However, it can be a tricky process. One simple change can affect every single part of an organization.

If a new initiative is to be introduced in your organization, you need to be prepared. Most organizations focus on project management, process management, or some kind of implementation methodology. However, this overlooks one key area – the people affected by the changes.

In this episode of The Learning Xchange, Matthew Brown (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) explores the steps organizations need to take to implement change effectively.

Listen to the podcast below or keep reading.

Why learning and development is key to implementing initiatives

The key to implementing a successful new initiative is to have everyone on the same page, aware of the changes, and eager to get involved. That’s where L&D professionals come in. Who else is better placed to understand people and how to drive engagement?

L&D professionals are uniquely equipped to see all areas of an organization and provide support where needed.

How to manage requirements across the organization

One way to start is to get it all down on paper and document the requirements of everyone. What does everyone need for this new implementation to be successful?

Start with the global requirements of the organization. What’s going to apply to anyone and everyone affected by this implementation?

Next, use a department or team-specific approach. Some things will only apply to a small subset of the organization.

You may walk away with multiple lists, but this can help you better understand how changes will affect everyone.

Triage the requirements

Once we have all this documented, the next move is to triage the requirements. This is where you work out which requirements are critical versus which are just nice to have.

When we designate something as critical, it’s vital to document and discuss everything thoroughly. The more specific these conversations are, the better.

Once you get a better understanding of what’s critical, you can reprioritize things and streamline the run-up to the big launch of your company’s initiative.

Engaging people in the initiative

The next stage is all about the people. How do you engage the people in your organization? Who do you need to be engaged in this project?

This is something a lot of places overlook. It’s easy for us to get locked into just identifying the active, core project team – the people who will be directly involved in executing the changes.

While these team members are key, you also need other perspectives.

You need your key decision-makers, those who will help make new decisions and keep the project oriented to its goals. You also need your stakeholders, those who have a stake in the project, either from contributing feedback or other input.

Also, think about those who don’t have process ownership but may be affected by these changes. You can split them up into three different groups:

1. The champions

These are the people in your organization who are advocates of the team or the new changes coming. They’re on board with the coming changes, have enthusiasm, and are willing to support others.

2. The anti-champions

These are the types of employees who have more of a “sit and wait” mindset. They may even openly challenge the ideas and are naturally skeptical.

It’s important to have both representations from champions and anti-champions to get a true slice of your employees’ mindsets.

3. The influencers

Look at where the influence is coming from in the organization and strategically bring these individuals into the fold of the project. These may or may not be reflected in your champions or anti-champion groups, but it’s important to get balanced perspectives.

If you only have champions in your influencer group, the initiative is undermined from the beginning. People will be suspicious of a project that people have only nice things to say about.

You may want to avoid any negativity, but be brave and get those visible anti-champions on the project as well. You may be able to convert them to advocates by the end of the project.

Get feedback

Once you have all the requirements written down, you can circulate them through the entire group to get feedback. The earlier you do this, and the larger the group, the more time you save in the long run.

By getting feedback early on, you’re identifying barriers and obstacles sooner before they negatively impact the project.

Be realistic about the launch of your initiative

The next tip is to be realistic. Sometimes we can all be guilty of delaying a launch because we want it absolutely perfect. The problem is that these delays can mean you miss out on the ideal timing when there’s engagement and momentum.

Instead, you could prioritize and deploy the changes that matter most in phase one. This shows that you are taking action, driving change, and are solving problems. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the whole thing yet, but it gets the ball rolling.

Communicate often

When making any major changes that affect the whole organization, communication is the secret ingredient to success.

Don’t be afraid to communicate often and throughout the entire project. Poor communication can cause even the best implementations to fail.

Even if your team is working hard, you’re hitting all the goals and milestones, you can still trip up if communication isn’t clear.

Introducing a new system or process is a big change, and everyone reacts to change differently. Finishing up your project, launching it, and expecting everyone to get on board straight away is just not realistic.

