The Power of Expertise

"The fundamental premise is that nobody knows everything, everyone knows something and all knowledge resides in humanity" - Rolf Baltzersen

The days when Learning and Development (L&D) teams completely controlled how employees learn are over. These days, learning content needs to change much more quickly to stay useful compared to the years before. Baltzersen's observation underlines the shift in corporate learning from a centralized L&D model to a lively, employee-led style of learning and performance support.

We're entering a new phase in corporate learning. The focus is more on employees taking the lead. This "bottom-up" approach means that employees are in charge of their own growth, using less formal ways of learning and support from the workplace. L&D still plays a role in setting up these support systems, but it's up to the employees to decide how and when to use them.

How will these changes affect companies, and what are the best ways to handle learning content so it stays effective? Let's explore.

The problems with traditional content development

The ADDIE Method

Relying on instructional designers for learning content creation is proving to be increasingly inadequate. This approach is plagued by several key issues— all triggered by the creation process of the ADDIE method.

The ADDIE method is widely used for creating e-learning content, despite being slow and costly. It's a waterfall method: you have to finish a phase before starting the next one.

With ADDIE, training materials are produced by internal instructional designers or third-party agencies. The instructional designer works with the company's subject matter experts (SMEs), requiring multiple back-and-forths for interviews and revisions.

But the essence of the problem is that, traditionally, e-learning is created and maintained by instructional designers. And instructional designers—whether they're within the company's L&D or HR teams, or in third-party agencies—are not part of the business. Therefore, they're not knowledgeable about the business’s problems and processes.

Slow and expensive development

In order to create relevant e-learning, instructional designers must gather information from people involved in the business. Usually, they do this by interviewing SMEs.

However, gathering the information, verifying it and putting it in a structured instructional design framework is time-consuming. This is the main reason that e-learning development is slow and costly, requiring extensive resources. In 2023, Raccoon Gang estimated that creating one hour of e-learning can take 90 to 240 hours of work and cost between $10,000 and $30,000.

Outdated content

Based on years of client conversations, we found out that maintaining content is an even bigger problem than creating it. Because instructional designers are separated from the processes featured in the e-learning courses they produce, they are entirely unaware of procedural or industry changes. Therefore, it's impossible for them to keep a course up to date. There is just no trigger for that.

Overall, the traditional process of instructional designers creating and maintaining e-learning is slow, expensive, and makes it impossible to keep the courses up to date. This led us to conclude that "we spend a lot of time, money, and effort to teach employees outdated content."

Solution: Employee-generated Learning (EGL)

The solution is simple. You need to leave the knowledge where it is, and that is in the business.

All companies have mandatory learning that is driven top-down, like compliance training, certain onboarding training, or security training. With this kind of course, it is okay for L&D to take the lead. However, the biggest part of learning content is related to business and processes. SMEs should create this kind of content. With this approach, SMEs take over all the business and process-related content that fills up L&D's backlog. We call this approach Employee-generated Learning (EGL).

In EGL, SMEs, not the instructional designers, are primarily responsible for creating and maintaining learning content. L&D still plays a role in initiating, coaching, guiding and co-authoring content. SMEs who create a course are also tasked with keeping it current. This is an easier undertaking for them thanks to their close association with the day-to-day operations and changes in the business. Also, it simplifies the creation process.

Alongside short courses on specific topics or skills, SMEs often contribute to various other formats, like instructional videos, comprehensive guides, or manuals with:

• Detailed instructions and information
• Case studies of real-world applications
• FAQs and troubleshooting guides

Each format effectively harnesses the SMEs' extensive knowledge and hands-on experience, ensuring that the learning content is not only pertinent and insightful, but also directly applicable to real-world work scenarios.

After adopting an EGL approach, a Dutch telecom company now develops four times more content than before, ten times faster, despite a 75% budget cut in their L&D resources. EGL is faster and cheaper, but most importantly, it is the only way to create learning content that you can keep up-to-date.

There is also an upside for the learners. The brevity of these courses facilitates quick learning and application of new skills, which is crucial in fast-paced work environments. This learning approach is effective and time-efficient and aligns with the need for rapid content updates—a common requirement in many rapidly evolving industries.

The role of the instructional designer must evolve

When SMEs take on a larger role in content creation within an EGL framework, the role of instructional designers evolves but remains crucial.

Instead of being the primary content creators, they become enablers and enhancers of the learning process. They become collaborators with SMEs. They focus on enhancing the effectiveness of the learning experience through instructional design expertise.

Their goal is to ensure that the SMEs' content is not only expert-driven but also pedagogically sound and aligned with the organization's learning goals.

Here are some key areas where instructional designers contribute to the EGL framework:

• Assisting SMEs in turning their expertise into engaging, structured learning content
• Overseeing content quality to meet educational standards and organizational goals
• Integrating learning technologies such as LMS and authoring tools
• Managing, curating, and organizing SME-generated content for easy access and comprehensive integration
• Designing comprehensive learning experiences with assessments and interactive elements
• Evaluating and updating learning materials for relevance and effectiveness
• Creating top-down mandatory learning materials.

Conclusion: A call to embrace SME-driven learning

To L&D managers and business leaders: it's time to rethink who creates your learning content. In an age where agility and relevance are key, empowering your SMEs to take the lead in content creation is not just an option; it's a necessity. EGL offers a path to make this transition smooth and effective, ensuring that your training is as dynamic and knowledgeable as your business demands.

This shift to SME-driven content creation represents a significant change in traditional L&D approaches, but it's a change that can lead to more impactful, relevant and timely learning experiences. As we delve deeper into the world of EGL, we uncover the immense potential of harnessing the hidden power of employees, turning their expertise into a driving force for corporate learning and growth.