How You Can Help Me Learn

Who doesn't love a good infographic? Infographics are easy on the eyes and the brain. They take complex information and make it pretty and digestible.

My infographic tool of choice is Piktochart, a web-based program that helps even the most aesthetically-challenged among us make impressive infographics...for FREE! (My opinions about Piktochart are my own. I have not been compensated in any way by Piktochart. But if Piktochart would like to show their appreciation to me in the form of cash donation, an all-expenses-paid trip to the Cayman Islands, or a puppy, I will accept.)

Today, I'd love to share an infographic that illustrates the most important things my colleagues can do to help me learn and grow. Development happens most meaningfully in community with others, and I heavily rely on my peers and leaders to keep me on my toes. Without them, I'd probably convince myself that I've "arrived"....and thinking we've arrived is the most limiting belief we can hold.

Did I mention that I seriously love Piktochart? This thing is so pretty I just might print it off and post it outside of my cube.

Getting it Right: Top 5 Learning Organizations

I have spent the last week scouring the Fortune 500 roster, the Non-profit Hall of Fame, and People’s “Sexiest Small Business Alive” list. (I have done no such thing, but roll with me here.) I have been in search of the cream-of-the-crop, elite handful of organizations who are showing the world what “learning organization” really means.

I now present to you my scientifically-validated findings.

1. Deloitte: This consulting giant is so dedicated to learning that they built a learning mecca to it. Deloitte University is a 700,000 square foot facility located on 100+ acres in Texas. It’s like a professional development ranch, minus the cowboys and cattle. Deloitte sends employees on all-expenses paid learning retreats. Excuse me while I go apply for a job at Deloitte.

2. Google: You knew it was going to be on here. Google is ubiquitous on “best-of” lists, and this one is no exception. Google makes the list of top learning organizations because of its 20% time policy, which allows for Google employees to spend 20% of their time on any creative or innovate project they think will benefit Google. 20% time (called 120% time by some – LOL) birthed Google News, Gmail, and other products.

3. The Nerdery: This software development company in Bloomington, MN builds learning right into the foundation of their culture. One of The Nerdery’s Core Values is “Constantly Push Boundaries” – it’s how they innovate and stay at the cutting edge of their industry. Here’s one way that value comes to life through collaborative learning, according to the company blog: "Nerds are encouraged to push boundaries with an online quiz game, DoDat, which challenges participants to identify departments and contributions that keep The Nerdery running smoothly. Nerds are encouraged to seek answers from other teams and departments as they complete their challenges."

4. US Army: General Petraeus wrote “The Army/Marine Field Manual on Counterinsurgency”, in which he speaks to why the military must be a learning organization. “The side that learns faster and adapts more rapidly—the better learning organization—usually wins. Counterinsurgencies have been called learning competitions.” He goes on to share seven suggestions for becoming a learning organization: (1) establish training centers; (2) regularly challenge your assumptions, both formally and informally; (3) Learn about the broader world outside of the organization; (4) Promote suggestions from the field; (5) Foster open communication between senior officers and their subordinates; (6) establish rapid avenues of disseminating lessons learned; (7) Be open to soliciting and evaluating feedback from others. Read more here.

5. Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP): This non-profit national network of charter schools serves 27,000 students through 1,900 teachers. KIPP wanted to empower its teachers to build on one another’s lesson plans rather than working from scratch and duplicating efforts. They created KIPP Share, a knowledge sharing online system that showcases exemplary work from great teachers available to all. Interested in learning more about non-profit learning organizations? Keep reading.

At this point, you are undoubtedly dying to know whether your organization qualifies as a learning one. HBR has already answered that question for you. Who knows…maybe you’ll make next year’s Top 5 list. I’ll be rigorously researching until then.

Happy learning!

Beyond Chit-chat: How to Make Team Conversations Matter

Let's start with a quiz. Which of the following sounds most like your team conversations?

A. Silence....we don't talk to each other much.
B. We talk to each other, but mostly about celebrity gossip.
C. We do a round-robin check-in every team meeting, where everyone provides project updates. 
D. Drama, drama...there's always a conflict on my team. Can't we all just get along?
E. We are like cheerleaders, always celebrating a job well done.
F. We genuinely enjoy talking to each other, and we are always having meaty discussions about our work, with plenty of healthy debate.

