Why?

Tom Foulkes channels Jurassic Park’s Dr. Ian Malcolm and wonders, when it comes to new tech, are we so preoccupied with whether or not we can, we aren’t stopping to think whether we should?

Imagine for a moment that it’s 1975, and you’ve just been hired by a new start-up called InGen. Your boss, billionaire philanthropist John Hammond, has asked you to help him clone extinct dinosaurs, ready to show them off to crowds of punters in his visionary theme park, Jurassic Park some years later.

Sounds like a good idea, right? A great use of time, money, and tech? And the payoff… unimaginably awesome! What could possibly go wrong?

Now let’s imagine you ask, “Hang on a minute, John? Why do you want to bring dinosaurs back to life? Won’t that be incredibly dangerous for the human race?” only to be met with a casual, “Why not? We’re doing it because we can…”

No? Then why would we settle for that same ‘Why not?’ argument when using technologies or formats in digital learning without taking the time to check they meet the specific needs of the requirement?

Now, I’m not saying that the stakes are quite as high in elearning (although you could argue, if the training is on health, safety or something dangerous, you wouldn’t need a triceratops in the room to understand that lives could be at risk if the elearning doesn’t land). But it is really important to question ‘why?’ when faced with a new requirement. That means digging deeper into why this is a requirement (what’s causing the problem or gap) and whether their suggested approach is truly fit for purpose.

All of this will help you to achieve a bigger, more thought-through impact on your learners and organisation, improving the effectiveness, quality, and value of your courses.

The illusion of “Why not?”

We’ve all encountered an alpha stakeholder who’s keen to dictate exactly what they want. Maybe they’re fixated on a shiny trend from years ago. Maybe they’re overly excited about using that new equipment that cost half their yearly budget. Or maybe, just maybe, they’ve put the work in to understand what they’re trying to achieve and the best way to achieve it. My point is, until you ask them, how are you meant to know?

If, when you do ask them, “Okay, what are you trying to achieve? What’s the overarching goal here? Why do you think this is the best way to go?” they struggle to explain their reasoning or focus more on the technical outputs of creating a course itself (e.g., ‘we need a VR module!’ or ‘it has to be a slick animation,’ rather than ‘we need to reduce errors by 15%’ or ‘increase sales by X%’), it’s your job to make them understand the potential issues associated with this approach.

Root cause analysis in L&D

What I’m getting at here is simple: without a clear understanding of what they’re trying to change or achieve, there’s no clear argument for any one approach over another, and no way to predict which will have the best results for the business. This, of course, could also mean a lack of any positive impact at all.

So, if someone asks you to revamp their data protection course, for example, ask them a few probing questions like, “Why is this a business priority? Is it compliance or have there been incidents?” to discover the driving factors behind their requirement.

And don’t stop there; if there have been data protection incidents, ask, “Why do people keep making the same mistakes? What protections have you got in place to prevent issues like this?” to further explore the problem.

From here, you might discover that people are consistently falling for sophisticated scam emails. Maybe a full data protection course revamp isn’t actually a good use of budget or time.

Instead, “Could a targeted piece of microlearning help to reduce incidents, while also saving on training time?”

This is just one example of how asking the right questions can improve the validity and effectiveness of your design decisions. You might end up going in the same or a similar direction as your initial thoughts, but you’ll do so with purpose and intent.

Because we should, not because we can

So, next time you’re approached with a request to build, remember:

• Always ask “Why?”

• You’re solving problems not building courses.

• Form follows function; find the need before choosing the approach.

• There is no one ‘right way’ to approach the solution.

Following these simple tips will help keep your elearning from harking back to the cretaceous period, while contributing to the impact you need to achieve.

And, let’s be plain, you do NEED to achieve something. Otherwise you’re not delivering value on any level – not for your learners, not for your organisation, not even for yourself.

Oh, and also, don’t reanimate any dinosaurs… that should be a given!

Tom Foulkes is a Certified Digital Learning Professional (CDLP) and Learning Experience Consultant (LExC) at Dynamic.

Connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomfoulkes-a69483178/