To: L&D

From: A person you work with

Date: 2014 (although you treat us like it’s 1998)

You want me to take responsibility for my learning; I already do. I regularly seek out information from people who can help me, at a time it suits me, with systems that suit me. Have a look at my desk – what do you think those post-it notes are? Welcome to personalised performance support. Why don’t you count things like that as learning outside your LMS?

Why do I have to complete your elearning module before I can access the test which (you know) I’ll pass with a score of 70%? Let me take the test first so I can understand where my gaps in knowledge are.

Give me a frame to work within. I need to know what boundaries exist; it’s not about knowing what your required elements are but the breadth, depth, and facets of the topic. I don’t want to be constrained in a tight space with very narrow parameters. I want to be expected/allowed/encouraged to develop support from a range of channels that you don’t necessarily acknowledge as first hand sources.

Give me context. What value is there in completing content if I don’t get the relevance? I need to know what it means to me, in my reality. Your learning objectives are unlikely to be consistent with my performance objectives. They are more likely to be aligned with your metrics and that means little to me in my work.

I don’t want to wait 6 weeks for a course place. I don’t want to access online content from inside your firewall between 9 and 5 on a Monday to Friday. I want it when I need it. Your algorithms, data stores and predictive processes aren’t sophisticated enough to be able to anticipate when that may be. So make everything available now and let me choose what works and when. You never know – I might help you decide what content fits best.

But most importantly, tell me why I should bother doing it. Is it just to add numbers to your learning provision or is it about giving me meaning? Make it worthwhile and relevant. Make it of value. Make it personal to me.

I look forward to your response by return.