If your answer was anything but F, this post is for you. 

Let me be clear: your team does not need to be best friends, you do not need to hang out on the weekends, and you do not have to hug each other unless you want to. 

Ew, don't be like that. However, you do need to look forward to coming to work every day alongside these people. If you don't enjoy working together, your work will suffer. 

When you talk about your work as a team, make it matter. Don't just share one-sided updates - discuss and debate in a way that multiplies the value of the work. Here are a few tips to get there:

• Go to Happy Hour! I know, I know, I just said you don't have to be friends outside of work. But happy hour (or another off-campus gathering of your choice, even lunch during the work day) breaks people out of their norms, lets in a little fun, and can truly go a long way in building relationships across your team. And relationships are the springboard for great conversations. Seriously, Happy Hour - just try it! (Bonus tip: Keep it optional. Forced socializing is a drag.)

• Make each other better. My former boss told us in her first week of leading us that she had an expectation that we make each other better. Setting this expectation built a foundation of assumed positive intent and unleashed us to truly invest in each others' success. This led to deep trust, meaningful dialogue, and amazing growth in the quality of our work and our abilities.

• Ban Minnesota Nice. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. Don't leave people guessing. 'Nuff said. 

• Don't work in silos. Sometimes, a body of work is a one-person job, and that can absolutely be most effective and efficient. I'm not in favor of over-complicating work in the name of collaboration. Yet it's critical that you find ways to "get in each others' business" a little bit to expand perspectives, challenge assumptions, and open up new possibilities in the work. Invite a couple of peers to review your work along the way and poke holes in it. Share a project update in a team meeting and have 3 provocative questions ready to invite some debate and dialogue from your team. Choose a few people to join you in a brainstorming session at a critical point in a project, and make it clear you're happy to return the favor. 

• Embrace productive conflict. Show me a team that can have a respectful but heated debate (and thank each other afterwards), and I will show you a team that kicks butt at what they do. Conflict that produces new outcomes (and 'leaving the meeting in tears' doesn't qualify as a new outcome) is the hallmark of high-performing teams. 

• Ask questions for the team's learning, not your own. Many of us ask curious questions because we are genuinely curious (I am guilty as charged on this one). However, before you ask a question in a team setting, pause and examine why you are asking it. Is it to help you learn something? If so, can the question wait for another context besides a group setting? And instead, what question might you ask that leads to learning for the whole team - one that challenges an assumption, snaps the team out of a rut, or stirs up some of that productive conflict I was just talking about?

Thanks for reading. Now, go schedule that Happy Hour. :)

Organizations Are Approaching Learning All Wrong

If you’ve spent much time around human resource professionals, you’ve likely heard one of them utter the phrase “our people are our greatest asset”. As an HR professional myself, that platitude is my go-to water cooler conversation starter. And as you can imagine, the ensuing conversation with my colleagues is riveting.

JK. But, for real. Our people are our greatest asset.

When you boil it down, organizations have stuff they are trying to accomplish. And you see, it’s the people that have to accomplish that stuff. And to accomplish the stuff, the people have to know some things and do some things rather well.

You’d think that simple fact would be incentive enough for organizations to invest heavily in helping their people know and do the things that accomplish the stuff. (Enter: Learning & Development). But just look around at the state of learning in many organizations, and what you’ll see is a whole lot of missing the mark.

So here it is. A not-exhaustive-but-plenty-discouraging list of what’s wrong with learning in far too many organizations. 

• “It’s an HR thing”. Wrong. Learning has to be valued and championed by every area of the organization for it to work. Here’s looking at you, Mr. CEO – you set the tone.

• Learning is not an event. Learning is a cultural norm, seamlessly integrated into the daily workings of an organization. Scheduling some trainings is just a drop in the bucket. Want to know more? Start here. 

• It’s 2015. Won’t you join us? News flash: these things are not cool anymore. 
  

