Up until now, business training has usually been delivered through a structured course that follows a learning path and hierarchy. Built by instructional designers, this type of course has been and still is highly valuable, but it doesn’t always fit all types of knowledge delivery.
Today, there is an increasing demand to deliver business knowledge in a faster and more measurable way. The solution? A stream of knowledge pieces that are created by any subject matter expert within an organization.
Let’s first look at traditional structured course training
We’re all familiar with the traditional training method of using structured courses that deliver knowledge through a clear and structured setup. It follows order and progression, where a clear hierarchical learning path is plotted that has a beginning, middle and end.
Best suited to deliver deep, rich and qualitative knowledge, courses meet the training needs of more complex and broad information – that usually stretch over time.
Developed by Instructional Designers and L&D departments, these types of courses take professional effort and investment to create a quality piece of training that meets required organizational knowledge needs. They generally take longer to build and are also longer in duration.
However, there’s no one ‘size fits all solution’ for knowledge delivery in the workplace
Not all training types need to follow this structured format. Different knowledge demands require different delivery methods. For example, would you deliver a new product update to employees the same way as you would deliver a new employee onboarding program? The simple answer is no.
Various factors influence how knowledge must be delivered. Sometimes training can afford to take a little longer because of the depth of the material. At other times, training needs to be done quickly, due to rapid changes and deadlines in the business.
So, what about knowledge that needs to be delivered quickly?
When it comes to fast knowledge delivery, such as promotions, product updates, policy changes etc… there aren’t always quick solutions. Some business knowledge requires a more urgent distribution and can’t afford to be put into this longer structured creation process by the L&D department (it’s just too long and too pricey). It rather needs to be created and distributed by the subject matter experts themselves. The ones who know the ins and outs of all the specified knowledge.
Of course, they can share this knowledge by simply sending an email, Whatsapp or Slack message to their teams – but how can managers ensure that their teams read and understood the updates? How can they track to see who is falling into knowledge gaps?
Introducing “Stream”: a new knowledge delivery method
TIME To KNOW understands this need and has created Stream, its newest addition to the platform. The Stream brings new opportunities to quickly deliver bursts of ongoing knowledge and updates across all teams (internal and external) through an ongoing feed that is open-ended and continuous.
It has the same enrichment, interactive and insights features that are found in TIME To KNOW’s structured course builder option. Allowing full visibility on who knows what, to what extent and who’s falling behind.
According to the 2018 State of DevOps research report, more companies need to release new products and services at much faster rates. With this growing pressure, more knowledge must be distributed and measured, even quicker than before.
When new product updates, promotions, policies and features are constantly being released, Stream eases this pressure as the entire creation and distribution process of knowledge pieces now takes just a few minutes – drastically reducing time to market (TTM)!
Meeting training needs in the now
Can you imagine if a sales rep was not up to date with the latest product information? Think about the consequences of the rep missing a sale because he had gaps within his business knowledge – simply because he did not know that there was an update or chose not to read it. Or, how about that new policy which an employee did not read and understand? Ultimately, failing to meet compliance standards and now posing a risk.
Streams are specifically designed to solve such issues. Knowledge items in the Stream are meant to be short, impactful and to the point – delivering a direct hit on knowledge gaps. The immediacy of the Stream prevents employees from falling behind in what they are supposed to know.
So, what does this mean for your training delivery?
Simply put, your business has various training needs. One that requires deep and rich knowledge development, while the other requires shorter chunks of ongoing training. TIME To KNOW’s platform now provides both forms of training delivery, giving you more options when delivering business knowledge. You now can choose between “Course” or “Stream” to keep up with and meet the needs of organizations. You can now get it all in one platform, making it quicker and easier to close knowledge gaps in your business.
