DesigningTraining
It’s no secret that our industry is experiencing a pivotal moment of transformation. Today, in 2025, political shifts, technological leaps and an increasingly dynamic healthcare ecosystem have ushered in an era of new expectations and behavior change mandates that all too often leave trainers playing catch-up to the emerging organizational need.
With such dizzying dynamism as the new normal, how can we build experiences that equip learners with the adaptive skills to thrive today and anticipate tomorrow? In other words, how can our learning designs meet this moment?
Questions like these are what drive instructional designers to think about how to deliver futureforward learning experiences rooted in the here and now. When leveraging training to meet the moment, it’s important to think deeply about a creative approach to personalized learning that treats learners as co-authors of their own learning experience, often elevating the adage of “learn by doing” to “learn by ‘you do you’-ing.”
We’re all fortunate that today, learning has become more learner-led. The field has evolved to embrace the idea that individual learners should be treated as subject matter experts of their own learning priorities and be at the forefront of why they matter. As we know from the principles of adult learning, relevance is paramount.
Learning designers know the best way to answer the “what’s in it for me?” question is to create the conditions for individuals to feel it for themselves. But it can be particularly impactful to take it a step further by including “you do you” in uniquely personalized learning environments.
A recent example was last year’s Olympics-themed experiential event for Sanofi’s Dupixent sales team. Area business managers (the “champions”) completed a pre-meeting self-assessment protocol with their manager (the “coach”) that amounted to a hyper-personalized agenda targeting priority growth areas.
Five experiential learning modules (“Olympic events”) were present (Figure 1), but attendees only visited the two that they and their coach deemed most important. Then, whether in an objectionfocused role-play scenario or an “if/then” whiteboarding session, trainees were invited to infuse key messaging with personal details so that they could play their future selves in the conditions they recognize and care about most.
With so much competing for individuals’ attention in 2025, concerns about learning retention are real. Knowing that retention comes from relevance encourages bold attempts to make any content relevant through novel personalization techniques — in this case, a structure that yielded a personalized training plan and custom agenda for all 500 attendees.
A champion assessment worksheet (Figure 2) was completed by all attendees in advance and submitted digitally to meeting organizers to ensure a training experience that targeted personal priority growth areas
As powerful as personalization may be, it can narrow the focus to the individual so much that it obscures the bigger picture. Consider what might emerge if trainers expand a learner’s view beyond the present sales cycle to include the societal forces that shape our industry and influence our decisions.
For a training experience to have a lasting impact on behavior, learners need space to imagine the impact of their actions. If we zoom out and consider how a selling skills activity connects upward to our organization’s shifting priorities – or even better, the evolution of drug research and development, market trends and the specific impact these forces have on healthcare providers themselves – the trainee deepens their connection to their work and fosters empathy for others in their network.
Learning designers can accomplish these “zoom out moments” by leveraging big-picture creative throughlines in plenary and transitional spaces. In the case of the Olympics-themed training event, this manifested as installation architecture and interactive digital elements that directly connected to the personal insights elicited in training spaces.
This, of course, is the advantage of collaborating within an integrated production agency, but it doesn’t take more than a well-crafted reflection question to add a dash of “why does this matter?” to the “you do you” stew. When a learning design ensures that every “zoom in” has a corresponding “zoom out,” learners see the value of their actions and become empowered by a sense of purpose.
This moment calls for training that is highly adaptive, self-directed (without sacrificing the broader objectives) and context aware. When learners honor the wisdom of their experiences and understand the forces shaping their work, members of any industry, especially today’s field-based forces, will thrive.
Let’s create learning experiences that resonate personally and with the larger world. Let’s meet this moment.
Peter Musante is an instructional designer with Wilson Dow. Email Peter at pmusante@wilsondow.com or connect through https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-musante-70818410/.