Just about every organisation is under financial pressure at the moment. Private sector organisations are having to cut costs to maintain margins when economic growth is at a standstill. The public sector is the target of massive cuts as governments look to bring down national debt. And the charity sector must remain lean as the flow of money from both the general public and from government looks increasingly constrained. This is not a new phenomenon – we have been under pressure now since 2008. What is new is the realisation that we are not in the midst of a conventional economic cycle with the prospect of good times just a year or two away. In the Western world at least, it will take a long time to clear debt and restore confidence. We may as well get used to it.
Learning and development (L&D) departments, usually amongst the first to be subject to cuts, are struggling to meet the call from senior management to deliver ‘more for less’. They wonder – quite rightly – whether this is really possible. First of all, we have to know what ‘more’ really means. Are we looking for more learning? This implies greater effectiveness – in other words, the same number of learners, but better results from every intervention that we deliver. Well, believe it or not, this is possible, assuming we work a little smarter.
Effectiveness comes not from the ways in which we use technology but the methods we select. So, when we get people together to learn in a group, we use that time for activities that you can only accomplish in a group – like sharing ideas and experiences, and practising skills – not dumping information. We continue to provide some elements of the learning experience one-to-one because it is fantastically effective. And we provide the opportunity for people to take control of their own learning, so they can focus on what is really relevant to them, at a time when it is most relevant. Sound familiar? Yes, this is blended learning – designed intelligently.
“Every learner is also potentially a teacher: No-one knows everything but everyone knows something.”
‘More’ might also mean more learners. Well, we are not going to achieve this face-to-face, because we simply don’t have the trainers, the facilities, the time or the money. We have to turn to new approaches that allow learning content to be distributed more flexibly to many more people. As an extreme example, Stanford University recently announced an online course in artificial intelligence, led by the world’s top experts and available free online. Some 93,000 people have so far enrolled. Now, obviously this is not going to be ‘high-touch’ in terms of tutor support, but 93,000 people can provide an awful lot of support to each other through collaborative online work in forums and wikis. To reach more learners we need not only great content but a realisation that every learner is also potentially a teacher: No-one knows everything but everyone knows something.
So what about the ‘less’ side of the equation? Well, less can mean less time. We can save time by not over-engineering our courses, by keeping them short and simple and concentrating on key principles and core skills, not detail. We can save time by selectively providing courses on a self-study basis – you can generally reckon to halve the time you would otherwise have spent in a classroom. You can save time by keeping your live group sessions shorter (which also aids effectiveness) and, where possible, conducting them online instead of face-to-face. And just about all these techniques will result in lower cost because, after all, time is money.
In many organisations, ‘less’ is also – sadly – evidenced in the number of employees working in L&D. This would be manageable to some extent if there was increased money available for outsourcing, but this is not always the case. So, if you have less trainers, what do you do? First and foremost you have to shift the emphasis from courses – the formal elements, whether live or self-study, face-to-face or online – to resources. Courses are needed to inspire learners and to provide them with the skills and knowledge they need to progress forward on their own with some confidence. From that point on the emphasis shifts to resources – both people and content – that can support learners as and when they need it. You will never be able to be this resource for every learner yourself. As we have already concluded, in the organisation of the future everyone is a teacher as well as a learner. And that’s how you really can achieve more with less.
Clive Shepherd was the chairman at the first Charity Learning Conference and Awards this year, where he was interviewed by Martin Couzins, then acting editor of TrainingZone. In the interview he talks about new ‘lean’ ways of working in learning and development. With thanks to Martin Couzins.
Clive Shepherd is a partner in Onlignment, a consultancy specialising in the application of technology to learning and communications in the workplace. He was the co-founder of Epic, the eLearning developer, and before that Director, Training and Creative Services for American Express. For four years he was also chair of The eLearning Network. Clive speaks internationally on workplace learning and development and contributes regularly to his blog, Clive on Learning. He is also the author of the Blended Learning Cookbook and The New Learning Architect.
