Article published by Training Industry on March 3, 2023

In today’s workplace, employees are increasingly looking for meaning and purpose in their work. They want to work for organizations that share their values and allow them to do work that is fulfilling and makes a difference. And they want to be able to see how their role contributes to the company’s larger goals and objectives.

Learning and development (L&D) plays a significant role in the success of the purpose-driven workforce. Employees that can successfully learn, grow and feel more connected to the organization when they feel supported by their employer. For L&D professionals, this means creating learning experiences that are engaging and spark passion, curiosity and creativity. Thus, the stakes of getting virtual learning technology right are higher than they have ever been.

Harnessing the right learning technology for your remote learning initiatives can empower learners to spread knowledge and motivation across social channels, participate from anywhere in the world, and benefit from personalized learning pathways to focus very precisely on knowledge and expertise that directly impacts their role. These capabilities drive impact outward from the individual to the organization, galvanizing agility, engagement, real productivity and innovation.

But the road to working, productive virtual learning technology is not well understood. Many companies are still working to master their learning technology selection and implementation. Because of the rapid change we are experiencing today, simplicity, rather than effectiveness, has become a priority.

While there is no sure-fire way to simplify your project, vendor management can help. Let’s examine the why, the how and the what-next of vendor selection.

The Virtual Learning Technology Market Is Fragmented

As with many industries, it’s rare to find an end-to-end provider that builds the hardware, develops the software, delivers the services and provides the customer support for its learning technology, much less who also carries the stamp of a global brand name.

Just take a moment to consider the sheer number of moving pieces and parts that work together in hybrid learning.

Hardware

1. Video camera
2. Display
3. Microphone
4. Speaker

Software

1. Learning management system (LMS)
2. Database
3. Integration code, application programming interface (API)
4. Virtual meeting platform
5. Security software, such as virtual private network (VPN)

Services

1. Installation.
2. User experience (UX), user interface (UI) and creative services.
3. Custom development.
4. Integration and migration services.

Support

1. Technical troubleshooting
2. Customer success and change management
3. Billing

There is a minimum of 16 parts to a virtual learning environment. Most organizations will struggle even further with trying to integrate a new platform with existing vendor relationships and hardware. This adds even more complexity to the service, as small changes exist from room to room, location to location, each making it more difficult to understand, much less service the tech stack.

There is clear value in addressing the fragmentation problem. By working with fewer vendors, L&D can reduce the amount of time and money spent on procurement and training. Fewer vendors in the room often leads to greater flexibility in terms of product integration and compatibility. These advantages increase the probability of delivering streamlined solutions that deliver better outcomes.

How To Identify the Right Vendors for Your Business

While it is not always possible to find a single vendor to handle every aspect of the virtual learning technology, you can look for ways to simplify vendor relationships — if not in number, then in communication, integration and experience.

1. Draw a line between vendor experience and your needs.
Whether they be a consultant, development group, or manufacturer, the vendor will ideally have experience integrating their solutions with the other puzzle pieces of virtual learning technology. Even better, they will have experience delivering technology that is very close to your use case, using the same vendors that you yourself can and would choose.

Ask deep questions about their client experience to get a clear understanding of how their product can be applied on the job.

2. Schedule group discussions early.
Many businesses feel they should manage vendors separately and exclusively, but isolation and silos tend to be the wrong response this day and age, especially when vendors will need to collaborate effectively on your account. Group discussions not only help everyone see the bigger picture, but they also provide invaluable insight into how their contacts will work together.

3. Consider and elevate Day-2 support.
Support is the unsung hero of solutions development; this is especially true of custom solutions development, and it is even more true in custom solutions that impact users and processes.

Support is imperative to agile development. It is the glue between users and developers, not only ensuring the solution continues to work as intended, but it also informs future features development and bug-smashing.

To be effective, the support team needs deep knowledge of the technology, and, at the very least, they need to have an efficient process for translating emerging needs to the development team.

If development and support are not in the same organization, then they should at least have a long-standing working relationship, and the provider should understand the value of having an evangelist to make sure that the technology is used and its full potential and value are realized.

4. Prioritize communication and compatibility.
For optimal partnering, work with vendors who’ve had success with companies or cases like your own, and keep the lines of communication open.

Asking the right questions and scheduling collaborative meetings will prepare you to assess the cohesion of your potential virtual learning solutions.

5. Designate a single point of contact for all your vendors.
Efficiency is key. The last thing you want is to waste time tracking down multiple vendors for support or troubleshooting, only to find that the issue lies with another vendor entirely. That’s why having a single point of contact for all your vendors can be so valuable. With one point of contact, you can quickly and easily get the support you need without having to waste time going back and forth between multiple vendors. In addition, a single point of contact can help to streamline communication and make it easier to resolve any issues that may arise.

A single point of contact can save you time, money and hassle in the long run.

Creating Engaging Learning Experiences to Fuel Purpose-Driven Work

Getting the right vendor team together can have a real impact on the ultimate success of virtual learning technology — not only on L&D outcomes, but on nearly every strategic aspect of the company as a whole.

Purpose-driven, empowered employees stay, and they make a real difference in their organizations by bringing in much-needed knowledge and agility.

To do that, keep learners at the center of the learning experience. Reducing the number of people you need to interface with not only makes communication simpler, but it also delivers more streamlined solutions, solutions that will inspire and empower learners.

