After 25 years, I recently picked up the guitar again. I am producing dramatically improved results already.   It’s not just because I’m more mature and more dedicated, it’s because my entire learning process is different. It is a funny experience. Not having played any guitar in the last 25 years, it is like having at hands a ‘time capsule’ that I am able to deeply analyze and appreciate.

Now, valuable guitar information is delivered faster and easier to me through a single platform: the digital world. I’m not limited by geography. I don’t need to travel to a teacher’s home or music studio. Now, I can choose whatever on-line teacher I want from anywhere in the world. I also have instant access to sophisticated learning techniques like animated tablature to help me ‘read’ the music, or riff loops that allow me to practice on a small portion of a piece. I can even review and practice through “slowed down” tracks. And much, much more. My learning pace is two to three times faster than before.

This improved e-learning with the guitar mirrors the impact of today’s business learning experience too.

Complex learning techniques used to be available only in a few professional centers. But now, e-learning makes self-learning a true and complete learning opportunity, not just an add-on to a learning path. This does not completely substitute the classical way of learning, of course, but complements it way beyond. If you do not leverage its potential, your learning pace will be slower. And so, if you are learning for professional re-use, you will be soon outpaced in your market.

The key for business success for learning providers is not simply providing the content, but in integrating the potentiality of video, audio, text, multimedia to make the education experience as easy as possible for the learner. It is important to address the ‘use cases’ of a learner and ensure to support the ‘hard corners’.

At the same time, faster, easier and cheaper learning means that access to education and knowledge is no longer a barrier to entry for the learners.

The differentiation – and so the competitive advantage of the single individual, of a team, or of a company– comes from the use of that education and knowledge, its interpretation and creative adaptation and evolution.

This really shifts the focus from the rapid reuse of existing knowledge to the redefinition of it. The balance of power of has dramatically shifted.

Businesses learning providers, and business learners too, must base their competitive advance in fostering a combined internal culture of continuous evolution and innovation.

Copyright 2015 Andrea Masci. All Rights Reserved.