HOW LEARNING CULTURES CHANGED THE GAME IN THE OUTBACK

Think learning cannot move the organizational development dial?

Time to stop and re-think.

In this article I share how my organization Kiikstart created a different business and financial outlook for its client in the Australian Outback by creating a learning cultures.

This organization was facing financial headwinds and a team that was simply in chaos.

All occurring in one of the most isolated environments in the world.

Gaining knowledge and insight alone is not enough to change how we develop and design our organizations to respond to complex challenges.

We need to create workplaces and people that can confidently design and drive this change across the entire organization, and to do this we need to deliver a learning culture.

A MODEL OF COLLECTIVE OD SITS IN THE CENTRE

At the centre of delivering a learning culture was Kiikstart’s model of collective organisational development (OD).

This drove a continual learning and development mindset across all roles and activity and not just at leadership level.

Before unpacking this project and its outcomes and impact it’s important to understand what collective OD is from a project perspective. ?

-??????? it achieves common goals through united effort

-??????? connects the dots across key functionalities including L& D and Change

-??????? delivers shared outcomes and impact

-??????? fair and equitable regardless of position

-??????? acknowledges employees don’t start from the same place

-??????? delivers entrepreneurial thinking, project and change capability ?

-??????? expects/supports experimentation of ideas

-??????? develops OD project ownership across roles and teams

-??????? provides ongoing professional development opportunities

BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT

The client was undergoing an organizational rebrand and need to look at changing the style and manner in how it operated to respond to challenges both within recruitment and customer experience.

It had been hard to recruit and retain the right people in the outback location, and employees were making business and life choices that put their own wellbeing and that of the business at risk.

THE PROJECT GOAL/S

1. To be known as a leader in sustainable business practice not just within the visitor economy but in industries beyond.
2. To become leaders in environmentally and socially responsible business the Directors had indicated that their team needed to think and act like entrepreneurs.

This would require a deconstruction of the current model, holistically, and a different business DNA to be designed and delivered.

To achieve both the people and financial goals of the business we were needing the team, including senior management to change how they showed up day to day.

Fundamentally we had to move the dial on mindset, attitude and actions.

We needed employees to bring their best human to work in one of Australia’s most isolating and geographically challenging environments.

And find different ways to connect with one another in responding to workplace stress and pressure.

It was essential to create a thinking and doing culture – where the contribution of ideas was supported and expected from everyone. Not just management.

It wasn’t just the job of Management and Directors to deliver on the strategic plan, but a collective effort of the entire workforce regardless of role and position.

There were five key areas we focused energy on.

FOCUS AREA ONE

UNDERSTANDING THE CURRENT L & D REALITY

Creating a learning culture required an assessment of all existing L & D resources and identifying gaps, threats and risks to current systems and employee experiences.

This included

·??????? reviewing current policies, procedures and systems

·??????? meeting with each member of the team, including leadership

·??????? undertaking a fairness and equity review of current L & D practice

·??????? assessing the value of employee performance check ins

·??????? reviewing existing L & D resources and identifying gaps against the goals

·??????? assessing the effectiveness of the current L & D approach in terms of

?-???????knowledge building

-??????? skill development

-??????? mindset/Attitude change

-??????? workplace based experience to trial knowledge

-??????? access to external PD opportunities

Three key questions we asked the client

1. What is one key change you could make to operations so that a learning and doing culture is created amongst the team?

2. How would you begin to implement the change within the business?

?3. Where is the organization at risk of missing future opportunities by not implementing this change?

?Once this assessment was undertaken project focus turned to

·??????? the creation of personalized learning and development plans

·??????? a schedule of continual L& D activity based on the strategic OD plan

·??????? identifying what a learning culture is for the organization

·??????? creating a plan for delivering a learning culture cross functions

·??????? a clear plan for measuring ongoing outcomes and impact

?FOCUS AREA TWO

IDENTIFYING IDEAL OUTCOMES + IMPACT AND MEASURING AS A TEAM

Before engaging in this OD project Directors had worked to refine the strategic plan including its end vision.

Doing deep thinking at this stage made sure Directors knew what outcomes they wanted from the learning before they made the investment.

The entire team, not just leaders, had to agree on how impact/outcomes would be measured in the business and team as well to ensure a fair and equitable experience for all.

Because the entire team had input, they also had ownership and influence over the OD projects outcomes and impact that was achieved.

Gaining buy in in the early stages of project planning resulted in employees caring about the results as they had dedicated more energy and effort to the overall process.

