It’s time to ditch the LMS features laundry list

丽塔代理

战略学习伙伴经理

你要找的是学习管理系统(LMS) that will integrate seamlessly into your company. A simple web search churns up innumerable features 和 sales points. It's tempting to get drawn into extensive comparison tables, but – 和 I say this with love 和 first-h和 experience – don't do it.

我是怎么知道的? Hi! 丽塔·阿泽维多报道, 曾任Klarna学习主管，现为Sana实验室战略学习合作伙伴经理. 在我之前的L&D roles I've evaluated over 50 LMS providers, so I’ve learned a lot about the best way to find the right partner 和, 剧透警告-它不是通过制作一个有很多颜色和过滤器的电子表格.

我觉得你应该这么做.

超越报告功能. 让有远见的.

根据我的经验, the most exciting 和 effective L&D programs aren’t created after sifting through a laundry list of features, 评估工具或游戏化功能. L&D programs that truly deliver exceptional results deliver learner 订婚, 支持学习者进步, 增加知识的留存. And the best learning management systems support those outcomes, delivering on a vision of the learning culture we know our learners deserve.

听起来有点太有抱负了? 不是这样的! 愿景优先的方法可以拯救您短期和长期的时间和金钱. 因此，询问供应商在5年内的计划，要求查看产品路线图. Ask them what took them into the learning industry. 知道他们是否想要破坏，或者他们是否乐意和其他人一起走. Ask providers how they work with their roadmap. Do they like to lead, or do they want to be a learning partner? If what you see doesn't fit with your vision, you know it's the wrong match.

人才借，天才偷. Learn from the best for your LMS checklist.

You can save a lot of time by learning from the best out there. Whose corporate learning cultures are at the cutting edge? 而L&D系最能激励你，为什么? 他们用的是什么技术栈?

My main inspirations in corporate learning are 亚马逊和谷歌. These companies have created decentralized learning cultures, 借助社交学习工具, where individual learners can create courses that lead their development. 谷歌的它g2g程序. 谷歌’s learning culture has created an ecosystem, “where employees were constantly learning new things, 寻找新的机会, 发展新技能.”

This decentralized approach is inspirational because it trusts learners - Subject Matter Experts - to know what they need; to make a training program, 培训材料, 和 be active participants in their own learning curve. It allows learners to build a culture of knowledge sharing 和 contribution, without cross-checking everything through L&D. 它赋予人们发声的权利. 这在商业上是有意义的.

我怎么知道去中心化的方法对我的组织来说是正确的学习文化? 我把它与公司文化相匹配.

明确你的学习文化

这是一个很大的概括, 但总的来说，有两种主要的学习文化——自上而下的和分散的.

自上而下的学习是L&D teams decide what teams 和 people need to learn. L&D manages the creation of centralized learning materials, there’s a focus on instructor-led training, 课程管理由L&D. Basically, it’s central control over how people will learn, where 和 when.

分散学习为个体学习者提供了一种社会学习基础设施，使他们能够掌握自己的知识和发展需求. 它还通过允许横向分享思想来满足同龄人的学习需求.

Most companies offer a mixture of top-down 和 decentralized (e.g., encouraging self-directed Lunch 和 Learns for company-wide learning, 并提供自上而下的强制性合规培训)，但重要的是要知道哪种文化适合您的企业实现其愿景.

自上而下的学习:自上而下的领导

Top-down learning is just like it sounds - the L&决策过程发生在最高层，然后传达给业务的其余部分. 这有L的好处&D .掌握kpi的所有权，例如订婚, monitoring the number 和 quality of learnings, 和 making sure that some teams aren’t over-burdened with too many requests. 它保持L不变&D very busy, 和 in ownership of the business’s learnings.

Say your company has a factory, 和 Alex is the Warehouse team leader. Alex需要与新产品开发团队进行更有效的沟通. 在自上而下的模式下，亚历克斯将没有适当的工具来创建自己的培训. 她得问问L&D团队授权或创建学习，或者他们可能需要代表她购买课程.

自顶向下的学习对于有资源聘请全职学习管理员来创建课程材料的成熟组织来说是有效的. 学习文化还可以补充那些计划周期较长的组织，因为他们有足够的时间来开发和交付课程材料. 根据我的经验, top-down learning can leave the L&影响力较小的D组. 当决策过程以请求的形式出现时，L&D有策略地工作.

