Learnie, our public benefit corp and certified B Corp, was founded in 2020 to democratize and decentralize workforce learning because presently it is just. plain. broken.
The rigid, top-down, unGodly expensive systems that litter the Enterprise leave much to be desired in the way of engaging learners not to mention returning the investment. Just ask our Founders who have decades of experience in setting up Fortune 500 systems that – simply put: let clients down.
Two years ago, we very purposely chose two contemporary yet proven pedagogies upon which to build our impact learning platform: community learning and microlearning. Learning together in bite-sized chunks of video delivered by colleagues. Yes! This is galaxies ahead of the dreaded, page-turner training from anonymous persons in a green screen studio…somewhere.
The decades-long search for the ‘best training content in the Enterprise’ is now over. Community Microlearning, our edtech portmanteau of sorts, is now turning heads by turning the attention and focus of training content….inward.
Where is the best-in-class, most engaging and affordable training content in the Enterprise? Right within the four walls of your office (or Zoom box). It’s time to #LookWithin when it comes to engaging, inspiring and retaining your workforce. Listening to and learning from the stars within your organization, unlike the BIG BOX LMS you probably have in place right now, delivers mind blowing advantages:
“Community learning” (sometimes called social learning) involves collaborative learning and knowledge sharing among employees with significant benefits to employees and employers, including:
- Enhanced engagement and motivation: provides opportunities for employees to collaborate with one another, which can lead to increased engagement and motivation to learn and improve.
- Increased retention: learning from peers and colleagues can help employees better understand and retain information, as well as apply it more effectively to their work. We see retention rates as high as 90%!
- Faster problem-solving: community learning enables employees to tap into the collective knowledge and experience of their colleagues, which can help them solve problems more quickly and effectively.
- Improved performance: collaboration helps employees develop new skills and improve their performance in their roles, leading to increased productivity and better business outcomes.
- Cost-effective: utilizes existing resources and expertise within the organization.
Community learning provides employees with opportunities to learn from one another and collaborate, leading to increased engagement, retention, problem-solving, and performance. By leveraging the collective expertise of their colleagues, employees can develop new skills and improve their performance in a way that is cost-effective and beneficial to the organization as a whole.
“Microlearning” (dare we say ‘Tik-Tok’ style learning) involves breaking down information into small, easily digestible chunks and edifies many of the same advantages of Community learning for employees and employers:
- Improved retention: Microlearning helps employees retain information better by presenting it in small, focused chunks that are easier to remember.
- Increased engagement: Short, interactive training modules are more engaging than traditional long-form training sessions, leading to higher employee engagement and participation.
- Flexibility: Microlearning can be accessed on-demand, which means employees can learn at their own pace and on their own schedule, from their pocket or desktop
- Cost-effective: Because microlearning modules are short and focused, they are often less expensive to produce than traditional training materials.
- Personalization: Microlearning allows for personalized training experiences, allowing employees to choose the specific topics or skills they want to learn.
Microlearning provides employees with the information they need to be successful in their roles in a way that is engaging, flexible, and cost-effective. By breaking down training materials into smaller, more manageable pieces, microlearning can help employees retain information better and apply it more effectively to their work. Our vision for the workforce is people reaching their greatest potential in their roles utilizing our accessible, equitable Community Microlearning environment.
Learnie delivered Community Microlearning to the Enterprise to right the wrongs of the edtech/LMS past and to provide the flexible, cost-effective, personalized, engaging, retention-focused training solution we all crave. But, Community Microlearning has a tall task in “taking on BIG LMS.” Small chunks of info, delivered conveniently and contextually by peers will eventually win the day, but we know it will take time. A perfect analog is how long it took intra-office communications to be dominated by GChat and Slack replacing unwieldy, clunky, long form email. We’ll get there… Part of the Community Microlearning origin story will be the initial market responses we’ve seen from real estate, franchise/retail and financial institutions thus far and we’re eager to witness more L&D innovators in the coming months.
While the Enterprise L&D world is unsurprisingly more reluctant to adopt innovation, something very exciting happened at the end of ‘22 which gave us great confidence in Community Microlearning, as a pedagogy. We entered into the hectic content creator platform arena with a new product – but exact same tech stack called – Learnie Pay$. It didn’t not take long for early adopter solopreneurs, creators, subject matter experts and influencers of all types from all over the world to become Learnie Pay$ Partners and Community Microlearning believers and practitioners.
Learnie Pay$ offers an alternative to higher cost (we don’t charge;), lower revenue split competitors in the space (we’re 85/15% the creator’s way) – not to mention our totally unique Community Microlearning – we now have hundreds of Subscription Microlearning Communities and counting. Our inspiring, trailblazing Partners are “Sharing Their Knowledge & (finally) Earning Their Share” covering topics like: swimming, baking, singing, accounting, midwifery, leadership, business coaching, sales training, sustainable home DIY, sports training from pro athletes and so much more. A great sign indeed for the new kid on the L&D block: Community Microlearning.
In the end, it’s all about improving people’s lives, by supporting them in their roles at work…training them in the same way they engage with their favorite digital content. As a result, organizations retain their workforce and Learnie delivers on its commitment to use Community Microlearning as a force for good in the world.
Learning systems shouldn’t assume everyone arrives at them from the same type of background, education and life experience. As we often say, work hasn’t changed…we all battle the snooze button and make coffee every morning like zombies…but the workforce HAS CHANGED. And, if organizations are using the same tools to train their current workforce they were using even 2 years ago…they’re probably using the wrong tools.
—Michael LeFort
Co-Founder, Head of Impact
MyLearnie.com | Learnie.app
Image DALLE-2 AI GENERATED (prompt: ‘people learning on mobile phone in the style of rosenquist’)