COVID-19 fundamentally transformed the way many organizations function overnight.

The shift was sudden and dramatic. Initially, the primary objective for most organizations was simply to find ways to continue creating value as best they could. Understandably, longer-term investment in areas such as employee learning and development became secondary in priority.

Fast forward 6 months and two things are now true:

1. Many organizations have experienced some success in adapting operations for the remote working environment
2. The paradigm is unlikely to shift back anytime soon — if at all

It is therefore paramount that employee development initiatives find their way back onto the agenda. Given the remote set-up, it’s arguably more important now than ever before to foster a culture of continuous, collaborative learning. One that empowers employees to not only improve their professional practice and thrive in the new working environment, but also to share learnings and lift up their peers.

By putting the needs of the learner at the center of its practice, human-centered design offers compelling lessons for driving this culture of learning in a remote context. In this article, I’m going to share five guiding principles for how to design training experiences of lasting value, based on my observations over these past months.