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What is ‘frictionless learning’?
We want to make sure we are driving learning outcomes for your business, in a sustainable, repeatable, and scalable way. We call this ‘frictionless learning’. By giving you the tools to do the job effectively, your people will learn better, your business will thrive, and you will save time and money too!
We’ve outlined our approach to delivering ‘frictionless’ learning
We’ve outlined our approach to delivering ‘frictionless’ learning through our Kallidus Readiness Model. We’ve done the research and learned that it is hardly ever (translated to “never) one person who makes decisions or influences the learning strategy of the organization. These decisions are influenced by leaders in Finance, IT, Operations, even Legal, and are ultimately made by Learning & Development, Talent, and Human Resources. We’ve taken all this into consideration and designed a model that you can use and share with leaders throughout your organization so that you have a framework within which to make the best decisions for your learners and your business as you contemplate the learning management system that works best for you.
The following document provides an outline of the process and tools to support this approach. There’s lots here, but nothing worth having is easy – right?
In fact, we wrote this playbook for people who find their current learning environment — to use the words from our L&D practitioner survey — “a little clunky”. Well, don’t worry! The friction that you feel now is what sparked you to look for something better. The good news is that we’ve done the heavy lifting for you, so now let’s get you moving toward frictionless learning experiences for all!
Quick Tip!
We know every organization is starting from their own unique place. Depending on your current use case and progress against that use case, you may be able to skip some of these steps, or this playbook entirely.
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Getting started with stakeholder engagement
In this playbook, we will summarize the stakeholders involved in a typical LMS implementation and the role each performs. This will help you plan and make sure you get the right people involved at the right time.
Your team may not include all the stakeholders listed below; however, an understanding of the role each performs will help inform your approach.
Let’s see who will be on your team!
Identifying your stakeholders
As part of your LMS implementation, it’s important to engage with stakeholders in your organization. These are the people who will help to ensure you achieve your vision and make the project a success.
We recommend that you start the conversation as early as possible, to ensure stakeholders have availability to get involved and understand the project and its purpose. Let’s start by identifying the teams of people you should be working with.
Project Team
This is the core team who will likely join all calls with your LMS implementation consultant. In smaller organizations, this may be one or two individuals. For larger organisations, this may be a larger group. Be mindful that too large a group can muddy the waters when it comes to decision making.
The project team will typically include system ’owners’, system administrators and a project manager. A project sponsor may join initial calls, and then require regular updates from your team as the project progresses. As part of your planning, consider how and when you might share progress updates with sponsors and execs.
Other important teams
IT team. We typically address IT fundamentals at the outset of an implementation – IT system requirements, whitelisting and SSO, for example. Your IT team may join the first one or two calls, or if preferred, arrange a separate call to address any questions your IT team may have.
HR team / People data owners. This may be your team, or your organization may have separate L&D and HR teams. Either way, the owners of your people data are crucial stakeholders in an LMS implementation. People data is the primary focus for initial consultancy calls so make sure a member of this team is available to get involved early.
Your learners and managers. Don’t forget to engage your learners! They will certainly be your biggest stakeholder group and will influence the success of your implementation. Managers can be important advocates for learning and system adoption within their teams. You might also have champions, who are Subject Matter Experts, for example.
Quick Tip!
Just a note! These teams may not exist as named above in your organization, if you’re unsure who you might need to get involved at this stage, seek examples from other companies or consider asking about it when you interview LMS providers.
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Summary of roles
In this section, we’ll provide your with some frameworks, templates and other resources to organize your needs assessment. There are some typical stakeholders and roles required for a successful LMS implementation. Let’s identify them with a sharable tool.
Questions to ask your key stakeholders
We recommend that stakeholders are advised to join calls only where they can add value. This will help ensure a smooth implementation and a positive experience for those involved. The below table includes recommendations as to which calls a stakeholder might typically join.
Engaging key stakeholders early in the exploration and implementation of Kallidus is crucial to project success. We suggest you review your company leadership and executive list and see who you want to understand more about the project and its value.
Choose a committed and well represented team but don’t get too big. With more people, you’ll have more wants, needs and ideas. Just the right mix of pragmatic and engaged individuals, and you’re on the path to success.
| Who are they? | What do they do? | What meetings should they attend? |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsor | Owns the entire project and ensures project is delivered on time. Escalation points on customer side. | Might attend occasional project calls to get updates or you may wish to have internal calls to keep them updated on progress |
| Project board | Made up of sponsors/project manager and other key stakeholders who oversee the project and might be involved in key decisions on risks/issues. | Might not attend calls with Kallidus but will be involved with internal project calls for update and decisions. |
| Project manager | The person who oversees the project deliverables from your company’s side. | May attend every call but may not attend full call. They’ll likely concentrate on project tasks not detail |
| Main admin | The ultimate owner of the system during and after the implementation. | Attends all calls |
| Supporting Admins | Supports the main admin with system setup and internal tasks | Attends all calls, if you have numerous supporting admins we suggest only including appropriate representatives |
| IT | Responsible for IT system requirements, typically whitelisting and SSO | Usually only involved at the beginning of the project. May have a separate from call the main project call(s) |
| HR | Owner of the source data which will be needed for the People data feed (to transfer your people data into your LMS) | Might be involved with early calls about the feed of data from your People data source, to your LMS |
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Tool you can use
It will be important to convene the group of people who you feel will be vital to the success of the LMS implementation. Here are a few examples for you to use to get started.
