The challenges of prioritizing learning in our busy lives...

We all want to learn and grow, but finding the time can be a real challenge. I've examined how I reached our aspiration of 100 hours of learning this year and reflected on some ideas that might work for you too.

Our aspiration at Novartis is to invest 5% of our time / 100 hours a year?in?learning,?feeding our innate?curiosity.?One of the challenges we all face is?prioritizing our commitment to find that time?in our busy lives.?Looking back at my learning journey midway through the year helps me reflect on the support I have around me, to continuously learn and grow, share my gratitude for these opportunities and plan some actions for the remainder of the year.

Having just passed 100 hours of learning for this year, I looked?at how that time was spent, to see if I could find useful pointers for anyone struggling to find the time.

I discovered that I’m continuously learning in many more contexts than I normally acknowledge.

I’ve asked myself (and invite you to answer):

• How have I spent my time?
• Is my time well spent? Am I investing in the opportunities that are of the most value?
• What comes next? How will I pivot? Where will I build on the experiences I have today?
• Why is this practice of reflection important to me and my organization??

Unstructured learning where I set my own path:

The biggest single chunk of?my learning, about 50 hours, was self-logged, self-directed, and made up of?opportunities outside?of formal?learning systems.?

Another chunk?comprised?of learning from others, either through forums / boards (e.g., iVentiv , Conference Board ) that I belong to, or sessions with other companies to learn from what they are doing.?There were also podcasts (not including those I participated in), webinars and books/audio books.

Looking back, there were many amazing unstructured opportunities to learn from the teams at companies like Genpact , Unilever , IBM , Colgate , and more. I realize I didn’t log many of them yet! Back to our Learning Tracker for me to add even more hours!

My Leadership Journey

I've dedicated about?25 hours to the final part of the Unbossed Leadership Experience ?over the year with webinars and virtual sessions which helped me build my self-awareness and leadership skills.?

A focus area that emerged through the Unbossed Leadership Experience, is the need to evolve my approach to feedback, so our?Feedback2Feedforward?program is next on my list to complete.?

Novartis opportunities to be #CuriousTogether

17 hours of my time was spent enjoying virtual experiences with some of the world’s most respected thought leaders.?Highlights include:?John Hagel ,?Erika Andersen , and particularly?Amy Edmondson ?who brought in a new perspective as part of our Novartis PRIDE celebration and even spent time with our CEO Vas discussing the importance of psychological safety when it comes to unleashing the power of our people .?Our knowledge management community and learning innovation team also curated some great sessions for the learning community and the #CuriousTogether campaign -?NASA? and?Starmind? really stood out for me.

By?signing up for our #CuriousTogether communications,?I am nudged about these opportunities throughout the year, or I can find the upcoming experiences and recordings of past learning experiences via?go/curiosity (Novartis Associates only).?

Thanks to Barry, Garrett, Robin, Maie, Namita, Amy, Nina and the entire?#CuriousTogether community?for bringing these fascinating idea makers to me and Novartis!

My reflections on time well spent

So, what have I learned??

• That a lot of informal learning takes place on the job, through hearing, watching, or reading from what others in Novartis, or in other companies are doing (learning from my inspiring colleagues!).?Most of this is during the working day, although sometimes listening to podcasts, audio books may happen in the car,?or while exercising.
• That the learning that is ‘pushed’ to me only makes up a small proportion of the?100 hours I’ve already done this year; I need to opt in for a lot of the learning I do by accepting invites to #CuriousTogether learning experiences, selecting content that resonates with me, and prioritizing or organizing experiences where I can learn.
• I’m learning in more contexts than I recognize or record:
• My own developmental coaching journey – I need to add another 5-10 hours there
• Mentoring relationships – supporting myself and others, both internally and externally to Novartis. I especially enjoy advising several start-ups and think that I often learn more from them than they do from me
• Keeping the learning journey of The Curious Advantage podcast going where I learn through conversations with many amazing people
• Shared experience of learning how to thrive as a Novartis Learning Council in the context of 2021 as we go on our team 'Immunity to Change' journey
• Supporting my team in their own development , this is always an incredible opportunity to learn about how to help others thrive
• Most dear to me, through spending time to support the innate curiosity of my children?(although this one isn't for logging in the tracker!)?

So, there are probably another 20+ hours I need to log too – I see 200 hours beckoning soon!

Turning reflections into action

1. Prioritize time to learn, while it may seem like it is time spent ‘away from work’, if we can apply what we learn, it can make us so much more productive.?You need to actively choose what you need to learn and create the space in your day.
2. It is okay to spend time at work learning!?We should not feel guilty using work time to build skills or knowledge that will help us do our job better!
3. Focus on both skills and knowledge – most of my time was focused on learning new knowledge, but about 25% of time was on building skills (mainly leadership skills in my case) – both are important
4. Remember learning is more than courses. While sometimes a course is the answer (virtual, face-to-face etc.) consider learning from others (internal and external) through podcasts, books, articles, cross-company sharing, communities, research papers...

Also, taking the time to reflect on learning and?tracking it ensures (For Novartis Associates, use?go/learningtracker ?to help log your external learning in UP4Growth):?

• You can adjust your learning journey as needed
• You can give?the learning team visibility and feedback about which learning and growth opportunities are of most value?
• You’re contributing to a curious culture – which is a leading attractor of talent and enables us all to transform, innovate and grow
• Being able to demonstrate the time commitment to learning also helps improve an organization's ESG ratings, as it is a factor in the human capital analysis??

My invitation to you...

Reflect on the questions introduced in the first paragraph, on how you spend your learning time, and please share your learning journey with others in the comments below!

How have I spent my time?

Is my time well spent? Am I investing in the opportunities that are of the most value?

What comes next? How will I pivot? Where will I build on the experiences I have today?

Why is this practice of reflection important to me and my organization??

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Finally a big thank you and recognition to the whole team at Novartis for creating a culture where people can be curious - you are amazing!

Side note on Learning Hours - if you are reading this thinking that tracking learning hours is a meaningless metric, then from one perspective I, perhaps surprisingly, would agree with you. If we were ONLY tracking learning hours, as the exclusive metric for learning, then arguably it doesn't tell you anything (e.g. is more hours good or did someone just make the training longer to cover the same content). However tracking the time spent learning (defined broadly to include learning from others, informal learning, etc), as a headline metric, with then supporting data points that shows that learning is well aligned to strategy and strategic skills, is using good quality impactful content, and is building skills (demonstrated through assessments etc), then it can be a very helpful metric. This is a much longer conversation though!