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Mid-sized companies are in a unique spot: big enough to need structure and scale, but often short on resources. You might support hundreds or thousands of employees across roles, regions, and business units—but your L&D team? Probably still small, juggling endless requests on a tight budget.Still, training doesn’t have to stall when things get busy. With the right strategy and tools, mid-market L&D leaders can drive real impact—without extra headcount or dollars.Here are five common challenges—and how to tackle them:1. The Bandwidth BottleneckL&D is rarely overstaffed. Requests pour in, but the team stays lean—sometimes even a team of one.Smart leaders don’t build everything alone. They tap internal champions to help with content and delivery, then centralize materials like Zoom recordings and job aids into a simple LMS.You don’t need 300 courses. You need the right courses that are organized, accessible, and easy to update.2. Budget PressuresAs your company grows, expectations rise—but your budget may not.Good news: you already have what you need. Record subject-matter experts walking through tasks or answering FAQs. Use short videos, screen shares, or walkthroughs that can be reused.Blended learning helps, too. Combine asynchronous content with live sessions to stretch your budget. Prioritize content that works across teams—from onboarding to ongoing development—for maximum ROI.3. Proving ROIIn a mid-sized company, every investment has to earn its place. That means training can’t be a black box.Go beyond completion rates. Are new hires getting productive faster? Are sales reps closing more deals? Are support tickets dropping?Soft metrics matter, too—like promotion rates and manager satisfaction. Visual dashboards and charts can turn your wins into stories that leadership can see and support.4. Outgrowing Legacy ToolsSpreadsheets and shared drives may have worked at 200 employees—but not at 1,000. A modern LMS changes that. It simplifies delivery, automates busywork (like reminders and tracking), and ensures consistency—especially in high-impact roles like managers or frontline staff. Scaling training doesn’t require complexity. It just requires smarter systems.5. Keeping Top Talent EngagedOne of the costliest challenges? Losing high-potential employees who don’t see a path forward.A clear training and development strategy helps retain them. When people see growth opportunities, they’re more likely to stay—and contribute more. You don’t need bureaucracy to build career paths. With the right culture and tools, you can offer meaningful development without overpromising promotions. That agility is your advantage.Where to Start: Make Onboarding Your LaunchpadIf you improve one thing this quarter, make it onboarding. It’s high visibility and high impact, influencing everything from productivity to retention.Use a simple 30-60-90 framework:Days 1–30: Orientation, culture, early wins Days 31–60: Role clarity, key tools, and systems Days 61–90: Independence, goal setting, and growth planning A good LMS can automate much of this and give you clear data on effectiveness and time-to-productivity.Looking Ahead: Train for AgilityMid-market L&D wins don’t come from formality—they come from flexibility. That means mapping skills (not just roles), running short upskilling sprints, and embedding learning into the flow of work.You don’t need to mimic enterprise strategies. You need to stay focused, fast, and aligned with your business goals. When training becomes a growth engine—not just a support function—you turn every challenge into an opportunity.

How Training Leaders Can Solve Their 5 Biggest Challenges—Without Adding Headcount or Blowing the Budget

