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Field Research: 4 Powerful Observation Methods and How to Use Them

Role: Learning leader

Field Research: 4 Powerful Observation Methods and How to Use Them

Posted on by melanie

Here’s a familiar feeling for L&D pros: the desire to jump in and start developing a learning solution right away. It makes sense—after you’ve received a directive and heard from your SMEs, what’s stopping you from getting started right away?

But when we move too quickly on a learning project, we’re often running on assumptions and missing out on finding the right solution for our learner audience. Field research tools allow you to slow down and spend more time thinking about the problem so you can find the right solution.

Field research tools help you get to know your learners and the problems they face much more intimately. That way you know you’re delivering learning that they’re willing to spend more time with and will drive business results.

How do you do that? We use a matrix from Nielsen Norman Group to plot out our empathy-building field research tools. The X-axis indicates the kind of data you’re collecting (qualitative or quantitative) and the Y-axis indicates the focus of your research (behavioral or attitudinal).

The left side of the matrix focuses on direct, qualitative field research methods in which you’ll be visible to your audience and even directly engaged with them. The right side of the matrix focuses on passive methods in which your audience may be unaware you’re collecting data.

The top half of the matrix helps us collect data on the behaviors of our audience: what they do, how they operate, where they get stuck, and why. The bottom half of the matrix is about their attitudes and beliefs and helps build a better understanding of the learner audience.

Although there are many field research tools out there, these are the core tools we use for our learning-design process. Let’s take a closer look at the four field research tools in this matrix and how to use them.

1. Observational studies

The top left quadrant brings us to observational studies. This qualitative tool is critical for bringing your field research together and gaining a clear, accurate understanding of your learner audience.

The reality is that your audience isn’t always honest. Observational tools take you beyond the interview for a firsthand look at the actual behaviors of your learner audience. Here, you’re strictly observing your learners on the job or in the learning environment. Take note of what they’re trying to do and anywhere they struggle.

Another option is to go through the learning experience yourself—participant observation is a powerful tool. Observe the experience as you go: what’s difficult for you? Where did you get stuck? Take notes and synthesize your findings right away.

2. A/B testing

The top right quadrant focuses on quantitative data that assesses learners’ behaviors. These field research tools are indirect and often work best for digital experiences like eLearning.

A/B testing is hugely beneficial for custom HTML learning experiences. A/B testing is a familiar experiment for anyone working in digital spaces: you split your audience into two groups to test a small number of variations to determine which performs better. You show version A to one half of your audience and version B to another. From there, you can track the data and observe how behaviors differ between the two versions. Pretty quickly, you’ll have the information you need to optimize the experience for your learner audience.

Every tool has its downside, and it’s worth noting that A/B testing is difficult to pull off inside an LMS. Another tip: if you’re looking to conduct A/B testing within ILT, be sure the program is robust enough to run the experiment several times and with control and experimental groups.

3. Interviews & focus groups

In the bottom left quadrant, the focus is on understanding the attitudes and beliefs of learners through interviews and focus groups. Think of this as the natural next step after you’ve gathered quantitative data from field research tools like surveys or A/B testing. These types of field research tools create space for you to spend time with learners and ask questions to understand their feelings and beliefs and learn what’s on their hearts and minds.

Field research techniques such as interviews and focus groups are qualitative in nature and help inform and flesh out your quantitative data. Typically, focus groups and interviews have one interviewer and a small group of several interviewees. This broader-scale approach helps you reach more learners more quickly than doing a series of one-on-one interviews.

4. Surveys

The bottom right quadrant focuses on indirect, quantitative data that assesses learners’ attitudes and beliefs. Surveys are our go-to tool for gaining insight into how learners are feeling. They also help challenge assumptions about learners. Maybe a learner shared an anecdote with you. Through a survey, you can find out if the feelings of one learner are representative of the larger learner audience.

Crafting an effective survey is all about asking the right questions. Place a consistent measurement system around your questions and ask their feelings and beliefs on a variety of topics. Once you’ve gathered responses, you can then evaluate if you’ve accurately assessed the problem you’re trying to solve. Are other problems rising to the surface?

Pro tip: put extra care into getting the right sample size. Often, those who raise their hands to take surveys are already eager and enthusiastic in their roles. That could skew your results—you’ll want a wide range of perspectives to draw from.

How to conduct a Learning Environment Analysis

In this guide, you’ll find an in-depth overview of a Learning Environment Analysis, a powerful framework for accurately understanding adult learners’ previous knowledge, current challenges, and needs so that you can design the right learning solution. Plus, get worksheets and templates for each stage of the process.

Download the guide→

Dos and don’ts for field research tools

By now you’ve probably noticed that direct research methods (observational studies, focus groups, and interviews) are more involved than indirect methods. There’s also more room for inconsistency, bias, and human error. Let’s take a closer look at how to get direct research methods right.

Field research tools dos:

Start with a hypothesis or objective

It’s essential to go into field research with a specific intent for what you want to learn. List out what you think you know and then immediately challenge it. Are you making an assumption or leap of logic? Form your hypothesis and be prepared to validate it.

Generate a question set that is designed to fulfill your objectives

Once your hypothesis is set, use it to derive the questions you want to ask your audience. Which questions will help you uncover the truth? Create a list of topics and questions to guide your research.

Take detailed notes

Be sure to take thorough notes during in the field research. It’ll likely be hard to keep up with your notes, so if possible, get consent from learners to record your sessions. That way, you can refer back to the recordings later and avoid problems of faulty memory. If you can, capture photos and video during observations—it’ll be helpful to bring back to your team during brainstorming.

Translate your notes into findings right away

Don’t wait to synthesize your findings. Schedule time to regroup immediately after each stage of research. Try to avoid waiting until the very end of your research to reflect. Instead, take an interval approach and plan time to summarize your findings after every third or fourth interview. Do it as you go and try to reconcile your findings at each stage.

Field research tools don’ts:

Fall victim to the Hawthorne effect

Here’s some field study research you should know. The Hawthorne effect occurs when people behave differently because they know they are being watched. It’s human nature, right? Our presence during in the field research can impact our audience and influence them to change their behavior, obscuring the very truths we’re there to observe. When interacting with learners, be vague about why you’re there and avoid asking leading questions.

Get caught up in the yellow Walkman trap

Don’t just ask learners what they think, force them to make a choice. It’s the best way to find out what learners really think and avoid the yellow Walkman trap. In the 1980s, Sony did a focus group about a new, yellow version of the Walkman. During interviews, everyone seemed to love the sporty yellow color—they thought the old, black version was boring. On their way out, participants were offered a free Walkman in the color of their choice—everyone took a black Walkman.

Avoid your own yellow Walkman trap by using tools for field research that involve ranking. That way, it forces learners to prioritize and put things in first and last places.

Focus on solutions over problems

Remember: our intent is to understand root causes and problems. It’s tempting to jump into solutioning when you’re still in the research stage. But that limits you to one solution—focusing on the problem keeps you open to all possible solutions.

