Who has the time? Not the learners who already spend enough time glued to their screens, not the people holding the purse strings who have to make tough decisions, and certainly not the learning department that has to pivot themselves to help the business pivot.

In my last blog, I wrote: “Learning has to find ways to look at the big picture of what we want to accomplish and integrate that with other parts of the business. Think of it like creating a culture of learning that’s just right for the future; a redesign vs. a repurpose.”

It’s that big picture and integration where ruthless relevance comes in. Ruthless relevance is about toning down our impulses to create the best, most creative, most bombastic learner experience so that we can be more practical in what we deliver.

It’s taking a look at what the company needs and asking tough questions. Marie Kondo would ask, Does this bring joy? Learning needs to ask: Does this bring value? Here are a few more questions:

• Do we need it? What value does the learning bring?
• Why are we doing it? Is it to feed our own need to show we provide value, or is it to deliver learning that makes the business better?
• Is it strategic? How does it help the business achieve its goals?
• Is it relevant? How does it help employees do their jobs better?
• Do we need to do it this way? Do we need a full-blown multi-media experience, or can we accomplish the same thing with smaller learning pieces over time?

And what do we do if our business is based on designing and developing learning experiences? It’s not such a shift for us. We’ve always been innovative that way.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Lydia