Half of all employees will need reskilling by 2025—yet only 17 percent of organizations feel prepared to anticipate which skills they’ll need next. Every day your learning strategy stands still, the skills gap widens, and your workforce risks falling behind. While traditional training methods—classroom sessions, static e-learning, and one-size-fits-all programs—once served their purpose, they now struggle to keep pace. They can drain budgets, disengage learners, and leave skills gaps that put your organization at risk. Why Change Is Urgent High costs and travel expenses Outdated, passive content with low engagement Lack of personalization for diverse teams Exposure to compliance risks and lost productivity Sticking with the status quo means falling behind competitors and risking talent loss. Consider the case of a manufacturing company that was heavily reliant on traditional classroom training. When new machinery was urgently introduced to enhance its agility against impending market changes, their usual training approach proved inefficient. The need for hands-on learning led to complex scheduling, significant production downtimes, and the creation of backup paper manuals to mitigate costly errors. Employees struggled to retain vital information, resulting in substantial production delays that directly affected the company’s profitability. Similarly, a financial services firm found that their compliance training, delivered through static e-learning modules, failed to engage employees. Ineffective compliance training—especially when it fails to engage employees—can result in substantial financial losses, regulatory penalties, operational inefficiencies, and reputational harm. Investing in more engaging, effective learning solutions is not just a regulatory requirement; it is a strategic imperative for financial performance and long-term business success. The Future of Learning: Blended and Immersive Blended learning combines digital, in-person, and on-the-job experiences, powered by extended reality (XR), AI, and data analytics: VR/AR simulations for safe, on-demand practice Real-time guidance to speed onboarding and reduce errors Collaborative virtual environments for soft skills AI-driven roleplay for authentic, personalized coaching Scalable virtual instructor-led training (VILT) Organizations adopting these approaches report: Up to 50 percent reduction in training time Improved retention and fewer errors Lower downtime and cost For example, a major airline used AI-powered roleplay to train customer service agents in handling irate passengers. The dynamic, unscripted scenarios helped employees build confidence and empathy, leading to a measurable drop in customer complaints. In manufacturing, XR simulations have enabled technicians to practice complex assembly tasks repeatedly without risk, reducing errors on the production line and accelerating time to competence. Anytime they need a refresh, an action-oriented mobile XR experience is just a pocket away. Data-Driven Personalization AI and analytics deliver targeted training to close skills gaps efficiently, ensuring every learner gets exactly what they need. The Human Element While technology enables scalable, efficient training, human judgment remains vital for complex, ethical, and cultural learning. The most effective L&D strategies blend automation for repeatable skills with coaching and mentorship for nuanced, judgment-based scenarios. Act Now or Risk Falling Behind Early adopters see faster onboarding, higher engagement, and scalable programs. Hesitation means losing ground in a competitive market. The cost of inaction is high: slower time to competence, increased errors, compliance risks, and ultimately, lost revenue and market share. The future belongs to those who act decisively. Don’t let your organization be left behind as others leap forward with immersive, personalized, and scalable learning solutions. 

Don’t Get Left Behind: The New Standard in L&D

Last week, I discussed the importance of applying the right tool to the right learning scenario, and I stressed that regardless of the tools we have at our disposal, a few maxims about effective learning systems remain unchanged. Specifically, we need to ask ourselves:What is the desired and necessary learning outcome? Is it awareness, knowledge, basic skill, or skill mastery?What is the nature of the content? Is the learning conceptual and/or kinetic in nature? Is the content sensitive or proprietary?What is the nature of the learner population? How do they best learn the type of content needed? What is their prior learning and technology experience? Are their learning styles homogeneous, or do learners come from different backgrounds, experiences, and generations?Is the environment around the learner conducive to the learning delivery modality being considered? Will the learners be able to be available, focused, and responsive?Will the learner’s managers and colleagues support the investment of time and money? Do they know how to reinforce (and value) learning in the workplace?These tenets of learning system design apply regardless of the tools and technologies being used. In fact, the thoughtful application of these considerations can help any modality or approach shine when used in the situations for which they are best suited.On the flipside, new technologies can suffer guilt by association when imposed improperly into circumstances ill-suited to their strengths. Let’s not kill promising young technologies with ill-conceived overuse and misuse.What Should Guide Your Social Technology Strategy?The good news is that there are three general principles that should guide your plans to leverage social technology, particularly for leadership development and other “soft” skills:Formal Learning Is Still Important. Our experience is that most interaction and leadership skills are actually best acquired and honed in a formal, intentional learning experience that includes lots of time for controlled practice and feedback. Social media tools should never serve as a replacement to formal learning. Rather, they are ideal for surrounding and enriching the formal learning events. Social media technologies are best suited to:setting the stage for learninghelping extend the learningkeeping learners focused on applying their skillsenhancing networking opportunities within a cohort of learnersIt is our firm belief that while the social tools sometimes seem magical, the true magic remains in the optimal mix of learning experiences.“Let’s not kill promising young technologies with ill-conceived overuse and misuse.”Test to Learn, Adapt to Perfect. There are two major arenas to pilot and test before you take social learning technology wide and deep: the people and the technology. Don’t underestimate the challenges with either. Use focus groups, test cohorts, feedback surveys, and anecdotal hearsay to test and refine your approach with your people. Seek help from technical partners (internal and/or external) to shake out the new technology in your environment, on your devices, in your software mix, and through your firewall.Don't Cut Communication Corners. When an organization chooses to use social media to drive learning and development, it should take care to devote the same communication and orientation resources that it would for any major change initiative. There are no smart shortcuts to introducing technology for something as personal as learning. Be sure to plan and execute a thoughtful approach to communication and implementation suited to your culture and objectives.Sometimes Pliers Are a Better OptionWhile there are numerous social media types and platforms available, some are more appropriate than others for learning and development in “soft skill” areas, including leadership. We need to match the tool to the need; some social learning tools are better pliers than hammers. Each technology provides a different array of benefits, but no technology will work across all organizations or implementations, nor will it suit every type of content or topic.Remember to seek an effective and balanced mix rather than put the full training burden on just one approach; to test for both people and technology compatibility; and finally, to thoroughly communicate and execute the strategy.My father taught me at an early age two important things about household and automotive tools: (1) Having the right tool for the job is one key to success, and (2) knowing how to use it is equally important. Our craft in learning and development is no different. Matching the right mix of solutions for each situation is more important than conjuring up as many ways to use our “hammer du jour” as we can contrive.

