Training Industry Magazine - Content Development 2017 Special Edition - 24


SECRETS OF
SUCCESSFUL
LARGE-SCALE
LEARNING
PROGRAMS
BY ERIN KREBS
The day has finally come. After years of long
hours and hard work building expertise and trust,
you have the green light on a career-defining
opportunity: you've been tasked with developing
a mission-critical, large-scale learning program.
The stakes are high, and so is the budget. Senior
management and stakeholders have a deeply
vested interest. All eyes are on you and the project's
success. You're psyched, ecstatic and a bit terrified.

And, the learning and development game
has changed. There are new technologies
and tools to leverage and learners expect
higher levels of polish and engagement.
You'll need to embrace a variety of
techniques, including e-learning, live and
virtual classrooms, games, mobile, video,
marketing materials, support apps, and
social media elements. These are exciting
and challenging times to be embarking on
a complex development and rollout.
But you're a pro. You know instructional
theory forward and backward and
you've produced smaller but significant
programs. Let's not rehash the basics -
obvious things, like choosing the right
vendor - but rather hone in on the things
that you're not necessarily thinking about.

SECRET #1

Your program needs a brand.
Think about a kid's soccer team. Without
a team name or a cool logo, it's just a
bunch of kids kicking a ball around a field.
The moment you give them an identity is
when they truly become a team, banded
together and working toward a common
goal. They are more connected and
invested in each other and their collective
purpose: winning the game.
Bring your learning program to life! Give
it its own unique identity: establish a
brand, program personality and logo.
Your brand will impact your three most
important constituents: your learners,
your stakeholders and your team. For

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learners, a brand builds anticipation (in
combination with the next secret). For
stakeholders, associating a name and
image with the program makes it real and
tangible. For your team, it forges them
together as a unit, working together on an
important initiative.

SECRET #2

Appease your stakeholders, build anticipation, and buy
yourself time.
You're getting married, but the date
is months away. How do you build
excitement in advance, helping them
visualize that something special is
coming? You send an elegant "save the
date" card, maybe with a picture of the
location. For this same reason, smart
marketers release movie trailers months in
advance of opening night.
Your large-scale learning program
also needs to be marketed in advance.
Why? Significant time and effort is
needed upfront to design the entire,
holistic solution and build the tools and
templates necessary to work efficiently
once development begins. But your
stakeholders are nervous ... what do they
know, or care, about the learning and
development process? They want to feel
something is happening. All they know is
that their budget is being spent.
You've developed the logo, now deliver a
teaser video or a program marketing event.
Done well, it will put your stakeholders
at ease and boost their confidence in
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - Content Development 2017 Special Edition
