Author: Jeremy Robb

Keeping the Spark Alive

It’s well established that burnout happens in high-demand, high-stress environments. Wellness techniques such as exercise, mindfulness, meditation, deep breathing, and/or positive psychology can increase resiliency and fight burnout.  This is universally true throughout the neurodiversity spectrum, applying to both neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals.  

Motivational Needs Conflict 

Yet, corporate wellness programs are not being used.  Programs that are meant to strengthen employees are failing to do just that.  The reason:  They are generally top-down, generated corporate programs that were conceived without employee motivations in mind.  Sure, it’s great that you have yoga classes or a meditation room, but if your people are purely motivated by Survival, they won’t have the time or inclination to participate.  They are too busy spending their efforts on not losing their jobs.  They would be better served with some time off to recover and regroup so they can come back to the job with more energy and a fresher perspective.  That doesn’t mean that wellness programs are inherently wrong; they just need to be well thought-through to best serve all employees instead of the few who want to have company-subsidized yoga classes.  

 

Planning Wellness For All by Motivational Need

To approach Wellness effectively, start with the motivational needs of your employees.  Where are they on the motivational pyramid?  How can you best set up your team for success over the long term and fight burnout?  Let’s take each motivational level and discuss how to best support employees at each level.  

Survival

When you are in Survival mode, you are worried about how you are going to continue to live.  This could be the standard of living at which you are currently, or from where your next meal is coming.  Depending on the level of survival, various wellness programs can be appreciated.  Let’s start with the most extreme and then move from there.

  • Temporary Housing for Homeless Employees:  Housing can be expensive, and many employees may find themselves, hopefully temporarily, without a place to call home.  Providing them with a place to live, showering options, and food can be a temporary alternative.  Some companies find that allowing employees to sleep on the premises overnight, providing showers, and keeping healthy food and drink options can allow their otherwise homeless employees a place to stay while they work out options.  Is this ideal?  No, and possibly illegal in some states or cities (consult your corporate Counsel before setting a program in place).  A better solution is to pay a living wage for your employees so they can sustain their housing. 
  • No Judgement PTO:  Now for the more common, more often abused solution:  respecting time off.  Don’t require a reason for PTO to be taken; allow employees to take their PTO without feeling it needs to be justified.  They have earned that time off, so let them use it however they need.  If you are worried about projects or tasks falling by the wayside, you should
    • Have a solid way to track all tasks that need to be done (basic project and task management tools will take care of this)
    • Have a plan in place for maintenance mode: If a valuable employee is out of the office, have a plan to cover the basics of that role while they are out so they don’t come back to a massive backlog
  • Support Life-Changing Events:  There are times when employees will have an event that will turn their lives upside down.  A new baby is expected, a family member passes, or even a massive accident that can dibilitate an employee for some time.  Have support plans in place to let them know that their jobs are NOT in jeopardy, and plan for coverage if they need time away.  These events can be sudden and take any employee from a higher level of motivation instantly to Survival mode.  Rally around them and give them all the support you can.  Work through how the change in their life will impact their career and how you can help them grow through the change.  

Safety

If your employees are looking for safety, they need some level of stability and reassurance in their future.  The best way to help build their resilience is to reinforce their levels of safety and security within their career, and encourage wellness practices.  For those in the Safety level this means allowing PTO without judgement, and flex time (where possible).  

  • Flex Time: Now, we should take a minute to define what I mean by flex time:  Flex time means working when the person is most productive, and allowing them to balance out that work with their general life.  
  • Work-Life Balance (For Real):  We hear alot about work-life balance, but that generally means “be available at all times.”  That’s not what we are talking about here.  To have proper balance, you need to make time for your life.  Employees are contracted for 40 hours of work a week, and any more than that is a gift (unless they are hourly, in which case it’s overtime).  Allowing employees to work when it’s most convenient for them means they can do the best possible job for you.  This also means if they are working over their usual hours one week, let them take that time off the next (or a subsequent week).  Give them time to focus on self-care, while you focus on the real Key Productivity Indicators (i.e., the work getting done).  
  • Respect Boundaries:  Set and respect boundaries for your employees, and they will feel safe in their role.  Only contact them during working hours.  Respect their Slack status (in meeting, unavailable, offline) and don’t expect immediate responses.  Emails that can wait until Monday should be sent on Monday (you can schedule your email delivery, did you know that?).  If someone is on PTO, respect that they are on PTO and don’t try to contact them.  
  • Plan for Time Off:  If you don’t have a back-up plan for someone who is on vacation/sick, then start planning for one.  You aren’t planning for a replacement, but have a plan for someone to pick up the slack or make the key decisions if a person is out of the office.  
  • Encourage Safety in Groups Through ERGs:  Employee Resource Groups, which allow like-minded employees to build relationships with each other, provides an anchor in an organization when social relationships are still being formed.  Employee Resource Groups cost nothing to make (it’s just a group in Slack), provide an opportunity for folks and allies of a similar race, sex, belief, culture, sexual orientation, or neurodivergence to build a strong network.  You could also build similar groups for beer-brewing enthusiasts, role-playing gamers, sailers, surfers, etc.  By encouraging employees to bond within their existing social connections will help them feel more safe within the organization as a whole. 

Social

Social needs and motivation is a level where teams start to gel, folks want to work because they like hanging out with their teammates, and social acceptance has been achieved.  What starts with ERGs can move into more general acceptance within a group.  Wellness at this level means group events that are not work outings or team-building off-sites, but rather opportunities for shared interests to be enjoyed.  

  • Expand ERGs:  Your Employee Resource Groups continue to play a role as they expand in building connections:  Sharing experiences and perspectives through team presentations in a safe place.  I had a conversation with someone in the Biotech industry, and she explained their approach.  Many of their researchers were neurodivergent, and felt uncomfortable socializing in a traditional “drinks after work” setting.  They did, however, enjoy role-playing games, so the company sponsored a role-playing social event to bring folks from multiple teams together in a comfortable setting for their researchers.  The result was phenomenal:  researchers could now relate to other team members because of their role-playing experiences, which built stronger social relationships across teams.  Their researcher retention went up significantly as a result.  
  • Plan Social Events With Everyone’s Feedback:  Not everyone wants a pizza party and alcohol.  As a non-drinker myself, I always felt awkward around co-workers who were drinking.  If you had ever been a non-smoker in a smoking section (perhaps I’m aging myself here), you would know the feeling.  Social events can be dinners, or group service projects, or even team radio shows.  The thing is, everyone needs to be on board with the idea.  If folks aren’t, and are forced to participate, they feel excluded while participating.  Also know that everyone will not be one hundred percent on board with every idea, so cycle through ideas that engage as many people as possible.  For those who generally don’t participate, find out how you can help them feel more engaged with the events.  
  • Team Empathy:  When folks are struggling, the last thing they want to worry about is whether or not they brought the cups for the social that night.  Encourage the team to be empathetic to those around them and recognize that, should someone not want to participate, it’s OK.  Invite them, welcome them, and let them know they are always welcomed in future.  Rejecting a social event isn’t a personal slight, so don’t take offense.  

Recognition/Esteem

It might sound odd to include this option as folks who are motivated at this level already have solid foundational needs met.  Yet, burnout can still happen if you are trying incredibly hard to be recognized.  Employees at this level are more likely to ignore their work/life balance in favor of work, put in long hours on projects, or take a lot on their plate in order to stand out.  Wellness programs at this level may take champions in leadership to encourage folks to find the time to decompress and relax.  

  • Encourage PTO:  Encourage folks to take their time off to relax and unwind, even if it’s one day in the middle of the week.  Time off, unplugged from projects and work, can do wonders.  It’s also important to note that it takes time to unplug and decompress.  Travel, family, last-minute worries, etc. can all impact the ability to relax.  If one day isn’t going to do it, encourage longer breaks.  Be a champion, and lead by example.  When you are on PTO, do not be available, and let people know you are not available.  If you are outside the United States, this probably sounds obvious, but in the US there is an expectation of availability and an “always on” mentality.  Stop it, break that cycle, and you will build a more resilient culture.  
  • Be Mindful of Recognition:  Now, you might think this is a plea to recognize everyone for something, but that’s not really that valuable.  Instead, be aware of which behaviors you recognize.  Is it more often folks who work longer or cut PTO short for a project?  Perhaps you tend to recognize folks for their willingness to take on multiple projects at once, more than would normally be expected.  The reasons and trends behind those recognitions are very visible to your team, and will dictate their behavior if they are motivated by recognition.  Either they will mimic the long hours and no PTO to their detriment to meet your recognition threshold, or they will stop being motivated by recognition all together, and therefore stop progressing through their journey.  Why you recognize folks matters, so try to make sure it’s for something real, rather than something that will impact their health.  

