Training content certainly doesn’t create itself. And it’s not created in a vacuum, either. Collaboration is key.
Whether it’s seeking out internal subject matter experts (SMEs) to provide the expert knowledge on which courses are built, or garnering buy-in from far-flung department managers who can throw resources behind a project, the ability to build and manage the right team should be an L&D leader’s strong suit.
In this blog, we’ve covered the importance of L&D leaders working with others throughout an organization in order to build successful courses and learning experiences.
But collaboration doesn’t come without its challenges. Effective collaboration requires the right processes, tools, and organizational buy-in to succeed. When all factors are aligned, it can have a massive impact on the overall success of a corporate training project.
“Collaboration isn’t easy and doesn’t happen naturally. It needs nurturing and support to flourish,” notes Bob Wiele in industry portal TrainingIndustry.com.
L&D leaders shouldn’t have to rethink collaboration, as they should already be well-aware of how closely it aligns with the five phases of ADDIE, the instructional design model and workhorse of the L&D industry: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation.
The Teaching and Learning Lab at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) adopted a collaborative process it calls the 5 D’ss: Discovery, Design, Development, Delivery, and Debrief, which closely map to ADDIE. Indeed, the first phase—Analysis for ADDIE and Discovery for HGSE—is perhaps the most important, because it requires an in-depth thoughtful, inquiry-based process of discovery in which the needs and opportunities of a project are outlined.
Only when needs are assessed can the L&D leader begin the process of collaboration—assembling the right team members and then assigning them tasks as the project moves through ADDIE’s Design and Development phases.
“Real collaboration emerges when all team members feel comfortable contributing their best work and bringing forward their disruptive ideas and contrarian opinions,” continues Wiele of TrainingIndustry.com. “Like all skills, real collaboration is learned and developed over time, through persistent effort, practice, feedback, experience, discovery, adversity, and success.”
Your team can collaborate more effectively by using a Learning Design System (LDS). Besides the ability to convert technical content to training material, allowing anyone to design and build effective courses rapidly and at scale, an LDS incorporates automation elements that can streamline your front-end development process — incorporating the crowdsourced training requests mentioned previously, to performing a needs analysis, then incorporating design, content assembly, storyboarding, prototyping, testing, version control, and maintenance.
Want to learn more about how collaboration can fuel success in corporate training? Download our free ebook!
