Laura Overton provides the 5th expert Analyst Angle on the Transformation Journey. In this article she explores the power of using benchmarking to bring the outside in.

Laura Overton provides the 5th expert Analyst Angle on the Transformation Journey. In this article she explores the power of using benchmarking to bring the outside in.
The learning profession is hungry for change, but is it ready? With skills and capabilities either static or retracting, L&D readiness is as much about developing a mindset and networks as it is about skills and competency.
An organisation’s learning culture doesn’t just happen. Business leaders, individuals and learning professionals all play a critical role in its development over time.
Specific technologies alone do not correlate to business or learning impact. However, the way they are used can dramatically accelerate the learning transformation journey.
The most significant pivot point of change is at the centre of the curve as organisations move from left to right. This marks the fundamental shift of L&D from producer to enabler, from delivering courses to enabling organisational change.
This year marks Towards Maturity’s 15th anniversary, over which time our research programme has gathered longitudinal evidence from all stakeholders in the learning process; allowing participants to understand how decisions in the past have affected the present, to make informed recommendations for the future.
Your Ultimate Guide to LT 2019 – all the best conference sessions, free seminars and fringe events in one place!
Qantas Airway, the flag carrier airline of Australia, is on a learning transformation journey. Michelle Ockers, who recently partnered with Towards Maturity as an expert learning analyst, worked with Qantas as an independent strategic advisor in 2017. She engaged Towards Maturity to help Qantas identify how they could create a modern and engaging learner experience.
New evidence from 10,000 workers dispel the myths that business leaders have about how they learn in the modern workplace.
Measuring the benefits of L&D and comms initiatives remains a challenge. Just one in eight learning and development professionals1 believe their organization measures the return on investment of learning programmes. Success can be measured either through quantitative measurement or qualitative change, but whatever approach is chosen, effective measurement is vital to ensure L&D and comms strategies are delivering on objectives and attract future investment.
Micro-learning delivers learning nuggets in easily digestible, bite-sized chunks. Learners can access micro-learning as they need it, on the job. Industry expert Josh Bersin describes micro-learning as an ‘amazing innovation’, explaining that microlearning platforms now let you manage the proliferation of video, assessment, and other small content objects with tools for curation, tracking, recommendations, and AI-based prescriptive learning”.
A huge congratulation to all the winners and nominees at the 2018 Learning Technologies Awards, held on Wednesday night in London. We were delighted to join in the celebrations on the night and get together with so many members of the learning and development community!
We speak to Teresa Rose, Learning and Talent Expert at E.ON to see how the Learner Intelligence Programme provided Evidence for Change.
West Midlands police force serves a population of almost 2.8 million. With a shrinking force dealing with increasing demand, a real change needed to happen if the officers were to remain effective in their roles.
As learning professionals, we want to design interventions that lead to lasting change. Shifting behaviour involves a process that continues long after the programme finishes. Our research has shown that mature learning organisations are more successful at integrating learning and work, but they don’t abandon formal learning. One of their strategies is to design learning campaigns and programmes that build and encourage new habits.
In the final installment of our ambassador round up series, we speak to Peter Casebow, CEO of Good Practice, about his thoughts on the Transformation Curve.
In order to achieve true and lasting transformation, organisations need to take it one step, one stage at a time, says Piers Lea, chief strategy officer at LEO and Learning Technologies Group plc, and a Towards Maturity ambassador. It’s also what the latest Towards Maturity benchmark report ‘The Transformation Curve’, says when it outlines the four stages of maturity – Optimising Training, Taking Control, Letting Go and Sharing Responsibility.
Read about the two things that Ken Govan, from our ambassadors Cegos, particularly likes about ‘The Transformation Curve’, the latest Towards Maturity benchmarking report.
Someone who knows a thing or two about transformation is John Helmer, Director of Marketing at Lumesse Learning. “There’s rapid disruption of business models in this digital age. As something is becoming mature, that’s the stage that you need to move towards the next development.”
