The Secret to Building a Strong L&D Culture and Community with David James

“Let’s quit pretending that our clients just don’t understand e-learning or that they lack time to learn.” – David James.

The latest episode of the Digital Adoption Show features David James and Gokul Suresh, Head of Growth and Field Marketing at Whatfix, about The Secret to Building a Strong L&D Culture and Community.

08:19 -What do learning and training mean in your previous organizations?

• In conjunction with Disney, we ran a conference called Welcome to Disney, a day of presentations. The focus is not to explain everything that is happening within the organization but to paint a picture of what is going on and to let you know that it is an exciting time to join the company
• The goal was to make people feel that this was the right company for them, which in the earliest stages is all about engendering a sense of loyalty, but it is also the bedrock of engagement to ensure that people feel satisfied with their decision
• We had a mentoring programme, and we conducted a learning conference each year focused primarily on bringing ideas from the outside Disney at the time

18:34 -How is L&D structured in a remote learning setup?

• When it comes to remote learning, the learning and development teams at all levels within the organization were deluded into believing that the online content would solve problems
• The biggest problem that learning and development professionals have with online learning platforms or remote learning solutions is most people do not use them. The reason is not that they lack knowledge of how to learn online, nor do they lack time
• The primary reason is people are aware that generic content can’t deliver value, so there is no point in attempting to do so. We might focus on solving the problem rather than delivering a lot of content. Make sure it’s more engaging, which people want to consume it

David James

David James is the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning. With over 20 years of experience in people development, with experience as the Director of Talent, Learning, and Organisational Development for The Walt Disney Company across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.