Learning and Development Trends You Don't Want to Miss

Learning and Development Trends for 2018 - VR is big.

Given that the half-life of a learned skill is a mere five years, change is happening faster than ever before. Companies are evolving their business models and development strategies to align their workforce with new customer demands. Learning and development trends reflect the rapidly changing skills required for current and future jobs.

After talking with many learning and development leaders and combing the blogs for emerging trends, I’ve assembled my list for the coming year. Following are the key learning and development trends. Love the list or don't, I welcome your comments.

Make finding and keeping talent a strategic business priority

According to an article in Training Magazine, 1/3 of companies are increasing their budget for learning and development over the next 12 months.

Offer leadership training and development to millennials

A recent article on Forbes.com provided 13 reasons why this is a smart initiative for organizations. The key takeaway? Adapt or die. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true.

Companies who invest the right mix of resources in developing the largest generation in our history will reap vast rewards. They will attract and retain more millennial employees, they will be among the companies who gain access to millennial record-breaking innovation. And they will cultivate strong leadership for the future.

Short single topic videos

Think YouTube. Brief, one topic video tutorials have become the norm and this pattern is driving learning and development trends in the same direction. Dubbed, “microlearning’, single topic videos sync with increased demand for value people have for media that vies for their attention.

Increasingly managers and employees will create their own quick training videos. As a matter of fact, I create brief screen share videos to train my employees on new tasks and I know I’m not the first.

Mobile learning

Training and development trends for mobile learning will take front and center stage. With people spending more time on their phones, it makes sense that mobile optimized eLearning will be essential. For example, in a webinar replay available for viewing on Talent & Development.org, the mobile focus came through loud and clear.

Not just for consuming learning and development content, but for creating, sharing and interacting. “The value of connecting content curation and big data to improve learning materials by measuring content effectiveness” is immense.

Make learning and development trends fun.

VR and AR aren’t new, but with the costs are coming down and technology improving, indicate a bright future in learning and development. Many people have kinesthetic eLearning styles and VR allows them to learn by doing.

The trend towards increased motivation and engagement with millennials workers is driving more development of gamified learning. In fact, millennials and generation Z employees enjoy playing games and engage more easily when the learning activity is fun. Gamification will continue to trend with learning and development for 2018 and beyond.

Social learning and sharing

An old saying in advertising applies here, “Go where the eyeballs are.” And the eyeballs of employees are on social media. Social sharing had become an integral part of 21st century life, so learning and development trends will too.

Organizations are moving towards omni-channel learning solutions. So, integrating all the different ways employees communicate with each other and their customers is the future. It’s not one solution, it’s a combination of several.

To get 6 specific tips for how to bridge the communication gap between generations, download my Ebook, "Teach Millennials Soft Skills".

Learning and Development Trends 2018 for millennials

Love these learning and development trends? Or hate ‘em and want to share your thoughts on these? Let me know with comments.

Mentoring is the answer to millennial soft skills gap

An open letter to everyone experiencing pain from the generational soft skills gap.

Millennial soft skills gap - the answer

Dear everyone who is Gen X or older,

I know you're tired of dealing with the Millennial, GenZ and A soft skills gap and the problems it causes. It's time consuming and frustrating. I get it. Ready for a solution? Let's try this.

Put the frustrations you have of these behaviors in a Tupperware container. Seal the lid and put the container on a shelf for a little while. You can get it back out and open the box to let those things out any time you want later.

Why do I ask you to do that? Because I know that we can inspire and coach millennials on soft skills. Interpersonal communications and relationship building skills are learnable and millennials love learning. They've been coached for everything their whole lives. Professional development is really important to them. And it’s in our best interest and theirs to take the time to teach millennials strong communication skills.

Complaining about this generation ensures failure of that goal. No one likes to be judged harshly. And no one likes being told they lack basic skills required for success either. That builds more conflict and barriers between generations, so let’s just hold off on that for the time being.

Millennial soft skills gap can be closed - by us

Next, I invite you to consider that every generation since Cain and Abel has rebelled against their parents in some way or another. Baby boomers railed against everything their parents’ generation stood for: music, social mores, military, business…the list goes on. Each generation must find its voice.

The voice of millennials includes key notes of work/life balance, a connected world and making earth a better place. Those are pretty good goals, don’t you think? Why wouldn’t we want to receive the excellent benefits that this generation can offer the world?

Finally, I suggest that we embrace this new generation for who they are. They aren’t going away, so we might as well make the most of having them here, right? Millennial expert, Jack Dorsey explained on the CBS Early Show, how much this generation has to offer. Their tech skills are extremely valuable, they are highly educated and share concerns for making the world a better place. Soft skills can be taught and this generation is quite willing to learn. Let’s coach them so we can all benefit. So, how does that sound?

