Building on A2 and Team-based Analytics for Informal Learning (TAIL), this assignment was a great opportunity to transition from academic writing to a business-oriented perspective. I’ve been sharing TAIL with friends and colleagues, soliciting feedback and aiming to both dig deeper and also start conversations about the path to introduce the thinking and approach to market. This A3 was a helpful and useful step in that process.

In looking back at the A2 reflection, I notice that I ended that post with a comment about how there will not be a “one-size-fits-all” solution. The Flytguide pitch uses the same phrase when discussing the role of technology in helping organizations embrace digital learning. Technology is going to be important, but it isn’t “the” solution. This is about people – they are the driver behind the effort, the biggest challenge in change and the measure of success. Each organization that I encounter is unique, offering complexities and challenges that reflect their strategy, their structure, their processes and most importantly – their people.

In helping organizations improve in their day-to-day efforts we discuss flattening the org, empowering teams and individuals, iterative and incremental approaches, improving collaboration, operating transparently, delivering value and continuously improving. Further, we guide them to think about the flow of work from beginning to end (value streams), theory of constraints and using small batch sizes to improve the economics of their efforts. I’d argue that each and every one of these ideas is applicable to learning.

In the pitch presentation I discuss democratizing learning in the organization. I like the phrasing as it highlights that learning needs to be owned by everyone in an organization. Further, if we combine such thinking with informal learning – it allows organizations to be nimble, adaptable and innovative.

Moving forward, I need to continue testing these ideas. There needs to be more experiments, more discussions and more adjustments. I’m looking forward to these tests, these interactions and in turn, continuing to learn and grow.