Building Learning architecture in your Company

Why Learning should be addressed??With fast changing business environment, the need for learning within organizations is more apparent than ever. If a company does not need much of learning on the part of its’ employees to reach its’ goals, then the company is not having lofty enough goals. We are going through the fourth Industrial revolution (I 4.0). Unlike any other Industrial revolution, this one does not have one big product or category of products leading the revolution. It consists of several technologies from which the companies need to find their own mix that will propel them forward. This requires the company to learn on its’ feet. Unless a company can learn how it can work more efficiently every day, it will be difficult to make a mark in the market.?

Learning is not in a good shape: While this is the need of the hour, in many of the companies they face the opposite situation. The Learning stops for employees once they finish their formal education and join the companies. The focus changes to results and results only. Learning takes the back seat. During your formal education, you have a structure for learning. You have syllabus, teaching, projects, examinations and so on. You are driven by the structure. But most of the companies do not have any structure for learning. This must be addressed. We must put a good architecture for learning in companies. This will be the foundation for consistent growth in your company in future.?

Let me present you a proposal. Many of you may say that you have some of the components that I am going to talk about. But it would be good to examine the whole architecture and define it deliberately rather than something building up over time on its’ own. Time has come to make this your priority.?

We can look at learning in two ways in the companies:

a.?????Formal Learning

b.?????Learning on the job

a.?????Formal Learning:?

Learning agenda: Every company should define Competencies for every position in the company. These Competencies should have Leadership and Functional Competencies. Every year the company should prioritise specific competencies for each of the employees. This must be done based on the agenda for that employee in that year. Every employee should learn what is immediately required for him/her. When you learn something when you really need it, you will use it.?

Every employee should have learning agenda for every year. This learning agenda should be arrived at together by the employee and the boss.

Learning system: The learning mechanism should use technology and it should be a stabilized system. E-Learning modules should be available on each of the competencies and the learning should happen online and offline in a blended manner. The modern ‘LMS – Learning management system’ software is very useful to companies.?

Trainers:?The learning can be coordinated by outside consultants till the time the internal system is stabilized. But it should have a structure of Internal trainers in the form of senior employees. Senior employees should be trained as Internal Trainers. When an executive is trained as a Trainer, he grows in his stature. He will learn to be a better boss. The senior team can be trained by outside consultants.?

Relating to work: The Learning of competencies must be closely related to the work. When employees learn new competencies, it should be helpful in their regular work and it should help them to perform better. They should learn only those competencies that can be used at work. The Bosses and HR should ensure this. The employees should not prioritize any competencies that cannot be used immediately.?

Organizational practices: When Leaders learn new competencies, they should implement Micro Organizational practices in the company that lift the way of working in the company. This would ensure that the learnings are implemented and used. For example, if employees learn ‘Communication skills’, then they should formulate guidelines for ‘Whatsapp communication’ and implement them in the company. If they learn about ‘Active listening’, then they should implement the practice of all senior employees listening to the team in a meeting before they give out their views. This will ensure that the teams express their views freely. This way the formal learning should contribute to the implementation of Micro Organizational practices in the company that lift the working in the company.?

Everyone should learn: This way the Formal learning should be made mandatory for employees at all levels. Many a times the new practices are implemented for employees up to a certain level and the senior management does not take up any learning. But this should not be acceptable. Everyone from MD/CEO of the company up to the junior most person should have a Learning agenda. This is very important for a company.?

b.?????Learning on the job: There is lot of learning that can happen on the job for employees. It is important to create a structure to capture this learning. Every function in the company should learn continuously and keep improving the efficiencies. There can be several tools for this. We are discussing Ten such tools here. Each company can implement their own set of tools. This is to provoke thinking and we are not meaning this to be an exhaustive list.

i.???????????????Reflection: Companies should implement the practice of reflection. The employees can be encouraged to have a meeting to reflect after every major project / event in the company. It can also be practiced once in a quarter / year and so on. The employees concerned may gather in a hall and each one of them may talk about what worked for them in the project and what did not. This helps in learning from that project.?

ii.??????????????SOP Monitoring: Companies have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that detail the way to do a particular work. Usually, these SOPs just live in files. But it would be good for the employees to audit the actual working every day to see whether the work is happening as per the SOPs. If they check every day, then they do not need to spend lot of time. Every day audit for 15 minutes will work very well. This helps the employees to be in touch with the ground level and keep learning about the actual processes every day. This will help them to be very ‘hands on’ about the work on the ground.

iii.?????????????Problem solving methodology: By using methodologies like 8D, DMAIC for problem solving, employees can solve problems in a systematic manner and capture the technical learning in a formal manner. You can use any of the tools that you feel are suitable to you. But learnings must be captured in a Knowledge management software.?

iv.?????????????Design methodologies: You can use tools like QFD (Quality function deployment) to capture the customer requirements and transferring them into Engineering solutions that your organization can provide. This tool can help you understand the customer requirements in your own way. You can also use tools like ‘LFM’ (Learning from mistakes). When you face problems about your new products and solve them, you learn about your mistakes. This should again be captured and it should be fed in to your Design guidelines. Learnings captured in design area can save a lot of money and effort to your organisation.?

v.??????????????Annual Diagnosis: Every function should be encouraged to draw up an Annual diagnosis. This diagnosis will help in capturing the learnings from the last year’s performance. What they did well and what they could have done better. Company need to have an annual event in which these learnings will be presented.?

vi.?????????????Functional paper presentation: Every function should promote the presentation of a paper by its employees. They should present paper about the advancements in their function in the business world, new technologies, new processes that can help them to improve efficiencies in their function. This should happen at least two times in a year. The company can invite outside experts to listen to these ideas.?

vii.???????????Deep dives by Leaders: Leaders in the company should conduct deep dives whenever a new process Is being introduced or whenever there is a big problem that is not being solved. They need to create new learnings during these dives. They need to encourage the employees to look at the minute details on the shop floor or in the market or at the Vendor place as needed. For example, when the Sales team is not able to make progress in a particular market due to the competition being strong, the Sales Leader should conduct a deep dive into that market and analyse the competitor situation. He should help the team to draw up a plan for improvement and implement it. This can create a learning for the team.?

viii.??????????Using outside events: Companies can use the outside events like fairs and exhibitions to create specific learnings for the employees. The employees should be encouraged to analyse the competitor products and create presentations that will capture the features of the competitor products visa vis the company products. This brings in a crucial learning for the company.

ix.?????????????Customer analysis files: Team members can be encouraged to prepare presentations on each important customer. This presentation will capture all important information about the customer and his business. This will help the company to understand the customer better and serve him better. It should help them to grow better with the customer with all the learning of their business. This file will have to be updated every year by the team concerned.

x.??????????????Market analysis files: Similarly, the team members can prepare Market analysis files that help them to understand the markets much better.?

These are just examples of tools that you can use to create learning at every level in every function in the company. There can be many more such tools. But it is very important to look at learning in the company as a whole and keep improving it regularly.?

Usage of Information technology tools is very much required in this area. It will ensure that the knowledge is captured well in the company and?

How to measure the learning: You may also want to measure the learning in your company. You can do it by measuring the following:

o???Progress on competencies: How many employees are certified for competencies during a year.?

o???Number of learnings created: How many learnings have been created by each function. This should not become a number game. The quality of learning has to be stressed more.?

Again, the measurement of learning can be done in many ways. The point that I am trying to make is that it can help you measure the learning in your organization.?

Anything that you can measure, can be improved!?

When are you going to address the Learning in your organization??

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