Embracing Change in Corporate Training

You may have seen the recent announcement that Allen was named a Top 20 Content Development Company for 2012 by TrainingIndustry.com. We’re proud of the recognition, especially given the exciting state of the corporate training industry today. Hopefully we’re done with the dumbing-down of all we know true to live in the confines of static presentations and the rapid limitation of power point and its derivatives in the lives of our learners. Recently the CLO of our company, our design team leaders and I have challenged our teams to relook at our approach to creativity and design. Both for our own creative direction, and to understand the ways our clients are embracing creativity in their approaches to employee and customer education.

Much smarter people them myself have looked that the ways we embrace technology Crossing the Chasm as well as cool words like “Affordance” if one is to believe the penetration numbers of people using video based information like YouTube or the use of mobile devices through phone and tablets we are well beyond the Chasm between early adopters and the early majority. So as a service company that support the corporate and customer training function we can now talk to our customers about the cost of NOT utilizing these technology driven approaches as part of their training mix. The point of “should we?” or “could we?” in respect to harnessing user-generated connect and mobile learning need to be replaced with “how soon?” and “in what way?”

Make no mistake creative instructional design is not dependent on any one technology. But the pairing of the two in crucial in the early stages of new technology adoption. As a higher level guide there are two major adoption cycles or decision trees to look at when answering the “how soon?“ and the “in what way?” questions.

Technology adoption helps you guide your team through question such as

• • HTML5 or native app

• • Security and governance in mobile media

• What technology should I be using to support and maintain my mobile presence

In the sphere of content and design the questions get even harder and more complex.

• • How will the content I have or need drive the changes I seek in my organization

• • What skills and personnel will drive the creation and maintenance of the content in my organization

• How will the designs I have created already port to a new medium that my organization is embracing

All of the above are just a few of the decision paths you are, or soon will be, walking down.
In almost all of the corporate organization we have surveyed, as it relates to the marketing and the corporate communication, these paths are being trodden. Allen has established a team of learning solution experts and senior design consultants that stand ready to help you walk down these same paths. You can check out some of their recent blogs on the topic:

The 3 R’s of Visual Design: Rhetoric Readability Responsibility– Mike Hassett, PhD
Training 2025– Breanne Grover
An Introduction to Change Management (Featured in The HR Director Magazine) – Ron Zamir

Now it’s up to us as designers to take advantage of the exciting times we live in. Enjoy our profession and watch how we move and change the large organizations we work for.
Regards and happy design
Ron