The one way we know we can learn continually is by paying constant attention to our environment and the people and information around us. If you touch a hot stove, you learn to not do that again. If you read about fitness in a magazine, you might learn a strengthening exercise that will help your back muscles. If a friend gives you advice on how to handle a problem in your family, you might learn a way to interact effectively with relatives. All of these are examples of important individual learning. Organizational learning, however, is different.
Organizational learning at the individual level is about:
• Discovering how you work and learn best.
• Achieving greater awareness of your own values and goals.
• Achieving greater awareness of what you do well and what you need to improve.
• Balancing work, family, and leisure activities.
• Knowing how you fit into the direction of the organization.
• Knowing what you have to do to help the organization succeed.
• Creating new approaches to old problems.
Organizational learning by individuals is learning that is linked to the goals of the organization: an employee who becomes a more effective member of the organization, but also an employee who is learning with the intent of building his/her individual capacity to help the organization achieve its potential.
This kind of learning requires alignment. That is, what is being learned must be consistent with the desired results for the organization. You are learning project-management skills because you are taking on the leadership role in a major project that will help the company expand its market share in a target population, which the company needs in order to continue to grow. You are not learning project-management skills just because the course is available, or because you have money in your budget, or because everyone else is doing it.
People do not learn from formal training events unless they are prepared and motivated to learn before the event, and unless their learning is reinforced, applied, and given feedback during and after the event. This might be an over-simplification of the process, but try to think of learning as having a before, during, and after phase in relation to the content to be learned. For example, let’s say that your company needs to be better at managing projects. Simply sending employees to a project-management workshop where they are taught how to plan a project and use software to manage the project is not sufficient. They must be prepared to learn about project management before the training event, and they must be helped to apply what they were taught about project management after the training event. Otherwise, the employees will not apply the information and the training will be a waste of resources.
Use the following checklist as a guide for attending to the before, the during, and the after of training events.
CHECKLIST FOR INDIVIDUAL LEARNING
Before holding a learning event, help individual employees:
Understand how their performance must change to help the organization meet its goals.
Understand the goals and objectives of the event.
Have reasonable expectations for their own performance during and after the learning event.
Arrange an opportunity to apply the new knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes immediately after the event.
Feel the support and encouragement that you have for their learning and performance improvement.
During the learning event, help individual employees:
Understand what they will have to do to apply the new knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes to their work.
Explain what they are learning to others.
Practice the skills from the event.
Receive feedback on their knowledge and skills.
Be prepared for any obstacles in the workplace that might interfere with their performance of the new skills.
Feel the support and encouragement that you have for their learning and performance improvement.
Adapted from The Learning Alliance, Robert Brukerhoff and S.J. Gill. Jossey-Bass, 1994.
After the event, help individual employees:
Apply the new knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes to their work.
Receive rewards for learning and application to their work.
Remove any obstacles to applying the learning.
Receive feedback on how well they are performing.
Understand additional learning needs and how to meet these needs.
Understand how their continuous learning will help the organization achieve its goals.
Feel the support and encouragement that you have for their learning and performance improvement
Think of an employee or a team and what they need to learn in order to enhance their capacity. Then think of a learning event that might facilitate this learning, such as a workshop, seminar, computer-based course, videotape, audiotape, or reading material. Fill out the Learning Process Chart. What are you willing to do or help do before, during, and after the learning event to ensure that learning occurs and that the new knowledge, skills, beliefs, and attitudes are applied over time?
If your company has a training department, it can be a useful resource in helping employees learn. As a manager, however, you are a much more important part of the learning process for the employees you supervise. Your support for an employee’s learning before, during, and after the formal intake of information is critical to organizational learning. Learning will be optimized if you form a learning alliance with the learner.
Instructors: Think of an employee or team and their learning needs. Fill in this chart with what you will help them to do before, during, and after the learning event. What are the restraining and driving forces for learning in your organization?
These steps will help you form and maintain such an alliance:
THE LEARNING ALLIANCE
1. Discuss what the employee needs to learn in order to help your business unit achieve its objectives and the organization’s strategic goals.
2. Agree on a set of learning objectives with the employee.
3. Decide together what will indicate that the learning was achieved.
4. Review the strategies for learning, and decide together which strategies might be most effective in helping this employee learn.
5. Help the employee arrange to use the appropriate resources in a just-in-time manner.
6. Plan frequent, regular, and brief meetings to discuss progress toward goals and any needed modifications in the process.
7. Change the learning process as needs arise.