To build the kind of rapid learning cultures that thrive in times of transformation, organizations are experimenting with microlearningdelivering short, focused learning experiences throughout an employees day, week, and career.

Established in 1890, Emerson Electric is a manufacturing company that provides engineering services and solutions, including factory automation equipment, to clients worldwide. In 2014, the Emerson Learning Center team and Terrence Donahue, corporate director of learning at Emerson, saw an opportunity to transform the Leading at Emerson program to place more focus on how employees could apply the course content in their jobs.

One of the things I have learned from my study of learning science research is that using intuition to select the best learning solutions frequently fails. And in many cases, what they like is the opposite of what works best, which Ill explain later in the article).

A few people have recently asked me if I would tackle the issue of making learning easy and fun. He has things to do and not enough time to do them.

It seems like everyone who has ever gone to school is an expert in how to teach and instruct. These principles are all based on research in cognitive science, research on master teachers, and research on cognitive supports for learning.

To bring some clarity to this topic, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) surveyed 596 talent development professionals, finding that 38 percent currently use microlearning and another 41 percent plan to start within the next year. The majority (92 percent) of those whose organizations currently use microlearning indicated that they believed their use of microlearning would increase in the future.

To show that virtual classrooms are well-established and thriving, the Association for Talent Development and the Institute for Corporate Productivity, surveyed talent development leaders about their use of virtual classrooms with instructors and learners interacting in real time. The new report, Virtual Classrooms Now: Using Technology to Reach Todays Workforces, found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of organizations use virtual classrooms for employee learning.

Many learning practitioners find the topic of instructional feedback confusing, so I thought it might be a good topic review. To understand feedback, lets define what it is and what it should do.

WakeMed Health Hospitals is a three-hospital, 919-bed private not-for-profit health system based in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is WakeMeds job to provide the necessary training for staff so they can respond to an outbreak by providing proper care for patients while protecting themselves, their families, and their communities.In September 2014, when the first Ebola case in the United States was diagnosed, WakeMeds education team, led by Amar Patel, director of the WakeMed Center for Innovative Learning, had to quickly prepare all 8,500 of WakeMeds employees to...

Sonic Automotives researchers then identified more than 24 pain points in the used car buyers experience that they could improve. These pain points included several issues with the sales process, with customers often thinking that they had to deal with too many people or spend too much time buying a car.Based on this information, the organization decided to launch three pre-owned car dealerships in Colorado by November 2014.

Founded in Switzerland in 1872, Zurich has grown to 55,000 employees provide car, home, life, and liability protection to individuals, small businesses, and multinational organizations. Zurich has a deep commitment to its values of integrity, customer centricity, sustainable value creation, excellence, and teamwork.In 2010, the Group Operations and Technology (GOT) division was created to develop a customer service model and training, which would help drive business.

TELUS, Canadas fastest-growing telecommunications company, has always taken pride in delivering excellent customer service. CEO Darren Entwistle attributes this success to an inclusive corporate culture that empowers team members to deliver what customers need and want: Our team, and the incredible culture weve built, is our companys most valuable asset and the secret to our success.However, the companys call center learning team wanted to further improve the customer experience and began developing a new customer service model in late 2013.

As Hiltons portfolio continues to expand, so does its demand for new training. All of them needed some level of training, and existing team members also required ongoing learning.

CEO Natarajan Chandrasekaran recognizes how a learning culture helps his organization stay competitive in the rapidly changing global business environment. These problems arose because clients were more comfortable conversing in French, and most of the consultants working with them did not speak much French, despite having business and IT expertise.

In 1945, Ralph F. and Alice Stayer opened a butcher shop in the quaint town of Johnsonville, Wisconsin. In particular, this growth required Johnsonville to develop leaders in manufacturing who could successfully scale up operations, lead teams, and exemplify Johnsonvilles corporate culture, which valued integrity, respect, and innovation.Following the results of a survey that identified current manufacturing leaders skills gaps, the senior leader team recommended that the organizational development and learning (ODL) team launch the Building Leaders and...

The argument: Agile is the better method for developing learning solutions. ADDIE, SAM, waterfall, Agile—all are approaches that can be used by L&D professionals. And all have their advantages and disadvantages. Overall, however, does Agile come out on top?

Without highly skilled leaders, organizations cannot build and execute sound business strategies, create and maintain competitive advantages, attract and retain qualified talent, or achieve and sustain peak market performance. Providing those leaders with relevant content and data they can readily apply in their daily work is driving talent developments exploration and deployment of learning through direct, hands-on experiences that are likely to produce immediate, high-performance results.Experiential learning is an umbrella term encompassing learning that...

Tamar Elkeles presented her session Secrets to Building an Award-Winning Learning Organization, on May 22, 2016, at ATD 2016. In this segment, she discusses linking measurement to business goals and company culture.

The Association for Talent Development (ATD) surveyed 199 talent development professionals with knowledge of their organizations learning evaluation efforts. Of those, only 44 percent think their evaluation efforts are helping them reach organizational learning goals.

In a mere five years, learning will look dramatically different from what it looks like today, and organizational learning and development functions arent prepared to meet the needs of tomorrows learners. To find out what actions learning functions can take now, ATD and i4cp interviewed several leaders of learning functions that are actively imagining and preparing for the future.