Purpose

When someone is driven by purpose, their whole perspective changes.  All of a sudden, they are focused on how they can contribute to the goals and values of the company.  That doesn’t mean, however, that they are all hunky-dory and don’t need wellness opportunities.  It does mean that their definition of wellness will change:  They will have a focus more on benefiting others rather than themselves.  Therefore, your wellness options would need to shift.  

  • Charitable Giving:  Making the lives of others better becomes a foundational need for those who are looking to de-stress at the purpose level, and charitable giving is an excellent outlet.  Charitable giving can be as simple as providing charity donation options as part of Payroll or providing match programs for a person’s favorite charity.  How it’s done isn’t as important as providing the opportunity.  
  • Volunteer Work:  Much like charitable giving, volunteer work gives employees the opportunity to share their unique talents with those who most need it.  They could be teaching for after-school programs, working in non-profit aid offices, or cleaning the beach with friends.  How they do it doesn’t matter, and even whether or not they are recognized shouldn’t matter, it’s the fact that they have a chance to give back to others that builds resilience.  
  • Respect Anonymity:  Some people love being recognized for their charitable giving or volunteer work, and can’t wait to post about it on social media. These folks would love being recognized for their works within the company as well, often tying their events to their work personas.  There are others who do not like being recognized and prefer to give and volunteer without accolades.  Respect the desire for anonymity, and do not require people to record their volunteer hours or charitable giving amounts for corporate recognition. 

Survival

Non-judgemental PTO and well-established support for work projects.

Let people take time off so they can recover without making them feel like their jobs are on the line and have maintenance plans in place.

Safety

PTO, Flex time, and Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Time off should not feel punitive, meaning they shouldn’t be made to feel guilty.  Employee Resource Groups can provide social support for anyone in their group who feels overwhelmed by working through existing community ties.

Social

Expand ERGs and encourage social events with the team

ERGs are a great way to establish a social outlet for all employees and drive social motivation.  Providing social events that are sponsored by ERGs can help build social connections within the company. 

Recognition /Esteem

Become a champion of wellness programs

Encourage your employees to share their wellness practices during work recognition to emphasize that success can include self-care.

Purpose

Volunteer work and/or charitable giving

Your employees driven by purpose will be best served by giving of themselves outside of work, either through volunteer or charitable work.  Recognize their work when appropriate, though respect their choice for anonymity.

Final Thoughts

Wellness has many different definitions to different people, and can often be impacted by culture, needs, and health in general.  As a leader, you want your team to contribute to the best of their ability to the success of the company.  That means you need to be mindful of their stress levels, motivational needs, and ways to mitigate their stress so they can be as productive as possible.  Recognizing their levels of need and having a playbook for those differing levels means they will have the support they need when they need it, and they will become more resilient.  

It should also be worth noting that resilience training wasn’t mentioned once, and there’s a reason:  It’s been found that resilience training actually has a detrimental impact on employee’s overall resilience (ironically).  Perhaps it’s because people don’t want to hear about how they can breathe differently to melt away their stress when they are afraid they can’t pay the bills, or that yoga can fix their problems when they don’t feel part of the team.  Resilience, true resilience, comes from understanding where you are, and how you can be helped.  It’s an active task expected by leadership, not an afterthought that can be fixed with training about ways some folks have found it successful.  Now, I know the irony of me sharing the fact that resilience training doesn’t work as a way of educating someone on how to be resilient, but it’s important to note:  the key to resilience is understanding what you need at the moment and how to avoid completely burning out.  That’s personal, and a good leader can facilitate by providing options, showing compassion, and being supportive.  

Looking For Guidance?

Looking to build resilience on your team, but not sure where to start?  Let us help!  We can guide your team through the fundamentals of motivational needs, leadership approaches, business conversations, and cultural change management that will increase trust, productivity, and engagement with your teams.  Ask us how!  

Contact Us to Learn More!

Building Your L&D Team

As I become more familiar with the landscape of business organizations, particularly those who are still in start-up mode, I find that Learning and Development is often an afterthought, something that becomes a necessity because 

  • The Support team is getting overwhelmed by customers who have simple requests they, the customer, could do themselves.
  • The Customer Success team has customers that don’t know how their product or service works, or how to utilize it.
  • The Professional Services/Deployment/Implementation teams spend a lot of time giving introductory walkthroughs of the product as “training”
  • Angry CEOs are contacting the CEO of your company to ask why you don’t have training.
  • Industry comparison publications outline the lack of training as a “con” for using your product/service.

Ultimately, for whatever reason, the decision is to build a training program. So leadership with little or no experience in Learning and Development starts to hire folks similar to their teams and use them as “trainers” because their product/service is intuitive, right? Training can’t be that hard. 

Here’s the thing:  Training isn’t Engineering, it’s not Sales, and it’s not PowerPoint slides.  There are whole disciplines dedicated to analyzing, creating, and delivering training.  Advanced degrees are dedicated to best-communicating information in such a way that it sticks.  You need a team that knows how to organize, deploy, and manage all phases of the training organization to be successful.  You need a Learning and Development organization.  So let’s talk about each role within that organization, so there’s a better understanding of how that works.  

For context, I will be talking about the fundamental structure of a Director, Managers, and Independent Contributors in a scaled-down organization expected for a reasonably successful, mature organization.  You could have more directors, more managers, VPs, etc. as your reach expands and the scope of learning expands, all the way up to a Chief Learning Officer who directs the development of internal and external learning.  Though, if you are reading this, you are likely not looking for a CLO, but rather an idea of where to start with your training organization.  So, let’s start with the basics.  

Except that training isn’t PowerPoints, but skills that take skilled professionals.

Image of woman with hat

Curriculum Development

Curriculum development is the process of analyzing the jobs, tasks, subtasks, skills, etc. necessary to be successful and compiling that information in a narrative form that layers skills from foundational to knowledgeable.  Curriculum developers know how to work with Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, Marketing, Sales, and Support to do their analysis.  They design the course based on the Jobs, Tasks, Subtasks, Skills, Knowledge, and Approaches necessary to be successful.  They develop the training in the medium(s) necessary for delivery.  They implement by using alpha runs to get a feel of the content, betas to get the feel of the delivery, and then go live and evaluate the results.  

Role KPIs

A good curriculum developer will have the following KPIs:

  • Customer Satisfaction:  Is the learner happy with the content and what they have learned?
  • Net Promoter Score:  Would the learner recommend the course to friends and colleagues? 
  • Course Completion:  Are learners who register to complete the course?
  • Exam Pass Rate:  If there is an associated exam, are people passing the exam At a minimum 70% of the time?
  • Customer Success:  Are learners more confident in their role after taking the training?

A curriculum development team will, ideally, own one product or suite at a time, so they can maintain expertise in that content.  Additional roles that can sub-divide Curriculum Development would be eLearning specialists and media production specialists. 

Image of man with hat

Trainers

Trainers, be they technical or not, deliver the training as created by the curriculum developers, placing the content within the context of the learners.  Their job is to assess the capabilities of their learners and help them best understand the content through related experiences and a certain amount of showmanship (some “dad jokes” thrown in can be helpful, too!).  It’s all about reading the room, getting a sense of the levels of understanding, and helping everyone feel confident in the content they have learned.  Where curriculum developers are writing their curriculum for everyone with a foundational knowledge level, trainers tailor that content to Bob and Charlene in class, helping Bob with some missing foundational knowledge while drawing on Charlene’s advanced experience to help explain more complex concepts.  

