PODCAST - why complex elearning and training programs fail
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Now, let's dive in.
Today, I'm gonna share it with you. Why Complex e-learning and training programs fail. You're gonna learn that simplicity not only makes your life easier, not only makes your organization, your e-learning and your training programs more sustainable, but actually makes them more profitable. So these are the five reasons why you need to simplify your e-learning and training program starting today, number one.
[00:02:00] Sometimes there are just better ways of doing things today.
While training has been around for a long time, e-learning programs are still relatively new. E-learning technology is relatively new. Even. So I like to think back to the first commercially available computer came around in the 1950s, and guess what? It was as big as a room.
It also cost $1 million. Today, that's 12 million. And guess what? And we compare this to smartphones, which came around [00:03:00] in the two thousands. And guess what? They fit in your pocket and how much did they cost? Less than a thousand dollars.
And that's in today's dollars. Sometimes free, depending on what your plan is with your cell phone provider. And would you agree that smartphones are exponentially more powerful than this first computer and we're talking 50 years? 50 years. Smartphones are an exponentially more efficient and effective way to compute than the first computers in the 1950s.
Growing up in the nineties and the early two thousands, as I started writing research papers and working on research projects, I found or was [00:04:00] taught that I needed to go to the library. I even used something called Encyclopedia Britannica. This was the thing you used to have to, if you're gonna research something, go to these places.
I also was told to interview experts, and I'd actually have to schedule these interviews. Go meet up with these people and interview 'em. This is how I used to do research even in college, and I started college in 2009. I was still doing this. Google was starting to become a thing and Google was becoming more and more valuable throughout this, but this is how I was taught.[00:05:00]
To research and today it's 2025. What I do for research looks a lot different. Google, YouTube,
ai, and this is Gemini Chat, GPT. And I mean, Gemini is ingrained in Google. Now, when you do a Google search, first thing you're getting is what Gemini says. This is 2025. You know how long it took to research in the nineties and two thousands, and this is not a lot of years. It took days at best hours. Now it takes minutes.
And sometimes seconds. There's just better [00:06:00] ways to do things. And the same thing can be said for e-learning. So if you find that you have a very complex e-learning program or e-learning ecosystem with the technology, all these things, you may want to take a step back and simplify it with better ways. Of doing things and that's why I invite you to check out my e-learning platform finder.
You're not only gonna save five x all the way up to 200 x, 200 times what you may be spending or what you will be spending if you go another route. And I identifying the e-learning platform for you in your company. I see organizations spending 50 K all the way up to millions of dollars just on their technology when you could.
Be spending less than 5K. On your technology. That's why I've created my e-learning platform finder, and I'm not only gonna match you with the right platform for you and your [00:07:00] company in a matter of seconds, I'm gonna give you a free trial so you and your team can start using the platform without paying anything.
I'm gonna give you a free course to help you and your team to empower you and your team to get everything set up before you even have to pay for the platform. And then once you start paying for the platform because you've decided that is the right fit for you and your company, I'm gonna give you my platform to profit strategy session where I sit down with you and your team to maximize the value of your system.
And I've matched organizations ranging from solopreneurs all the way to s and p 500 companies with high value e-learning platforms to simplify their training and e-learning programs. Number two. Knowledge, silos. What does this even mean? Well, when you let your e-learning program, your training program get extremely complicated, you [00:08:00] may be creating a knowledge silo where maybe one person knows.
How to do everything. Maybe this is you and you may not think that that's a challenge. If it's you. I have a client. Named Geo Toole. They've been in the top of their industry for more than 30 years. Geometrical Tolerancing Scott, not only co-authors the Geometrical Tolerancing standards, every single time they release a new set of standards, he has created the best training program.
To help and empower engineers and technical professionals in the geometrical tolerancing space to become the top of their profession. And when they moved from just doing in-person training to e-learning, [00:09:00] they created this problem. And Scott was not the one
that had the knowledge silo. They had a partner, a very helpful partner, amazing partner who set everything up for their business, but it was so complicated that he was the only one that knew how to run everything, and it was so complicated that you couldn't just easily teach someone else in the company how to do it.
So they were handcuffed. By the knowledge silo, by the experience silo, by the fact that only one person knew how to do all the things. And this is an example of a amicable version of this, where it was really of no one's fault, just that when e-learning first came out, it was a lot more [00:10:00] complicated than it is today.
Systems were a lot more complicated. It'll be okay. I'm not gonna redo this, we're just gonna change this to a two. There we go. It's a two. Now, systems were a lot more complicated, and that's why you wanna simplify your program so you don't have these knowledge silos. Maybe it's you that knows everything that's at least a little less stressful because if someone leaves, if someone's sick, if someone's busy.
You don't have to rely on that person who may be the knowledge silo to fix, to make the changes that you need. But what if you're sick? What if you're busy? What if you wanna focus your time on something else, like teaching and serving your learners even further? That's where it becomes a problem. So it could be you.
