5 Planning Questions to Explore

It’s that time again! What’s your plan for next year? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself and discuss with your team during your visioning and planning meetings.

1. What can you pilot?

Maybe you’re not ready to adopt a new technology or a new learning approach. That’s okay! Start small and do a pilot instead. A pilot is a legitimate project in and of itself, and frankly, we don’t see enough of them. A few recommendations for your pilot: 1) Think of it as a rough prototype — it doesn’t need to be complete or perfect but it should give learners a sense of the experience. 2) Take the opportunity to do some A/B testing. Split your learners into two groups and take some different approaches so you can see what works best. 3) Be sure to establish success measures and track your results — and choose actual performance targets so you can see if there’s a lift.

2. What’s working well that you’re ready to scale?

This is a great time of year to recognize and celebrate the things that are working well! We recommend bringing all the learning folks together for a sharing session where they showcase the techniques, strategies, courses, etc. that have been getting a particularly good response. This could be a tiny innovation or something more grand — be sure to set the expectations that all successes are welcome. This is a great way to break down silos and allow great ideas to spread — or spark an idea for a totally different application!

3. What do you want to stop doing once and for all?

This is going to be the year when we let go of things that are not working. Sometimes it just takes asking the question, and creating a safe space for people to speak up. Have an open mind and an open heart — and be open to the possibility that there’s a better way. Maybe a program isn’t getting the results we need to warrant the investment. Or, maybe there’s a process that needs to be examined and redesigned. This is the year.

4. How can you communicate better with your organization?

If you’re currently relegated to a tiny section at the bottom of the corporate newsletter, we’re talking to you. We’re not saying go behind the communication team’s back exactly…. :) but there’s got to be a better way! What other avenues can you use to spread the word about new learning opportunities and positive results that learners are getting from specific programs? See if you can get a spot on your organization’s homepage — maybe they have a rotating banner? — or, at the very least, partner with HR to get a spot on town hall agendas. Invest in some attention-getting ads to market your core offerings. And put your creative minds together to develop marketing campaigns for your key programs.

5. How can you provide more learning opportunities for your team (and for you!)?

The shoemaker’s children…don’t have their own learning opportunities? Yes, that’s the expression. This is SO important. We spend all day long designing and managing learning for others, but we need it too. The reason we advocate so strongly for learning for our organization is because it has the power to boost our performance by building new knowledge and skills. It helps us recharge. It helps us grow in our confidence and ability to tackle our challenges in a whole new way. So, what are you going to do for your own performance in 2021? We do offer workshops for learning teams — just wanted to put that out there.

As you’re wrapping up this year and planning for the next, let us know how we can support you!