How to promote action learning using your LMS

Use action learning and your LMS to solve real-world challenges facing your organisation.

If you’re looking for ways to increase the ROI from your LMS, action learning could be the answer.

Used in tandem with your existing learning and development programme, it offers an enticing way to increase engagement, upskill your team, boost morale, encourage team-building and find answers to the biggest problem currently facing your organisation.

This can be achieved relatively easily and inexpensively. Let’s explore how it works and how your LMS could be used to promote it.

What is action learning?

Action learning is a form of personal development in which small groups of colleagues are tasked with solving real problems or issues that their organisation is facing. 

It combines individual learning outcomes with organisational goals. Instead of making workplace learning something separate from work itself, action learning combines the two things so that employees are upskilling and contributing to the company’s progression at the same time.

The result is an effective and rewarding form of learning and development.

How action learning benefits your organisation

There are several reasons why action learning can be helpful for your organisation. They include:

Solving problems

First and foremost, action learning is a great way to target time and resources at tackling the biggest challenges your organisation faces. It creates a level of focus and unity that can be a very effective way of handling new challenges or solving long-standing problems.

Engaging learners

For learners who don’t typically engage with your learning and development programme — and even among those who do — action learning is a great way to encourage participation. If you’ve ever heard complaints about workplace learning being “a waste of time” or that someone has “more important things to do”, you will instantly see how this approach can overcome that mindset.

Upskilling team members

Action learning presents opportunities to train people in new skills in a way that is often less daunting and more engaging than other forms of learning. It gives practical experience and on-the-job training in a very literal sense.

Boosting morale and team spirit

Consider corporate away days, like the stereotypical raft-building exercise. Action learning captures the best bits of those team-building activities but channels them towards a practical purpose that would ordinarily be lost unless your workplace happened to be a raft manufacturing factory. Create group activities that foster a strong team spirit but also support your business goals.

Sharing knowledge

Bringing together an action learning group made up of people from different parts of your organisation helps to spread knowledge. Working together closely to solve a problem breaks down knowledge silos that can build up in any organisation over time. 

Promoting action learning with your LMS

An LMS will equip you with several tools that will help you to get more from action learning. There are several areas in which learning technologies can provide useful support:

Targeted courses

Your LMS is a great way to deliver preliminary training or information to a group. This might involve making sure that all participants are trained to a particular level in a topic that will be integral to the problem they will be tackling.

Equally, your LMS could be used to share training on the purpose and aims of the project — or action learning in general — to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Seminar management

Use your learning platform’s seminar management functionality to get the right people together at the right time. Plan seminars, events and sessions to manage meetings, as well as any sub-groups or breakout activities. You can also assign rooms and facilitators to the seminar to handle the logistics and keep the project on track.

Create workspaces

Totara Engage includes workspaces, which are hubs for discussions and knowledge sharing around specific topics, projects or talking points. The workspace becomes a library of resources, playlists, surveys and discussion posts related to the subject. This helps participants to collate and share relevant information even when the group isn’t together.

Track engagement

Although action learning is a highly engaging form of workplace learning, some will inevitably engage more than others. The powerful reporting system within Totara Engage is helpful for monitoring which team members are taking an active role in discussions, as well as seeing who is not pulling their weight.

Manage appraisals and feedback

Individual development is equally important to this approach as organisational development. A performance management platform, like Totara Perform, will allow you to appraise your team to help find people who would benefit from working together on particular topics, issues or initiatives to create more relevant and beneficial experiences.

You can also appraise group members before, during and after the project to track progress, see how they develop, and provide feedback to help future development. 

Get started with action learning

Ready to bring action learning to your team? Talk to us about using learning technologies to maximise the impact for your organisation and its people.

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