Instead, you should communicate throughout the build-up to the launch and afterward as well. Everyone will know what to expect then.

You can start communicating openly about this in a few ways.

1. Sow the seeds

One way is to introduce it when you start documenting requirements. You can start to sow the seeds here and build excitement, even if you don’t explain the full scope of the project just yet.

2. Use cascading messages

Make sure you also check in with your leaders at regular intervals. Get them involved from the start and let them see what’s changing. This will help them to better understand the changes, and they can start to instill confidence in the employees.

3. Use direct messaging to all employees

As well as going directly to the leaders, we should also go directly to the employees. Some company cultures make this harder but going to the teams that will be driving the process makes the project much more inclusive.

If you just rely on cascading messages, it can create the wrong impression and perpetuates a strict hierarchy of who gets the exclusive information.

4. Connect feedback to action

The final piece of communication advice is to connect feedback to action. Whenever we receive feedback, we should always approach it with the intention that we will act on it.

Everyone wants to be seen and heard, so when employees give feedback, they need to know that it’s contributing to real action. It shows you’re truly valuing your employees and their opinions, which is one of the quickest ways to build trust and confidence.

Remember to celebrate the success of implementing your initiative!

Finally, it’s also important to remember to celebrate. Sometimes we can be too focused on the work, the processes, and hitting all the timelines and budgets involved with the initiative that we lose sight of the celebration stage.

Celebrating is a clear signal of progress. It’s a way to create a positive connection across the organization and to just have fun. This is where you just let loose with all your thoughts and celebrate the milestones your team has reached.

If we can celebrate all of that, it creates an expectation for people. It shows that we should never stop learning. We should never stop growing and evolving.

The post How to Successfully Implement a New Initiative in the Workplace appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

What kind of system would you need to develop each frontline employee according to their individual skills, knowledge, and experience to help them continuously grow? How would you keep them engaged, informed, and compliant? 

This can pose a challenge for learning and development teams at large, global businesses. Especially when they’re responsible for leading and managing such an undertaking.

Global businesses have complex structures that require a learning solution that is equipped to handle their unique set of needs. For example, communicating information to various levels. They may need to reach a single employee, a specific business unit, or every employee in every division. Or, they may want to deliver personalized training to both frontline and other employees, across multiple regions and cultures. 

If you are in the market for a learning solution and you have a complex organizational structure with specific talent development needs, be on the lookout for these must-haves.

Global businesses with complex organizational structures should look for a learning solution that:

1. Simplifies global learning initiatives

First, the platform should be easy to access across the entire company and on all devices. A good question to ask a learning solution provider is how much down time their cloud-based system experiences annually. Additionally, ask if their solution is optimized for PCs, cell phones, and tablets.

Second, the platform should be able to translate learning content and the user interface text to many languages. This enables employees to choose their default language.

Geotargeting comes into play here as well. By having a learning solution with geotargeting capabilities, the system can prompt the employee to choose the language depending on where they’re located. Or, it can automatically reset to the default language if needed.

Finally, the system should allow you to measure learning adoption rates. It should also enable you to create reports for specific regions and geographies throughout your company.

Consider an L&D leader of a large restaurant franchise. To determine the completion rates for one of their key training courses on salad prepping, they run a report. Upon review, they realize that the rates vary greatly across geographic locations.

By leveraging a reporting tool that drills down to various levels, including by region, they can immediately address the issue. For example, they can leverage the system’s built-in communication tools to share information. Or, they can employ gaming elements to build friendly competition and boost completion rates.

