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Becky Willis is a founder and the chief learning officer at Tractus Learning. She helps guide Tractus customers to implement successful digital learning. She is also the founder of WillLearn Consulting, where she helps companies plan, design, and develop high-performance digital learning ecosystems. Previously, she was the vice president of engagement at EdCast and led learning innovation at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard

Becky Willis

Most L&D functions are currently going through transformations driven by a variety of forces—as roles expand beyond needs assessment and instructional design, delivery, and evaluation.

The Times They Are a -Changin’

The December 2021 issue of TD at Work by Becky Willis offers a framework of a learning ecosystem.

Learning Ecosystem: Why You Need One, How to Get There

Motivate and Engage Learners to Drive Your Business ForwardOrganizations that prioritize employee learning engagement are best positioned to thrive in our rapidly evolving business landscape. Veteran learning strategist Becky Willis demonstrates how an organization can achieve stellar learning engagement in seven simple steps and then turn that engagement into a powerful competitive advantage.Becky writes this book for those who have strategic responsibility for integrating learning into broader organizational initiatives, whether they are learning leaders, HR professionals, L&D practitioners, or other talent development (TD) professionals. Step-by-step, she walks you through the process of devising and communicating a clear strategy for learning engagement, selecting and implementing the right technology, recruiting and deploying champions, and mastering the art of marketing learning experiences. She helps you learn to work with leaders and managers to sponsor, support, and collaborate on learning. Each chapter includes questionnaires, tools, and templates to ensure TD pros and learning designers can translate ideas into practical actions immediately. With this book in hand, you will have what you need to become an effective business partner who enhances employees’ knowledge, skills, and commitment to the organization and drives positive bottom-line results.

7 Steps to Better Learning Engagement

For years, L&amp;D has worked with subject matter experts (SMEs) to help create content. But what if there was a better way to leverage their knowledge and expand the reach to others? What if L&amp;D aligned with leaders, influencers, and SMEs to do more? What if collaborating with the business actually drove engagement and business results? Wow!

 

In this webinar, author, speaker, and learning thought leader Becky Willis will share an approach that can help you drive real learning engagement: champions programs. Results from dozens of companies have shown that building a champions program increases more than just platform use. It drives leaders, managers, and employees to value learning. Champions programs increase employee engagement. They even improve overall collaboration. 

Don’t just use SMEs and AI to create, partner to collaborate! See what others have done to go from frustratingly weak engagement to the high rates of engagement that lead to strong results.

Find out the what, why, and how of a real collaboration program! And take a peek at some of the insights shared in Willis’ new book, 7 Steps to Better Learning Engagement Driving Business Outcomes. 

