5 Learning Strategies that Create a Learning Organisation

I first took charge of Learning and Development in 2005 for an Indian Pharma Major. It was an exciting and a neurotic (a big, but true word in this context) experience for me. The reason being that the mandate from the management was to create a learning organisation and I had happily agreed to it (not knowing much about it, play it on risk taking ability). Up till now, I had been a trainer, evolving as a facilitator and the universe of L&D started and ended with creating and conducting a plethora of generic programs (and some specialised ones, for which I had a certificate - hmm was quite proud of them).

The task was complicated not because of the learning involved, but because the term "Learning Organisation" has so many variant understandings, that one really does not know what sort of a learning organisation, is one creating. Is it the one that Peter Senge talks of in his book the "Fifth Discipline" or was it "everyone attending learning sessions and giving a feedback of 4.2/5" as my manager in my previous organisation stated.The B-School education provided me with the ability to use big words without actually understanding them and hence the quick nod of my head to take on the responsibility of creating a learning organisation.

I started experimenting with various ways to create a "Learning Organisation". Mercifully & thankfully the management of the Pharma firm gave me space, time and resources (money and not people) till the time work was done as much possible in-house. This is where my life experience in creating a learning organisation began with creating action plans and strategies, the ones that would work and not the ones that look great on paper or on a presentation, however do not manifest in reality - especially in many of the Indian businesses.

Over the next 6 years as an employee and another 6 as a consultant, I have come to the realisation that there are some fail proof learning strategies that work wonderfully well in creating a learning organisation. Interestingly these tally out as 5 points akin to Peter Senge's explanation of a learning organisation, however not similar, though I have attempted to correlate them.

One : "Benjamin Bloom is a Learning Strategist's friend".

You can never go wrong with the basics, especially with what Mr. Bloom worked on in between 1956 - 64. Though his work was intended primarily for high schools students, it has some very practical application in corporate learning. Along with many others I differ with him on various aspects as times have changed, however what is indisputable are the three domains of learning that he talks of. A learning strategy needs to have adequate representation of learning opportunities in these three domains. (as a psychologist, I could not agree more). The three domains are: 1 - Cognitive Domain (knowledge based), 2- Affective Domain ( feeling/emotion based) and 3- Psychomotor Domain (action based).

Every role should have a learning opportunity that has objectives representing the three domains. If a subject or learning topic is looked only from the lens of knowledge then it will not excite the learner. Though the learner will attend and engage in the opportunity, but will not retain or recall the learning. A good analogy is the Indian education system where students are made to cram lot of information, but not for the purpose of learning but for getting a good score. Education should make them more aware and in making better decisions, however this exactly where the system fails.

The learning topic needs to affect the learners feelings. A learning program on Health, Safety & Environment will be a classic failure, if the learner knows all that is to know in the subject, but does not "feel" an intense need for it. A program on "collaborative leadership" despite role-plays, cases, videos and a self-disclosure exercise will fail to create a collaborative leader, if the participants are not deeply sensitised on the benefits of collaboration. A team outbound, is usually a resounding success till a week after the program, because usually these program are able to sensitise the learner, but fail to provide the "action based skills" for managing team issues or building effective teams.

Success is when the training calendar made ensures that there are programs representing each domain and that the construct of every program has a 60:20:20 ratio. Where 60% of the objective focuses on the primary domain - lets say knowledge on Health, Safety & Environment (HSE), 20% of emotion - sensitising & building emotions around HSE and 20% on physical skill - such as able to carry and use a fire extinguisher correctly or administer first aid properly. This is some work!

As you engage in creating objective based learning across the three domains, the seeds of "personal mastery" and "systems thinking" - 2 out 5 components of Dr.Senge's "learning organisation" are sown. By doing this you are in a way answering the question "What is the purpose of learning?"

Two : "Know the Business as Good as the Business Leader - if not better!"

A Learning Strategist & practitioner, needs to speak the language of the business better than the business leaders. Coming out of the mindset of a "trainer" is crucial. In the last 2 decades, hardly there has been a program where a participant has not asked me "How do I get into training? when this question is asked, I have a broad small, I like it!" This is always a compliment for the trainer / facilitator as you have successfully stimulated the "emotion" of the learner in more than one way. Speaking the business language is not easy, it is mighty tough, but if you learn that language, every action that you do in the learning space will be accepted, appreciated and applied by the business and its members. You will make learning seem easy and your learners will want to become members of the L&D fraternity.