2. Helps drive engagement across the entire workforce

Global organizations have many factors to consider when it comes to employee engagement beyond the number of employees. They also have to take into account what motivates employees across different regions and cultures. Therefore, global organizations need learning solutions with a robust set of tools that can help them drive engagement. For example:

• Surveys
• Communication and feedback mechanisms (groups, one-to-one, or one-to-many messaging)
• Progress tracking in order to regularly review and iterate programs
• Learning tailored by role or need
• Relevant, interactive content
  

3. Eases companywide change

From shifting to virtual and blended learning due to the pandemic, to implementing new policies, procedures, or programs, learning solutions can help large complex organizations manage large-scale change more easily.

Continuing with the previous example, consider how COVID-19 affected the way large restaurant franchises conducted franchisee training. Typically, franchisees would visit corporate headquarters for training. The pandemic forced restaurants to change that. Learning solutions equipped to handle that change were able to shine during the pandemic. Why? Because they helped many companies transition to a virtual learning environment. 

Large businesses were able to take things that could be done online and create virtual training, both instructor-led and self-paced. And for those unable to attend, employers simply enrolled them in the recorded on-demand training instead.

Mobile optimization was also key during the pandemic. Companies were able to leverage technology to make learning available in the flow of work. For example, a restaurant employee could pick up their phone to view a microlearning session. Minutes later, they can wash their and get right back to work to apply what they learned. 

4. Comes with a reputation for excellent customer service and product improvement

Finally, look for learning solution providers that are known to be “customer-obsessed.” Your relationship should feel like a true partnership, including having access to leadership. 

Companies grow and change over time, and you deserve a learning provider whose success depends upon your own success. They should be there for you as you grow to monitor your needs. And they should improve their product and features to address those needs along the way. 

A chat with Subway

Subway, a global business with more than 40,000 locations, spoke with us to share the impact Schoox has had on their organization over the years. Subway’s VP of Global L&D and Operating Systems Sunil Sudhakar discusses the successes and lessons learned during their training and development journey as a complex global business.

Watch on demand to learn more: Driving Engagement at Scale: A Fireside Chat with Subway

The post Global Businesses: 4 Learning Solution Must-Haves appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

In times of change or crisis, many of us make the mistake of keeping those priorities and plans the same. However, if the world/the business/your life has changed, shouldn’t those priorities change as well?

That’s the topic of discussion in this episode of The Learning Xchange podcast. Matthew Brown (Schoox’s VP of Learning and Brand Success) talks about the importance of setting priorities – but also reassessing them.

Matthew says that while planning for the future is essential in business, things rarely stay exactly the same. When things change, it’s important to be flexible and revisit priorities. He also discusses the importance of talking to your team about goals, tasks and being honest. If there’s too much on your plate and you need help, talking to others can help you better prioritize tasks together.

Listen to the podcast below or keep reading.

When was the last time your reassessed your priorities?

We all have priorities for our business and personal lives, but when was the last time you really sat down and looked at your priorities? Even the most organized people may struggle to remember the last time they reassessed their priorities.

Most of us will set goals at the start of the year, but it’s important to ask ourselves – is our business the same a month later? Plans and priorities set on January 1 may no longer be relevant on February 1.

We saw this happen during 2020 and still in 2021. If your business was affected by COVID or, more recently, the extreme weather in Texas, you might be forced to reassess your priorities.

The truth is, in times of change and crisis, our priorities naturally change. The world we set our goals in on January 1 may not be the same world today, so should your plans and priorities change?

There’s nothing wrong with changing your priorities. Failing to reassess at all is the problem.

What happens when your plate is full?

One of the dangers of not redefining your priorities is that you can end up with a full plate of work and responsibilities. You may have the capacity to take on that one extra task, but what happens when three more people come up with important tasks to heap onto your plate?

Something has to give. That’s when saying no to things becomes essential, but first, you need to recognize the difference between what’s important versus what’s urgent.

Talk about it to receive ideas on how to reassess your priorities

What can you do when there’s too much on your plate, you’re stressed, and nothing seems to get done? The first step is taking a step back and reassessing the situation. The next step is to talk.

Talk with your stakeholders, talk with colleagues, or your mentor. You will find that in most cases, people are willing to discuss and collaborate to find a solution. But to do this, they need to know the problem is there.

