image: https://www.algetler.com
The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone elseE. Ries
In Where Companies Go Wrong with Learning and Development Steve Glaveski describes key aspect of lean learning.
Lean learning is about:
- Learning the core of what you need to learn
- Applying it to real-world situations immediately
- Receiving immediate feedback and refining your understanding
- Repeating the cycle
These points match pretty much with the 4 Learning & Development Principles I sketched out few days ago.
Considering the current situation, I very much agree with the author of the article that
not only is the majority of training in today’s companies ineffective, but the purpose, timing, and content of training is flawed, where training here is meant as both learning and development activities.
We do need to change and improve to create better business outcomes while at the same time making people more relevant and prepared for their current and future activities. Probably more than in the past, each one of us needs to learn and develop themself further to adapt to and possibly anticipate mutating conditions. And to do it over and over again.
Never stop learning!
I want to remark 2 suggestions among the many very ones proposed by Steve Glaveski in his article as they are misused or not used enough:
1- Activate peer learning. When your employees want to learn a new skill, they typically don’t Google it or refer to your learning management system (LMS) first; 55% of them ask a colleague. When you account for the fact that humans tend to learn as they teach, peer learning offers a way to support rapid, just-in-time learning, while strengthening the existing understanding your employees have about concepts.
2- Offer vitamins (micro courses), short, bite-sized learning opportunities ... on topics of relevance to an employee’s immediate challenges or opportunities.
Something not explicitly enough is the central role of people, the need to join forces to learn and develop, the necessity to put the learners in the driving seat and provide them an individualized emotionally remarkable experience.
As Suzan Lutke put it in her summary of her experience at the latest Dare to learn festival, in every learning situation it should be about the learner. Who is he or she, what motivates this person, what are the dreams and longings. What do all these different people need, to be able to help build a better world?.
I looked upon LLL (LifeLong Learning) as a way to help professionals develop themselves during their working life, and of course this is part of it. But much more than that it is about flexibility, custom made curricula, and learner centred education- Suzan Lutke
Btw, from the feedback I got from my network, the Dare to learn festival is very, very interesting: a place where to exchange on learning, future technologies and to find actual solutions and practical tools to re-think and redo learning. Really thinking about joining it next year!