Kathryn and Rebecca had already covered several of the questions. Those were hard discussions given all that was going on at AshCom.

Their previous conversation had been especially challenging because it focused on how to demonstrate the financial impact of learning at AshCom. Kathryn felt least prepared for that conversation. How, exactly, could someone in her position point precisely to the return on investment for the learning budget? With Rebecca as a guide, Kathryn developed a plan that would help her defend her learning budget and show that learning was essential for getting AshCom back on solid financial footing.

The topic of their next discussion was much closer to Kathryn’s comfort zone. Together they would try to answer the question: How are you keeping current or ahead of the curve in the learning industry? Rebecca knew Kathryn and knew she would be energized by the conversation.

“I assume you’re happy to move past the financial question,” said Rebecca.

‘You’re correct,” said Kathryn with a broad smile. “This is much more in my wheelhouse. But first I have a question about the question.”

“Fire away,” replied Rebecca.

“Are you asking,” inquired Kathryn, “how I am personally staying ahead of the curve in the learning industry, or are you asking how my team is doing?”

“I suppose I’m asking about both,” said Rebecca. “Despite all the financial challenges at AshCom right now, there’s something we haven’t discussed much yet that needs some attention. When you initially called me to come in and spend some time with you, you mentioned that your learning results were declining. Fewer people were seeking out learning or recommending learning to others. Scores on knowledge checks were declining, and learner ratings for courses were not where they used to be.”

“All of that’s true,” said Kathryn. “My learning team tracks these metrics and feels like they’re failing. The loss of three of our ten team members didn’t help morale either. My team feels overwhelmed by their workload and at the same time feels like they’re not doing enough to improve both learning experiences and our financial position in the company.”

“Do you think the team feels learning is declining because of the hiring freeze and layoffs you’ve seen in the last few months?” asked Rebecca.

“Of course,” responded Kathryn, “but they also think something else is going on. They wonder if their work is getting stale.”

“Let me ask you a question,” said Rebecca, “and I need complete honesty in your answer. Take a minute to think about it if you need to. If AshCom were not struggling financially, and the overall company culture was stronger, do you think your learning performance metrics would still be declining?”

Kathryn didn’t hesitate.  She didn’t need a moment to think about it. “Yes,” she replied. “We were seeing a slow decline even before the financial challenges. I would say the cash problem, the hiring freeze, and the layoffs sped up the decline, but I saw it happening before any of those things started.”

“Clearly you’ve been thinking about this for a while,” said Rebecca.

“I have been,” said Kathryn, “but in the middle of the mess we have right now, and with three people gone from the learning team, I didn’t think it was the right moment to bring it up. My team is already under stress, and piling on seemed like a bad idea.”

“I certainly don’t want to add to their anxiety,” said Rebecca, “or give them the sense that they’re part of the problem. Instead, I’d like to help you and your team think of this as an opportunity to retool what you’re doing.”

“You mean upskilling,” said Kathryn.

You’re saying our team makes a specialized product that helps other people, but we aren’t able to take advantage of that help ourselves.

“I do,” said Rebecca. “Think about it. People in learning talk a lot about upskilling learners as working from home becomes more common and technology continues to advance. But we don’t talk much about how to upskill the people building the learning experiences.”

“So it’s like the old Spanish proverb?” asked Kathryn.

“Can’t say I know what you mean,” said Rebecca, raising an eyebrow.

“Sure you do,” said Kathryn smiling. “There’s an old Spanish proverb, ‘En casa del herrero, azadón de palo,’ which roughly translates into the English saying, ‘The cobbler’s children always go barefoot.’ You’re saying our team makes a specialized product that helps other people, but we aren’t able to take advantage of that help ourselves.”

Rebecca chuckled. “First, nice pronunciation! I had no idea you knew Spanish. Second, you could have made that a lot easier if you’d just said ‘cobbler’s children.’ I would have gotten the reference immediately.”

