In today’s fast-changing world, innovation is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. The business landscape is shifting rapidly, and the demands on employees are evolving just as quickly. When we think about innovation, we often picture new technologies or disruptive products. But innovation isn’t limited to these big-ticket items—it’s also about rethinking how we work, learn, and grow.
Imagine this: you’re handed a candle, a box of tacks, and a pack of matches. Your task is to fix the candle to a wall in such a way that when it’s lit, the wax won’t drip onto the floor. Take a moment to think about how you might approach it.
Most people try to tack the candle directly to the wall or use the tacks to somehow secure the candle in place. But the real solution is to empty the box of tacks, tack the box itself to the wall, and place the candle inside it. This is Duncker’s candle problem, a classic experiment that shows how we often overlook simple, effective solutions because we’re stuck in conventional ways of thinking. To innovate, we must challenge assumptions and look at our approaches and resources in new ways.
Innovation in L&D is not just about adopting that latest technology and new tools; it’s about applying creative thinking and new approaches to solve business and learning problems. It involves challenging traditional assumptions about how learning occurs and reimagining how it can be enabled to drive performance and support strategic objectives.
In this post, we’ll explore five practical ways you can start sparking innovation in your L&D approach – based on real-world examples that have led to measurable success. You can also try out each approach using the suggested action step.
1. Embrace Human-Centered Design
Human-centered design (HCD) focuses on putting the learner at the heart of the process. Instead of jumping straight to solutions, HCD encourages L&D teams to engage with learners, deeply understanding their needs and challenges. This allows you to design learning experiences that truly resonate.
For example, Reece used a human-centered design approach to transform their leadership development program. Through design labs, they worked closely with employees across the organisation, using techniques like journey mapping and persona development to co-create learning solutions. This approach not only uncovered key learner needs (such as mobile accessibility and microlearning opportunities) but also led to a more engaging and personalised learning experience.
Action Step: Run a mini design lab with your team. Choose a pressing learning challenge and invite a diverse group of employees to participate. Use tools like journey mapping and persona development to uncover hidden needs and insights.
2. Adopt a Product Management Mindset
L&D teams often deliver learning solutions like “products” to their employees. So why not think of them that way? A product management mindset involves understanding your learners as customers, mapping their journeys, and iterating learning experiences based on feedback and performance data. It’s about being user-centric, data-driven, and continuously improving.
Anne-Marie Burbidge at Utility Warehouse did just that. By mapping the employee lifecycle and conducting thorough user research, her team was able to identify critical onboarding pain points. They used a backlog system to prioritise initiatives and iterated on the onboarding program based on feedback, making immediate improvements that continued to evolve over time. This approach didn’t just solve short-term problems; it created a culture of continuous improvement.
Action Step: Map your employee lifecycle and identify key pain points where learning interventions can have the greatest impact. Use feedback from learners to prioritise solutions.
3. Experiment with Prototypes and MVPs
If you’re looking for a low-risk way to innovate, start by experimenting with prototypes or Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). Rather than rolling out a fully developed solution, create a scaled-down version or one usable element of the solution, and test it with a small group of users. This allows you to gather feedback, iterate quickly, and refine the solution in a series of small steps. Each solution release adds some usable functionality.
Coles, in partnership with Liberate Learning, took this approach to develop a new digital learning platform. Instead of committing to a full-scale rollout, they used a ‘test and learn’ mindset to develop prototypes of their mobile-first learning solution. This process helped them create a platform that was tailored to the real needs of their workforce, leading to significant improvements in learning completions and user experience.
Action Step: Choose one learning initiative to prototype this month. Create just one usable part of the solution and test it with a small group of learners. Gather feedback and iterate based on the results.
4. Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration
Innovation rarely happens in isolation. Some of the best ideas come from collaboration across different departments and functions. Cross-functional collaboration brings diverse perspectives and expertise to the table, helping you see things differently and create effective solutions.
Ericsson is taking this approach to explore the potential of AI in L&D. They created the Learning NEXT community, a network of over 400 employees from various functions who were interested in using new technologies in learning. This collaborative effort is allowing them to test AI use cases in areas like content curation, coaching, and skills assessment, leading more quickly to new solutions that wouldn’t have emerged from L&D working in isolation.
Action Step: Set up a cross-functional ‘Learning Innovation Squad’ or community within your organisation. Include members from different departments such as HR, IT, and business units. Start small. Pick one business problem or opportunity and work together to ideate and experiment with solutions.
5. Build Innovation Capabilities in Your L&D Team
For L&D teams to drive continuous innovation, they need the right skills, mindsets, and tools. This means investing in upskilling your team in areas like design thinking, agile project management, and data analytics.
AstraZeneca provides a great example of building internal innovation capabilities. They focused on fostering a commercial mindset within their L&D team, encouraging team members to think like a professional services firm and continuously scan the horizon for new learning trends and technologies. This shift empowered the team to become more agile and adaptable, better aligning their initiatives with the company’s business strategy.
Action Step: Create a skills matrix for your team and identify key areas where upskilling is needed to drive innovation. This could include training in human-centered design, data analysis, or agile methodologies.
Take Action on Innovation
Innovation in L&D doesn’t require a massive overhaul. Often, small steps lead to significant changes. By taking a first step to try out human-centered design, adopting a product management mindset, experimenting with prototypes, fostering collaboration, and building innovation capabilities, you can start making a real impact in your organization.
Ready to shake things up? Pick one action step from this post and commit to implementing it in the next 30 days. Let us know what you do and what you learn from this.
Download our podcast listening list to explore case studies of each of the five real-world examples provided in this post.
Looking for guidance to get moving or build momentum with innovation in L&D? Reach out to Learning Uncut to explore how we can help with workshops and/or mentoring.
