8: A Challenge for L&D Professionals to End 2020

Heidi Kirby  0:06  
Hello friends and welcome to the BLOC, the Building Learning and Organizational Culture podcast. I'm your host Heidi Kirby. This episode is a solo episode where I talk about how we, as learning and development professionals, can take some steps to finish the 2020 year strong. So I hope you enjoy this brief solo episode, after a word from our sponsor Verasana.

Verasana Narrator  0:34  
Your business needs a better way to train. The better that your team needs is training that leads to performance. Verasana is interactive and repeatable, so your employees can return to lessons as many times as they need to. And we optimize the training, so they, and you, can view their progress. The power of mobile makes it possible. Our team has decades of experience and expertise. We do it because we've been where you are. Verasana - the better way to learn.

Heidi Kirby  1:03  
I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a year unlike any other. We've all experienced a lot of setback, stress, and the unexpected. I know that a lot of us are adjusting to a new normal. I personally experienced a number of setbacks myself. In April, I was laid off from my job and spent six weeks unemployed. I also failed my first attempt at my written comprehensive exams for my Ph.D. program. And not as big of a setback, but I did find out - very recently - that as a grown 33-year-old woman, I need to get braces. I'm not looking forward to that. 

1:52  
But a lot of good has happened this year too. I've had the immense pleasure to work for a startup that's creating this amazing mobile learning platform. And I've been able to start the BLOC podcast as part of that. I get to be home with my fur babies all day long, my two dogs and two cats. And without the commute, and the long hours of my old job, I've had a lot more time to spend with my husband and my four-year-old son, Hank. I have four nieces already, but this fall, my very first nephew was born. My husband and I are also in the process of buying a new home. I share this to say that when we have setbacks and we have the time to reflect, there's also the potential for growth. I think that's true for our field in L&D as well. 2020 is finally bringing us - for real this time - the death of flash and an experiment in remote learning for many children, taught us how poor implementation and a weak infrastructure can break and otherwise exciting time for technology. 

3:06  
In the last week alone, I've read how elearning is dead, something people have been saying for years, by the way, and how LMSs are basically the learning and training equivalent to that storage attic that you put things in that are too sentimental to get rid of, but you're probably never going to use them again. So today, I want to talk about a few things that we as learning and development professionals can do to end the year strong and to make a great impact on our organizations. I have a few different challenges for you. And here's where they start. 

3:44  
First of all, we need to take more responsibility for educational research. This year, I think more than any other, we maybe learned for the first time, or for some of us who come from the field of education as educators, we already knew this, but the educational infrastructure in the United States is not ready for the technology that educators are ready to use. Educational theory that we're drawing from to design instruction is pretty outdated. That being said, I see my colleagues out there doing an amazing job of research on learning analytics learner engagement online instructional strategies. Two of my classmates, Pauline and Eamonn, have been publishing research like crazy. And we have to keep this up. We have to keep up with the technology and help our educators best to use the technology that they're having to use online right now because of COVID. We are the ones that have to start doing more research to pull the field of education into the modern age. So, I encourage you, if you're not a research person, read or consume one research article or scholarly journal article on our field before the end of the year. If you are a research person, I encourage you to plan a research study to start in 2021 or to publish research that you've already done. We have to keep going with educational research, so that we can continue to use it to inform how we design instruction and use sound research-based methods to incorporate technology into our design. 

5:48  
The second is that we need to be better at keeping up with technology and willing to be ambassadors for change. How many people do you know in our field are using outdated technology? How many LMSs have you seen that have courses in them that haven't been touched in years? I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that we are a technology field, as much as we are education we are also technology, which means we have a responsibility to keep up with technological advances, a huge responsibility. I get that there are budgetary concerns. I get that there's red tape. I worked for government. I worked for corporate. I worked in higher ed. I get that. However, I was just having a similar conversation on LinkedIn the other day. We have free - free access to things like screencast software, audio, video and photo editing tools, beautiful graphics and photos. If you haven't heard of unsplash.com, you need to go check it out right now. Pause this podcast. Stop it. Go open that. Because those photos on that site are free to use. And they are 10 times better than any cartoon clip art graphic you can find in the public domain. There are free infographic and icon creators, free accessibility tools so that we can meet the needs of all of our learners. There's no excuse anymore not to be incorporating new technology into your design and development processes.

7:53  
Hand in hand with that... People in learning and development are in a unique position to be ambassadors of change in their organizations. Why? Think about training or implementation of a new product software system, you name it. Who's usually in on the very first meetings - on the very first demos of such things? We are because we're the ones who have to design the training for the rest of the organization on whatever that product - system - software is. So from the very beginning, we get a view into things that the rest of our organization hasn't yet seen, and our representation of those things to the others in our organization is crucial to adoption. I cannot tell you how many times in my admittedly short career  I have watched people in learning and development tank a software, or a system, or a product by talking bad about it to the rest of the organization. Part of our responsibility when we provide training to the organization is maximizing the way that we use these things. We have that responsibility to improve performance. So, any issues that we see with a product or software system, we should really be bringing to the table when we get that first look at the new item. And we should be helping to resolve those issues before it gets out to the rest of the organization. 

