Michelle Parry-Slater “”The Learning and Development Handbook” As Learning Practitioner’s Toolkit

The Learning and Development Handbook by Michelle Parry-Slater is a game-changing toolkit for L&D professionals. This comprehensive guide offers practical strategies to transform your training approach and boost organizational performance.

Dive into this review to discover how Parry-Slater’s insights can elevate your L&D practices and drive real results in your organization.

Genres

Business, Self-Help, Education, Professional Development, Management, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Training, Career Development, Leadership, Corporate Culture, Personnel Management

The Learning and Development Handbook serves as a practical guide for L&D practitioners, offering a blend of theory and real-world applications. Parry-Slater draws from her extensive experience to provide a toolkit that addresses the evolving needs of modern workplaces.

The book is structured into three main sections: “The Basics,” “The Detail,” and “The Future.” It begins by establishing foundational L&D concepts, then delves into specific methodologies and tools. The final section explores emerging trends and technologies shaping the future of learning.

Key topics include learning theories, needs analysis, design thinking, digital learning, measurement and evaluation, and the impact of AI on L&D. Parry-Slater emphasizes the importance of aligning learning initiatives with business objectives and advocates for a learner-centric approach.

Throughout the book, case studies and practical examples illustrate how to apply the concepts in various organizational contexts. The author also provides templates, checklists, and reflection questions to help readers implement the strategies discussed.

Review

The Learning and Development Handbook stands out as a valuable resource for both novice and experienced L&D professionals. Parry-Slater’s writing style is engaging and accessible, making complex concepts easy to grasp.

One of the book’s strengths is its practical focus. Rather than getting bogged down in theoretical discussions, it provides actionable advice and tools that readers can immediately apply in their work. The inclusion of case studies adds depth to the content, showing how the principles can be adapted to different scenarios.

The author’s emphasis on aligning L&D with business strategy is particularly noteworthy. This approach helps position learning professionals as strategic partners within their organizations, rather than mere service providers.

While the book covers a wide range of topics, some readers might find certain sections too brief. However, this brevity allows for a comprehensive overview of the L&D field, making it an excellent starting point for further exploration.

The Learning and Development Handbook successfully bridges the gap between theory and practice. It equips readers with the knowledge and tools to navigate the complexities of modern workplace learning, making it a must-read for anyone looking to enhance their L&D practice.

Recommendation

Learning’s evolution away from the in-person, classroom and formal model toward a self-directed, blended, social and digital approach is well underway, learning consultant Michelle Parry-Slater writes in this comprehensive guide to the new world of workplace learning. While classroom learning remains the best approach in some circumstances, an organization’s overarching strategy should guide its approach to L&D. The author advocates for L&D to be more consultative than prescriptive; more inclined to curate content than create it; and more comfortable with analytics, AI and measurement.

Take-Aways

• Workplace learning has changed markedly since 2000, and since the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Learning should align with and link to organizational strategy.
• Executives, line managers and workers are responsible for learning.
• Steer stakeholders to consider a range of interventions.
• Start and end the process of learning design with evaluation.
• Encourage social learning.
• Embrace digital learning; make it relevant and engaging.
• Consider all forms of learning and blend the best mix for the learner and circumstances.
• Note six factors when putting learning into practice.
• Learning evolves in organizations.

Introduction: A new approach to workplace learning.

The Learning and Development Handbook (2022) is a practical guide for human resources experts who want to upgrade how people learn in their organization without slavishly following new fads. So what’s their best bet? Michelle Parry-Slater thinks companies’ can benefit from the digital revolution, but only if they embed professional development in wider cultures of learning. That means one thing above all: working with the grain of human psychology, collective as well as individual.

Michelle Parry-Slater’s Learning and Development Handbook opens with an observation that’s unlikely to shock anyone. The workplace, she notes, is changing – fast.

