3 Critical Actions to Break Out of the Content Business
Break free from the status quo of learning as a content business and become a strategic partner to those we serve!
Here are the three critical actions Beth Salyers and I suggest integrating immediately into your learning design and development process.
Look for opportunities to add environmental support to learning experiences to help sustain changes beyond just the formal learning experience. Small things like learning groups, office hours, watch parties with discussion for new initiatives, 24-hour chat support for learners to ask questions and get relevant resources. These small things go a long way in creating an optimal environment for our learning opportunities to sustain change inside of organizations.
Focus on creating inquiry-based learning experiences that empower learners rather than just filling them with passive content.
Collaborate with others to leverage collective strengths and move beyond solely focusing on content creation towards building skills in performance consulting and human behavioral strategies.
Why does this matter?
As learning professionals we are in the business of change and growth. Yet, the status quo leads us to operate like our business is content creation. This disconnect is costing us our reputation and our jobs.
Beth Salyers, who joins me every month in an Industry Leader LinkedIn Audio Chat, pointedly shared today, “As education and learning professionals we help people and organizations step into their own brilliance.” Yes!
Learning is a powerful tool to help us all step into our own brilliance - if we do it right.
In many organizations the learning and education function is stuck in the industrial age. We need to change our focus from “filling the pail,” as Beth says, via passive content consumption and begin engaging with our customers, employees, and learners with a human-centered, inquiry-based approach to learning.
What does that look like you ask? Lean into a more consultative role - a collaborative partnership with those we serve - versus pushing content that people may or may not want, or that may no longer be relevant.
If we are in the content business then we are also in the business of pushing our content out into the world. If folks don’t engage in our content, then our content is useless.
If we are in the people-support business, our role becomes strategic, agile, and advisory. Strategic roles are often more valuable to the business (and to our communities) than content and course creation alone.