Training, Technology, and "The Law of the Hammer": Part 2

If you’re an L&D professional trying to get internal buy-in for a new training initiative, you’ve likely felt the pressure to create a full-blown, highly detailed proposal before bringing it to leadership.But what if the fastest way to a “yes” isn’t about completeness, but about confidence?Here’s a powerful, time-saving idea: Pilot your idea before proposing the full program.Instead of writing a 20-page proposal and waiting weeks for feedback (or silence), run a small version of the training with a test group. Think of it as building a prototype instead of a polished product.Why Pilots WorkExecutives aren’t just evaluating your proposal—they’re evaluating you. A pilot says:“I’ve already tested this idea.”“I’m not asking for a leap of faith.”“Here’s real-world data and feedback.”Even better, it gives you the chance to:Gather quotes and results that strengthen your case.Adjust based on early feedback (before you go wide).Demonstrate initiative, ownership, and results-orientation.Real-World Example: A Pilot That Opened the DoorIn 2020, the U.S. Air Force recognized a growing need to strengthen data governance across its departments. Instead of pitching a massive training overhaul, they started with a three-day pilot course for just two staff members. The results were so promising that leadership approved a three-year agreement to expand the program across the entire agency.How to Pilot FastHere’s the streamlined version:Start small. Pick one team or department where the training will have a noticeable impact.Keep it light. Think microlearning, a one-hour workshop, or even a facilitated team meeting with a training component.Measure something. Track one or two outcome indicators—engagement, confidence, behavior change, feedback ratings.Share the story. When you pitch the larger initiative, lead with a real story: “Here’s what happened when we ran this with the support team last month…”Suddenly, your proposal isn’t just an idea—it’s a proven improvement.Especially Helpful If You’re NewIf you’re new to your organization, a pilot can be your secret weapon. You’re still learning the culture and building credibility. A lightweight prototype lets you earn trust, start conversations, and show results fast—all without needing immediate executive buy-in for a massive rollout.The TakeawayYou don’t need perfection to get approval. You need proof. A well-executed pilot gives you that proof—without burning time or political capital.Ready to Try a Pilot? Start Here.Find a friendly team. Choose a department with a known need and a manager who’s open to experimentation.Pick a slice. What’s one lesson, tool, or concept from your bigger idea that you can test in 30–60 minutes?Measure one thing. Ask participants one question before and after. Even a small shift can signal impact.Want to Increase Your Chances Even More?Download the LPC Winning Training Proposal Checklist—a one-page guide you can use to quickly evaluate your proposal (or pilot!) before you send it up the chain.Covers the top elements executives look forBased on research-backed insightsWorks at any stage: idea, draft, or ready-to-sendGrab the checklist here → leadershipprogresscycle.com/winning-training-proposal-checklist.(And if you want a second pair of eyes, reply to the download email—we write a lot of proposals and we’re always interested in sharing, gathering new insight, and building relationships.)