The skills needed in today’s business world aren’t the skills we needed in the past. Keeping up with change means the same thing for organizations as it does for individuals: upskilling and reskilling. So far, so uncontroversial. Everyone knows that, right?

Well, knowing something and acting on that knowledge are two different things. Which brings us to a second – much more surprising – observation.

Despite the digital revolution, most companies still rely on classroom-based, face-to-face learning to train their employees. Studies show, however, that the typical employee forgets around three quarters of what they learn in such settings within just one day. Put differently, most companies are spending a lot of money and wasting a lot of time to achieve very little.

Michelle Parry-Slater is convinced that there’s a better way of doing things – that’s why she wrote this Handbook. And in this summary, we’ll dig into her alternative approach to workplace learning.

In these summaries, you’ll learn

• Why training courses often aren’t about work at all;
• What the digital present and the analogue Stone Age past have in common; and
• Why it’s sometimes best to let people do their own learning.

Organizations can’t rely on old learning models in a changing world.

To start off, we’re going to be talking about learning in a particular context – organizations and companies. In other words, we’ll be looking at professional development.

Our question, then, is how professionals master new skills and pick up the know-how they need in today’s fast-moving workplaces. But before we get to that, let’s take a step back and think about learning in general. How does any learning take place?

From schools to universities, public talks, and office training programs, it often happens in a similar way. This learning model centers the sage on the stage. Let’s break that down.

Although the specifics vary, the idea is usually the same. There’s an expert – an individual with special access to some kind of knowledge. Then there’s the audience – the people who turn up at a certain time and place to learn from that sage. This model is face-to-face: everyone is present in person. It’s also top-down. The teacher talks; the audience listens.

There’s a reason this model is so common – it can be very effective. As we found out during the Covid-19 pandemic, something important gets lost when traditional learning environments like classrooms disappear. And there are things you really only can learn if you’re physically present. Online-only courses aren’t a great way of acquiring first-aid skills, for example. You need the real-world, face-to-plastic experience of breathing into a CPR doll. It’s the same with learning to drive – you have to sit in an actual car on a real road with a bonafide instructor.

Thing is, though, face-to-face learning isn’t the only way people can learn. It’s a cliché, but, like so many clichés, it’s true: the digital revolution is a game-changer. The smartphones in our pockets give us unprecedented access to knowledge, bypassing that sage on the stage. The laptops in our bags meanwhile allow us to work remotely, eroding the old emphasis on physical presence. These are simple facts, Michelle Parry-Slater says, and neither organizations nor learning and development specialists can wish them away. The upshot? We need new approaches to professional development.

That doesn’t mean abandoning tried-and true methods in favor of fashionable gimmicks. Immediately adopting the latest tech isn’t a cure-all. But we can’t just keep doing what we’ve always done because, well, that’s how things are done. What we need to do, she suggests, is spend more time thinking seriously about learning in this new environment. In some cases, face-to-face will still be the way to go; in others, it won’t. Oftentimes, the best approach will be to blend different models.

Take just one example. When the author worked with the Girl Guides, she looked at their first-aid program. She realized that some 80 percent of the organization’s refresher courses could be taken online. You just don’t need people to be physically present to sit multiple-choice tests on basic medical knowledge. A skill like CPR is different – you need to practice it for real, with an expert. And that’s what the Girl Guides do. They keep the analogue stuff analogue and move the rest online.

The point, here, is that face-to-face learning isn’t going away – it’s too important. But it’s not the be-all and end-all of learning. That, Parry-Slater thinks, is the key lesson for organizations and their learning and development teams. In practice, though, that’s often easier said than done.

Face-to-face learning is popular, but not for the reasons people tend to give.

In 2020, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Britain’s leading association of HR professionals, published its annual “Learning and Skills at Work” report. Its conclusion: face-to-face learning was still the dominant approach to professional development in Britain. Evidence from other Western countries paints a similar picture.