Role KPIs

A good trainer will have the following KPIs:

  • Customer Satisfaction:  Is the learner happy with the content and what they have learned?
  • Net Promoter Score:  Would the learner recommend the course to friends and colleagues?
  • Utilization:  How many classes does the trainer deliver in a week/month/quarter?
  • Scope:  How many courses can the trainer deliver?
  • Innovation: In what ways has the delivery of the content gotten better over time?
  • Customer Success: Are learners more confident in their role after taking the training?

The Training team can be further subdivided into varying levels, depending on experience, competency, and increased scope.  

Image of man with glasses drinking coffee

Exam Writers

Exam writers will use their understanding of the job tasks to build exams that test the ability to accomplish a particular job.  While this is somewhat similar to curriculum development, it is a completely different skill.  Curriculum development focuses on teaching the skills necessary to complete a job.  Exams test whether or not someone, at their level of understanding, is capable of completing a job.  Exams can be completely independent of training, and training can be conducted without requiring exams.  

It should also be noted that exams are different than review questions or class assessments (quizzes) to test understanding.  Those two methods are used by Trainers to evaluate how well the course is going and to determine if there needs to be a course correction during the class to make sure all content is fully understood and learned.  Exams, however, focus entirely on whether or not someone has the necessary competence to complete a task or job.  

Role KPIs

A good exam writer would have the following KPIs:

  • Exam Completion:  What percentage of learners completed the exam after starting it?
  • Exam Pass Rate:  How many learners passed the exam, with a pass rate target of around 70%?
  • Writing Errors:  How many errors does the exam contain?
  •  Exam Relevance:  How relevant is the exam to the role against which the exam is testing?

Exam writers can fall within a whole category that works with Operations, depending on how the exams are delivered and results are recorded.  Industry-standard exams need to be legally defensible in court, meaning if any discrepancy in the results due to incorrect answers, overly ambiguous questions or answers, or out-of-date questions that are no longer relevant to the job, companies can be liable.  In some small organizations, the curriculum developer can also be an exam writer, though this is not ideal.  

Group of people working in the office

Training Operations

Training Operations is an umbrella term that includes a lot of different folks, and I place them together because their roles are specialized and are often combined into one or two people.  These roles include 

  • Training Coordinators:  These unsung heroes schedule training, assign instructors, bill learners, and answer all questions learners may have that are not topic-specific, like whether or not a service dog is allowed in class.  Whether or not you have live only, a mix of live and on-demand, or on-demand-only training, you will need someone to manage this part of the business.  It can be the training manager or a coordinator hired specifically for the role. 
  • LMS Admins:  Your Learning Management System administrator is your rock.  Nothing can happen without this person managing the environment through which you schedule and/or deliver your training.  Without your administrator, you would be running all training through Excel and Outlook, which is a recipe for disaster.  If you don’t have a Learning Management system, get one.  If you have one, make sure your admin is well taken care of.  
  • Training Marketing:  Once you have training out there, you need it marketed.  Whether you use the company Marketing team or you have a dedicated team/person in charge of marketing for your courses, if you don’t get the word out, you don’t get sign-ups.  
  • Training Sales:  If you are a P&L (Profit and Loss) department, you need to have dedicated sales teams.  Now, I know what you are thinking, “but I can just have our existing Sales team sell training, and that will work!”  No, it won’t.  This is why:  Training is an “add-on” that main Sales teams will cut in a heartbeat to get a bigger deal through and make it look like a discount.  No remorse, no second thought to the lack of training available for the customer and the inability to an effective implementation of the product/service.  Salesfolks don’t care about the customer’s implementation, they care about the deal and their commission from that deal.  If approvals are required, they will try to get around the approvals.  If Training Management approvals are required, they will go to senior executives.  I’ve seen it time and time again:  Every time a Training Sales team is rolled into the main Sales organization, Training revenues take a nose-dive.  Have dedicated sales teams for your Training, if you are selling training.  Period.  
  • Custom Enablement Training:  Large-scale training courses for user-level training may be required for your product/service if your product/service changes the way people work.  This is part of change management and should be regarded as necessary because it’s very likely that your customer is not going to provide this level of product enablement for their customers. 

There are probably several other roles I could add here, but they all become more valuable as your teams get bigger, and that’s a discussion for another post.  ^_^

Man with beanie

Management LEvel

Management of your training organization depends on the number of people on the team.  You could have one manager/director who is in charge of a few curriculum developers and trainers.  You could have a hierarchy of leadership from the CLO to SVPs to VPs to Senior Directors to Directors to Senior Managers to Managers, each managing several directs that make sense for your command structure.  My leadership design starts with two levels:  The Director, and the Independent Contributor.  

The Director

The L&D Director outlines the direction of the training program and the expectations of each role. If the team is less than 10 people altogether, then the Director can manage everyone effectively, even if they break them up into teams (Curriculum, Training, etc).  The Director can then outline their expectations to the teams, and manage any requirements for that team as necessary.  

The Independent Contributor

Independent Contributors are all the roles above (curriculum, training, etc) that have tasks to do and generally work directly with their customers.  They create the content and scope as directed by the Director, and execute the vision.  

Expanding the Leadership Team: Managers

If the team becomes larger than can be effectively managed (the general threshold is 10 ICs to one Leader), then the Director may want to hire Managers for their ICs.  Managers follow the direction as set by the Director, and manage the needs of their ICs by removing barriers that get in the way of their work.  As their teams grow (again, more than 10 ICs per leader) or different regions require more specialized knowledge, additional Managers can be hired.

Expanding Up:  More Directors

Additional Directors may be needed once the growth of the team becomes so large that each group and vision need to be addressed separately.  This usually happens once a company moves from Mid-sized to Corporate levels, with larger teams.  It also happens when Learning and Development teams start to consolidate around single visions and leaders, (i.e., a Chief Learning Officer), in which case each specialized learning area needs direction and execution (think Sales Enablement vs. New Hire vs. Customer vs. Partner enablement).  At this point, you may have Senior Directors, VPs, Senior VPs, etc. that execute the vision, scope, and direction based on specific needs.  

Now, if you are reading this, you likely are not at this point, so why bring it up?  Because you might be someday, and you want to be ready.  You will want to know how to scale your organization effectively or have someone who can scale it for you, and what that will entail.  

 

Structuring Your First Training Organization

The first step you need to make is to hire a good Director that knows how to build a training organization, because, likely, your existing leadership isn’t aware of how to do that.  They may be excellent Sales folks, know Customer Success well, or know how Engineering works, but they are going to look for Sales, Customer Success, or Engineering leaders.  You need to find someone who knows how Training and Development work, has had experience with the process, and has, ideally, built a training program at one point or another in the past.  

Once you know you have someone who can do the job, you need to let them do the job.  Don’t short-change them on people, resources, software, etc.  Good training can be created in PowerPoint, that’s true, but it limits engagement compared to a strong LMS, excellent social learning platforms, and AI-driven learning paths.  Don’t break the budget, but make sure you have the key roles in place for the scope of your need: 

  • One curriculum developer for each product/service family
  • One trainer per 4 training days a week
  • A coordinator to maintain a lot of the operational stuff
  • An LMS Admin (could be the Director/Manager) to keep the lights on.

Additional roles can be added, negotiated, etc. as necessary.  

Common Pitfall

Now, the common pitfall I see small companies make when they want to start training but don’t want to invest too much is to hire one person to do everything.  There’s the problem with it: 

  • Direction then has to come from people who don’t understand training or how it’s developed:  they don’t have the experience, and they fail to understand why the training team just doesn’t “create a PowerPoint” for training.  
  • Curriculum Development is time-consuming:  With full analysis time, it takes 40 hours of development time per 1 hour of delivery.  One full week to have content ready for one hours-worth of training.  Even if you have analysis taken care of, it can take one day to create the content for one hour.  That means the curriculum developer isn’t able to deliver the training while they are developing the next course.  They will get behind in their development, and the courses will quickly become outdated. 
  • Burnout:  That one person will burn out very quickly if they have to run everything because they can’t scale.  Even with on-demand training, there’s no way to scale the content creation, maintenance, delivery, and exam writing necessary to make a successful training program.  You have crippled your training program before it’s had a chance to grow.  

