Employees in a motivational gloom - now what? In this video interview, learning expert Benjamin Jaksch explains how employees in companies can be motivated to learn, what L&D managers can learn from influencers, and why blended learning should always start with learning circles.
Tutor, product manager, training specialist at Freeletics - Benjamin Jaksch has already had many vocations in his life. Learning, however, has always been a central passion of his. And for several years, this has been officially written on his business card: Benjamin Jaksch is a learning expert and learning catalyst.
He advises companies and individuals on learning topics and develops concepts that motivate employees to get to the essence of learning. For Benjamin, the essence is always central to a change in behavior.
Interview (video): Learning Motivation & Blended Learning with Benjamin Jaksch
Overview of Interview Topics with Benjamin Jaksch:
- Intro/introduction Ben (00:00)
- What Benjamin does in his role as a learning facilitator (03:17)
- Why Ben sees himself as a Learning Catalyst (04:34)
- How to motivate employees in the company (06:03)
- What framework it takes to motivate learning (09:46)
- Thinking about learning initiatives as collaborative projects (14:56)
- What blended learning means for Ben (17:03)
- Using employees as learning influencers (20:20)
- What L&D managers can learn from the creator economy (25:03)
- What the first steps of blended learning look like (27:00)
- Ben's L&D Community with Jan Foelsing (28:23)
- Learning Circles as a starting point for blended learning (28:45)
- To what extent the 70:20:10 rule applies to blended learning (31:29)
- Which learning components should be mapped digitally - and which should not (34:43)
Learning Success in the Enterprise? All You Need is... Relevance!
Companies that send their employees on training courses or provide them with access to a digital learning platform want an central outcome in the end: a change in behavior. Be it better negotiation skills of the sales staff or more productive employees on the shop floor.
But how can this change in behavior also be achieved in day-to-day business?
"Learning is not an end in itself. Everyone learns every day if it has relevance." So without relevance, there is no learning success, says Benjamin Jaksch in the interview. He takes a firm stand against what he sees as rampant "educational determinism."
"Humans are not learning machines: If I put a piece of information into a person, a changed person doesn't necessarily come out in the end." Schools, universities and many companies, however, base their educational initiatives on precisely this assumption.
The human being is a learning organism, which means that managers should find ways to always show employees how learning initiatives relate to the employee's own reality. If these framework conditions are in place, then there is no need to worry about motivation.
Blended Learning: At the Core, it's a Matter of Relationships
"How do we manage to integrate learning into the flow of everyday life?" For Benjamin, that is the all-important question behind the term blended learning. "Learning is not about consuming information." The format question for him is secondary to the essential step. The first thing to do, he says, is to build trust, because that is the prerequisite for creating a space for learning.
The people in the company need to experience a certain degree of self-efficacy. And the best way to achieve this is by referring to other people, such as colleagues, who are already one step ahead of the learners.
Benjamin gives an example: "Let's say I can look at the successful sales employee from the department and follow her path and then realize: A few years ago, she was exactly at the point where I am today!"
At that point, people would become extremely important, because "learning is always a relationship thing at its core!" Such learning role models or Influencers in the company could then be allocated a time quota to produce their own content, such as videos where they reflect on their learning process.
Learning Groups: A Starting Point for Blended Learning
What basic starting tips for blended learning can Benjamin give? Again, he focuses on sharing with people:
"Take a group of employees who all have an individual goal they want to work on for X amount of time. The key is to see this scenario as a development opportunity and learning project. Ask yourself, what do I want to get implemented in this time? Find allies and get started together."
In the interview, Ben also discusses which learning aspects should be mapped digitally, what L&D Managers can learn from the Creator Economy, and shares about his L&D community with Jan Foelsing.
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Manfred Rump
