Fix These 4 Learning Design Mistakes

Today’s Thoughts ☠️

Hey there 👋,

It’s October, how did that happen?

People are buying Christmas presents. Madness. It’s just as mad as the 4 biggest learning design mistakes we all fall prey to.

These are the things which take our beloved experiences and products to the L&D graveyard.

Let’s change that.

Get your tea 🍵 or beverage of choice ready. We've got lots to discuss!

In today’s chat 👇

• Navigating common design mistakes

• The state of industry skills

• Level up your skills at the STT Dojo

The Big Thought
Avoid These 4 Learning Design Mistakes

This will sound harsh, but it’s true.

The best learning experience doesn’t always win.

It stings. I’ve felt that sting many times before. I’m sure you have too. So how do we solve it?

Many factors come into play for success. There are factors beyond your control and others you did not foresee.

4 mistakes that derail your L&D work

→ Building in silo

Don’t spend 6 months in your monk temple building something that people no longer need. Or at the very least, can’t remember why they needed it in the first place.

Too many good and great L&D/HR projects have died behind closed doors.

You need to collaborate. We’re human after all.

🧰 The Fix: Run your work as a project. That means updates, visible Kanban boards, stakeholder progress meets etc. Bring structure.

→ Drop and hide

The old build a product and tell no one about it.

This is a classic L&D pitfall. Launch the best thing since sliced bread but tell no one about it. Only to bemoan why no one is using it.

Madness.

Which can easily be avoided.

🧰 The Fix: Level up your marketing know-how.

Explore how to position your product for success with a structured pre, during and post-engagement plan. It will change your life.

→ Spray and pray

This one always makes me chuckle.

You build an experience because a senior leader says a team desperately needs this. You don’t talk to the end users because you take the leader’s words as truth.

You then build an experience based on this only to discover at launch, the end users have no idea why they need this.

This is what I call a spray and pray tactic.

You build something based on an assumption and hope it works. Only to be left with your time wasted and your experience in the graveyard.

🧰 The Fix: Performance consulting is the way friend.

Two things I want to share with you to help with this 👇

1. The performance consulting cheatsheet for L&D pros (8 questions you need to ask)

2. How to ask better stakeholder questions for solution design

→ Not solving a real problem

Ever built a solution and wondered WTF is this actually solving? Me too.

In this age of my career, the first question I ask without fail is “What are we solving for?”. It’s amazing how those five little words can change a conversation.

It causes the recipient to think deeply about whether they are seeking:

1. A training solution aka an engagement event to make people feel good and tick a box. No performance improvement objective here

2. A performance solution focused on enabling a skill and/or behaviour change that improves the team, business and individual.

70% of the time, I find it’s number 1.

Nothing wrong with that. Just be clear with your stakeholders on the outcome being sought.

🧰 The Fix: I’ve pretty much given you the answer already. Ask why and get super clear on it. Everything else means nothing without this.

L&D is no longer about design alone.

You might find these tweaks are the difference between a win and a loss.

Deep Thought
Lepaya’s The State of Industry Skills: 3️⃣ Key Takeaways

Here’s a breakdown of Lepaya’s industry skills research. You can download your copy here. These are my personal takeaways.

1️⃣ Everybody needs digital tech skills

It’s a digital world, friends.

We’re all power users of digital technologies. The report echoes what has become my somewhat broken record mantra - tech and talent should be connected.

It’s not enough to provide baseline upskilling on new technologies.

People need to know how any tool supports their work. How will new tech reshape their tasks and skills? This is the missing piece.

2️⃣ The finance industry loves upskilling

It seems the world of finance has been made sexy with the dawn of the acronym FinTech.

Although considered to be a rather dull but important industry. Your fellow money experts are partaking in some pretty intense upskilling opportunities. No surprise, considering the pace of financial tech these days,

But it’s not traditional finance skills getting all the attention.

The report highlights that some of the biggest cross-industry skills are being highly supported. These include skills such as social influence, environment stewardship (never heard that one before) and data literacy,

Perhaps some insights for us all to learn from.

If you’re in FinTech and have an interesting upskilling story to tell. Let’s chat ←

3️⃣ Consultants need niche technical skills

The cut-throat world of consultancy is not a walk in the park at the best of times.

Add a lack of niche technical skills and slow to adopt essential human skills, and you have a recipe for chaos.

The bottom line here feels pretty simple.

The right skills are getting harder to source. So, what’s the solution??

Better upskilling and reskilling initiative, of course. I know you knew that already but just in case.

Courses
Learn at the Dojo 🥋

The Dojo is open and welcoming students.

1️⃣ This week I launched the Free AI Prompt Writing For Business 1-Hour Accelerator.

Built for beginners to dip their toes into the world of generative AI. You’ll be able to:

→ Confidently talk about prompting with AI

→ Craft high-quality prompts to save time with work tasks

→ Leverage new technology to improve your skills and career

Try it out ←

2️⃣ Get 3 Lessons From The ChatGPT Crash Course For Free

This course is all about helping you apply ChatGPT to the daily tasks you do as an L&D or HR operator.

If you want real industry use cases with step-by-step tutorials. This one is for you, friend.

LinkedIn

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

1️⃣ Avoid this career mistake.

2️⃣ Why global reskilling efforts are failing.

3️⃣ How could generative AI impact the corporate L&D world

Smart Thoughts

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

🤔  How to wisely apply Generative AI in your job

Tactical steps to assess what tools can help the tasks you undertake every day. You always want the right tool for the job.

💡 Starting over again at 45

Although I’m not that familiar with the people on this podcast, I liked the story in it.

Rich Roll went from crippling debt with limited options at pre-45 to a successful business operator by 55. His method? Make a plan, invest in the right skills and go all in.

🔥  Stop reacting, focus on the big things

I suffer from reacting to stuff a lot at times. It’s something I’m always working on.

A curse of an over-active mind is trying to stop it from jumping from one thing to the next. Practising disciplined task execution has helped me, personally

This 30-second clip from author Tim Ferriss resonated with this thought. Perhaps it will connect with you too.

How I can help you👇

1/ My L&D toolkit stack with 20 zero-cost tools.

2/ Work smarter with AI in HR and L&D in my ChatGPT Crash Course.

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

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