The 4 Alignments of Designing Learning to Support Organizational Change
The Tool:
4 ways to align your learning design to an organizational change
The Purpose
When your organization is launching a big change (for example, the rollout of a company-wide AI tool, the deployment of a new ERP system, or a rebrand) your L&D department might be lucky enough to get a seat at the table well before launch. If so, congratulations, your stakeholders are anticipating training needs.
If that is not the case, you may find yourself retroactively aligning your design with a rollout of a change that… maybe did not go according to plan? We can complain about that at the water cooler later.
In either case, here are four ways to align your learning products to a change happening in your organization.
Use Case
If you are in the process of meeting with stakeholders about developing training that supports a new company-wide tool or process change, here are four alignments to keep in mind as you develop your learning project scope.
1. Align Your Scope
To create learning that supports an organizational change, you first need to understand the scope of the change. You need a clear picture of what is changing, who is impacted, and what the metrics for success will be when the project is implemented.
2. Align Your Messaging
Work across departments to find out what is being communicated about the change, and by whom. The earlier these communications are discussed, the smoother the rollout will be, and the more likely it is your learners will engage with the training support you are creating.
3. Align Your Design
The learning you build will need to be aligned with the objectives of the rollout. Ask questions of your stakeholders to create a clear picture of what the expectations will be post-launch.
Ask about prior knowledge of your learners - what systems have they used that are similar? Is the new system replacing an old one? What issues do they anticipate learners having?
4. Align Your Evaluation
Good learning design should support behavior change, so try to pin down those metrics early in the process. What are your stakeholders expecting of the users post-launch? What behaviors do they want to see? How can you demonstrate that your training materials supported those behaviors?
Pros
Being at the forefront of change management is a huge opportunity for an L&D team - having a seat at the table before a company-wide launch can help you create just-in-time support, rather than too-little, too-late support. These four aligns will help your design process and demonstrate the value of your department.
Cons
Your learners may be experiencing change fatigue, which can present itself as resistance to training support. Correctly aligning scope, messaging, design and evaluation in a rapidly-changing environment is difficult and requires delicacy when navigating conversations with stakeholders. But by demonstrating buy-in to the change early in the process, you are better positioned to help the rest of the organization navigate the transition as smoothly as possible.
Takeaways
A big organizational change is rarely, at its core, a training problem. But by aligning training to the change management plan early in the project, you have the unique opportunity to support and manage change in a meaningful way.