Take it from someone who has been in this position as their peers were released for various reasons and I became the last man standing:  It doesn’t work, and it makes the training guy look like an idiot that can’t do the work, regardless of their credentials.  It’s poor management, so don’t be caught in that trap.  

Final Comments

Designing a good, solid training program that can scale can be daunting if you don’t have the experience, so hopefully this guide has given you an idea of what that structure should look like. If you have any questions or are looking for help in building out your training program, don’t hesitate to reach out so we can help! 

Which LMS Is Right For You?

There are a lot of learning management systems out there, and it can be difficult choosing the right one for you.  The difficult thing is, really, most of them have all the same features, but only differentiate themselves through targeting a specific market.  Unfortunately, that means a company can end up with anywhere from three to six different learning management systems, complicating the company’s licensing management.  

Company policy should always be to simplify your platforms.  Use what you can for as many applications as possible before you invest in something new, and be willing to change platforms when your needs evolve.  Your LMS needs change as your company grows, so a good investment at the beginning will keep up with your internal, partner, and customer training needs while preparing you for a more enterprise solution in the future.  

Your goal with Learning Management should be to simplify and consolidate as much as possible

Primary Learning Management Needs

The primary use of a Learning Management System is to

  • Provide a central repository for all training content for knowledge transfer
  • Record completed training for future reference
  • Track quiz/exam results as proof of learned concepts

Now, there are a lot of features that help you build, share, and record training sessions, as well as features that will help engage learners in their training that appeal to specific departments or teams, but the end goal is to keep a central repository can be realized by just about every LMS out there.  The real concern you should have is how much LMS you need to get for the size of your organization, and when you should consider migrating/upgrading your LMS.  

Primary LMS Considerations

When you look for an LMS, it’s not about the features, it’s about whether or not you are going to cover your primary target audience correctly, and simplify your platform.  Learning features are fun and exciting, though here’s a little secret:  people can and will learn best if they have the information they need and can get to it quickly.  Fancy features, testing types, etc. only add a “wow” factor for those who go through the content.  

NOTE:  Learning is different than engagement.  Learning is absorbing and internalizing knowledge for application, engagement is making the process more fun.  Engagement can be accomplished in simple forms and does not necessarily need fancy software or tools to accomplish.  If your training content has a good story, the engagement happens naturally.  

ADDITIONAL NOTE:  Of course, for those who process information differently, engagement can mean catering to a learning style, in which case multiple methods are ideal (i.e., written content, videos, audio clips, etc.). Still, a good story can lead to better engagement in these different mediums without fancy software.  Be smart in how you execute, and any LMS will suit your needs.  

Features You Need

Here’s a list of recommended features for any LMS to be successful for every use, regardless of the department:

  1. SCORM Compatibility:  Your LMS will need to be able to contain SCORM files.  This will allow you to use pre-made modules from contractors, licensed content from Large Learning Libraries, and so on. 
    1. Compliance training will use this
    2. Many contractors build content in 3rd party software like Articulate or Adapt, which output in SCORM files
    3. Large learning libraries will allow the use of their SCORM training files for annual compliance training (ethics, sexual harassment, etc)
  2. Video Submission/Recording:  The ability to submit a video recording for evaluation will be invaluable to your Sales and Customer Success teams.  Fortunately, just about every LMS out there supports this type of submission, either as a file or as a link from Zoom.  Some LMS features that target Sales teams directly have fancy features around this (notes at video timings, etc) but these are not required for the goal of evaluating a presentation from a team member, and not worth having an additional LMS for this one feature.  
    1. Sales teams will use this method to test Pitch readiness
    2. Customer Success Managers use it for the same thing
  3. WYSIWYG Course Creation:  Not every course or module will be created and delivered through third-party software, and often it’s easier to jump in and get the course done than paying for additional tools.  While standard HTML course content will often not have the same flashy presentation styles as SCORM tools will, the training can be just as engaging as long as there is a good story.  You will also have a lot of standard HTML capabilities, such as formatting, embedding images and videos, and some interactive links to documents for additional reference.  Don’t be fooled by the allure of fancy features:  people can learn just as well with a good video and a transcript.  
  4. Live Training Management:  A good LMS worth its salt will be able to manage live training sessions.  This means managing instructors, calendars, schedules, etc.  Fortunately, just about every LMS out there, even free, WordPress LMS systems, do this.  
  5. Cater to Internal and Customer Training:  This is often the clincher when it comes to features.  You may have the top-of-the-market, in-demand, and popular LMS for a specific department, but it doesn’t cater to Customer training.  Or, you might have an excellent Customer training platform but it doesn’t allow for internal training sessions.  If your LMS can’t do both with reasonable licensing, then find another LMS.  

The Nice to Haves

If I were building my own LMS, or looking for an LMS to grow with my business, here are the features that I would love to see but could live without until they were needed.

  1. Integration with a Knowledge Base:  This seems so simple, and yet it is so incredibly foreign.  LMS systems are built for training, Knowledge Management systems are built for documentation, and they can only be connected through URLs that are hard-coded and difficult to maintain.  Both are knowledge containment systems, and both provide information, yet they have to be separate.  It’s mind-numbing to me, but that’s the reality of most systems.  Integrate them somehow, and make the content from both searchable.  
  2. AI-Generated Learning Paths:  Learning paths are incredibly time-consuming to build, particularly when you are building them for every persona in the company and beyond.  AI, on the other hand, can quickly build out learning paths based on training content, skills being taught, and skills needed for your roles.  With a good skills analysis (which you should do for every role for which you hire if you want to hire the right people), AI can make an onboarding and continuing education program that will have them growing within their role immediately.  Forget GenAI for content creation, analytical AI for learning path creation is the killer AI app for the L&D team!  
  3. Social Learning:  Allowing experts and SMEs to share their knowledge with the wider team through the LMS is invaluable.  Quick videos, AI-generated transcripts, and uploading step-by-step instructions to complete tasks/subtasks will make all the difference for your company, and your community.  

Choosing Your LMS Size

Identifying the right LMS for your Needs Now

Start-Up

Free/Low-cost LMS Web Platform Plugin 

1 – 10 employees

What You Get

  • Often free, generally low-cost, and built for your website
  • All basic features are standard, even for the free version
  • Internal and customer training is handled through group management restrictions

Caveats

  • Plugins aren’t that powerful, so small markets are best
  • Many require subscriptions for more convenience
  • Compatibility with SCORM can be hit-or-miss, even with fully compliant SCORM files

Small Business

Cloud-based LMS Platform

10 – 500 Employees

  • Single-purpose-built platform for Learning Management
  • All of the basic features are standard
  • Authentication through SSO makes internal training easier
  • Many support both internal and customer training
  • Scaling to enterprise will require additional platforms
  • Many are built to cater to departments, not companies
  • Certification programs will often need to be separated between Employee and Customer audiences

Enterprise

Cloud-based LXP and KB All-In-One

500+ Employees

  • Learning Experience comes first
  • Emphasis on Roles, Personas, and Professional Development
  • Integrations with Learning Management, Roles, Actions, Knowledge Articles, etc all play a role
  • AI-driven features that drive individual learning
  • Often very expensive to launch
  • Will require some time to analyze behaviors for AI features to shine
  • Require tearing down siloed platform usage, which will lead to departmental pushback

Final Words

Your business is only as successful as your people, and your people are only as successful as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they have will allow.  Developing your people should be a priority, regardless if you are a stealth startup of one or a multi-national conglomerate of over 500,000 employees.  Your investment in your people will have a massive impact.

Your choice of an LMS, and more importantly, your choice to simplify your LMS landscape, will make a difference.  I know it seems odd to say this, but investing in one good global LMS will be better and more responsible to the business than investing in several excellent, but siloed, LMS platforms that increase management and regulatory compliance problems.  

For the business and your people, make your single LMS investment a good one.  

Not sure where to go next?  Why not contact us for more information!

Contact Us

Reach Out Now For More Info!

Let us help you structure your LMS program to better serve your L&D team, company, and customers.  

Optimize Your Learning Experience

  • Pick one learning platform that works for everyone, and stick with it
  • Set up collaboration events between specialized teams to discuss and share learning content
  • Reuse content that can be reused, modify content if needed.
  • Avoid silos: they drain resources and team agility

An image that displays the chaos of multiple LMS systems

Have You Optimized Your Knowledge Share?

