An approach which combines different interventions and training approaches may well be the optimum solution for many training needs.  Over time, the adoption of a blended approach has become more widespread amongst organisations. Despite this move towards the mainstream there is still the whiff of mystery.  Training teams who are quite happy to combine a course with a project activity or a programme of coaching back in the workplace, can seem somewhat nonplussed by the idea of commissioning or managing what has become known as a blended solution.

What’s in the mix?

Let’s start with what’s in the mix which may be referred to as a blended solution?  I would include a technology component – an online programme – providing a structured route to knowledge acquisition through a generic or custom designed series of e-learning objects. Along with properly structured inputs from skilled coaches, to have a chance to be part of an action learning set and to benefit from supported work-based projects where the learning gained from the task is more important that the output of the task itself.

Of course, blended learning should also include access to well run courses.  Learning is a social act and there’s a lot to be said to participating in a face-to-face programme which properly uses the opportunities presented by bringing a team of people together to develop new insights and increased confidence with skills they need to develop.

All of these things form part of the mix – and a heady brew it can be.  But it can also be an unsatisfactory mess – a loose collection of inputs which lack clarity of purpose.  Certainly, I have been engaged in a quite traditional blended activity where pre-event e-learning had covered off many of the knowledge outcomes from the course and the event itself was supposed to submerge the delegates in debate, planning sessions and skills development activities.

If the blend is going to work smoothly, we need to make sure that the components do actually complement one another.  The first mistake I see organisations make when preparing a blended solution is to be unclear about what each part of the process will do and how coherence will be achieved between these different elements.