Once you talk it through, you get a second pair of eyes to help you revaluate the situation. With help, you can reassess priorities more effectively.

How to use the Eisenhower Matrix to reassess your priorities

For those unfamiliar with the Eisenhower Matrix, it’s a simple method for prioritizing tasks by urgency and importance.

To use it, you sort tasks into four quadrants:

1. Important and urgent – Do first.

These tasks are ones to do first. Don’t put them off!

2. Less important and urgent – Delegate.

These tasks may be urgent but can be delegated. Look at them as urgent, but not necessarily for you.

3. Important and less urgent – Schedule.

Schedule these tasks for a later date while you work on ‘Do first’ tasks.

4. Less important and less urgent – Don’t do.

These tasks aren’t urgent or important, so you can decide not to do them at all. Take them off your plate entirely to free up headspace.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed and are struggling to prioritize, the Eisenhower Matrix is a simple yet effective way to break everything down.

Define what is important and urgent

For the Eisenhower Matrix, or whatever method you choose, to work, you need to sit down and define what is considered important versus what is urgent.

Having a clear picture of what falls under these two labels will help you prioritize in the future. It can act as a filter for you to put each task through. That way, you know exactly what your next step is, whether it’s Do first, Delegate, Schedule, or Don’t do.

The benefits of reassessing priorities

Taking some time to really reassess your priorities and plans for the future has several benefits.

First of all, you will feel better prepared to work on your goals because you’ll have a clearer idea of what to do first.

Another benefit is that you can start to take a lot of tasks off your plate that are currently just taking up headspace.

If you spend some time talking it all through with others, you will also benefit from someone else’s advice and assistance. Two heads are better than one, and the same goes for prioritizing tasks and operations on a business level.

Prioritizing your goals and tasks is such a simple exercise that many of us overlook. We hope this advice has helped you get started on reassessing your priorities. Doing so will help to clear a lot of stress and will boost your productivity levels as a result.

The post How to Reassess Your Priorities During Constant Change appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

With so many disruptions, 2020 has been a catalyst for change. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the learning and development industry.

L&D has consistently approached challenges with resilience like no other department has. In this special Thanksgiving episode, Matthew Brown reflects on how L&D has evolved through its response to events of the last 12 months. Listen to the episode to hear Matthew discuss L&D’s management of unexpected events and how the industry continues to lead organizations to success.

Hit play to listen to this episode of the podcast below:

Or, find out more by reading on.

In this post, we’re summarizing the five things that we’re most thankful for this year and how each of them has played a part in L&D’s evolution.

1. Organizations appreciating L&D’s impact and ROI

One of the silver linings from this year’s events has been the elevated awareness and commitment to L&D. Organizations that once saw L&D as an optional investment now see it as a necessity.

Previously, when businesses were forced to make cutbacks, reducing training and L&D was considered an easy cost-cutting solution. Some organizations have historically struggled to appreciate the return on investment that comes from training activities, but this year there’s been a big shift. Organizations have actively prioritized their commitment to L&D.

Now, organizations see training departments as instrumental in helping them adapt. They’ve consistently helped organizations rebuild and emerge stronger than before, even after challenges that might have meant struggling to survive.

2. HR and L&D’s strengthened relationship

HR and L&D have been the backbone of many businesses, helping navigate difficult changes, but they’ve also been fundamental to ensuring employee happiness and success.

Both departments responded quickly and effectively to the disruptions to develop solutions and integrate them throughout organizations. But HR and L&D have also worked together, modeling what you can achieve if you focus on building working relationships. These cross-department opportunities enable collaboration and also lead to business and employee success in other areas, such as skills development, performance, goals, and learning.

By bringing together HR and L&D, organizations can enable a comprehensive approach to delivering learning strategies and maximizing their impact on the employee experience. To find out more about this, read our interview with HR and L&D expert Ellen Rockwell.