How Fragmented Is Your Knowledge?

At just about every mature company I’ve worked in, there have been at least 3 major training teams, with 3 different platforms for training.  

  • HR general onboarding is usually done through the HR app, and used for both general onboarding and compliance training
  • Sales onboarding and enablement are done through a separate environment because of the need for constant training development for new and updated products, competitive discussion points, and certification on new presentations (usually submitting recordings for evaluation)
  • Customer onboarding and enablement are done with a customer-facing training platform, sometimes paired with a knowledge base and community for discussion.  

You may have others in your company, depending on leadership needs, how centralized training and onboarding teams are, and whether or not you have a leadership structure dedicated to training and enablement within your organization. 

Fragmentation Is Inefficient and Expensive

Fragmented systems without a supporting structure are greatly inefficient and economically unstable.  Work is often duplicated, training content is largely the same, and yet multiple teams are developing, polishing, and publishing the content to their respective base.  On top of that, there’s the administration of those platforms.  It’s difficult, inefficient, and often the result of new organizations bringing in experienced leaders who are often only comfortable with one platform.  This leads to technical debt and employee headcount to manage the technical debt.  

Centralizing Training Is Also Risky

What if you were to centralize around one platform, one team, and have them develop all the training content for everyone?  On paper, this looks ideal, but in practice it’s impractical.  Every organization that requires training has specific needs, often requiring specialized, audience-specific training that requires specific skills—centralizing your training teams into one single team that caters to everyone runs afoul of the value of specialization.  It’s not enough, even though the economics make it attractive.  You need to think in a different direction.  

 

A centralized Learning Management System that caters to all teams

Centralized Platform, Decentralized Development

When looking at the viability of a Shared Services Model within a company, Marijn Janssen at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands identified a clear pattern emerging:  there was a need for some decentralization within those services, and the structure needed to accommodate both centralized and decentralized components (Janssen, 2005).  In other words, a centralized platform for services that can accommodate the decentralized nature of your services is the best method of managing a shared services-style training program.  So what does that look like in practice?

One Platform, Many Uses

Not every LMS is going to be able to manage this type of work, because they are built with the needs of one silo in mind.  Why?  Well, back in the day when Learning Management Systems were new and online learning was spoken of with mocking laughter, platforms were generally home-grown and built to solve one problem.  If you were a University, the LMS would be built to deliver courses over several weeks, each gated to release at the necessary week, and past-due content was locked.  If you were a corporation, the initial need was compliance training.  Sales found it more efficient and scalable to publish Sales Training through an online LMS and evaluate presentations asynchronously through recorded and uploaded videos.  Finally, corporate customer training was built to track completion and, as gamification was built and (initially) misunderstood, provide a badge on completion.  

The point is, that each specific need was met with a specific set of requirements, and those requirements were met by a specific LMS.  Eventually, you would get some bleeding over as learning management systems tried to cater to new markets, but that bleed-over was often half-hearted at best.  Fundamentally, they would remain true to their original purpose while providing some under-developed services that cater to potential new markets.  

Enter AI And The Hype

Since the announcement of AI, there has been a lot of scrambling by existing LMS platforms to figure out how they are going to utilize it.  The majority of them, from what I could tell at Devlearn, applied AI in two ways: 

  • Generative AI to evaluate or rewrite content as it was being added to the platform.  While this seems great at first, it is easily ignored (perhaps saving the LMS money) and doesn’t apply to those companies that develop training using SCORM systems.  While Generative AI has its place, it’s not going to replace real development.  
  • Generative AI for translation/video/Avatar creation was all over the place at Devlearn, and that was fascinating. Video is expensive, and translation is even more so.  AI has done some amazing things with translation in the last few years, with fewer grammatical errors.  AI video and AI avatars are still early, in my opinion, making it obvious that the AI is speaking (because words are often mispronounced) and avatars only moving their mouths, making it somewhat creepy (again, my opinion).  Still, there’s some interesting stuff here.  

What’s missing from most of these LMS systems is the analysis that AI can do, as well as some structural development.  There I only found one platform that looks like it could handle it all:  Fuse Universal.  

Siloed training programs are an economic drain on any organization.

 

Based on the social learning updated, knowledge documents assigned to the team, and already assigned training, the AI can create a learning path for every role.

Centralize Your Learning Using Fuse

Fuse Universal impressed me.  They unify the Learning Management System, the Knowledge Base, and the Learning Experience Platform into one AI-driven platform that not only tracks learning but provides learning on demand when you need it.  Experienced learners can share their knowledge through social learning, meaning teams can share tribal knowledge without having to post it to the L&D team, get manager sign-off, and wait 6 months for content to be available.  

The killer feature that impressed me the most:  AI-generated learning paths for every role within your company.  If you are in HR, this is your killer feature.  When going through my MBA, it was understood that HR should have skills analysis for every role in the company so they can

  1. Hire people with the right skills needed for the role
  2. Train people through employee onboarding systems that teach all skills, so all bases are covered

I’ve worked at a few organizations where they tried to do this (eBay comes to mind immediately), but not many.  Most HR departments have team managers write up their skills requirements (because managers are skilled at skills analysis, I suppose), and leave it to the hiring team (silo) to do their onboarding and training.  Hiring teams then struggle to complete this, because they generally lack the expertise and resources to accomplish these tasks.  

AI Skills Analysis And Learning Paths:  The Killer Feature!

Enter Fuse Universal’s AI analysis feature:  Based on the social learning uploaded, knowledge documents assigned to the team, and already assigned training, the AI can create a learning path for every role.  Think about that for a second.  Every role in your company will have a learning path.  That means every employee looking to advance into a different role has a development path to follow.  Every struggling employee has a development path to help them refine their skills.  And no one had to run a skills analysis.  AI took care of all of it.  

 There are several other reasons why you would want to use Fuse as your learning platform of choice, as it can cater to all your typical silos (Onboarding, Compliance, Sales, Customer Enablement, etc).  If you haven’t heard of them before, check them out.  If you have heard of them before but are not using them, reevaluate that decision.  

Co-workers expressing gratitude at work.

Collaboration Events

The centralized platform provides the structure and stability for your learning development teams, but that’s just the foundation.  You will need to move into a polycentralized organization or an organization that has multiple collaborating teams that specialize in their respective fields, yet work with the same centralized content.  This will require collaboration events.  An example of this would be new product launch prep meetings:  different development teams will work together in their relative spheres of expertise, but share the content.  

  • The Product Development team would provide the technical documentation and expertise to make sure all training content is correct, relevant, and accurate.  
  • The Product Marketing team takes that content and provides customer talking points, marketing guidance, and messaging to be shared with customers by internal teams.
  • The Sales Enablement will take the content from the Development and marketing teams to put together the sales campaign training and enablement, shared with both Sales and Customer Success teams.
  • Learning and Development works with all teams to create similar content (reusing what they can from Sales) and conducts internal training for
    • Support
    • Professional Services
    • Employee product onboarding
    • Customer onboarding and enablement

The content may not differ much, just enough to make a difference in the structure and audience.  Specialist development teams are invaluable for your organizations, and collaboration can cut down time-to-value on training significantly:  much of the analysis work would be done by another team.  

Specialist development teams are invaluable, and cross-departmental collaboration Tiger Teams can share resources and increase the time-to-value of training.

 

By polycentralizing your Training and Development team, you can take advantage of the natural bridging between silos and increase cross-departmental collaboration

Reuse Content When Possible

I’ve worked for teams where they work through the whole ADDIE process with in-depth analysis, thoughtful design, and conduct hours of development and when it gets to implementation, their work is almost the same thing as another team’s for their silo.  The good news:  everyone’s working hard and producing similar content.  The bad news is that there are a lot of people working to produce similar content.  

I’m a huge supporter of the write once, use often mindset.  When using UNIX-based platforms, I try to automate tasks as much as possible.  Creating training, I reuse assets all the time (you might have noticed some similar images ^_^).  If I can shave off some time without sacrificing quality, I will.  If I work for hours creating the essentially same thing that someone else created, a little part of me dies inside.  When I can, I reuse content.  It might mean re-recording existing written work or editing some existing video, it doesn’t matter.  Anything that takes less time to qualitatively repurpose is more valuable to me than “reinventing the wheel.”  

