Al Kinnear
In today's episode of Return on Intelligence, we're speaking with Matt Pittman, principal analyst at the Brandon Hall Group. We discuss the new pace of play in terms of learner expectation and L&D delivery, and the role the post-pandemic rebound has had on learning and development organizations. Well, welcome to the podcast Return on Intelligence. Today's guest is Matt Pittman, principal analyst with the Brandon Hall Group.
Al Kinnear
Matt, how are you doing today?
Matt Pittman
Doing great Al. Great to be with you.
Al Kinnear
Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time and, committing some time to our podcast. We really appreciate it. Today's today's topic will be, the new pace of play in terms of learner expectation and L&D delivery. And I just love to dig into the role that the post-pandemic rebound is playing on this new pace of play. And so with that being said, Matt at the Brandon Hall Group, kind of what are you seeing in terms of a post-pandemic rebound in learning and development?
Matt Pittman
Well, so there's several things that we've seen in that sort of post-pandemic world. most notably, we're seeing, shifts in how companies are managing their learning and approaching that a management of learning. We're seeing shifts in how learning is getting delivered. we're seeing some return to pre-pandemic expectations, but not really all the way. It's sort of a correction, but we're not really going back to that pre-pandemic life, so to speak.
Matt Pittman
so you and I were speaking earlier about when I was in my prior role before coming to Brandon, all group at the start of the pandemic. we the learning strategy we were building going, we had lots of stuff happening. And then the pandemic hit and I worked for health care organization. And our entire purpose, as a learning team, shifted literally overnight to real time support of physicians who were treating Covid patients.
Matt Pittman
And we went from a very robust, very comprehensive learning strategy, learning, agenda to we are building peer reviewed, peer delivered weekly webinars, and we're helping turn doctors into presenters and, handling all of those logistics. And then coming out of the pandemic, when that urgency began to die off. We we tried to shift that to normal life.
Matt Pittman
And it was it was really challenging to do. so organizations are really having to look at what was successful during the pandemic. How have we changed our approach to work? the whole argument around return to the office, return to work, versus staying remote first or hybrid. work environments has a huge impact on how learning and development has to get done.
Matt Pittman
what learners expect. Because I am now not in the office every day now, Cicero. And I am not, geographically located with my coworkers. So what am I expecting and how am I going to engage with, learning content and what I want to learn versus what does the company need me to learn? All of those pieces play into it.
Matt Pittman
in fact, early in our most recent learning benchmarking survey at the beginning of this year, we have seen that most learning functions are not centralized. So when we talk about kind of your learning structure, organizational structure, we tend to talk about centralized or decentralized and really that decentralized follows, a couple of variations. And in our most recent survey, there were 20% of organizations said their structure was centralized, meaning a corporate learning team, the way you're used to it, or good old fashioned corporate training team, versus a decentralized team where you have multiple learning teams sitting in multiple divisions across an organization.
Matt Pittman
Many organizations are in what we would call a hybrid model, which is somewhere in between the two, where there's some form of a centralized team that are acting really as gatekeepers and enablers of learning versus, being on the ground in the field with the teams, but dressing needs in the moment as they come up. And we're starting to see the emergence of a new approach to learning management, which is this learning business partner concept.
Matt Pittman
So if you think about, the idea of someone who is the face of learning to the business, and behind them is a variety of teams delivering on those needs. But you have this business partner who's in the business and understands the business, but also understands and has them the ability to marshal learning resources behind them. And it's really, a pretty interesting shift between, what we saw in 2023 and what we saw in 2020 when we asked the same question.
Matt Pittman
So in 2020, we had a 40% centralized and 22% decentralized, and another 38% or so hybrid. Whereas in 2023, as I mentioned, that centralized number has been cut in half. And you see that growth in the decentralized model and, the hybrid model holding steady and then the emergence of that learning business partner model.
Al Kinnear
Well, and in review of those slides prior to, you know, this discussion, when you talk about the role of, or the evolution to a decentralized strategy, and you think about those using a hybrid strategy, I mean, according to your study, we're talking 70% of all organizations are now, you know, incorporating some decentralized theme. And what do you think has caused this, this trend?