Organizations, it seems, are resisting change and sticking to old learning approaches even as technological change opens up alternatives. But where does this opposition to new ideas and models come from? One factor is simple inertia. Learning in professional contexts has mirrored classroom-based learning since the Industrial Revolution. The idea that learning happens when an expert takes to the stage and delivers their knowledge to a captive audience has deep cultural roots. That’s hardly surprising – it’s an idea that’s been around for a long time.

That’s not the only factor, though. In fact, the most common argument in favor of face-to-face learning isn’t that it’s the only or best approach. The usefulness of remote and online learning models is well-documented, after all. The real obstacle to change is the stated preference of would-be learners. When asked, they typically say that they prefer classroom-based learning.

The problem for learning and development professionals is that you can’t just tell people that their ideas are outdated and that you know better. As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Forcing those would-be learners to adopt methods they’re not sold on is a recipe for resentment – and very little learning. So where does that leave you – how can you persuade people to try new and valuable approaches which they might distrust? There’s only one answer, really: you have to find out what they’re actually getting out of face-to-face learning.

Start digging and you’ll often realize that there’s not necessarily a lot of overlap between people’s stated preferences and their real preferences. Teams might say that they love that three-day training course in a hotel on the other side of the country because it’s a great way to learn new skills. In reality, though, they might just appreciate the chance to spend more time with colleagues. Or that it buys them some time to think. Or, more simply, that it gets them away from the daily grind.

These are all good reasons to like face-to-face learning. Like school classrooms, events which require physical presence aren’t just about absorbing knowledge and honing new skills – lots of other things happen there too. And those things matter. Well-rested teams that know each other socially as well as professionally tend to be more productive – and happier. You don’t want to cut those face-to-face events because learning isn’t front and center, but it’s important to call a spade a spade.

If you find out that social bonds are important to a team, you’ve discovered another strategy you can use to foster professional development. That brings us to our next topic – social learning.

Social learning is deeply rooted in the human psyche.

Let’s circle back to the question we posed earlier. How, we asked, does learning happen? As we saw, in formal contexts it’s usually top-down and expert-led.

Lots of learning isn’t like this, however. It doesn’t involve experts; it takes place between peers. It’s horizontal, not hierarchical. Psychologists call it social learning.

Humans are social animals. We constantly pick up information and ideas from other people. We chat on buses and tell stories around water coolers. We listen to podcasts, read books and blogs, and watch movies. We gossip, swap tips, recount experiences, and observe how our peers behave in different social situations. That’s how we learn about the world. That’s social learning.

Social learning goes all the way back to the origins of Homo sapiens. Our ancient ancestors shared stories around campfires and on the walls of caves – the canvases for some of humanity’s earliest visual storytelling. Survival depended on watching and copying others. That’s how you learned how to hunt, light fires, and distinguish between delicious berries and fatally poisonous doppelgangers.

Of course, Stone Age humanity’s social world wasn’t very big – it usually extended no further than the territory of the tribe. Over time, the social world expanded. When the printing press came along, information began to circulate across continents. Nowadays, information circles the globe in seconds. Fundamentally, though, little has changed. When we watch amateur chefs cooking pad thai on YouTube or browse fitness forums, we’re doing something humans have always done: learning from our peers. Sure, it’s gotten a lot more technologically sophisticated, but it’s still social learning.

So what does this have to do with the summary – professional development? Let’s see if we can join the dots. To do that, we can turn to the work of the American educational psychologist and author Julian Stodd, who has written a lot about learning and development in the digital age.

Learning, Stodd notes, is built on trust. If we trust someone, we will believe that they’re telling us something important and useful, rather than tricking us into accepting beliefs that benefit them. As social animals, though, we’re primed to trust knowledge we acquire through social learning much more than the knowledge we acquire formally. That’s why, for example, so many people are happier to accept ideas they encounter online, from peers, than ideas that come from on high, from experts.

