I remember when I started working in Dubai 20 years ago, I’d save half a dozen word documents on a floppy disc and it was full. Now I carry a terabyte of computer storage on a device not much bigger than the original floppy and it can save thousands of documents, presentations, songs and movies.
Similarly, the cell phone industry went from a brick, only able to make and receive phone calls, to a handheld device no bigger than your palm, with more power and capabilities.
The enabler for these developments to take place was technology, which is getting smaller and smarter.
Businesses now expect service industries to follow suit by offering solutions that give more results in a shorter time frame.
The Learning and Development industry has resisted this trend, particularly in the Middle East,
but it’s catching up to us now. And whilst there are still some companies investing in five day training programs that take employees out of the game for a week, they are few and far between, and rightly so.
Over the last 20 years we’ve seen trends go from offsite three to five day workshops to one day maximum and preferably even half a day, with some eLearning support.
The good news for training professionals is that the face-to-face workshop is still preferred by participants and trainers, we just have to make them smaller and smarter with more power by the hour.
As early adopters, we introduced this format six years ago through a series of learning snacks (2 hour topics), but the market didn’t bite. (Please excuse the pun).
However, I think it might be the right time to re-introduce this to the region.
But, like the floppy disk and cell phone, we would need to get smarter at what we cram into the shorter learning time, and this is the real challenge. What do participants really need to know, compared to what’s nice to know? The saying ‘it’s simple to make something hard, but it’s hard to make something simple’ springs to mind.
COLUMN - What's Next?
BY HAZEL JACKSON
what's next?
54 | TRAINING MAGAZINE MIDDLE EAST OCT 2014
in LEARNING