Field research tools increase learning effectiveness

These four field research tools help assess your learners’ existing understanding so you can create experiences that keep learners engaged and deliver stronger results.

A commitment to thorough and structured learner field research is an act of empathy. Effective learning meets people where they are and takes a tailored approach to best serve their needs.

Better Online Brainstorming with FigJam

Posted on by sydney

As a remote-first learning innovation company, we’re always looking for powerful tools that help us collaborate and create incredible work together.

Our Design team loves using Figma for graphic design work (What is Figma? It’s a web-based graphics editing and user interface design app). So when Figma released FigJam in April 2021, we were sold on the idea pretty quickly. An online whiteboard with simple yet powerful tools, using FigJam for online brainstorming makes meetings more visual and collaborative.

FigJam is now a regular part of our daily work—we use FigJam for development activities, collaboration, internal reviews, and even culture-building initiatives, like internal book clubs. Keep reading to learn how to use the FigJam online whiteboard and a few of our favorite activities for hosting better brainstorming sessions.

What is FigJam?

FigJam is an online whiteboard for teams to ideate and brainstorm together. A browser-based tool, teams can use FigJam to collaborate, organize ideas, critique design projects, UX, and anything else that calls for cross-functional innovation.

If you’re also using Figma, FigJam is especially convenient. FigJam and Figma live side-by-side so that your work can stay all in one place, from concept to design. You can seamlessly copy and paste designs from Figma into FigJam in order to brainstorm online with others and collect feedback.

You don’t need to worry about your work getting altered during a jam session—FigJam will recognize that certain layers are locked so they can’t be messed with while in FigJam. That’s a powerful tool if you’re using FigJam to critique work.

Why we love FigJam for online brainstorming

FigJam is great for capturing broad input from a lot of people at once. We use FigJam to ideate, gather feedback, and critique work. FigJam’s features allow our team members to fully express their thoughts and ideas, whether that’s visually, verbally, or with a healthy dose of personality (stay tuned for more on fun features like stickers).

Another pro: FigJam is browser-based. There’s a desktop version if you want it, but the browser version makes it easy to invite anyone onto FigJam and get going right away. FigJam is quick and responsive, and pretty intuitive to use. The icing on the cake: the free version of FigJam is a very robust tool—we love that Figma has made this tool widely accessible.

Before starting to use FigJam for brainstorming, we recommend providing a basic overview of the tool to everyone who will be using it. Figma creates a lot of educational content teaching best practices for using their tools. Spend some time checking out Figma’s best practice guides, videos, and other community resources so that everyone on your team knows how to maximize this platform.

How to use FigJam for online brainstorming

The in-person whiteboard experience is a classic for a reason. It’s hard to beat the comfortability and ease of ideation that comes from face-to-face, synchronous brainstorming. But FigJam is by far the most human, visual, and collaborative alternative that we’ve experienced—especially when you leverage the power of its tools and features. Plus, FigJam enhances in-person brainstorm sessions, too.

Here are four FigJam features to make your next online brainstorm more successful.

Diagrams and flowcharts

For those times when you just need to get it out of your head and onto (virtual) paper, FigJam’s diagramming tool helps you visualize and illustrate user flows, processes, systems, and more. You can use markers, shapes, and connectors to organize your thoughts and show how they work together.

Leverage FigJam’s design libraries to add your own assets to add realism and context to your mapping. Presenting your diagram to a group? Built-in timers help with keeping everyone on schedule when you’re ideating or presenting to each other. Remember, it is an endless whiteboard—it’s a good idea to add some structure to your session.

Templates

New to using an online whiteboard for brainstorming? FigJam prevents you from having to start from scratch, which is a great timesaver. There are a wide array of templates available for download, like flow charts, brainstorms, design sprints, mood boards, and even fun icebreakers.

FigJam also has an awesome built-in library of editable visual components that add some flair and fun when you’re using FigJam for online brainstorming. Some of our favorites: a Haiku composer, an editable team meeting agenda, awards and achievements trophies, and a widget to add Giphy stickers to your whiteboard.

Feedback and voting

This is where FigJam is the real MVP, especially compared to other collaboration tools we’ve tried out. There are so many ways to give and receive feedback, and FigJam offers plenty of ideas for how to make the most of its tools (check out their feedback kit). You can dot vote, stamp, emote, draw, comment, or chat your feedback—that way, everyone can give feedback in the way you’re asking for it.

For example, dot voting allows you to distribute a set number of voting stickers to each participant. Either color-coded for each person or left the same for anonymity, each person uses their stickers to submit a limited number of votes. Dot voting helps you get unstuck, narrow down your options, and make decisions.

Pro tip: Adding a photo of yourself to your FigJam profile lets you use the stamp feature to actually stamp your face as a way of approving ideas, voting on things, or organizing ideas in a group. It’s a fun and efficient way to get things done.

Gesturing and instant chat

FigJam’s natural features and gestures help make stand-ups, retros, and design critiques more engaging and personal. ​​For example, you can wave at people in FigJam and even high-five your teammates to celebrate a great idea or milestone achieved. To activate, wave your cursor until it turns into a hand, then roll it over another hand.

You can also use voice chat with your teammates without ever leaving FigJam. The voice chat feature is great for quickly explaining an idea or to hosting a quick working session. There’s also cursor chat, which allows you to type live, temporary messages to others in the file. Cursor chat is completely live and your messages will display for just five seconds after you finish typing.

Online brainstorming doesn’t have to be boring

Nobody likes a boring online brainstorm session. Virtual or in-person, tools like FigJam inspire creativity and collaboration that lead to better ideas and innovation.

When you push the limits of your brainstorming activities, you inspire your team to think bigger. That’s how people—and organizations—thrive.

Immersive Technology: What It Is and How to Use It in L&D

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

Has your organization taken the plunge into the world of immersive technology? Maybe you dove in headfirst right away, but if you’re like most, virtual reality seemed out of reach until recently. Now we’re at a positive inflection point where immersive learning—like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)—is becoming a practical option.

When a new tool, concept, or technology hits the L&D market, it’s exciting—but it’s often treated as the solution to all of our problems. That’s just not true. We believe in treating new trends as interesting ideas to thoroughly evaluate for how they’d advance our learning efforts. That means resisting being wooed by a new idea, but staying curious enough to explore it and consider it with a “yes, and … ” mentality. If you’ve been wondering about the reality behind the buzz of immersive technology, you’re in the right place.

How can immersive technologies help L&D create more-meaningful learning experiences? How can VR & AR be used to impact your learners and your organization? In what cases will immersive technology increase the value of your learning experience—and when is it just a waste of money? Let’s take a closer look.

Immersive technology definition

What is immersive technology? Let’s start with a quick 101. Immersive technology integrates virtual content into a physical environment, to varying degrees, allowing learners to interact with it using sight, sound, and touch. Immersive technologies include the following:

Virtual reality (VR)

A digital environment that completely replaces a learner’s physical surroundings. A virtual-reality headset or head-mounted display immerses the learner in a computer-generated, 3-D environment that mimics a real-world environment. Learners may use motion controllers or haptic gloves to interact with their surroundings.