Avoiding Silos

As I started my career, I thought that siloed teams were a fact of life or an entity that was necessary for the corporate world to run.  I was a cog in the great machinery of the office, and if I did my work and handed it off to the right people, the machinery would turn and the business would flourish. It wasn’t until I joined leadership that I realized the truth:  silos were a natural withdrawing process, and it builds distrust within organizations.  They are inefficient, rarely effective, and require more work to reconcile the work done than, well, the work done.  

The thing is, it’s really difficult to break down silos within an organization, even if you are building that organization anew.  Silos naturally happen, and yet they also have natural extensions into other teams, and Training and Development is one such natural extension.  By polycentralizing your Training and Development team, you can take advantage of the natural bridging between silos and increase cross-departmental collaboration.  

Seize Your Moment

If you are struggling with your training teams, are buried under several LMS licenses as technical debt, and see a lot of siloed work churning out very similar results, it’s time to rethink your approach to training.  Contact us for more information and let us help you build an efficient, effective learning program that increases time-to-value, reduces technical debt, and re-energizes your training development and enablement teams.  

 

Bibliography

Janssen, Marijn. “Centralized or decentralized organization?.” ACM International Conference Proceeding Series. Vol. 89. 2005.

Jeremy Robb

Jeremy Robb

Chief Learning Officer

 

 

Success in Navigating your Motivational Pyramid

  • Identify what motivates you
  • Do your best to fulfill that need
  • Develop the necessary skills to do your part in navigating the next motivational need
  • Enjoy the journey, instead of focusing on the destination

Computer on the desk

How Does Training Relate to Motivation?

You Know What Motivates You, What Now?

There have been several jobs in my life that were taken because of survival: I needed a new role and I needed to get a paycheck that would fit my needs. Many I took because I was excited to learn something new, and others I took reluctantly because I needed the paycheck. In all cases, I still did my best in the role. After all, I needed the paycheck.

All Motivation is Still Motivation

I have pointed out the values of moving up the motivational pyramid toward Purpose, and I can understand it might cast each lower level of motivation as slightly negative:  you want to move to Purpose because it’s the most productive and valuable motivator.  The thing is, if you are just working to survive, that is a valid and good motivation!  If you are motivated by the good camaraderie of your peers, do it for them!  What motivates you is clearly what you need to get through the daily grind. 

Use that same motivation to get to the next level.  For instance:

  • If you are in survival mode, work to keep what you have and move to that feeling of safety
  • If you are feeling secure, do what you can to feel part of the team
  • If you work for your social connections, build your value, and earn recognition for your unique contributions
  • If you and your work are valued, find the connection between your values and the value your work brings to others

At every level of motivation, you have a desire to do well, at least to satisfy that level of need.  If you are motivated by survival, you will look for the best chances of survival.  If the work you are doing is your best chance, you will invest your time and effort into satisfying that need.  This means you will tolerate everything and anything to remain employed.  This isn’t necessarily a bad situation, though it might not be ideal.  There are several scenarios where this would be the case:  

  • If your company had gone through a cycle of lay-offs, you might feel like you are in survival mode  
  • You might be new to a company and want to show you are valuable as quickly as possible
  • Current economic conditions make it difficult to find a job, so you are looking for and working any role available, even if it is not your ideal position

In all three scenarios above, you are in a legitimate survival mode.  What makes the difference is how quickly you can move into a more stable mode of safety, which will reduce the amount of stress you are experiencing, and therefore improve the quality of work you can produce.  Each level of need will come with its own goals, situations, and reasons for succeeding, and it’s not wrong to be at whatever level of need you have.  The important thing is to realize where you are with your needs, you are getting what you need with as little stress as possible, and you can progress along your levels of need.  Skill development can assist with each method of motivation.

 

Leonardo da Vinci's diagram of a supporting bridge

Skills Development To Improve Motivation

While in survival mode, I moved my family over a thousand miles to the sunny coast of Southern California.  My boys needed better services for their disability, and I wanted to be able to provide them with the best possible options in life.  So, I took a Survival-type job, even as defined by leadership at the organization.  It was an entry-level position that was meant to leap-frog into another role.  I took that role seriously, did everything I could to make a positive, lasting impact, and took advantage of the skills training made available to all employees through Skillsoft training.  I quickly became the most active person on the platform in a 100,000+ person organization, learning everything I could so I could move to my next level of motivation:  Safety.  

Skills development training provides the tools necessary to navigate the motivational pyramid.  

  • Survival needs are met by providing the skills to land and retain positions that satisfy that need.  Perhaps you are moving into a new role or new industry and skills training is necessary, or you just need to complete your New Hire Training paths that will prepare you for the new position you just landed.  Either way, skills development training satisfies your needs. 
  • Safety needs are met by refining skills, learning soft skills, or utilizing parallel skill sets to increase productivity and value.  You could be preparing to move into a more secure role, or landing a new position within the firm that provides more stability. 
  • Social needs are benefited by additional soft-skills training, helping everyone help others feel more inclusive.  It’s often believed that others are responsible for your inclusion, and while that’s true at a high level, you need to start with what you can control:  your social interactions with the group.  If you struggle to feel part of the team, look for opportunities to contribute.  Social soft-skills training can be valuable here.  
    NOTE: I need to point out that everyone is responsible for social inclusion, not just the person on the outside.  While you as the outside person can learn soft skills and inclusion methods, everyone else needs to learn how to be inclusive as well.  Don’t think that through this list I’m laying the burden on the one on the outside.  That would be unfair, unrealistic, and very much the status quo that has broken many a corporate culture.  
  • Esteem/Recognition needs can be met by learning how to be more visible in your role.  New skills, mastery of skills, and new ways of approaching problems will draw attention to your work.  Striving for excellence in your day-to-day is a journey that will benefit you with a curious mind that explores new and better ways of doing things.  
  • Purpose needs can be met by learning about the industry, customer problems, customer needs, and how the company meets those needs.  Skills development in this area ranges from better industry understanding, customer issue awareness, and better communication skills.
Skills Development:  Build Your Bridge

I love the visuals that Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions give, particularly his bridge (pictured above).  The bridge is built of multiple logs, each notched in such a way that it can rest on another, and by the power of compression, these logs do not move.  The result is a bridge that can be carried, built, used, and disassembled without a single nail or piece of rope.  I have a small model replica sitting in my office as a reminder of the importance of pieces as a whole. 

It’s important to build your bridge to each level carefully.  Find the training that provides you with the necessary skillset you need to thrive in your current needs level and will help you along your journey to the next.  Remember that your needs journey will always be in flux, and your motivation will change.  New roles bring new challenges, changes in economies will make life a little less certain, and feeling comfortable and unchallenged in a role will bring a desire for new challenges and new growth.  Your career is a journey, your development will be part of that journey.  Sit back, take a deep breath, and enjoy the scenery! 

“Skill development can assist with each method of motivation.”

 

  • Fix the tribal knowledge problem by documenting the job. 
  • Fix your disjointed processes by documenting set processes for everyone to follow.  
  • Unify your learning and knowledge platforms to reduce technical debt

Employers:  Facilitate your team’s Motivational Growth

To this point, I’ve only talked to those going through their journey.  Now, let’s talk about the job of the Employer.  As an employment entity, you have a goal to accomplish.  You might be trying to end world hunger or make it easier to take pictures of cats and post them to social media.  Whatever your end goal, you have hired folks to help you meet and maintain that goal.  As part of the employment contract, you provide an environment that best supports your employees, so they in turn can provide your company with their best work.  Together, you move the organization forward and meet your goal.  

Here’s the thing, particularly with start-ups:  the hiring trend is to try and find people who have done the job in a similar role and convince them to come over and do the same thing, structuring the department and team along the way.  If it’s a new role, new company, or new growth, this makes sense!  The new role and department need to be defined, and scaled, with roles, training, etc. all developed and documented as the department grows.  Here’s where it all breaks down:  because only people are hired who have done the job before, nothing gets documented, training isn’t developed, HR doesn’t know the necessary skills for which to hire, and everything becomes the wild West as folks from different companies and different process plans try to do their thing and make everyone else comply with their process.  Warring processes require a lot of substructure to make it work, and heavy technical debt, and only those folks can do the job because no one else will know what to do.  Tribal knowledge rules, and is lost as folks move on in their careers.  

