I like to keep my eye on industry and business trends. There is a foundation of knowledge that all skilled L&D teams need, but trends do affect our profession. They often impact how we approach our own jobs and practices.
Let’s examine some common business trends having an impact on the L&D profession.
The Disruptive Trends Affecting L&D
The speed of business has quickened. Technology has sped up the pace of business. Sending information takes the click of a button. Cell phones allow us to reach a colleague anytime, anywhere. Wifi access in the airport and cafe means even traveling employees can work on the go. This same pace applies to L&D. Speedy creation of learning programs is a must-have skill. Business stakeholders demand L&D teams offer bite-sized, measurable programs that prove business value. It takes skilled L&D teams to keep pace with modern-day expectations.
We’re in the era of the lifelong learner. Not that long ago, one trained for a profession in college or trade school. When you started a job, you had a supervisor who taught you the ropes. One might take training to improve soft skills. Yet most learned their skills early on and that knowledge lasted a lifetime. That era is long past. Today’s jobs demand becoming a lifelong learner. Tech changes. Sectors face disruption. Businesses move fast to keep up. These factors mean that employees must embrace learning new skills to succeed. That places the L&D function in the center of the evolution. There’s no job untouched by L&D.
Disruption is the norm. Businesses face an unprecedented wave of disruption in how they operate. From taxi companies affected by Uber, to brick-and-mortar stores impacted by online shopping, to media companies changed by digital publishing. Technology has made change easier, which means smaller businesses can have seismic influence on much larger businesses. Disruption means change, which often means employees must be reskilled, job hunters must develop new proficiencies, and managers must build new competencies. Again, that puts L&D at the center of the storm. Only skilled L&D teams can help organizations navigate through the age of constant change.
Creating Skilled L&D Teams to Respond
Your organization likely looks to the L&D department to keep staff trained and able to respond to these disruptive trends. That means you cannot overlook strengthening the skills of your team. Unfortunately, as we focus on training others, we often dismiss the need for training ourselves.
L&D leaders must plan for investments in the development of their own teams and the tools that support them. That means ensuring your team has embraced the best practices of learning design by mastering instructional design (ID) skills. Mastery of ID skills creates the firm foundation on which all your learning programs are built. Without these skills, you cannot measure your results. You cannot show your value to the organization. Smart program design clarifies learning outcomes. The goal of your learning program is behavior change. Changing behaviors, updating attitudes, and expanding skills provide the clearest evidence of your learning program success. Those are the results your business stakeholders need to see. Those results will help your company leadership whatever disruption comes their way.
You can gain these needed ID skills from eParamus, which offers Measurable Instructional Design® Certification. We can teach you the intricacies of instructional design and share with you the valuable tools you need to design measurable, repeatable, effective learning programs.
How do you ensure skilled L&D teams? To learn more about strengthening your professional skills, please contact us here at eParamus. Every day, we train L&D professionals to use the tools that help them design, measure, and improve their learning programs.
Please follow eParamus on LinkedIn and feel free to connect with me, Laura Paramoure, PhD to discuss your specific learning challenges.
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