Get on the RADAR! Gaining Buy-in for E/M-Learning

The challenge for many workplace learning professionals is their ability, or more the inability, to get their leadership to recognize the importance and relevance of significant learning initiatives. If you are frustrated not gaining the attention you believe your initiatives deserve you are not alone. Through this tip, you will get on, what I refer to, management’s RADAR.

First, you need to look to MINIMIZE the following:

RESISTANCE: This is based upon a sales philosophy I follow, “sell people what they want to buy; not what you want to sell.” The variation for learning is to, “provide what management and participants expect, not what you believe they need.” While you will conduct a through needs assessment, be sure to focus on what every level of stakeholder requires past only the skills. For example:

Senior management wants to see performance improvement in relation to their business objectives.
Business Unit managers want to see quick results and immediate application
Employees expect that they will receive skills that add some tangible value to their job.

APATHY: This is the biggest challenge for learning professionals is to convince those wanting the learning to actually buy-in to the learning. This is primarily our fault. Over years, workplace learning has not delivered tangible business results and is perceived as a waste of scarce time. Your biggest challenge is to demonstrate that M or E-learning initiatives are worth the investment and can deliver on expectations.

DISRUPTIONS: This is much more simple to prove with M and E-learning initiatives. Stakeholders at all levels recognize that the promise of delivering learning through mobile and electronic mediums will easily minimize work disruption and downtime.

Now you will need to MAXIMIZE the next two items.

APPLICATION: Again, through M and E-learning tools application is faster and simpler. But be sure not to falling into the trap of using PowerPoint or boring one-way webinars are the solution to M and E-learning deployments. True application means ensuring that users are able to apply what they’ve learned through some form of interactivity.

RESULTS: Finally, prove results. With the use of M and E-learning technologies it is simple to develop focused data analytics that can be easily reported back to your leadership and make your champions look good. Demonstrating the use of the applications is insufficient. Be sure to develop reports that illustrate metrics around actual skills application (level 3) tied to actual business metrics (level 4).

Tell me how you did with past initiatives by voting in this poll and/or providing your opinion.

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