Collaboration: The Secret Sauce of Learning Engagement

The Association for Talent Development’s Virtual Conference offers 100 hours of on-demand content, and many of these sessions are eligible for certification and recertification points. Here are highlights of some of the sessions. To explore all on-demand content, visit virtualconference.td.org.Doing the Work of EngagementTrack: Learning SciencesIt’s not enough to get learners to take part in digital learning experiences. What’s important is that they are engaged. And while engagement isn’t the only metric by which talent development professionals measure the success of digital learning experiences, it is the most fundamental.In her session, “Driving User Engagement in Digital Learning,” Becky Willis, founder and principal at WillLearn Consulting, highlights ways to drive engagement.By and large, the importance of engagement is readily understood in the talent development community. Instead of making the case for why engagement is important, Willis focuses her discussion on the steps to take for establishing or refining a sound engagement strategy. She points out that there are five areas to address when seeking to drive engagement in digital learning: need, content, champions, marketing, and metrics.She notes that she has facilitated entire workshops on each of those five elements. Her Virtual Conference session is an overview designed to help professionals better understand engagement and its deeper mechanics.“Engagement is work,” says Willis. And as we become more futuristic and contemporary in delivery, she wants the talent development community to know that it’s not the technology that will drive engagement but rather careful planning and strategy.Onboarding RebootTrack: Talent Strategy & ManagementNot only is the way we work changing, so is the workforce. Millennials are moving into leadership positions, and a whole new generation is making its grand entrance into the work world. In his session, “Onboarding the Next Generation of Talent,” Phil Gwoke, keynote speaker and generational consultant at BridgeWorks, articulates how organizations can optimize the onboarding experience for Generation Z.Prefacing this presentation with a caveat, Gwoke notes that while individuals vary, generational cohorts share commonalities. He dedicates a good portion of his session to helping attendees understand each generation’s communication preferences. Using that information as a springboard, Gwoke then discusses how those differences affect their work ethic.For Gen Z, Gwoke says companies cannot tackle onboarding in one-day or one-week events and suggests key objectives for different stages of a more holistic process. Also, he challenges the common stereotypes associated with Gen Z, helping listeners see them in a new light.Yes, we’re in a multigenerational workforce, but it is often the youngest generation that tends to have the greatest influence on challenging and changing what society thinks is important in the world. Having a general understanding of Gen Z’s values, workstyles, and other information is key to creating a harmonious work culture that everyone can enjoy.Neuro-insights Into Relationships and LearningTrack: Global PerspectivesIn the session “From Hype to Performance,” Margie Meacham, Ria Van Dinteren, and Stella Collins—the Brain Ladies, as they are called (Katelijn Nijsmans, managing partner of The Tipping Point, is a fourth member of the group)—lead a primer on neuroscience and how the brain works, especially during times of change. Meacham, chief freedom officer for Learningtogo, emphasizes that our brains are changing all the time. Currently we’re in an almost unprecedented time when everyone around the world is having to deal with a similar challenge at the same time.David Rock’s SCARF (status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, fairness) model helps us understand and collaborate with each other. Van Dinteren, director for Breinwrk BV, explained what each of the five letters stand for.A manager can, for example, take into consideration how team members feel about status when making a change. If there’s a reorganization that will eliminate “senior” from some employee titles, thinking about how that will affect people can help the manager deliver the news. Van Dinteren is from The Netherlands and says, to her, titles don’t make that much of a difference, but to others that may very well be important.Certainty and the ability to predict the future are limited in our current worldwide situation. This is true for leaders. However, they can be transparent with employees, letting them know when they will be able to share additional information.Also during the session, Collins—chief learning officer for Brain Ladies—provides guidance on keeping the brain healthy, describing the different brain frequency levels and the related activity. While all brain waves are present at all times, some will dominate depending on the activity.For example, slow delta waves are present in the individual who is sleeping, as are theta waves, which occur when people are dreaming. Faster brain waves are the beta waves, which are present during physical and mental exercise and challenge. And gamma waves are present during light bulb moments. To keep the brain healthy, we need a mix of these activities.Creating a Canvas for Your LearnersTrack: Virtual TrainingIf you’re looking for tools to add to your facilitation toolkit, Joshua Davies, founder and lead conversation architect of Knowmium, offers many during his session “Radically Remote: Take Your Virtual Training From Basic to Bold.”It’s no surprise that live, online learning has seen an uptick in recent months. This has been brought on, in significant part, by learner demand.Given everything that is occurring with corporate learning, and more specifically with the shift to increased online learning, Davies poses the question: Is the way we did things before the way we’d like to do things next?He invites L&D practitioners to change their thinking about online learning to make it more about the learner experience. That learner experience comes at the confluence of motivation, interaction, and landscape.Learners’ needs are always important, but they are even more important when you shift your training online, he says. When facilitators do so, they all too often focus on the technology, rather than on adhering to familiar strategies and “getting teaching right.”How can you make online learning meaningful and create a canvas for interaction and engagement? To do this, Davies says to consider three facets: technology, human element, and expectation setting.Give learners the opportunity to play with the tools ahead of the course, he advises. That way they won’t feel shame for not knowing how to use them during the training. Ensure that learners know they are expected to be participants and not passengers. And in advance of the training, let learners know the what’s in it for me aspect.Davies spends the final several minutes of his presentation demonstrating tools that can help integrate a canvas into the training landscape. This can get you away from a participant-crowded Zoom screen and help redirect our thinking about online spaces. One tool he points to enables you to create different training spaces.If you’re new to online training, Davies recommends giving yourself permission to be in beta stage. As long as you are authentic, learners will cut you some slack and be your co-collaborators.Share your ATD Virtual Conference experience on social media. #ATDVirtualConference

Thursday Snapshot: Highlights of Virtual Conference Sessions

Executive buy-in is not a one-time event; it’s a relationship built over time through relevance, trust, and results.