Jenny Lycett thinks it’s high time that everyone owns learning, not just the L&D department. “I think there are plenty of benefits from organisations seeing L&D as a shared responsibility and I think this is a huge change from what we’ve seen in the past,” she says.
Some avoid it like the plague, many are ambivalent and others embrace it fully. Whatever our position, we can’t avoid the L&D ‘F’ Word.
“When they revealed ‘The Transformation Curve’ and I saw how they had interpreted the data into a model of maturity, I was blown away,” says Stephanie, director of learning solutions at Bray Leino Learning and a Towards Maturity ambassador. “It left me feeling excited for the future of learning and development”
Something that Clive Shepherd really likes about ‘The Transformation Curve’ is the fact it highlights that the road to transformation is not a straightforward, predictable or smooth one. “The report recognises that progress occurs in waves,” says Clive, founding partner at the learning organisation, More than Blended, and one of Towards Maturity’s ambassadors.
Although we would all like progress to be linear, constant and straightforward, it rarely is. Sometimes – often even – we need to stop and take a step back in order to go forward. Robert Wagner, Director at the CIPD Qualifications & Apprenticeship provider DPG plc tell us more.
Are you taking the right next steps in your transformation journey? Digital transformation is at the top of most business agendas and for some time L&D leaders around the globe understand the need to change to keep up.
“Small steps leading to real change” is what Martin Baker, CEO and founder of The Charity Learning Consortium says about our report ‘The Transformation Curve’. One of the key messages of the report is that transformation happens in stages and that organisations have to keep taking small steps in the right direction.
This article describes how The Medical Research Council developed a bespoke e-learning curriculum for frontline workers at the research unit in The Gambia (MRCG) involved in combating disease in West Africa.
It’s ten years since our team of ambassadors started working with us at Towards Maturity, sharing their L&D insights and expertise and supporting us on our benchmarking journey.
This article describes how Action Against Hunger Nigeria provided e-learning to equip their frontline staff to effectively project manage and tackle an enfolding humanitarian crisis in Nigeria.
How to align learning with the business is a constant and evolving question for L&D professionals and it’s a question that Krystyna Gadd of How to Accelerate Learning helped to answer during her session at the Learning Technologies 2018 speaker exchange.
How would Booking.com use AI to ensure that its e-learning enabled the company to develop its staff and enjoy its exponential world growth?
Industry thought-leaders speaking at the Learning Technologies Conference joined our LT Exchanges to tackle some of today’s big questions around technology. What, how and where can it be applied?
Micro learning is one of the hot new trends this year, but as with any new learning technology, it comes with its challenges for implementation.
Consider the 3 ‘P’s – Purpose, Principles and Personas and put users at the heart of your learning content design strategy.
One of the biggest shifts in learning technology is in the development of increasingly collaborative platforms. So how do we best harness these solutions and create a culture of knowledge sharing?
Day 1 of Learning Technologies and Fabrizio Conrado reports on the key challenges and opportunities that surfaced during the exchange with David Kelly.
L&D needs to be helping drive business transformation, creating a culture of agility and continuous learning that ensures organisations are at the forefront of change.
With the world facing a biodiversity crisis, ZSL saw the urgent need to provide online conservation courses that would equip and raise up a new generation of conservation leaders across the world.
2018 is another year of opportunity for L&D leaders. Laura Overton discusses how the fearless can set a new direction that will impact their organisation’s growth, transformation, productivity and performance.
Stephanie Morgan, Director of Learning Solutions at Bray Leino Learning, shares five top tips to build learner engagement and more.
This month we are capturing the essence of some of these case studies by featuring a treasure trove of tops tips that could transform your e-learning program into a class act!
How Qantas used the Towards Maturity Learning Landscape Audit to explore if they could better leverage learning to improve business performance and create a more modern and engaging learning experience.
Finding itself subject to increasing industry demand, a global brand agency decided to invest in its 48 managers to equip them to deal with challenges that can arise from periods of rapid and un-forecasted growth.
