Unleashing the Power of Innovation in L&D

A lot of people talk about innovation but are not necessarily sure how to get started. Most organizations tend to think of innovation in terms of their processes, services and solutions, as a means of gaining a competitive edge. While new products and technologies are great for L&D, a lot of our underlying processes and practices may not follow suit. In short, we often wind up building the same kinds of solutions, just with new tools. What if there were a way for L&D practitioners and departments to harness the power of innovation and apply new ways of thinking to their processes, services, and solutions? Could that mindset lead to a new value proposition for L&D?

In this fast-paced and interactive workshop you will learn how innovation can—and should—find a home in your L&D processes, services, and solutions. We will kick things off with a lively group discussion exploring what innovation means—and doesn’t mean—along with an examination of the barriers to innovation at the individual, team, and organizational level. The discussion will be supported by some hard-won examples from a four-year stint in a dedicated centre for training innovations. This discussion will also offer some pointers on where you can find inspirations and new ideas…and some of them might surprise you.

Next, we will use an iterative and engaging systems thinking exercise to unpack a common task with the aim of creating a shared vision of a final product. We want you to be able to unpack an innovation challenge that you might be facing, so after the meal break we will build on the success of that systems thinking activity to unpack a new or existing innovation challenge, supported by the use of a “problem framing canvas” and other ideation tools. As this exercise unfolds, you may start to see opportunities for innovation or the things that might get in the way, and those flashes of insight are the springboard for making your new ideas come to life. 

The final activity is for you to take what you discover and start building your own “innovation roadmap”…your pathway to making innovation a core element of your L&D practice. With the roadmap in hand as you attend conference sessions and gather new ideas, you can harness this new mindset and start putting those inspirations into practice. You will leave this session with your eyes open to new possibilities for learning and beyond.

In this session, you will learn:

• What innovation is, and what it isn’t
• How to identify and overcome the barriers to innovation
• How to apply a systems approach to any prospective innovation
• How to build your innovation roadmap
• How to apply a problem-framing canvas to guide your innovation efforts

Technology discussed:

Systems thinking, ideation