Keep these points in mind and you’ll be well on your way to selecting and managing a learning technology with ease.

What Makes a Collaborative Culture?

A collaborative culture is where a number of individuals come together and work toward a common goal, as well as work
effectively as a team to achieve a shared objective. The key characteristics of a collaborative culture include embracing the shared vision or objective and building a level of trust to create a thriving place where ideas and knowledge are shared.

Communication is a vital component in a collaborative culture. Only by being open, honest and flexible will a collaborative culture really embed and become an effective way of working for an organization.

Compared to a competitive culture, a collaborative culture is about winning as a whole — working together to exchange ideas in a transparent way to encourage creativity, and promote a positive working environment, rather than one individual taking credit and working in a silo.

How to Foster a Collaborative Work Culture.

Different strategies can help foster a collaborative culture and below we’ve highlighted eight considerations that you can use to help build a collaboration culture that encourages teamwork, innovation and creativity within your organization.

• Goal setting – set clear goals and objectives at the start and align them with the vision of the organization and ensure everyone agrees with the goals.
• Communication – it is critical to promote open and honest communication. Communication is the key to success when building a collaborative work culture. Team members need to feel comfortable contributing their opinions and ideas to the group in an inclusive environment.
• Trust – this is the highest form of human motivation and helps develop strong relationships. By showing team members are trusted and their contributions are valued you can support their growth and development.
• Teamwork (makes the dream work!) – effective teamwork helps achieve more than an individual can. By encouraging collaboration you can create opportunities to share ideas and knowledge.
• Recognition – everyone likes to be recognized for their contribution. A key way to foster a collaborative culture is to celebrate the success and effort of the team and its members and give regular encouragement and feedback.
• Diversity and inclusion – creating a team with diverse backgrounds, skills and perspectives can ensure everyone in the team feels valued, have an equal voice and is appreciated.
• Role model – a collaborative culture can be embedded with a stakeholder leading by example and promoting collaborative working. Their behaviors, such as listening and contribution, can then be emulated and help demonstrate a collaborative culture in action.
• Training & tools – providing the right training, resources and tools to support collaborative working — such as project management tools, skills training and investing in technology that promotes collaboration — are vital to the success of building a collaborative culture.

What Can Challenge a Collaborative Culture?

Creating a collaborative culture comes with its challenges. How an organization deals with them is crucial to its success and can impact the overall efficiency of a team or project. Being aware of the following challenges and having strategies in place to overcome these challenges will be instrumental in driving a team’s productivity.

• Lack of trust – a reluctance to share ideas and information can create silos in a team, causing a detrimental effect on progress and achieving a determined goal.
• Poor communication – miscommunication or poor channels of communication can impact how a team works together to share ideas and information.
• Limited resources – all resources, whether it’s time, budget or people, need to be prioritized and allocated efficiently to maintain momentum and drive toward the end goal.
• Resistant to change – some individuals will not be open to new ideas or a new way of working which can make it impossible to forge ahead and achieve success.
• Lack of support – lack of support and deprioritized collaboration can make working together difficult.
• Distance and remote working – collaborating remotely or across different locations or countries can impact the pace of change and collaboration and prove difficult to communicate and build trust.

To overcome these challenges you must frequently review your approach and make sure you don’t fall into the pitfalls highlighted above, as well as ensure you are fulfilling your role and meeting the needs of your team, and organization.

Key Aspects of A Positive Collaboration Culture

To create high performing teams you need to provide the right tools, and there are important aspects or steps to create and foster a positive collaborative culture among your team, whether they are in the office, remote or hybrid.

1. Trust – the first step to success is developing trust and demonstrating the commitment to the success of a project or goal to help make team members feel valued.

2. Communication – the end goal should be communicated clearly, and there should be clear channels of communication determined at the beginning. It is also imperative to promote a positive environment for individuals to share ideas
and provide opportunities for feedback.

3. Flexibility – as with any new undertaking or process, there will be things that change along the way. A willingness to adapt is crucial. By working together to find a solution or overcoming a barrier together helps to evolve the
processes and also build trust.

4. Empathy – being empathetic and understanding emotions and an individual’s perspective will help build better relationships within the team.

5. Inclusivity – positive collaboration values diversity and inclusion and the recognition of different backgrounds and perspectives. This can help bring innovative ideas and shape processes, vital to success and can bring competitive
advantage.

6. Recognition – feedback and appreciation of the contribution made by team members helps to demonstrate how much they are valued, and by engaging and recognizing good work or contribution will keep them engaged and committed to the project and end goal.

7. Distance and remote working – using effective collaboration solutions helps to bring team members together and create a sense of community irrelevant of where they may be based. They can also provide a flexible space for sharing
ideas, collaborating and increasing productivity.

Collaboration Rooms from X2O

At X2O Media we offer a unique collaboration solution called X2O OneRoom that brings individuals together in a flexible space whether they are in-person or remote providing an interactive and dynamic space to connect and collaborate in real-time regardless of their location.

OneRoom offers an equal experience for all individuals and an immersive space with integrated collaboration tools including interactive whiteboards, polls/voting features and breakout rooms.

OneRoom is used by clients globally to support their learning, training and collaboration challenges. Reach out to find
out more about how OneRoom could support your collaboration journey.