Congratulations to Totara yesterday on hosting a great Totara Community webinar event “Learning with IMPACT”.

A well attended and insightful programme of presentations which provided much helpful guidance and thought-provoking nuggets, just a few of which are listed here. Thank you to all the presenters and we look forward to apply thoughts into actions.

Insightful event thoughts:

1. Know your KPI’s (Key performance Indicators)  Understanding how your business makes money, saves money and mitigates risk. Your time, resources and course creation should be focused here.

2. Evidence of need: Where are your efforts needed most to support this? What skills gaps exist that would impact your organisation’s KPIs?

3. Is this problem best solved by learning?  Assess whether there are environmental, tooling or communication conditions that affect people’s ability to perform. Only when those are in place is learning likely to be effective.

4. Prioritisation: L&D departments will always be busy with requests for training support but senior stakeholders need to be consulted to arrive at a order of priority. Maximum need and business impact rather than first come first served.

5. Always be measuring: Measurement doesn’t come at the end of a project – it must be planned at the start, baseline measures identified and success criteria agreed.

6. The complete learning experience: Learning doesn’t necessarily mean rolling out a course. What coaching and feedback will be provided? What opportunities will people get to practice their new skills? What performance support can you put in place?

7. The voice of the learner: You won’t motivate people to learn by overwhelming them with mandatory training requirements. Use their valuable learning hours wisely and consult.

8. Environment: Think about the learner’s environment – where are they, and what tools do they have available to them when completing their learning? Be realistic about results and the impact from launching a course, people need time and encouragement to engage.

If you are Totara Community member and missed this event, or even want to refresh your memory, I’d suggest you check in sometime soon to review the recorded event.