Augmented reality (AR)

Digital content that is superimposed over a real-time physical environment. Augmented reality bridges the physical and digital worlds with enhanced and interactive digital elements, usually through a camera lens or glasses.

Mixed reality (XR)

The newest of the immersive technologies, mixed reality is a blend of real-world and digital elements. Learners maintain a foot in the real world while interacting with both natural and digital elements as if they were all part of the real world. In mixed reality, it’s nearly impossible to tell where reality ends and the virtual world begins.

History of immersive technology in L&D

The hype around immersive technology is nothing new. In fact, there have been headlines about AR and VR in learning and development as early as 2017. But as is often the case, the hype around a buzzworthy new technology or concept often precedes its practical use. In reality, it took at least another year for both VR & AR to graduate from Gartner’s Hype Cycle to become maturing technologies, and it took even longer for those technologies to reach L&D.

But at long last, we’re at an inflection point where immersive technologies are becoming more practical, accessible, and affordable. The PwC 2022 US Metaverse Survey found that 51% of companies are either in the process of integrating VR into their strategy or have already built VR into at least one dedicated line of business.

But here’s the thing: just because you can implement VR & AR into your learning strategy doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Immersive technology alone isn’t a cure-all for your learning challenges—but it is a powerful tool to consider adding to your toolbox. Learning is a process, and immersive technology is particularly effective in reinforcing knowledge transfer—the “Do” stage of the Tell, Show, Do, Review learning blueprint.

Before turning to immersive learning technologies for your next project, consider first if it’s truly the right tool for the job. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? At what stage in the learning process will you use it? What constraints are you facing? Answering a few key questions before diving in will help validate that immersive learning with VR and AR is worth the investment.

Quiz: Is Immersive Technology Right for Your Learning?

After years of hype, VR and AR have finally become more practical, accessible, and affordable. But is immersive technology right for your learning? 

It’s time to stop wondering and start planning. This quiz takes the guesswork out of AR and VR to tell you whether immersive technology is right for your project—and if it is, which format is the best fit for your learning objectives. Ready to find out if your future is virtual?

Quiz: Is Immersive Technology Right for Your Learning?→

Using augmented reality to train employees

Once you’ve determined that immersive technology is the right choice, you’ll then need to decide between AR and VR training. AR is delivered through mobile devices and enhances the learner’s real-world surroundings.

AR is a great choice when you want learners to interact with their actual environment and you’d like to avoid using additional hardware. If you’re wondering how augmented reality can improve training and knowledge transfer, it’s all about creating an immersive, hands-on environment—think information overlays, 3d holograms, and virtual simulations.

What is AR training best suited for?

Let’s run through a list of considerations that may indicate that AR is the best fit for your learning experience:

  • It’s beneficial for the experience to occur in the learner’s real-life surroundings.
  • The learner needs to be able to move through the environment and walk, run, or explore more than a few feet.
  • The training must be completed by learners, individually, without an instructor or handler.
  • A headset is not possible (e.g., cost prohibitive) or may be detrimental to the learning experience (e.g., a population prone to nausea).
  • Learners are bringing their own devices, versus devices being provided to them.
Related

7 Examples of Augmented Reality That Made an Impact

Using virtual reality to train employees

Virtual reality, on the other hand, completely replaces a learner’s physical environment. Training with VR is the best choice when you want to create fully immersive, controlled simulations.

VR is also a cut above AR when engaging learners in highly skilled and technical kinesthetic activities. VR technologies are further along in being able to track learners’ body movements and providing real-time feedback, enabling learners to safely train in an environment that mimics real-world challenges.

What is VR training best suited for?

The following list of criteria will help determine if virtual reality is right for your learning experience:

  • The learner’s actual environment is dangerous, unpredictable, cost prohibitive, or otherwise impossible to train in (e.g., operating room, war, or outer space).
  • Having full control of the entire environment adds value to the training.
  • Haptic feedback would add significant value to the learning experience (e.g., surgery, mechanical procedures).
  • It’s beneficial to have a truly immersive simulation that replicates real-life sights, sounds, and feelings.

Alternative options to immersive technology

Not sure that AR/VR is in the cards for you right now? There are other ways to create immersive learning experiences. Think of immersive learning as creating a playground out of the content you’re creating—there are plenty of creative ways to accomplish that without using VR and AR.

Here’s just one idea for you. Within an authored SCORM course, you can use chained 3-D animations or live video to allow learners to interact with objects and environments through the course player. Depending on your specific objectives and constraints, alternative options, such as 3-D simulations (think 3-D games), might be more cost-effective and equally impactful.

We get creative with 3-D animation and interactive learning experiences all the time—drop us a note if you want to hear more ideas for custom, out-of-the-box immersive learning.

Is immersive technology right for you? Take the quiz to find out

Now that we’ve explained immersive technology and when to use it, it’s time to find out if it’s right for you. Every learning project is unique and what works for one initiative might not work for the next. That’s why our team of learning strategists built a tool to help learning teams everywhere determine if immersive technology—and what type—is right for their specific learning project.

This custom quiz walks you through key considerations for your project (learning objectives, audience, needs, and constraints) to generate personalized results about whether immersive technology is right for your learning.

What Is the Illusion of Explanatory Depth? And How Can It Improve Your Learning?

Posted on by sydney

When was the last time you watched a Youtube video to try to learn a new skill? Maybe you were attempting to fix the kitchen sink, or perhaps you were learning how to play guitar. How did it go? How many attempts did it take for you to perfect the skill that the content creator executed flawlessly?

If you’re like most people, you probably paused the video several times, went back to review an important step, and maybe even watched the whole thing once or twice over. Even after all of that, you might’ve found yourself still struggling to master the skill. This familiar experience actually has a name: the illusion of explanatory depth (IOED).

It might sound complex, but it’s more straightforward—and common—than you might think. If you’re new to the idea, the illusion of explanatory depth occurs when people feel that they understand a complex topic or concept better than they actually do. It’s only when we’re tasked with having to explain a concept that we realize we know less than we thought we did.

Here’s a simple exercise that demonstrates how the IOED works

Using a 1-10 scale, with 10 corresponding to “most confident” and 1 corresponding to “least confident,” how confident are you in your ability to draw a bike?

We’ve asked this question a lot, and if you’re like the majority of people, you probably gave yourself a pretty confident rating. It’s pretty simple, right? Now, take a few minutes to actually draw a bike from memory, as accurately and realistically as you can. When you’re finished, find a photo of a bike for comparison. How does your drawing compare to the mechanics and proportions of a real bike? Did you accurately remember which pieces connect and where?

If you’re rethinking the confidence score you gave yourself, you’re not alone. When we ran this same experiment at ATD 2021, we asked participants to rate themselves again after having tried their hand at drawing a bike—there was a 35 percent drop in perceived ability from 6.9 to 4.5. Check out a few of the drawings we collected that show the difference between one’s perceived ability to draw a bike and the ability to actually do it.

