Reflecting Back to Move Forward in Leadership and Development

We’ve seen numerous trends emerge over the last two years in response to an everchanging world due to the pandemic. What will we see emerge this year? Keeping in mind what we learned last year will help propel us into 2022. The great resignation hanging in the forefront of our minds is impacting the consideration of how to better implement learning and development within our organizations. Leaders and companies have risen to each occasion and will continue to do so, but let’s take a moment to reflect on the upcoming challenges of 2022.

Positive trends we’ll see this year:

1. Building communities around learning and collaboration. The number one priority for 2022 reported by nearly 60% of HR leaders was building critical skills and competencies. The need to upskill or reskill employees to ensure success is critical. It’s even more important in a hybrid or remote work environment to achieve overall company success.
2. Digital learning is changing the role of classroom learning. As more and more employees transition to a hybrid or fully remote workforce, classroom learning is taking a backseat to digital learning. Though some companies are planning to return to classroom training once the pandemic is over, others are seeing an opportunity to create a modified version. A recording of live instructor-led training in person can be repurposed as a digital learning resource for later use.
3. Including wellbeing in L&D. The goal of many employees over the last several years has been to gain a better work-life balance. With leaders and company executives reaching a better sense of cooperation on the matter, strategies that will benefit the organization and every employee can be built. Including wellbeing in eLearning designs will also lead to a more humane approach to work that will in turn lead to more productive employees, more efficient learning, and an organic progression for the business.

Negative trends we’ll want to overcome:

1. People feel overwhelmed and too burnt out to learn. Between staff shortages, staggered schedules, and the general feelings of anxiety, employees are not in the right mental state to learn. Another culprit behind this fatigue is the lengthening of the average workday by 48.5 minutes during the weeks following the stay-at-home orders.

What can you do to combat this? Step 1 is to simply be aware of your audience’s mental state of feeling spread thin and disconnected. Try using ice breakers or a friendly, relaxed approach to ease their already stressed-out mindset.

2. Increasing disconnection from colleagues. Remote and even hybrid work schedules are making connecting with coworkers more difficult. Digital interactions are not the same as those in person and can evoke feelings of isolation. Working on your own can make it feel like you’re not really part of a team.

What can you do to combat this? You can create a more effective virtual learning experience if you understand the importance of social support when learning. By organizing break-out groups you can put the class into smaller teams to answer questions or discuss a challenge. This keeps them engaged, discourages them from bailing on the class, and can restore social ties.

3. L&D feel overextended and discontented with virtual offerings. Converting in-person training to digital hasn’t been as simple as L&D professionals hoped for. Lack of engagement is a problem that keeps coming up for these virtual designs and 53% said their virtual offerings were less effective than their in-person versions.

What can you do to combat this? To increase engagement levels for virtual training, L&D professionals need to shift their mindset from “event” to learning that is broken down into smaller activities over a longer period. Transitioning to day-to-day learning is a highly effective technique of spaced repetition.

When and how we’ll get back to a fully in-person workforce, if it happens at all, remains a question in most minds. With the options of hybrid and remote work, the ability to adapt your training models to accommodate this is imperative to have an engaged and productive team. Keeping your eyes and ears open to the new and upcoming challenges will ensure your organization has the capability to thrive.

Interested in learning about emerging leaders? Curious about how leadership development can help your organization reach its full potential? Get in touch now.

Vayability is a leadership development platform built from the ground up to accelerate the development and business impact of emerging talent. Combining more than 20 years of executive learning, Vayability focuses on impactful leadership skills, personalized learning, live coaching, and measurable growth. Find out how top companies embrace success at vayability.net.

Written by Rachel Strysik