In many companies, a proliferation of learning methods and tools is developing. Coordination and an overview are becoming increasingly difficult for HR professionals. The approach of the learning ecosystem provides a remedy. What this is and what benefits it brings you will find out in the article.
In-person 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 several methods directly, which is generally good and sensible.
However, a meaningful combination of methods can quickly lead to a "proliferation" of tools, platforms, and formats. The consequences: coordination becomes difficult, the overview of technologies is lost, employees and decision-makers become increasingly disoriented. And this also leads to a loss of the goals of the individual measures.
A relatively new approach can provide a remedy: to consider learning in companies as learning ecosystems, which 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 abiotic environment”
(Wikipedia)
An ecosystem thus unites different living beings in a common habitat holistically. All participants are in exchange with each other and influence each other.
This principle can also be transferred to business ecosystems: many different actors in a company operate in a common environment (the company) with a common goal: to achieve greater value creation as a whole than the individual elements can do on their own. Actors can be people, but also machines and technologies.
Transfer: Learning as an ecosystem
A learning ecosystem brings together all relevant elements for learning in companies:
People, for example, HR and IT managers, employees, trainers, and executives,
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: it ranges from "proliferation" to well-developed and thoughtfully constructed systems. The task of modern personnel development is to discover, analyze, and meaningfully further develop the learning ecosystem.
Structure and goals in the learning ecosystem: From the company to personnel development and learners to the tools.
Benefits: What does a learning ecosystem bring?
The following 5 benefits of a Learning Ecosystem should be particularly examined by you as a personnel developer:
Controllable decentralization: Learning is becoming increasingly digital and thus spatially and temporally independent. More and more digital tools and groups of people must be integrated for digital training to succeed. Classic processes in personnel development reach their limits here. The learning ecosystem approach meaningfully brings all elements together. This relieves personnel development and makes the decentralized "learning system" manageable and controllable.
Common goal setting: A business ecosystem always requires a common goal for all participants. With a clear goal for all learning processes in companies, many things become easier: the selection of tools and methods, the allocation of roles and responsibilities. If all participants (personnel development, managers, employees, trainers, etc.) agree on what they want to achieve, friction points are also reduced. 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 (as the Corona crisis has shown) in the learning context. A well-functioning learning ecosystem can quickly adopt and align with new conditions without suffering harm. This means less stress for all participants.
More responsibility for individuals: In ecosystems, there is no living being that does not take on a function and task. Everyone is important. In the learning ecosystem, each actor has a clear role. And thus also clear responsibilities. When the roles are clear, responsibility for the entire learning process can be clearly distributed. This relieves the personnel department on one hand and, on the other hand, gives employees more shared responsibility, even up to co-designing their learning processes.
Clear orientation: Distinct structures, a common goal, a clear role, and own responsibility – all this helps employees navigate in the learning ecosystem. The result: less confusion and higher learning motivation among learners and an easier organization for HR professionals.
A purposefully built learning ecosystem can have many positive effects for your company: from simplified organization of training measures to long-term high stability despite constantly changing conditions. It is worth your while as a personnel developer to take a look at the current ecosystem, to uproot weeds, and to fertilize good approaches systematically. 🌷
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