Learning Bite-Sized

When I used to work at Unilever more than a decade ago, there was a huge disruption happening in the market then. The disruption was "small is big" and "big is getting small". Are you wondering what am I talking about? 

I am talking about the fad of small packs that was introduced then in the market. Surf Excel used to sell more in Re. 1 small packs vs. 500g large packs. The entire business model of manufacturing and distribution was hugely disrupted by this change. Factories had to gear up to manufacture small 10g packs of Surf Excel, packaging machines needed to be reconfigured, distribution & sales teams needed to be reoriented to selling small packs, which was turning out to be a big business opportunity. Small packs sold more volume of detergent than large packs. 

In today's times, the Gen Y population is soon becoming majority of the workforce. They are different from Gen X, have a different view of the world, more confident, more agile, quick learners and most of all more impatient. In such a context, the world of learning is also likely to change its construct very soon.., if it hasn't already it better change. Long duration learning programs over 3-5 days will be thing of the past. Unless there is a certification or a qualified skill being imparted, such learning will soon lose relevance. The world of learning will soon move to BITE-SIZE learning. People want to learn real quick. Want quick sound bites on how to solve a problem or situation. This is an impatient generation, where a person is browsing on 3 sites simultaneously, managing 2 gadgets, 4-5 applications etc. at the same time.  If one browser is slow, there is another one opened up. People moving up from a 2G to a 3G to a 4G connection quickly, because they don't want to wait..., speed is of essence.  In such a world, 3 to 5 minutes of bite-size learning is a disruption that will soon gain traction. One key message, one key learning - deliver in 3-5 minutes. Make the point and move on. Don't beat the concept too deep. I don't need it. I want something workable for now!  Bite-sized learning is in..., watch this space... a new agile disruption in the world of learning on its way.