It could be one other person on your team. [00:11:00] We want. To eliminate this, you should not be the only person on your team that knows how to run all of this. And the best way to do that is by simplifying your program, by using one of the platforms that I recommend with my e-learning platform finder. Link in the description below and the sh notes.
If you're listening to this as a podcast, let's simplify, simplify, simplify number three. The 80 20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle. And this is really gonna help you with the first two reasons that I already shared. So here's the sad truth, and here's how you can make massive change in your organization overnight.
80%. Of what your training program your e-learning program is currently doing, or how it's currently set up [00:12:00] is only creating 20% of results that may be hard to see. That's hard for me to admit to whenever I do an 80 20 analysis, which I do three to four times a year. 80% of what you're doing only creates 20% of results.
This is the glass half full side of this. The exciting side, and why I'm sharing this with you right now is that if this is true, you know what Pareto also says is true that 20% of what you're doing is creating a. 80% of results. But Johnny, why is this a good thing? Well, it's a good thing because as you simplify [00:13:00] your training program, your e-learning program, I invite you to only focus on the 20%.
What is the 20% creating 80% of results, what is the 20% creating 80% of. You will return on investment. And guess what? We can actually take this one step further. What is 80% of 80%? 64%. What is 20% of 20%? 4%. What does this mean? This means that 4% of what you are doing is creating 64. Percent of results, 64% of ROI.
It also does mean that 64% of what you're doing is only creating 4% of results. Does it make sense why we need to eliminate the 64% [00:14:00] and focus on the 4%? Focus on the 20%. This is your entire business right here. This is your entire e-learning program. This is your entire training program, the 4% and the 20%. I invite you to double down, quadruple down on these parts of your business.
When you do that, you're gonna see exponential returns. Number four, complexity destroys agility and innovation. What does this mean? This means that when your systems, when your programs are so complex, that you can't make decisions quickly
and you're gonna avoid new things. Agility quickly. [00:15:00] Innovation, new complexity bad. Before my Enterprise Learning Accelerator Partnership, client CoStar started working with us and enlisted us at E-Learning Partners as their e-learning partner. It used to take, just to make simple changes, it used to, this was before.
This is after, before working with us. It used to take weeks, if not months, for these changes to occur. Now they're able to make the changes themselves and seconds. I'm talking about updating sales copy on the website, changing a font color. Changing a branding color, changing a price on the website. This used to [00:16:00] take weeks, if not months, for these changes to be made, and now they can do it in seconds.
Advanced changes or more complicated changes, more time intensive changes is before working with us. They may never be done. Be made just how it was. Now it takes days, if not hours, for these changes to be made because we've simplified their training programs and e-learning environment. Now we have agility and we have innovation.
We don't have complexity. Number five, this is probably the most important reason why you need to simplify your programs, is losing sight [00:17:00] of what matters most your learners. When things become extremely complicated, the focus becomes less on. Actually providing your learners with value and more on fixing the machine that you built, the learners, your learners get lost in the mix.
Instead of focusing on the number one thing that you program even exists for, which is R-O-I-R-O-I for your, your learners, for your company. You are focused on fixing the machine, you may actually still be focused here to a degree because you're making decisions out of, oh, well we need to save money. We already spent all this money we, that's called a sunk cost.
[00:18:00] By the way, when you spent a bunch of money on something that no longer is valuable or serves you and your company, that is a sunk cost. You can't get that money back. So. That doesn't mean that you need to keep spending money trying to prove to yourself that that was a good investment. It may have been a good investment at the time when e-learning first came out, the systems that I matched people with, a lot of 'em didn't even exist.
Chacha BT didn't exist when the internet started. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't use chat GPT today. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use Google today. Gemini today, YouTube today, these things didn't exist when the internet first came out. Let's get rid of the sunk costs. Sunk costs be gone. It's okay.
The cost we've already spent. We can ultimately save a lot of money. By focusing on both of these things, and that's why I partner with organizations, with my [00:19:00] Enterprise Learning Accelerator partnership program in this program, me and my team save companies six figures or more per year, even after paying us this savings compounds year after year to millions and millions of dollars.
And that's just the savings. When you look at the ROI, the return on investment. These simplified systems, these simplified training programs, we're able to drive ROI up exponentially. I invite you to check out to see if the program is a fit for you and your organization in the show notes and in the YouTube description if you're watching this on YouTube, and I'll see you in the next episode.
Thanks for tuning in to Learning Transformed Now, if you're designing a transformational learning experience and wanna skip the overwhelm of trial and error. Check out our e-learning platform finder. Just answer a [00:20:00] few simple questions and we'll match you with the right platform plus an extended free trial.
And as a bonus, you'll get free access to a course that walks you through building your learning experience on your matched platform. Click on the link in the show notes or go to www.elearningpartners.com/elearning-platform-finder. I'd also love to hear from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or drop a comment on our YouTube channel.
Thanks for listening and I'll catch you in the next episode.
AI is rising and so are.
