Learners need to “learn” how to “learn” in these new platforms

When eLearning became mainstream, we unleashed. We converted one-week classes to 30 1-hour eLearning courses. We recorded classroom experiences and build hours’ and hours’ of recorded videos and put them online. We celebrated at how we were able to reach so many more people, how much money we were able to save, and how we gave people to learn “in the workflow” through mobile apps. 

But, we are still scratching our heads…why aren’t our teams performing better? Why are our leaders not able to have effective conversations with their employees? Why don’t we have a strong pipeline of talent who can take on the future of our organization?  Why aren’t our people adopting these mobile apps and new learning technologies that we are offering?

A part of the issue is that we have trained an entire generation of work to “click next.” By going extreme and building module after module of eLearning, we have taught employees to consume and simply comply with online learning rather than engage, collaborate and contribute. Another issue is that we assume that personal behavior reflects professional behavior. With a bevy of new Facebook or Netflix-like learning experience platforms that now allow employees to act as experts and offer their point of view, we assume that employees just know what to do and want to put themselves out there. We assume because everyone uses these types of platforms in their personal life that it will easily translate to their work life. But it doesn’t. 

It’s different to put yourself out there on anonymously or with one’s friends and family as compared to putting yourself out there on a workplace collaboration platform. Friends aren’t evaluating your work performance and aren’t deciding what your salary will be next year. To make it even more complicated, some work cultures don’t value sharing and sharing can be seen as undermining one’s value. 

So, where does this leave us? How might we have our employees and leaders “unlearn” the click next syndrome and make the most of our technology investments that allow employees to share, connect, and collaborate? It all begins understanding them and what they are wanting out of their work experience. We have to provide a compelling reason to engage and not just another reason to click next….or not click at all.