Enhancing peoples’ ability to learn is one of the most complex challenges facing communities today. Organizations around the world are experiencing unprecedented change thanks to disruptive technologies, shrinking skilled workforces, and new business models. Learning is one of the best inoculations against disruption – when folks possess a mindset for growth, work within a culture of continuous improvement, and have access to the right learning tools they will create more value for members and clients by developing knowledge, skills and relationships at pace with what’s changing. Such a thing is difficult to achieve when there is so much to learn and not enough time to learn it. Here are five ways to make learning happen in the flow of work.
What is “the flow of work”?
According to Josh Bersin, learning in the flow of work means creating opportunities for learning to happen whenever it makes the most sense for an employee.
Our research in 2015 found that among the 700+ organizations we studied, the average employee only has 24 minutes a week for “formal learning.” People simply do not have as much time as they’d like to learn in a formal way, so this informal “in-the-flow” work is just necessary for success.
When I’m pitching this concept to senior leaders or colleagues asking for more classroom training or robust e-learning, one of my favourite examples to use is the time I learned how to reset a toilet – the need presented itself on a weekend, I called my dad to confirm that I was solving the right problem, I watched two short YouTube videos, completed the task, and called my dad again to walk through my process before turning the water back on. I did not wait three weeks for the next Toilet Resetting Course to be delivered at Home Depot or pop-up on EdX. This is learning in the flow (toilet pun!) of my experience.
So what might learning in the flow of work look like for you?
Achieve clarity
With so much to learn, so many ways to learn it, and so little time to do it all, getting clear on how you expect your community to grow is critical. Organizations grow in the direction of what people study, so creating clear and simple lists of human and technical skills that need to be built will help people curate the right content with the right intention.
Everybody wins when folks have some ideas about where to focus their 24-minutes-per-week as well as adhoc learning time. Learning leaders can provide support by creating simple learning paths within roles, which allows employees to achieve mastery in crafts like accounting, selling or leadership, and between or beyond them, front-line staff can have experiences and take courses that prepare them for a scrum master role in the years ahead.
Think Netflix, not university
The last few years has seen a rise in content platforms and learning management systems that behave more like Spotify, Apple Music or Netflix than they do a university course catalogue. Learners are “nudged” or “recommended” content based on their profile (e.g. their role and what skills or knowledge is most relevant) and experience (e.g. consuming Excel or “management fundamentals” content will produce recommendations connected to such topics). When on demand content platforms are powered by machine learning things get hyper-specific and very interesting – employees can continuously build micro-skills through real-work experiences, like engaging with customers in a call center environment, without needing to step away from work for more than a few minutes.
Cultivate reflection
Learning doesn’t happen from experiences. It happens when we reflect on our experiences. At their worst, content platforms are overwhelming and/or addictive – sometimes I spend more time scrolling through Netflix than I do watching an actual show. In addition to building a helpful library of content that matches employees’ accountabilities and capabilities, there must be cultural components to how people learn. A simple and effective way to start this process is to encourage questions like “How did that go for you?” or “What did you learn from this experience?” because this trains our brain to automatically reflect on what just happened.
Activate peer learning
I lead learning for an organization of about 2,500 employees. Our team will never be able to design and deliver learning in service of all the needs of our co-operative. We focus on a few key areas that will make the biggest, most positive impact for our people and we are seeking to empower and enable employees to share, teach and coach within their flow of work. Peer learning not only enables learning in the flow of work, but it also activates trust, efficiency and productivity.
Put it in a blender
Great learning requires blending of different modalities. For learning to happen with ease in the flow of work it needs to be “one size fits one” – people expect to learn through a combination of videos, workshops, digital courses, infographics, peer coaching, and in the classroom. And everyone expects to use these tools and experiences a little bit differently. Learning leaders should be curators and guides who can help colleagues to make meaning of the content, activities, experiences, and tools at their disposal and co-create the right learning journeys that unlock their potential while serving the needs of the enterprise.