With a rapidly expanding workforce and only one training location, Aggreko’s had to bring its staff-learning provision into the 21st Century, where it would be able to bring an effective learning solution that would support their diverse personnel in 45 countries.
For any department looking to deliver and embed change and transformation, effective internal communications are essential. Here’s 10 tips to get you on right path and some BOLD suggestions from those who joined us at last month’s CLC Member Meeting.
Martins Couzins talks curation: a process for sense checking and sharing resources in useful, relevant and timely ways.
Check out the shortlist of nominees for Learning Technologies Awards 2017 – it’s a celebration of everything excellent in L&D.
Since 2010 Qantas Airways has benchmarked its learning strategy with Towards Maturity. This year it’s been working to improve business performance, and create a modern and engaging learning experience.
This case study describes how The Marine Learning Alliance (MLA) used e-learning to bring a sea-change in the way that professionals in the marine industry meet their CPD needs whilst at sea.
In this article Laura Overton walks you through the state of play today and the principals behind the concept of the ‘New Learning Organisation’ – first introduced by Senge in 1990.
When there are so many things you could be measuring or reporting on, how do you identify L&D KPIs that the business cares about? Here’s how to turn the heads of your business leaders with metrics that matter.
To join in the fun of #BookLoversDay, here’s 10 books that stood out to us and were recommended by our community that we think every L&D leader should read.
Fuse Universal is a technology company helping enterprise, education and public sector organisations revolutionise online learning, knowledge sharing and communication in the workplace. They invited our CEO and Founder Laura Overton, to talk about our latest annual Benchmark Report, Unlocking Potential, and discuss what the insights mean for today’s learning professionals.
This case study describes how NATS used e-learning to engage a new generation of trainee flight controllers and increase the success rate of candidates.
We take a look at the upcoming World of Learning conference and highlight our recommended picks of the show.
Find out how L&D priorities are shifting in our early analysis of the 2017 Benchmark data.
Just as we thought we were getting a handle on digital disruption, the workforce is onto the next big thing. It’s pretty clear that learning is evolving faster than L&D departments can keep up.
Everyone loves winning awards though entering can be a daunting and time-consuming process. Whether you’ve entered this year or are thinking of doing so in the future, Benchmarking your learning strategy can help!
A learning culture enables organisations to learn, innovate and grow, whilst attracting and retaining the best talent. But developing a learning culture is a huge challenge for many organisations. How do you do it?
This year’s Learning Benchmark Report, Unlocking Potential, presents our research around five key outcomes: improving efficiency, fine-tuning processes, boosting performance, cultivating agility and influencing culture, that both learning leaders and business leaders are looking to deliver
Technology helps L&D professionals deliver efficient learning experiences, faster, at scale. But when it comes to supporting the day to day running of an organisation, is learning having a worthwhile effect on processes?
Everyone is looking for evidence to make smarter decisions, but data can be overwhelming and even dangerous if you get it wrong. Our Senior Research Analyst explains how methodology ensures Towards Maturity research hits the mark and ensures successful interpretation that helps you make decisions that count.
Teresa Rose from E.ON describes how her team gained deep insights into the way people learn across the organisation, helping them transform their learning strategy.
One thing has remained the same since we started providing benchmarks for learning teams in 2003 – the disparity between the goals of the L&D team and the impact learning is having on the organisation.
This case study describes how ASADA used e-learning to combat sports doping and revitalise its out-dated doping awareness course, taking a gold for Best use of Learning Technologies to Ensure Compliance at the 2016 Learning Technologies Awards.
Learning professionals should be playing a vital role in helping people and organisations thrive in times of change. However, to do this, they must be agile. This article, by LEO’s Imogen Casebourne and Gareth Jones, and Watershed’s Andrew Downes, explains the importance of measuring the impact of learning on business.
When it comes to culture we do not have to be constrained by the past. How can we influence change? Laura Overton continues to outline the tactics that separate the best from the rest.
