Excite, Engage, EmbedConditions for success

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Designing and delivering learning which creates real value for individuals and their organisations must be the goal for all learning professionals.

However, the expectations of learners are rising all the time, as are the demands of key stakeholders in the business. Learners are influenced by the many colliding and converging ways that they can access information and expertise, anytime, anywhere. They expect to be able to find world class content in one click. At the same time, business leaders and stakeholders ask searching questions about investment and budgets.

Simply delivering the best learning experience ever is no longer enough! We need to take a more holistic and integrated approach not just to the core learning (and expectations are high enough around that) but also to all the surrounding conditions for success. The word ‘conditions’ is a deliberate choice – they are becoming integral, non-negotiable and core to the role of the learning professional. Taken together, the learning experience and the conditions for success can be summarised as three major stages of a fully integrated process:

All three need to work together, with intentional decisions about the balance and interplay between the two. As we unpack these three phases, it raises important questions about the expanding role and expertise of today’s learning professional.

1.1 Expand from the middle in both directionsThe concept of the three phases as being the complete view of conditions for success means expanding the span of the learning experience, with the key question being ‘where does it begin and where does it end?’. The historical answer has been to focus on the middle part in this definition – the part which we define as a learning experience, a learning journey or training. It is where most attention has been focused and at best, those aspects which are the surrounding conditions for success are after thoughts. Of course, that middle part itself is dynamic and changing at a pace that has never been seen before in the history of learning practice, but there are perils in focusing efforts mainly in the core learning, however innovative and high-quality it may be.

Excite, Engage, Embed – why?1

Engage EmbedExcite

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2.1 Going well upstreamToday’s learners are more likely to ask the question ‘why?’ ‘Why should I spend my time in this way? Why should I learn in this way, when there are so many other ways to learn? Why will it help me, now and into the future?’ The idea that formalised learning in the corporate environment is a ‘must have’ or a privilege is being challenged, just because people can learn anytime and anywhere and life is fast paced. So, this means that the upfront rationale and emotional dimension of why people should engage in learning needs to be considered well upstream of the ‘what’.

At the same time, most organisations are focused on cost effectiveness at the very least and many on cost cutting. No matter how successful, there are always opportunities for ‘better, faster, and cheaper’ – and the field of learning and development is no exception.This is an opportunity. By going well upstream and involving learners in shaping their learning, their buy-in and enthusiasm starts at an early stage. In the same way as businesses need to consider the voice of the customer and customer requirements’ in product design, the involvement of learners through active consultation with them during the design and development, means that already, they are interested and intrigued by what is to come. In fact, using learner feedback at key stages during the design and development process can be used as early communication; ‘this is what we heard, this is how we are responding to what is important to you’, which make powerful messages before anything is formally launched.

Similarly involving business and key stakeholders, both in terms of articulating the changes they wish to see, in quantitative and qualitative terms, is invaluable in developing a measurement strategy. It lays the foundation for being able to report results in a form which is meaningful to them.

At the same time, early engagement starts to define the role and contribution that stakeholders are willing to make to sponsoring and supporting the learning. It is often amazing and gratifying to find that senior stakeholders are willing and motivated to become actively involved, if they have a clear role and can see the difference that they make. They find it personally and professionally rewarding.

A first condition of success is to go well upstream in involving learners and stakeholders as an integral part of creating excitement about what is to come.

2.2 Excite as an integral phaseHow you hear about it matters…..what motivates you to engage and commit matters…..how others are involved in supporting matters….and this cannot be left to chance or considered as an after-thought. How many times have great learning programmes be designed, only to find that implementation and take-up is slower than anticipated or downright disappointing? Or that the entire programme has been designed and now some consideration is being given to marketing it (and by the way, this is handed off to others, such as internal communications or creative agencies).

