Docebo recently published a report in collaboration with Aberdeen Group entitled: The New 70:20:10: The Changing Face of Learning. One key takeaway from the Aberdeen Group study is how best in class organizations provide employees with a diverse spectrum of learning opportunities and experiences, and want a learning solution that captures learning that’s taking place informally – on the job, through coaching and mentoring, and through social connections and knowledge sharing.
This post is the first of a two-part series that examines how these leading organizations support learning in forward-thinking and innovative ways.
About the study
Between July and August 2015 Aberdeen Group surveyed 322 businesses about key trends in learning. Forty-eight percent of those organizations had an annual revenue of $100 million or more. Four different measures of effectiveness (KPIs) were examined: the effectiveness of learning programs; the business impact of those programs; whether the learning function is effective in helping meet the business goals of the organization; and whether learning strategies are continuously evaluated to ensure alignment to organizational/ business strategy.
Learning 3.0: How does your organization stack up?
Let me set the scene here: Learning 3.0 refers to learning that comes about through the sharing of learning rather than from being taught or where the product of learning is defined by experts.
In a Learning 3.0 world, the primary focus of learning is no longer on the individual learner but rather toward the community and the people around you. In the Learning 3.0 world, user generated content exists instead of static content. Learning comes from peers, and peers are experts. Learning comes from everyday experience, and exists in small bursts. Learning is more precise and more prescriptive, and it’s provided at the moment of need.
So, Learning 3.0 is about the fact that there needs to be more emphasis on social, on the peer – and learning from peers. It’s also about learning when it’s needed, where it’s needed, and learning in small bursts. We know that learning is shifting away from traditional classroom training, so that begs the question – what is the state of learning now?
The state of learning
What is the current state of learning? The Aberdeen Group study reveals that:
- Seventy-nine percent of organizations believe that learning and development (L&D) is critical for an organization’s ability to execute on strategy.
- Organizations that plan to increase their learning budgets in the next one to two years plan to increase by an average of 87 percent.
- Best in class are planning to increase learning budgets by 121 percent.
The top three pressures of best in class organizations were as follows:
- Need to develop a stronger leadership bench (37.7%)
- Enabling the business to be more agile (32.2%)
- Need to deliver learning across multiple geographies (22.6%)
What strategies are organizations taking to address these pressures?
The Aberdeen report indicates that the number one action most organizations are taking is linking learning to business – that means taking the learning strategy and making sure it’s aligned to the business strategy. Number two is thinking about making sure that development is available throughout the entire employee life cycle, and number three is creating a consistent set of competencies to guide employee development.
Best in class organizations however are taking it one step further – they are looking at adopting new and diverse learning modalities, and identifying subject matter experts to capture and transfer domain expertise within the organization.
What needs to be highlighted from this study is that best in class organizations are starting to identify that learning is about more than just competencies and development – it’s also about the transfer of knowledge from individuals in the organization.
Best in class organizations focus on social learning
When looking at best in class in comparison with industry average and laggards, best in class emphasize social. Best in class are utilizing social learning to enable coaching and mentoring with managers. They’re also leveraging technology to do so – enabling social learning and technology, and social learning through peers.
Learning system solutions – the enablers
The study found that the most common learning system solutions that are currently used to support overall business and talent goals, in order, are as follows:
- Access to video learning content
- Employee self-service portal to access learning
- LMS
Best in class were five times more likely to utilize a social learning management system – a system such as an LMS that integrates formal and social learning i.e. taking classroom learning and blending it with social). And best in class were five times more likely to use like wearable devices to actually aid in continuous learning and support.
What needs to be highlighted here is that best in class were supporting learning in more forward-thinking and innovative ways – they were for example utilizing different learning modalities to support learning in their organization, and were twice as likely to use user-generated/ video content.
In my next blog post I’m going to look at results of this study vis a vis the 70:20:10 framework, define leading organization’s practices, and give an example of how best in class are actually using video generated content to help facilitate knowledge conversion in sharing with their colleagues.
