For decades we have approached learning in the same way; a 2-day bulk course, a conference, classroom training, and - first and foremost - learning by “doing” or “asking a colleague”. All too often, we get a 2-day course on a new system 6 months before we actually start using it. We read a SOP and mark it as “read and understood” – what exactly it is that we have understood here?
Now we have eLearning: a smart, interactive navigation with embedded animations, avatars or story telling – for example the video about Joe: “Here is Joe. Joe is on his way to work.” (in your company’s IT security video, Joe might be called something else). I’m all for eLearning, but as everything else, it needs to be implemented wisely.
Watching my kids learning is different; my 19-year-old learning how to program, my 15-year-old learning how to replace the cylinder on his scooter, and my 8-year-old learning some amazing dance moves. How did they learn these skills? They watch someone in a video. They search out specifically what they need to know when they need to know it. They watch. They rewind. They watch again. Then they go back to it when needed. They typically also get hold of additional resources at the same place (a piece of code, the spec of the appropriate replacement part etc.). They ask questions online and people from all over the world contribute to answer and give tips. Their approach is “I’ll just go and figure out how to do it”. Isn’t this a much more effective way of truly learning and understanding a skill and being able to then use that knowledge?
I believe we need to radically change the way we approach learning. We do a great job at educating on the basics of clinical development and medical background for our products, alongside the detailed steps of company specific tasks. However, we are failing badly on 2 key things: understanding key and new concepts; the guiding principles, and our training format. The number of concepts, aspects, and things we need to truly understand is constantly increasing; reading and understanding SOPs simply doesn’t cut it anymore. Neither does the 2-day course you took 6 months ago. The “learning by doing” and “asking a colleague” is also falling short because we either end up learning new skills related to tasks we are currently not working on, or we try to obtain knowledge or information from a colleague who may not actually have it.
We need to learn and understand concepts, the “why’s”, and what exactly it is we are trying to achieve. We need to build knowledge and confidence to apply and adapt in each given situation. Not only which list to fill in and which button to click, but what to put in the list and when and why to click that button (or not). Further, many smaller companies can’t afford the money (nor time) for costly conferences or courses that are only partly relevant. And your colleagues time is probably even more limited than their money.
I believe we can and must do better. We need on-demand training in concepts, “the why’s”, easy access, easy to repeat, affordable and with access to material, examples, and exercises to go with it. We need knowledge sharing and we need resource sharing. That’s why we, here at TriTiCon, are working hard to convert our classroom courses to a digital self-service platform and are sharing guides, articles, and ideas on our website.
Our kids can do anything! Let’s learn how to learn like them!
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