Learning Resolutions: Working Less to Accomplish More

In 2013, it’s time for me to do less… much less.

The Pareto rule (or power laws of distribution) shows that success in a company is driven by the critical few, not the trivial many. So instead of attempting to boil the ocean trying to cover everything, it is better to focus on those key elements in a business that will have the greatest impact on performance.

It’s time to develop less volumes of content to focus on fewer, more high-value resources.

Workers are busier than ever. They have no time for long courses or extra information. They need resources that fit into their workflow, not hour-long courses. Not only is this consistent with workplace needs, but it mirrors what is known about how the brain works.

It’s time to do less and develop lean resources that fit into workplace timelines and capacity.

Most learning happens in the workflow as workers use resources and networks to actively problem-solve. It’s not a reasonable expectation to pull workers out of the workflow to learn; they need to learn as they go. We must be embedded in the workflow, not only to provide resources at time-of-need, but to also better understand performance to more effectively respond to issues and opportunities.

It’s time for to have fewer courses behind learning management system logins, and time for L&D to go to where the workers are and improve the learning happening in the work ecosystem.

Layers of Instructional Design repackaging information from SMEs often move too slow to keep pace with the speed of business. There are many great tools to facilitate authoring content and sharing information, removing unnecessary layers.

It’s time to do less by providing the right platform for participation and then stepping out of the way to let frontline performers author and share resources to provide front line support.

There was more content uploaded today than any individual could hope to consume in a lifetime. Helping to filter and curate content that aligns with your worker’s needs is often better time spent than developing even more content.

It’s time to develop less and better leverage the rich resources already available.

In 2013, I think it’s time I do less. I hope you do, too.

You can find more from David Glow on his Twitter feed @criticallearner or on his website: Business Critical Learning.