2022 L&D/HR Conferences & Insights
Around the globe there’s an abundance of insightful and thought-provoking L&D/HR conferences each year. Below is a summary of some of the key themes and discussions from a variety of the 2021/22 conferences. Enjoy!
Digital & Data-Driven Enablement
Digital & data-driven enablement is a big focus area right now. Many conference speakers discussed how data and digital tools could help improve an organisation’s people, performance and learning culture. Digital and data-driven enablement also underpins a lot of other key ideas and opportunities for enhancing L&D offerings. The opportunities seem endless. And we’re certain the list will keep growing. Here are a few interesting ideas:
Digital dashboards and advanced analytics (alongside a strong measurement strategy) can help L&D teams shift the focus from tracking simple data points to identifying trends, projecting outcomes, and taking proactive action to adjust support, close gaps and improve outcomes.
Digital platforms with machine learning can be used to translate multi-dimensional data into useful insights (gap analysis, skill mapping, impact attribution) and recommendations (personalisation, adaptive learning, nudges/prompts).
There’s also a plethora of digital tools supporting social learning, user-generated content, “in the flow of work” learning, nudging, coaching and mentoring, all with the aim of enhancing a learner’s experience and improving learning outcomes.
Ultimately, utilising digital tools and improving data practices can help L&D teams deliver more meaningful learner experiences, support sustainable behavioural change, and tell more meaningful stories to demonstrate the value of L&D. More on these three themes are discussed below.
Learning Experience (LX)
Improving learning experiences was another key conference theme, with many sessions discussing how we can better support and engage our learners. This included topics on personalised learner journeys, social learning and digital tools (as discussed above).
One novel concept that caught our attention was that of a Learning Experience Playbook – an effective way to articulate and unify the learning experience and align it with L&D strategy and brand. A Learning Experience Playbook could include the following:
Definition of the features and elements of an exceptional learning experience.
Insights about your learners and their learning touch points/moments of learning need (to help tailor their journey).
The human-tech ecosystem to reinforce the learning experience (and learning culture).
How the learning experience will be measured.
To us, a Learner Experience Playbook seems like a great way to reinforce a positive, engaging and empowering learning experience and to foster and nurture a strong learning culture.
Behaviour Change
Despite our best intentions, sustainable behaviour change can often elude us. It’s no surprise then, that this common issue was discussed in many conference sessions. A few simple ideas that stood out to us are noted below:
Action Planning: Improving how learners create and use action plans after a training program can positively impact behaviour change. Here are some suggestions from a few sessions:
To keep things simple, achievable, and measurable, action plans could have one focus area/goal, one corresponding desired behaviour and various related action items.
Learners could be prompted to think about any existing mindsets that drive their behaviour that may get in the way of them being successful and how they may interrupt these patterns.
To increase accountability and to measure behaviour change at the individual level, learners could enrol ‘supporters’ to provide feedback on their specific action items over time, either via pulse check questions and/or feedback conversations (both directly linked to their action items).
Manager Involvement: The extent to which a learner’s manager is involved in a learner’s development action plan has a considerable impact on application of learning and behaviour change. It is also an important pillar in learning culture. Here are some examples to improve manager involvement:
Set and discuss expectations with managers relating to training interventions for their team members.
Set specific KPIs and/or incentives for managers relating to their team’s development.
Provide coaching to managers on how to support the development of their team members.
Upgrade processes and/or tools to better support manager enablement and team development.
These are two simple ideas that could have a meaningful impact on cultivating sustainable behaviour change. In our experience, creating a robust evaluation/measurement strategy at the learning design phase rather than as an after-thought is also a crucial factor. Cue next topic….
Measurement
Traditional measurement models are a great way to focus our attention on gathering the right data at different levels of evaluation.
But with the changing nature of the workplace, and a shift from a programmatic approach to a more systematic approach to learning, our attention was grabbed by an interesting concept on expanding our thinking beyond traditional measurement. Some ideas relating to this include:
Evaluating the learning culture and broader L&D experience as well as program-specific data.
Creation of a ‘measurement map’ to translate and map L&D investments to leading indicators, business results and strategic goals.
Creation of a ‘business impact map’ to create a clear line of sight between training, capabilities, job performance and organisational results.
Moving to a continuous measurement approach to constantly gather, assess and apply data over time and across all learning opportunities/touch points.
Moving from descriptive analytics to diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive analytics.
Using digital reporting dashboards to showcase engaging L&D data.
As L&D professionals we all strive to have effective measurement strategies. Here at Tonka Learning, we believe the industry is moving in the right direction by placing an increased focus on how to enhance measurement to ensure our learning solutions are impactful to individuals and our organisations.
With so many new ideas and concepts to think about, and the continuous drive for improving the experience, impact, and culture of learning, it’s certainly an exciting time to be working in learning and development!
