Have you ever attended a three-day long training session where you have different trainers trying to cram you with information using power point presentations and exhaustive manuals? It can get exhausting and yet there are organizations that continue to run their learning departments by diktat and tick marks as activities that need to get done instead of focusing on letting individuals learn at their own pace and creating the conditions for learning to stick.

With the advent of technology and learning systems in the late 1990s, a few organizations who could afford it moved towards generic on-premise deployed learning systems. But with the cloud economy unfolding its umbrella over the past 5 years, the price of access to learning systems like MOOCs and cloud learning systems has crashed.

Today nearly every internet user has access to learning portals and sites as diverse as youtube.com, degreed.com and edcast.com. There are even apps for learning and following information on things that you love.

A study  done by Deloitte has put forward some interesting facts about learning organizations. According to the Study, only 1% of an entire work week is the time that all employees have to focus on training and development. 

The challenge for organizations is to maximize the beneficial use of this 1% of employee’s time every week to the maximum?

The solution has got to be:

Personalized - the learner need to be in the driver’s seat and empowered to learn and the access to the learning resource without restriction of physical location [Smartphone]

Contextual - the learner should be able to identify and surface the right learning needs [pre programmed but flexible learning by role and function extensible by learning service providers or LSPs]

Actionable - the learner must be able to use it directly or imaginatively for real world tasks and activities [experiential actions makes learning stick and creates habits that are trackable]

Introducing Learning in bite-sizes

Micro-learning or Bite-sized learning can get your employees equipped with the right learning in the most time effective manner. What micro-learning does is cuts down massive chunks of material into chewable bites for employees to snack on in the limited time they have.

The main difference between a micro-learning session and a comprehensive one-day training session is the use of digital media and technology. In a regular day of work, how many times have we gone through our social networking sites or our phones on 5-minute breaks? Micro-learning takes these 5-minutee breaks and turns it into unforgettable learning sessions.

Previously employees were made to sit through exhaustive manuals and PowerPoint presentations where the content was pre-made and the way of discourse was pre-set. There was only one point of access to this knowledge which would eventually cause extra expense and effort for multinational companies who want to ensure there is enough knowledge circulated to all of their employees irrespective of their location.

Since micro-learning uses the internet as its platform, employees across the globe can access it at any time. They can choose the time they would like to learn in order to ensure maximum retention. Managers and executives customize the learning in accordance to the wants and needs of their teams and suggest the knowledge that is essential for their growth. When you find something interesting there is nothing stopping you from going back to view that particular lesson.

So how do organizations go about adapting to micro-learning?

All you need to kick-start micro-learning in your organization is a good internet connection and the right course to pique your employees’ interest.

In companies like InMobi where learning is an essential factor to keep up with the changing business, employees are provided with platforms of e-learning like Edcast.com, UpGrad.com and MindTickle.com to name a few. These lessons are cut up into different modules with 5-7 minute videos that have a set agenda for learning. Compared to long sessions that just can’t match the attention span of this generation and time, these small 5 minute sessions fit the bill for optimal learning available time.

When you are taking the right kind of steps to ensure your employees are getting the best of benefits and culture to punch 10X, why not give more attention to the kind of learning they get?

As Winston Churchill said “I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught”. Give your employees the gift of flexible and fast learning!