Stodd’s conclusion, like the author’s, isn’t that we need to reinforce the authority of experts. Instead, they argue that we should work with the grain of human psychology. If social learning plays such an outsized role in knowledge acquisition, we should find ways of incorporating it into learning strategies. So, to come back to professional development, here’s the question we need to ask: how can we facilitate people learning from each other for the benefit of work?

Use internal experts to create equal access to social learning.

So let’s look at the workplace. Of course, there’s a ton of social learning already happening even if no one is deliberately orchestrating it.

Say someone’s struggling with some software. They might go to HR to ask for formal training. But let’s also say there isn’t an old-fashioned, face-to-face course they could attend, or there is but it’s next month. Chances are, they’re not going to sit around twiddling their thumbs for a month. No, they’ll ask a colleague to show them how it’s done. Problem solved – right?

Not quite. The issue, here, is that offices aren’t perfectly egalitarian places. There are cliques and in-crowds and shared experiences which bind some people while excluding others. If you’ve just joined a new team, for example, or you don’t happen to sit next to the right people, you’re going to struggle to access information you need. Put differently, leaving social learning to chance is unfair.

And that’s why learning and development specialists need to step in. Question is, how can you do that? One strategy is to build up ties between team members and internal experts.

An internal expert is pretty much what it sounds like – someone who knows a lot about a certain area. For example, imagine a company has an accountant called Sarah. Her field of expertise is clear – she’s the go-to person for financial matters. But she might not know how to use the company’s holiday booking system. Abdul in IT, though, knows all about that. Luckily, the learning and development team has already drawn up a checklist of the company’s internal experts. When Sarah comes to HR with her problem, they can put her in contact with Abdul. Later on, when Abdul needs to do his expense processing, he knows whom to approach – Sarah from accounting.

The relationship between Sarah and Abdul is informal and horizontal – it’s based on social learning. But that relationship has been facilitated. It’s a result of the learning and development team adopting a deliberate social learning strategy. It’s playing the role of a skills matchmaker. By compiling a list of internal experts, it’s cut out a lot of wasted time and annoyance, too – just think how frustrating it is when you don’t know how to do something at work or who can help you. Best of all, everyone from insiders to newbies has equal access to help and assistance.

Another great way of nurturing social learning is to host lunch-and-learn sessions. The idea here is to get people who might not know each other all too well together at lunch to discuss a topic. Typically, an expert kicks the session off by sharing insights into their area of expertise and the conversation flows from there. Sharing ideas and stories over food connects to a very old and deeply rooted social convention, and it helps keep these sessions low-key and low-pressure. Although this is still work time, it’s ultimately just a group of people sitting around eating food and having a good conversation. And that really does connect the dots between human psychology, learning, and better workplaces.

Tech is great for learning but the magic ingredient is motivation.

Let’s wrap things up by looking at the digital revolution we mentioned at the beginning of this summary. As we said, it’s a game-changer. But that doesn’t mean it’s a silver bullet.

Thing is, we only learn when we want to learn. And technology is a means to an end – an awesomely efficient means to an end, but a means to an end all the same. Just think of all the great content that’s freely available online. There are entire libraries’ worth of brilliant ideas out there, just a few seconds away. But lots of people don’t use the internet to consume that content. Technology can give us access to learning, but it doesn’t drive learning. Not on its own. The missing key is motivation.

Motivation often gets lost in all the talk about digitalization. Yes, new tech has made it easier and cheaper to put lots of people through training courses at record speed, but how much are unmotivated e-learners really going to take from those courses? Answer: next to nothing. Boring learning that’s only there to tick boxes and keep overheads down doesn’t motivate anyone. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Instead, we need to think about another question: what does engaging, effective digital learning actually look like?

First off, it has to be short, convenient, and relevant. That means high-impact interventions at the point of need. In practice, that’s an intuitive online help functionality for new software – not a one-off, hour-long online training course that interrupts people’s workflow.

