👀 How to leverage data in learning design

Today’s Thoughts ☠️

Hey there 👋,

I nearly didn’t make it this week.

A great evil fell upon me these past few days - my Wi-Fi and mobile network were stolen!

I know. It is enough to put fear into any modern-day human’s heart. It was touch and go for a minute, I must say. I nearly went outside and spoke to another living creature. Thankfully, it came back before that madness happened.

So, here we are. This week, I thought we’d talk about the power of using data to design better outcomes not only in L&D but in many domains of life.

In today’s chat:

🙌 Using data to improve outcomes

👀 3 key takeaways from Mind Tools 20 years of L&D research

💪 Even Meta’s Threads can’t retain users

Also, not forgetting the usual dose of weird, wonderful and what I hope is helpful content from the rest of planet Earth in my Smart Thoughts roundup.

The Big Thought

How Data-Informed L&D Design Unlocks Better Solution Design

Leveraging a data-informed approach has more benefits than just in your work.

As L&D pros, we constantly hear the drum beat of “We need to get better with data”.

That’s cool. But no one ever explains why we need to do it (you might say it’s obvious, but stick with me here). Let’s take a shared experience many of us can understand: Taking your driving license test.

There’s a lot of room for error and anxiety in this event.

Yet, with a data-informed strategy we can mitigate some of this to set you up for success. It’s not always about your skills as a driver. Ever had a friend or family member who is terrible at driving and they still passed? You’ll know what I mean.

The outcome of success is determined by these factors:

• Your skills

• Your instructor

• The car you take your test in

• The day you take your test

• The time of day you take your test

• Your test location

• Your driving examiner

You can’t do anything about the last point, it’s the luck of the draw. However, you can influence the rest with the help of data.

As a UK citizen (I’m sure this is similar globally) I can visit any driving instruction provider to unpack reviews of their instructors and understand the vehicles they use.

Through this data, I can select an instructor that most fits my style and a vehicle which deals with my body size (I’m tall so no small cars for me with my knees in my mouth!).

Many of these websites also contain data on your local areas’ pass rates and what affected those outcomes. Here’s an example from RED driving school near me:

This data enables me to discover the places where most people pass.

This is useful information for test day. On top of this, I can visit the website of my government driving office to access nationwide statistics on pass rates filtered by location, dates and times.

This breakdown of recent UK data, of the city of Edinburgh from Collingwood Insurance, informs me that should I take my test here, I would do well to aim for a Wednesday or Friday exam.

So, with a little bit of research and gathering data points, I’ve been able to:

1. Select the best instructor and vehicle for me.

2. Find out the best day to take my test.

3. Find the locations near me with the highest pass rates.

This package enables you to create a good environment for you to succeed. It’s not a guarantee, yet not using data would leave you in a much worse position.

How this connects with data in L&D

The car bit doesn’t, obviously.

Hopefully, you can see what I’m getting at. In this example, taking a data-informed approach to building a positive driving exam experience enables you to stack the deck in your favour. This is no different in your work as an L&D pro.

If you want a successful experience, piece of content or product, you would be wise to take a data-informed approach to your solution design.

I hope that helps.

Deep Thought

MindTools: Reflection on 20 years of L&D research

Here’s a quick breakdown of Mind Tools 20th anniversary edition of L&D research. You can download your copy here. These are my personal takeaways.

1️⃣ Maximising digital technology platforms

Let’s be real, our industry has been super slow to adapt and adopt the latest wave of technology innovations.

Forget about AI, most teams struggle to wrangle with their centralised content platforms which makes us look like the last to the party. Now we have clear-cut data to show just how slower the profession is in this field.

We must be intentional with technology. You don’t get something just because everyone else has something. It’s about the right tool for the job.

This familiar-looking guy (below) has some interesting things to say in the report. I’m digging his hairstyle too!

See page: 19

2️⃣ Continous learning cultures

I’m not a fan of the word “learning culture” personally.

Especially since many try to make out L&D teams have some mystical control over whether it exists or not. Newsflash: we don’t!

What we see in the data is mature learning organisations are those that have embedded learning in their culture.

Key takeaway: L&D professionals should strive to foster an environment where learning is seen as a continuous process, not a one-off event.

Learning is most certainly an everyday behaviour.

See pages: 9 - 11

3️⃣ Positioning the value of L&D

Ah, the old L&D value conundrum.

You spend all this money but what does the organisation get in return? 🤷 Business leaders, particularly CFOs, are getting smarter when it comes to the ROI of L&D. They know it’s important, but often the money is not well spent.

This is echoed in MT’s findings with organisations looking for more robust evaluation strategies for L&D programmes and products.

Doing simple things like aligning your L&D strategy with business goals and learning how to present results in a way that leaders will care about can take you far.

See page: 10

LinkedIn

I post so much on LI, even I lose track of all the stuff. Here’s a quick roundup of drops to keep me and you in the loop:

1️⃣ How to navigate the attention game

2️⃣ Another ChatGPT prompt for L&D you should steal

3️⃣ The State of AI in L&D report breakdown

4️⃣ The science behind prompting ChatGPT

5️⃣ Why the future of learning is human

Smart Thoughts

Content that has caught my attention and might interest you too.

🤔  Return to office mandates are breaking us

I escaped the office earlier this year when I embarked on the self-employed journey, but I still keep a close eye on how working environments are enabling learning.

It seems we get conflicting reports every other day on remote and flexible working. This article from Fortune is focused on U.S data specifically. I’m pretty sure it tells a similar story to fellow global regions.

I’m always curious about how where we work affects our learning opportunities. Let me know what you think of this one.

💡 6 Bizzare productivity tips

I’m a big fan of Zapier’s newsletter.

It’s one of the rare ones I read and often save for later. This one with uncommon productivity tips caught my eye when endlessly scrolling my emails. Despite all the things I do with the STT media company, I would describe my own productivity at times as chaotic and not controlled.

I hope these serve you well too.

🔥  Meta’s Threads engagement plummets 82%

You might be wondering why I’m sharing this.

A few weeks back, everyone went crazy over Threads. Meta was very happy telling the world that nearly 100 million people signed up in its first week. That’s great.

What they aren’t as open to talk about is the retention nosedive they’re fighting all these weeks later. 

I see a lot of synergy with L&D products here. Everyone is super excited about the launch of anything. They tell leaders how many people ‘engaged’ in the first week with vanity metrics, only to discover a few weeks later that no one is using their product. Thus becoming what I call a ‘6-week wonder’.

It’s easy to get people excited. It’s hard to make them stay.

If you have no plan for long-term user value, embedding your product and the retention efforts needed to sustain this. You’re throwing money down the drain.

If you're curious, here's three ways I can help you 👇

1/ My L&D toolkit stack with 20 free tools.

2/ Join my ChatGPT Crash Course for L&D Pros to improve your generative AI skills

3/ Work with me on your projects and L&D challenges.

Please do share your thoughts with me on these pieces or anything I share on LinkedIn or hit 'reply'. Chat to you soon.