Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2020 - 37

When it comes to efficiency,
organizations will simply have
to prove they're the best.

When it comes to making the world a
better place, organizations' missions
and goals will need to move humanity
forward, putting people and community
above raw profit. In an age of social
media
and
global
connectivity,
organizations and their employees will
become far more transparent and be
held more accountable regarding their
social impact. No previous industrial
revolution has been so core to our
lifestyle, our work or our future. Making
people's lives easier and happier is a far
loftier goal than simply driving profit for
a factory or corporation.

What stands out about the fourth one?
What's this about, "...makes the world a
better place"? The biggest differentiator
for the fourth revolution is how high the
bar is set. Do things more efficiently and
make the world a better place? At the
same time? How do you do that? And
how do you prove it?
When it comes to efficiency, organizations
will simply have to prove they're the
best. With a high demand for speed
and simplicity and an utter intolerance
for inferior processes, innovation
and expertise will replace tradition
and hierarchy. This pulls power and
advantage away from corporate giants
and pushes it to niche experts that can
better satisfy customer demands. No
matter who you are or how big your
company - if you could do it faster,
simpler and cheaper, then you've got
the advantage.

But what happens when you set such
ambitious and altruistic goals? That's
right - you have to measure every
initiative and effort against that bar. If
you claim you're the "best" - you'll have
to prove it. And how do you prove it?
You measure it. You measure it against
all alternatives. Was it faster? Was it
simpler? Was it cheaper? Was it for the
greater good? All stakeholders and
clients will be asking the same thing:
How does it measure up? They want to
see evidence, data and results.
So, what does the Fourth Industrial
Revolution mean to the training industry?
If we are developing or delivering
training that contributes to these worldenhancing goals, and we say that our
training will be improving the most
crucial aspects of human performance,
we'll have to prove it! We'll have to prove
our training gives people the right skills
and drives the business performance
that makes the world a better place.
It means not only demonstrating our
training works but also that it works

better than the alternatives. And that
means measuring impact.
Despite a long history of flying under
the radar, there will be absolutely no
room for training organizations or L&D
functions within businesses that cannot
measure and prove business results.
There will also be no more room for
training providers who cannot prove
that their solutions did - in fact - grow
the people, grow the revenue and grow
the company.

Earlier this year, I was asked by a
respected colleague, "Does the traditional
Kirkpatrick/Phillips model of measurement
still work in the Fourth Industrial
Revolution?" My answer was "Yes, but with
a healthy dash of innovation."
The reason why the first five levels
remain so relevant and timeless is
because our desired "story of impact"
never really changes. No matter how
dramatically the training content or
delivery modes change over the next
few decades, what's supposed to
happen in participants' brains and
what's supposed to happen in the
business remains the same. The sights,
sounds and sensations of the training
experience still need to engage our
brains (Level 1). The training content still
needs to be absorbed and retained in
the brain (Level 2). The brain still needs
to retrieve that content, and turn it into

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Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2020

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