Make it relevant, make it personal!

- When I log into the LinkedIn Learning platform, I'm immersed in an experience that meets my learning needs. It starts with the top picks of learning content, crafted for topics I care about. LinkedIn Learning curates content related to courses I've already watched and appeals to my innate desire to learn and grow. I'm typically a busy guy, and the platform highlights content that I can learn in 30 minutes or less, or maybe even 15 minutes or less if I watch at two times speed. Not only does LinkedIn Learning provide great content, but also gives me an experience that accelerates my growth. That's why I come back again and again to learn more and see what I didn't realize I needed to learn. The reality is that the more something feels relevant to my context and personalized to fit my unique learning needs, the more this increases my engagement as a learner, and ultimately, my ability to learn. You may be saying, "Now, Tally, that sounds great, but how do I know if my existing learning content is relevant enough and personalized to meet my learner's needs and increase learner engagement?" As learning leaders and HR professionals, we need to understand a core truth: learner engagement is an individualized journey. Our learning content and experiences are a form of entertainment. The better the experience someone has with the learning you create, the higher the level of learner engagement. Try one or more of these core practices. Create learning personas. Doing this enables you to understand your audience better. Spend some time getting to understand the learning profiles within your organization. This could be the overworked manager, the new employee, the tenured leader, or the regional team member. Once you understand what people need and are experiencing, you'll create more engaging learning. Connect the learning to their day-to-day reality. We need to do a better job of selecting content that is pertinent to the actual expected tasks and behaviors demonstrated by our employees. Learning experiences must be designed so it's obvious how the material, concepts, and context shared relate to a learner's day-to-day. Amplify the voices of your learners. Give learners a voice in what they learn and how they learn it, helping to ensure topics stay relevant and meaningful to them. For example, conduct listening sessions, distribute post surveys on learning effectiveness, gather post learning feedback, and feature learning in your organization's regular rhythms of communication. Relevant and personalized learning has clear benefits to the learner and your organization. Helping learners improve their results, including shortening learning time and time to productivity, improving the skills that will have the most impact, improving performance at work, and increasing overall health and wellbeing. What critical questions do you need to answer about the current relevancy and personalization of your learning experiences? Take a moment and type in your notebook one core practice you're going to implement to make learning more relevant and meaningful this week. You'll be amazed by what you come up with.