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.
Thanks for
reading!
Claire,
ReplyDeleteThanks for a wonderful blog post and humorous pictures. Your first point was very relatable. Recently I had this discussion with a leader at our university. We both agreed that there was a need for training but he put the ownership on HR. I had a discussion with him that learning is owned by everyone. We can't run an organization without competence. However, when HR provides training in order to engage and empower employees, it is important that HR has buy-in from stakeholders.
I like this phrase "you are trying to get people engaged in learning the same way they learned 10 years ago, good luck with that".I could tell now is not going to happen.It is the fact.
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