Learning and Development – Simplified

• Getting started

In my opinion, Learning and Development is a strange duck. Companies either understand it completely or not at all. Having a great history of working for several companies that don’t get it, I have a unique understanding of what it takes to make it work. L&D should be a required team at each and every company that exists today, from the smallest 1 person group to the 200k employee corporation. For those companies that get it, I applaud you for investing the time and energy it takes to create real learning and development.

•  Is training learning?

So let’s dig in on what L&D really is. The title says it all. It’s Learning and its Development. I see many job postings and executive titles that have ‘Training’ as the main focus. Training is just a small part of L&D.  Learning is the aspect of gathering, absorbing, and retaining knowledge, typically about a subject that is beneficial to you and the company.  This can be done by instructor led classes, self-led research, or by having a simple conversation with a peer or leader that is knowledgeable in the topic you are learning about. Training is just the delivery of information to someone else.

•  Why development?

Development is different. Development is more about growth than information, although it takes a certain level of information to develop yourself or someone else, it’s more about achieving the next level. If you want to ‘develop’ someone you must allow them to grow where they are…in the roll they are in…in the place they are at.  Self-learning and self-paced learning are key aspects to true development. Let the person develop themselves at their own pace. The leader, in this instance, is only needed for direction.

•  Leadership

Leadership is another sub topic of learning and development. You have to develop a leader. Very few people have the natural ability to truly lead. In my experience, most people in leadership positions are just managers and have no idea what it means to allow a team to function and grow while removing roadblocks. Leaders that are managing, not leading, tend to micro manage and question every decision without the ability to understand the reasoning behind those decisions. I have worked for several of these ‘managers’ in the past and it is a pain in the ass. Having to explain every decision to someone who has no idea what you are talking about, but has the full authority to say no, sucks. These non-leaders need true leadership learning and development.

•  Good training and the process

Most companies in this day and age haven’t seen good training and surely haven’t seen what good learning and development can do. It’s sad, really, to think about how much money is wasted every day on crap content and crap delivery (instructor led and eLearning). Being in the industry for over 15 years now, I can only hope that these companies can regroup and really up the ante on their L&D teams.  I believe the reason that training has been categorically ineffective in the past is that we over complicated it so much.  Trying to cover all of the different learning styles; kinesthetic, auditory, visual, blah, blah… It doesn’t have to be that complex. My method is very simple and incorporates everything an adult learner needs. 

Greg’s Method:

1. Tell them some stuff
2. Have them reiterate and discuss that stuff
3. Let them practice that stuff
4. Verify that they know the stuff

Bam!!   Done!!

“Tell the audience what you are going to say, then tell them what you said.” –Dale Carnegie

I have found this simple method to be very effective. This works for instructor led content, eLearning, really any type of adult learning.

•  Using the right words

Andragogy (adult learning) is the word we are looking for…not pedagogy (child learning). I know that the word pedagogy has been for both in the past but it really stems from the kids and teaching in a school environment. School’s (post high school) typically go against adult learning principles. Lecture settings are not conducive to true retention, they are just a forum to spew a lot of information to a lot of people. The real learning, after that mess, comes from students studying themselves or getting in study groups. And please remember that I said typically, not all. 

Here is a great article about lectures and low retention:

http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/02/why-lectures-are-ineffective/

•  The other development and the other process

Now, back to the topic at hand.  Learning and development. Let’s talk about the other development for a minute…content development. I also think that this has been over complicated in the past and needs to be simpler. For instructor led content, the slides need to be talking points, not complete thoughts. A picture on a slide can really say 1000 words, you don’t always need text. KEEP IT SIMPLE.

ELearning content is another story. Don’t get me wrong, it still needs to be simple but creating simple content can actually be very complex. The process, however, needs to be simple.

Greg’s Method:

1. Figure out what stuff the stakeholder needs
2. Define what the end result of this stuff needs to be
3. Create the stuff
4. Verify the stuff is accurate

Again...Bam!!!  Done!!

•  Wrap it up

I understand that writing it down on paper (or computer) is much easier than actually doing all of this but it really can be simpler than it has been in the past. I would be happy to help you with any of this or consult with your teams. L&D is an oddity to those that haven’t been immersed in it for several years. It took me doing just about every role inside different learning teams within different industries to even begin to figure it out. My passion is helping out people and companies with all aspects of learning and development.

"Bad training is a monologue delivered in the presence of hostages." - Sardek Love

•  Help is here if you want or need it

Send me an email: pickens.greg@gmail.com

I welcome all comments and feedback.