Al Kinnear
are there are the root causes that you've seen because just the movement from 22% of decentralized in 2020 to, you know, 34% if my memory serves you. Now, we're talking about a 50% absolute increase. This is material. And and I know that part of that will be coming out of that pandemic, perhaps out of necessity during the pandemic.
Al Kinnear
But what are your thoughts as to what is pushing this theme forward?
Matt Pittman
I think it's a combination of, of factors, the pandemic response and then new way of working brought on by that pandemic response certainly serves that. I think you also have the balance or the dance between what the organization needs to accomplish as a whole because they are an employer and what the individual business lines need to accomplish in order to deliver on their results.
Matt Pittman
And so the closer you are to the actual work that is happening, the the more immediate impact you're able to have versus relying solely on a corporate team that's a little removed from the day to day in many cases. And so I think what you're really seeing is the balance of let the corporate team handle and manage the things that apply to all, and then let the lines of business handle those things that are specific to their environment, to their context, to their people.
Matt Pittman
And within that, I think, is the ballot. There is a big balance, a dance that has to go on to say, you know, where are those lines? And even though those lines are in place, we're all on the same team. We're all striving for the same purpose, on the same outcome, which is affected learning for our employees but serving different purposes.
Matt Pittman
I think that really what you're seeing is learning. Teams are shifting to more of a specialist model. We used to be generalists. Now back in the day when I started my career training, you were the training department and you did all training. No matter what the topic. And what we're really seeing is the growth of expertise from a training perspective.
Matt Pittman
So the the role of the subject matter expert as trainer, and enabling that in a more formal way.
Al Kinnear
Yeah. It's interesting, I think there's so much discussion around the, the role of and how it's evolved in the past few years from being a gatekeeper, you know, being the gatekeeper in the corporate ladder to more of an enabler strategy. And, you know, I think we both agree that the pace of play now, today is, is much higher than it was pre-pandemic.
Al Kinnear
But the the pandemic wasn't what has caused this new pace of play. It's an outcome for sure. But, you know, there's certain things like you've mentioned remote first environments, and just the ability and need for teams, you know, to be agile and, and show that responsiveness that was completely required during that pandemic. But do you have do you believe that, you know, this new pace of play is not only driven from these factors, but also from the, you know, as as the I'm not sure how to properly say this, but as our workforce changes to more Gen Z participants and I mean, I, I believe there's a role to be played there in
Al Kinnear
terms of demanding a new pace of play just based on how, you know, this generation learns. What are your thoughts on that?
Matt Pittman
Matt Pittman
That's not really a great way to say that, but they've always been able to go to YouTube, to go to Google, to go wherever to find answers to questions. And we regularly have family dinners where my, you know, my Gen Z kids and my baby boomer wife and I'm, I'm sort of in between. So I'm in Gen X are in the group and we'll have conversations at the table where my, you know, 90 year old father in law will ask a question or say something.
Matt Pittman
And somebody at the table is picking up the phone to to find the answer, you know, used to just have conversations, say, oh, I don't know. That's interesting. We should look into that. Well, what happens now is we organically look into it over pasta to get to that answer. And that has to affect how we support learning in the workplace, because that is organic behavior.
Matt Pittman
So I think that is absolutely the case. And when you have programs in organizations that have been around for multiple cycles, and they were built for a a different time and a a different audience, simply picking that up and dropping it into a digital template isn't necessarily going to organically change the effectiveness of the work. And so learning teams are having to scramble to say, oh, you mean I can't just put a static PowerPoint up on my LMS and call it done?
Matt Pittman
You know? No you can't. You have to really give thought to what do you need your folks to learn? What kind of experience do they want to be having? How can we make sure that we're giving as much of that organic experience as possible? Because if we don't, they will go find it for themselves, and then there will be a misalignment of information, of expectations, actual behavior and performance.
Matt Pittman
In the end. Well, I, I think.
