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I attended a conference a couple of months ago. I was sitting in the conference room about 20 min prior to the start of the first session, mainly looking at the chairperson setting (or struggling to set) up the PowerPoint presentations. About 15 mins had passed when the conference chairperson said to the few people in the audience - "if you are thinking about taking on Microsoft Vista don't, I really don't understand this at all, why did they have to change Windows - I hate change". I was completely amazed at this statement. A learning professional who 'hates change' is not something I find every day. It was made worse by the fact that an element of the conference was about the positive changes e-learning can make to an L&D strategy.

If we are going to commit ourselves to helping learners to development the knowledge, skill and abilities we need to commit to change. We need to have the ability to try different ways to imparting knowledge. We need to take on the solutions that are different, embrace them and take control.

Too much resistance will not only hold back the learner who wants to improve but will seriously hold back the business from getting the most out of their employees which in turn will have a detrimental effect on its competitiveness (or bottom line).

We have all had dreams about what we wanted to do when we're older, whether it was to be a fireman, doctor, astronaut or F1 driver, the dreams were there. It is possible that some of the dreams weren't realised and some were. How did you feel about the dreams that didn't come true?

Learning and development for individuals is very much like this. There are dreams and expectations on how a learner is going to be developed and the role they are going to be developed in to. The promise of performance plans and schedules makes this dream become more of a reality. However, when it comes to the learning solutions there is a sense of a reality check process. The learning delivered can sometimes shatter the dreams of the learner, due to the fact that the course (or program) has fallen far short of the educating mark.

The learning must listen to the learners; it must become part of the journey the learner is taking to achieve their dream success. It must also run in tandem with real life so that it can support and almost carry the learner to achieving their goals. This is the challenge we all face and the more we understand the learner and their needs the closer we are to finding the solutions.

If you are entering the learning and development world for the first time you need to learn how to walk through the landmine field that is e-learning. If you're desperate to take on an e-learning solution the danger is that you will run through this field and probably get bitten early on. The e-learning world has definitely matured in recent years and there a lot more solid solution offerings out there. However, it seems to me that there is still an element of the hard sales person that believes that they can sell e-learning without understanding the learning and development process. By simply using a few buzz words, they can create a false since of security and in the end they will leave the project and client in tatters.

In order to deliver an e-learning solution you must have a strong intellect of learning and development processes. You must have a real analytical approach to be able deliver solutions to meet learning, learner & organisational needs. Ultimately, you must be able to build a solution that means everything to the learner - their very own support and help to improve their performance.

Share your stories with us and we will give you the help and guidance needed to get through any issues you have (or soon to have).