Excite2

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The challenge for today’s learning professionals is to see the ‘Excite’ phase as integral and a key part of their responsibility to create. In practice, this means considering the various mechanisms which need to be built in:

n Senior level messaging and sponsorship. For example, use of video or talking heads, alongside personal appearancesn Integral role of line managers in the form of ‘tour guides’, ‘briefing packs’, virtual launch events. The support of the line manager

is one of the most powerful conditions for success which predicts how learning will be applied and how its value is realised. So, a key part of the Excite phase is to design in their role and equip them to play it at key phases. The extent to which this may be made a requirement or even mandated is a key judgement call, requiring working closely with HR and within the cultural norms of the organisation. But, it is, for sure, a key component of creating organisational readiness for the learning to come.

n Finally, there are the learners themselves. They need to feel that there really is something in it for them, but also to be asked to make a commitment. This can come in various forms:

n Use of diagnostics to trigger awareness of the need to learnn Making an upfront commitment through logging-on and creating a profilen Networking with peers so that there is a sense of ‘joining’ others on the journeyn Various messages, which create a sense of intrigue, fun and excitement about what is to come

The Excite phase needs to be fully integrated, considered as part of the learning experience and intentionally planned to create organisational readiness in the key groups who will all contribute to success. The early work ‘upstream’ starts to come to life as the Excite phase becomes visible to the organisation. It is a rewarding and creative phase of work for learning professionals when it is embraced in this way.

Engage3

And we’re off! As the excitement and momentum has built, learners engage in the journey in the right frame of mind. As learning can now be delivered in so many ways, we are almost ‘beyond the blend’ and into the reality of ‘learning anytime, anywhere’. This does mean that any time spent face-to-face and in activities which are recognised as more formal learning needs to be of the very highest quality and be seen as rewarding. There are almost two opposing concepts at work here. The richness and diversity of learning media, accessibility and cost effectiveness inevitably means that more can be done outside of the ‘classroom’ and with obvious efficiency gains. At the same time, there is a move in the opposite direction that learners crave high-quality personal interactions. So, both are opportunities.

The rewarding opportunity for the learning professional is now to really understand how to create that optimum combination which fully engages at all stages of the learning journey. The permutations are endless – the skill is in defining the right ones at the right time, for the right investment.

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The schematic below is a current ‘classification’ of what is a hugely fast-moving and developing field, literally by the week.

Embed – or where does the story end?4

Application of learning is, of course, of deep interest to many people. However, once the organised and formal part of the learning journey has been delivered, who does what to embed the changes becomes more diffuse. However, with the advent of so many more mechanisms and tools, largely arising from technologies, there is an opportunity for the learning professional to take more extended ownership of what happens downstream.

The work that is done upstream flows through to what is possible downstream, if this is treated as an integrated whole:n On-going role of the line managern Networking and collaboration, including user generated content, supporting communities of practice, links to cross functional and

global collaboration, supporting mobility of talent and an agile workforce. Just the intentional and robust integration of networking mechanisms (structured and monitored) yields rich opportunities to embed learning and at the same time, be efficient in collating evidence that it is happening, to the benefit of the business

n Use results data to embed change. The real value of results (which come from the measurement strategy developed upstream) is what can be done with them:

n Celebrate and reward successn Go beyond ‘level 1 scores’ to a deeper understanding of learner advocacy (even borrowing from the customer experience

world of Net Promoter Scores). Use these scores to create the next round of ‘Excite’n Predict future business and learning requirements, so that the L&D function is a proactive and future focused partnern ink to key metrics in the business to demonstrate that learning is making an active contribution to the 21st Century

Organisation.

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Excite, Engage, Embed – in an architecture5

The best way to ensure that the totality of the conditions for success, as described in these three phases, come together is through the co-creation of an architecture, as an essential foundational piece of work. Co-creation is essential, since it is through the consulting and collaboration that all the options for creating the full conditions for success are considered, including the ‘out there’, ‘off the wall’ and very future focused. It is through this working process, where learning professionals engage with groups inside their organisations and themselves, embrace the massively dynamic and fast moving field of practice, that the final architecture is both at the leading edge of change for their organisation, but is also practical and cost effective to implement.

The simple framework of ‘Excite, Engage and Embed’, when developed through a fully integrated architecture, means that all the conditions for success are considered and intentionally orchestrated.

Get in touchIf you’re interested in how Hemsley Fraser and 5App are helping clients to deliver digital transformation, increase their effectiveness and generate tangible business improvements, please contact us:

Web: 5App.comEmail: demo@5app.com

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