Immersive Learning
Why Focusing On The Basics Is The Best Learning And Development Strategy You Can Have
Developing your team as individuals builds resilience and will allow your business to thrive in an uncertain future.
The landscape of business is changing, and it’s happening more rapidly than ever before. Even pre-pandemic, advancements in technology across all industries are developing at such a monumental rate, creating an ever-increasing skills gap and a global workforce that is struggling to keep up.
Whilst many companies will continue to frantically upskill their teams in the latest tech niche, this can only go so far. Of course, it is important to have this knowledge; there will always be a need for skills acquisition training, but skills training is only truly effective when you can identify where the gaps are.
And to do this the gaps must already exist. It is reactive rather than proactive.
But how can you be proactive when you don’t know what is coming? It’s simply not possible to train in technologies which have not yet been developed. Training in skills won’t close the skills gap.
This is an issue addressed in the 2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report, specifically in the chapter on Beyond reskilling — Investing in resilience for uncertain futures. Deloitte couldn’t make it any clearer:
“Reskilling alone may be a strategic dead end. Renewing workers’ skills is a tactical necessity, but reskilling is not a sufficient path forward by itself.”
So how can organisations prepare their workforce for the unexpected, when the unexpected is by its very definition unpredictable.
The report suggests having an approach that focuses on developing the individuals in the workforce. Teaching the expertise required to be dynamic, responsive and flexible at an individual level in order to create an overall resilience for the organisation for both the short and long term.
“Today, success increasingly depends on innovation, entrepreneurship, and other forms of creativity that rely not just on skills, but also on less quantifiable capabilities such as critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and collaboration.”
By altering your learning and development approach to focus on core competencies like problem solving, you put your people in the best position to adapt to a rapidly changing business environment. Cultivating a curiosity and fostering an engaging and continual approach to learning will ensure an agile approach to future changes.
In other words, you might not be able to predict the future, but you can strengthen the individuals in your workforce to be ready for anything.
- Critical thinking
- Risk-taking
- Emotional intelligence
- Collaboration
- Creativity
- Innovation
- Communication
- Problem-solving
These capabilities have always been seen as “nice to haves”; listed on CV’s and discussed by business visionaries, but rarely taught in practice. We all need to recognise these competencies for their true value; nurture and continually develop them.
In some ways, the current disruption caused by the global pandemic might just have nudged companies in the right direction.
Having a completely unexpected situation thrust upon them might allow them to understand the absolute necessity of being adaptable — like Twitter announcing that employees can work from home forever if they want to.
Some may have even been surprised by their innovation — like the Bombay Sapphire Gin distillery producing and distributing industrial quantities of hand sanitiser for its local community.
Let’s hope that organisations can see these as first-steps and opportunities, rather than temporary patches to keep functioning until ‘business as usual’ returns.
The Deloitte report suggests five shifts that can help organisations build resilience:
- Cultivating capabilities first, skills second
- Leveraging workers’ “passion of the explorer” to engage them in solving unseen and future problems
- Supporting learning in the flow of work
- Rewarding based on capability development
- Preparing the workforce with an eye toward what benefits both the organisation and society
Embracing this change will require not just modifications, but nothing short of a revolution in many Learning & Development departments where current best practice has led to clear strategies and Key Performance Indicators, pathways with defined actions, tools to measure progress and certificates for success.
It will require a shift in attitudes to training and a more flexible all-encompassing approach to monitoring results. Having the confidence to use overall business and team performance metrics, anecdotal evidence and feedback from participants themselves as indicators of progress, alongside the acceptance that this is a continual journey and not a box that can be simply ticked then forgotten about.
These capabilities must be continually nurtured, they cannot simply be attained and certified.
Creativity and innovation simply cannot be taught in an e-learning module. They require the freedom to explore and discover possibilities, make mistakes, iterate, improve.
Learning the theory of the benefits of risk-taking and conflict resolution is next to worthless unless you have had the opportunity to practice and refine your techniques. And I’m sure that most CEO’s will agree that real-life business scenarios that have potentially destructive consequences are not the ideal place for practice and play.
This is where training techniques such as Immersive Learning prove invaluable.
Immersive Learning (def.)
“The use of immersive techniques, including storytelling, theatrical performance, technology and puzzles to develop and exercise skills.”
Using scenario-based techniques, Immersive Learning provides a safe space to explore and develop skills. It’s non-linear which forces learners to engage, using critical thinking and collaboration to explore the scenario. In addition, with no right or wrong pathway to completion, infinite possibilities give freedom for creativity and innovation to flourish, empowering the learner in these highly sought after competencies.
When you measure these techniques against Deloitte’s aforementioned five shifts that can help organisations build resilience, there can be no doubt that Immersive Learning not only meets, but actually exceeds the brief.
We have already seen global industry-leading organisations across multiple sectors embracing the Immersive Learning techniques with impressive results. Teams have gained the confidence to create new innovative products. Managers have seen staff retention rates hit 100%. Emerging leaders have been identified and swiftly promoted.
The shift towards Immersive Learning is happening and it’s happening now. We are at the beginning of something exciting. Something engaging and effective with tangible results for businesses and individuals.
The most innovative companies are already benefiting. This research will give us momentum; providing the rationale to give even the most nervous of L&D managers the motivation, insight and confidence to move away from specific skills acquisition training to more adaptable and broad capabilities. An approach that benefits the organisation, the individual and the future. Vive la révolution!
Kerrie Fraser is part of the chronyko team who have over 10 years experience in designing, building and delivering Immersive Learning experiences for skills development. If you are interested in learning more about Immersive Learning check out Immersive Learning on Medium.
