Innovative Learning: Strategies for Fostering Different Thinking

How are new ideas received in your organization? Is innovative learning part of your L&D strategy? Do people feel comfortable with voicing their opinions and thoughts? Is a new idea likely to result in a change?

Listening to new ideas and encouraging outside-the-box thinking are characteristics of innovative businesses. An organization that doesn't value and encourage innovation can become stagnant and miss out on opportunities. We should also take note that innovation and training are closely connected.

Innovative Learning and Training

Your L&D programs can become a driving force for innovation and change in your organization. From existing employees to new hires, an innovative learning program that innovates can create a sense of communication, providing employees with opportunities to contribute creative solutions to problems.

Personalized learning and training will provide employees with a chance to pursue a wide range of professional and personal development goals, so these opportunities will open up new doors and could result in career advancement.

On the other hand, a learning program that doesn't innovate will typically have a low engagement rate and regard as another job duty employees. Learners won't have the motivation to seek out training opportunities beyond obligatory modules. A stagnating L&D program is often a symptom of a company-wide issue regarding how innovation is perceived.

Creating a Culture of Innovation

Recognizing the needs to rethink on innovation is the first step toward creating new and exciting opportunities for change and growth. Here are a few strategies you can implement to develop a culture of innovation and benefit from it:

• Create opportunities to share and discuss new ideas, for instance, with monthly inter-disciplinary meetings.
• Rethink how performance evaluations are implemented. Add a new criterion that assesses and rewards outside-the-box thinking.
• Reframe failure by connecting it to training opportunities and encouraging employees to set their own learning goals.
• Use your training program to assess the skills and weaknesses of each employee and use this information to choose the best career path for them. If needed, make changes to your hiring process to create more opportunities to move to new positions or even change departments.
• Creative incentives to reward innovation. Something as simple as awarding badges to those who come up with new ideas or seek new training opportunities can make a difference.
• Understand that your training program can do a lot more than supporting employees in their current role. Consider using an LMS to recommend personalized training opportunities and give employees more agency over their training and professional development.
• Combine eLearning programs delivered by an LMS with social learning opportunities to provide a positive and engaging learning experience to create a culture that values innovative learning.

Lambda Solutions can help you develop an innovative training solution by offering cloud-based hosting for Moodle LMS or Totara Learn. When pairing with Zoola Analytics, an LMS reporting and analytics solution, your organization can deliver a personalized learning experience that provides employees with opportunities to meet their personal and professional development goals, acquire the knowledge and continuously improve using learning analytics. Contact us to get started with your innovative learning journey!