A sample email and agenda
Subject: Join Us in Shaping Our LMS Project! Meeting Agenda Included.
Hi [Stakeholder’s Name],
We hope you’re doing well! We’re thrilled to invite you to participate in an exciting project as we implement our new Learning Management System (LMS). Your valuable insights and expertise will play a vital role in ensuring the success of this initiative.
At [Organization Name], we believe in creating an engaging and seamless learning experience for our team. Alongside our LMS provider, we aim to provide a user-friendly LMS platform that caters to the needs of our learners, instructors, and administrators.
We invite you to a stakeholder engagement meeting, where we can discuss your expectations, preferences, and any specific challenges or opportunities you foresee with the implementation of our LMS. Your feedback will be instrumental in shaping the direction of the project and ensuring that the LMS meets our collective goals.
During the meeting, we aim to foster an open and collaborative environment where everyone’s input is valued. Your perspective and insights will help us optimize the LMS and make it an exceptional tool for our learning community.
Please let us know your availability for this meeting by [deadline]. The invitation will immediately follow this message.
By working together, we can build an outstanding frictionless LMS experience that will transform the way we learn and grow as an organization.
If you have any questions or need further information, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are truly excited to have you join us on this journey!
Best regards,
[Your Name] [Your Position/Department]
Remember to include an agenda in your invitation to your stakeholder group. This will help to set an expectation and encourage others to think about the meeting in advance.
Sample Agenda
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Overview of the LMS Project
3. Understanding Stakeholder Needs and Expectations
- Current state (in a statement)
- Desired future state (frame with the pillars below)
- Focus on the learner
- Desired features and functionality
- User experience and interface
- Content formats and accessibility
- Integration Requirements and Considerations
4. Discussion on Challenges and Opportunities
6. Next Steps and Timeline
7. Open Floor for Questions and Feedback
8. Wrap-up and Next Meeting Planning
Quick Tip!
Pro tip! Keep the meeting to 45 minutes to start and follow up with meetings that don’t take up hours at a time but instead focus on a particular outcome and include the people who can get you there.
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Understanding the ultimate stakeholder: The Learner
The next step is to identify the different groups of people who share the need to get learning of some kind. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll understand the different ways in which you’ll need to target learning which will help you to organize your LMS.
Here are a few steps for you to use to get this framework in place.
Three steps to understand your learner
Step 1 – Think about your organizational structure
Start with a look at your organization’s hierarchy. Identify the people, or groups of people who might need learning based on where they sit in that hierarchy. For example, is there learning specific to:
- the department they work in (e.g., L&D, HR, Sales, Support, Payroll)?
- the business area/division/business unit they work in (e.g., Operations, Sales and Marketing, Finance)?
- the role they serve (e.g., line manager, senior leader, director)?
- the location they serve?
- Identify the categories for where learning is needed by the groups of people it would serve. Then move on to step 2.
Step 2 – Consider the employee lifecycle
Look beyond the org structure and think about the employee life cycle, and where learning may need to be targeted along the way.
As an employee joins, ramps up, and progresses through their career, can you identify points at which you’d like/need to share learning with them? This might tease out detail such as learning for people who are:
- New starters – induction
- Aspiring/new managers
- Career aspirations/pathways
- Returning to work (after mat/pat leave)
- Promotions
- Relocation
- Offboarding
Note the different groups of people you identify and then move on to Step 3.
Step 3 – Accommodate for special responsibilities
Next, think about additional responsibilities people have, and the need for learning targeted at individuals who share that responsibility. This might tease out detail such as learning for:
- Mentors
- Buddies
- Project Champions
- Safety advocates
Consider how your LMS will target learning for these groups.
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Staying Accountable
You’re up and running now and your have a team in place. The way you keep them in place is by staying accountable to each other and your goals. Here are some tips.
Keeping your team accountable to your plans and to each other
Be sure to keep the communication frequent and concise. The more you convene with your stakeholders, the more you’ll know what motivates them and that is the secret sauce to keeping them engaged.
Remember to celebrate successes. You can keep yourself and the team accountable by celebrating wins and reviewing pitfalls. Consider these tips.
- You have a timeline. Use it! Each milestone should be communicated.
- Ask how everyone is doing. Surveying your key stakeholders is like a temperature check. You want everyone to stay fired up but not burnt out and certainly not icy!
- Celebrate the small stuff and use pitfalls as learning moments.
- Share your thoughts through emails, agenda items, and other documents. If they are stuck in your head, no one can respond.
- The desired state is your oasis. Make sure you have illustrated the desired state to the point that you want to buy a plane ticket to get there, and all your key stakeholders want to join you.
You are ready for this. Now go ahead and invite the group, be an active listener, and collate the insights. The goal is to come out with some very clear goals, outcomes, and measures of success – that keep you focused, but also are shareable and relevant to the rest of the business.
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Take the Kallidus readiness assessment
The Kallidus Readiness Assessment was designed to help you progress toward your goals. Now that you have read through this playbook, why not see where you are? Take the readiness assessment now.
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