CAPABILITY BUILDING- THE GREASE FOR ORGANIZATIONAL SUSTAINABILITY

Building Organization Capability is the competitive investment that an organization makes towards anchoring its sustainable growth. And when we say it is an investment, the organization plans for both short and long term reaps.

Where the term ‘Training’ is job specific and focus on skill building with respect to a specific requirement on the other hand ‘Learning’ is more employee centric and is continuous that talks about employee enlarging their knowledge horizon by using the skill built during the training.

Recently when I was involved in the Need Analysis and Learning gap exercise at my organization there was an imperative thought process that engrossed me. And the question in front me was that, the gap being identified has whether time travelled or it didn’t?

I can say this with my near understanding that the learning need of a person (employee from the organizational context) can be:

-?????????Requisite Learning

-????????Aspirational Learning

When a gap analysis is performed based on the current Organization Capability need, the employee can either;

1. Posses the required capability and standing at the benchmark. Here the employee will the go for the ‘Aspirational Learning’ where he/ she will try to learn new skills for future growth.
2. Or the employee may posses?a gap with respect to the current need and will go for the Requisite Learning that becomes mandatory for the employee to remain relevant in the organization

There is one more angle to this discussion. For an organization which is an Aspiration learning gap at present , may be in with next few years will become the Requisite Learning. The time lapse will depend upon how fast the market is changing, sustainability growth factor of the organization, the?unknown market intervention, competitors ferocity, new discoveries and competitive strategy.

In a VUCA world this rate of change has now seen a ten fold change. Aspirations are soon turning into reality. And it becomes essential for an organization to understand the process needs through Preventive Diagnosis intervention and define the Capability Building Strategy that ?suggests new process changes , further productivity improvement scope and think ahead measures to remain competitive.

Around 15 years back, Big Data Analysis was an Aspirational Skill and organizations were brainstorming on acquiring those skill. But today it has become a Necessary skill. With data all around and competition at its best, analytics and trend observance becomes key for a business to tap the potential market and create value for its stakeholders. Similarly the Aspiration Skill of today, lets say ‘Block Chain Technology’ may not see?ample time to shift to Requisite skill. The change will be more sudden.

Hence it become essential for organizations to not only focus on building ‘a’ skill rather to develop an employee on a pool of ‘Skill Sets’ that will keep the employee relevant at job and ensure multi tasking.

Not only the classroom training approach will justify this paradigm shift. More engaging and real life learning would foster this transition and support in building the required capability pipeline for the organization. Some of them can be:

• ?Story Telling that describes real life scenarios with a mean and result well built in and also makes an emotional connect
• Industry Networking, where?the employee ?gets an opportunity to observe?the benchmark practice and a a different approach of handling the activity by visiting another organization with relevant best practice
• ?Coaching, where the expert- Purple Squirrels ?(I would say the Generator who are inbuilt with ?the future skill need and has expertise in it as an early mover) shadows the employee and provide real time input for development
• ?Virtual War Room, where cross functional employees come together for discussing the current unseen opportunities, process improvement scope and the means to bridge the same?with a way forward. This will actually induce a culture of innovation and help easy employee buy in when the change is proposed

An organization refueled with Aspirational Learning will lead to sustainability and igniting a sense of innovation in the employee DNA that will foster the Organizational Learning. The organization also need to have a strategic plan for sustaining this early movers (which will be not more than 5% of the total population having a right mix of Ability, engagement & Aspiration- the STARS) ?who will be the New Skill Generators and Executors.This goes in line with the?Grossbird’s Portability of Talent. The execution and maintenance of the Aspiration skill set will be done by the Solid Citizens- STEADY EDDIES ( Around 40% of the population).

The Capability Building arm is a key for business sustainability and should be directed through right intent and at the right time!

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