Al Kinnear
You know, with my Gen Z, Gen Z, children, they're experts in solving their curiosity, and they've they've been given the tools like it. It's just fascinating to me, the tools they've been provided to satisfy their curiosity, whether that's something that will impact their career or our hobby. And I've mentioned in other episodes how, you know, personally, like the ability to learn guitar, you know, through YouTube and other other, you know, social media platforms is absolutely incredible.
Al Kinnear
I wish that I'd had those tools that are available today, you know, 30 years ago. And I'm, I'm just in awe at what I can accomplish when I'm curious. And so I think, you know, this Gen Z environment now as, as push that the satisfaction and sometimes the instant gratification requirement of that satisfaction into and and I think that's healthy.
Al Kinnear
we are dealing with a new pace of play and, and, and you know that that can't be argued and I, I do believe yes, we have the, you know, the requirement of agility and responsiveness. And in the pandemic, we learned a lot of about, you know, how to go about doing that. That was the first time in our generation we've had to respond in that manner.
Al Kinnear
We've come out of the pandemic with many remote first environments, but not every and, environment is remote first. You know, there's still a lot of manufacturing and, and environments where that can't be remote first. And we're still applying new paces of play in those environments. we've got a workforce, as we just spoke, that that is demanding, quick solutions.
Al Kinnear
And, like we said, they want their curiosity solved. So it's all blended together to become this new pace of play. One question that we've been discussing, a lot in, in some of our episodes is the role of empathy. And, and certainly there is a role of empathy in this new pace of play. And from the Brandon Hall group's perspective, what would you say that role is.
Matt Pittman
A great question. I think when we think about the role of empathy and the pace of play, it is allowing space for change to take hold, and allowing space for practitioners to get their minds around, this new pace of play in and around the new realities of, things like, I and, augmented reality and virtual reality applications.
Matt Pittman
we have had several award winning organizations, talk about the practical applications of virtual and augmented reality technologies, which is something that this the younger generation has been doing since they could control a mouse, you know, and sit in front of the computer and, and, and interact. And now we're applying that in the workforce. And to your point, those are going to be, you know, those environments where they aren't remote.
Matt Pittman
First, the the manufacturing and retail operations and, logistics and warehouses and some of those, those environments where training is still very much, necessary. But where does the the pace of play in the technology capability come in? You know, organizations that are using, virtual reality to train delivery drivers on how to navigate their retail locations without having to go to the retail location so that by the time they actually do physically pull up to the store, they've already been there, and they know what to look for, and they know what where they're headed, and they know what that environment could look like.
Matt Pittman
And it may not be 100% accurate as if you were there, but one, it is certainly better that and I'm watching a flat video on a computer screen, or I'm reading, an instruction guide and I'm following a map on a flat piece of paper. So, you know, the empathy is in two places. It's in allowing the practitioner your space to come to terms and to learn all that they can, and to begin to find ways to bring those, new tools and techniques into the work that they do and space to let go of what was and I think there's we would also probably call it more empathy with the empathy was encouragement
Matt Pittman
to say, look, it's new. Yeah. It's changed. Things have changed. It's not what it was. Get over it and let's get going. You know, here's how you can get here's how you move forward. Here's how you get get to the next place. This is how you get to the next thing and helping, you know, Brandon Hull Group, we're all about empowering excellence.
Matt Pittman
So we're all about helping you navigate those conversations that you're going to have to navigate with your organization to say, look, the way we've done this, we can't keep doing it because it's not going to be effective. It's not going to be cost effective. It's not going to give us the results that it used to give us. We need to change how we approach this.
Matt Pittman
You need it to be faster. In order for it to be faster, it needs to be this. It needs to be that whatever the case may be in your environment and it's very, very environment specific, you know, and I think from an empathy perspective, it's important that there is no longer and I would argue to a certain extent, there never has been a one size fits all solution to any of this.
Matt Pittman
I believe in the early days of my career as a learning professional in the early 90s, there was a way you did it, and every training experience followed the same format. It's followed the same model, and it didn't matter. I worked in call centers, I worked in health care, I worked in software development, and all of those things were very consistent.
Matt Pittman
and what we've learned is, no, the one size fits all approach doesn't work. It is very environmental. Who were you learners? What is your business? What are your tools? What you have available? What? Who can you get to help? And that is what determines where you go.