Fix the Tribe: Write It Down!

I’m going to highlight this scenario by pulling from Ancient Athens.  For generations, they relied on a tribunal of judges that would “remember” the law and rule for or against citizens, and their rulings were final.  This period had no written law and no defined punishments.  It was left to the judges.  As I’m sure you could imagine, the common people were ready to revolt, feeling that the wealthy would be favored due to connections and gifts, while the same rulings were denied to everyone else.  It wasn’t until 621 BC when Draco was commissioned by the leaders of Athens to create their legal system that laws were finally written in stone, literally!  Laws and punishments were all clearly written for all to see, with the associated punishment.  We know these as Draconian Laws, because Draco made them, and they are considered harsh as death was the result of just about every infraction.  The people loved it because the laws were applied equally to everyone.  

Take this to your organization:  It’s difficult to feel safe and motivated if there’s no right way to do things and you are judging performance with subjective measures.  You can’t say, “Be more like Wilson” because Wilson doesn’t share, or have time to share, his processes.  Mentorships are great, but only work when the mentor is willing and able to share their knowledge.  This is why documentation of processes is so important in every organization as soon as possible.  

Unify your Knowledge:  Make Learning Accessible! 

As your teams grow and develop, new processes will be necessary.  To simplify your life, the lives of your team, and the technical debt the IT team needs to manage, unify your knowledge platforms.  So many companies will have more than 3 LMS platforms that are specific to teams, with their own licensing and configuration demands.  Additionally, the teams will have an equal number of Knowledge platforms to share information, all of which have their own licensing and configuration demands.  The result is a strange, Frankenstein-esque technical infrastructure that is so difficult that roles alone cannot maintain the complexity.  

Simplify.  Use one LMS platform, ideally with an integrated Knowledge platform that combines written and engaging training.  Don’t listen to the “need for specialist platforms” because knowledge is knowledge, skills are skills, and an LMS is an LMS, regardless of the bells and whistles they sport to cater to a particular demographic.  If you can’t use the LMS for onboarding, sales, employee development, and customer training, find another LMS.  

Have Questions?

Not sure where to go next?  Why not contact us and find out!  

Still wary and want to see what we are about?  Check out our free training courses or follow The Training Guy on YouTube!  

Jeremy Robb

Jeremy Robb

CLO and Consultant

 

Pilgrims and Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving.

Why Is Gratitude So Important?

From Pilgrims to Union soldiers, Thanksgiving is a day when we all can be united in showing gratitude.  

It’s time for Thanksgiving in the United States, a time when we as a nation take stock and express our gratitude for what we have.  We look into our lives, values, freedoms, relationships, goals, and situations to identify the positive.   In a world of criticism, cancel-culture, anger, distrust, and polarizing politics, we as a nation can sit together at a massive table, carve a turkey, dish out some stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied yams (sweet potatoes), and massive slices of pie and be thankful for what we have.  

The origins shared in American schools about the pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, and salvation from kind Native Americans make a great story (particularly if you have ancestors from the Mayflower), but national days of Thanksgiving were announced regularly before it was formally established by President Abraham Lincoln after the battle of Gettysburg.  The key value of each declaration was the same:  be grateful for what we have.  Unique to every other holiday, this day is dedicated to the idea that we all have something for which to be grateful.  

Co-workers expressing gratitude at work.

Gratitude Builds Positive Relationships

The highest valued connections we have as a society are our social relationships.  It’s through our social relationships that work gets done, businesses are built, cities are run, countries thrive, and the global economy hums.  Positive social relationships increase overall health and well-being, decreasing deaths from smoking, alcohol consumption, and obesity.  The reliable method of building and fostering positive social relationships is expressing gratitude. 

Sharing your gratitude for someone expresses the value you see they bring to your life.  Think about that for a minute.  You can express to someone the value you see in them.  Just how amazing is that!  In a world where we are so divisive and willing to see the worst in people when you choose to see the best in someone, it can change their life.  It’s a pity that people often undervalue the impact of expressing gratitude.  

What’s just as amazing is the personal impact of sharing gratitude with others.  Those who express gratitude are generally more happy, have an overall increased sense of well-being, and have an increased sense of life satisfaction.  Simply by sharing their gratitude, either verbally or written, one can change perspectives for a more positive outlook.  

I was amazed by the amount of research done on this subject and the impact gratitude can have on both the giver and the receiver.  It seems to be the most powerful method of building each other up.  It’s a small wonder that many companies attempt to build a culture of gratitude to create a better overall company culture.  It’s an easy, cost-effective, powerful cultural practice that can have a real impact if done sincerely.  It satisfies a person’s Social and Recognition needs, building a strong push toward motivating through Passion.  

 

“The reliable method of building and fostering positive social relationships is expressing gratitude.”

 

 

Journaling gratitude

Personal Challenge:  Express Your Gratitude to Someone

We are coming into the Holidays which encompasses the majority of December.  I challenge every one of you to express your gratitude to someone and then write down something for which you are grateful every day.  Keep a journal of your gratitude, and measure the change in your outlook throughout the month.  

Share your gratitude with others, and then journal your personal gratitude to make a change.

Culture of Kindness

  • Define your Values
  • Give Earned Credit
  • Address Conflicts Constructively
  • Focus on Lessons Learned, Not Blame
  • Measure Individual Success
  • Show Gratitude

Leonardo da Vinci's Self-supporting bridge diagram.

What Socially Motivates You?

Being Kind:  Why Kindness Matters

I see this same theme showing up every weekend in my feed on LinkedIn:  Be Kind.  I don’t know if it’s a reminder being sent out to teams after an awesome week, or a cry for help, but it’s always there.  During the week the feed changes to various exciting things happening in the world of business, before shifting back to the same theme:  be kind.  

Why?  Why is it important to even think about kindness?  It’s an interesting question, and as we talk about social motivators it’s the first one I want to bring up.   More than any other individual social condition, a culture built around kindness can increase your teams’ productivity and create a sense of belonging that will translate into more productive, successful teams (Vo, 2022).  I know that’s quite a claim to make, so let’s go over it.  

Social Motivators and Research

In 2022, Vo and team conducted a massive data research project to explore the effects of social conditions meeting individual needs as it relates to work motivation.  There were four motivating conditions that were explored:

  • Religious Affiliation
  • Political Participation
  • Humane Orientation through Kindness and Altruism
  • In-Group Collectivism as expressed by pride and loyalty for the organization

The research then focused on six key hypotheses tested as it relates to work motivation: 

  1. Competence:  How one’s mastery at the tasks at hand impact their motivation to do the job. 
  2. Autonomy:  The ability to do their job, make their own decisions, and take accountability for their own actions. 
  3. Social Relatedness:  Feeling secure with their teammates through social connections.  
  4. Motivating Conditions Impact Competence:  The impact of each of the four motivating conditions are expected to enhance one’s motivation at each level of competence.  
  5. Motivating Conditions Impact Autonomy:  The impact of each of the four motivating conditions are expected to positively effect one’s motivation at each level of autonomy.
  6. Motivating Conditions Impact Social Relatedness:  The impact of each of the four motivating conditions are expected to enhance social connection motivation.  

So there’s a lot to unpack here, and if you want the full details of the research project, check the link below.  The primary goal is to explore the impacts of Competence, Autonomy, and Social Relatedness on work motivation.  Each are powerful influencers, and should not be ignored.  I’ll dig into each in future articles.  What’s really impressive, though, is the follow-up:  How social conditions can mitigate or enhance the impact of competence, autonomy, and social relatedness.  

The Competence Exception and Motivation

It seems pretty intuitive that someone more comfortable with a job will feel more motivated to complete the job, and to a certain extent that is true.  What was interesting is that the more competent someone was at a role, the less motivated they were to complete the role (Vo, 2022, p.9).  There wasn’t a conclusion as to this result, though it’s hypothesized that, once a task become routine, there is less desire to do the tasks.  Challenges appear to directly impact motivation.  What’s really interesting is that both Autonomy and Social Relatedness behaved as expected:  The more of each one has, the more motivated the team gets. 

