I am a strong proponent of action research, so the short answer is ‘yes’ ;). That said, I also note that innovation is not just a good idea, but putting it into practice and achieving improved results. So, double ‘yes’. I argue strongly that L&D needs to lead the way in taking ownership of ‘safety’, and smart experimentation (e.g. you know what you’ll do with the result, yay or nay). Once it’s working in L&D, you can be a credible ambassador to the rest of the org. And that shift, from dumping content, thru creating transformative experiences, to being the catalyst for organizational innovation, is what I see as the potential bright future for L&D. (extrapolating a bit ;).

Interesting questions! I think if you know one, you can learn another easily, but being a master of one, particularly one you prefer, would be my recommendation. And I have heard that Adobe’s harder to learn, albeit potentially more powerful. Still, I might prefer the tool that is the core focus of the company. And there are things to be said for some of the other tools, I reckon. I know folks like iSpring, for instance, and have heard happy users of Knowbly. Again, mostly about what makes sense where you are, where you want to go, but also if you know one you’re likely to be able to pick up another easily.

As to novel vs reinventing the wheel: it takes research to see. HCI used to be a difficult field to track, because it had people from CS, and psych, and graphic design, and…all doing things and writing in separate places. Learning tech is the same way, you get tech folks, and ed folks, and learning folks, and…K12, higher ed, and corp, and…and it’s hard to find what folks are paying attention to in other areas. As a colleague with more experience than me once opined, it’s all be done before (going back to the Plato system in the 60s). Probably several times! Yet, there’s also something to be said for the right time. I have had many of my ideas, and some of others, presented and ignored. Then, at some later point, often years later, it’s suddenly the greatest thing ever seen! If you’ve got a good idea, keep pushing until you find a place to get some traction, and then document the outcomes.

I ask hoping beyond hope that you say the former because I have zero interest in Adobe’s horrid UI! It’s astounding to me that they’ve survived so long with the extreme learning curve that their software requires. Not to hijack this into a different direction, but that’s always bothered me about Adobe CS and related programs.

A very separate question: How do you know when you’re on to something novel vs. reinventing the wheel? It feels like it’s hard to find – our area is so specialized that mass sharing of ideas is limited to just a few outlets, and not everyone participates.