Problem: Commoditization of Credibility and Quality
This post is part of an ongoing series on the content challenges facing today’s modern High Impact Learning Organizations. ™ Be sure to read the whole series.
As the barriers to authorship have fallen, a direct side effect has been a loss in the assumed credibility of authors. If everyone can create content, then we cannot automatically assume that any given artifact of content is of high quality, credible, or trustworthy just based on the source.
Production value is no longer a short cut to credibility either. The tools and technologies now available (HD handheld camcorders for instance) provide the untrained hand with the means to create content that looks similar enough to our expectations for so-called professional content as to be functionally indistinguishable, at least on first glance.
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Did Shakespeare ever design training?
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Like all of these challenges, this change has both good and bad aspects for our society as a whole. From a positive standpoint, it is harder to hold monopolies on political and historical perspective. Simply look at the role of blogs in politics today as example. Many competing viewpoints can be expressed and encountered. On the potentially not-so-good side, there is some research suggesting that having this wealth of viewpoints available allows people to only seek out those sources which reinforce their own views, leading to increasing polarization.
Regardless of how you view this shift, it is obvious that content seekers are no longer willing to go to established sources simply because they are established or because they follow formal, established methods of authorship. Take the world of consumer news content for instance. Newspapers and network television news broadcasts have seen their audiences (and therefore their business models) decline drastically. Journalism bona fides mean little to the general populace. There are just so many other options out there from which to choose, options which better fit the needs, preferences, and lifestyles of end-users.
It seems that the bar for what constitutes quality content is now much more personal, and not necessarily based on traditionally held standards. Beauty may have always been in the eye of the beholder. But in the past, less content and fewer sources meant the options open to an unsatisfied content consumer were few. Content creators held all of the leverage. Today, we live in a completely buyer’s market. It is more incumbent on content creators (and brokers) than ever before that they earn their audiences' respect, belief, and interest through their content.
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However, since audiences do not always make their decision based on content accuracy or depth, they must be constantly studied to determine the latest, best value proposition to make.
What does this mean for training departments? It means the bar for what constitutes good learning content is now also more personal. Of course training departments have the benefit of a somewhat closed environment. They can require consumption of certain content. They can apply the official stamp of the organization to content, giving this blessed content added emphasis and prestige. But this advantage only goes so far.
For instance, training departments often tell us that their business audiences do not see the value in diligent adherence to instructional design methodologies. No matter how strong the culture of learning is in the organization, or how good a sales pitch the training department makes, this particular tension between training and business will likely never be fully resolved. And why should it be? Business stakeholders want business problems solved. If the solution requires employees to gain increased knowledge and skills or to change behaviors, then so be it. Give them access to the knowledge, opportunities to learn the skills, and sell them on the need to change behavior. As a learning professional, you know that sound instructional design is the best way to get there, so do your best to apply those concepts where and when possible. However, adult learning principles tell us that just as critical to successful workplace instruction is providing a clear answer to the WIIFM question (What's In It For Me?). Adult learners have to want to learn.
And so, learning professionals, you find yourself in a very similar place to the folks at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Yes, you might have highly skilled, well-credentialed content creators, but that alone is not going to drive engagement. How well do you really know your audiences: what they need, what they want, and how they would like it delivered? How will you sufficiently peak their interest while simultaneously demonstrating quality and credibility on both their terms and yours? Can you create enough content, fast enough, and in a sufficient number of modalities to meet all needs? Don’t ever let anyone tell you that your job is boring!
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For additional guidance on meeting the challenges of the modern learning organization, please see our just-published groundbreaking new industry study: High Impact Learning Practices. This report is the definitive study of what it will take to remain a High Impact Learning Organization in today’s fast paced, information rich world.
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Solutions:
How can learning organizations solve for this challenge?
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Know Your Audiences
The best modern learning organizations have the connections and the expertise to analyze and to master the business processes of their target audiences. Think like the marketing department. Survey and profile constantly! To be sustainable, you will likely need master some form of structured, business process analysis discipline (e.g., performance consulting, business process modeling, Six Sigma, et al), and have deep integration between your teams and the business audiences you serve.
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Trust the Community – They’re Pretty Smart
When communities take off, a funny thing happens: they get smart. Given the ability to rate, comment, and contribute, the community will quickly surface good, useful content and bury the rest. Organizations such as Sun Microsystems and British Telecom can vouch that moderation is not often necessary in these employee-focused environments. Of course, if you need to bless some content as official, that’s ok. Just make that a special type of tag or rating. Your users will be happy for the additional context by which to find and sort information.
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Adopt ‘Living Content’ Standards (as opposed to ‘learning content’ standards)
At least part of the answer to that question is in the adoption of content standards. In fact we believe that helping the organization at large to develop and use standards for content is one of biggest values that a modern L&D department can bring to an organization. However, standards have to be living (meaning changeable as business needs change) and livable (meaning they don’t cause more problems than they solve). As long as they are flexible and designed for ease-of-use, standards bring consistency to information, making it easier to consume and helping employees to navigate through the overwhelming volume of data faced every day. Standards also help modern L&D departments ensure that the message delivered in the content is 1) the intended message, 2) an accurate message, and 3) able to stand out in a crowd - not drowned out or suppressed by competing messages. Standards become particularly important with content coming from so many different sources. Just remember, consistency does not equal control.
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Buy Best-of-Breed On-Demand
Finally, when you do decide to purchase content, value and utility are key. A great way to jump start your on-demand learning content library – one that take much of the guesswork out of finding quality content in flexible formats is is the growing number of digital content library providers. Providers including
Safari Books Online (coowned by O’Reilly Media and Pearson Education),
Books 24 / 7 (part of SkillSoft),
Soundview Executive Book Summaries,
GetAbstract, and a growing list of others (including Amazon and Apple) now offer organizations access to a vetted library of quality content specifically formatted for on-demand access.
That's all for this week. Tune in next week for installment #4 on the conundrum that is putting a price on content. Until then…
Best,
David