Know Your Reasons for Implementing E-Learning

You have to know what you are attempting to do in order to establish your core objectives and define your boundaries. Don't move your organization to e-learning just to be trendy. Or, if you are doing it to be trendy , recognize that this is your reason and craft a plan to accommodate that desire for trendiness. The point is that your actions need to be driven by some set of measurable strategic imperatives that arise from your reason for implementing the project. If you are transitioning to e-learning in response to a directive from the executive team, your objectives will be vastly different than if you are doing it because you recognize the inherent value of tying training to the business vision of the organization. For example, if your reason for doing e-learning is to improve the time it takes to get products to market, one of your core objectives might be to shorten product-development cycles. With that foundation laid out, you can measure the time to market before and after e-learning is delivered and rate your success. On the other hand, if you give employees access to online training merely because you can, what will you have achieved?

Whatever your reasons, craft quantifiable core objectives that will help you achieve these goals so that sometime in the future when that cultural beast rears its head you can prove you've accomplished the task you committed to. Without objectives, there can be no measure of success. You will find yourself in a no-win situation of perpetually trying to justify your initiative. Remember the nature of resistance. There are people who will be threatened by the loss of power or control, and they will respond by trying to stop or disrupt this initiative. Measurable goals provide you with the information to defend yourself against their attacks.