My experience has led me to this firm belief that the Business Leaders & Vertical Heads are seldom able to define the real learning gap. Mostly they assume that lack of a result is a learning gap. That is why often you will see that when sales targets are not being met, many sales leaders ask for more training, stating " We need to train our people better to improve our sales!" In a way they are right, however what training to give, in what way, with what frequency, depth , intensity are the real and unknown gaps. A L&D practitioner can only ask these questions if there is deep and wide awareness of the business and its verticals - at least from a product, service, process, goals and strategy perspective.

Therefore from the way the programs are designed, to the way they are scheduled need to be stated in a way that is akin to standing on the roof and shouting "I know the business as well as you do!" To achieve this working in the market place, talking informally with colleagues from various verticals, attending their review meetings (if you have a good rapport, the business will be glad to have you in their review meetings) and even taking up Cross Functional Projects with the business helps.

Simply put, the Learning Strategist has to be on top of information in the business, sector and economy at large. A trainer or even a facilitator has the liberty to stay focussed in their subject, but not a Learning Strategist. Aligning and knowing about the business helps you build the right "mental models" (another of the 5 characteristics of a learning organisation as defined by Dr. Senge). This is fundamental to ensure that learning and development activities get acceptance by the business at every juncture. Otherwise the learning organisation will never germinate.

Three : "Expand the Club, Nurture Internal Coaches"

The responsibility of the learning baton needs to be passed on to the business leaders and other Subject Matter Experts in the business. Often the whole and sole accountability lands on the frail shoulders of the learning function. And it is not about who is sponsoring the learning spend. It is about involving all capable people in the business to become coaches of one kind or the other. A learning organisation is impossible to make if internal knowledge (often called as tacit knowledge) is not actively shared.

Again as I refer to the pathbreaking work of Peter Senge - "shared vision" is critical for learning initiatives to succeed. And by success I mean business seeing the success and the wisdom in engaging in the learning processes. Often the brightest ideas emerge when internal people don the hat of a coach. Developing and executing an "Internal Coaches Club" is akin to the cardio-vascular system of the human body. You take care of your heart and blood pressure and all will be mostly well. Same though applies for establishing a robust learning culture.

In the consulting work that I did and do, I find that managers are quiet ready to become coaches. They see it not only as a way to improve the abilities of the their team members, but also a way to learn. Coaching, sharing and educating others is one of the critical planes, that lead to effective learning. Ask yourself "When did you learn more and better - when you were a learner or when you were a teacher / coach?"

Creating a platform or forum where people can volunteer or self-nominate themselves as coaches is one of best ways to start. Ensure that the enthusiasm of managers and leaders is matched by an effective program on developing coaching skills. Else the learner will ensure that the through low quality feedback, the program fails. Along with developing coaches, a recognition and acknowledgement program is key to keep the spirit of the coaches up. The recognition program is necessitated by the fact that many of the coaches (who also have functional responsibilities) are taking their time out of their daily work and responsibilities. Such coaches look for acknowledgement and not for any monetary reward. For may of them it is their path towards self-actualisation (especially for the ones who have volunteered and not have been made to volunteer)

The more internal coaches you generate across all functions, accelerated through a quality "Become an effective Coach" program, better will you strengthen the shared vision.

Four : "Measure what Matters for Systemic Thinking"

"Learning is Continuous" - cliched but true. No truer set of words exist in the world of cognitive sciences. It is just like "Change is the only thing permanent". Well, so far as a student and as a L&D - OD practitioner, I have seen some real aspiration products bite the dust. Almost all of us know about the sudden or slow demise of some real aspirational, popular and large brands - Blackberry, Nokia, Kodak, Yahoo and many more. In 2006 my aspiration was to own a Blackberry, but not anymore. Owning a Blackberry is considered as eccentric behaviour now (no offence to any Blackberry owner, I am just reflecting the popular view here).