Second, it has to be made to the same standards as the digital media people regularly consume. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be as well made as the YouTube videos they watch. Learners are motivated by the prospect of a quick win, and clearing these bars shows them that you get that.

Context also matters. Remember what we said earlier about people liking face-to-face learning because it gets them out of the office and gives them a chance to network? Well, people often dislike digital learning because it feels passive, lonely, and sedentary. We’re social animals; we enjoy learning with peers, not alone in front of a screen. E-learning, then, isn’t a stand-alone solution – it needs to be embedded in a wider culture of social learning. One way of fostering such a culture is to host regular drop-in sessions for people to chat about their challenges and experiences with tech. Sharing digital tips or links to digital tools as well as success stories of how people have used those tools via email is another option. Even better, you can challenge people to present ideas and tools they find effective. Anything that gets people talking and sharing is a winner here.

Summary

Workplace learning has changed markedly since 2000, and since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Work and workers have undergone revolutionary change since the dawn of the new century, making application of 20th-century teaching to the 21st-century workplace absurd. Workers – especially since the COVID-19 pandemic – demand new approaches, technology and a shift from classroom training to a broader blend of self-directed, online and bite-sized learning that better fits today’s faster, more dynamic work environment. Sadly, few organizations have embraced this shift.

“Face-to-face learning is no longer fit for purpose. It is not efficient, effective, enjoyable or engaging.”

Classroom training still has its place, just far less often. With portable and powerful smartphones, laptops and tablets, employees access and engage with learning content differently today. L&D professionals should rethink learning content delivery. With or without L&D, workers no longer have to wait for a course to learn what they need, or to stay productive. L&D professionals need to discover what workers want, what they need to do their jobs well and how they learn best, depending on requirements.
L&D professionals should enlist the aid of subject-matter experts across the organization to encourage peer learning and knowledge transfer. They should partner with line managers to emphasize the importance of learning, and to support each employee’s development. L&D professionals should stay on top of adult and workplace learning trends, technologies and approaches by building their own networks of external L&D experts and thought leaders. They should also attend conferences, watch presentations, and read journals and books.

Learning should align with and link to the organization’s strategy.

Beyond measuring the effects of learning programs against metrics that matter to the business, connect learning to business strategy and key objectives. Learning leaders should know their corporate strategy thoroughly, and build L&D strategy in relation to that overarching business strategy to ensure that all learning interventions and initiatives support it.

“Learning solutions have to be aligned to your company strategy.”

Talk to C-level leaders about their strategic needs, and then to line leaders and other influencers. This approach helps you learn about specific needs, hot issues and constraints learners may face. It also provides an opportunity to help leaders understand the value L&D can deliver, and may earn you their support.

Executives, line managers and workers are responsible for learning.

L&D cannot succeed without the active engagement of stakeholders. List the people you need to engage across the organization. Earn their engagement by making learning relevant to organizational and learner needs. Prepare a two-sentence description of what learning has to offer. Enlist the support of influencers, managers and executives by listening to them frequently and mapping their needs to your efforts.

“L&D can advise, can support, can cajole, can encourage, but people have to be on board and involved for learning to happen.”

Even when you recognize gaps in business needs that learning likely resolves, resist offering your ideas right away. Stay curious. Listen, consult and ask open questions – such as “why?” – to understand all challenges.

Steer stakeholders to consider a range of interventions.

When talking with an L&D professional, leaders will bias their thoughts toward applying learning to their problems, even when it’s not appropriate. Get to the root of the issue before discussing solutions. Ask leaders about various financial and non-financial costs of doing nothing. This questioning helps identify what success looks like and how to measure it. Ask for data to allow you to gain a deeper understanding of any problem or opportunity. Once you possess a thorough knowledge of the issues and of the precise gaps you need to close, then you can discuss solutions – including learning solutions, if learning proves most appropriate.

Start and end the process of learning design with evaluation.