3. L&D’s continued commitment to driving innovation

Necessity is the mother of invention, but L&D is the mother of innovation. From overcoming virtual workplace challenges to rethinking your training approach, trainers and L&D professionals have been continuously tested on their ability to innovate their learning experiences.

How you were delivering training in Thanksgiving 2019 is undoubtedly very different from how you deliver training today. Many trainers moved online, using creative ways to provide the training that their learners needed and convincing organizations that their innovative solutions were more than up to the task.

Innovation is still happening in areas from delivery to course content. While some trainers tweaked aspects of their content, others went back to the drawing board to rewrite courses from scratch. But the most notable area is the demand for new technology.

Meeting different learner needs through a strictly online medium required a big rethink of what technologies were and weren’t working. Trainers quickly began trialing innovative ways to use existing technologies to reach their desired learning outcomes. Many L&D professionals are now working with software companies to help meet the new demands and provide solutions that help meet a wider variety of learner needs.

4. Opportunities to review how their existing learning works

This sudden shift also opened up an unexpected opportunity to stop and take stock of how we construct learning. It presented a unique chance to review and revisit training courses and ideas, as trainers had to think critically about how their training works when delivered remotely, but also how it works for learners in general.

While this can be a very daunting and challenging task, many trainers are using this opportunity to dig deep into their training and make changes so that it’s relevant for all learners and audiences. New technologies also mean that you can incorporate exciting and engaging content that perhaps you hadn’t considered (or wasn’t available) before. Whether you include gamification, interactive activities, or are taking your messages back to basics, having the space to review and rebuild is a fantastic opportunity. To learn more about ways to build training for different learners, check out this post.

5. L&D’s unwavering resilience

Learning and development have continually shown that it has an amazing commitment to persevere in uncertain times. The community has consistently leveraged communication and facilitation expertise to help our businesses figure out how to reshape, regroup, and move forward.

In many cases, businesses have deployed L&D resources to reshape these business operations, processes, and practices. Meanwhile, they’re also tackling learning, mental well-being, and stress management.

In fact, L&D’s traditional role is currently on hold for many professionals. But this instigates a new sense of purpose and focus. The training community is being called upon to develop learning activities and learning interventions, and find ways to integrate experiences that model empathy, mental wellness, and more.

The L&D community has come together to stress why leaders and managers should check in with their staff and prioritize support. Since the start of 2020, L&D has empowered teams and organizations to work together while we’re apart in order to stay successful and achieve more.

The impact of 2020 on the evolution of L&D has been remarkable. For this, we are truly thankful.

Thank you for reading The Learning Xchange’s Thanksgiving episode summary. Make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to The Learning Xchange on your favorite podcast app (available on all the usual podcast apps, including Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and more) and get a new episode downloaded directly every week!

The post 5 Reasons to Be Thankful for 2020 and Its Impact on L&D appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

This is part one of a four-part series on how L&D teams can effectively evaluate, measure, and demonstrate the business impact of their learning and development programs. See parts two, three, and four here.

To improve how L&D teams measure and demonstrate the business impact of training, they must first honor the reality that not only has it been a challenge to provide detailed insights into the effectiveness of training, but the pandemic and resulting shift to remote work has significantly upped the ante for their need to provide this information. 

Learning teams are often tasked with providing many different proof points, but the core metrics include:

• Proving the value of learning
• Measuring engagement and effectiveness
• Improving the effectiveness and design of learning programs
• Justifying increased investment in learning and learning technology

There is a tremendous amount of opportunity in the measurement and impact of training. In a Workplace Learning Report from LinkedIn, it was found that only 8% of CEOs saw the business impact of L&D programs. Even fewer (4%) saw a clear ROI.

This tells us that L&D teams have a lot of work to do to change the perspective and perceptions and help connect the dots. To do that effectively, they have to start with the end in mind.

