Tomorrow ready, data driven, business-aligned learning

Tomorrow ready. Data driven. Business-aligned. These were the top three messages I took from the 2019 FuturistiX Learning Summit in Melbourne, in terms of the learning critical for preparing our workforces to simultaneously meet the challenges and harness the opportunities of the future.

Here's a closer look at my personal highlights across the two days:

HIGHLIGHT 1: “LEARNING-INTEGRATED WORK” - DR SEAN GALLAGHER, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR THE NEW WORKFORCE, SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TEHNOLOGY

This was a terrific keynote to set the scene of where learning must head to prepare workers for the future. Sean shared insights from a recent national survey report titled Peak Human Potential: Preparing Australia’s workforce for the digital future. This study revealed two remarkable trends. The first is that the more an industry is disrupted by digital technology, the more its workers value uniquely human capabilities requiring emotional and entrepreneurial skills (like empathy, creativity and risk-taking), which are less vulnerable to being displaced by AI and automation. The second key trend is that the more digitally disrupted an industry, the more workers prefer to learn on the job. Work is where disruption is taking place after all, not in the ‘classroom', and its ability to simulate the transforming workplace decreases as the leading edge of technology rapidly advances. Our call to arms is to reverse this disconnection by bringing learning and work closer together.

HIGHLIGHT 2: “DISSOLVING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN LEARNING AND WORK” – MARIA SPIES AND PATRICK BROTHERS, COFOUNDERS OF HOLON IQ

This was a data-driven presentation (we were pre-warned it would be like “drinking from a fire hose”!) exploring the key drivers of change, where investment and innovation are headed, as well as the boundary spanning models, technologies and organisations that are defining the intersection between learning and work. I really appreciated the global outlook Maria and Patrick provided, but must admit to being distracted by the shout-out they gave to German startup Retorio, fusing emerging tech with established psychological science (check out their demos on YouTube). Retorio's product combines AI and video-based personality assessments to quickly identify top candidates for sales and customer service in particular, using the Big Five model (OCEAN). I can also see exciting possibilities for their personality API in leadership development and conversation skills programs, where I often already include scenario-based practice filmed by an observer on a learner’s smartphone, to playback and reflect on. Imagine if instead of just watching themselves in the conversation, learners receive real-time feedback on their choice of words, verbal characteristics and body language!

HIGHLIGHT 3: “INVEST IN THE SHUTTLE, NOT JUST THE ROCKET” – MICHAEL SEBASTIAN, GLOBAL LEARNING SOLUTIONS LEAD, NUFARM

This was one of the best case studies of a business-aligned learning solution I have seen. In fact, Michael would argue (and I'd agree) that 'SET' (their sales enablement tool) is as much a marketing solution as a learning or knowledge management one. The impetus for SET came from the rationalisation of the Nufarm Australia and Crop Care sales teams, against a backdrop of agribusiness industry consolidation to support growth. It was hoped that merging the two sales teams would result in a more streamlined and responsive customer experience. To ensure that “1 + 1 would equal 2 and not less”, upskilling the sales team on the properties, features and benefits of a combined 180 products was essential. Appreciating that no one can remember this much information off the back of a traditional, once-off learning event, Nufarm focused on sustainability through integration with their new ONE NUFARM sales process and providing on-demand information that could be accessed at the point of need. SET is a user-friendly, media rich and engaging digital solution that evolved beyond learning to incorporate customer facing tools and marketing. It's flexible enough for the sales team to quickly refresh their knowledge on any given product, or to share this information with partners, influencers and growers on the spot. Impressively, Nufarm developed 72 SET modules within 6 months, all of which were “consumer grade” quality, earning the all-important Marketing team sign off. This was achieved through trialling new ways to engage time-poor internal SMEs (surveying over storyboarding) and leveraging the translation functionality of Articulate Storyline to prepopulate templates with content in minutes, freeing up more time to spend on the slick user interface.

BONUS HIGHLIGHT: TANI JACOBI, GROUP LEARNING LEADER AND JAMES BEVELANDER, CREATIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL LEARNING FOR COTTON ON GROUP

Another great case study was Cotton On Group's (COG) Leadership Academy, incorporating digital learning, conversation-based workshops and performance tools. To meet the need for scale as Australia's largest global retailer, the Leadership Academy was designed with flexibility and digestibility in mind, leading to a 'pick and mix' offering. This solution was developed to shore up COG's internal talent pipelines after a period of rapid growth and expansion, enable 'zig zag' careers (where people move around the business in nonlinear ways collecting new skills as they go) and to achieve an internal fill rate of 80%.

Business alignment in this instance was demonstrated through a learning solution that both reinforces and amplifies their strong organisational culture. So strong in fact, that Tani admitted their culture is not for everyone (though their recruitment approach does a good job of getting the right fit). It was therefore imperative that every element of the solution looked, felt and sounded like COG, with all content considered within "COGtext" and "COGified" as needed, to the extent that all the video explainers starred actual employees.

Importantly for COG, their Leadership Academy embraced a distributed model of leadership, where anyone can demonstrate it, rather than belonging to a title. This meant the program was for everybody regardless of role, remit, level or location, with content aligned to 24 leadership capabilities (called "creds" in COG language) mapped to five levels - Induction, Lead & Manage Self, Lead & Manage Others, Lead & Manage Teams and Lead & Manage Culture. I particularly like the inclusion of the fifth level, highlighting the role of COG's most senior leaders in fostering and protecting their culture, which appears to be serving them well and is credited with playing a significant part in their growth story. The Leadership Academy approach has been so successful that three new Academies (Retail, Fashion and Supply Chain) now leverage the model.

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P.S If you were also at the FuturistiX Learning Summit and attended other sessions, I'd love to hear some of your key takeaways in the Comments section, so that I can look into them too!