Change is everywhere. We’ve heard again and again that the pace of change is increasing. Certainly we’re seeing more chaos in our society. Yet, some things don’t seem to change, L&D in particular. Why is that? Why aren’t things changing?
For one, I’m not alone in advocating for more. Jay Cross was promoting Informal Learning, and Marc Rosenberg was talking Beyond eLearning before I came out with Revolutionize L&D. Since then, (and, of course, before) there’s been a growing number of people talking about how we need to stop being ‘order takers’ and start being strategic about our energy and use of technology. Guy Wallace and the whole Performance Consulting industry is one facet. We see books from the likes of Lori Niles-Hoffman, Jess Almlie, and even Keith Keating, amongst others. We hear from folks as wise as Jane Bozarth, David Kelly, Connie Malamed, Ruth Clark, Will Thalheimer, Julie Dirksen, Don Taylor, Michael Allen, Nigel Paine, Megan Torrance, Matt Richter, and more (the list goes on). The message is pretty clear: only do courses when they make sense, and then do them well.
So why do we continue to see companies producing and consuming ‘info dump’ elearning? Training that’s just bullet points? Why do we have tools that continue to make it easy to put up content and add a knowledge test, let alone having ‘click to see more’? Why are there ice-breakers and ‘team-building’ activities that have no meaningful relation to the topic? Where’s the spaced learning? How come we continue to have learning experiences that are engaging, but not effective?
On reason, of course, is the industry. The vendors do tend to focus on producing ‘content’; even their touted uses of AI are to make content faster and cheaper (but the missing leg of the engineering stool is ‘better’, why is that?). Let’s track completions, rather than impact, eh? We don’t have to talk across silos that way, so it’s easier. And, it’s less work to make content tools than to engineer learning experiences. But…isn’t that our real mission?
Another reason, of course, is stakeholder awareness. There are expectations that we should build courses quickly, and that information leads to behavior change. Both are wrong, of course. But why do these beliefs persist? Aren’t we, and shouldn’t we be, extinguishing them? It’s more than a quarter century into the 21st one, you’d think folks would know better. Particularly when it affects their ability to succeed!
Our own awareness may be a barrier too. That is, there are lots of folks who come into ID without preparation. As Cammy Bean noted, folks are starting as the Accidental Instructional Designer. It’s also hard to buck the hierarchy when you’re new. And it’s rewarding to get high scores on our courses by attendees. Particularly if we don’t know better. Still, it’s painful to bear.
Now, I do believe, and see, gradual change. It is getting better. Yet, while I’m not known for patience, it’s still taking way too long! We have the opportunity to be making our orgs so much better. We could be extending learning, developing learning-to-learn skills, fostering innovation, and meeting real needs, instead of dumping information worthlessly. We’re wasting money! So, yes, I’m frustrated. Are you? Why aren’t things changing? What am I missing?
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