This simple exercise is just one example of the illusion of explanatory depth at work. The implications of the IOED on your own L&D efforts are substantial and, as we’ve learned, common.

Where might the illusion of explanatory depth be showing up in your learning projects? How can you mitigate it so that learners accurately rate their abilities and will be more receptive to learning? Here’s what you need to know about the illusion of explanatory depth and how it relates to learning.

What is the illusion of explanatory depth (IOED)?

The illusion of explanatory depth came out of a study by Leonid Rozenbilt and Frank Keil, The Misunderstood Limits of Folk Science: an illusion of explanatory depth (2002). The study explores the phenomenon that people feel they understand complex topics with greater precision, coherence, and depth than they really do. In other words, they are subject to the illusion of understanding.

The study first asked a group of Yale undergraduate students to rank their understanding of everyday items such as sewing machines, zippers, and cell phones. Then, they asked the students to write a detailed explanation of how each of the items actually work. After that, they were asked to rate their understanding of each item again. As Rozenbilt and Keil explain it, “nearly all participants showed drops in estimates of what they knew when confronted with having to provide a real explanation, answer a diagnostic question, and compare their understanding to an expert description.”

Especially when it comes to explanatory knowledge (versus facts and procedures), our ability to explain certain aspects of a concept—such as how to make calls on a cell phone or how to repair a zipper—convinces us that we understand it much better than we actually do. Often, it takes having to explain the concept in depth to realize that our confidence doesn’t align with our ability.

And this illusion isn’t limited to bicycles and sewing machines: IOED is a pervasive force in our social and political realms, too. People often hold the most passionate views about complex sociopolitical topics that they don’t fully grasp, and our abundant access to information is only fueling the illusion of knowledge.

A second study backs up Rozenbilt and Keil’s initial findings. In Easier Seen Than Done: Merely Watching Others Perform Can Foster an Illusion of Skill Acquisition, Michael Kardas and Ed O’Brien take a closer look at the influence of technology and the internet. The study found that repeatedly watching people perform skills on platforms like Youtube can foster an illusion of skill acquisition. The more people watched others perform a skill (without actually practicing themselves), the more they believed they could perform it, too. Notably, this increase in confidence was observed only after watching videos. Reading a book, a guide, or other instructional materials didn’t have the same effect.

But did their actual abilities improve? No such luck. From throwing darts and doing the moonwalk to playing an online game, participants’ skills didn’t improve at all from watching the videos—despite their predictions to the contrary.

The illusion of explanatory depth in learning

Left unchecked, the illusion of explanatory depth can result in overconfidence and low receptivity in your learners, both of which can derail your learning efforts. In fact, maybe you’ve experienced it yourself.

We’ve all walked into a learning experience and rolled our eyes, thinking we already know all there is to know on the subject matter. That’s the illusion of explanatory depth at work, and our goal as learning professionals is to prevent overconfidence—and the low receptivity that usually follows.

We often think we know more about learners than we actually do. Field observation and interviews offer an opportunity to actively meet people where they are on their learning journey. In the process, you’ll mitigate your own illusion of explanatory depth about how to best serve your learner audience. Here are a few ideas for getting started.

Dive deeper into the illusion of explanatory depth

Learn what it takes to create a experience that inspires and engages your learners in this on-demand webinar, complete with a helpful download.

Get the webinar!!→

Observation

Spend a half day observing one or more of your learners. Watch what they do and how they do it. How much time do they have for learning? What interruptions do they have? What is the work environment like?

Commit to regularly shadowing your learners (think every quarter or every 6 months) so that you understand their challenges and their day-to-day routines. Observation will give you a greater foundation to design learning that meets them where they are. For example, maybe you were planning to deploy a desktop course, but through observation, you realize that a podcast training would be a better fit for an on-the-go workforce.

Interview

Ask four or five of your learners to participate in a 1:1 discussion to learn more about them and their jobs. What are their motivations? What are their biggest challenges? What are their hopes and fears?

Interviews augment your observations further by providing insight into the psychological state of your learners: who they are, what drives them, and where they struggle. Use what you learned during the observation stage to ask better questions during interviews.

Mitigating the risk of the IOED

We owe it to learners to correctly get their confidence in check and build their ability, not just their knowledge. As learning pros, we could be unknowingly adding to the IOED challenge for our learners. Telling or showing isn’t the same as building a skill through practice or application.

Use video strategically

How has your team used video to support your learners? Video is a great tool for building knowledge—it’s the reason so many of us turn to Youtube for a quick tutorial. Youtube and other how-to videos are incredible resources for knowledge, but as we already learned, videos can also create a heightened illusion of understanding.

Here’s how that applies to your learning projects. Let’s say you create a training video using one of your team members as the Subject Matter Expert (SME). It’s great to center someone that your team members can relate to, but watching a peer complete the task successfully could create a misplaced sense of confidence. Relying on video alone isn’t enough.

Related

What’s the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model?

Use the learning ecology matrix

Knowledge doesn’t equate to ability, but knowledge can lead to overconfidence. So, what to do?

Keep in mind that learning is a process, not a one-time event. Effective learning involves discovery, planning, application, and reflection—and each stage of the learning process calls for different tools and elements. Use the learning ecology matrix to design better learning that helps your learners not just build knowledge, but practice and apply what they’ve learned.

For example, let’s say you’re currently relying on videos for most of your learning. Use the learning ecology matrix to pair videos with other learning elements that will help people assess their ability, recognize their gaps, and keep practicing until they can accurately apply the skill. You might assign learners an independent project or a series of scenarios, or bring your learners together for a practice lab.

Learning is a process

As learning professionals, it’s our duty to create better learning. Although the illusion of explanatory depth can pose a threat to L&D efforts, it’s easily avoided when you put in the time to design a thoughtful, well-rounded learning experience.

One way we counteract the IOED is by activating our learning principles. We look to them to ensure we’re truly serving our learners and meeting them where they are. As one of our principles reminds us, learning is a process.

Are we using the right tools to deliver new content? Are we designing experiences that help learners practice and apply what they just learned? If you help learners correctly rate their confidence, it will help them to understand where they have room to learn and grow—making them more receptive to learning.

7 Learning Partner Red Flags to Never Ignore

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

How’s your relationship with your partner in learning? Learning companies are often viewed as transactional vendors or production houses for L&D and HR groups. Right away, that mindset lowers the bar for what you should expect from your partners in learning.

But in the current landscape, a quality learning partner has never been more important. L&D teams are being asked to do more with less—they’re tasked with helping close the skills gap, retain top talent, and support growth tracks. Now’s not the time to settle for a mediocre learning partner.

There are great partners in learning out there, and you should expect more from yours. Some red flags are easier to spot than others, but all of them can derail your learning efforts. It’s a good time to check in with how your learning partnership is really going—here’s a roundup of seven red flags worth paying attention to.