Get Executive Buy-In: How L&D Can Engage Leaders and Elevate the Value of Learning

A Tech Guide to Learning Ecosystems

It starts with us. That is the theme of ATD21. And that will resonate throughout the next several days of on-site and virtual learning. The past 18 months have shown that flexibility, resiliency, and adaptability are critical to both individuals’ professional and personal lives and to how teams communicate and work together. Building off that need, ATD has worked to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to learn, network, grow, and take part in ATD21.“We wanted to ensure that the entire global community would be able to join this conversation and get benefit from ATD21 regardless of their ability or willingness to travel. By creating opportunities on those global and virtual levels, we aim to deliver a compelling experience to help the world work better,” says Apryl Alexander-Savino, senior director of conferences for ATD.Keynoters Take the LeadMonday’s keynote speaker is Angela Duckworth, founder and CEO of Character Lab and a 2013 MacArthur Fellow who has advised the World Bank, US professional sports leagues, and Fortune 500 CEOs. The title of her speech is “True Grit: The Surprising, and Inspiring, Science of Success,” and there probably isn’t a better topic to kick off ATD21. Duckworth has conducted influential work on grit—pursuing one’s goals with both perseverance and passion. She’ll provide real-life examples of how individuals have found a way to their success.Then on Tuesday, in “Three Steps to Regenerate Your Team,” Patrick Lencioni—founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to providing organizations with ideas, products, and services to improve teamwork, clarity, and employee engagement—shares insight into how to put the right people in the right team and, ultimately, create high-performing teams. With the challenges that organizations face today, can you afford not to have cohesive, well-functioning teams addressing those issues?ATD21’s final keynote speaker, Mel Robbins, will guide attendees and listeners on how to overcome procrastination and self-doubt. In her session “The 5 Second Rule: Achieve Breakthrough Performance in Your Career and Life,” the bestselling author and award-winning CNN commentator will address how to change your behavior, take smart risks, bring out the best in your team, and create the results you want.Grit. Teams. Results. Learn how to up your game by following science-backed methods to address today’s challenges and move forward to those we will face tomorrow.Using Every Tool in Our ToolboxThe talent development profession has stood tall and adapted throughout all of the challenges that have come along recently. Becky Magnotta, 2021 chair of the ATD Program Advisory Committee, and Jim Caprara, 2021 chair of the ATD board of directors, write: “TD professionals demonstrated their value by moving in-person learning online, helping supervisors manage a remote workforce, and creating a virtual work environment that maintained high productivity. As a profession, talent development needs to start focusing on ‘what’s next?’ and we believe the knowledge you’ll gain here will help you navigate that critical question.”Many of the ATD21 education sessions and Super Sessions will help you do that. For instance, today in his afternoon session “Tough Times Never Last—Prepared Trainers Do! 7 Strategies for Adding Value and Making a Difference,” Bob Pike, chairman of P3 Associates, will speak to trainers’ need for focus and clarity. Ken Blanchard, chief spiritual officer, and Scott Blanchard, president of the Ken Blanchard Company, will offer advice on leading in the new hybrid work world during their Monday afternoon session. Further, you can take part in a number of networking sessions and roundtables that will tackle topics such as the future of learning and how to reframe the postpandemic challenges. For those looking to plan out their individual professional future, a number of education sessions will offer guidance on how to navigate a career transition.Whether you’re listening to sessions here in Salt Lake City or logging on from Tokyo, Japan; Austin, Texas; Lima, Peru; Martinsburg, West Virginia; or Alberta, Canada, we’re confident that you’ll find a rewarding experience, one that stretches your boundaries today and prepares you for tomorrow.

Expanding the Realm of What Is Possible

January 2016 - The Public Manager

The federal government is wrought with continuous change. How can agencies foster a culture that is more creative, flexible, and adaptable than ever before?

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