The 5 essential stages of a digital learning transformation

When developing a digital learning transformation strategy, there are so many tools, platforms and new technologies out there it can be a minefield knowing what your business needs and where to start.

But the place to start is to first develop a robust digital learning strategy as the foundation and building blocks for any new learning initiatives you want to implement and based on sound business drivers.

Development of the strategy should involve a thorough review (or training needs analysis) and benchmarking of your current learning provision alongside the aspiration of where you are hoping to get to, your business requirements alongside your learner expectations, proposed learning ecosystem now and in the future, and identifying priority projects as well as how you’ll measure their success.

It can be easy to be lured by the appeal of the latest new platforms, such as the LXP, and think that implementing the latest technology alone will attract the leaners and create the culture for learning that drives learner engagement.

But this is simply not the case. If you build it, they won’t necessarily come and to use the better known maxim, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. (Check out this article on the benefits of LXP or LMS for a detailed discussion on the pros and cons of both and this post on How To Choose The Right LMS).

The digital learning tech world is a crowded and competitive marketplace with so many products seeming to have so much essential functionality, and the marketing of them can seem positively overwhelming. Of course, you will certainly want to ensure whatever learning solutions you implement are future-proof, but to fully know what this really means for your audience you firstly need to have outlined your underpinning digital L&D strategy.

Secondly you need to understand the five essential steps in a any digital learning transformation and how you need to build learning solutions appropriate to the maturity of your learning culture.

Any digital learning or L&D transformation is best represented as a journey moving through these five essential transitions (visualised in this diagram). It recognises that this is a step by step transitional process that is achieved in stages and by layering change in order to achieve the desired outcome and overall transformation.

 Transformation should follow these five essential but incremental managed transitions to build learning culture maturity;

1.       IMPROVE – start in a small but meaningful way to improve the existing training provision focussing on the priority areas of training. Review training formats, current learning assets, tools and platforms to see where improvements can be made. Initially these could be simple and focussed on learning design (such as flipped classroom or video learning approaches) to make the best of the tools and platforms available to deliver the most effective learning outcomes.

2.       EMBED – once these new training initiatives are being rolled out the focus will be on embedding these new more engaging assets, tools and platforms. Other new learning initiatives will naturally dovetail in to the first tranche of projects that have paved the way for other new and engaging learning resources.  The creation and execution of an effective activation campaign to promote the new training initiatives will be critical to raise awareness, drive engagement and maintain momentum.

3.       SHIFT CULTURE – after the deployment of new learning initiatives across the spectrum of business areas and an ongoing activation campaign to firmly embed these, the focus will move to shifting the culture. L&D projects will shift from embedding new digital tools, platforms and learning assets to launching targeted learning campaigns to promote incentivised challenges, user generated content (in particular video), social learning and the promotion of learning habits that promote a growth mindset, learning agility skills, and learning in the flow of work. A seamless and integrated user experience will be integral to this.

4.       ENGAGE – once there is a shift towards a culture for learning with more engaged learners, a critical stage will be to maintain the engagement by keeping content fresh and up to date and being creative with ongoing campaigns to champion learning. Fundamental to this will be the upskilling of internal teams to create high quality content, and the move towards training facilitators being content creators and mentors.

5.       INTERNAL ACTIVISTS – the final transition is to turn your most engaged learners (and content creators) into champions and internal activists for your L&D initiatives. This is achieved through centralising the administration of the learning ecosystem whilst decentralising and democratising the learning content creation. This essentially empowers your most skilled team members to share their expertise by creating user generated content.

Depending on the current learning provision within your business, these 5 transitions will take you to a more mature learning culture regardless of your starting point. The selection and investment in the most appropriate tools, platforms and content then becomes much easier as you move through your transformation on the foundations of a solid strategy.

For expert help with developing a digital L&D strategy to support your digital L&D transformation contact Learn Fox for an initial chat to discuss how we can best support you.