Training Awards and the Importance of Engagement

Being recognised within the Learning and Development industry to the extent that we are made recipients of specific awards always fills me with curiosity. Why us? Why now? Why this particular award? Don't get me wrong, it's a curiosity that stems from great pride in what we do, but simply accepting any award without asking questions risks complacency; if we're going to be winning awards next year, and the year after, it's good to ask questions about what it is that people are seeing in what we do and how we do it.

This month we received two significant recognitions; one from Training Magazine for our work on Gamification (pleasingly it's the fifth year running we've earned this award) and a 2024 Training Industry 'Watchlist' inclusion as 'representing emerging or unique strengths and capabilities' in the field of Experiential Learning Technologies. Both awards are a cause for celebration, both raise the bar a little bit more in terms of our future performance. So, what can our internal analysis of these awards tell us about how we're performing in 2024?

As I've said, we've had five years to talk about the Gamification award, and much of that conversation has been rooted in defining what Training Magazine mean by 'gamification'. It's an often vague, and constantly evolving, term that seems to settle around 'the inclusion of game mechanics into non-game environments' with the goal of 'inspiring people to collaborate, share and interact '. At RSVP we're content to leave the definition that open as it's congruent with what we define our business to be. Given our impressive growth in the USA we're happy to stay in touch with the market, work with their terminology and continue to develop learning tools and processes that respond to perceived need.

The second award, the Training Industry Watchlist inclusion is aimed at providing reassurance to potential purchasers of experiential learning tools to help them make effective decisions about providers. This award is particularly pleasing to us as it uses the following assessment criteria:

• Breadth, quality and advancement of features, capabilities and analytics.
• Industry visibility, innovation and impact in the learning technologies training market.
• Client and user representation.
• Business performance and growth.

Interestingly our conversations about this award have echoed the conversations we've had at conferences and trade shows, particularly in the US. For many potential adopters of experiential learning methods, especially larger corporations looking to make significant investments in the field, the decision to proceed is still a big one, not without a degree of risk. Those who are tasked with making the final decision obviously want to get it right, the award helps direct them to contact RSVP, but it's the personal touch that they're looking for to seal the deal.

The key insight we draw is that the awards we receive are a recognition of the extent to which we work closely with our customers to ensure that what they buy from us meets their learning needs. In a word it's about Engagement.

In our minds engagement isn't just about what we broadcast about what we do, or about being visible in places where decisions are made about experiential learning approaches. For us it's the support we can offer clients about the specifics of choosing and deploying our tools to achieve defined learning outcomes. We're often able to move a potential customer from vague ideas about what might be possible, to concrete plans for where, when and how to 'take training experiential' using our tools. We've got decades of experience between us and there's rarely a problem or situation around 'how to' that we can't help with.

So, yes, we analyse the reasoning behind the awards we receive, but very often our own learning isn't about the design of the tools we design, but about how we offer the very best engagement with the customers we serve.