An efficient learning function is critical to indirectly or directly help the business come out of its state of either over confidence or akrasia. In my view if the R&D function or marketing function is not able to think creatively or innovate, then it means that the learning function is not bringing the reality into the business (and let us not blame the guys in strategy). Therefore measuring the external environment and connecting it with the internal learning activities, is one of the most important action for developing learning strategies. Besides the stratgeic goals of the organisation, I dervie data through certain measures. One is what I call as "lead" measures. These usually have a qualitative angle to them. Some of the lead measures that help developing learning strategies are - recording types of innovation occurring in the business and related sectors, changing habits of manpower, use of technology, emerging trends, what sort of businesses are capturing more media time, trends on digital media, changes in the offerings of consulting firms, new learning methodologies etc.

The other measure is "lag"measure. These are the ones that most L&D functionaries religiously monitor - training spend, training man-hours - man-days, internal vs external facilitation, feedback scores etc. These are good to have, but I wonder what use they are to me as a L&D practitioner? I could have conducted 1000 man days of learning but did learning actually occur? Now this is the area that intrigues me. I believe that critical lag measures are feedback scores as they help us get a reaction (remember Mr. Bloom - the affective domain) so we know the feeling of the learner and the other lag measure is a learning index.

A crude learning index is a recall test score asking the learner to recall how much he or she recalls of the session- it is more of a memory test and less of a learning test. Another, but advanced way is to have application assessments - that check the ability of the learner to apply the concepts to a situation. Because when we are striving to create a learning organisation, it is essential to measure the learning we are creating, how much of it is staying with the learner and what is being implemented. Classical measurement models do not provide with cost effective way to measure learning, however thanks to strides in Big Data Analytics, this is becoming quiet simple. Five years ago creating a learning index was considered as a great expense. However today, it is available at a reasonable cost - say less than the cost of coffee that an employee consumes in a week !

Needless to say, you need to measure what the business wants - however insignificant or inconsequential it may seem. For it is the business that sponsors the learning initiatives. Mr. Ted O'Keefe, who wrote an article titled Organisational Learning: a new perspective in the Journal of European Industrial Training, very interesting mentions that if Peter Senege's "systemic thinking" builds a learning organisation then the systemic factors will only be gradually acquired. Therefore as you measure various aspects , both lead and lag, you get insights into how you can gradually nurture the character of systemic thinking to become a learning organisation that shall probably grow and continue like the many business that have thrived from the 17th and 18th century.

Five : "Communicate Forever ... "

In 1948, DeBeers coined the tagline "A Diamond is Forever. The firm created a need, want and desire - all rolled into one, for a man to have something that will be forever (though the man won't be forever). The tag line is historic as it created a ritual in the west (now in India too) where a man would go on his knees and present a solitaire, that would symbolically say "Darling, be mine - forever". Well millions have fallen for it. The only use that I know of a diamond is in cutting real tough things. Anyways, the point here is, that to become a learning organisation you need to communicate forever! You have to have a tag line (or tag lines) that create a need, want and desire for a learner to contribute as well as nurture the core characteristics of a learning organisation. By the way your tagline is not for the purpose of selling something, but for encouraging the very emotions that can lead a man to spend a small fortune so that he can be forever with his loved one. (though I strongly believe in gender equality and hence recommend ladies to also do the same i.e, give a diamond to their beau. Just clarifying not a DeBeers salesperson here)

Shared Vision and Team Learning are two characteristics of a learning organisation that are deeply affected by communication. In any organisation the pressure of work and performance is significant. Now that the big world is a global village and strife with competition, it really is challenging to remain anchored on a singular thought. The communication systems that the L&D function builds works as the spinal chord. When a communication is repeated in different ways, at defined frequencies with the same essence, it leaves an indelible impact. Much like DeBeers - "A Diamond is Forever".

So what should you be communicating ? The answer here is - the shared vision of the company with live examples of individuals and teams who are living the vision and way they are living the vision. Other thing that you ought to be communicating is the successes of applying learning to workplace. For example, after attending a lean management program a team was able to reduce wastage. Capture how they did it, make a video and post it where ever you can, make them internal celebrities and invite the rest of the organisation to participate in this "team learning"

For me these 5 strategies have given results when embarking in creating a learning organisation. And once you have started this exciting journey, you will realise it is like travelling in space and I borrow (and modify) words from my favourite boyhood TV series - Star Trek "Learning: the final frontier. These are the voyages of "Our" Enterprise. Its mission: to explore new opportunities, to seek out innovation and new markets, to boldly go where no business has gone before." (the original went as Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.)