Unlocking Your Company’s Hidden Wealth: Existing Content

Start­ing up a new learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­gram can feel like stand­ing at the foot of a moun­tain. There’s a com­mon con­cern I often hear: “We don’t have enough con­tent.” It’s a sen­ti­ment I empathize with because, let’s face it, cre­at­ing orig­i­nal and cre­ative con­tent can be time-con­sum­ing, expen­sive, and daunt­ing. But let me tell you a secret I’ve learned dur­ing my jour­ney in this indus­try: You already have more con­tent than you think.

With a bit of cre­ativ­i­ty and strate­gic think­ing, you can unlock the con­tent you already have and use it to cre­ate a pow­er­ful and suc­cess­ful learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­gram.

The Misconception About Content

It’s easy to fall into the trap of think­ing that a suc­cess­ful train­ing pro­gram must start with a blank slate and be filled with fresh­ly designed con­tent. The truth is, every com­pa­ny, whether it real­izes it or not, is already a trea­sure trove of learn­ing mate­ri­als. There’s a wealth of valu­able, reusable con­tent already exist­ing with­in your orga­ni­za­tion, just wait­ing to be dis­cov­ered and har­nessed. And the beau­ty of it? It’s unique to your com­pa­ny, cap­tur­ing the essence of your oper­a­tions and cul­ture.

The Hidden Wealth in Your Company

Con­sid­er this: every pre­sen­ta­tion your teams have giv­en to clients, every note tak­en by your top per­form­ers, every piece of guid­ance offered dur­ing employ­ee han­dovers — these are all valu­able pieces of con­tent. They encap­su­late the prac­ti­cal knowl­edge and skills honed by your staff. This ‘hid­den’ con­tent is a gold­mine of real-world insights and learn­ings, tai­lored to your spe­cif­ic orga­ni­za­tion­al con­text. For exam­ple, a sales team’s best pre­sen­ta­tions can be record­ed and shared with new hires, pro­vid­ing them with an insight into the team’s approach to sales and how to deliv­er a suc­cess­ful pre­sen­ta­tion.

The Key Role of Managers and Top Performers

To uncov­er this con­tent, start with your man­agers and top per­form­ers. Inter­view them, engage with them, tap into their knowl­edge. You’d be amazed at the wealth of infor­ma­tion they pos­sess. I remem­ber speak­ing with one man­ag­er who had a per­son­al hand­book he’d devel­oped over his career. It was filled with nuggets of wis­dom that could eas­i­ly be shared across the com­pa­ny.

It’s impor­tant to tap into the knowl­edge of your man­agers and top per­form­ers because they have the expe­ri­ence and the insight to pro­vide valu­able infor­ma­tion. They often have the best under­stand­ing of what works in your orga­ni­za­tion and how to get things done in the most effi­cient and effec­tive way.

The Power of Existing Digital Assets

Don’t for­get about your dig­i­tal assets. Your company’s web­site, YouTube chan­nel, social media accounts — these are rich sources of con­tent. For instance, a YouTube tuto­r­i­al video could serve as a fan­tas­tic train­ing tool, while blog posts could be turned into infor­ma­tive read­ing mate­ri­als. Repur­pos­ing these exist­ing resources for your learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­gram can not only save time but also ensure that the train­ing is high­ly rel­e­vant and ground­ed in your organization’s ethos. For exam­ple, if you have a blog post about cus­tomer ser­vice tech­niques, you can turn it into a short course or a quiz to test learn­ers’ under­stand­ing of the mate­r­i­al.

Bringing It All Together

Hav­ing a wealth of con­tent is an excel­lent start­ing point, but it’s equal­ly crit­i­cal to have a ded­i­cat­ed plat­form that can facil­i­tate the process of gath­er­ing, orga­niz­ing, and dis­sem­i­nat­ing this con­tent effec­tive­ly. This is where Get More Brain can come into play. As a tool designed to facil­i­tate effec­tive learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­grams, it can help you man­age these diverse con­tent resources and opti­mize them for impact­ful learn­ing expe­ri­ences. You can learn more about Get More Brain and its offer­ings here.

If you want to know more about fos­ter­ing a cul­ture of learn­ing and engag­ing team mem­bers, check out my pre­vi­ous blog post on “The chal­lenges fac­ing Learn­ing and Devel­op­ment in 2023!”

Conclusion

In sum­ma­ry, don’t let the per­ceived lack of con­tent deter you from estab­lish­ing or enhanc­ing your learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­gram. There’s an untapped wealth of con­tent with­in your orga­ni­za­tion, just wait­ing to be uncov­ered. Embark on this jour­ney of dis­cov­ery, engage with your team mem­bers, repur­pose your exist­ing dig­i­tal assets, and lever­age tools like Get More Brain to bring it all togeth­er.

Start­ing a learn­ing and devel­op­ment pro­gram may seem daunt­ing, but remem­ber: you’re not stand­ing at the foot of a con­tent moun­tain; you’re stand­ing on top of a con­tent gold­mine.

If you’re curi­ous to explore how Get More Brain can trans­form your learn­ing and devel­op­ment strat­e­gy, feel free to fol­low me on Medi­um or LinkedIn, leave a com­ment below, or reach out to me direct­ly. Let’s con­nect, explore, and work togeth­er to dri­ve per­for­mance, engage­ment, and reten­tion in your work­place.

Hap­py explor­ing!

This post was first pub­lished on Medi­um.