7 red flags that your current learning partner isn’t a fit

1. They’re often vague or confusing.

Does your vendor often talk in circles and use confusing jargon? Buzzwords, trends, and fluffy solutions are often a cover for lack of knowledge, substance, and strategy. Here’s an easy test you can try—confirm their credibility by asking for case studies or examples of how they’ve solved similar problems with other clients. You’ll learn pretty quickly whether it’s a game of smoke and mirrors.

2. They’re too focused on engagement.

The easiest metrics to measure are often the least important. For example, learner completion rates or satisfaction scores are only one small piece of the measurement puzzle. If your partner in learning is overly focused on engagement metrics, they might slip into the habit of chasing flashy experiences over outcome-driven solutions. There are more important areas to focus on beyond learner engagement. Is the new knowledge being applied on the job? Is there data that indicates behavior change has occurred? How has the learning experience impacted business goals?

An eLearning company that becomes too focused on providing “cool” experiences may overlook solutions that would prove more effective—and they might deliver engagement metrics that tell a false story of success.

3. You’re experiencing operational messiness.

There are few things more frustrating than a learning partner that’s disorganized, inflexible, or doesn’t communicate well. But operational excellence doesn’t come easily, and many vendors struggle to run a tight ship. A learning partner should help expand your bandwidth and capabilities, not create more work for you. You deserve better—if your partner is unreliable, unresponsive, and/or production is messy, it might be time to reevaluate the relationship.

Great partners in learning set and manage clear expectations. There should be clarity and few surprises when it comes to process, timeframes, deliverables, and costs—it should all be understood up front and stay consistent as the project progresses.

Bumps in the road are normal and things change, but you should always understand the plan for how challenges and changes will be addressed. If you’re often left wondering what happens next, you might be dealing with an unreliable learning partner that’s not a fit.

4. They’re satisfied being a “Yes-man.”

Do you have a partner in learning who’s quick to jump into execution mode, without understanding the objective or strategy? No question asked isn’t always a good thing. You might be dealing with an order-taker—the kind of partner that cares more about checking a box than working with you to find the best solution.

This is often the difference between vendors and partners in learning. A vendor can execute your predetermined ideas, but a strategic partner is in lockstep with you to drive impact. If your vendor isn’t respectfully asking why, offering their thoughts, and coming to you with new ideas, you could be missing out on the best solution for your learners. Learning partners should be an extension of your business, know it well, and seek to collaborate with you to understand the problem and define the solution.

5. They don’t know your business.

Has your vendor done their research? Partners in learning should invest time and energy into getting to know your business, your needs and challenges, and your learners. With our own clients, we’re committed to coming prepared to meetings with deep product and business knowledge, every time. This approach informs the best solutions, so don’t settle for a learning partner who doesn’t understand the unique qualities and needs of your business.

Related

How Learner Discovery Can Completely Change the Direction of a Project

6. They’re constantly throwing you change orders.

Did yet another change order just hit your inbox? That’s a sign of a vendor mindset, and one that may not have your best interest in mind. Are they seeing the project as a one-off assignment or a long-term partnership? Partners in learning will always prioritize efficient and effective use of your budget. They also understand that a change order is not just another administrative task—it could affect the internal perception of the project, the vendor, or even you.

Significant projects or scope shifts do warrant a change order, but overall, every minor change or adjustment shouldn’t result in a change order. There are times when change orders are warranted, but overall, every minor change or adjustment shouldn’t result in a change order.

7. The vibe is off.

Call it vibes, call it values alignment—you need to click with your partners in learning. It’s not as mysterious as it may sound: good partners are collaborative, willing to lend their expertise, and serve as an extension of your team. Can you call them up to get their opinion when something comes up? Do they treat your problems as their own? If they’re not willing to show up for you as a partner in learning, that’s something to watch out for.

Set yourself up for success

If you can feel the passion behind this article, you’re not wrong—this is a topic we really care about. We’ve been in the learning industry for a long time, and since the beginning, we’ve taken the stance that learning is a positive force for change. We take our role as partners in learning seriously because we know that amazing outcomes come from collaborative, trusting, and innovative relationships. We even developed a set of Learning Principles that codify our approach so that every experience is as high-quality as it is effective.

Ultimately, your learning-partner selection comes down to you. Set yourself, your learners, and your business up for success by heeding any red flags and looking for a high-quality partner in learning.

Design Principles: What They Are and How to Use Them to Create Great Learning

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

At the heart of most purpose-driven organizations are their core values, mission, and vision. Your core values guide how your team members live and interact with one another, and your mission and vision define why the organization exists and the world you’re working to create. It all comes together through the processes that shape how you work together to solve problems.

At Maestro, we’ve thoughtfully crafted our values, mission, and vision, and we’ve built strong processes to support how we collaborate and move our work forward. But over the last two years, we discovered a missing piece to the puzzle of our organizational identity: team principles. When our teams are working from a set of shared principles specific to their craft, it sets a standard for consistently operating at a high level.

These key elements of our business—core values, mission and vision, principles, and process—build on and inform one another to empower us to truly achieve the change we’re trying to make in the world. Our Design team is leading the charge as the first to have collaboratively defined their set of shared principles, and we’re excited to share the process and final outcome.

If you’re looking to build consistency and craft on your teams, keep reading for a closer look at our Design team’s principles, how we got there, and how we operationalize them in our day-to-day work.

Maestro’s Design Principles

Our Design team’s principles are a set of unifying, guiding beliefs that help us do our best work. They’re not as strict as processes and not as high level as a vision or mission statement. They’re also focused on the team’s craft—in this case, design. Each principle is infused with and supports Maestro’s larger mission, vision, and values.

Although every principle can stand on its own, we expanded on each one with a bit of fine print that explains how we action and operationalize it. Let’s take a closer look.

1. Own your work.

Have confidence.

Make work you’re proud of. Make decisions and explain them. Push back on harmful changes. Be open to critique.

Be intentional.

Own your work. Make it you. Make justified choices that make sense.

Trust your instincts.

Follow your intuition. Speak up for what you think is right. Be honest about your work.

2. Make it special.

Explore and think.

Know the problem as well as the client. Push the brand. Ignore the limits.

Take a risk.

Indulge your weird ideas. Explore a new approach. Break from the usual.

Love your craft.

Don’t settle for the first idea. Sweat the details. Push through obstacles. Take the time.

3. Team up.

Work well with others.

Collaborate often. Talk to people. Make your process transparent to clients and coworkers.

Use your voice.

Have an opinion. Ask questions. Be generous with your knowledge. Build others up.

Open up.

Cherish the value of other perspectives. Don’t listen just to respond. Share joy. Let others improve your work.

4. Uncenter yourself.

Practice empathy.

Invest in understanding the problem and the context. Care. Don’t assume. Speak with the people you’re really working for.

Include all.

Make your work accessible to everyone. Understand people’s challenges. Diversify your source material. Check for biases.

(Sit down.) Be humble.

Check your ego. Evaluate your work by how it will be experienced. Develop your ethos. Trust those that know better.

5. Own your growth.

Invest in yourself.

Make yourself valuable. Utilize downtime to learn. Broaden your perspective. Set goals for yourself—they can be any size, but they should be specific and achievable.

