How can I ensure that my team effectively learns new skills and uses those skills?

Being in a fast-paced environment with many uncertainties should never be an excuse for us to stay in our comfort zone. Time waits for no man!

DEAR COACH,
As we are working in a fast-paced environment with so many uncertainties, 
I find it a challenge to ensure that my team has the allocated time
to attend trainings for continuous learning and upskilling. This is not 
only important for their personal and professional growth, but also for
the organisation. How can I ensure that my team effectively learns 
new skills and uses those skills, in a short period of time?        

This is a pertinent question. Learning is and will always be a crucial element of employee development and its relation to achieving organisational goals. Being in a fast-paced environment with many uncertainties should never be an excuse for us to stay in our comfort zone. Time waits for no man!

For teams to effectively expand their knowledge and develop new skills, I would like to suggest an approach called Collaborative Learning.

It has many benefits, and can be used to help teams grow whilst they put it to practice. Collaborative learning is designed for two or more learners. In collaborative teams, they learn and work together on a given problem or task, with some guidance from a facilitator.

Some benefits of collaborative learning include :

• Improves retention: new knowledge learnt through exploration and actual practice is retained better than memorized facts.
• Improves employee engagement: an enjoyable experience for a team when working together to solve problems, serves as motivation for future projects.
• Improves team work: The whole joyful learning experience improves team interdependence and effectiveness.

Collaborative learning is best achieved when you adopt Decentralised Learning. Offer blended learning with online bite-size modules for teams to learn new knowledge in their own time, and then combine it with practice through facilitated collaborative sessions. The teams can work independently within a stipulated time line and periodic discussions with the facilitator.

Such learning opportunities can also be done through Team Solving. Give the team a problem to find a solution, for which they draw an outline of how they plan to solve the problem.

Knowledge Sharing is another useful strategy. Encourage individuals from diverse functions to share their knowledge through brainstorming sessions, thus solving certain problems or requests. This way, each team member is exposed to new perspectives, they understand how things are done in different functions. They are able to learn from the thinking processes of the different teams.

SOME QUICK TIPS TO MAKE COLLABORATIVE LEARNING A SUCCESS AT YOUR WORKPLACE:

1. Ensure the team is diverse.
2. Provide realistic goals.
3. Provide autonomy so the team can be more creative.
4. Address any problems within the team.
5. Be open-minded and respectful of different cultures and opinions.
6. Encourage open communication.