For too long, both L&D and corporate executives allowed learning evaluation to come after learning – and, even then, the focus remained, primarily, on attendance and learner reaction forms. Learner impressions of their training, as captured in post-training questionnaires, tend to reflect the quality of the food, the temperature of the room and the entertainment value delivered by the instructor. Know what defines success – ideally hard measures important to the business – before you design the intervention, and use that knowledge to guide development and optimal delivery of the program. Wherever possible, link learning interventions to measurable improvements in key performance indicators (KPIs) for which your line leaders and executives are accountable.

“We have been getting evaluation wrong in L&D for years, and it is time to change.”

Evaluate learning with tools like Thalheimer’s Learning-Transfer Evaluation Method; Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method, Phillips’s 6-Stage Model and Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels. When you use a methodology like ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation), put Evaluation at the beginning and the end (EADDIE).
Replace typical training evaluation questionnaires with three main questions: “What went well, Even better if…, and What is next for them?” Focus on measuring performance outcomes – ideally, against KPIs – not the learning itself. Measure less tangible performance-related outcomes, such as the effects of training on employee engagement. Use data visualization and storytelling techniques to report your findings.

Encourage social learning.

Recalibrate reward and recognition programs to recognize those who share knowledge and help others. Connect employees, so they can share knowledge, and coach and mentor one another. Whether explicitly teaching one another, conversing, sharing ideas, or offering advice and help, social learning comes naturally to employees, so organizations should leverage it.

“Social learning is simply people learning from people. It is the glue that sticks us together and the oil that eases our journey through life and work.”

L&D should encourage and facilitate any social learning already taking place. It should, for example, identify and leverage legitimate internal expertise through “lunch and learn” sessions, communities of practice, and via internal social networks or platforms. L&D should implement an internal mentoring program for two-way knowledge transfer, and curate learning content from the internet and other sources to provide learning pathways for employees.

Embrace digital learning; make it relevant and engaging.

Workers today find their communities online as often as in person. User forums, professional networks, communities of interest and the like abound on the internet. People learn from each other in these spaces. Like social learning, employees online engage in digital learning with or without the involvement of L&D.

“Digital learning is happening on work premises, in work time, to enable people to do the work they are paid to do, whether L&D provide it or not.”

Throw away any e-learning programs that make learners click through slides and take a quiz at the end. Make the learning relevant; strive to give learners snippets that they can use in the flow of their work. Avoid one-size-fits-all solutions. Help each learner get what he or she needs from your digital learning. Blend e-learning with face-to-face and other forms of learning to keep pace with change and to transfer knowledge within the organization as efficiently as possible.

Consider all forms of learning and blend the best mix for the learner and circumstances.

Blend classroom courses, podcasts, books, social learning platforms, digital networking events, webinars, conference attendance, and e-learning chunks and classes, depending on circumstances and objectives. Consider “flipping the classroom” when including in-person learning – classroom or digital. Ask learners to engage with digital learning, books and videos on their own, outside the classroom. In the classroom, focus on social learning and conversation, helping learners make sense of what they learned on their own.
The ICE framework can help you to determine where L&D should introduce learning solutions. ICE stands for Information, Communication and Education. People often need information, but information doesn’t always require education. Depending on its complexity and purpose, other forms of transfer prove more efficient and appropriate.

“Never forget the primary reason L&D exists – to help people perform better at work.”

Consider digital snippets of information and learning that help workers learn in the flow of their work. For example, a person who needs to know how to use one feature in Excel should be able to access a brief video, rather than be forced to stop, find a formal Excel course – online or off – enroll, wait, and then attend the whole thing when all he or she needs is a specific piece of information. When you interrupt a person’s flow, they become less productive. Encourage self-directed learning by helping employees assess quality content and by curating small items of high-quality learning. Structure self-directed learning chunks, so employees can easily search and find them, digest them and keep working.

Note six factors when putting learning into practice.