9:44  
I watched this happen, and it was really really sad. But when someone continues to make up for lack of willingness to change by bad mouthing every new system - software - product that comes through and says, "Oh, well this system has some really big limitations." "I'm sorry but we're only going to be able to do X, Y and Z." "When we get to new software, you're going to have to, you know, change your processes" - whatever - our value as a learning and development team plummets. It plummets. Not only do we make the new product or software look bad, we make the implementation less effective, and we tank the adoption. So, it's a crucial piece of our job to make sure that change is embraced, and it has to start with us. We're a technology field, we have to embrace change, and at least be willing to try new technology. So that's my challenge to you. Before the end of this year, I want you to try one new technological tool that could help to inform the design of your instruction. 

11:06  
This last one is a tough one. But it's crucial, I think, to making a greater impact as a field. We need to set boundaries and be more intentional instructional designers and learning and development professionals. What do I mean by setting boundaries? Too many times people in learning and development get treated as a cost center, as an afterthought, as a burden. In my previous episode with Latoya Smith, we talked about some of the different questions that you can ask in job interviews to see how much an L&D department is valued. I'd highly encourage you to check that out. And to that point - believe me, on a very personal level, I know that this is easier said than done, especially during COVID if you're laid off... We need to stop taking jobs that just are not learning and development. Let me give you an example. This summer while I was laid off, I interviewed for what was called an instructional design job. Throughout the interview process, I found out that the position was actually just moving content from one website to another. And my least favorite phrase as an instructional designer. I was asked to make it prettier. You can't see me right now but I'm rolling my eyes. Now this was also a contract position, so I knew there was no chance of them getting to know me and my skill set, building from there, and all that good stuff. This position was going to pay really good money, but there was zero instructional design processes involved. I was going to be an order taker. And if you know me, you know that that does not sit well. But as somebody who had been out of work for a full month, it was really hard to turn it down. But I had to for the integrity of the field - for the integrity of my career path. I even told the recruiters when I turned the job down that they needed to reclassify the job title, because it was not instructional design work. 

13:31  
If we continue to take jobs where we're asked to take orders... I always like to say to make the pizza, and if our main duties are more, quote unquote, other duties as assigned than they are analysis, design, development, implementation evaluation, then as a field, we need to start turning down those positions. Because by taking them, we are encouraging the narrative that that's all we do is take orders. I would encourage you, if you're an instructional designer looking for a job or a learning and development professional looking for a job. And you interview for something that doesn't quite feel right that you have the courage to try and look for something that better fits your skill set. I also encourage you, if you're already in a position where you don't have a lot of power or autonomy. And don't get me wrong, I'm not here to judge you - my first ever instructional design position was kind of like that because I had to break into the field in some way, right? So, taking orders was a big portion of that. But I would encourage you if you're in that position where you don't have a lot of autonomy that by the end of the year this year, you make a plan to have one difficult conversation with your direct supervisor or whoever else to try and get back a little bit of power, a little bit of autonomy, even if it's just on one project and you're asking to take the lead. Or one assignment that you're saying, "Hey, I don't need to meet with you weekly about this, I've got it under control. Let's meet bi weekly." Just one small little step towards more independence and more. I'd encourage you to try that.

15:42  
On the same note, much like Cammy Bean's amazing book, The Accidental Instructional Designer prepares people who fall into our field, no matter how we go about learning and development, we need to be intentional about our career path forward. Many of us come from other fields. It's just kind of the nature of what we do. Your undergrad degree may be in something completely different than education and instructional design -mine is in English. I've met people who have graphic design undergrad degrees... journalism... history... chemistry... you name it. But we all somehow end up here. The important part is how we then move forward. If you're lucky enough to work for an organization that invests in your development, don't forget to utilize those resources. Take advantage of that budget and attend a conference or attend a class, or use it to learn something new and hone your craft. If you're not one of the lucky ones, and I'm sure that this applies to a lot more people than we'd like to admit. What are you doing to develop yourself this year? What are you reading? What webinar are you watching? What newsletter have you signed up for? What new theory are you learning about? There's a ton of free resources out there for people who want to learn our craft. And I think, as a field, we're all willing to really help each other out too. So, I would encourage you, before the end of the year - before the year is up, especially if you have annual performance reviews right around the corner, set one large or small additional professional development goal to hit, and really end the year on a positive note. 

18:04  
So just to recap - Keep up with and consume educational research. Find a new technology to try to help you design instruction. Have one difficult conversation that helps you gain a little bit more autonomy. And last but certainly not least, set one last professional development goal. And I want to know how it goes. I want to know if you have any other goals or ideas that you're incorporating before the end of the year. I'll share this episode in a post on LinkedIn, and I would love to use that as a place to keep this conversation going. I look forward to hearing when everybody's doing. 

Heidi Kirby  18:48  
Thanks again for joining me on the BLOC. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and review us on your favorite podcast platform. I hope you'll tune in again.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai