All Technology Is Learning Technology

Mar 31 • Written by Julie Dozier

We need to think of our work systems as learning systems.

In case you missed Part 1, we are reflecting on this past year and sharing observations from our work with our clients and across the learning industry. Last year, we saw organizations more fully integrate technologies into their workflow to enable remote and hybrid workers. Many of these systems — e.g., Slack, Teams, Spaces — are designed to support team communication and virtual collaboration. 

“Pandemic technology” has changed the way we work.

Especially for teams that did most of their pre-pandemic communication in person, these systems have changed everything. There is now a centralized channel for continuous dialogue that the whole team can contribute to and easily reference. This has made us more efficient in other ways, leading to improvements in our email and meeting habits. These systems are easy to use and have potential to further optimize our processes, with features added constantly and libraries full of countless plug-ins. It’s been amazing to watch organizations adapt to these new ways of working. It’s a testament to the human ability to cultivate new behaviors and build a new set of skills so quickly. These systems are fully integrated into our workflow, and we use them on a daily — even hourly — basis.

Our learning systems sit outside of our daily workflow.

In sharp contrast, our learning systems are still very siloed and not at all integrated into our flow of work. Many of them promise to be the Google or Netflix of learning, but they aren’t actually serving learners at the point of need. We’ve invested in the LMS as the place where learning happens, but expecting learners to make daily visits to the learning platform is unrealistic. That isn’t where their work is happening, so that isn’t where most of their learning is happening.

That said, we do see a huge upside to all these changes in how we work, and we’d like to claim it as a victory for learning teams everywhere. It used to be difficult to pinpoint where and how to integrate learning into the flow of work. Now we’re all in the same virtual spaces every day. And even though in-person work may become more common, we will have more dispersed teams and flexible work arrangements than we did pre-pandemic. We will continue to use these systems because they are a better way to communicate and get work done. This is the new normal.

Let’s think of our work systems as learning systems.

That’s why we’re exploring how our communication and collaboration systems can be leveraged to cultivate new learning behaviors. Much of this technology was adopted during a stressful and urgent time filled with challenges. Now we have the space to finally develop more of a strategy around how we use them. The way these systems are used for learning purposes is totally up to the organization; there are infinite approaches, and we have made various recommendations for our clients based on their unique situation. The important thing is to think of them as learning systems and define their role in the learning ecosystem. 

How Tangram can help:

We’re excited to share the ideas we’ve been exploring with our clients to organically bring learning into the flow of work. We can strategize together about different techniques to build new learning behaviors and change the way your organization thinks about learning. Contact us to talk about what we’ve been doing and discuss ways we can help you.