We are no longer living in a world of change that perhaps L&D can address and even support, but a world of uncertainty, of pure unknowns that could make or break us!
In an ever changing business environment, how does a Learning & Development function ensure it delivers what the business wants today – while developing employees for tomorrow?
The way in which we acquire and assimilate information has changed in recent years, through technology as well as the rapidly changing world of work. The demand for skills, knowledge and capabilities is high, and removing learners from the workplace to attend formal learning courses isn’t always practical or feasible.
Towards Maturity research has long shown the importance of the relationship between L&D leaders and their learning providers. Yet, only 3 in 5 L&D leaders understand the critical questions that they need to ask of their learning providers.
The classroom facilitator has a critical role to play in unlocking the potential of digital learning. But are they doing it? In this feature, we look at how L&D is incorporating digital learning and why, along with the role of classroom facilitators in the design, implementation and acceptance of that learning.
If you’re struggling to engage staff with compliance training we invite you to review your compliance strategy and be part of new, innovative research that will help you create a culture of compliance
This case study unfolds how Citi ran a 30-day challenge for staff to #BeMore by learning continuously. The campaign encouraged everyday learning through a series of micro actions embedded into their workflow – leading to several awards for the team.
An independent case study on the impact of competency management in Helse Vest, Norway – a state-owned regional health authority.
Global HR and L&D professionals across 22 countries discussed digital transformation, making a case for blended and mobile learning, knowledge management best practices and much more at the 7th annual Speexx Exchange 2016.
How the learning team at AXA demonstrated that big budgets or expensive hardware are not needed to get tangible business impact, using AI, a likeable character and a simple platform.
We received a high number of entrants for the Sector Benchmark Group Membership draw worth £1000 and are happy to announce the winner!
We held eight round table discussions with global industry experts on our LT stand in conjunction with Training Journal. Read all the key takeaways.
We all know the only constant is change. We are seeing that in our politics, our businesses, our climate… technology, relationships, industry sectors and so much more. In a world where everything is evolving and jobs that weren’t even invented ten years ago are recruiting, how can you possibly be ready for the rest of your career?
The Learning Technologies show was busy this year with 100s of suppliers of technology solutions, alongside traditional L&D providers, all vying for the attention of passing visitors.
As organisations turn to mobile solutions to help their staff access learning resources on the go, they will be facing the issue of whether to develop bespoke applications or simply ensure that their content can be viewed effectively via a mobile browser.
We are in the Social Age of learning, where the bywords are agility and engagement, where formal experiences are less valuable than applied ones, where traditional models of authority and expertise are subverted by more social methodologies that rely on communities and sharing.
Learning transfer is key to ensure that there is behavioural change in the workplace so that people can do whatever is needed when they get back to the work. There is a need to avoid the training sessions where people may have got the knowledge, but not the change for when they are back at work.
Networking has always been a source of real value to organisations. Networks are so much more adaptable to change than rigid structures, and technology can amplify and enable existing networks. However, if you don’t give people the reason to connect and collaborate, there can be resistance to ‘yet another’ technology – ‘it’s just one more thing to do’.
Organisations are always looking to become more agile or innovative and in L&D we are all focused on supporting employees to be more engaged.
With 2017 well and truly underway, we’re offering everyone the chance to get the best start to 2017 with a free Personalised Benchmark Report and a chance to win £1,000 worth of Sector Benchmark Group membership at LT17!
Embracing the principles behind growth mindset thinking are more likely to lead us to a breakthrough this year. In this article, Laura Overton encourages all learning professionals to think bigger and reflect on what you can do next.
The Exchange Programme provides a unique, free opportunity to get up close and personal with conference speakers at Learning Technologies on 1-2 February 2017.
Towards Maturity will be at stand H24 of the Learning Technologies Exhibition this year. Read on to find out what we’re up to, download our Ultimate Guide and be in for a chance to win £1,000 worth of Sector Benchmark Group membership at the show.