“My head is full of odds and ends like that,” said Kathryn, “and I’m constantly looking for an opportunity to use them. So what you’re saying is that my team, who’s responsible for learning at AshCom, is not learning very well itself.”

“I think that’s what you’re saying, actually” replied Rebecca, “but that deficiency certainly isn’t unusual among people who work in L&D.”

“It seems like only a few years ago,” said Kathryn, “that we were on the cutting edge of learning. We were rolling out better learning experiences through games and microlearning and blended learning. Our learners had deep appreciation for the time and effort we were putting in because the experiences were engaging, gave them what they needed when they needed it, and made good use of new technology.”

“Let’s focus on what you just said and see if we can identify some causes,” replied Rebecca. “It could be that your team’s passion for learning is not where it should be, so they’re not putting in a full effort.”

Kathryn thought for several seconds and said, “I know the last months have been hard on my team, and people in tough situations often don’t do their best work. That’s understandable. But I don’t think my team members have lost their passion for learning.”

“That’s encouraging,” said Rebecca, “because that’s one of the most difficult problems to fix. Let’s assume they remain highly passionate about learning. Let’s talk about the tools available to them. Have you explored or introduced any new tools in the last year or two? Is it your sense that they’re making the most of the tools they have?”

“We haven’t introduced new tools lately,” replied Kathryn, “and I can tell you that we haven’t even spent much time looking for new authoring tools. As far as fully using the tools we have, I suspect my team might be in a bit of a rut. We’re doing what we’ve always done because we know how to do it and we’re efficient.”

“Efficient is good,” said Rebecca, “but efficiency can become the enemy of creativity. Sometimes we do what we know without realizing there might be a better way.”

“I get what you’re saying,” said Kathryn. “Repetition helps the people who are making the experiences go faster and produce more content, but it doesn’t do much for learners. If everything looks, sounds, and feels the same, we’ll undoubtedly lose people’s attention. Sometimes it seems like we’re in the entertainment business and all that anyone cares about is the next new thing. It feels like an ever-receding horizon that we never can meet.”

How do we keep learning science at our core while being creative and making innovative use of old and new technologies?

“We might not like it, but it’s our reality,” said Rebecca as she stood up and wrote “More Creative” on Kathryn’s whiteboard. 

“Let’s talk about tools,” continued Rebecca. “Technology is changing our industry. This has been true for decades, but the pace of technical change is coming at us faster all the time. Interactive video, 3D modeling, and animation have all gotten better and cheaper in the last several years. Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality are altering the way we build learning.”

“And suddenly,” said Kathryn, joining in the thought, “artificial intelligence has moved from something in a lab to something accessible to everyone on the planet. I think my team feels like they can hardly keep up. We just learn about one cool thing when another becomes the topic of the day.”

Rebecca walked back to the whiteboard and wrote, “Innovative Use of New Technology,” then she asked, “Do you ever worry that creativity and amazing new technology might cause people in the learning industry to forget our core principles?”

Rebecca chuckled. “All the time,” she said. “One of the people who left my team was a recent graduate student in learning technology. She had a solid handle on new tools. What I appreciated most about her was that she also had a deep understanding of learning science. No matter the technology, she always insisted we start with learning science and then consider how to use the tech to make a great experience.”

“That isn’t as common as it should be,” said Rebecca. “And now the person you and your team relied on for staying up on technological advances is no longer there.”

“That was one reason among many why I was so sorry to see her go,” said Kathryn. “The hiring freeze means I can’t replace her. And that means my team’s ability to make good use of new technology has declined significantly.” Kathryn trailed off, then suddenly sat up straight. Her eyes were bright, “Wow! I hadn’t connected all the dots until just now. I don’t know whether to thank you or be angry with you.”

“Of course I’m hoping you’ll thank me. The good news is this isn’t an unsolvable problem,” said Rebecca as she wrote “Solid Learning Science” on Kathryn’s whiteboard.