In many companies, a wild growth of learning methods and tools is developing. Coordination and overview are becoming increasingly difficult for personnel managers. The approach of the learning ecosystem provides a remedy. You can find out what it is and what advantages it offers in the article.
Face-to-face events, e-learning, microlearning, webinars, and many more – all these methods are popular in companies. And each has its strengths and weaknesses. Many companies use multiple methods directly, which is fundamentally good and sensible.
However, a sensible combination of methods quickly leads to a "wild growth" of tools, platforms, and formats. The consequences: Coordination becomes difficult, the overview of the technologies is lost, employees and managers are increasingly disoriented. Additionally, the goals of individual measures are also lost.
A relatively new approach can provide relief: viewing learning in companies as learning ecosystems that connect all elements and actors towards a common goal.
Definition: What is a learning ecosystem?
The term is not self-evident, so let's start with a small definition!
Excursus: Ecosystems in nature and business
The basis is the ecosystem that we know from the natural sciences:
An ecosystem consists of a community of organisms (…) and their non-living environment”
(Wikipedia)
An ecosystem unites different living beings in a common habitat. All parties are in exchange with each other and influence one another.
This principle can also be transferred to business ecosystems: Many different actors within the company operate in a common environment (the company), with a common goal: to achieve greater value creation in total than the individual elements can achieve on their own. Actors can be people, but also machines and technologies.
Translation: Learning as an ecosystem
A learning ecosystem encompasses all relevant elements for learning in companies:
People, such as HR and IT managers, employees, educators, and leaders,
Technologies such as learning and communication platforms, necessary devices, and technical processes,
Behaviors, structures, processes, and interactions,
all other elements that are important for "learning" in the company.
In every company, a learning ecosystem develops automatically (and often unconsciously) over time: this ranges from "wild growth" to mature and purposefully built systems. The task of modern personnel development is to discover, analyze, and sensibly further develop the learning ecosystem.
Structure and goals in the learning ecosystem: From the company to personnel development and learners to the tools.
Advantages: What does a learning ecosystem bring?
You should pay particular attention to the following 5 advantages of a learning ecosystem as an HR developer:
Controllable decentralization: Learning is becoming increasingly digital and thus spatially and temporally independent. More and more digital tools and groups of people need to be integrated for successful digital training. Traditional processes in personnel development are reaching their limits here. The learning ecosystem approach brings all elements together sensibly. This relieves personnel development and makes the decentralized "learning system" manageable and controllable.
Common goal setting: A business ecosystem always assumes a common goal shared by all participants. With a clear goal for all learning processes in companies, many things become easier: the selection of tools and methods, the assignment of roles and responsibilities. When all parties (HR development, leaders, employees, trainers, etc.) agree on what they want to achieve, friction points decrease. And the motivation for collaboration increases.
Higher resilience: An ecosystem is not a rigid construct but is always changing. This also leads to greater adaptability to new situations in the learning context (as demonstrated by the Corona crisis). A well-functioning learning ecosystem can quickly adapt to new conditions and align with them without suffering harm. This means less stress for all participants.
More responsibility for individuals: There is no living being in ecosystems that does not perform a function or task. All are important. Each actor in the learning ecosystem has a clear role. And thus also clear responsibilities. When roles are clear, responsibility for the entire learning process can be clearly distributed. This, on one hand, relieves the HR department and, on the other hand, provides employees with more shared responsibility up to co-designing their learning processes.
Clear orientation: Clear structures, a common goal, a definite role, and personal responsibility – all of this helps employees find their way in the learning ecosystem. The result: less confusion and higher learning motivation among learners, and simpler organization for HR professionals.
A purposefully built learning ecosystem can have many positive effects for your company: from easier organization of training measures to long-term high stability despite constantly changing conditions. So it is worth your while as an HR developer to take a look at the current ecosystem, to weed out the weeds, and to fertilize good approaches. 🌷