Push your boundaries.

Operate near the edge of your comfort zone. Step out of it sometimes. Whatever you do, do it better than last time. Have faith in your intuition.

Bad is good.

Don’t fear being bad at something, growth is a gift. Ask for help—people love to share. Reflect on your progress. Keep walking forward.

How to create team principles

There’s no one way to create team principles, but it’s important that the process is intentional, collaborative, and inclusive.

To create our Design principles, we embarked on a series of workshops, alternating between divergent thinking (discovery) and convergent thinking (defining), to land on the five principles that best articulate our team’s shared beliefs. Here’s how we did it.

Initial brainstorming

Our first workshop was a creative and energizing endeavor. As we aim to do with all brainstorms, we built the session around divergent thinking: we held a free-flowing session designed to generate as many thoughts and ideas as possible. As a remote team, we used FigJam as our collaborative whiteboard environment, which allowed us to “embrace the mess” and ideate and brainstorm together.

For this initial session, our goal was to have team members dream into what their roles could be and take ownership of what the team could achieve. We used a warm-up activity (drawing animals in FigJam using the pencil tool—after all, we’re designers!) to get the team thinking creatively before moving into design-focused questions. Where do we want to be in five years? What do you want to see happen in the learning industry as a result of our influence? What could the impact be? The output of this workshop started to paint a picture of what an exciting work environment and culture looks like for our Design team.

Related

The Top 7 Learning Design Tools That You Should Be Using in 2024

Define and deliver

This is where the magic happens. For the second workshop, we shifted from divergent to convergent thinking to synthesize, organize and categorize our ideas. We also brought Maestro’s core values into the conversation to ensure our final principles were values-driven and aligned.

In one exercise, we worked together in FigJam to list out design skills and strategies and explore how they relate to each of our core values. For example, when we stand up for a design decision we think is right, that’s an expression of Maestro’s “Live boldly” core value.

From there, we moved into an affinity exercise, taking all of the sticky notes (not sure what we mean? Check out our guide on FigJam brainstorming) and grouping them by related themes. The team didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the magic moment when, as they were grouping ideas together, they were forming a shared perspective and set of beliefs about what design means at Maestro. By the end of the workshop, we had the foundation we needed to form values-infused, team-crafted principles.

The final step: wordsmith and polish. This is an exercise better suited to one or two individuals—one of our senior designers has a way with words, so we handed it off to him to craft principles that reflect the tone and aesthetic of our team. He presented them back to the group for feedback, and just like that, we had our finalized design principles.

Bring the principles to life

There’s little value in our principles if we’re not intentional about using them. To make them actionable, we wrote our principles in plain language and used phrases we actually say in our daily work lives. That way, it feels natural when they come up in one-on-ones and throughout projects. If you’re looking for more inspiration, we’re fans of how Figma crafted its design principles.

Speaking of Figma, our team works in the tool nearly every day—it made sense that our principles should live there. We created a component that attaches to any design file so that we’re visually reminded of our principles as we work. When it’s time for design critiques, we use our principles as a safe and unifying way to push each other to do our very best work. Does the design break from the usual? Does it serve the learner? Is it special?

A quick tip: once you create your principles, it’s great to periodically revisit them. We originally launched with just the first four principles, but when we revisited them months later, we realized there wasn’t anything about growth. We proposed the idea to the team and we all agreed to add a fifth principle: Own your growth.

We’re principled, and so is our work

Introducing team principles has helped us be more intentional and consistent in our day-to-day work. In the same way that our Learning Principles shape every experience we create, our team principles formalize the skill, craft, and dedication our people commit to their disciplines. With team principles guiding our daily activities, we can ensure we’re working at a consistently high standard at all times.

There’s real value in taking time to formalize what sets your organization—and your teams—apart. With clearly articulated values and principles, your team members have a unifying, guiding light for making good decisions and interacting with one another in a way that fulfills the company’s mission and vision. And when you involve them in the creation of it, you’ll find they’re more excited, engaged, and prepared to take ownership of the future you’re creating, together.

5 Trends in Employee Training and Development for Creating Better Learning

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

The learning landscape is quickly evolving—are you keeping up with the latest trends in employee training and development?

L&D trends provide direct insight into the current world of work, technology, and business. It’s about much more than flashy products or the latest buzzwords—it’s keeping a pulse on what it will take for your organization to stay competitive in the years ahead.

We’re in constant conversation with L&D professionals: whether it’s working with clients, hosting webinars, or catching up one-on-one (drop us a line—we’d love to talk!), we hear what’s top of mind for L&D leaders and we’re excited to share what we’ve learned.

What’s new in L&D? Check out this roundup of trends in employee training and development (plus some practical examples from our team) for fresh inspiration and new ideas for delivering effective learning experiences.

Five trends in employee training and development you should know

From evolving tech to new strategies for reaching dispersed learners, let’s take a closer look at five current trends in training and development.

1. Learning in the flow of work

How can learning become more of a part of our day-to-day jobs? That’s the driving question behind learning in the flow of work, one of the most-discussed trends in employee training and development right now.

This new trend in training encourages leveraging the flow of work to drive learning. More companies are moving away from event-based learning (think scheduled vILT and time-bound learning experiences) to continuous learning that’s integrated into the daily activities of work life.

We’ve all experienced times when the urgency of work pushes learning to the bottom of our to-do lists. Learning in the flow of work is often a more realistic way to engage learners and helps build a high-performing culture of learning. It also empowers learners to take control of their growth and career paths by seeking out learning opportunities that interest them.

What does learning in the flow of work look like in practice? It takes many forms, but it could be scheduling time on calendars for independent learning, sending internal email newsletters, and launching interdisciplinary mentorship and coaching programs. There should also be a strong internal knowledge base in place so that learners can always access the information they need and explore the learning paths that interest them.

See it in action: Custom knowledge base

We built a custom knowledge base for Celgene that served as a digital compliance policy handbook to quickly answer learners’ questions. Instead of organizing their compliance material in dense PDFs scattered across multiple platforms, we developed a Digital Compliance Policy Handbook to ensure that Celgene’s employees could quickly access the information they needed to answer all their compliance questions at their moment of need. This on-brand, fully responsive digital handbook makes finding answers to compliance questions as easy as using a search bar.

2. Blended learning

Next up in current training trends: blended learning. Blended learning has been around the L&D scene for a while, but as technology advances, blended learning continues to evolve with it. As a refresher, blended learning combines different modes of learning to deliver the most effective learning experiences. In an increasingly remote and hybrid work landscape, blended learning is critical for reaching dispersed learners in meaningful ways.

Blended learning gained popularity in the workplace starting in the 1990s, as a way for organizations to scale learning beyond ILT. For a while, blended learning was nearly synonymous with eLearning, but today, it’s much more nuanced. When executed well, blended learning layers different elements of learning to create the most efficient, effective experience possible.