Want to know how people will be compelled to learn at work? Look no further than the ways they learn in the rest of their lives. On their phones, on the go, in small bites, through virtual social interaction, by Googling things…you get the point. I’m not saying that all learning needs to happen through technology – not by a long shot. But modern technology needs to be a part of the equation. If you are trying to get people engaged in learning the same way they learned 10 years ago, good luck with that. We’ll be waiting for you here, in the present, Snapchatting the day away.

• Missing the sweet spot. Ever heard of the ‘Learning Zone’? It’s that magical place between, “I’m bored out of my mind” and, “I’m really freaking out here, guys” where optimal learning happens. The idea is to keep people challenged and even little uncomfortable without giving them a panic attack. 
  

• Know your audience (hint: they are not cyborgs). I could be wrong, but I’m going to venture a guess that you are training human beings at your organization. And human beings are primarily driven by emotions. Yes, even in the workplace, and yes, even the human beings that seem to have all the emotional range of a cardboard box. Don’t let them fool you. So what does this mean for our Learning & Development functions? Design your learning tools and experiences to engage with people’s emotions – not just their heads – and you’ll be that much closer to creating a true learning organization.

Speaking of “learning organization”, for my next trick, I will now tell you everything you need to know to build one of those. Wait, no, I think I will just link to this HRB article instead.

Thanks for reading! 

5 Reasons Why Learning in the Workplace Is Important to Me and Should Be to You

Leadership guru Simon Sinek rakes in the big bucks speaking to executives at Fortune 100 companies about one simple idea: Start with Why. Simon makes a lot of money and appears to have his act together, so I figure his advice is sound. Also, he is handsome (see below). Before I dive into a semester of exploring the what and the how of Adult Learning, allow me to do what Simon says and start with why.

Why does learning in the context of work matter so much to me? Why have I chosen to focus my entire career in this space? And why do I think it should matter to you, too?

1. Learning makes people happy. As much as I care about business results and successful outcomes, my most gut-level motivation will always be the people who are doing the work that leads to business results. The average person spends 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime, and I’d like people to enjoy those 90,000 hours as much as possible.

In my own life, I hit a career dead end after several years of providing client services in the non-profit sector. I didn’t burn out because my clients were difficult, or because I was overworked, or even because I was surrounded by depressing blue carpet in my office building. I burned out because I stopped learning.

Fast-forward 4 years to my present day. I now work for a fast-paced, ever-changing corporation. I am often stressed and stretched thin (that’s another blog post), but I am generally happy as a clam because my brain gets fired up for new challenges every day.

And I’m not alone. The need to learn is a human phenomenon. The field of Positive Psychology points to the concept of mastery – our natural human desire to learn and progress – as a key factor in how happy we are.

2. I don’t want to die. And people who learn live longer. See?

3. Learning produces better outcomes. If you are a person who cares about business outcomes more than people, or if you just care about business outcomes a healthy amount, then read on for good news. A recent study from Bersin & Associates showed that companies with high-impact learning functions average 3 times the revenue growth of their competition. Bottom line? Learning contributes to the bottom line.

4.  Learning cultures unleash innovation. I see it time and time again in the leaders and teams I encounter. Without permission to fail, there is no learning. When someone is working in a culture that punishes failure and rewards perfection on the first try, work products rarely go beyond “good enough”.

Here’s how this played out for me recently. I built a brand new leadership development program for my organization this year, and I got creative, building out a program that was pretty different than anything we’d done before. It felt risky, and I wasn’t sure how much of it would actually work in practice, but I was curious what we might learn from trying something out of the box. Our leaders have been encouraging us to “test and learn”, so I decided to take them up on it. And honestly, some elements of my program have succeeded, and other elements have fallen flat. Right now, I’m in the midst of making some pretty major changes to the program based on my learnings.

I definitely have to quiet my inner critic sometimes over my lack of a home run on the first try. What makes all the difference is that my leaders and my team have been cheering me on for testing, learning, and iterating. The end product will be a home run, and because of the learning culture on my team, I will be much more likely to innovate and take risks in the future.

And did I mention that testing and learning has been a ton of fun?

Does your organization value learning and failure? How can you help build a learning culture in your work context?

      

      5. Learning is cool. All the hipsters are doing it.