What’s the best way to go about business learning and stay abreast of constant change and new developments? In the February issue of the McKinsey Quarterly, Beth Davies and colleagues go beyond my question and focus on learning for lifelong employability. They set up their conclusions by distinguishing between the skills people have and the actual skills companies need. Then, of course, they add artificial intelligence into the mix, making for an absolutely superb analysis of human competitive advantage and the tools necessary for lifelong learning.
Their analysis of the necessary tools for adult learning (andragogy) covers the most salient issues from learning research.
- Relationships help in learning by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system conserves energy, slows the heart rate and lowers the blood pressure particularly after fight or flight responses. But under the pressure of business learning, relationships stimulate this “calming down” system, enabling people to process new ideas and learn more effectively than when working alone.Largely, I’ve found, it was because of traditionally competitive relations that only began to break down in the 1980s and ‘90s. In spite of the hullaballoo about AI, I’ll bet the majority of organizations are still in the middle ages regarding learning and development—except, that is, for technology groups...
- Training courses are most effective when they are tailored for specific roles and at identifiable career inflection points. Thus, offering courses episodically, according to the calendar or when HR secure resources for learning initiatives are not nearly as effective. My own success as a development coach took shape when I decided early on not to deal with “problem people” but to focus on talented, fast track senior managers and execs who were focused on specific recognizable needs. That meant they came asking for help at specific career points, rather than waiting for corporate initiatives. That was unusual in the early ‘90s, but typical in the better companies today. A retired Ralston Purina EVP commented to me just recently that he and his colleagues were at their most needy point when I walked into the firm in the late 90s. I coached nearly all the executives in the organization over a six-year period. All custom, all tailored to each person’s strategic corporate needs.
- Microlearning—presenting information in short, 15-30-minute bursts—is more effective than longer sessions. Some companies are experimenting with virtual or augmented reality via digital technologies to take advantage of this learning model and to make the training more flexible. When working with skill development, my actual input was rarely more than 20 minutes and a single page or so of documentation. The rest of the hour-and-a-half dedicated time was spent in talking through different contextual uses of the competency, potential misunderstanding, learning issues, application, results, etc. The conversant in that period was more often the client, not myself. The McKinsey conclusion—30 minutes—is overstatement. Thirty minutes of concentrated input regarding a competency is too much to handle, no matter how brilliant or interesting the presenter.
- Big data can help customize and measure learning experiences. The fact is that few Learning and Development departments have invested in data analytics as other departments. My own simple data analysis from years of one-on-one coaching revealed that Monday was the day never to call an exec, and Friday pm was a waste of time. Typically, I had a great number of execs that I could reach shortly after 7am, Tuesday through Friday, in their time zone. Some, of course, would spell out the best time of the day and week for a brief conversation. Furthermore, to measure their growth (and my expertise) I went back for brief interviews at four to six months of coaching, and then at the conclusion of the coaching. Better companies sometimes digitize that information with internal and external customers.
The authors comments about what doesn’t work is especially useful. E.g., avoid terms like “remedial” which imply the learner is somehow “broken.” Be very cautious in the use of tests. They can be stressful and contribute to people dropping out of learning situations.
Overall, the most relevant rule of all adult learning (andragogy) is this: people learn what they want to learn. The intriguing rule for elementary school is that students (pedagogy) will learn what and when the teacher wants them to learn. There’s a vast difference between these two rules: a difference of which many organizations are still quite ignorant.