Want to Sell a Training Proposal Fast? Don’t Build the Whole Thing First

The ATD Talent Development and Training in Healthcare Handbook (ATD Press, November 2021) addresses the many opportunities and challenges TD professionals face in the growing and rapidly changing healthcare space. Effective talent development is the thread that weaves through an entire healthcare organization to ensure it is up to standard with the latest practices in treating patients while providing a safe and engaging environment for staff. TD professionals have the unique role of tying together organizational and employee advancement in healthcare systems—and likewise, this handbook dives into areas for both business and professional evolution.Niranjani Chidamber Papavaritis is the former head of content for ATD's healthcare and government industry verticals, and she was the editor for ATD Talent Development and Training in Healthcare Handbook. In this spotlight Q&A, learn more about Papavaritis and her contribution to the book.What distinguishes or differentiates talent development in the healthcare field from talent development more broadly?Healthcare is a nuanced field that is continuously evolving, innovating (then re-innovating), and one-upping itself with breakthroughs. Provider spaces, specifically, contain multidimensional factors, making talent development priorities one-of-a-kind.Unlike other industries, healthcare deals with the most essential components of the human experience: birth, injury, functionality, physical and mental well-being, and mortality. Furthermore, every component of healthcare learning and development ends up impacting two distinct groups of people: the primary audience of employees and workforces within the industry and a deeper, embedded audience of patients who receive care from these healthcare professionals. That grants trainers direct and indirect influence that can be seen at every turn in a hospital hallway.There’s a quote from the show Scrubs that summarizes how everything a health provider does is done with the intention of staving off injury and death. “You’re in medicine. You gotta accept the fact that everything we do here—everything—is a stall.” (For the record, I don’t refer to this show for medical advice … but it has some great one-liners that aptly describe working in a hospital.) Talent development professionals must train with that ultimate goal in mind—to equip every employee with the right skillset to keep the hospital thriving to provide high-quality patient care.Trainers wear several caps simultaneously, approaching topics from a business perspective, a clinical perspective, an employee-development perspective, a broader organization-development/culture perspective, and a patient-care perspective. Though the multiple ongoing priorities, workforce demographics, job functionalities and concentrations are seemingly siloed, talent development is the glue that brings them all together to form an interconnected, symbiotic business. This handbook provides a comprehensive spectrum of the healthcare talent development landscape, categorized into six broad fields: L&D basics, organization development, employee development, business acumen for the health system, digital transformation and literacy, and patient-centric care.What are some of the challenges or barriers to talent development in healthcare?I recently started Dr. Rana Awdish’s book In Shock (which I highly recommend to anyone in healthcare leadership or TD), and she explains, “Healthcare is exceedingly complex. Errors will inevitably occur at even the best hospitals. What seems different … is the transparent willingness to acknowledge that we are a learning organization.” That resonated so deeply for me.Efficient talent development has a high return on investment (ROI) for any organization or individual’s professional growth. Unfortunately, healthcare has limited resources for talent development priorities, which are typically underfunded and need more support from leaders. Training is an ongoing process—a necessary supplement to knowledge and preparedness gained from medical/business/law school—to allow for continuous growth and upskilling through one’s career and the organization’s lifespan.Challenges arise in delivering more comprehensive training when the workforce does not always work a typical 9–5 day. Non-clinical staff are available at different times than clinicians and nurses, who work shifts spanning all hours of the day. Furthermore, training delivery needs to be easy, digestible, and time-sensitive not to overload practitioners, who already juggle numerous tasks mentally. Current mundane modules or mandatory in-person lessons are not always seen as relevant, but rather as distractions from daily tasks—and that method and perception of training needs to shift drastically.Furthermore, the internal structure of health systems doesn’t lend itself to a cohesive organization; the onus falls on talent development professionals to bring moving parts together. Departments are siloed, functioning independently with its own set of norms and practices. This extends throughout the industry as well. The limited training resources and success stories that do exist are contained within their respective health systems, and they are shared only on a microscale through mediums among the broader provider space network.While there may be differing priorities within specialties, there needs to be uniformity in training practices for interdepartmental collaboration—so that all the moving parts can come together to run as one smooth entity of the health system. And for successful (and unsuccessful) practices to be shared within the industry at large.Continuous education should be a part of healthcare careers and organization culture, and through robust talent development initiatives, practitioners and leaders can stay current with the latest trends such as digital literacy, management styles, and interpersonal skills. The ROI for training needs to be better recognized by those in leadership positions. They have the power of positive influence, the ability to guide decisions for an organization’s trajectory that will better serve employee development and performance improvement.How is the COVID-19 pandemic changing talent development in healthcare? What talent development needs does the healthcare field have as a result of the pandemic?Every aspect of healthcare performance has been impacted by the pandemic; areas of change management, leadership development, and patient care were especially put to the test and continue to be amended on-the-fly. The past two years have changed the entire landscape for talent development, making it evident that the industry needs 1) a more collaborative approach, strengthening teambuilding and interdepartmental collaboration, and 2) a more focused, concerted effort to improve training practices at every employee