As the world rapidly goes virtual and ecosystems become more
competitive, what are the implications for Learning & Development (L&D)
function? The strategies they have been following so far, will they be equally
effective in time to come. This piece tries to evaluate the role of Learning
& Development function in the dynamically changing environment.
Traditionally, Learning & Development function is seen
as an enabler for business and has focused on imparting skills needed to the
workforce. The model largely has been to develop the training content in-house
to cater to business needs and deliver it. This model has nearly served the
purpose. But is it future ready?
As the organizations grapple with fast changing demand
patterns, sweeping changes in technology landscape, black swan events and
innovations and challenges coming from unexpected quarters, will this
traditional Learning & Development model hold good in future or is it
likely to crumble to dust?
Leaving that rhetorical question unanswered, I posit that
Learning & Development function need to reimagine the approach to get the
organization future ready. And this transformation needs to encompass all
aspects including L&D need identification, provisioning L&D training
content, training delivery and assessing training effectiveness.
Traditionally, L&D
need identification has been through a push
model in which the line manager identifies training needs for the
employees. This makes line manager’s diligence and rigor in identifying the
training needs, a key point of failure of efficacy of the edifice of Learning
& Development. Time has come to pivot to a democratized pull model
where organizations establish a minima of learning hours and link them to
performance management. This needs to be buttressed with competencies defined
transparently for vertical and lateral career pathways. This will allow
employees to identify the competencies they need to develop/strengthen to
progress on their desired career path. Further, Learning & Development
function needs to reposition itself into Business Performance partner working
with stakeholders at all levels in the organization to identify skills to get
organization future ready. This will entail having an eagle eyes view on
competitors, players in adjacent industries and leading organizations in other
industries to continuously scan the environment and identify what and how are
they evolving their skills and capabilities.
Learning & Development functions of most organization
have traditionally adopted the model of owning the training content which is cheaper but is sub-optimal from a quality
standpoint as the quality largely gets determined by the quality of the SMEs
(Subject Matter Experts). Time has come to Uber-ize and pivot to a model in
which Learning & Development function instead of owning the training
content, facilitates access to the learning market place. A continuous
evaluation of the learning market places will ensure that the employees have
access to the best in class learnings and organizational capability is not a
limiting factor in growing skills.
Further, training
delivery is largely episodic driven largely by classroom and online
training sessions. The delivery needs to change to continuous. The key to
achieve this is to understand and predict learner’s behavior. Learning &
Development functions need to leverage latest technology to understand and
predict learner’s behavior - how are they access and process learning, and use
that understanding to personalize learning. As a very basic level, it would
mean a developing technology driven dynamic learning path for each of the roles
and making recommendations and role specific learning paths for the employees
to guide them through their learning journeys. It also needs to ensure that the
in-house expertise gets harvested and shared with the larger organization. It
could be incentivizing SMEs to share expertise through blogs, videos or calls
OR leveraging Social for encouraging interaction and Social learning like
setting up Role based micro-communities to share knowledge, ask for help and so
on. Gamification techniques need to be used to ensure that learning stays fun
and adequate incentives (not all monetary) are created for people to share
their expertise and handhold others on their learning paths.
Making sure that the learning is also cross functional and
not siloed, is imperative to grow leaders for tomorrow and employees not ending
up with a blinkered vision.
It will also be important to learn from other industries
through talks by thought leaders from different industries. This experience
sharing could open the window to the employees to get a peek into how other
industries are solving their problems in different ways and could help widen
the horizons of the employees. Over a period of time, it would enable employees
to have Eureka moments to adapt these solutions to their own industry.
It will be extremely important to Intersperse the trainings with exposure/ experiences/ application. Last but definitely not the least, Learning & Development functions, in the avatar of Business Performance partners, are best placed to facilitate collaborative innovations by holding innovations Jams to harness the collective wisdom of the organization to identify challenges, opportunities and solutions.
