What have you done lately to make someone’s life easier?
That’s a question you should be asking yourself every day. I like to constantly think of things I can do to make someone’s life easier. When thinking about learning experiences when training is needed, it’s important to train as efficiently as possible.
Even if you’re cutting down an hour and a half plus training session(s) down to less than 30 minutes, it might not be enough. It makes life a bit easier to save time, but is it possible to go even further? Is it necessary to force everyone to do training in the first place?
Maybe some people do need full training, but still forced training isn’t the answer to anything. Making training an option but available makes it easier for everyone. Not everyone will need or want to take training, so don’t ever make it required unless somebody will be harmed if it’s not.
Doing something for someone would be to trust them to decide if they need to partake in training or not. You are making life easier by trusting them and putting the decision in their hands. This trust builds something important in an organization and I’d argue creates an even better learning culture.
What Creates a Learning Culture?
Required training is the opposite of what creates a learning culture. Wanting to learn and helping employees be curious and interested in learning is what creates a learning culture.
Developing training and making it available isn’t enough, giving resources to people and allowing them to do the learning is what makes a learning culture.
What have you done for someone to help foster a learning culture at your organization?
Have you allowed them to use their brain to decide if they need the training or not? Have you given them the option to forgo the training and rely on performance support? Have you made sure is thorough enough to give those self-directed learners the resources they need?
Making life easier for others dealing with L&D is to not force them to do something. Make it an option if it can be, and in most cases it can.
Make Someone’s Life Easier
That’s what your goal should be every day. Simplify to the point of making someone’s life easier. Everything is getting easier every day (and harder at the same time), sometimes to the point of flaw, but for the most part it’s a great thing.
What have you done lately to make someone’s life easier?
That’s the question you don’t hear asked often enough in Learning & Development. This question should be part of every model used by Instructional Designers. It’s the most important question you can ask, and it should be thought about every day.
When we ask ourselves this question it makes us think more about what we’re putting others through.
I don’t want to sound like this is something only Learning & Development professionals should be asking though, everybody in every industry should be asking this question.
Everybody is making or doing something that somebody else will use or touch in some way. Nobody cares as much about what we’re designing as much as we do, so we need to make it painless for them. They simply won’t respect the thought we put into it nor should they have to.
Simplifying processes and making it easier on others is just one important thing that we can do for others. Take a look at the course, training, whatever you’re designing or doing. What can you do to make it easier and quicker?
Not everybody wants to sit through a 30 minute course, especially if they’re already familiar with the content.
Easy
Life is complex (and easy) in so many ways, it’s time to think about how to make it easier for others. If we all make part of our job to make things easier, everybody wins. It may take a bit more thought and work on our part, some people may push back, but it’s all worth it.
What have you done to make someone’s life easier?