level and specialty area.A very pressing issue, requiring immediate attention, is physician and nurse well-being. With the pandemic raging since early 2020, clinicians are exhausted in every way possible. I’ve read truly heartbreaking recounts from clinicians who are barely staying afloat emotionally, questioning their entire career paths due to how worn out they are. With increasing turnover rates, the acute care infrastructure is increasingly short-staffed, causing more stress and overload.Addressing burnout and tactics to build resilience requires an all-encompassing re-evaluation of leadership development. Leaders who employ adaptive and effective management styles can bring together aspects of teambuilding, organizational safety and reliability, performance improvement, and value-based care to create a long-term, sustainable approach to addressing clinician well-being. To achieve success, focus needs to be brought back to the humanistic elements of the industry—care and empathy—not just for patients, but for the workforce as well, finding ways to better incorporate these qualities in a health system’s culture.I explored some of these trends as shifts were occurring and found that digital transformation was reshaping the landscape entirely as health systems adjusted to remote workforces and provided care through telehealth platforms. New learning technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual/augmented reality (VR/AR) are emerging to revolutionize training delivery, using simulations to create real-life, interactive experiences for departmental priorities.Though the dust hasn’t settled, there has been more time to assess the damage and for talent development professionals to analyze areas for improvement or increased focus within learning and development. Now, more than ever, is the time for TD professionals and trainers to shine.How can talent development help meet the goals of interprofessional education?Effective branding of talent development can provide great opportunities for interprofessional education goals. With broader L&D subject matter experts and healthcare professionals working in tandem, the talent development sphere can help individuals grow in their careers by expanding existing skillsets and/or preparing for new roles. The L&D field holds promise for the growth of the healthcare industry—especially in terms of understanding the neuroscience and behavior of learning to better customize lessons. L&D professionals with expertise in instructional design, training delivery, and continuing education across a spectrum of workforces have great insight and successes that can be customized to the healthcare space.On the flip side, those in healthcare can provide innovative insight to the broader L&D world as well. Practitioners and healthcare trainers have firsthand experience working with tight schedules, juggling multiple priorities, moving on fast deadlines, and dealing with the most crucial kinds of change management and interpersonal relationships through both employee engagement and patient engagement.As mentioned earlier, effective executive leadership is key to forming and sustaining such collaborations. Health systems have a lot to learn from both successes and setbacks of the past 22 months—takeaways that can influence future training for all employees. It’s up to leaders to ensure that talent development professionals receive support to provide interprofessional education opportunities and employees feel motivated to meet such goals for their own growth and performance development.What are your goals for the ATD Talent Development and Training in Healthcare Handbook? What impact do you hope this book has on the field?I can’t tell you how incredibly excited and proud I am that this handbook was created! Having an evergreen resource that can enhance the TD sphere within healthcare has been a long time coming! This handbook is truly groundbreaking and has the potential to positively impact everyone who steps into a provider space.When the book first launched in November, I discussed how “an ongoing emphasis on learning and development is the key to success” for “the constant, multiple moving parts and various groups of workforces (clinical, nonclinical, multigenerational, interdepartmental, interpersonal, as examples) that are engaged daily…”.There are case studies and take-aways from experts that can support trainers and leaders to create a collaborative environment; where systems and priorities don’t need to be siloed, and each part of a health system can come together to create a united organizational culture. Up until a few months ago, there has not been a resource pulling together expertise from multiple healthcare leaders, practitioners, consultants, and innovators. It’s somewhat poetic how the collaboration within this handbook is an example for the collaboration potential that exists within the industry.I am passionate about the intersection of business acumen and interpersonal skillsets within leadership development, as it is the perfect combination for impactful patient care. Healthcare leaders who are reskilled and upskilled to use analytic business acumen, interwoven with empathy, EQ, and compassion, can shape provider spaces into well-rounded care facilities. Because it is the first-of-its-kind, I’m hoping for tangible results in teambuilding, so that existing gaps in interdepartmental priorities can be filled.While the handbook is geared toward talent development professionals, my goal when forming it was to bring out possibilities for improved leadership within each chapter and topic area. I wanted every leader and manager to find tangible advice as they are often “accidental trainers” themselves. This handbook provides countless opportunities for improved training and leadership—for anyone who finds themselves in a training role, including talent development professionals and trainers, C-suite executives, clinicians, and managers or heads of departments, who often find themselves coaching others at various points during their careers.This provides a promise for organizational, employee, and patient wellness not just during turbulence, but for long-term sustainable success within the industry. The wide array of topics covered by some of the best subject matter experts within this book can ideally contribute to increased innovation, collaboration, and organizational culture at micro and macro scales, bringing about interdepartmental successes.As the field continues to evolve with medical breakthroughs, I hope this handbook will help reimagine talent development initiatives for all providers—health systems, the armed services, EMTs, private practices, local state and city departments of health, and more. And ultimately, I hope this handbook brings out the very best in every employee and function so we can better serve our communities with the highest quality of care.

