Training Industry Magazine - Leadership 2015 Special Edition - (Page 40)

Organizations can't hire themselves out of this paradigm shift in the workplace. Instead, they must cultivate an evergreen source of top talent to drive innovation and growth. Successful business leaders need to focus on continuous employee development to enable strategic succession planning and to make sure their workforce can address present and future business challenges DEVELOPING LEADERS FOR TOMORROW According to Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends 2015 Report, millennials are not shying away from leadership, but organizations are failing by not properly training them for it. Another recent Deloitte survey asserts that only 28 percent of millennials feel that their current organizations are making "full use" of their skills. CONTINUOUS LEARNING IS AT THE FOUNDATION OF WHAT MAKES A GREAT LEADER. Millennials have vastly different expectations and goals as compared to previous generations. They expect accelerated responsibility and paths to leadership, seek greater purpose in their work and want greater flexibility in how that work is done. All of this indicates that younger members of the workforce do want to lead, they just need guidance in getting there. Employers need to adapt their approach to match millennials' desire for leadership development. This includes learning and development programs that ensure future leaders acquire and retain the proper skills and experience needed to not only reach leadership positions, but to be successful in them. CONTINUOUS LEARNING More than a century ago, German psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus pioneered an experimental study of memory. He discovered that if a learner does not apply newly acquired knowledge within six hours, he will only retain 50 percent of what he learned. Ebbinghaus also found that if the knowledge is not applied within 30 days, the learner will likely forget a whopping 90 percent of what he learned. This shows us that effective learning cannot be treated as an event; it must be treated as an ongoing, daily process. Continuous learning is at the foundation of what makes a great leader. It is critical for today's organizations to deliver relevant, contextual learning opportunities in the moment of need to empower employees to drive their own development and reach their goals. By embedding continuous learning into the core of organizational culture, business leaders can build a self-developing organization that consistently motivates current managers and future leaders. To ensure that a continuous learning program resonates with learners, consider the following strategies: 40 LEARNING AT THE MOMENT OF NEED One of the biggest contributing factors to a successful learning program is how a user accesses content. Training opportunities must be available just-in-time and today's busy manager must be able to quickly apply the newly acquired knowledge on the job. Studies show that people absorb new information better if it is delivered in small, easily digested blocks. Segmenting content increases learner retention and rapidly builds leadership skills. Content can be delivered in context and in a variety of modalities to combine and reinforce information. E-learning technology provides organizations the tools to prompt employees, whether at a desk or in the field through mobile capabilities, to invest a few minutes in learning, reflection and on-the-job application. ADAPTIVE LEARNING RECOMMENDATION AND CONTENT It's important to target relevant content to each learner. A first-time manager will need to learn different development content than a mid-level manager or an executive. By leveraging big data, e-learning solutions can help an organization predict and prescribe content. By combining these capabilities with competency-aligned content, organizations can deliver a highly-personalized learning program to increase employee enablement, leadership development and succession planning. MEASURING SUCCESS Measuring the effectiveness of leadership development across the workforce requires an integrated approach that supports organizational goals. Successful organizations use metrics and analytics to identify what's working, what's not and then quickly adjust. There is no denying that leaders are at the core of organizational success. It's important that business leaders do not lose sight of champions who will drive their business growth. An organization's best bet to drive innovation and maintain a competitive advantage is to purposely adjust its approach to learning and development to adopt practices that cater to individuals across its diversified workforce. Priti Shah is vice president of leadership product strategy and corporate development for Skillsoft. Email Priti. http://www.bersin.com/uploadedFiles/030415-global-human-capital-trends.pdf http://www.bersin.com/uploadedFiles/030415-global-human-capital-trends.pdf

Training Industry Magazine - Leadership 2015 Special Edition

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