It’s that time of year! You’re receiving articles, webinars, and white papers about learning and development trends. Hot topics include artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, data analytics, and the Metaverse. Others include learning in the flow of work, continuous leadership development, and soft skills training. With the growing list of trends, you may not know where your organization should start. So, here are a few things to consider before deciding which trend to follow.

Evaluate your current learning offerings and systems

The best place to start is where you are. First, take inventory of your current learning offerings. You want to look at the delivery format and how current the content is. Next, review learner feedback and KPIs to determine if you met the learning outcomes and the organization’s goals.

Take the time to check the current system and tools you are using. This way, you can determine their capabilities, and if they need an update. Decide if the tools you use allow you to make the impact you want to make with your learners. This step is crucial before choosing a new delivery path that uses AR or other learning methods requiring advanced programs and files. You want to ensure you can carry out these amazing experiences before you invest time and resources.

It’s imperative to understand what you currently offer and what your current systems and tools can do. Consider your company’s current pulse and culture towards learning, and your team’s capabilities. Then, you can create a strategy for what to do next.

Make small improvements

The easiest way to eat a pie is one piece at a time! Taking small steps towards a large goal can be a relief and help you reach your goals even faster. First, evaluate what you can do with what you have, rather than take a path that may not give you the desired results.

Go back to the audience and understand their daily pain points. Discover their view towards the topics and how they consume learning resources. Then, you can create a new and effective learning strategy and test out a new trend like learning in the flow of work. You can then decide what would work best for your learners and KPIs.

You can take other various small steps. Consider interviewing your learners, breaking down and chunking existing long content, and reporting on different variables that can make learning more enjoyable and result-driven.

Explore

Always continue learning. Take the time to attend conferences, workshops, and platform demonstrations. Connect with other learning practitioners and try out different tools or trends. You never know what might fit your organization’s needs. There are thousands of learning tools and learning management systems to choose from. By using sites like Capterra, you can compare the tools and read customer reviews. You can conduct a full analysis of their features and capabilities based on your organization’s requirements, and even talk to peers about their first-hand experiences.

Most importantly, stay open-minded and attentive to the needs of the learners and the entire organization. Remaining curious and willing to try new things will open the door to discovering something that gets you the desired results.

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To sum it up

There are countless new trends in the learning and development industry. But you and your organization ultimately determine what works best for your company. Don’t be overwhelmed by the research and hot topics. First, determine your current state of operations. Then, take the small steps necessary to make big changes. Finally, and most importantly, enjoy the process and explore new things. If you're determined to create better experiences for your learners and improve the bottom line for your organization, these tips will no doubt help you kickstart insightful trends that'll positively impact the learning culture.