For this webinar, we were joined by Todd Cummings, eLearning Brothers Custom General Manager. Todd’s background and experience is in change management inside of organizations and individuals. He’s incredibly passionate and very knowledgeable about this. Here at eLearning Brothers, we’re equally passionate about changing the eLearning experience for the better.
There are three simple things that anyone can do to creatively drive change inside of an organization.
- Know Yourself
- Know Your Organization
- Know the Change
Let's talk about each principle.
Self-Awareness (Know Yourself)
“Self-awareness is one of the biggest catalysts for change. If we aren’t aware of our own strengths and weaknesses, we aren’t likely to affect change in the organization,” said Todd.
There are many different personality and leadership tests available that you can use to better understand your strengths and weaknesses. The MBTI test was one that many of our attendees indicated they had taken, via a poll from Todd.
If online tests aren’t for you, Todd suggested you can become more self-aware by asking those around you for feedback. Your friends, colleagues, and even family can give you great insights into behavior you might not even realize you’re demonstrating.
Todd shared this Johari Window concept during the webinar. As you learn more about yourself, the Open Quadrant (comprising things known both to you and to others) expands and the other windows shrink. You can use the insights you gain from personality tests or personal feedback from others to expand your Open Quadrant.
Know Your Organization
You have to understand your organization in order to know where and how you can impact change. Organizational culture, structure, and function all influence the knowledge that you need. And sometimes a company’s stated mission isn’t quite lived out in the day-to-day company culture. These are things you need to understand as you think about making changes.
By knowing the values and/or the mission, and understanding the culture of your organization, or team, you can begin to understand the things that you can do that will contribute to it.
Which leads us to…
Know The Change
I really liked the quote Todd shared with us here.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
-Charles Darwin
We see this so much in our technology age—organizations constantly have to be changing or they get left behind. We've even experienced this in our own client base. As such, we have to be up to speed on tools and changes in our industry or we'd get left behind. Our goal at eLearning Brothers is to be the ones right there in the driver seat helping push the industry forward.
There are of course many levels of change—global, regional, local, etc—and many change models. Remember, change models are just guidelines. You can combine elements from different change models to develop a plan that works for your organization and the change you’re trying to make.
Watch the webinar recording to learn more about each of these change driving principles in more detail.
If you’re looking to make that change that leads to better learning, we’re here for you. We can provide you with custom eLearning development, off-the-shelf courseware, strategic consulting, and other tools and resources. Let’s make it happen together. Contact eLearning Brothers to learn more about how we can help you make your training an awesome experience.
