No staff member exists in a bubble—they are all individuals part of a team, which is why collaboration is so important to today’s workforce. Humans in general need to feel supported, especially at their jobs, but they also desire to be a part of something meaningful. This, in itself, is the essence of a strong team: Mutual understanding, reliability, and connectedness are the building blocks for collaboration.
Good teamwork is undoubtedly the foundation of a strong team, but how do you teach teamwork? What can the learning leaders of today do to cultivate sustainable team development for an organization? Regis experts weigh in.
Tracking the Evolution of L&D
3 Trends Influencing the Future of Team Development
Leaders aren’t only responsible for building teams that fit their organization’s needs today—they must also leverage their knowledge of the modern workforce to create the teams and leaders of tomorrow. So what do current L&D preferences tell us about the future of team development? The following trends may offer some insight:
1. Hybrid Teams and Experiences
The pandemic likely jump-started the push toward remote work, but hybrid and fully remote schedule structures have been up-and-coming for quite some time. The time has come for training and work capabilities to move beyond single, in-person locations.
Teams and training initiatives will need to be accessible from just about anywhere and must be scalable to account for relocation and growth. This means that employers must enable their staff to connect and collaborate with each other despite distance or locality. Leaders will need to integrate a combination of virtual and in-person elements to ensure maximum engagement regardless of where a team member is located.
Many modern L&D programs are taking a blended approach to corporate learning. This involves combining in-person and virtual functions along with self-guided and team-led sessions to maximize engagement and reinforce key leadership principles.
2. Gamification of Learning Initiatives
One challenge with instilling hard-to-teach skills like leadership and teamwork is that these competencies are most often learned by doing. That is, in-context skills practice doesn’t always translate with traditional learning methods. After all, expertise is gained, not taught.
But the gamification of training programs using simulations and other experiential learning techniques is challenging this long-standing corporate belief. These scenario-based initiatives aim to better engage and motivate learners by incorporating game-like elements:
- Performance-based points
- Progression through challenges and levels
- Instant feedback
- Friendly competition
The Institute of Data uses familiar psychological concepts to explain the effectiveness of gamified learning initiatives, stating that “gamification triggers our innate desire for recognition and accomplishment.” A reward or level-up in a game causes the release of dopamine, which reinforces the behavior, motivating us to continue engaging with the gamified training program. As our brains respond to these virtual rewards, it creates a positive feedback loop that keeps participants engaged and eager to learn.
3. An Emphasis on Leadership Development
Some of the most valuable soft skills in today’s job market are based on leadership traits (including highly sought-after capabilities like relationship management, flexibility, and decision-making). These notoriously hard-to-teach skills are usually best developed through diverse field experience. However, AI-supported, human-centered learning simulations leverage situational programming that adapts to learner aptitude to effectively instill these skills through scenario-based practice.
Strong teams need strong leaders, so corporate training initiatives must focus on developing and refining practical leadership skills that can be applied directly to a learner’s job role. Skills-based simulations (like those designed using the SimGate™ platform) allow learners to visualize and personally experience how their decisions present and unfold in the context of their role.
What Regis Experts Think
Our customer success experts at Regis work with clients everyday on designing state-of-the-art learning experiences, and throughout their work they’ve seen the power of learning that’s centered on developing the team. Here’s what our experts have observed from the front-lines:
“Team-based learning adds a valuable dimension to your courses, enabling participants to engage with real-world scenarios and hone essential skills like analytical thinking, resourcefulness in ambiguity, and creative decision-making. Additionally team development brings another layer of skill practice by challenging the team to embrace diverse perspectives, ensure all voices are heard, and adopt a more holistic approach to problem-solving.”- Natalie Burgard, Customer Success Manager
“A team learning experience feels like real life. This context helps learners have self-generated insights about why the behavior shift is personally challenging, how the learning topic is relevant to achieving outcomes in their role, and how decisions they make today impact long term results.“- Tamika Pumphrey, VP of Customer Success