Key areas the team needed to agree on included

-??????? the top three to five OD areas in terms of skill gaps, risks and threats

-??????? the actions that needed to be delivered

-??????? who was responsible for delivering on these actions

-??????? by when – what were the key timeframes and milestones

-??????? how would the team connect with each other – check ins and reviews

-??????? what would be the purpose of team check ins

-??????? key measurements for reviewing progress and when

FOCUS AREA THREE

EMBEDDED LEARNING INTO ALL INTERNAL TOUCHPOINTS

There was a co-designed plan for staff to trial and experiment new learnings and insights back into the workplace in real-time and without delay.

Before investing in learning and development staff knew:

1.?How they would be both supported by the business to trial new knowledge and ideas back into the workplace.

The Leadership team provided the environment, resources and support that allowed staff to deliver excellence through continual experimentation of new ideas and knowledge.

2.?And that they would be responsible for implementing their newfound knowledge and insights across the organization.

There would no “passing of the buck”.

This business did not wait until the yearly performance review to check in how valuable the learning was and where they have utilised it in their role over the past 12 months.

Regular follow up and real means of trialling the knowledge into the workplace was essential to success.

FOCUS AREA FOUR

MEASURED OUTCOMES AND IMPACT

?To be able to gain greater buy-in from staff, learning frameworks were created that delivered

·??????? a personalized approach to staff L & D plans which had flexibility to

meet future needs of the business and passions of the staff

·??????? a process attached to staff learning plans which captured and tracked

the ROE (return on education) as well as the ROI

·??????? processes for staff to self-assess their own skill gaps and role impact on

an ongoing basis with Management

·??????? ongoing update of employee L & D plans to reflect staff growth,

identified skill gaps and the direction of the organization

*Note staff and management worked together on a plan to respond to identified skill gaps through a personalized learning and development plan once a quarter with a major check in and update at the end of the year.

Continual reflection and review made sure that all members of the team, including Management maintained focus and momentum not only during the implementation of the project, but beyond.

FOCUS AREA FIVE

CREATED A SPACE FOR TEAM TRUTH TELLING

To be able to innovate continually, you must design the organization accordingly.

This means the processes, systems, the style, and manner of staff interactions must create a continual learning and doing culture.

One where staff are supported, encouraged, and expected to come up with new ideas that will be experimented with and reviewed.

This was achieved via

1.?Regular idea sessions with the team where they creatively solved a real workplace problem together.

Staff also undertook a weekly organizational post-mortem as a part of regular team communications.

?Areas for team discussion included

?-????????what is proving most useful in their approach and why

-???????? key wins to share

-???????? anything that did not go to plan and why

-???????? lessons learnt if something did not go to plan – what can benefit others

-???????? areas of inefficiency in their role

-???????? anything they want to remove from their role as it adds no real value

-???????? what do they want to start introducing to their role

-???????? any new gaps, threats or risks the team need to be aware of

-???????? observations and advice from customer interactions

-???????? anything the organization is doing that is not working /solutions

-???????? advice on how Management or wider team can provide support

Consistent, weekly opportunities were created for the team to reflect on performance, gain new perspectives and take action with new knowledge.

It was also a creative and safe space for the team to stretch their thinking and be generous with advice and insights that would benefit their colleagues and the broader organization.

Introducing a culture of generosity remains one of the most impactful elements of this entire project.

There were also

-???????? quarterly and monthly check-ins with the team

-???????? shorter, high impact check-ins daily (10 minutes)

-???????? fortnightly (30 minutes) catch ups with employees

-???????? 12 monthly major check-in and reflection of L & D plans

OUTCOMES AND IMPACT OF CREATING A STRONG LEARNING CULTURE

-???????? stronger financial bottom line as team members became fully proficient

-???????? Directors don't don’t need to “fix” daily problems

-???????? Management are confident in recruiting the best talent available

-???????? smarter recruitment decisions now lead to a cohesive, diverse team

-???????? have a diverse team of talent that can step up to support Management

- have an impactful employee brand and clear succession plan ?

-???????? team now can manage stress and challenges positively

I continue to keep in touch with the Owner and Director of the business and can say after six years these changes continue to live on in the organization’s DNA.

It's one of the reasons I have chosen an older project to draw from as it shows if you get the model of OD right, and the project elements and approach, you’ll lay the foundations of success long term.

Wherever you may be located – not just in the Australian outback.

Takeaway food for thought

Learning is just the beginning to creating a different organizational DNA – it’s not the end game.

It is the processes and ongoing leadership support that underpins the learning that creates sustainable change in behaviour and thinking by implementing learning cultures.

Written by Ali Uren - Founder Kiikstart - A proven model of Organizational Development created for Mission Driven Brands. Employee created - employee led.

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