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benchmarking


Luckily, advances in the learning technologies space are rapidly providing viable solutions to 70:20:10’s ‘90% problem’. There’s the Experience or xAPI of course, which can track informal, offl ine learning experiences and turn them into shareable, actionable data assets, suddenly making some of the 90% visible for the fi rst time. The xAPI is beginning to attract some serious interest from global giants like Amazon, who recognise its potential for capture and analysis of previously unavailable forms of information, and understand the value of leveraging that data for smarter personalisation.


Emerging alongside and boosting the effectiveness of the xAPI are learning


diagnostics: automated organisational surveying tools which work out the current skill competencies and capability levels of your workers, and benchmark them against your preferred criteria, whether a specifi c set of competencies, the deliverables on a current project, or an individual’s personal development goals. This has incredible benefi ts in making visible the results and benefi ts of L&D


investment. With an intelligent diagnostic tool providing a thorough map of both your skills gaps and your operational strengths, for the fi rst time the organisation truly knows itself. (See diagram)


Why benchmark your learners’ capabilities? What can a smart learning diagnostic tell you about your organisation that you don’t already know? Well, it’s the other way round: the diagnostic uncovers what you do already know. The skills and knowledge inside your workers’ heads – the sum of all those learning experiences, all those trials, errors, triumphs and failures are the true indicators of value in your company. Learning diagnostics audit this previously invisible input, letting you build its effects into your strategic planning. Coupled with the xAPI, today’s new diagnostics can capture even the learning which happens outside the workplace. It enables you to understand what skills and competencies you are strong in, and ultimately what your organisation is capable of doing. It’s about turning your learners’ knowledge – and the intellectual


properties (IPs) and practical effi ciencies they invent – into resources and assets that you can plan for and factor into strategic parameters: if you are designing a new internal initiative or programme for a select group of learners, you need to understand the scope of their current capabilities and requirements, ensuring your learning provision is effi ciently customised for each individual learner, making their learning journey as aligned and effective as possible. In other words, this is fi nally the opposite of a top-down, ‘one size fi ts all’ approach. The benefi ts just in terms of effi ciencies and improvements to present working practices should be clear enough, before we even start to think about the application to recruitment and retention processes, succession planning, talent management and leadership development. There are clear advantages on the learners’ side too: smart diagnostics assess their needs for learning content and resources to help them perform better in their roles and provide transparency when it comes to their competency in relation to a defi ned organisational framework. Diagnostics also provide the ideal learning environment to keep them curious, autonomous and engaged, with the option to retake a diagnostic to see how they are developing. Once the competency framework has been established – and the learners’ place in it – it’s easier for individuals to direct their own learning journey through their preferred mix of learning modalities and resources. Gamifi ed incentives can turn the diagnostic into an opportunity for individual learners to over-achieve, earn rewards, gain recognition for legitimate expertise, and enhance the social capital of their personal brand.


Demonstrate improvement to demonstrate impact Too often the kinds of organisational development managed by L&D which require signifi cant behavioural change or the widespread adoption of new skills and practices are hampered by a lack of real visibility in both the process and the goal, hampered by too many unknowns: where are our strengths? What are our current capacities? How do they differ across teams or functions? How do we know what we can do? It’s like asking for directions in a strange land and being told, “You want to get to [insert place here]? Well, if I was going there, I wouldn’t start from here at all!” The insight smart diagnostics give us into our skills gaps, the way they show us the path to real change, and the way they inform and enhance organisational capability frameworks could make this learning technology innovation into the indispensable SatNav for L&D’s journey into the future.


Caroline Walmsley is CEO of Brightwave e.learning age september 2015 19


What’s the diagnosis?


What are diagnostics for? How can they improve the performance of the organisation as a whole, as well as individual learners? Most organisations benchmarking their existing capabilities and competencies will do so for a mixture of the following reasons:  Bringing all staff to the same level of attainment and capability.  Auditing the skills and knowledge in an organisation.  Using data insights to create more effective learning, tailored for real learner needs.


 Keeping skills and knowledge fresh and relevant in the face of changing practices and priorities.


 Giving high-performing individuals the space to excel: meeting targets – and beating targets.


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