Modern Workplace Learning | Building a Culture
for Personal & Professional Growth
Commentary by Craig J Selby
Commentary by Craig J Selby
Regardless of where you
are in your life, what industry you are in, or how accomplished you may have
become, one thing is for certain – our motivation at/to work is affected by the
opportunities surrounding us, and the people who put them forward. Something
that I have always been very passionate about throughout my career has been
constant opportunities for development. These do not always have to be
career-related, but can include things for personal enjoyment and self-growth.
I once did a Diploma in Wine – yes, because I loved wine, but it also gave me
additional talking points during meetings. Being well-rounded is important in
any career – both for the workplace and for one’s psyche.
Creating an
organisational culture where learning is embedded and encouraged is of
paramount importance. But it has to be more than this; we need to feed the
internal desire to continuously grow and improve, and to treat each day as a
challenge to better ourselves from the previous. From the organizational
perspective, support is needed for this – not necessarily in terms of rewards
or fake fluffy ‘congratulations’ (sorry, not a Millennial here), but in terms
of opportunities being available, time being given, and resource support to
make it happen. A good boss who shares and encourages you to try new things is
just the start of that journey.
I thought I’d share the
following article by the Editor of Modern Workplace Learning Magazine, as they
investigate the issue of how to build a culture that embeds the importance of improvement,
learning and development. I think they are spot on with their perspective. But
as with everything, there’s still a way further to go.
__________
Building a Culture of Continuous Improvement, Learning & Development at Work
Countless articles and
posts have been written about how in this fast changing world, people and
organisations need to be constantly acquiring new knowledge and skills for
individuals to remain marketable and for organisations to remain competitive.
It is also clear that
many in the L&D world understand that continuous learning is an important
aspect of modern workplace learning – if the commentary coming out of recent
conferences is anything to go by.
It is good to hear
that this is generating a lot of talk but it is also all obvious that there is
very little activity taking place in this area. The reason for this seems to be
that most in L&D do not know what it actually means in practice for
their work. One thing is for certain, it is not a matter of
just providing continuous training. The traditional model of workplace learning
(of doing things to people and making sure they are done) is no longer enough
or appropriate today; L&D’s work now needs to be much broader and deeper
than before.
It starts by building a
continuous learning culture where every individual is responsible for their own
continuous improvement, learning and development, and a culture where managers
have a key role in ensuring that this is an integral part of daily work. In
other words, Learning & Development is no longer just an organisational
function but a continuous organisational process.
For those working in
L&D roles, it means shifting from a “command and control” role (that
focuses on designing, delivering and managing training – although some of that
will still need to take place for compliance and conformance purposes) to an
“enable and support” role that focuses on helping everyone continuously
improve, learn and develop – in whatever way they prefer and is best
for them and their situation. And we know that nowadays people learn in a
multitude of ways for, through and at work.
The reality for
today’s L&D therefore is that their work now needs to evolve into three
overlapping streams to support all these ways of learning (as shown on
the revised framework diagram below) and briefly described below.
1 – Promote Continuous
Learning
This means encouraging
and supporting individuals to organise and manage their own continuous
self-improvement and self-development – both formally and informally, as well
as providing a continuous flow of (created or curated) learning opportunities.
2 – Create Modern
Content, Events and Experiences
This means using
modern formats and delivery methods to create modern training and on demand
performance support – for compliance or conformance, or (where appropriate) to
address performance problems.
3 – Support Continuous
Improvement at Work
This means helping
managers grow and develop their teams and building a knowledge sharing culture
as well as helping individuals get the most out of their daily work.
So how can you find
out more about the practicalities of building a culture of continuous learning
in your own organisation, and what it means for your own team?
I’ve been helping
L&D teams all around the world through bespoke consultancy as well as a
number of public initiatives.
- I facilitate a series of online
workshops for L&D professionals where I provide the opportunity to
discuss and share their own organisational issues and activities.
- I’m in the final stages of
completing my new online resource book, Continuous
Improvement Learning & Development which provides lots of ideas
and guidance and support for this new area of work.
- I’ve also teamed up with
LearnTec conference organisers and will be hosting a special 3-day
(English-speaking) Modern Workplace Learning track at the event in
Karlsruhe (Germany) in January 2019 – but more about that in an upcoming
post.
__________
No comments:
Post a Comment