Al Kinnear
Yeah, that's so true. And not to not not to forget about learner backgrounds, right? Learner backgrounds and learners ability to learn and in what styles they appreciate it. I think the empathy is really important there as well. You mentioned I and I'm so curious to hear, your thoughts on AI and in this current pace of play, and have you guys at, Brandon Hall Group, have you done any studies and have you been studying AI and its impact or role in and and what are your thoughts there?
Matt Pittman
We absolutely are. We ran a study earlier on the role and impact of ChatGPT in the management of H.R learning and, and where people are on that spectrum. we are have a study going on at the time that we're recording this about the maturity of HR organization and against this new way of working, this so-called future of work, which has really become the president of work.
Matt Pittman
you know, work has changed fundamentally, and it's going to continue to change. We've been talking about it as HR professionals and learning professionals for a long time, but are we making any progress? you know, in early looks at that data, I think people are cautiously optimistic there. it is, as you might expect, running the gamut.
Matt Pittman
we're fully embracing it. In a way. It's organic in our workflow now to, yeah, we don't allow it. We block it on our servers and nobody can get to it from inside the network. Subtle. Well, it is going to fundamentally shift how a lot of work gets done and organizations need to get a better handle on where it fits in their work and what their expectations are and what their, their, on stage is going to be to managing its presence, in your work, because it is going to happen.
Matt Pittman
So, we are spending a lot of energy in the second half of this year and, and going really deep on the impact of AI, in alerting and HR in particular. So we will have more to say about that.
Al Kinnear
Great. Yeah, we'll we'll definitely touch base with you to, to find out, you know, what those thoughts are. So Matt, I have to ask you, have you seen any examples in, in discussing, you know, with your various clients and companies that you work with, know any examples of the implementation of AI or ChatGPT into the HCM or LND environments that would be inspirational to other learning and development professionals who are just trying to figure out where they stand.
Al Kinnear
With AI.
Matt Pittman
There are varying degrees of integration and presence of AI tools in, different applications and different, scenarios, and it really does run the gamut. I have talked with, talent acquisition and learning providers who have organic AI built into their platforms and have had it for many generations and are now be, you know, almost ahead of the curve.
Matt Pittman
I talked with one learning company recently that a year and a half ago, their CEO saw it coming and basically turned all of their research and development effort and energy into fully integrating AI capability into their platform. And they are now, as we speak, releasing that capability into production in their tools. so, it is and they are doing it in a variety of ways in test builders, in converting documents into interactive, learning modules to, building out, help documentation, automatically as you're navigating, so all of those kinds of capabilities are making their way into the tools and platforms and techniques, related to, learning in the workforce and
Matt Pittman
on the, you know, on the HR, HCM, talent acquisition side, talent acquisition. We're early adopters of AI capability. When you look at resume parsing, in some of those early ETS capabilities, and those are just continuing to get better and better, as the the new generation of technology comes out.
Al Kinnear
Yeah, I, I just think it's going to be fascinating to see where we get. And I believe it will be in a short timeframe. Right. Like you guys are studying it hard in two H of of this year. And and you know, in the next couple of years it's gonna be really interesting to see what sticks because not everything sticks in technology.
Al Kinnear
But certainly there will be an impact felt in L&D, with AI for sure.
Matt Pittman
And I think you're going to see that. Like everything new, it will get better and better with time. I do think the cycles will be shorter with AI like you mentioned, and giving the AI technology time to learn what it needs to learn. You know, knowing that it starts from one place, but the more it gets used and the more it gets asked, things of it, the better it gets at giving those things in response.
Al Kinnear
Yeah, yeah. So we're not done talking about pace of play then, are we?
Matt Pittman
no. Absolutely not.
Al Kinnear
Certainly not. So just kind of shifting gears a little bit, staying within the pace of play, discussion that we're having at Brandon Alder, what modalities are most impactful given this new pace of play, based on the studies that you guys are continually doing? What are you seeing, what's what may not have changed or what has surprised you?