It’s clear that measuring impact is an ongoing challenge for L&D. But why is this such a pressing matter right now?

The COVID-19 Catalyst to ‘Respond and Reset’

The pandemic has been one of the biggest mechanisms for change that L&D has ever experienced. Many L&D teams have had to revamp their approach or focus more on addressing the changes their business needed to accommodate the pandemic shift. 

Let’s look at the journey companies have been on for the last few months. When we think about change management, this can be compared to the “unfreeze/change/refreeze” model:

Lockdown = Unfreeze—Preparing for the change

Reopening = Change—Implementing the change

New Normal = Refreeze—Stabilizing the change

While many companies follow this model, research company Gartner sees the pandemic response as a three-phase cycle of “respond/recover/renew,” and allows for the varying duration of each phase by country, industry, and enterprise—and even by business unit, product, or service, which can be a better fit for many companies as they navigate each ‘new normal.’

What Does This Mean for L&D?

Companies cannot simply ignore training needs. In many cases, they’re having to keep their foot on the gas and make changes as they reorient to the current normal. This includes training. Companies realize that learning cannot be put on hold and that L&D needs to be brought in at a strategic level.

Whether we talk about COVID-19 impacts or the next big shift in business, the role of L&D is expanding to represent learning solutions, not just ‘training courses.’ This includes diverse technology, multiple platforms, formal and informal learning, development, coaching, and more.

The Impact of Remote Working

Among the changes brought on by the pandemic, one was new for all of us: remote working.

As of April 2020, the thought was 20-25% of the workforce would be working from home by the end of 2021. As recently as August, many companies stated they expect this to be more like 50-75%.

The ripple effects of this are massive. Not only does L&D have to rethink their training delivery format, but they also have to think about changing learning objectives, rescoping training modules, and accounting for workplace environment changes and distractions.

Chances are that learning programs for remote teams didn’t start with the intention of measuring business impact. They probably started with something like… there is a fire … go put it out … content now! But it’s never too late to change course. To get started, ask yourself:

• How can I know if our learning investment is paying off?
• How can I learn where our online training program is most effective and where it’s falling short?
• If the existing training is not effective, how can I know what changes are needed to make it better?
• How can I know if specific modules, such as upselling products, are working?

Read part two of this series to learn how to best align your company’s business strategy with talent and learning, and why analytics is essential in demonstrating the impact of L&D on business goals. 

To learn more about measuring the success of your learning programs, download our free eBook, The ROI of Online Training.

The post Measuring the Business Impact of L&D: First, Honor the Reality of Now appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

As employees reenter the workplace, they will likely seek a sense of stability and direction. This should be communicated from the top down, with demonstrated buy-in from executive leaders. They will also look to their managers to equip them with the right skills to manage immediate and future changes.

During this time, it is important for employees to have a sense of control over their ability to succeed. In the short term, one of the best, most direct ways to address that is through learning. You can provide employees with opportunities to improve their skills and competencies. Sustaining this in the long term requires a broader change. You will need to prepare your workforce to adopt an agile learning culture.

Why Skills and Competencies Matter Right Now

I’m sure you’ve heard the terms “reskilling and upskilling” flying around in the L&D world. They are important words during this time. But what do they mean for your organization specifically?

Reskilling means learning new skills so you can do a different job, or training people to do a different job. It involves finding people with skills that align with the new skills your organization requires. Upskilling means learning new skills or teaching workers new, advanced skills to close knowledge gaps while involving them in ongoing learning to help them advance in their career.

Developing skills and competencies is becoming increasingly important in the U.S. and across the globe. For example:

• In the report, Learning and Skills at Work 2020, released in June by CIPD and Accenture, 36% of respondents listed “addressing skills gaps” as their No. 1 priority for their organization.
•  Of the top 10 threats to organizations’ future growth, “availability of key skills” ranked number three in PwC’s 22nd Annual Global CEO Survey in 2019.
• MIT Sloan’s assessment of a yearlong in-factory training program on communication, problem-solving, decision-making, and stress management found that the training resulted in a 250% ROI within eight months after it ended.

