What’s Cooking? Current Trends in Learning and Development

Our Metaphor

What does the metaphor show?

•  The learning and development world is a busy kitchen.

•  Learning professionals are the chefs.

•  Learners order what they want and dictate when and how they want it served.

We use the image to ask questions and discover insights

•  What’s cooking?

•  What challenges do our chefs face?

•  What trends do we see in the kitchen?

TREND: Don’t worry — it’s casual

•  Enterprise learning must address informal learning — on-demand training, social learning, and on-the-job learning.

•  72% of corporate executives say their company’s most important development strategy is “on-the-job training.”

(Josh Bersin, “Enterprise Learning and Talent Management 2010: Predictions for the Coming Year.”)

TREND: Training for compliance — do I really have to?

•  Up to 70% of all eLearning is for compliance, not performance and development.

•  Organizations are considering alternatives for compliance-driven eLearning, such as taking samples of worker compliance and using small-scale testing.

(Elliott Masie, “Learning in 2010,” Chief Learning Officer, January 2010)

TREND: The best of both worlds?

•  Chief Learning Officers want to keep traditional learning formats while reducing travel.

•  Live, online, instructor-led training combines the benefits of the web with interactivity, can be archived for future use.

(Cushing Anderson, “A Look at the Industry in 2010,” Chief Learning Officer, January 2010)

TREND: Content – manage it before it manages you

•  Companies need to arrange, manage, and reuse content, not build it.

•  Training tools will enable tagging, searching, indexing, and the use of employee profiles, so someone can “find an expert” instead of taking a course.

(Bersin, “Enterprise Learning”)

TREND: Learning systems “in the cloud”

•  Open source technology is changing the way companies invest in technology. Apps are hosted “in the cloud.”

•  Open source eLearning software offers a low initial cost, ability to customize, and active user communities.

(Masie, “Learning in 2010”)

TREND: Learning on the go

•  Mobile learning is gaining ground.

•  Microsoft is using Academy Mobile to offer its sales staff a monthly, on-demand podcast that helps them sell products more effectively.

(Brandon Hall, PhD., “Five Learning Trends for 2009”)

TREND: Work and play do mix

•  Games and simulations are engaging, educational, and interactive.

•  Accenture uses a business simulation game that gives senior managers experience in managing in a competitive market. Teams compete to achieve the company’s goals and financial performance.

(Hall, “Five Learning Trends”)

TREND: Do-it-yourself learning

•  New social networking tools encourage employees to contribute to and use learning content.

•  Employee blogs, internal wikis, social networks, and collaborative tagging and sharing foster do-it-yourself learning.

(Hall, “Five Learning Trends”)

TREND: Virtual reality

•  A nursing education simulation in Second Life allows students to measure blood pressure and vital signs and administer drugs to a virtual patient.

•  This is a more affordable way to train without cost or risks.

(Hall, “Five Learning Trends”)

TREND: Learning environments catch up to the Millennials

•  Millennials expect the corporate world to meet them on their turf to manage their learning.

•  Web 2.0 learning environments provide more collaborative features including search, comments, tagging, and ratings.

(Hall, “Five Learning Trends”)

To consider

•  What trends would you add?

•  Which trends are just “noise?”

•  How do these trends impact the ever-changing “kitchen” of learning and development?

•  What else is getting in the way?

How Can Root Help You?

•  We hope you find this experience useful. If you’d like to learn more, please contact us or go to www.rootlearning.com.

•  Root uses visualization, data, and dialogue to drive connections and insights for its clients around the globe.