Let’s say you’ve identified a problem that your workforce is facing and you’re trying to solve it. And let’s say that you think training for your employees could be part of that solution. Do you immediately start building training materials and sending out Zoom invitations for training calls? You could do that and it’s possible that you’ll have some success. But it’s more likely that, without proper planning, you’re going to waste a lot of people’s time and not solve their problem. So what should you do instead?

Determine the goal

Before a single quiz question is written, we first have to find out what we want to achieve. The more specific the better. If the problem is that most employees aren’t using CRM, the goal could be to increase the number of employees using CRM daily. Specifically defining our goals will guide the design process and allow us to evaluate the success of the learning program after it’s implemented. It might come as a surprise that we’re planning our evaluation techniques this early on but this is a great time to gather data on what our prospective learners are currently doing so that we can measure the effectiveness of our learning solution against the current behavior.

Analyze the need

Now that we have our goals, we can start to think about designing the solution. And sometimes the solution isn’t training. It pains me to say it but you don’t always need an instructional designer. Continuing the CRM example, if no one uses it because it crashes constantly, no amount of teaching will change that underlying problem. But maybe they’re not using CRM because the interface is confusing or maybe because they don’t know which situations call for it. The nature of the problem will determine the approach to solving it. By the end of this step, we should know what is standing between the individual and the desired outcome. If a knowledge gap is part of the problem, we can start to design an instructional solution.

Determine the learner

So we know what problem we want to solve and we know what information our learners need in order to resolve that problem. Next, we need to find out what our learner already knows. Do they already know how to use some of the functions in CRM but not all of them or do they not know where to find it in the first place? Ideally, the new learning experience would pick up right where the learner’s existing knowledge ends. Too much overlap and the learner might feel bored, disengaged, or frustrated that their time is being wasted. Leave a gap and they might not be able to learn the new concepts.

Design the learning experience

We know that our learners are at point A and we know that we want them to get to point B. Now we start designing the roadmap. This is where we identify all the little steps between point A and point B that they need to know and we come up with the types of instruction that we’re going to implement. The nature of the knowledge gap will determine if the instruction will be in the form of an e-learning module or written reference materials or one-on-one coaching etc. And often, we’ll need to use a combination of lots of different training approaches. But this step is also where we’ll find out which form of instruction is not applicable for our purposes and avoid wasting time and resources on development. This step is an iterative one. We’re going to sketch out a lot of ideas and get input from a lot of sources before moving on to development.

Develop training materials

Now we have our game plan and it’s time to start building. This is where the science of learning meets the art of teaching. Good training materials should keep the learner’s attention, ground the material in the learner’s experience, and focus on one key concept at a time. The tone should be conversational and easy to follow and the trainer should always be aware of their language and if they’re using any terms that could have lost someone. This part takes patience, empathy, and creativity. Check out my featured project at the top of this page to see an e-learning module dedicated to this topic.

Implement the training and gather feedback

Now it’s time to implement the training. Training resources should be easy to access and learning expectations should be clearly communicated. It is also very important to provide channels for feedback at this time. We’re going to know if the training was effective by looking for the desired change in behavior but we’re walking away from a lot of valuable data if we don’t make it easy for the learner to provide feedback. Without gathering qualitative feedback, we could be hunting around in the dark for a way to improve the learning experience while the learner already knows what they found confusing or missing from the training. If we’re not thinking of the learners as stakeholders and SME’s, then we’re not going to provide the best learning experience that we can.

Revise the learning experience

We have our invaluable feedback and now we can use it to improve our learning experience. Instructional materials are living documents. Not only will we continue to improve the materials as we respond to feedback, but as processes change, the education around those processes will have to keep up. Outdated instructional materials can cause confusion and frustration among your employees and can even impact your customers if your employees are following outdated instructions. In order to avoid that, learning design needs to coordinate with operations so that they can move in sync.