Planning for Reentry: Focus on Skills

The case is clear. Businesses should be focusing heavily on closing skills and competency gaps as they plan to reopen their doors. They can begin by building a competency framework. Using a skills and competencies template to guide you through this process saves a lot of time and effort. The goal is to identify the skills and competencies your workforce has, the ones they need, and where to fill the gaps with learning.

I recommend leaning on skills and competencies. It will help your workforce become flexible amid change—and remain that way—so they are prepared to pivot if and when another crisis happens. Skills that can facilitate short-term change while preparing your workforce for long-term agility include:

• Flexibility—Being willing to “meet others halfway” when working in an atmosphere of frequent operational and procedural changes
• Adaptability—Being able to change based on what happens around you, whether that involves customers needs, changing technology, or a rapidly changing workplace environment
• Communication—Being able to quickly, accurately, and effectively communicate changes in strategy or approach amid several changing factors
• De-escalation—Being able to “dial down” one’s own anger and the anger of others in times of confusion, change, or stress

The post Skills for Successful Reentry: How to Prepare Your Employees appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

Whether conducting needs assessments, educating employees on effective communication skills, or finding ways to provide ongoing engagement, L&D is in a unique position to champion change management efforts during times of crisis and beyond. There are several reasons for this, and this article includes three of the biggest reasons.

L&D Has Established Credibility and Trust with Employees and Management Alike

By virtue of their role, L&D teams can communicate with employees at every level of your organization. In a crisis, when collaboration is needed most and businesses must quickly pivot and find creative solutions to respond, you can rely on L&D to deliver a sense of connectedness and stability through learning. This ability is critical, especially, as we have seen with COVID-19, when an entire workforce must quickly shift to working from home.

Another tool under L&D’s belt is their ability to guide your company’s transition from a 100% live training environment to a 100% virtual training environment so employees have access to important information and opportunities for development during the crisis. Based on the reported struggles with this transition, virtual training could easily be seen by some businesses as needing a change management plan in and of itself! This is yet another reason why the potential of L&D should be tapped to lead that change.

L&D Enables Managers to Effectively Prepare Staff for What’s Ahead

Learning and change go hand in hand—one cannot change without learning. So, when it comes to helping companies successfully navigate change during a crisis, L&D is who you want on your team. L&D professionals are well-equipped to provide leaders with the right learning solutions to effectively prepare their teams for the changes or obstacles they may face during a crisis. They help future-proof your organization during times when the future may not be so certain.

Demonstrating an investment in your employees’ development is a win-win. It causes a chain reaction of lasting benefits, beginning with the ability to build trust—particularly important during times of crisis when employees are fearful of losing their jobs. That trust becomes evident with improved engagement and performance, which ultimately leads to increased loyalty. Employee retention will become critical after the crisis when you are fully up and running and need skilled, high-performing, dedicated employees to keep things running smoothly. And although there was not a playbook for the COVID-19 crisis, employees are taking notes.

L&D Impacts the Adaptability of Your Business Which Can Lead to Sustainability After a Crisis

L&D professionals are masters of flexibility—a must-have trait in an industry that requires organizations to learn at the speed of change, whether they are navigating a crisis or not. Flexibility is also vital for organizations that want to maintain a competitive advantage after they emerge from the other side of a crisis. A company’s sustainability is directly tied to the skills and knowledge of its workforce. To that end, the forward-thinking L&D role could be the linchpin of a company’s future success. 

Beyond remaining flexible in a changing environment, L&D teams show the same flexibility in their approach to learning. They are open to and on the lookout for new technologies and best practices that can position their company for success. They have the necessary skills to drive future performance, the tools to pinpoint and address learning gaps, and the ability to identify and develop a pipeline of leaders to effectively inform succession planning.