By combining several tools and approaches, blended learning can be used to guide learners through the natural learning process. Using the Tell, Show, Do, Review framework as our blueprint, the “Tell” and “Show” stages of learning can often be completed asynchronously (think eLearning, recorded lectures, and demos) and the “Do” and “Review” stages can occur synchronously (think hands-on activities, extended-reality experiences, and coaching). Blended learning may not be one of the new trends in training and development, but it is one of the most effective ways to learn—it’s worth investing time and energy into getting it right.

See it in action: How to elevate your virtual classroom

A flipped classroom is a great example of blended learning in action: it strategically sequences independent, asynchronous activities with face-to-face (virtual or in-person) instruction to maximize learning. We created a blended learning experience for Royal Caribbean using this approach—to learn more about that experience and other practical ways to maximize virtual instructor-led training (vILT), watch our on-demand webinar. The webinar offers a deeper look at how to match the right tool to the job and how to balance business constraints with learners’ needs.

The Blended Learning Playbook: Designing Experiences That Create Change

One of the best parts about blended learning is the creative freedom it gives learning leaders. But if you try to incorporate too many learning elements, you run the risk of confusing or overwhelming your learners. In this playbook, learn how to structure effective blended learning experiences from the ground up.

Get the guide→

3. eLearning courses that break the mold

You can’t talk about trends in employee training and development without touching on eLearning. High-quality, thoughtfully designed eLearning is no longer a nice-to-have, it’s a must. If your eLearning is outdated or poorly designed, learners won’t take it seriously. Strategic design is a critical aspect of effective learning experiences—if a course was thrown together in Articulate Rise by someone who doesn’t get the platform or understand instructional design, it’s likely to fall short.

You can avoid that cookie-cutter feel in courses by learning how to push the limits of what’s possible in your authoring tool of choice (our favorite authoring tool is Rise). Make the most of a tool like Rise by learning ways to create course elements that stand out, like adding custom illustrations or embellishing images to enhance learner comprehension.

See it in action: Transitions in Rise

If this is one of the future trends in training you want to jump on, here’s one way to level up the design of your eLearning courses: enhance your transitions. In a scrolling learning experience, transitions are visual cues to let learners know they’re moving from one concept to another. That could be headlines or changing the background color, but we like to incorporate graphic elements—it helps avoid that horizontal banding look you often get in Rise.

Want a step-by-step walkthrough of how to use tools like Adobe Illustrator to create better transitions? Check out our on-demand webinar, Secrets to Building Courses that Stand Out (and download a free template to try it out yourself).

Related

6 Articulate Rise Design Ideas That Will Make Your Next Course Stand Out

4. Extended reality

Year after year, extended reality is one of the top trends in employee training and development, and for good reason. Immersive learning experiences are one of the best ways to build confidence and skills in learners. Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality experiences help simulate authentic scenarios so that you can increase knowledge application and build learner confidence in hands-on, controlled environments.

Especially for highly technical and complex skills, where the stakes for making errors are high, extended reality is a safe and effective learning modality. Extended reality is more accessible than ever, so learners and stakeholders are likely to expect it to be in your L&D toolkit.

See it in action: Mixed-reality app

If extended reality is one of the current learning and development trends that you want to explore further, here’s a practical example to inspire you. We built a mixed-reality app for Eaton that allowed its audiences to interact with and learn about its electronic product line from the trade-show floor or anywhere else. We also helped promote the app’s launch with a high-energy video showcasing how to use it and how mixed reality can foster collaboration no matter where you are.

5. Live-action video

Some of the most successful learning experiences we create are powered by live-action video. It’s not a coincidence: video is a powerful tool for engaging learners, telling a story, and distilling complex concepts. Learners deserve high-quality experiences and, in today’s content-driven world, they expect it.

Live-action video helps capture the hearts and minds of learners and makes for a relatable and memorable learning experience. But it’s key to think beyond the traditional talking head video or how-to explainer. Effective videos are strategic, polished, and tie back to a clear learning objective (hint: use Bloom’s Taxonomy to map out your objectives).

See it in action: Product-distribution onboarding

Video-based scenario training is a great way to show and not tell and allow learners to think through real-world decisions. We partnered with a regional grocery store chain to help create a product-distribution onboarding that simplified the complex process of the overall product flow from distribution facility to store. We created live-action videos to depict three unique scenarios of critical decisions they’ll face and how to make the process run more smoothly.

Nobody likes watching boring videos, so we took a fun and cheeky approach to these scenarios. We used actual company employees as actors (plus some Maestro team members!) to set up three situations, then prompted the learner to choose the best approach to resolve the problem. After the learner makes a decision, a summary video shows the outcome of all three presented options, highlighting which approach is best and why. Want to learn more about video-based learning strategy? Check out our on-demand webinar for a deeper look.

Trends in employee training and development come and go—but learning strategy is forever

Bottom line: pay attention to trends in learning and development, but don’t get caught up in chasing all of them. We stick to our tried-and-true, proven methods—all of our work is guided by our four Learning Principles, our strategic expertise, and proven tools.

When you have a strong foundation in place, it empowers you to track trends as they come and go and evaluate which are worth adopting. Will it help you better serve learners? Is it backed by the science of learning? Those are just some of the questions we ask ourselves to ensure we’re intentionally innovative. New trends are energizing, but not all of them will move the needle—which trends on this list might help your people grow?

Critical Criteria for Choosing Great Learning Partners

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

The right learning partners can unlock your organization’s potential. But the truth is, starting a new relationship with a vendor can be overwhelming—there’s a lot at stake when you bring in a new learning partner.

When done right, a new learning partnership can result in real impact and a lasting relationship. When a partnership goes wrong, it can lead to wasted time and money, and it may damage trust between you and your team, learners, and stakeholders. With stakes that high, what criteria should you consider to ensure you have the right partner in learning?

We’re going beyond the typical checklist of vendor capabilities and delving into the nitty gritty of what makes the most successful learning partnerships tick. Here’s what to consider to find your next great learning partner.

Learning strategy and execution capabilities

Start with the most critical piece of the learning-partner puzzle: value.

According to a recent Brandon Hall Group study, the biggest challenge companies face in ensuring effective learning programs is that the “organization does not have the people, time, and financial resources to support future skills development needs.” Seeking outside help is critical to solving this problem, but finding the right learning partner—one who has the strategy and execution chops to help you reach your goals—is easier said than done.

You want a learning partner that delivers value by creating real, measurable behavior change. If they can’t point to a tangible difference that their learning interventions create, then you probably shouldn’t hire them. You also want a partner that has the right expertise in the areas that are most important to your goals. Take the time to vet a potential partner’s ability to execute by reviewing work samples. Are they creating experiences as beautiful and high quality as they are effective?

Here’s a quick list of what these strategic and development capabilities look like in practice:

  • Able to understand your industry, business, and goals and collaborate effectively with your internal team
  • Has industry-leading strategy, design, engineering, and media talent
  • Builds their learning strategy around well-established goals and ties it to business outcomes
  • Has a clear plan for measuring outcomes
  • Focuses on the learner environment and experience
  • Demonstrates expertise in learning strategy, adult learning theory, and emerging trends
  • Brings new, strategic thinking to the table instead of serving as order-takers

Remember, this piece is foundational for finding the right learning partner. Don’t breeze past this—it might be the most obvious criteria, but it’s also the most important.