Meeting Talent Development Goals in Healthcare: Q&A With Niranjani Chidamber Papavaritis

Massive turnover. Rapid market shifts. Disruption of global supply chains. Organizations are dealing with constant and rapid change. And HR teams must prepare for what’s ahead to help leaders of all levels handle the effects. To stay ahead of the curve, DDI research points to HR leadership best practices to help leaders and organizations thrive in 2022.1. Teach Leaders to Manage ChangeAs deep shifts take place in your business strategy, offer leadership training on managing change. Offering training consistently across all levels of leadership can help the collective organization effectively manage change. Even in HR, managing change can be a challenge. And with the increasing frequency and rapidity of changes, it is risky for any group to be unprepared.When training on managing change is offered in organizations, the likelihood of having strong leadership effectiveness doubles from 25 percent to 50 percent.2. Ensure Leaders Get Transition SupportIn addition to training on managing change, HR needs to keep a pulse on leadership development offerings. During disruptive times, priorities fluctuate so much that leadership development may be missed. According to the Leadership Transitions Report 2021, the percentage of recently transitioning leaders who received leadership skills training dropped from 61 percent in early 2019 to 48 percent in 2020.HR teams should evaluate their talent programs to ensure leaders are being set up for success. They should pay special attention to ensuring leaders get transition support during disruptive times. These are the times when leaders will need it the most.3. Focus on High-Quality Diversity and Inclusion ProgramsDiversity and inclusion (D&I) programs accomplish far more than just improving specific demographic numbers in your company. These programs have a strong effect on the overall culture of the workplace and help to attract and retain talent of all backgrounds. In fact, a DDI report showed that companies with strong D&I programs are nine times more likely to have overall high-quality leadership, and 28 percent more leaders are ready to fill critical roles. By focusing on increasing the quality of current D&I programs or starting one if it is currently nonexistent, HR teams can change the culture of their organizations for the better. In changing the culture to one that’s more inclusive and diverse, the organization will be more likely to recruit from a diverse pool, which opens the door to find more qualified talent faster.4. Use a Consistent Process for Hiring and PromotionsInconsistent hiring practices are inefficient and make implicit bias easier to creep into your process, and this can make it harder to make the right hiring decisions. As HR teams struggle to replace leaders, having a structured selection process in place will minimize potential bias and improve the quality of hiring and promotion decisions.To learn more, including the three top challenges HR needs to be able to overcome to thrive in 2022, read the DDI blog.

