Motivating Your Organization to Try Something New
Are you having trouble finding ways to engage your organization? Do you feel like you are maybe a little bit too new school for some of your old school Learning and Development (L&D) practices? Gaining buy-in from stakeholders can be challenging, but we have perfected a process to help you on your journey toward change!
Key Principle #1: Do Not Expect Sweeping Change
Change is the hardest thing for people to get around. When you're offering a new solution, it takes a long time for someone to be an early adopter. They want to see tried and true; they want to see the idea you’re encouraging in action.
Here at Anchored Training, we talk a lot about using TikTok and TikTok-style principles in learning and development. Often, we are met with some confused looks, but once we dive into these principles and explain the value of using short, edutaining, engaging videos to support your learning, we find that people are excited about the potential for transformation. The biggest concern is convincing the higher-ups that this is something they need to be doing.
Understand that it is a slow build. Again, people are typically not raising their hands to be early adopters. They also don't want to be left behind. Once you find those early adopters and test out the kinks, the decision-makers will be more willing to try little things and adapt to the change you are encouraging.
Pro Tip: The Low-Stakes Introductory Method
For example, let's say you want to introduce a completely new style of scenario-based e-learning to your organization. For some decision-makers, that can be a lot to get behind. Instead of a drastic overhaul, you can take scenario-based questions and include them in your current e-learning.
This is what call low stakes. You're just doing it at the assessment or question level; it doesn't mean the entire e-learning is a complete scenario-based branching situation (although I know you'd love to get there!). If you start with those little pieces, people can quickly grasp what scenario-based e-learning can do for them.
A lot of times, stakeholders might be completely on board with your new idea for something different, but they're also concerned about their learners and how they may or may not adapt. Leading and consulting with empathy is a great way to show them you acknowledge these concerns.
Someone once told me that when a cruise ship starts to make a turn, you don't feel that turn right away; It's a very slow turn. It’s the same thing when you want to introduce something new to your organization. When it comes to learning, you can't just go from zero to 100 in two seconds flat. It really is a slower build to get everybody on board and comfortable. For example, maybe there’s an additional expense that people need to get comfortable spending. Just remember, it’s a slow turn to change directions, but the ship will eventually turn.
Key Principle #2: Lead with the Benefits and Value
The next thing that you need to do to help bridge this old-school versus new-school mentality is to make people understand the benefit of doing something in a new way.
We don't talk enough in L&D about the benefits of what we do. We tend to just push out content from a compliance standpoint as opposed to communicating, “What's in it for me?” But if you explain what's in it for the organization, the learner, the department, and the ROI, it’s going to be a lot easier to gain buy-in. Lead from a place of benefits and value, and you’ll see people who want to jump on board. When they understand how it will benefit them, they'll want to engage more in conversation and dialogue around introducing that new change.
Key Principle #3: You Have to Sell It
I won’t lie, you have to be a salesperson. As consultants, we don’t love to say this, but we’re salespeople. And I don’t just mean selling to get new business; we’re trying to sell a new approach that we believe is in the best interest best of our learners.
For example, instead of doing everything as point-and-click software training, you might include immersive experiences where you have sandboxes and exercises for users’ people to try a holistic and hands-on-practice approach. That’s going to be scary for people, they may feel like it is more work, or that there is no one there to ensure users are practicing, so you have to sell it and practice overcoming objections!
Pro Tip: Talk About Their Pain Points
The way that training has been done for so long, for so many organizations, is probably not working, so you need to understand what that key stakeholder is thinking and speak to their pain points. When you explain how your new solution is going to address that key pain point, you’re showing them you understand what their struggles are. That’s when they begin to feel safe, take down their walls, have more trust in you, actually want to hear more about the solution, and can really think about whether that solution is the appropriate one for their problem.
Key Principle #4: You Have to Show Them
You can't just talk about it, you’ve got to be about it. Use sample scenarios to show them how this new approach would work I could talk all day about how TikTok-style videos have a place in learning and development, but people don't get it until I present examples they can connect with. Make it low stakes to give them something to react to.
The Ultimate Takeaway
My biggest thing is this: Chip away at change.
Don't expect grand change. You have to understand who your audience is, and how gradual improvements help you get to your end goal. If your end goal is using TikTok-style videos for L&D, then you need to find small ways of proving the benefit and value. Whether it's taking those principles and applying them to your next e-learning project or using it as marketing material for your next training program, those little things allow change to be normalized. Eventually, you can get to where you are hoping to: highlight the best of what the old school offers and introduce new school changes that will maximize your results.
That, to me, is the best of both worlds. That's bridging generations, the analog and the digital. That's bringing everyone to the table and seeing an organization go from stale and repetitive to a leading innovator. And I know that's where you want to be.
Let Anchored Training map out your next Learning & Development training.
Want to bring something new to your organization but not sure how to implement it? Check out some of our newest workshops and leadership retreats for Learning and Development Departments or contact Anchored Training today to discuss the Learning Blueprint and how it can help you create the transformative L&D department you’ve always wanted.