Operational excellence

Once you’ve vetted a potential partner in learning for their ability to do the work, it’s equally important to evaluate how that work will get done—do they have the ability to execute a quality learning strategy? Operational excellence is defined differently across organizations and their standards might be lower than your own. Do your due diligence to find a partner who works with the same commitment to quality and communication as you do. It’s a factor that’s often overlooked, but you’ll feel the pain of operational misalignment once your project is underway.

Let’s review a few key traits of a learning company with operational excellence.

Reliable and professional

You want a reliable partner who delivers what they say they will when they say they will—while staying on time and on budget. Great learning partners are professional, organized, and proactive communicators. Ideally, your new learning partner will also have a big-picture mindset that fosters flexibility and responsiveness. If it’s what best serves the project’s goals, they find a way to make it work.

On budget

This is key: nobody wants surprises after agreeing to a project budget. Great learning partners know how to scope accurately and stick to what they promised. They don’t make a habit of issuing change orders for small requests—they’re flexible and fair.

An excellent customer experience

Great learning partners help expand the bandwidth of your team and become a true extension of it by bringing new expertise and capabilities to the table. We’ve all heard nightmare stories of bringing on a vendor that ends up creating more work for you and your team. Great learning companies focus on creating an excellent customer experience, from onboarding to post-launch reporting.

A proven process in place

Look for learning partners that have a solid, well-oiled, and proven process in place. Their process should include some version of these critical steps:

Intentionally innovative

Innovation is a word that gets tossed around a lot—what does it really mean to be innovative? And why does it matter in learning? Without innovation, learning companies can fall into the trap of churning out the same, repackaged solutions time and again and never trying anything new. That can leave you with a cookie-cutter solution that doesn’t solve your unique and specific problem. You don’t want order-takers, you want a trusted partner that listens to you. But innovation without intention can lead to different problems—like chasing trends and opting for flashy tools that don’t match the job.

Instead, you want a partner that strikes the right balance. A great learner partner is creative, but with a purpose. Innovation should be baked into their strategy—do they systematically explore and evaluate new trends? Can they sift through the smoke and mirrors to identify the best solution? Are they constantly building their skills to expand their capabilities?

With an intentionally innovative partner, you can avoid the cookie-cutter trap and know you’re always getting a solution that’s been customized to solve your problem.

Are you evaluating potential learning partners?

In this guide, 16 Key Questions to Ask Potential Learning Partners, we’re sharing the most important areas to discuss with a potential partner to help you decide if they’re the right fit. We’re delving deeper than the typical checklist and sharing ideas and questions you likely haven’t considered before so you can find a partner that really gets it (and you).

16 Key Questions to Ask a Potential Learning Partner→

Values alignment

A great learner partner is value-aligned with you and your organization’s needs. A misalignment in values can create friction throughout the project and more than likely, you’ll be stuck with a final product that doesn’t meet expectations. Here are a few key values that great learning partners hold.

Impact

Your learning partner should be laser-focused on creating a solution that drives impact. This means they’re collaborative problem-solvers, they’re empathetic, and they’re just as invested in solving the learning problem as you are.

People come first

What if checking in with your learning partner was the best meeting of your day? With great learning partners, you actually like the people you’re working with—if it’s a slog to get through the work with them, it isn’t the right fit. Great learning partners are made up of teams of creative, thoughtful, and learning-obsessed people that are just fun to be around.

Flexible

Options, options, options. If your learning partner has a one-track mind on which solution is best for your learners, run. A great learning partner will bring multiple strategic options to the table and work with you to rank them depending on how you’re prioritizing the cost, quality, and time involved in the project.

High-quality design

Learning works best when beautifully designed. That includes aesthetics, but there are multiple dimensions to design and it’s more than simply making something “look good.” Strategic design should be a priority in learning, so look for a partner with the capabilities to create a consumer-grade, cohesive user experience complete with smart instructional design and polished visuals.

The right strategic partner helps you achieve real change

Ultimately, choosing a learning partner is the start of a new relationship. Treat it with the same care and due diligence you would any important relationship in business or life. You want a partner you can trust, who helps you and your team achieve your goals, and who you genuinely want to be around. The right strategic partner can help you unlock your team’s potential and go further, together.

The Work No One Sees Matters Too

Posted on by lengyel@maestrolearning.com

Most of the time when I’m invited to share a Thought Snack, I look forward to it. But recently, when my day to share came, I felt overwhelmed: with the work day ahead, with the work I didn’t quite finish the day before, and with the work still to come. Can you relate? I had yet to prepare anything for my Thought Snack, but thankfully I had the early morning, the sun still rising, and a good cup of coffee to encourage me to think.

As I sat down to come up with something, I recalled a quote I saw on social media a few weeks prior: “The work no one sees matters too.” I was drawn to it and inspired by it because it felt so true. I thought about all of the things that I had been doing; all of those tasks I completed that were not on a checklist and wouldn’t ever be documented or considered an actual deliverable. It brought up many questions:

Where was that time going in my workday?
What was it being used for?
Why does it feel like there are never enough hours in the day?
Why is it taking me so long to do this?

Still, I felt certain that the behind-the-scenes work I was doing was having a positive impact on the team, the projects, and on me. I also knew I wasn’t alone in these feelings. These intangible things should be recognized and even celebrated because their worth is just as important as any other work we do.

So this is what I shared with the team—a poem I wrote to put words to what I was feeling and what I know many others have felt too.

The Work No One Sees Matters Too

It’s the things not on the schedule
It’s the little things and the big things hidden from view
It’s the thoughtful notes, the double checks, the overcommunication
It’s the honesty when you’re unsure and the asking for help
It’s the conversations, the out-of-the-weekly check-in conversations
It’s the unwavering ownership, mindfulness brought into a project
And the inspiration that it brings out
It’s being in the unknown, but still pushing forward
It’s the team collaborating, the inclusion of multiple perspectives
And advocating for someone or something great
It’s the downtime, the reenergizing deep thinking space
To wonder in quiet contemplation or scribble on a board
It’s the practice, the mistakes made, and the getting back up again
It’s the earliest work, the working through lunch
And the work that just needs to go to bed
It’s the showing up, the doing of even the boring to-dos
It’s the gritty work, the getting your hands dirty work
AND I’m doing this because I CARE work
Cheers to ALL the moving parts, the behind the scenes
The unnoticed to being noticed
Honored
And celebrated
Because the work no one sees matters too.

If you’re an unsung hero on your team (or in any aspect of life), this is your reminder that your work matters too. It’s also a nudge encouraging you to be vulnerable. Reading this poem out loud to the rest of the leadership team took vulnerability. I was met with empathy and openness, both of which help build trust for teams.

I wanted to bring light to all of the little things we often don’t talk about, things that should be celebrated and given kudos. Here’s a virtual high-five to all of you putting care into your every day, at work and at home.