Reece USA

Rob Zell

Organizational Learning Advisor

Designing Learning around Business Outcomes

I coach my team to begin with the business outcome, the desired behavior change, and the employee experience. When the business comes to the team to ask for a learning solution, we work to think in terms of interventions, not training.

We look for the simplest intervention that will address the learning need, solve the performance issue, and engage the learner. I think the best interventions are designed to do exactly that and nothing more. The strategy is about asking the right questions about the desired behavior change, the learning environment, and the learner before designing any solutions.

Matching Learning Interventions to Performance Needs

I ask my customers to clarify what they want the learner to do differently as a result of this training. Often, our customers have only considered that they want training on the topic. By asking the behavior question, we create a different conversation.

To create behavior change, we know what they need to do, but we also need to start to understand better what they need to know to behave differently and what they need to believe to behave differently. Armed with that information, we can decide if the intervention requires an online course, a job aid, some sort of live practice with feedback, an informational video, self-guided reading, or some combination of interventions.

Extending Learning beyond Formal Training

Managers are critical to the learner environment. They need to create safe spaces to learn that reward putting learning into practice, even if it’s less than successful on the first try. They need to model a learning culture as early adopters of users of learning tools, and model what it’s like to fail and try again.

“To create behavior change, we know what they need to do, but we also need to start to understand better what they need to know to behave differently and what they need to believe to behave differently.”

The L&D team can only create a 10 percent solution of formal learning. Managers create environments for the 20 percent social learning, and the 70 percent of learning that takes place when learners roll up their sleeves and practice in live environments.

Redefining L&D through AI-Powered Learning

AI is a game-changer for a couple of reasons. First, it makes short work of the time to develop content. The time to go from tech specs to learning outline to online courses is now a matter of hours, not days. The need for L&D professionals is even greater because we can serve more customers than we could before.

Our role shifts from creating rough drafts to reviewing and managing quality. Second, AI allows us to rethink the learning-teaching stack in our organizations. I think using AI in combination with resource repositories, online scheduling, and user tracking creates an environment in which learners can ask the agent to do things like give them a quick overview of a process, help them with a difficult conversation, or recommend a sales approach, all of which will come from resources in the repository.

If the learner wants something longer form, the AI can serve up an online course or take them to a workshop calendar for additional practice. Receiving info in the flow of work, rather than navigating to an LMS, drives efficiency and productivity.

Connecting Learning Investments to Business Results

Be a learner. Stay up on trends. Don’t try to be the smartest person in the room. Listen to others’ perspectives as you grow and develop your own. Know the business. Learning and development is a cost center, not a profit center, so make sure you understand the financial impact of your decisions.

Just because you think a ten-minute online course is the way to go, recognize that ten minutes times employee count times hourly wage is the cost of execution. Know how the work happens on the frontline and measure success not by how much you create but by the impact on the business.