It’s time to get the team together. Your goal: Develop your next program launch, an e-learning course, and next year’s curriculum. That’s a lot to tackle; you’ll need to pull together mountains of content, review feedback from past trainings, build your new program and then roll it out. You may be tempted to just jump right in with content development. But before making that leap, consider these six easy steps that you can take to ensure success.
Develop a Blueprint.
Start with a direct question: What are you trying to accomplish with the program? In its simplest form, the goal is likely to change behavior. Maybe you want to increase use of a great internal system that can help boost sales, but no one is leveraging the tool. Or maybe your customer service team is getting bombarded with questions, and you want to decrease the number of help desk tickets. In either situation, you must first identify what you are currently doing to help your staff. Compare that with what you are trying to accomplish, and you will then be able to develop a blueprint. As you develop the blueprint for your content, keep in mind that it should fit your organization’s culture, correlate to your business objectives, and bring the change – and ultimately the business results – that you are looking for.
Gather the Data.
With a blueprint in place, it’s time to talk to the people who are, or will be, participating in the training. Gathering their feedback about what works and what doesn’t as laid out in the blueprint is will be invaluable as you begin to develop your content. The same people can also provide guidance on the best way to deliver the training. Look for similarities, crossovers and outliers as you collect input. The more data points you can gather, the better, as they will provide you with the best possible picture of what’s going on before you build.
Start Building.
With data and feedback in hand, it’s time to develop your content. Be sure to pay close attention to three key elements: what the content looks like, how it’s being delivered and the intended message. Each element should always reflect your brand and drive toward the business goals you are trying to reach.
As you build, keep a laser-focus on your audience. Your goal isn’t to just develop great content but to deliver an incredible learner experience. You want the content to resonate with them, elevate their performance to new heights and increase their engagement. Because you’ve gathered their feedback before you started to build, the content will speak for itself, and they won’t have to ask, “What’s in it for me?” Be sure to use a variety of modalities to keep the learner engaged, but never try to force too many topics into one delivery method. By spreading out your message across multiple vehicles, you will likely see the retention of information among employees begin to rise.
Spread the Word.
Now that you’ve identified what you want to change, defined clear goals and developed your content, it’s time to think about how learners will hear about the training. The learner experience actually starts before the program launches, so you should kick everything off with an enticing beginning. Think of promoting your program like a movie trailer – you have to get the word out and get people excited! Your employees are consumers of your training, and it is your job to get them excited for what’s to come. Be creative, and don’t be afraid to try something new to generate awareness. Leverage attractive visual design, catchy promotions … you name it. This way, when the program launches, they won’t be surprised.
Open the Doors.
The moment of truth has arrived. The doors to the training room are open, your course has gone live, the online program has launched and your new curriculum is being rolled out. You are now at the stage where you can begin to capture feedback and track success. Be sure to check in with your employees and measure what they think. Go back to the employees who shared feedback on the blueprint, and ask them if the program delivered on their expectations. Surveys, emails and informal conversations will continue to drive engagement and buy-in.
Remember: It’s okay to make edits and changes along the way. Your content is published, but that doesn’t mean it’s set in stone.
Keep Evaluating – Practice Makes Perfect.
The doors may have closed at the end of the program, but you’re not done yet. It’s important to keep your employees engaged long after the training. Pull out key points, important facts and helpful tricks from the content, and continue to push them to employees 30, 60 and 90 days after your training. This reinforcement will help keep important topics from slipping through the cracks. Continue to measure and evaluate the program against the objectives. Capture your learnings for future programs, and you should see positive change.
