Much of our L&D lives are still hung up on that recurring notion that "we need to do better". But do we? Let's get this part out of the way: Yes, of course, we should always be striving to do better. And the digital assets or learning solutions we create should be powerful enough to chance behaviors and drive real change. Okay, now that we've dispensed with that, let's get back to reality. Compliance training exists for legal reasons. Legal issues are highly defined and detailed... lots of fine print. If a company can PROVE X, Y, Z, things, they will not be held liable for issues that would incur large financial costs. Solution: Hire person/team to do what legal doc says; no more, no less. And require that there is proof. That's all any company is concerned about. And that's why training courses are as mundane as they are. This is also why no company will spend more money to "make them better". Why would they. There is no such thing as being MORE compliant than you were before. You are compliant, or you aren't. Auditors will come in, review the documentation that proves everything is compliant. But they won't take your training course. Even if they did, they would say, "damn... that sucked...but you covered everything. You pass. See ya next year". Until the law says "prove that your training directly caused behavior change with a double blind study" you will never get your business leaders to buy a refrigerator. Small ice cubes get the job done.
You're 100% right of course but to extend the frig analogy to the extreme...the new ones come with ice makers. So either as part of your new org-wide license with [insert LMS company here], they'll also throw in the ability to generate, on the fly, any and all compliance training you need at low or no cost. They'll do this because they built an AI agent that can work with 3rd party services and build that content almost automatically and then send it down the LMS API which will push it out through the company and will eve deploy AI-enabled chatbots to IM people to remind them to take it. Now the question again comes back to L&D, when that activity is removed, where do you then add value? (Believe me - I strongly and passionately know there is an answer but I just as passionately know we won't find it by thinking about what we do in the same way). Does that make sense?
Makes perfect sense. I hadn't thought that it would be the LMS vendors that would have the foresight to make this happen... and they may not... but I get your point and think that's what's freaking people out. One might think, well, AI can't go out and take video and images of unique situations, processes, equipment, etc. But then again, a SME can handle that and just upload that content and ask the AI to turn it all into a course with an interactive assessment at the end. We're doomed.
The progress we’re seeing will force us up the cognitive funnel towards unpacking and transforming the far-transfer skills of experts. I agree with Mark here; we won’t have the easy lunch of converting compliance information into consumable, trackable ‘learning,’ but let’s be honest, compliance training does, in no way, guarantee actual compliance. And, I’m excited to be leaving all of that infotainment behind. The sooner that sort of ‘awareness training’ is off the menu, the sooner we’ll be able to start leaning into real value creation via actual performance focus. The ‘what is it you say you do here’ question from other lines of business will actually become a re-turning point, and that is in no small part to AI taking the compliance option off our plate. Thank you! I say, ‘re-turning’ because we’ve seemingly lost the ability, practically as an industry, to consult on matters at the operational level like the giants before us e.g., Wallace, Gilbert, Rummler, Mager, and so many others. When did ID work become synonymous with curation, content development, and information wrangling instead of organizational improvement? Did we get crushed under the tyranny of management or did we let it happen? I digress… let AI have the data so we can focus on the direction. I see that as a win.
Much of our L&D lives are still hung up on that recurring notion that "we need to do better". But do we? Let's get this part out of the way: Yes, of course, we should always be striving to do better. And the digital assets or learning solutions we create should be powerful enough to chance behaviors and drive real change. Okay, now that we've dispensed with that, let's get back to reality. Compliance training exists for legal reasons. Legal issues are highly defined and detailed... lots of fine print. If a company can PROVE X, Y, Z, things, they will not be held liable for issues that would incur large financial costs. Solution: Hire person/team to do what legal doc says; no more, no less. And require that there is proof. That's all any company is concerned about. And that's why training courses are as mundane as they are. This is also why no company will spend more money to "make them better". Why would they. There is no such thing as being MORE compliant than you were before. You are compliant, or you aren't. Auditors will come in, review the documentation that proves everything is compliant. But they won't take your training course. Even if they did, they would say, "damn... that sucked...but you covered everything. You pass. See ya next year". Until the law says "prove that your training directly caused behavior change with a double blind study" you will never get your business leaders to buy a refrigerator. Small ice cubes get the job done.
You're 100% right of course but to extend the frig analogy to the extreme...the new ones come with ice makers. So either as part of your new org-wide license with [insert LMS company here], they'll also throw in the ability to generate, on the fly, any and all compliance training you need at low or no cost. They'll do this because they built an AI agent that can work with 3rd party services and build that content almost automatically and then send it down the LMS API which will push it out through the company and will eve deploy AI-enabled chatbots to IM people to remind them to take it. Now the question again comes back to L&D, when that activity is removed, where do you then add value? (Believe me - I strongly and passionately know there is an answer but I just as passionately know we won't find it by thinking about what we do in the same way). Does that make sense?
Makes perfect sense. I hadn't thought that it would be the LMS vendors that would have the foresight to make this happen... and they may not... but I get your point and think that's what's freaking people out. One might think, well, AI can't go out and take video and images of unique situations, processes, equipment, etc. But then again, a SME can handle that and just upload that content and ask the AI to turn it all into a course with an interactive assessment at the end. We're doomed.
The progress we’re seeing will force us up the cognitive funnel towards unpacking and transforming the far-transfer skills of experts. I agree with Mark here; we won’t have the easy lunch of converting compliance information into consumable, trackable ‘learning,’ but let’s be honest, compliance training does, in no way, guarantee actual compliance. And, I’m excited to be leaving all of that infotainment behind. The sooner that sort of ‘awareness training’ is off the menu, the sooner we’ll be able to start leaning into real value creation via actual performance focus. The ‘what is it you say you do here’ question from other lines of business will actually become a re-turning point, and that is in no small part to AI taking the compliance option off our plate. Thank you! I say, ‘re-turning’ because we’ve seemingly lost the ability, practically as an industry, to consult on matters at the operational level like the giants before us e.g., Wallace, Gilbert, Rummler, Mager, and so many others. When did ID work become synonymous with curation, content development, and information wrangling instead of organizational improvement? Did we get crushed under the tyranny of management or did we let it happen? I digress… let AI have the data so we can focus on the direction. I see that as a win.
Ha! We're only doomed if we want to keep selling buggy whips while cars take over the roads.
Could you not sense my sarcasm there? LOL!
Actually I was probably channelling the Eeyores amongst us.
Personally, I'm all-in... just currently flying a holding pattern... not quite ready to buzz the tower 😂
You didn't use the "/s" sarcasm tag :-)