How to use microlearning for Leadership Development?

Microlearning was all the rage a few years back. According to a recent survey tracking what L&D professionals see as the biggest trends, it still grabs the 8th spot.

Microlearning emerged, riding the coattails of a few other ideas. First, there was an emphasis on mobile-based learning, which is more important than ever amid falling attention spans. Then, gamification joined the fray to curb disengagement from learners at work. The good part about microlearning was that anyone can get study material anywhere. At times, it is even set to match their context.

If we add the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve to the picture here, it becomes more challenging. Since learners retain as low as 20% a few weeks after training, there is very limited application. Work restrictions, such as someone's attitude or a strict deadline, also leave little scope for applying new things. That's exactly the gap microlearning set out to fill.

How has it fared so far?

Microlearning gives you a very narrow window to get things done. You have to focus on making something actionable out of it, or you can let the opportunity go without making much noise. It's a lot like tweeting - limited characters, high expectations.

Getting this right is making it easy to consume and apply. For instance, here's what a typical nudge from Risely looks like:

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Hi Alex,

When it comes to having one-on-one conversations with your team members, setting the tone is crucial. Suppose your calls exceed the time limit.

Make sure you highlight that before the start of the meeting. For example: "Can we agree to limit interruptions and stay on topic? I'm looking forward to hearing what you say, and I'm here to listen and help if I can. So let's get started." Doing this will help you stay within the discussion's time frame.

This tip will help you work better with the following team members - Everyone. 

What's next? Start a coaching session with Merlin.

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Now, the question is, why would this nudge work for leadership development? Let's start from the very beginning. The nudge is delivered based on the challenges this particular manager is facing, so it is highly relevant to what is happening to them. Second, it lands in their inbox. It can be a quick early morning read, or they can even listen to it.

But there's more to the magic of microlearning:

• The nudge has an actionable format: It provides a specific script example of what the learner should do. Instead of merely hearing theory, they have something that they can try out in the next five minutes. It also guides them toward the next step in building this particular skill, either a coaching session or an activity. This empowers the learner to take ownership of their growth while meeting their needs.
• Brevity is key! You cannot take too long, or else the attention span runs out. And no one is keen on hearing management lessons out loud every morning. This nudge addresses the learner directly and quickly moves them to the actionable part. It follows from the context already set in their learning journey.

Both of these ideas are essential in designing microlearning for leadership development. On top of the usual issues of attention and forgetting, we have a demographic likely to be under-supported in organizations. New managers, in particular, have difficulty adapting to the transition from being an individual contributor. At best, even if they can access theory, the ideas and examples are what they need to implement. Microlearning helps in this scenario a lot by keeping learning bite-sized and action-oriented.

By the way, you can try out nudges for 14 days with a free sign-up here.