A Next-Generation LMS Is What Your Business Needs
As competition becomes more intense, and technology can lead to disruption faster than any time in history, businesses need to think about their ability to not only adapt to change but also their ability to communicate that change and take effective action.
I think Charles Darwin said it best when he said, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change".
But let's break this down, for example, with some practical question to see if you might go the way of the Dodo bird.
Firstly, if your competition launches a new product tomorrow, how do you communicate it out to your staff before your clients know? If your business is the target of a new email phishing attack, how do you keep those hundreds or thousands of emails safe? If you need to update a new practice in your business to keep competitive and on the front foot of competitors, how do you do it? What would you do if there's an unexpected legislative change that could have a massive impact on your business or industry?
So, How Did You Do?
Did you write down something that involved leveraging an existing LMS, or emails, or newsletters? Or, maybe, you book all your staff in for a dedicated training event and managing to coordinate dozens or hundreds of staff into a meeting room at the same time. The problem is that depending on your organization, the information has to flow through several channels for the content to be created and then back down to key people to distribute who need the information most. And then, once that's done, how do you even know they consumed and understood it?
This whole process is incredibly fragile and hinges on someone answering that one of 121 emails they receive each day or picking up a call during their already hectic business day. Unfortunately, this can push the best-laid plans out by days or even weeks. And in the world of instant communication, #hashtags, and AI, this isn't good enough anymore, and this is also where most businesses fail to adapt to change quick enough.
Have No Fear Though!
Most organizations already have the answer sitting in their business right now. Ultimately every business and the executive team needs to have an active focus on how to train and empower key people in your organization to start to drive change in micro ways and drive effective communication. Many leaders and managers know exactly what needs to be said but don’t have the proper tools in order to effectively enable communication in an accountable way where they can confidently report that the learning has taken place and objectives have been achieved.
So, instead of forcing the manager to email someone else to start the long-running chain of events that need to culminate together to solve the problem, how can you give them the tools to create and communicate the change themselves?
So, for a business that wants to be relevant for the future, this is where the next generation of software and LMS systems will need to be focused on. Businesses need to stop looking at technology that was developed in 2008 (when MSN Messenger was still a thing) in order to solve the problems of 2018. There should be direct functionality where you can empower these leaders to develop, distribute content, and have the ability to report on the completion in a way that isn’t shackled by traditional Learning and Development departments or existing long-process flows.
This will also free up your existing HR resources to focus on looking at the future, empowering managers and leaders to drive their own micro training agendas, and create an environment of accountability and responsiveness to business requirements.
You need to be giving your key managers and leaders the tools and training they need, get out of their way, and allow them to make it happen!
So, next time you need to look at getting information out to your staff in a quick, easy, and accountable way for reporting purposes, track how long the whole process takes. And, if it takes more than a few hours, then Darwin has some sage advice for you at the top of this page.