4 HR Best Practices for 2022

Microlearning is Here to StayIt feels like not long ago that microlearning burst onto the learning and development (L&D) scene as the shiny new trend that everyone was buzzing about. It was one of those buzzwords that would either make ears perk up or eyes roll. But Microlearning is not new. In fact, it started it’s eLearning journey in the mid 1990s. When we were all soaking up our weekly dose of “Friends” and “Fresh Prince of BelAir” the internet was transforming the way we consumed knowledge. While skeptics may feel it waters down content or cuts corners, when architected with a thoughtful approach, it is the new pinnacle of engaging learning today. So while some thought it was just a fad (think Pogs…extra points if you remember what those were) it is fast becoming a staple of training programs. Don’t believe me? Check out these 4 reasons why I believe microlearning is here to stay.Physical and Learning Style DemandsWe have to meet the learners where they are, both physically and in how they prefer to consume information:● Physical: Work looks different today. We are not all sitting in the same office, in the same city, in the same time zone. We live in a fast pace, “work from anywhere” world and this is changing the “how” and “where” of the learning world.● Social Media: On a daily basis humans are interacting with Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube…the list goes on. These interactions allow us to take in information and learn. It is how we process information today. In short, targeted and engaging bursts of content, often as distractions from our day to day routine.All of this coupled with an ever changing and fast paced work life means attention spans are becoming shorter. Our learning needs to be able to fit in those spaces.Just In Time LearningHow often do you take training on a certain subject only to forget what you learned because it can be days, weeks or months before you actually apply the learning? Just in Time (JIT) learning answers this age old problem. We are training individuals on skills they may not need yet.● Provide the content a learner needs right when they need it. Available to search up or organized in an easily discoverable way, it allows learners to consume digestible micro learning for targeted skills. Think reference manual vs. owner’s manual.● Not all content is JIT learning so developing a strong strategy for what would be considered base knowledge and what will be needed for JIT learning is an important part of the development phase.RetentionWhen is the last time that you watched a 45 minute compliance video once and remembered everything it was teaching? Learning science shows that smaller, digestible pieces of content paired with spaced repetition and the ability to apply these concepts greatly increases knowledge retention. Why? Because the small, chunked content paired with the repetition over time stores the concepts in long term memory. Keep these best practices in mind to achieve higher rates of retention:● Targeted Content: Chunk concepts into targeted topics teaching 1 to 2 skills at a time.● Spaced Repetition: concepts are shown in multiple instances over time to provide the learner with multiple opportunities to engage with it, learn it, and imprint on their mind.● Application: The ability for a learner to apply the chunked concepts is where the true learning takes place and the neural pathways are built.Tailored TrainingYou rarely have learners coming into programs all at the exact same level of knowledge. How about clients that want the very same learning path as the one you just implemented last week? Microlearning allows you to create modularized training that can be tailored for your audience.● Tailored training can feel customized by using the modular building blocks to create a learning journey to specific job roles or skill sets.● You can productize this training for clients or partners by using the same content but customizing the modules they get in their path…like an a la carte menu for training. This “custom” experience brings high value without the overhead.● Having a single source authoring tool that can allow you to create these pieces of microlearning, updating the content in one place and it changing anywhere it is used is key. I recommend using a solution such as MadCap Flare for this type of authoring as a best in class option. Companies like Nestlé and Amazon are leveraging Flare’s content reuse capabilities to streamline learning and development programs.About the AuthorAndrea Maliska is an award-winning learning and development leader with over fifteen years of experience across multiple industries. She currently owns her own eLearning consulting company, Rebel Learn.

