The 'Learning'? Organization
Pic courtesy indiatimes.com

The 'Learning' Organization

Covid-19 has been a catastrophe of sorts, a singularly disruptive event that has punctured economies and upended all things familiar. CXO’s are now making a reference to this life changing phenomenon, as a real- life masterclass in how to build in a VUCA world. With employee safety topping the priority charter, there was a migration to remote working, almost overnight with the inception of the lockdown 6 months back. And organizations bent backwards to ensure they had stepped up the digital frameworks, to support the needs of staff, both from the perspective of mapping productivity and engagement. 

Learning is a continuous process through life’s journey, and a live manifestation of this was the last 6 months wherein individuals and organizations displayed their ability to navigate and adapt to the ‘new normal’. Survival was key to organizations, as they were compelled to hasten their digitisation journey, to stay afloat, with billions of dollar worth of investment being sanctioned as critical to business continuity. As remote working and contactless transactions become the guiding principles for a workplace, functional digital platforms ensured seamless and secure remote engagements with peers and customers.

Industrial Revolution 4.0 and digital disruptions have further heightened the need for patronising unlearning and re-learning as an ongoing process. The success of an organisation’s digital transformation journey is not limited to technology adoption and innovation only, but how empowered and enabled are the people, with the right skill sets, to embrace this change and ride the technology wave. The crisis, has presented organizations with this opportunity to rethink their talent strategy, through a single- minded focus on upskilling/ reskilling the talent pool.

Some of the key questions organization leaders are heard asking are:

-         What are the key considerations for developing a ‘Learning’ strategy?

-         What are the tech platforms/ tools available for organizations to leverage, to accelerate the organizational learning?

-         Learning Priorities & Democratisation- How, when, how much?

-         How will the learning outcomes be measured?

-         How to build a culture of ‘continuous learning’?

The ‘Learning Strategy’

As organizations shifted gears to remote working, the first need to map was to decide on capability building for a distributed workforce. A greater reliance on technology also meant people would need support with digital fluency.  An analysis of the roles and future skill sets that would be in demand for the business to thrive, was also imperative at this stage, to chalk out the learning roadmap. Simultaneously, a market analysis for relevant technologies, was a key ingredient to the skilling exercise. The relevance of ‘learning’ helped metamorphosise the learning function from a ‘cost center’ to an organizational ‘value- creator’. Laying down the ‘strategy’ and the roadmap was no more a choice, but a ‘must-do’ for businesses to survive through the crisis. Amazon had thence announced 700mn $ investment for skill upgradation of it’s workforce and many others were quick to follow suite.

Learning Tools, Methodologies & Democratisation:

Innovative online and offline technologies are remodelling businesses and education sector is not immune to these. There is now a paradigm shift in the teaching and learning processes, with the preferences tilting towards e-learning. According to Brandon Hall Group, e-learning is 40% less time- consuming vs the traditional learning format. With social distancing norms dictating work-life, constricting people and time capacity, e-learning has bright prospects lying ahead. It is because of this growing adoption that the global corporate online learning market is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2026, with an annual growth rate of 15% from 2020 to 2026. Within the realms of online learning, there is an obvious penchant towards the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms. The benefits of these platforms are:

-         Content accessible 24/7- hence learning can be anytime, anywhere without restrictions of time, place etc

-         It’s an open source media, which means the learning material is constantly curated basis the interests of the learner

-         Modules are of short duration for ease of understanding, absorption and practice.

Most trending e-learning platforms have been able to successfully integrate gamification, to make learning fun and engaging along with meeting a focused need. Organizations are expanding their L&D budgets to establish the LXP (Learning Experience Platform), which makes way for integrative and collaborative learning through one platform. AI powered digital classrooms with voice deployment helps replicate the classroom learning scenario, yet making it an entirely personalised experience.

Learning Priorities and Democratisation

Multiskilled staff who can quickly pivot to changing organizational and role demands will be the ones to stay relevant. And hence the focus is on stepping up digital literacy, with the shifting technology landscape and operating models in business. The other skills that are up the charts are:

·        Soft Skills- It has been an arduous period with employees at a loss to judge their skill relevance with the future workplace. It is unclear which competencies will stay and which ones would be modified as part of alignment with the ‘new normal’. And hence, a plethora of programs are being initiated by organizations, to support individuals to build on their human skills of empathy, emotional resilience, adaptability, learning agility, critical thinking and leadership.

·        Leadership- Leaders have been in a precarious position, with all eyes scanning their every move. They are having to practise far more empathy in their effort to balance the team performance while addressing individual expectations and needs. With no playbook and scripts for success, leaders are finding themselves precariously perched in their role as visionaries. This has adversely impacted their confidence to stay stoic and lead from the front. ‘Coaching’ leaders has never gained prominence more than the current times, to help them retain their emotional quotient and confidence.  

·        Emotional Well-Being- Self-care and wellbeing is an equal important piece that cannot be ignored at these trying times. A potpourri of emotions have been precipitating with despondency setting in on how much longer the pandemic and it’s aftermath would last. ‘Emotional wellness’ is therefore a key agenda for organizations, to help employees out of this abysmally low phase as they battle their inner demons and mental turmoil. There are helplines being set up with therapists and counsellors to support with their ensuing predicaments.

