In my last post, I highlighted two phases for businesses in dealing with the pandemic: resolve and recovery. Resolve is what companies need to do right now to make it to the future. Recovery is what companies will need to do to secure their futures. Here are five things that learning and development can start doing during the resolve phase.

Declutter your learning. Assess what content you have and think about what you need. Interior designers do this all the time. Imagine looking at your courses through Mario Kondo’s lens and asking, “Does this spark joy?” Is it something you’re proud of? Is it doing what it needs to do? Keep the pieces you like as a foundation, and you can start adding new stuff around them.

Keep in touch. Everyone’s busy, but people still need to feel connected—including you. Find ways to reach out to people from across the business. Talk to managers and employees of all types. Ask them how they’re doing and what kind of learning would help them achieve their work objectives. Talk to learning experts. The new normal is our world too, and we have insights to share.

Use what you got. Scour your current learning content for bite-sized pieces you can use right now. If there’s a video or small learning course that is helpful, send it around. If you have parts that are about behaviour change, use it as a basis for a targeted micro-learning campaign and build easy-to-do pieces around it; for example, record a short video of you talking about it, or record an audio version.

Start adapting now. The new normal is going to have less instructor-led in-person events. The reality is that even if there’s a return to physical infrastructure, senior leaders recognize what can be done with today’s communication technologies. They will not easily return to the old ways. You’ll have to get creative and be able to turn your most valuable content into instructor-led virtual events. I’ll talk more about that in my next blog.

Embrace change. There’s lots of change now, and there’s going to be lots of it in the future. You’re going to think you’re moving in one direction, only to have to make a u-turn and go back the other way to find the right path. I’m reminded of Bowie’s lyrics, “Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strange.” I miss him.

Next time, I’ll talk about the four steps in our see-think-learn-do model that we use for converting instructor-led events to virtual offerings. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Lydia