Microlearning is Here to Stay

8.4 trillion dollars.That's how Jean-Marc Laouchez quantified the impact of the talent crunch on today's organizations. Laouchez leads the Korn Ferry Institute and the Korn Ferry Academy, and recently delivered the opening keynote at Degreed’s annual innovator’s conference, LENS.So how best to make sense of such a staggering figure?Insight #1: People are your number 1 capital.In his welcome message at LENS, Degreed CEO Chris McCarthy reminded leaders that "technology and products can always move faster than organizational change."There is still a disconnect between what learning and development (L&D) leaders communicate as a top priority to the CEO (investing in people) and what the board/shareholders prioritize (investing in technology). \[4\] That there is disparity between how these two stakeholder groups view strategic priorities is unsurprising. In fact, even in high-performing companies, it's estimated that less than 30% of employees correctly identify organizational strategy. \[5\]The advantage of clearly communicating to all audiences that "people are the #1 asset" is that this clarity empowers employees to move quickly and confidently in alignment with goals. In their book, Talent Wins, Charan et al. go further to emphasize that executives and boards must recognize that talent, even more than strategy, is what generates value. \[1\] Laouchez laid out a clear plan of action that challenges organizations to pursue change by understanding how to "maximize internal talent to capture future value." \[4\]Insight #2: Define and develop the right skills, for the right jobs, for the right talent.Laouchez shared a study that Korn Ferry conducted with the World's Most Admired Companies (WMACs), where less than half of those organizations felt their talent had the right skills and capabilities to execute strategy. \[3\] This finding aligns with PwC's 21st Century CEO Survey where "80% of CEOs say they’re worried and 38% are extremely concerned about availability of digital skills in their country." \[9\] The conversation around the skills gap is complicated by the argument that employers should focus on increased wages—oversimplifying the problem to one of supply-and-demand driven primarily by the price of labor. Gartner's Marcus Chiu explains that for the many employers who are already willing to pay more, this solution is fraught with diminishing returns. \[2\]So what happens when there's a high supply of workers? The LinkedIn Workforce Report for September 2018 analyzes migration trends between major U.S. cities and which cities present the largest skill gaps. Interestingly, although Austin, TX gained the most workers in September 2018, this city also ranked among the top 10 cities with the largest skill shortages. \[6\] This suggests that an influx of workers is not always enough to solve the mismatch between the skills workers have and the skills employers need.It is worth noting that "more than one-half of employees rated opportunities to use their skills and abilities at work as a very important contributor to their job satisfaction." \[10\] This signals a shared value: Both workers and employers want to match skills to roles. Everyone now has access to the millions of courses, books, articles, videos, apps, podcasts, social networks, and other learning content. Key to building the skills needed to win is for employers to connect that content to skills, and then connect those skills to jobs.Insight #3: Make learning work by balancing outcomes, capabilities, and purpose.Culture—this is what ties it all together. A digital learning strategy that connects content to skills and skills to jobs must be anchored in a strong culture. If the digital building blocks for a highly-skilled workforce are firmly set on the cornerstone of a talent-first agenda, the organizational culture can thrive. \[1\] A culture of continuous learning is a competitive advantage, and is key to attracting talent—especially Millennials. \[8\] Laouchez outlined a three-point framework for how employers can drive a strong learning culture \[4\]:● Purpose: Come and work with us, and be who you are.● Capabilities: Do what you are good at, or do what you like, and master it.● Outcomes: We are going to put the needed resources behind you to achieve the desired results.Technology alone is not the magic bullet. In this paradigm, technology is an enabler—one that helps drive a disproportionate return on talent. This framework is also about nurturing trust between the organization and its talent to capture future value. Shane O'Leary references Daniel Coyle to explain that organizations like IDEO, Google, and Pixar integrate purpose and profit because they "build a common purpose, share vulnerability, and create psychological safety." \[3\] \[7\] Another way to build trust is to reward the talent that generates outsize value for the organization. Developing a roster of top-skilled talent is not just about the talent at the top. Further, those value creators can be many positions distanced from the CEO. \[1\] A flash of genius almost never sparks in alignment with organization hierarchies, but instead comes "from a volume of random ideas by lots of different people with different perspectives." \[3\]Want to learn more? Check out this pathway that includes the sources cited throughout the post.\*\*\*Charan, R., Barton, D., & Carey, D. C. (2018). Talent wins: The new playbook for putting people first. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.Chiu, M. (2018, June 4). Can US Employers Close the Skills Gap With Higher Wages Alone? Probably Not. Retrieved from https://www.cebglobal.com/talentdaily/can-us-employers-close-the-skills-gap-with-higher-wages-alone/COYLE, D. (2017). CULTURE CODE: The hidden language of highly successful groups. S.l.: BANTAM.Laouchez, J. (2018, October 4). L&D Strategy: How to Win the Battle Between People and Profits. Keynote speech presented at LENS 2018 in New York, New York.Leppert, J., & Kotter, J. (2014, June 9). When CEOs Talk Strategy, 70% Of The Company Doesn't Get It. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2013/07/09/heres-why-ceo-strategies-fall-on-deaf-ears/#240067ed3663LinkedIn. (2018, September 11).LinkedIn Workforce Report | Atlanta | September 2018. Retrieved from https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/resources/linkedin-workforce-report-september-2018O'Leary, S. (2018, July 8). The surprising reason why IDEO, Pixar & Google prioritise 'psychological safety' to win the battle for better ideas... Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/surprising-reason-why-ideo-pixar-google-prioritise-safety-o-leary/?lipi=urn:li:page:d\_flagship3\_profile\_view\_base\_recent\_activity\_details\_all;sdxb2rg3S8mRhNOmIoT35A==&licu=urn:li:control:d\_flagship3\_profile\_view\_base\_recent\_activity\_details\_all-linkPalmer, K., & Blake, D. (2018). The expertise economy: How the smartest companies use learning to engage, compete, and succeed. Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.PricewaterhouseCoopers. (2018, January 22). Key findings on talent: 21st CEO Survey. Retrieved from https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-agenda/ceosurvey/2018/gx/deep-dives/talent.htmlSHRM. (2016, November 16). 2016 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement: Revitalizing a Changing Workforce. Retrieved from SHRM.

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