Finally, having a keen understanding of the relationship between learning and a company’s competitive standing, L&D professionals can use data to demonstrate to leaders and executives the direct impact of learning on the company’s business objectives.

Companies would greatly benefit from utilizing the untapped potential of L&D as a central role in their change management strategy, whether it is during, after, or even without a crisis.

The post Why L&D Should Play a Star Role in Change Management During a Crisis appeared first on Schoox - A Learning Management System.

If you want to keep pace with the shifting trends, then you need to adopt an agile mindset. But, what does that mean and how can you and your team get there?

Let’s explore the agile concept together and learn how you can transition from waterfall to agile.

What Is an Agile Mindset Anyway?

The year was 2001 when a group of IT professionals decided that its time to change the traditional way of managing a software development project. It was clear to everyone that the traditional methods, where every request had to be approved by different departments before implementation weren’t effective. Teams wasted a lot of time waiting for things to move in the right direction instead of focusing on improving the project. Not to mention, the speed of delivery was extremely slow.

That’s how the Agile movement was born, and it aimed to create a work environment based on collaboration, interaction, support, and self-organization. If in traditionally structured companies, communication is top-down – managers develop strategies, assign tasks, and review performance, in an agile environment, communication is bidirectional. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you are a manager or an intern. Tasks are discussed, and everybody is involved, the focus being on finding and implementing the best solutions.

Although companies were a bit skeptic about the agile approach, the numbers show its effectiveness clearly. According to a study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, nimble companies have a revenue growth 37% higher than traditionally structured businesses.

So, there’s no question about the fact that an agile mindset can benefit your company. But, how do you implement it?

Here are some ideas.

Train Your Employees

Look, you can’t change the way your company works and expect employees to catch on to the new methods on the go. If until now communication was top-down and they had to get several clearances before getting anything done, freedom of decision might feel a bit unnatural to your team.

Conduct training sessions that will help employees understand their new roles in the system. Get them accustomed to voicing their ideas and let them know their feedback matters. Create real-life scenarios and encourage them to participate in the decision-making process.

Enable Collaboration

Another change that you must implement if you want to switch from waterfall to an agile mindset is fostering collaboration between entities that weren’t communicating effectively before. Teams must get used to working with managers who not before long only assigned tasks and reviewed performance. You can do the same things with different departments.

For instance, you can enable the development and testing teams to work together. That way, they can see how the entire process unfolds, from idea to execution and identify possible problems that might affect user experience.

Focus on Communication

Communication is crucial in this fast-changing business environment. A lack of it could mean the failure of identifying pain points that might affect consumer experience and, consequently, your revenue.

If you want to transition to agile, then you must foster an environment that encourages communication between different teams and departments. Ask teams to report on their progress and discuss the potential problems they identified. You also need to focus on training employees to react and act quickly when issues emerge. That can be problematic in companies where the waterfall method was the norm and employees are used to being told what to do instead of taking action themselves.

Encourage Creative Thinking

Sticking to the status quo might mean the death of progress in the agile business environment. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to restructure your company completely. You can still use some of the old techniques to help employees understand their new roles. However, be ready to abandon some ideas that don’t match the agile values. An agile environment thrives when there’s a lot of flexibility, and everyone works together to accomplish the same goal.

Leverage Agile Tools

You can’t transition to an agile mindset if you don’t have the right tools. An agile company will thrive if employees can work and communicate in real-time. That way, everyone will be aware of the progress of the project and any new changes.

Conclusion

The truth of the matter is that transitioning to an agile environment will be difficult for everyone. Managers must get used to listening to their teams’ feedback, and employees must get used to taking the initiative and voicing their ideas. What everyone needs to remember, though, is that you need to stay flexible. Don’t force new approaches and don’t get stuck in the old ways. Balance is the key to an agile mindset.

If you feel lost in the process, check out this post about how to create clear paths for your employees.

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