Consider the environment in terms of how learners will access the content; permission in the sense of what managers and leaders allow; and culture around how the work gets done and how people learn. In some cases, digital learning fails because the environment does not include access to computers and/or the internet for all workers. A blended learning course may fail because managers discourage watching videos, listening to podcasts or reading articles during work hours. Self-directed learning may never get off the ground because workers punch in and out and can’t even visit the restroom without permission, let alone direct their own learning.

“When people don’t know something, they just want to get the information and move on with their day.”

In addition, consider the ‘”3Rs”:

• Required – The minimum a learner needs.
• Resourced – What else you can supply to the learner.
• Referred – What the learner can teach others.

By considering the bare minimum a learner wants and needs to get started, you set them on their path quickly. Layer in more learning later, if needed. This nurtures openness to more learning. Once this takes root, move toward getting people to share their learning, whether a book, video, a presentation or otherwise. Through this process, you build a learning culture.

Learning evolves in organizations.

Abrupt advances in learning often require disruption. COVID-19 likely revolutionized learning in many firms, for example, by requiring them to move quickly to digital and social learning. Normally, you should move adaptations in learning along at the historical pace of change within your organization, so that people feel comfortable with it. Learners might drive change, for example, by using their digital devices and the internet to learn, even if the firm has not yet caught up.

“Of all the gifts L&D can give to a learner, I believe it is the skill and habit of reflective practice which is the kindest of all.”

Build in time for learners to think about what they learn and to practice it on the job. This practice makes learning stick. Ask people how they might apply their learning in various work scenarios. Use case studies and virtual reality where possible. Work with managers to set expectations that learners will practice their new skills or apply their new knowledge when they return to their jobs.
Experiment, measure progress, adjust and repeat. Strive to make learning relevant and embrace multiple modes of learning. Exercise patience; learning change takes time and people may not appreciate your efforts at first. Celebrate every success and persevere.

Final Summary

You’ve just the summary to The Learning and Development Handbook, by Michelle Parry-Slater. The most important thing to remember/take away from all this is:

How we learn is changing – both in and outside the workplace. Digital technology has made it faster, cheaper, and easier to learn than ever before, but it’s no perfect solution. If we’re not motivated to learn, we’re not going to learn anything – regardless how fast, cheap, and easy it might be. That means HR teams need to embed new digital tools in a wider culture of professional development which foregrounds social learning and solves people’s real problems at work.

About the author

Michelle Parry-Slater runs Kairos Modern Learning in England and consults with organizations seeking modern, blended workplace learning.

Michelle Parry-Slater is an award-winning L&D professional with more than 15 years’ experience in the industry. She is the Founder and Director of Kairos Modern Learning, an L&D consultancy specialising in driving a shift from traditional courses to the best of digital, social and face-to-face workplace learning. Michelle Parry-Slater is also an L&D consultant for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the Lead Volunteer for L&D for Girlguiding UK and was listed as one of the Top 20 Corporate eLearning Movers and Shakers of 2018 by eLearning Industry.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Laura Overton
Preface
Acknowledgements
How to use this book
How to use this book
Part One Practical L&D Tips

01 Practical L&D Setting the scene for L&D in modern practice with some immediate ideas to try Trying to solve new problems using old technology
Who are your learners?
Subject matter experts
Line managers
Personal learning network
Demonstrating value
What’s the work?

02 Strategy for L&D Looking taller and wider, building L&D from a business strategy Becoming strategic
What is the company strategy and what do we do with it?
Examine strategy carefully
Maintaining a strategic focus
Talking the language of your business
Macro thinking versus micro thinking
Starting from a position of strength
String theory

03 Stakeholder Engagement How to create better impact in learning by building great relationships Stakeholder engagement
The strategic latte
Stakeholder mapping
Building relationships
Difficult developmental conversations
Cake theory
The impact of stakeholder engagement

04 Consultative L&D Gathering evidence to ensure a future learning direction through consultancy techniques and impactful questions in order to make learning effective Myth busting
Fixer or critical friend?
Find your evidence
Consultative L&D questioning
And finally, learning solutions
Career management

