Being singularly obsessed with the optimization of human learner performance, I have discovered the foundational cause of ultimate learner success lies in something so often overlooked and embarrassingly dismissed by enterprise learning and development: conditions.
Conditions are the environment, the atmosphere, the “feel” — the full emotive and affective experience of learning by learners that takes place in an organization. The tonal conditions that learning leaders and strategists thoughtfully and intentionally create will determine the caliber and success of human performance, outcomes, results and return.
Learning biome
So, let’s dive deeper into this critical concept of “conditions.” I love metaphors in learning, so let’s think of conditions in terms of the concept of a biome. Butfirst, let’s define biome!
Sciencing.com provides one of my favorite definitions: “A biome is a large area of land that is classified based on the climate, plants and animals that make their homes there.” Britannica defines a biome as “a major life zone,” with “similar environmental conditions.” And perhaps one of the most unique definitions comes from a friend of mine at UCLA, a genius at word play, who sparked my intrigue as she defined biome as “Bio + me: Life me. Me life.”
I revel in these definitions because they capture the nature of what a biome really means. A biome is a home, a major life zone, an environment — and a biome, ultimately, is our relationship animated as miraculous symbiosis with life.
We, as learning leaders, are responsible for that biome and we have a mission to create the optimal conditions that provide the best shot at success for our organizations and the lives of learners who make their homes with us there.
Have you ever thought of the full corpus and experience of organizational L&D as a home? Let that sink in for a moment.
Learning ecosystem
Today, we hear a lot of talk about “learning ecosystems.” But an ecosystem is, really, the activity or interactions that exist within a biome. As learning leaders, we should be repositioning our thinking from learning as an ecosystem to the broader context of a “learning biome,” and look first to building out those successful conditions and atmospheres that will enable our learners to thrive.
Think of it as envisioning the most optimal conditions or atmospheres for those learning interactions to take place. In other words, prioritize the needs of the biome before the ecosystem, and place the learner as the focus of it all.
Human learner as supreme end-user
Emphasizing a human-centered approach in the creation of the learning biome will put the cultivation of such optimal conditions for learning first, and it will also prioritize the human learner as supreme end user again, whether enterprise learning is experienced in-person or virtually.
The genesis of the human-centered learning biome is the new frontier, but it is also a challenge. To excel in this challenge beyond the standard ease of use and streamlining efforts, the thoughts, emotions, feelings and full emotive experience of the learner must be put first in every facet of the enterprise learning strategy with the caliber of learning leaders who can rise to create such a strategy and execute its vision.
Human-centered design is a mindset that focuses on epitomizing the user experience. Extending this approach to L&D atmospheres means this human learner-centered mindset can be embedded in the learning strategy and through-lined across all mediums of organizational learning programs, products, systems, models and services (yes, even Ai and associated generative models).
A successful and effective human-centered learning biome will see everything and every touch point through the eyes, mind, heart, feelings, soul and spirit of the learner. And it takes bold learning leaders who realize this having thoughtful intention, an urgency of prioritization and ultimately, what ExuLAB and I created and aptly coined, a finely tuned “feelings quotient” (FeQ)™— the acute awareness of how learning content and context affect human feelings and how these feelings inspire or stymie learner performance as well as the consequent thoughtful and intentional design and consideration of feelings in the full spectrum of the learner learning experience. The cultivation of FeQ is an entire conversation and article in and of itself — stay tuned!
10 jumping-off point questions for CLOs
I invite learning leaders to think about and leverage the following jump point questions with their teams to stimulate “what’s next and why” innovative thinking for the build-out of the evolution of their enterprise level learning biome strategy.
When designing your enterprisewide learning strategy, consider the optimal conditions you want to create for your learners and be bold in this expectation. What is that ultimate learning utopia?
- What environment is most conducive for your learners to thrive in? Is it the same for every learner? Why? What elements influence the atmosphere of organizational learning in your organization? How do you like to feel when you learn best?
- What kind of optimal tonal conditions do you desire to create for live, LXP- or LMS-driven learner onboarding, performance evaluations, collaborative learning, talent mobility, job crafting, Iflow, simulations, coaching, global or remote team training and skills development, etc.?
- Did you consider creating optimal conditions at every learner touchpoint? Do you know what every single learner touchpoint is?! How do you create conditions that flex with learner needs?
- Are all your virtual conditions emotively optimal? What would you change or re-envision considering this learning biome concept? How does it complement your overall learning strategy?
- What holistic atmosphere do you want to create for the full learning experience? What three power words would describe it? What does that learning utopia look like for your organization?
- What conditions would make for the most memorable “sticky” learning to take place and be applied — especially for high stakes learning content?
- What would the optimal learning environment feel like? What is important to measure?
- What is the first impression you want to leave with your learners so that you build immediate credibility and desirability?
- How do optimizing tonal conditions yield a strong ROI? How do you show alignment between learning atmospheric urgency and the overall objectives and goals of the business?
- Is your learner and atmospheric ardor put first in every single consideration of your learning strategy?
Return on investment
So much time is currently spent on what I call “metric obsession,” ROI, incessant proving and reporting ad nauseam. While important (and often mandated), none of this will be successful without proving learner primacy above all — putting the learner first, front, center in your learning strategy and your learning design and development.
This begins by paying meticulous attention to the conditions, environment and atmosphere you create for your learners. When you optimize organizational learning conditions, your composite learning posture is oriented to motivation, momentum and success, a strong position for elevating human performance and, therefore, better results and return.
A call to action
I encourage senior learning leaders to posit the concept of conditions and human-centered atmospheric urgence before their boards of directors, extended leadership and teams and push for robust discussion about what this means for the evolution of organizational learning, the unleashing of innovative creativity, biome vibrancy and the ultimate wide-eyed and wild success of the enterprise.
As a learning leader, what bold and bright action can you take to advance the tonal development of your organizational learning environment to create the optimal learning biome for jaw-dropping human performance?
