Why do so many e-learning initiatives fail? How can you keep your project out of the ditch?

1. DON’T over-promise and under-deliver. People new to e-learning sometimes have highly unrealistic ideas about the effort involved in creating e-learning courses, the change management necessary to ensure adoption, and the cost-savings. For example, your management team may expect that everyone in the company will use e-learning, or that e-learning can replace all other forms of learning. Take time to educate stakeholders so your initiative is held to realistic goals and standards for success.

2. DON’T be exclusive. Don’t try to do it alone. Don’t exclude IT, purchasing, HR, legal, and other key stakeholders because you think it will speed the process. Part of your job is educating others in the company about e-learning. Never sign a contract without legal review. You may need your boss or a vice president to sign the contract. Enlist your management team’s support and keep them informed along the way. If you fail to listen to your stakeholders, you won’t get their help when you need it!

3. DON’T forget caveat emptor (buyer beware!). Don’t do business with a company only because you like them or because they’re doing other, unrelated work in your company. You can include them in your process, but hold them up to the same criteria as everyone supplier. Check references thoroughly, even if you think you don’t need to. Make the supplier demonstrate capability to deliver everything promised before buying. In this volatile environment, it is important to note that many suppliers have sold vaporware and just as quickly vaporized with their client’s money.

4. DON’T fall victim to analysis paralysis. Process is very important to getting the right supplier and product. But if you and your company take more than a couple of months to analyze needs and make a decision, needs will change and your solution may be obsolete by the time you implement it.

5. DON’T try to boil the ocean (start too big). Unless your company has millions of dollars to burn and won’t hold you accountable, don’t start with big, complex solutions. When trying a new course supplier only contract for the first course rather than a whole curriculum. Prototypes and pilot tests are a great way to learn and improve before you launch a major implementation.

6. DON’T simply hire a consulting firm to do your job. Consultants need to be carefully managed. Don’t let them manage you. Consultants are readily available in the e-learning field because implementations involve complex business, learning, and technology decisions.

Some organizations hire large consulting firms or boutique companies to help them develop their e-learning strategy. If you’re embarking on a large, high-risk initiative, this may be your best course of action. For a smaller initiative, though, consultants can quickly burn through your whole budget in the analysis phase. (Consider this: a single two- to three-month study can cost as much as $250,000.) If you don’t carefully qualify your consultants for this type of work and negotiate scope and deliverables, the results may be disappointing. Consulting firms often have the motive of selling their other services, including outsourcing solutions for training needs. If this is their business, they should do the study at no cost to you.

Educate yourself to be a good consumer of consulting services. Great information is available for little or no charge from industry journals, research groups, conferences, suppliers, and peers. Check references and credentials thoroughly. Interview the people who would be assigned to your project. For small- to medium-size initiatives (less than $1 million investment annually), consider hiring an independent consultant if you need help.

7. DON’T fail to plan. While you need to be nimble and fast, don’t be careless. Planning allows you to define business requirements, communicate your vision, get buy-in from your stakeholders, and set your initiative up for success. Even if you get a great price for your course or solution and have a superb product, the investment is wasted money if it isn’t implemented well or used by staff.

8. DON’T forget the business need and your learners. Your job is to help people learn and perform. Losing focus of the company’s business requirements can produce a huge flop. For example, developing an e-learning course for new employee orientation when you have hiring freeze or developing an e-learning course for 25 people who could be trained more cost effectively via a virtual classroom isn’t the best use of your company’s resources. Poor instructional design is even more evident online, so invest time in adequate planning, design, development, and review.

9. DON’T win the battle and then lose the war. The most notorious e-learning failures involve internal struggles about who “owns” e-learning and which of the multiple LMSs in the company will win out. Organizations often get sidetracked on holy wars about the best technology, the right process, turf, and the perfect funding model. The reality is that there are several good options for each of these issues. The most important success factor is moving the company quickly to e-learning successes linked to specific business needs. These successes make your sponsors look good, and help overcome resistance.

10. DON’T lose your sense of humor. As a change agent, you’ll need a solid sense of humor to handle all those tough questions and natural resistance from your stakeholders. Enough said.