“Online training is not new, and old technology did not do it many favours. Training was ‘push’ orientated, and in some ways even that remains the case today. Many publications, including the HBR, are extolling the virtues of ‘pull’ orientated L&D. This is easier said than done, as adult learning is so dependent upon personal motivation and driven by different learning styles. Catering for all of these can prove incredibly challenging when adopting digital solutions. But within this challenge lies the opportunity to differentiate.
We went to our market and asked managers what they envisioned training of the future to look like for their staff. And rather than the stock responses we are so accustomed to, we discovered that managers want their teams to work more collaboratively, cross-functionally, adopt a process stewardship approach and think more critically. In many ways, that set the tone for our differentiation.
Developing role specific content linked to decisions made by procurement, engineering, contract management, operations, construction, and project management professionals was our starting point. But content alone does not encourage collaborative, cross-functional working – and neither does it appear authentic. So we decided to segregate collaborative from individual decisions and link the same content across relevant roles involved in making joint decisions. A tedious task, involving lots of research and market testing. Adopting tools like aNewSpring also helps with the collaborative and cross-functional aspects through social discussion technology.
Finally, authenticity was injected by making a conscious decision to develop digital content that made us appear ‘in-the-room’ when accessed by the learner. This we achieved through building our own lightboard and setting up a studio.”
