What is a learning ecosystem?
The word “ecosystem” has been bandied about a lot in the L&D world lately. Is it just another buzzword to add to your arsenal? Or is it the meaningful solution we’ve all been looking for? We think it is.
What’s happening in L&D right now?
Through extensive conversations with our customers, we have found that traditional approaches to L&D solutions are not delivering relevant and relevant results for their teams. Whether it’s an organization’s technology, learning culture, or approach to learning integration in general, change is needed. Technology and creativity in L&D have advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few years, and therefore solutions to organizational problems need to evolve to reflect this.
This shift to an ecosystem “approach” can significantly change and enhance an organization’s learning capabilities and outcomes – and make results better measurable.
National Geographic says, “An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, other organisms, and weather and topography work together to form a bubble of life.”
The “geographical area” we’re discussing here is a metaphorical L&D culture, but it’s clear that this attitude can produce effective solutions. An ecosystem is not just training materials and fancy dashboards, but a fully integrated and unified solution to L&D.
So what exactly is a learning ecosystem?
This all sounds very cool and impressive, but what does it actually mean for you and your colleagues?
By building a learning ecosystem with us, you create a system that incorporates people, content, technology, strategy and culture that impacts the learning that happens every day within your organization – and ultimately, the learning that impacts your customers.
By focusing on a central hub, the big picture, and the “single learning entity,” you can better achieve your goals, improve for the future, and compare and contrast data.
A centre of excellence for L&D
we, Central Hub It unifies learning, engagement and performance across your business. This central hub enables you to deliver better, more effective learning experiences that are simple, insightful and results-driven.
The limitations of traditional learning technologies
There’s probably an “if it’s not broken” conversation going on here – if your organization is already checking all the training boxes and achieving great learning outcomes, why consider an ecosystem approach?
We believe you can do better and achieve more. Our ecosystem approach gives you the opportunity to transform your organization in a more productive and sustainable way.
5 Limitations of Traditional Learning Technology
- Lack of flexibility means sticking with a centralized, out-of-the-box approach to training.
- A sole focus on “outcomes” prevents us from considering more nuanced factors such as learning culture.
- If you don’t consider the bigger picture, you may inadvertently ignore certain parts of your strategy.
- The future of eLearning is personalization and responsiveness to the learner’s context, including their learning style and preferred environment. This needs to be at the forefront of any learning experience strategy.
- Traditional learning content focuses on formal assessment and grading, however, leveraging techniques such as microlearning and gamification has proven effective in delivering better results and increased learner engagement.
Where do you start?
This is essentially about improving your holistic approach to L&D and building a system that is resilient and robust enough to deal with change and inevitable challenges.
Understanding your learning maturity level can help you understand where your organization is today and where you can start to improve. Then you can start to think thoughtfully about building your own thriving learning ecosystem.
Ecosystems are based on a network of relationships, not a single authority. With this in mind, you need to consider which stakeholders and internal influencers are essential to the big picture. It’s also important to listen to your learners and find out what they need. The best ecosystems are peer-led and pioneered by the staff who benefit from them. Some call this a kind of internal “learning community.” Furthermore, your approach to ecosystems needs to remain agile and flexible, and systems should be built with continuous innovation in mind.
However, this change won’t happen naturally and requires careful planning.
Want to get started today? We encourage you to consider these seven key elements:
- What areas of your L&D approach would benefit from consolidating (or integrating)?
- How can and should employee experience be improved?
- Can you support your staff anytime, anywhere, on any device?
- Are you prioritizing business goals over technology?
- Are you listening to your learners’ needs and wants?
- Have you considered the requirements of different learning styles in a hybrid world?
- Are you effectively using data to improve and adapt your training?
The concept of a “learning ecosystem” is a big one, and this article is simply an introduction to the approach. We believe that learning ecosystems are the way forward for innovative, ambitious L&D teams.
Kineo
Kineo helps the world’s leading companies improve performance through learning and technology. We combine quality learning with award-winning customer service and innovation. We tackle your learning and performance challenges and deliver results.
Originally Kineo.
