2.12. Individual & Organizational Influences on Learning and Change

Learning Objective for Section 2.12.: Identify individual and social factors that influence an adult’s motivation to learn and change. 

Change might be a business decision; however transitions at work often have emotional and political effects on any organization and their employees. Motivating factors is one of the most critical elements to consider while implementing change related to learning. If designing learning is part of a change initiative, organizational transition, or method for managing change in a company, talent development practitioners should be aware of how any change could create challenges to learning solutions, i.e. resistance, turnover, and failure to institutionalize the change.

READ: 3 Instructional Design Strategies for SMART Change 

It is critical to involve the change agents during during the learning planning stage to minimize potential issues and consider issues that might occur at all levels. Empowering employees to make choices can help them accept change and ensure this transition is smooth. Some incentives might come from management rewards for acceptance or additional support to help move others along in the transition.

Influences on Learning: How Instructional Design Can Impact Change

Motivation is one of the main influences on people’s willingness to learn. When change comes, sometimes a learning initiative to understand this transition is needed. Two ways to influence this willingness to learn is to:

1. Energize learners’ motivation to learn
2. Use whatever motivation they already have

Training success happens when the new skills and knowledge are applied on the job.To encourage a change in behavior or performance, learners need to realize the learning outcomes.This could be through other learner testimonials, sharing the implications of not gaining this skill, what's in it for me (WIIFM), and identify the knowledge gap might do for their career trajectory. You might also be able to introduce employees to informal learning and technologies (e.g. wikis, blogs, communities of practice, etc.). Other ways to motivate learners by:

• Building anticipation of outcomes through authentic contexts
• Making the context appealing (e.g. sound, music, novelty, suspense, humor, etc.)
• Providing a challenge and adjusting the challenge levels to match different learners’ levels of readiness
• Providing intrinsic feedback

More information about support organization and individual influences on learning, more will be discussed in AOE #10 Change Management, Section 10.11. Motivation Theory.

Are you a learning designer or talent development professional who has developed training/learning solutions for change? How'd it go?