Learner autonomy was raised by a few speakers at the World of Learning Conference this week. The thrust of the thinking is that organisations need to trust learners and give them space to get on with their jobs, supporting them when they identify a need.

This seems like a very different approach to L&D versus where we have come from. What are your thoughts on this - are you giving autonomy to your learners or not?

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  • We have just started the journey towards a more self-directed culture Martin. We recognise that if we want action then the three most powerful galvanisers of that are generally Value: do I see the value in it and Accountability: Am I accountable for my own development and Tools: Have I the tools to make it happen. We are combining an online business school, bite size line manager lead sessions, lunch and learns, ALGs to offer a variety of choice to suit all types of teams, individuals, learning preferences and business needs. The approach has so far been well received. However, as our role as an L&D function is to continue to curate and move people towards this ideal, I guess evaluating it's true impact is a while away yet.
    • Hi Alison, thanks for sharing these insights which are really useful. How has this shift impacted on the team - I'm presuming your focus requires different skills? You mention curation, for example.

      • Hi Martin, we are at the very start of our journey and we are using a number of levers to help people move into a more self-directed space. We are giving back the accountability of the development of their people to line managers and autonomy of their own development to our people. This this has been driven at board level through a leadership programme and cascaded down the business. we have 160,000 people so we don't expect an overnight shift, however, the initial signs are positive with people enjoying the opportunity to think very carefully about what the future and their development planning looks like for them and using the tools we provide to make it happen. This has then allowed L&D to be more strategic about the future offer/programmes to ensure we align to the changing business needs whilst staying in touch with our peoples needs. Its worth noting here that this is predominantly aimed at Behavioural learning/training, leadership programmes with some business skills. what utopia looks like is a confident workforce able to make sound decisions with agility and resilience and we aim to achieve this by allowing our people to work alongside their line managers and trusted peers to create and execute development plans which work to fully support their areas of strengths and manage their areas of risk in a way that works for their learning preferences and work/life commitments

        • Wow, Alison! This sounds like a very forward thinking approach and thanks for sharing more insights. It sounds as if this puts the L&D team in a much more influential place in the business. You are also trusting managers and teams to develop ways relevant to them and their business goals. Be interesting to see how this all works out.

    • That sounds very interesting Alison. You are right that achieving this change in approach requires a well mapped journey, with everyone involved and understanding what it means to them and their role in it. It would require a huge shift in culture at our place anyway, where we have a mix of pedagogical and androgogical approaches.
      We are a long way from the heutagogical ideal. We probably have a couple of dozen staff who self direct their learning ( and they do this because they want to and without business support) but we have not provided the type of resources you refer to. I have been trying to win the approval of our SLT for very similar schemes - as yet to no avail as they have other priorities. Staff development is not well linked to their objectives it seems.
      We have a new L&D lead at Head Office. She is only just settling in. It will be interesting to see how she gets on. I am due to meet her later this month.
      • Hi Alison, is there room to build on those who currently are self-directed eg coach others in how they learn? Maybe this group will give you the evidence to influence the leadership team?

        • As it is done "on the hoof" to a great extent, I am only hazarding a guess really Martin. Some folk have talked to me about their studying and much of it is almost covert. When we used to have an LMS with a catalogue of learning available to all ( purchased as well as in house) the L&D team could track the learning of each individual. Managers were encouraged to use the resource. As a manager I found it brilliant. I wasn't in L&D and didn't have the level of understanding about the business need for a learning culture that I now have, having embarked on the CIPD HRD diploma. I did however raise the profile of the availability of the tools and encourage their use at every opportunity, because I enjoyed it so much myself. Not everyone enjoys this style of learning though it would seem. Sadly we didnt have the resource long. It had only just been introduced on site when we changed owners and lost that facility.
          • I had wanted to do a survey of our operational managers, their previous experience and their formal learning, and link this to performance of their lines, with a view to measuring how formal learning affects performance. I had worked out a scoring mechanism regarding influencing factors, including informal learning, networking, use of social media etc Unfortunately with the change in ownership, the timing was not right for the business.
            • Maybe reintroduce that - and also ask how people learn on their job ie outside of the formal learning. Linking all this to performance is critical too. What if you found the top performing teams preferred to learn informally? I presume the leadership team would be interested!

              • Haha, yes indeed Martin. I will speak to our new L& D lead to see if she is interested. I have lots of ideas for her. Unfortunately, L&D is not my remit ( i wish it was) and I'm not allowed to do anything other than offer up ideas :) she has put an appointment in my diary but it is nowhere near long enough to have the discussion with her that I'd like. Never mind, it's a start.
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