Decentralized learning: becoming performance consultants

当你的公司文化是高度自主和透明的时候，分散学习是最有效的. 它通常非常适合快速增长的企业，这些企业需要快速加入、提高技能和培训. 哪里没有大L&D department, decentralized learning can offer impact at scale.

Let’s return to our Warehouse team leader, Alex. 在分散的学习文化中，Alex被称为“主题专家”。. 这意味着她可以创建一个在线课程(可能是通过LMS软件)，教育NPD团队了解仓库如何帮助他们, 和 how they can work together more effectively. 她可以在自己的职责范围内创建一条学习路径, 分享她需要的信息, 并传递给她的观众. 在这个场景中，L&D采用了咨询的方法——支持和建议Alex，使她能够实现自己的业务目标.

正确的技术对于分散式学习文化的成功至关重要. 员工之间的培训需要协作工具，使学习活动易于创建和共享. 社交学习功能，如实时聊天, 调查, 测验特别有帮助，因为它们让学习者分享他们的专业知识，培养更广泛的学习文化.

最重要的是, there has to be high psychological safety. 员工需要感到被授权去做把学习掌握在自己手中并与他人分享他们所知道的.

保持LMS功能列表精简

Once you’re clear on your vision 和 culture, it’s time to make your list. 为什么只有15个功能? 因为它迫使你优先考虑并专注于最有可能帮助你实现愿景的事情. These are the three core steps to help you get there.

步骤1 -理解您的用例

What use is your LMS if it's not serving your teams? 首先要确定每个用例中的最大痛点注意解决这些问题的特征. 例如:

Is HR crying out for automated onboarding processes? You’ll need to think about an HCM system integration.
Does Customer Success need more real-time product knowledge? Sounds like you need great search functionality.
Is Sales struggling to see the impact of their training? That probably means an integration with a Sales CRM.

如果一个特性解决了跨多个用例的痛点，那就更好了.

第二步:梳理出技术细节

不确定需要什么集成? 与人力资源、IT和工程部门讨论技术栈集成和工具基础结构. 了解员工数据存储的位置. Ask your colleagues: how would a new LMS integrate? Who would be responsible for integrations, 和 managing updates?

提前回答这些问题将节省大量的时间和压力. 这将确保你建议的任何学习管理系统对学习者来说都是无障碍的, 感谢你们的支持，同事们. The happier your teams are with the technicalities, the more likely they are to enjoy the platform that you roll out.

第三步——向你的学习者学习

这个行业的每个人都需要这样做爱你的LMS尤其是你的学习者. 它需要如此直观，以至于每个学习者都几乎看不到它:他们不需要三思而后行. To increase the chances of that happening, do your user research. 面试你的员工，了解他们的个人发展和成长挑战. 在征求建议书(RFP)期间，让您的学习者探索几个LMS平台.

I recommend starting with your organization’s highest-performing team. 在过去的几个月里，他们花了多少时间进行自主学习? What happened the last time they used your existing learning management system?

Let’s say your highest-performing team is in Engineering, 在过去的一个季度里，没有人在志愿课程上花超过30分钟的时间. Maybe that means learning needs to come to them, which would make a Slack integration feature helpful. 或者内容也需要如此更吸引人, which increases the need for interactive features.

By focusing your questions on recent 和 past behavior, you’ll get more realistic answers on their challenges. 从这里，作为学习专家的你可以推导出正确的特征来解决它们.

3 is the magic number for core LMS features

Once you have your top 15 features, it's time to get even more specific. 根据我的经验, 拥有三个不可协商的特性可以更容易地在比较阶段排除提供商.

Remember how I said you should take inspiration from other businesses? When I took inspiration from 谷歌's G2G program, it was clear I would need a learning platform with a frictionless UX, 协同内容编辑, 和 intuitive 和 automated content sharing functionality. To achieve my decentralized vision, those became my three non-negotiables. 如果LMS提供商不能在这三个方面都表现出色，我就会立即对其进行折扣. 这节省了我很多时间.

通往正确LMS的更聪明的路径

重点在于专注和视野. 从结果开始, 了解你的文化, 和 prioritize based on what admins 和 learners need. 你最终可以比较的功能更少，在这个过程中节省了无数的研究时间. 最重要的是, 这样你就有更大的机会找到能真正实现你愿景的医生.