."
(Source: Harvard Business Review, 2019)
This critical role will be fulfilled by individuals selected from the next (aspirational) layer of management. In this way, our clients are able to embed a sustainable coaching culture in the organization—a truly significant competitive advantage in terms of retention and productivity of employees.
Participant numbers for non-differential programs can run into the hundreds or even thousands. It is the enablement of the “player coach” role that enables high quality learning experiences to be delivered at scale, with meaningful impact far into the future.
OUR MODEL FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING
A successful learning project has a lot of moving parts. As the diagram shows, client delight is always front and centre of everything we do.
OUR LEARNING PHILOSOPHY
There are a lot of theories about learning, and we're deeply invested in the cognitive science behind what makes learning effective. That said, much of the research on learning can be boiled down to a few common sense items: learners need to be motivated and they need to feel that they have some input and control in the process of learning (agency).
What's more, learners learn best from each other through guided social interaction within a peer group or community of practice. And finally there's the most important guiding principle of all: storytelling. As a species, we human beings learn most effectively from stories, not instructions.
The diagram below represents a summary of what we consider the most important elements that contribute to the success of a well-designed learning project.
