Change management for new learning programs

In one of our recent webinars the topic of change management was brought up. Currently learning and development is being disrupted and driven by changes in technology. Change management is a core component of learning and development. Learning and development programs should drive change and performance improvement at an organisational level and at an individual level for employees.

Change is complex. This blog post is about sharing some of the approaches we have seen work.

Changing learning programs can be difficult. A good example of this came from a story about a firefighting trainer. The training was changed from time based to competency based. The trainer found the people who had completed training in the time based system felt a distrust in the people who had completed their training in the competency based system. They believed that they had “done their time” and that the people under the new system were not competent because they had no time to represent completed training.

I am a fan of John Kotter’s 8 change step program which is a fantastic change management framework.

Many of the approaches in this blog post are based on Kotter's work.

Focus on why the change needs to happen

I believe the single most important factor to drive change is everyone needs to understand why and believe that the change needs to happen. If someone sees that the status quo is not working they will see the need for change.

Our brains are wired to develop new skills into automatic habits, for example riding a bike. Neuroplasticity has shown that the brain can change radically but it's easier to learn new skills and knowledge than replace what has become a habit.

Simon Sinekat work’s "Start with a why" has some great ideas about focusing on the ‘why’ to lead change.
A clear business need is key to creating a case for change. For example; An organisation we worked with were recruiting excellent and talented people and would start them working while waiting to conduct onboarding in batches.

Piloting new ways of approaches

Pilots of new programs and new approaches are a great opportunity to explore and trial new ways of working.

Pilot projects means organisations can learn fast and gives providers the opportunity to sell the new approach to the rest of the organisation.

The Regional Patent Examiners Training  program was a new blended learning approach for IP Australia. The learners were from across Asia and Africa. Based on the success of this external program IP Australia then used a similar approach to transform their internal patent examination training program. Seeing the new approaches being piloted in the Regional Patent Examiners Training gave everyone confidence that the new approaches would work.

Co-design the program with all the stakeholders

Co-design or codesign is a product, service, or organization development process where design professionals empower, encourage, and guide users to develop solutions for themselves. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-design)

Co-designing new approaches to programs lays the foundation for shifting the way organisations learn. It's a collaborative approach that allows organisations to make profound shifts. Co-design does require the learning and development people to have strong leadership and facilitation skills.

 

Some of the things we have seen work

Planning stage

How the planning stage of learning programs happen is critical to later success of the programs. Bringing a group along with the design process is important. The exact mixture of who should be part design process depends on the organisation.

One approach is:

1. There is a small core group that is part of all design workshops.
2. The 1st workshop is with senior managers and focuses on the business outcomes and how the overall design of program meets those needs
3. The 2nd and later workshops are with subject matter experts, recent learners and people that will be involved in the delivery of program. These sessions focus on the details of how the programs work.

Give the group some guidance

Normally most of the people in these groups are not learning and development experts. Giving them guidance is important. Normally towards the start of a co-design workshop we start off with a short presentation; some of the topics have been:

• trends in learning and elearning
• the Serious eLearning Manifesto
• the 70:20:10 workplace learning framework
• the 6Ds framework

Iterative development of the plan for the program
Often the outcome from the 1st stage of co-design process is a diagram or visual representation of how the program is going to work. Then we work on the details of the model.

At this stage it’s also useful to start to thinking about how the program will impact on other areas of the organisation. For example when redesigning an onboarding and induction program, how will this affect the recruitment process?

During the design and build of program

Most learning programs don't just happen overnight and this gap between the design and implementation phase is a critical time.

If it's a blended or elearning project some approaches that can help with managing the change are:

• During the design and build process one of the ways to involve more people in programs is having stakeholders involved in the review process. This is not always an easy process but gives people a sense of involvement and ownership.
• Don't forget show work in progress and start telling the story about how it will be different

Implementation

The implementation stage of a project is where the real changes happen. If it's a blended learning program, the facilitators will need support and often they will need training in online facilitation skills. We often mentor the key people involved in programs as well. In a recent project new recruits used to start in the training area and they go directly to their team. The implementation stage of the program includes a Community of Practice for the managers and coaches that are involved in the new delivery model.

Another common approach is the use of champions that help support others during the implementation stage.

I hope some of these ideas are useful. It would be great to hear how people have approached changing and transforming their learning programs.