Sincerely,

Margo

If you'd like some specific steps to help millennials improve their communication skills, download the free Ebook, "6 Actions to Take Now to Teach Millennials Soft Skills".

6 Actions to Take Now to Teach Millennials Soft Skills

What is the lack of soft skills in millennials costing us?

We hear it often. "Millennials make eye contact. They don't respect authority. They don't show up on time." Why? What happened? And how is this lack of soft skills impacting our culture and our businesses? Millennials who have great soft skills have a huge advantage over their peers who do not.  Studies, reports and articles emerge weekly about the severity of the challenges that employers have with hiring and managing a generation that lacks people skills. That means that members of the most tech savvy generation who have solid soft skills have a serious competitive advantage in the job market.

In his recent post, "Is Lack of Soft Skills Hindering Millennials' Careers?," Kevin Howell cited several studies that indicate the answer is "Yes".

Lack of soft skills is holding back Millennials in their careers

It's such a chronic and acute problem, that, according to a recent McKinsey study, "40 percent of employers said they have difficulty filling vacancies because younger workers lack soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and punctuality. A PayScale survey found similar results, with managers highlighting leadership and ownership as skills that Millennials lack."

What's the cause of this lackluster skill set? Too much focus on STEM education and job? Maybe. Too much screen time? Perhaps. Some studies have shown that "social anxiety with face-to-face interaction increases with the amount of time spent online."

"Regardless of the reason young workers struggle with soft skills, companies have to deal with it. Addressing the skills shortfall in the workplace means tailoring training and development toward those needs."

And that means that soft skills training for millennials needs three things:

• To be valued by millennials
• Fun for them to learn
• Include a lot of practice

Changing behaviors is hard and humans resist it. Shifting the way millennials interact in person is not going to be easy. Success will require engaging training, practice and accountability along the way.

This generation grew up with digital media and video games and they like activities to be fun. Gamifying soft skills training is essential to hold their attention.

Practicing new skills and repeating them often is how people skills behavior will change.

Referrals: the secret weapon used by the world's most successful business owners

Part 1 of 2 in a series.

Quick question: Which is more important for professional success? A) What you know B) Who you know

If you answered B), you already know a lot. But who you know isn’t much help for advancing your career or business if you don’t have skills. Having knowledge is far more likely to lead to success if other people realize you have it than if you secretly have them. So really, the answer is A) and B), in that order. Knowing people is great for building referral partnerships, but it won’t get you a job or sales leads without some talent and ability. And have amazing skills in a vacuum won't make you successful.

Do you find yourself stressed out when you think about making sales calls? Many people fee frustrated when they realize they need to build a strong network, have no idea where to begin. It can be a little like the “How do I get experience if I don’t have experience yet?” syndrome.

Download free ebook "From Cold to Sold" 17 secrets to getting more customers

Some people are naturally gifted in the art of networking and some are not. Guess what? That's totally ok! We are all different, which is what makes the world an interesting place. There's no reason to feel badly about yourself if you don't already have relationship building skills honed to a fine point. We can't all be ace at everything. (For example, don't ask me to file your taxes. Orange is definitely not my best color and I doubt it's yours.) If you aren’t the best at relationship and network building, don’t worry. Skills can be learned. So, what are the 3 steps you can take to build highly successful business relationships and bring referrals flowing into your business?

1. Ask. Be intensely curious about people. Ask a lot of questions about what they do, what they like to do, what success looks like for them, what their challenges and problems are. Ask what they enjoy most and least about their work. People love to talk about themselves, so this is easier than you might think.

Specifically ask them about their goals and concerns. Sample questions: What’s the most important goal you’re working towards right now? What’s your greatest challenge with achieving it? What keeps you up at night? Their answers will give you some insight to what they care about and the problems they are trying to solve. We’ll come back with what to do with the answers in tip 3.

To get 17 hacks for generating and converting leads, download my eBook, "From Cold to Sold" here.

Download Free eBook 2. Listen. Have you ever tried the experiment of listening more than you speak in a conversation? If you have, did the person you were "talking" with say, "You are so easy to talk to"? If not, try it out sometime. The results can be a fascinating illustration of how much value people place on sharing and feeling heard. It's not a bad thing that we like focusing on our own experiences and telling others about them. It's a human thing. When you're building a network of relationships with humans, understanding this quality is invaluable. We are wired to connect and share our thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences with people. And that happens to be awesome for networking.

3. Nurture. Once you've met someone and discovered what they value and established some rapport, the most important step to adding them to your network, is to follow-up with them. I cannot emphasize the importance of following-up enough. Have I mentioned how essential the follow up is?

Look for part 2 of this blog post next week and discover exactly what you can do to accelerate relationship nurturing and turn on the flow of referrals into your business.