Matt Pittman
So I think when it comes to learning modalities and utilization, you won't see anything really surprising there. E-learning continues to be at the top. Video, instructor led training and and cohort based learning. All of those things continue to be heavily utilized. But when it it comes to what learning teams and learning professionals consider to be very effective, the, you know, e-learning and web based courses are right at the top webinar are right behind that, video on the job training.
Matt Pittman
and what the classroom approaches, which is really flipped classroom is to, from my perspective, almost just a fancier way of approaching blended learning. We used to call it blended learning back in the day. Right foot classroom is I'm doing some stuff on my own, and then I'm having a some sort of group or classroom based experience. as part of that evolution, those top five are all, showing up on our most recent benchmarking survey as being the most effective, in accomplishing what the goals are for the learning was kind of coming up new on that list.
Matt Pittman
is gaming and simulation and the social peer to peer collaboration approach that talks about sort of core learning and, the group experience. That's not necessarily a live, in-person experience. So I'm logging into my learning portal at my organization, and I'm in this learning group, and we're all working through the content at the same time, but not necessarily in the same space or the same moment.
Matt Pittman
But we're interacting and we're commenting and where we're sharing and we're we're having those social media light experiences as part of our learning journey together. All of all of it is very, digital heavy, as you might imagine, with the exception of that on the job training, which I know is a personal favorite of yours out, and that the something we call an after event review, which is sort of that.
Matt Pittman
Okay. We this happen now let's talk about what happened and what we what did we do? What went well, what do we need to do differently moving forward?
Al Kinnear
And would you say like in reviewing past studies like is on the job training like it's moved up the list, like I, I mean, we've had discussions with people like Aaron's who use skill demonstrations and observation checklists, etc. in their live retail store, and they describe that as a culture changing moment when they realize the power of kind of OJT, observational, analysis and skill demonstration.
Al Kinnear
You know what, Brandon Hall Group, is that something that you believe has always been there, and maybe it's a new discovery for certain organizations or has it has it become more prevalent.
Matt Pittman
That it's one of those things that I would say has always been there, but there's really nothing much new under the sun. OJT really was trained in in the early, early days. It's always been there in some form. What I do think has changed is how organizations view it, where it used to be a necessary evil. When I was running training for call centers, I would run into this issue all the time, whereas I need to get these people on the phone.
Matt Pittman
Let's just get them on the phone. Well, you can't put them on the phone if they don't know what to say. And if they don't know what to do with the information that they're learning from the customer, if you if they don't know what to do and they don't know what to say, you don't need them on the phone, it's going to make the situation worse.
Matt Pittman
So I think companies have learned to value it more. I think companies have learned to leverage it better and more intentionally, and I think that's what's accounted for the increase in effectiveness. I think when you talk about a, a hybrid work environment, the ability to work with any some worker in a virtual setting to learn how to do things, you know, that wasn't even really possible, you know, as you know, recently as 4 or 5 years ago, you couldn't even do that really, because, you know, we didn't all have web conferencing capability in the organization because nobody needed it.
Matt Pittman
So all of those factors, I think you've changed why that has come back to the forefront now. Great.
Al Kinnear
Thank you. now as we talk about, you know, decentralizing, you know, the and at different organizations where that's possible, one thing I read a lot about is the role of learning councils, and not so much that these are brand new ideas, but people are now utilizing these learning councils. In my eyes, they're keeping their eye on the prize.
Al Kinnear
And to make sure that when they decentralize, they are still going to have the success. What are you seeing with the role of, or prevalence of, of learning councils in, in England? you know, during this new pace of play, that's, that's coming out of the pandemic.
Matt Pittman
So I'm think with learning councils and learning governance, that approach has always had value. And we've known for years the importance of engaging stakeholders, engaging leadership in setting priorities in making decisions in the context of the business need and the signifying, the marching orders, if you will, for the learning and development agenda within the organization. I think that to your point, it becomes even more important when you're learning.
