Hi all

I read this the other day. I'd love to hear what you think of this.....

Learning just happens.


Many top CEOs don't attribute the success of their careers to a training course or coaching session - it's because they succeeded when given an opportunity... and learnt from it.

Learning innovation in an enterprise environment is actually about replicating reality - it's bringing the way people learn outside of an organisation, inside and allowing learning inside an organisation, outside. 

This is not forward thinking, this is not thinking outside the box. This is about what works best for your people.

The questions is: Do you truly know your people?

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  • I am fairly new to my organisation, and am still learning what my people need in terms of learning. Each role within the business is very unique hence most functions are made of either one or two people. Based on that being the case, most of the learning we need is from specialists. However, my personal opinion is that once you make your initial analysis of your people and implement the obvious needs, the use of internal skills is being lost. Why not use the skills and knowledge internally to train the others. Likewise, I also like those outside to come in and develop our learning from an outside perspective as long as those coming in to develop learning are at huge top of their game.
  • I like this Ady but I still think we need to fundamentally start at home in how we think as L&D professionals.

    It comes back to the 'if you walk around with a hammer you'll say everything as a nail" syndrome

    This happens in so many organisations where learning takes place in the classroom and it's so entrenched in the DNA and culture of an organisation it seems we'll never ever break the mold.

    It was wonderful to hear Stephan Thoma Global L&D Director at Google speak last week at the CIPD Scotland Conference.....their approach meant that 85% of learning was delivered through their employees.

    85%

    I will say it once again for dramatic effect

    85%

    OK you could argue that it's Google so there are bound to do something off the wall and 'crazy' but seriously all they have done if provide the way and means for their employees to help one another then got out of the way.

    I think we need to meet in the middle - yes we need to know our people and understand how they learn in the real world but most organisations aren't set up like this and with their technical infrastructure aren't a Google (who obviously have a benefit of hangouts. gmail, youtube and Google + to use internally - as well as G2G TV- Google TV).

    Still though we need to be the catalyst to drive change in how WE operate as an L&D function from practitioners to Head of's and the roles we do and how we do it.

    I cam across 50 ideas to change L&D today on Jane Harts webpage - perhaps this is the starting point and we do need to start thinking differently.....

  • Hi Ady

    Really interesting discussion! Hard to answer concisely & without waffling but I shall give it a go.

    So for me, the key here is people being aware of learning & potential learning opportunities.  You can learn at any time anywhere - a conversation with a work colleague, listening to the radio, training courses, reading books etc.  You may not then attribute where you are now or to an opinion you hold to those situation but they definitely contributed at some point.  I suppose the difference with successful CEO's may be the awareness of a learning opportunity as opposed to people who don't recognise / do anything with the learning they may be exposed to.  I imagine you'd be able to demonstrate this quite easily if you look through a range of people's CPD logs.  Some people may have only a few entries of particular training sessions or workshops they attended whereas others may have lots of entries with articles they've read and videos they've watched etc.

    To answer your question "Do you truly know your people?" I'd have to answer honestly and say no, we probably don't do enough.  But part of me wonders if our people really know themselves.  As we know, people prefer to learn in different ways (audio, visual, individually, group etc) but not everyone is aware of their own preference or style and how do they actually view learning? I reckon attitude may have a lot to answer for in situations like this. 

    Jill

  • Where on earth did you read it Ady? Who wrote it?

    Learning just happens.

    Many top CEOs don't attribute the success of their careers to a training course or coaching session - it's because they succeeded when given an opportunity... and learnt from it.

    Some refer to this as "the University of Life" - it's marvellous, but what is the content and the quality of the information learnt? This depends upon the individual's life experience, their level of curiosity and their ability to carry out relevant enquiries to find the answers to their questions.

    It would be interesting to see what training and coaching these "top CEOs" have actually undertaken. They have probably forgotten more than they remember. I would like to meet a top CEO who hasn't done any! They may not attribute their success to a training course or a coaching session but it is part of their life's experience that contributes to their success, along with their supportive upbringing that provided them the confidence to look for opportunities and the freedom (economic and political)  to "go for it".

    When the writer says "Many top CEOs don't attribute the success of their careers..." it is anecdotal and the reader has no way of knowing what the question was that the CEOs were asked, or the context within which they were asked.

    Learning innovation in an enterprise environment is actually about replicating reality - it's bringing the way people learn outside of an organisation, inside and allowing learning inside an organisation, outside. 

    (Does this phrase make sense grammatically? I'm struggling with it, starting with "Learning innovation" - not sure what this means, but doing my best...)

    "Replication of reality" for training purposes is one of the ways in which an "enterprise" course developer can approach training development. I presume the author is recommending this on the basis of the statement about CEOs learning skills! But my question to the author would be "do all people learn so well in this way?" Why should we suppose that learning innovation should be based upon CEOs success, when so few people ever make the lofty executive heights in their organisation. Indeed, if their success is not to be attributed to a training course or a coaching session, then why bother doing these things at all, if the "University of Life" is so good? Why bother replicating reality in an "enterprise classroom"?

     it's bringing the way people learn outside of an organisation, inside

    I don't agree. People don't learn outside the organisation using a replication of reality - they learn from reality.

    and allowing learning inside an organisation, outside.

    ?? Sorry I don't get this bit. Surely, anything learnt "inside" an organisation is going to be transferred outside when the learner goes outside. The learning goes with the individual. It is part of their "life's experience".

    This is not forward thinking, this is not thinking outside the box.

    I think I agree with this bit.  Using real life scenarios and "storytelling" techniques to give a learner "hooks", so that they can link the information they are being provided with what they already know and understand (from "life's experience" !)  is a useful training technique; it enhances the learning opportunity.

    If you google digital storytelling loads of info pops up. Here is just one of many links describing the usefulness of this technique. multimedia rich digital storytelling

    This is about what works best for your people.

    Choosing the content of the story so that it actually provides the relevant hooks - ie so that the learner can actually identify with the content - that is the tricky bit and the most important bit. Along with pitching it so that the learner doesn't fell patronised.

    The questions is: Do you truly know your people?

    I agree that you really do need to understand your learners in order to deliver the best training programmes for them.

    (Just realised the time - must dash to first meeting of the day!)

    Hope the above helps to get the discussion going Ady!

    I'm not precious about any of this, so everyone feel free to have your say and don't worry if it's different to mine! I would expect it to be as we all have different experiences to draw upon :)

     

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