So much of what we do at work has become digitized. Thousands of tools, apps and courses have been launched in the name of making us more productive: Log and categorize your hours with this handy app that also advertises rich reports and deep insights! Sign up everyone in your company for a seat on this platform to make work more collaborative and avoid getting buried under emails! Let this powerful machine learning categorize your internal content and offer it on demand for your employees!
The list feels endless, and it’s getting longer by the month.
Over my decade of helping people learn effectively at work, I’ve seen clients deploy all manner of technology under the guise of making training simpler and more accessible. Though the intentions of the C-level decision-makers who purchase these solutions are good, the reality is that technology is just one component of helping someone in his or her role. We place too much emphasis on the technology, which is billed as being all solutions to all people, but this approach lacks an understanding of the complexity a company needs to understand in order to make learning seem simple and achieve the results the organization and its employees are looking for.
Some companies, however, are really starting to get it right. These high-performing organizations (HPOs) are different in four ways:
1. People at HPOs Are Powered by Role-Based Learning.
It’s easy to say the word “learning” and immediately think “classroom.” It’s where we all started, and it’s where many companies continue to send employees to prepare for new jobs or adapt to new workflows.
However, HPOs understand that since so much of work today happens at breakneck speeds, learning can meet employees in the midst of their reality. For example, instead of sending a group of new salespeople to classroom training on overcoming objections, effectively removing them from their selling environment, why not deliver training in short, daily bursts that are carefully sequenced over the course of many weeks and combined with conversations on these topics with peers and managers?
Regardless of what roles HPOs are training, they’re taking time to understand the challenges, both day-to-day and year-over-year, that their employees face. Then, they’re designing learning that fits their daily rhythm.
2. HPOs Are Powered by Supportive Leadership.
Top executives and budget-owners at HPOs care about learning at work. The effort and resources required to understand current work realities require leaders who understand that consistent customer satisfaction is a powerful result of consistent employee success.
Leaders who take the time to listen and allow their teams and organizations to be flexible are, in turn, better prepared to serve their people. That act of driving employee success and satisfaction produces excellent downstream results.
3. HPOs Engage Their Stakeholders Early and Often.
It’s so easy to set an important delivery or presentation date in advance and then spend too many hours each week obsessing over details, allowing the scope to creep and being afraid of input from project stakeholders. The months-long buildup can make work feel like stakeholders will only accept a home run. Afraid of disappointment, teams will keep their work to themselves, only revealing tiny bits of progress and hoping for the best when they step up to the plate.
HPOs understand that, especially with so many amazing collaborative tools at our fingertips, stakeholders can review work and provide helpful feedback early and often. At these types of organizations, stakeholders and creators alike are aligned to customer success. Feedback is always aimed at creating success for the customer and, just as importantly, the people receiving feedback understand that they’re all serving the same goal and that criticism doesn’t automatically equal a personal attack.
It’s easier for stakeholders to provide guidance frequently along the way. The changes are easier to make, problems are smaller with less rework and everyone shares in the progress.
4. HPOs Don’t See Learning as a Single Goal.
“Growth mindset” is becoming a buzzy term, and for a good reason. It’s unrealistic to think that learning begins with the first slide and that by the 45th slide, employees will activate it. In reality, learning happens through time at a slower pace than we might like to acknowledge. It doesn’t happen only through a classroom event or by watching something online. There are many more steps to actually apply something new than just being aware that the new concept, skill or knowledge exists.
HPOs understand that in order to keep paces with changing customers and markets, employees need to keep learning, too. There’s no real endpoint. Encourage employees to find new opportunities for growth, to explore strengths and ask for coaching on weaknesses, and to never stop being curious.
