Learning & Development as a core transformational asset 

In times of exponential change at many levels we all have to increase our learning capacities in the quest of new and constantly evolving skills and competence requirements. Traditional L&D settings can not take pace any more with these new requirements. In other words, scalable efficiency is being replaced by scalable learning as the single most important factor for organisational performance. 

 

Product/Service - and thus innovation - cycles get shorter and shorter, half-time of associated skills decreases, digital technologies disrupt about everything, customers expectations become more complex, organisational models, including company culture and behaviour have to switch from silos and command-and control to tech-savvy agile teams, soft skills and emotional intelligence are becoming increasingly important, and the list goes on.  

 

Also, traditional classroom learning is increasingly considered inefficient for multiple reasons:

 

• They are a one-size-fits-all and are not tailored to the individual learners’ needs (too generic, not timely).
   

• Learners more and more complain about not having the time any more to quit the workplace for day long trainings (and those who have time are sometimes considered as less engaged)
   

• They are expensive and not well scalable
   

• They are sometimes used by the C-level for presenting shining data about how they care about their employees
   

• Many studies show that after one month, learners on average only remember 10 % of what they have learned in a formal training
   

• Idem, if new knowledge is not applied within a very short time, it gets forgotten again (therefore, learning on the job works best)

 

In addition to this already ongoing transformation of Learning & Development and Knowledge Management, the crisis calls for its own contextual learning programs to adapt to the New Normal.

 

In this radically new environment permeated by exponentiality and high uncertainty (VUCA+), learning environments have to become much more agile as well: 

 

Organisations need to design ubiquitous spaces for learning, composed by many different formats and channels, where learners can learn in the flow of work, in personalized learning paths and at their own pace, socially and individually, guided by a learning coach where needed, a role more and more replacing the traditional classroom trainer. 

 

In a highly networked, more dematerialised and digitized economy, efficiently managing knowledge, skills and competencies as the foundation for intellectual capital, increasingly defines an organisation’s real value.