This time last year when we sat down to write our roundup of 2014 we called 2015 a year of hope, one in which the digital challenge would really start have an impact and in which “technology frees us to work collaboratively for the good of all.”

Have our predictions come true? Well as with all good predictions the answer is somewhere between yes and no. Certainly we’ve seen a great year for British business and certainly we’ve seen reports which indicate that although jobs have been lost to technology, they have been more than replaced by other more highly skilled work. But productivity is still down and UK business as a whole has more to do if it is to truly embrace the potential which technological breakthroughs allied to a culture of innovation could bring.

So what should we be looking for in 2016? When it comes to training we’re looking for a new focus, one which will enable people across organisations to make the most of their abilities and talents. With blended learning having moved from the ‘nice to have’ into the mainstream it’s now time to take learning interactions to the next level, moving away from job specific training and taking a more holistic view.

This in turn will enable individuals to see and understand the way in which their role fits into the organisation as a whole and will also open up the way for the sort of collaboration which is required if businesses are to optimise their innovation potential. In other words, this is the time to ditch the silos and to start really working together for the good of the whole.

In the machine age people became cogs in the machinery of business; everyone had their own role and for the machinery to work everyone has to stick to their assigned tasks. This may have been efficient and led to the growth of specialism but it also led to the growth of archaic and cumbersome practices which were ground rigidly into the rules and allowed no deviation from the norm.

But we’ve moved away from the machine age now and into the age of innovation. Organisations which are shaping the future are the ones which use genuine customer insights and collaboration to create agile and adaptable solutions. And you simply can’t do this when not only is every department working in a silo fashion, but every individual is also locked in their own process driven world.

So it’s now time, more than time, to look at training for collaboration, to move away from silos and individual tasks and into an appreciation of the entire organisation. Yes there will still be some process training required but that should be delivered in a way in which people develop an understanding of how their tasks fit into the overall customer service and delivery mechanism. And as part of the training individuals should be encouraged to think of ways in which their task, their process, their approach could be improved in order that they are contributing to a more open, agile and innovative organisation.

2015 was a year of hope in which businesses shook off the shackles of the recession and started to move forwards. Let’s make 2016 the year of innovation and shape a future in which products and services, processes and interactions are all aimed at delivering genuine solutions allied to great customer service.