I was reading an EY survey report from earlier in the month about how senior leaders often show reluctance to adopt emerging technologies and communicate poorly with others.

There is a ton of useful content about the perceptions of new tech in the workplace by employees and it suggests 4 principles which I think are also relevant when we think about learning technology.

Keep people at the centre.
When the technology is coming we tend to move our focus onto the operational activity to bring it in. The focus of learning and development as a people profession should remain on the people and every decision needs to consider the impact on people we work with.

Understand that change management goes hand in hand with technology innovation.
Explain, explain, communicate, describe, and explain again. It’s essential people are on board and are opted in when the technology lands. We want people to want the learning tech, not be surprised and disappointed when it lands.

Share your vision as a leader but keep your pulse on the people.
I remember speaking to someone in L&D a few years ago and they mentioned how, as they moved up in the organisation, they felt less and less connected with the people who were ‘doing’ the learning their teams were supporting. Make sure you aren’t becoming shortsighted.

Recognise the right technology for your workforce will vary by sector, use cases, and skills.
Learning works in a knowledge economy in the workplace but it’s highly likely your workforce are a mix of knowledge and skills workers. It’s easy to focus on one of the above but the responsibility of the learning professional is to make all are included.

What would you suggest? What do you need to do to land technology in the workplace? Let me know in the comments.