And here emerges the need for ‘democratisation’ of learning- how do we make learning experience akin to the OTT (over the top) or the ‘Netflix’ that has set benchmarks in the television viewing experience. Rather than dictated knowledge transmitted top-down or few to many, this model makes knowledge and learning tools accessible, sans hierarchy or any other distinctions. ‘Democratisation’ is all about leveraging technology to enable every individual employee to take charge of their learning journey. Learning would need to be automated, with interactive learning platforms and learning modules would be based on individual needs and preferences unlike the traditional one size fits all models. Hence firms are routing funds to create their learning platforms to encourage self- paced and/ or blended learning. Some others are crowdsourcing courseware that may be relevant for talent. With the gaining popularity of self- paced learning, managers are encouraging employees to chalk out their learning paths, in line with their role and potential and be measured against metrices to track progress.

Learning Outcomes

Democratisation of learning has a direct correlation with the productivity of the workplace. The need here is to redefine the KRA’s (Key Result Areas) and KPI’s (Key Performance Indices) for every job role, so that there is a direct impact of the skill enhancement initiatives, on the deliverables. This has a cascading effect top- down, to capture all elements of individual and team learning embedded. The big shift here is evaluating the impact of learning by measuring outcomes rather than activities or time spent on work. Outcome driven evaluation drives a sense of purpose and ownership among the employees, which helps catapult organization productivity in the longer term. Better leadership is manifested through leader testimonies on empowerment, collaboration and leading by example.

Building the ‘Learning Culture’

Businesses need to be agile and responsive to the evolving and dynamic business macrocosm. There is an innate need for speed- speed in decisions, speed in mobilising resources, speed in innovating- and all this in the realms of persisting ambiguities. Having one fast, agile team is helpful, but having many of them across the organization, and enabling them with the right structures, processes and equipped with the right skills, makes it possible for an enterprise level change to take place. Institutionalising learning is critical to build new capabilities as leaders reimagine and reinvent the future workplace. The role of nurturing a learning culture is to foster trust, empathy, patience, psychological safety and collaborative work ethics with a strong technological core to ensure stability, which have assumed prominence with remote working taking centre-stage in the new normal. The role of leaders is more about leading by example, co-creating solutions with teams and mentoring to encourage a growth mindset. They need to continue to re-emphasize the need for taking and driving ownership of learning, creating awareness of future skills, jobs, opportunities, and also about the skills and jobs becoming obsolete.

And hence, the need for ‘Learning’ in the present context cannot be emphasised enough. L&D professionals have a critical role to play as they partner with business to leverage the functional expertise to design and deliver meaningful interventions. Augmenting learning has been a key ingredient in the process of building crisis proof business models, contributing to the organizations being resilient and adaptive.



Shivraj Parshad

Senior Vice President Avian WE I Certified Executive and NLP Coach I Coming Out Coach I Podcast Producer & Host

4 年

So very apt. Akin to my podcast interview with @Nishchae EdCast

Maruti Pandey

Learning and Development | Grow More Coach | Talent Management

4 年

Good read.

Shyamli Rathore

Global Leadership Facilitator and Coach for CEOs/Senior Leadership | Certified Forum Facilitator, YPO | Senior Leadership Resource, Harvard Business Publishing | HBR Contributor

4 年

Very useful and pertinent Insights

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Susmita Sen的更多文章

  • Well-Being in 2024

    Well-Being in 2024

    Organizations globally have been riding the wave of digitisation, with an accelerated pace, to keep up with the dynamic…

  • Humanizing M&A

    Humanizing M&A

    Businesses globally are in the throws of breakthrough ‘innovation’ and ‘disruption’. As business leaders seek footing…

    4 条评论
  • Reflections 2023

    Reflections 2023

    It's the most wonderful time of the year With the kids jingle belling And everyone telling you be of good cheer It's…

    3 条评论
  • Coaching Leaders for the 'Future of Work'- Now is the Time

    Coaching Leaders for the 'Future of Work'- Now is the Time

    The past two years have been the ultimate litmus test for all leaders, with Covid 19 being a masterclass on how to…

    11 条评论
  • Break the Bias- DEI & More

    Break the Bias- DEI & More

    Today is International Women’s Day. No chance for me to miss this date.

    2 条评论
  • Back to Work- Reimagine, Realign, Reconfigure

    Back to Work- Reimagine, Realign, Reconfigure

    The year 2020 has been one of disruption- to economies globally, to businesses and to the health and well-being of…

    17 条评论
  • Don't Forget to Go Back Home

    Don't Forget to Go Back Home

    What feelings do we associate with ‘returning from work’? A lost emotion you’d say, and I can’t help but agree. And I…

    13 条评论
  • Leader Speak

    Leader Speak

    The second wave of Covid has hit India harder and with a vengeance. Media is running amok with heart-breaking stories…

    10 条评论
  • The New Workplace Paradigm

    The New Workplace Paradigm

    The ‘New Normal’ is seemingly the top trending jargon in the biz world today. The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown curve…

    15 条评论
  • Beyond Covid- 19...........

    Beyond Covid- 19...........

    The current scenario of lockdown with stocks plummeting and economic crisis worsening, have sent business leaders in a…

    12 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了