Trend radar 2024: Responding to new trends with the Digital Suite

An interview with Basti Koch — e-learning specialist and product director at sparks.

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Henry Ford: “The only thing worse than training your employees and letting them go is not training them and letting them stay.”

The Haufe Akademie has commissioned the Zukunftsinstitut to investigate the question: What are the jobs of the future? The answer is now available as a unique study: Trend Radar 2024. How do you classify the Digital Suite and sparks in the trend radar results?

Basti Koch: With sparks, we have addressed topics that concern companies today and in the future at an early stage. For the challenge of continuous education and knowledge transfer, sparks has been developed decisively as an all-devices solution. The report identifies this area as an urgent area of action for companies. The content of the tool, our Smart Guides, is that which covers all three areas — Create, Develop and Discover — in the trend report. Our latest smart guide “AI for everyone” is the best example of this.

As a company, the trend radar also shows future trends. Then I can simply pack the trends into a digital learning offer and get started, right?

What is central when introducing tools is feedback with the learning culture in the company. “Continuing education” must be valued, supported and understood as part of a growth mindset. It is therefore important that supervisors also receive continuous training and give their employees space to learn as a signal effect in companies. Especially through habitualizing continuing education tools that take up little time in a block, managers also find the time to set a good example.

The trend radar represents the need for action for companies in four waves. From very urgent (ACT) to less urgent but with great potential (DISCOVER). As a company, do I then even have to worry about the topics in the DEVELOP and DISCOVER waves?

The trend radar shows overarching developments that apply to all companies in the DACH region. The most important message is certainly that continuing education has become extremely urgent in order to respond to the technosocial world of work. This is the only way to counter the merging of technology and social systems in the medium term. Depending on the sector and company, DISCOVER or DEVELOP topics can also be on the agenda promptly, e.g. through political guidelines, the topic of digital security or sustainability management.

When I look at the trends, there are many trends that go beyond individual areas and affect the entire company. To what extent must companies also go beyond their departmental boundaries when it comes to continuing education?

The willingness to develop and continue learning must be or become part of the company's DNA. Because departments are also working more and more comprehensively; classic organizational chart structures are increasingly giving way in favor of cross-functional teams. For this reason alone, it is worthwhile to think big about continuing education in the long term. In the short term, however, piloting new tools in smaller business units can be helpful in order to achieve goals quickly.

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Basti Koch is an e-learning specialist and product director of sparks, the microlearning tool from the Haufe Academy. Basti has already helped a US secret service and the London police with further education using e-learning. With sparks, he is now advancing the topic of future skills and empowering people, teams and organizations to get better every day.

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