Giving it away, or worse

The other day, I was wondering about the possibilities of removing mandatory courses.  Ok, maybe not mandated compliance, but any others.  And then a colleague took it further, and I like it.  So what are we talking about?

I was thinking that, if you give people a meaningful mission (ala Dan Pink’s Drive), the learner (assuming reasonable self-learning skills, a separate topic), they would take responsibility for the learning they needed.  We could have courses around, or maybe await their desires and point them to outside resources, etc, unless it’s specifically internal.  That is, we become much more pull (from the user) than push (from us).

However, my colleague Mark Britz took it further.  He argued that instead of not making them go, instead we’d charge them what it cost to provide the learning!  That is, if folks wanted training or webinars or…, they’d pay for the privilege.  As he put it, if requests for elearning, being cautious about signing up, etc happened: “I couldn’t be happier!”

His point is that it would drive people to more workflow learning, more social and shared learning, etc.  And that’s a good thing.   I might couple that with some way to make sure they knew how to work, play, and learn well together, but it’s the different view that’s a needed jumpstart.

It’s a refreshing twist on the ‘if we build it it is good’ sort of mentality, and really helps focus the L&D unit on doing things that will significantly improve outcomes for others.  If you can make a meaningful impact, people will have to pay for your assistance.  You want change?  You’ll pay but it’ll be worth it.

If we’re going to kick off a revolution, we need to rethink what we’re about and how we’re doing it.  Mark’s upended view is a necessary kick in the status quo to get us to think anew about what we’re doing and why.

I recommend you read his original post.

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