Matt Pittman
Team is not all in one place. When it doesn't report to the same leader within the HR umbrella as it always used to. when it when there are lattice relationships and matrix relationships and dotted line reporting relationships and shared budgets and all of those complexities of the modern work space that learning teams are having to navigate, having a strong learning council in place that has a clear purpose, that has, motivation and understanding of why they are being asked to serve in this capacity and then has real influence on what decisions are made and what actually does happen and get done in the organization.
Matt Pittman
When it comes to learning, I think is absolutely critical and we are seeing that most organizations do have an active learning governance structure that meets at least once a year. Would you recommend, anywhere between, you know, 6 to 12 times a year, monthly or every other month? the more frequently you engage them, the more engaged they will be?
Matt Pittman
they are really helpful. Learning councils are really important when it comes to data collection and measurement and showing learning impact on the business, which is actually the point of workplace learning. You know, coming back to why do we do this in the first place? It's to drive the performance of the organization and to support the performance of the business.
Matt Pittman
So, navigating data issues and access issues, navigating motivation and engagement and buy in from pockets of the organization for a particular learning initiative or engagement. can be really careful when you have an operating vice president who is the first one to go through the new online harassment course and then says, I took this. It took me this long.
Matt Pittman
It was interesting. I actually learned something and I didn't pass the quiz the first time. Now you have two weeks to get this done as opposed to just getting another email from learning it. So say you got to get your some training done. So those kinds of scenarios, learning councils are critical to driving that entire learner experience. They're really the the protectors of the learner experience in the context of the business, because they know what's going on in the business better than any learning leader will know organically and so the more I can partner with those colleagues who are closer to that part of the business, the clearer picture I'm going to have, the better
Matt Pittman
understanding I'm going to have, the better access I'm going to have to the people and the resources and the information that I need to give the organization what it needs.
Al Kinnear
Yeah. And also not to mention the impact on the corporate culture. Right. Like imperative. And that is, is having activities such as the Learning Council involving all levels of, of employees and decisions being made on their behalf. So, well, it's great, great discussion there at the Brennan All Group. Have you seen any gaps this new pace of play may be causing, you know, and and what are your thoughts or comments on that?
Matt Pittman
You know, I think the, the there's a couple of things that I would call out there. I don't know if cap is the right word, but it definitely is something that is causing a lot of controversy. Let's say, there are definitely schools of thought that are, evolving that say, the, the idea of online performance support, that ability to support a team member in the moment, completing a task because they're either new or it's a new task or it's a new system or it's a change in process and being able to get an answer, and clear direction in that moment that I can personally go get for myself this idea of online
Matt Pittman
performance support in app tutorials or, video walkthroughs that I can easily find and, and and bring into my, my digital workspace in the moment that I need it is something that I think links to that other JT conversation that we were having. But it's one of those things that learning organizations often consider secondary to the more formal learning approaches of e-learning, e-learning modules, or, live training classes.
Matt Pittman
And I think that what you're going to see over the next few years, the research is really starting to show not just for and hall group, but broader research from organizations like McKinsey and others where they're coming out and saying, look, performance support is going to be the primary mode of training in workflow driven environments. And so I think organizations need to start paying more close attention to that trend, and not let it become a gap.
Matt Pittman
begin to look now at what they need to do to enable that to work best in their environments, in their organizations. the other thing that came to mind when you said that was the focus on measurement and analytics and the perpetual conversation that we have about how do you measure learning? The one thing that we consistently you're saying to organizations is you must be able to show that you're learning is impacting the performance, not that it's closing the performance, because there are way too many factors there, but that it's impacting that performance, that there is a reason that your learner or your teammate is being asked to directly to require to engage with
Matt Pittman
this learning. And on the other side, it is changing their ability to impact the outcome of the organization. So I think those two and they go hand in hand in some respects, but I think those data, those data conversations in that performance support conversation continue to be lagging areas in some ways.
Al Kinnear
Okay, well those are great points. So Matt, I I've completely enjoyed our conversation with regards to the new pace of play. kind of a post-pandemic rebound. Our discussion on learning councils and even, you know, most recently these gaps that you you have seen from the Brandon Hall group. In conclusion, though, or to to end our podcast today, do you have any advice or high level strategies for learning and the future of work for the lab professionals that are tuning in today?