The Impact of Kindness 

As researchers reviewed the differing impacts of motivating conditions on competence, autonomy, and social relatedness.  The results were very interesting: 

  • Competence  
    • Positive Impact Observed
      • A strong culture of  Kindness had a positive impact, statistically increasing motivation for those at every level of competence, even as motivation dropped with higher competence.  
      • High Company Loyalty also increased motivation significantly, though it still dropped significantly with higher competence.  
    • Interesting Insight:  Religious affiliation had a very interesting impact on motivation with competence, effectively evening out the difference between high and low competence on motivation.  
  • Autonomy
    • Positive Impact Observed
      • Higher political participation had a slightly higher positive impact with increased autonomy, though only when high levels of autonomy was granted.  
      • A strong culture of Kindness very significant increase in motivation for those with autonomy, even when low levels of autonomy were observed. 
  • Social Relatedness
    • Positive Impact Observed
      • A strong culture of Kindness was the only statistically significant motivational factor that increased motivation with regards to social relatedness, and it was significant.  I found this particularly enlightening, and once pointed out I could see how this same concept could be rubber-stamped across all social environments.  

As outlined above, kindness was the one social motivator that could impact an individual’s work motivation, regardless of one’s level of competence, how much autonomy they have been given, and how much one relates to their team.  

Building a Culture of Kindness

We know that Kindness makes a huge impact on a team’s motivation, but how do you build a culture of kindness?  Here are some key steps you can use to shift your company culture, regardless of who you are in the company.  

  • Define Your Values:  Company values are great, and every company has a list of values they like to highlight.  These should be communicated, reiterated, and focus on the importance of kindness and compassion while working with one another, and then act on them.  Writing your values is a great step, but you, as leadership, employees, and as teams, need to live them.  
  • Give Earned Credit:  Recognize those who have great ideas, and give credit to those who deserve it.  This means recognizing a great idea from the janitor if they are overheard and the idea is used, not the guy who implemented it.  Be willing to recognize those who make a difference, and don’t take credit for someone else’s work.  This seems obvious, but it’s amazing to see how often this is not done.  
  • Address Conflicts Constructively:  Conflict is going to happen, and believe it or not, it’s healthy if approached constructively.  Everyone should have a chance to have a say, every perspective should be listened to with the desire to understand (not respond), and then move forward with the understanding that all concerns where heard, understood, and considered.  
  • Focus On Lessons Learned, Not Blame:  It’s human nature to find someone or something to blame, and feel like a bad situation was completely out of your control.  The honest truth:  you can always do something to mitigate all risk, even if you didn’t know you could at the time.  That’s part of learning, growing, and becoming better.  When you run into issues, focus on the lessons you are learning and how to avoid the problem in future, rather than who is to blame.  When folks feel like they are allowed to make honest mistakes, they will be more willing to put all their effort into making something happen.  And you will earn their trust. 
  • Measure Individual Success:  Not everyone is going to be at the same level, and often it can feel like they continue to struggle while others who have more seniority get all the recognition.  As a leader, meet people where they are and recognize their individual growth.  
  • Show Gratitude:  As a teammate, show appreciation for the contributions of your peers, however small it might be at the time.  Gratitude can go a long way in building social bonds.  

Research has shown that a culture of kindness, above all else, can have a more of an impact than any other factor in your organization.  By building a culture where everyone is kind and compassionate, you will increase your teams motivation at a social level, engaging them as a team to complete tasks and accomplish more than you could at any other cultural level.  Treat people with respect, listen to understand, and show gratitude at all levels, and you will have a truly great place to work.  

 

For more information on the research, check out the referenced link below. 

Vo, Thuy Thi Diem, Kristine Velasquez Tuliao, and Chung-Wen Chen. “Work motivation: The roles of individual needs and social conditions.” Behavioral Sciences 12.2 (2022): 49.

 

 

2.6x More Productive

Employees who trust their leaders are 2.6 times more productive on tasks, bringing more value to the team!

41% Lower Absenteeism

Employees who trust their leaders are more likely to show up, be engaged, and stay engaged.  

50% Less Likely to shop for another job

Employees who trust their leadership are more likely to stay where they are and grow in their roles, rather than shop around for other positions or companies. 

Safety Motivation: 

Does your Team trust You?

Why You Need To Build Trust

We have all been there at one point or another in our careers.  A leader comes into a new position, starts making changes, and the layoffs start.  I’ve seen this happen to other teams, and to my own team.  The results are painful to watch.  The remaining team members just keep their heads down, doing what they are told.  Feedback isn’t taken, feedback isn’t wanted, and no one wants to give the new boss a reason to let them go before they are ready.  Resumes are flying, and soon the team starts to lose members all over the place. 

In the case of really good, quality organizations, leaders that cause this type of disruption for the sake of disruption are let go (I’ve seen this happen twice).  For those organizations that are not quality, they let their best people go, hire new people, and start a cycle of high turnover.  It’s not pretty, and it could all be avoided if leadership took the time to build trust.  

Trust Makes Good Teams

Trusting employees are 260% more motivated to work, have 41% lower rates of absenteeism, and are 50% less likely to look for another job (Reichheld & Dunlop, 2023).  Teams that are able to trust their leadership build better relationships, and are free to create a social structure that is strong, inclusive, and supportive of each other.  Trust satisfies the Safety need in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and is itself a foundational need only superseded by the need for survival.  Without it, all other motivational methods are rendered useless.

Distrust Is More Rampant Than You Think

The numbers are grim: roughly 1 in 4 workers don’t trust their employer. At the same time, most employers overestimate their workforce’s trust level by almost 40% (Reichheld & Dunlop, 2023).  That’s right; in most organizations a full quarter of your workforce doesn’t trust you as leadership.  What’s more, you likely overestimate the amount of trust you have because, as an untrusting body, your employees are not going to tell you they don’t trust you for fear of retribution.  

Build Your Trust Now

It’s often been said, you build trust in drops, lose trust in buckets.  If you have a team that doesn’t trust you or your leadership, you have a long row to hoe.  You can either say a lot of words and hope they will believe you (spoiler alert:  they won’t), or you can get to work.  Here’s how you build trust. 

  • Be Empathetic: Know your team and listen to understand.  Your team is going to say things, even if they don’t trust you.  They will tell you there are problems, even if you don’t want to hear them.  Actively listen and try to understand the problem.  Don’t dismiss concerns, listen.  Don’t try to fix anything, listen.  Don’t try to second-guess their problem and come with a solution, LISTEN.  Once you fully understand the concern, circle back around with the team and discuss solutions AND GET THEIR INPUT.  
  • Be Compassionate:  Actively advocate for your team and alleviate their challenges.  Trust that people are basically good, and when given the chance will do all they can to be the best at what they do.  Work to remove obstacles, work round them, or build solutions with the team to make things better.
  • Be Honest:  Transparency and honesty are respected, even if the team doesn’t hear what they want to hear.  There will be bad times.  There may be some folks that will need to leave because of performance issues or attitude issues.  There may be lay-offs that are necessary because projects vary, come to an end, or economics mean demand has gone down.  Show that you understand their concerns, be straight-up honest about why people are being let go (when legally possible), and explain how a decision was trickled down to them.  
  • Be Honorable:  If you say you are going do to something, do it.  If you tell people that there will be no lay-offs, keep your word.  If you promise training and career development options, don’t exclude anyone.  The minute you break your word, you are no longer trustworthy.  

“A full quarter of your employees doesn’t trust you as leadership.”

  • Be Empathetic: Know your team and listen to understand
  • Be Compassionate:  Actively advocate for your team and alleviate their challenges
  • Be Honest:  Transparency and honesty are respected
  • Be Honorable:  If you say you are going do to something, do it

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Everyone is talking about AI, though they generally mean Generative AI.  While GenAI will likely have a huge impact on Learning and Development, I’d like to explore the impacts of Analytical, or Behavioral, AI.  Behavioral AI is the sleeping giant of Narrow AI applications, and will likely have a larger impact on our lives and business than Generative AI.  But how will it impact training?