05 Data and Evaluation How to use data and evaluation for full effect to support a move to more valued workplace learning Data definitions
Evaluation models
How to start better evaluation
Ask better evaluation questions
Seek out meaningful data
Showing value in data
Value chains
Presenting the stories from data
Data analysis in action

06 Social Learning Making the most of people learning from people How to get started using social learning
Model good social learning
Checklist of internal experts
Lunch and learn
Managing tacit knowledge
Curation
Communities of practice
Trust and culture

07 Digital Learning Steps to building a business case for digital learning The digital community
The beginnings of a business case for digital
Start with what you have
Different types of digital learning
Focus on motivation
The cultural shift
Trust and technology
Moving with the pace of change
The changing nature of work
Knowledge management
Digital learning drivers
The benefits of digital community
Digital learning in organisational context
How does L&D keep up?

08 Blending Learning How to offer a holistic approach to workplace learning The Whole 100
Mindset matters
Willingness to change
Shifting L&D skills
The importance of language
Branding
Trainers or facilitators
Working with subject matter experts
Practical ways to move towards a blend
Whole person learning
Blends we can measure
Part Two Frameworks

09 ICE – Information, Communication, Education Kairos Modern Learning’s framework for managing information ICE Framework
What is information?
Upholding the flow of information
The balance of teach and tell
This is not Comms versus L&D
Education and Communication crossover
Adult Learning Theory
Curation
Storytelling
Motivation
Knowledge management
The importance of Flow and Drive

10 EPC – Environment, Permission and Culture Kairos Modern Learning’s framework for building a learning culture Context of the EPC Framework
E – Environment
The physical space
The digital space
Getting environments right
Supporting people to learn
The actual environment
P – Permission
Permission online
Modelling behaviour
Enable creative thinking
The consequences of not addressing permission
C – Culture
The way things are done around here
Shifting culture
We’ve always done it this way
Reflect on the whole
What is next for L&D?

11 3Rs – Required, Resourced, Referred Kairos Modern Learning’s framework to develop learning solutions Purposeful learning solutions
Start with the end in mind, again
R1 – Required
Strip back to the minimum
R2 – Resourced
Ensuring good resources
Sharing resources
R3 – Referred
The 3Rs framework in pictures
Other design models
The move to digital with the 3Rs
The fourth R – Reflection?
The whole framework working together
Part Three Strategies

12 Evolution or Revolution Understanding your context in order to know how to approach modernizing your workplace learning Choosing evolutionary or revolutionary L&D
Progression at the right pace
Context
Emotions
The historical context
Your history of learning
Organisational stories
Skills
Recruitment
Normalising digital learning
Your why and business case

13 Reflective Practice The value of reflection and how to build it into your learning strategy L&Ders must be reflective practitioners
Solo reflective practice
Group reflection
Personal learning networks
Support networks
What did you learn this week?
Making notes
Wild writing
Feedback
The Thinking Environment
Taking action on reflection

14 Hold it Lightly and Celebrate Success How to be resilient on your change journey when promoting a new learning offer Life gets in the way of the plans
The progression and growth of learning
Dial down perfectionism
Celebrate success
The complexity of learning
Keep in relevant
L&D moving forward

In conclusion
Afterword: The story of #NoPlasters
Index

List of Figures
Figure 2.1  Girlguiding L&D Strategy Map
Figure 4.1  Virtual College
Figure 9.1  ICE Framework
Figure 10.1   EPC Framework
Figure 11.1  3Rs Framework
Figure 11.2  Three boxes
Figure 11.3  Three boxes plus assets
Figure 11.4  Three boxes plus assets plus journey
Figure 11.5  Three boxes plus assets plus journey plus community
Figure 11.6  3Rs Framework with added Reflection
Figure 13.1  Unconscious to conscious competence