Matt Pittman
Absolutely. We've done quite a bit of work over the last couple of years to understand how learning teams are responding to the future of work to, and, and what what they're finding successful. We spend a lot of time talking to partners, about what they are finding, customers are asking for. And, you know, when it comes to how do we navigate this and lay out the strategies that are going to, have the most impact?
Matt Pittman
We, start with number one working with the business, work with your business partners, leverage your learning governance. If you don't have a learning council in place, start one. Even if even if it's an informal email group to, you know, the the leaders that you have the best relationship with in the organization to say, hey, as I'm looking at planning for next year's learning agenda, what are the top three things that you know, skills that you're working that you know your teams need to know, that they need to get better out of.
Matt Pittman
They need to have that they don't necessarily have today. But you've got to work with the business to know what those skill gaps, are in the organization and understanding what the goals are, what is the business trying to accomplish, and where are they going to need help in order for that to happen. So that's number one. the the second one is really assessing for technology.
Matt Pittman
Look at your learning ecosystem and compare it to those future needs and the plans, the things that you know are coming. Where do you need to round out your ecosystem? Where do you need to update your ecosystem? Where do you need to flat out replace things? and, you know, shutter some things and bring new things in to support filling those skills gaps, enabling you to provide that learner experience that you want your coworkers to have, to enable you to personalize that learning experience, and to do it quickly.
Matt Pittman
So what tools do you need to be able to meet this pace of play? what tools can you add that have those AI native AI capabilities, built in and that they are continually refining and making available to you? And then right on the heels of that comes looking at the skills of your learning team. Look at your own skills as a learning and development professional, as you're listening to things like generative AI and you're listening to things like data lakes and, and analysis tools and online performance support, if you aren't sure what some of those things are, spend some energy and get get your skills and knowledge up to speed and learning.
Matt Pittman
Leaders have got to look at their teams and say, do I have all of the skills that I need on my team to deliver what the organization is asking me to deliver? And if I don't, what do I need to do to build the skill sets and capabilities of my team that's here, or to bring in those more specialized and newer skill sets that we are absolutely going to need.
Matt Pittman
the next one is really becoming familiar with all of the emerging technologies that are going to shape the future work. We've kind of touched on that already. we are no longer at the place we're learning IT development professionals and sit back and wait and think and listen and watch. You need to you need to roll your sleeves up.
Matt Pittman
You need to wade into the pool and figure out what's going on and how it affects you, and what you can do to, make it work in your organization. And the the last one is right at the heart of the whole pace of play conversation, which is shifting to more agile processes. But flipping and delivering, learning to better respond to changes in the business.
Matt Pittman
Because if 2020 taught us nothing else, it is that we can adjust and we can deliver content. Learning that is real time, responsive to what is happening in our business and with our teammates and with our organizations and there are ways we can set ourselves up to make that even easier, so that we're not necessarily going through a full blown needs assessment and design and development, process that we build, templates that we are able to easily understand.
Matt Pittman
This is the needed. This is how it is different from what has what has been or what was yesterday. And then here is here's the framework that we can use to build this learning experience quickly and effectively and be okay with we get it out and oh, it's not working, but let's fix it now. Don't wait six months to fix it.
Matt Pittman
Roll it out. Something's not right. Pull it back and fix it and push and push it back out. We have to work more, cyclically than we have traditionally worked as learning professionals. And I think, in the e-learning world, people have gotten pretty good at that. But in the broader conversations of learning strategy, I think the iterative nature and the taking a year or a year and a half, two years to solve a problem from a learning perspective is those days are really gone.
Matt Pittman
You can't you can't take that long to do anything anymore. Kids short, focused, and move on and, you know, iterate and fix it, iterate and fix it.
Al Kinnear
That's great. Just great advice. And Matt, thank you so much for joining us today. I really enjoyed this discussion, and I really look forward to the future when we can maybe reach out first quarter of next year and discuss the, the impact of AI and what you guys have seen in the next studies. So thank you so much.
Matt Pittman
Yeah. Thank you. Al was a lot of fun. I look forward to keeping the conversation going.
