Improve L&D with The DLS Method™: A new way of learning

Want to improve L&D in your organization or in the organizations of the clients that hire you? It’s no secret that the L&D community is at a crossroads with instant AI courses and budget cuts across the board. But it’s more important than ever to dig in and commit to creating learning solutions that work for people, processes, programs and platforms. Without the attention it deserves, L&D is going to become a lackluster version of itself and the things we’ve worked so hard to create will suffer. Not to mention, people won’t be the focus anymore: product and productivity will. When organizations cut funding, reduce training and focus on output alone, they miss the opportunity to invest in their best asset: their people. That’s why I created The DLS Method™: so the people, processes, programs and platforms can all work together to improve L&D. Here’s how.

What non-profits know about L&D that corporate organizations don’t

I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of non-profit organizations and despite the rumors that non-profits don’t have money to spend on training, I’ve found the opposite to be true. In fact, I believe these organizations understand the risks of not investing in their training and development more than a traditional corporate organization. Why? Because when your organization is built on the foundation of volunteers and ever-changing budgets, you understand how to stretch a dollar and invest wisely. That isn’t to say that traditional corporate organizations don’t have the same problems as non-profits, but in all of my years working in adult education, I’ve found non-profits to be intentionally committed to investing in their people, processes, programs and platforms to continue to live their mission, vision and values.

And that’s what makes all the difference: when an organization recognizes that every part of the company has to work together and lean into the other, it just works better. In order to do that, organizations have to have a clear understanding of what it is they do and how they do it. And they have to be able to teach other people how to do it too. Whether an organization is a traditional learning and development company itself, offering training to others, or there’s a L&D department within an organization that sells software, the truth remains: investing in training makes a world of difference in your bottom line, your output and your productivity.

Improve L&D with simple strategies and integrated approaches

When I sat down to create The DLS Method™, I wasn’t just coming up with a smart sounding product or offer. I was digging deep into my experience as an instructional designer, curriculum developer, course creator, adult educator, business owner, trainer, facilitator, coach and consultant to find the common ground of all of these areas of expertise. Where most L&D professionals are trying to make a name for themselves in one area to improve L&D, I’ve realized that you need a clear picture of the entire organization in order to not only improve L&D initiatives, but the products and services that come out of an L&D department.

This is where an interdisciplinary approach to learning comes into play. Without taking an overall assessment of who, what, when, where and why an organization is even thinking about offering training or developing a learning product, the effort falls flat. I’ve seen it happen many times: an organization calls me in to execute on a plan another consultant developed. I couldn’t help but wonder why they themselves didn’t just do the work outlined in the plan. And then it hit me: they don’t know how.

I looked around at all of the projects I’d worked on over the years, compiling some of the biggest ones into case studies to outline the importance of a full-scale learning solutions and interdisciplinary approach to creating that learning solution. It became so clear to me that I was sitting on a solution that could help thousands of people. And there was nothing new about it: I’d been doing it my entire career.

Applying integrated solutions to improve L&D

As a systems thinker, I naturally take a well-rounded approach to anything I do. It’s why I can execute ideas so quickly and deliver results with near perfect outcomes. I hear, see, do, think and respond differently from other L&D experts. It’s not that they can’t do the same. I think it’s just never occurred to them to take this kind of approach: an interdisciplinary approach to improve L&D. Nobody is talking about it and organizations don’t know they have the option to double down on their operations to improve high-impact learning. It doesn’t seem like those two things go together, but they do. And they do very well.

The DLS Method™ not only assesses and creates a plan for an organization’s entire L&D department, but it considers the needs, wants, desires and requirements of the other departments in an organization as well. By using The DLS Method™ Matrix, learning solutions specialists like myself can work through the problems in a logical fashion, ensuring that every box is checked and every scenario is considered while also creating top-tier learning programs and solutions that work.

How The DLS Method™ works

What makes The DLS Method™ different from other approaches to improve L&D is that it’s an interdisciplinary method that considers 12 unique disciplines across 4 pillars of success. When you consider people, processes, programs and platforms on their own, as many L&D experts do, it becomes difficult to keep track of the who, what, when, where and why of it all and that’s why so many L&D projects feel lackluster and unfinished. There’s always more to do when it comes to creating learning, right?

But what if you had a way to make sure that you maximized that budget and delivered top-tier learning solutions that not only improved people, processes, programs and platforms on their own, but also across the entire organization? It sounds like it’s too much to worry about and you might think your clients don’t need all of that. But you’d be wrong. It’s not too much and your clients do need it. They don’t know to ask for it. Instead they ask questions like, “what about marketing?”, or “how do you onboard people automatically?”, or “Can you come back and train our new employees?” Without a plan in place for the here and now and the there and then (i.e., the future), L&D projects inevitably fall flat and that’s how money goes into a project that never gets off the ground.

The DLS Method™ Wheel improves L&D in unique ways

When you take responsibility for getting that project off the ground, from idea to launch and future planning across the 4 pillars of success, your clients win, you win and the learners win. I designed The DLS Method™ Wheel to showcase how each unique discipline integrates with the 4 pillars of success and the reason it keeps moving is because learning solutions are cyclical. A good learning solution delivers results now and in the future. But you have to plan for that. You have to understand how consulting impacts people, processes, program and platforms. You have to understand how instructional design impacts those pillars too. Not to mention the other 10 disciplines featured in The DLS Method™ Wheel.

The DLS Method™ Matrix uses the 4 pillars of success and integrates the 12 unique disciplines into a fillable table that learning solutions specialists can use (with permission granted under the licensing agreement for The DLS Method™ Certification Program), to improve L&D initiatives, as well as the organizations that house them.

Improve L&D, improve entire organizations

What The DLS Method™ does for learners is significant. It considers their experience before, during and after the learning interaction and it considers and plans for who is going to help them, what they’ll learn, how they’ll do that, where they can go next, and why they need to do all this in the first place. But that’s not all: The DLS Method™ reinforces the idea that learning is important to everyone, at every level, and that’s why stakeholders include not only learners and funders, but partner agencies, administrative staff, managers, customer service and everyone in between. If learning isn’t everyone’s responsibility, it’s no one’s responsibility. And you’ve probably heard your fair share of people say “I don’t know” when asked a question about a learning initiative.

With The DLS Method™, everyone’s on board. Everything’s aligned. And the efforts to improve L&D, whatever they may be, are exponential.