Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2020 - 30

There are a lot of exciting developments
trending in the world of learning and
development (L&D). But, which ones
should you be looking out for? From
learning experience platforms (LXPs) to
experience application programming
interfaces (xAPIs) to microlearning,
you've probably come across a few
buzzwords lately. In this article, we
want to move beyond the buzzwords
and talk about the transitions that
L&D is going through, and how
these changes impact the strategy,
learning platforms, tools and content
delivery channels. We believe there
are four main trends you should take
into account.

IMPACT ON STRATEGY
TREND 1. FROM FORMAL LEARNING
TO INFORMAL LEARNING
Many L&D departments are moving
their focus away from formal learning.
Thanks to the work of Jay Cross and
others, organizations are shifting their
attention and budgets to informal
learning. Formal training is essential
for businesses, because each industry
has an established set of rules and
procedures that must be followed by all
employees. For instance, compliance,
security and onboarding are some
of the mandatory training programs

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conducted by human resources (HR) in
a formal classroom setup.
However, there are other business-critical
areas, like product, process and technical
training, which may occur outside of a
structured formal learning environment.
We observe that more and more organizations are navigating in this direction.
This trend from formal to informal
learning offers L&D and HR an
opportunity to reach employees outside
the training's scheduled agenda, and
ensure greater knowledge retention on
business- and mission-critical content.
TREND 2. FROM A TOP-DOWN
APPROACH TO A BOTTOM-UP
APPROACH
The days of companies telling employees
how to develop and what to learn is
over. A modern-day employee wants to
determine what, where and when they
learn. Due to this change in mindset,
the old, top-down approach of the L&D
department is no longer relevant. Now,
it is all about facilitating the learner and
moving toward a bottom-up approach.
This bottom-up approach has a huge
impact on the role of L&D, which is moving
toward a moderator and facilitator rather
than a controller and a planner.

TREND 3. FROM LEARNING
APPROACH TO PERFORMANCE
SUPPORT
Learning used to be about transferring
knowledge. Today, however, knowledge
and facts can be Googled and teaching
people to do this is only the ﬁrst step.
In the modern workplace, knowledge
must be made available in the context of
work in order to improve performance.
The goal of formal training is to help
learners acquire knowledge and new
skills. Performance support systems can
provide learners with the information
they need to complete tasks on the job.
TREND 4. FROM KNOWLEDGE
FOCUS TO SKILLS FOCUS
Having the knowledge available at your
ﬁngertips in a performance support
environment is one thing, but we need
to teach people what to do with that
knowledge. Then, we can guide them
to change behavior. It is not just about
knowledge anymore. It is about applying
skills in order to enhance performance.
THE DIAGRAM OF CHANGE
These four trends form the axes of
our diagram of change (see Figure 1).
Each quadrant covers one of the four
Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2020

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