DISRUPTION · performance-focused, prescient and agile. We need to hone in on building skills in a flexible way through continuous, adaptive, ... Whether your business is a disruptor

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DISRUPTION SURVIVAL K

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Introduction

Change. It’s a double-edged sword. On the one hand, businesses need to be able to adapt quickly to survive and grow, but on the other change initiatives can take a lot of time to embed and have a high chance of failing to hit the mark.

As the digital revolution gathers pace and the skills gap yawns, how do we help our people get the skills they need to enable our businesses to survive?

It’s not easy. We’re in a perfect storm as disruption requires new skills faster than people can change; yet 91% of organisations struggled to find talent with the skills they require in the last 12 months. In total, organisations spent £6.3 billion on trying to patch up the holes in their workforce skills capacity, with the majority of that ploughed into recruitment.

The problem is, that spending is short-term – it doesn’t fix the problem. That’s why businesses need to re-think their people strategy, and HR and L&D are naturally placed to take centre stage within it.

However, to become the protagonist, L&D need to be business performance-focused, prescient and agile. We need to hone in on building skills in a flexible way through continuous, adaptive, personalised learning that caters to every moment of workplace performance improvement.

Unfortunately, only 42% of L&D departments report that they have skills in learning strategy. That’s why we’ve produced this survival guide to help to put things into perspective and start you on your journey.

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01 Know your surroundings

One of the very first things to do in a survival situation is to work out where you are. To know the lie of the land.

This is not just about where you are as an L&D or HR organisation, but more importantly about understanding where the business you serve is in their growth and disruption curve. Is it an incumbent or is it a digital disruptor? Is it in growth phase or catch-up phase? Where is it placed in terms of competitors and what are its key priorities?

Whether your business is a disruptor or incumbent, businesses tend to have an S-shaped curve in terms of rapid growth followed by a less steeper growth curve, a potential plateau and then a repeat cycle of disruption. Successful companies recognise where they are on that journey and plan for it to keep the curves as steep as possible towards and as short as possible in terms of plateau. To build an adaptable strategy you need to know how L&D can and support that curve and flex with it to achieve business outcomes.

Once you’ve partnered with the business to understand the skills that are required during those phases, you can start looking at how you currently deliver learning and what needs to change.

In terms of learning and change campaigns, that means determining your current situation through benchmarks and hard data to form an organisation-wide strategic view of your people, business context, competitors, and needs.

02 Nurture a pack mentality

It’s always easier to survive change when you’re surrounded by a competent team. A competent L&D team for the disruptive world may need different skills and a wider variety of experiences. Do you need to have a technologist, a change management professional, someone experienced with organisational design, a digital learning expert, a face to face trainer or a management consultant as part of the mix?

Similarly, L&D cannot and should not be the sole guardians of the learning strategy. That strategy should be owned by the business, and L&D/HR need to be able to facilitate, guide and deliver it as a business advisor. This helps keep the business focused on skills and performance, allowing L&D to be able to fulfil its true potential as a strategic partner.

Your learning strategy also needs to consider how to extend this to your wider audience – the learners – because they need to be on board too. Changing the culture to make people responsible for their own learning needs is essential. It allows your organisation to be adaptable, engendering resilience and accelerating adoption of skills into the workplace.

03 Get your bearings

So, you’ve worked out where you are and put together your team? Before you can start putting together any strategy of merit, you need to work out just where you’re heading. Failure to do so could mean you end up further away from your destination.

That sense of direction needs to unify both the business and your audience. Not an easy task! But it can be done through a rigorous skills gap analysis, consultation with stakeholders, sponsors and senior business figures, and with learners through ‘town hall’ style forums and focus groups. Give everyone a voice in the direction you’re headed, and engagement will increase.

Knowing where you’re going also means really defining success. It could be lasting behavioural change, a skills pivot or improved performance reviews – the possibilities are vast. The overarching goal, however, must always be increased business performance, and your strategy should reflect that.

04 Getting the right tools

Unless they’re Bear Grylls, your learners are going to need tools to help them perform well in the digital world and to be able to adapt quickly to change. You need to look at learning interventions from the vantage of accelerating performance as well as building skills. Workflow support tools such as behavioural nudges can support the learner in the workplace at the moment they need to perform and help embed formal learning initiatives.

Thankfully, you don’t have to carve your own learning tools, and things have come a long way from the simple ‘click next’ course. Digital learning technologies are a lot more adaptable themselves and the latest round of point-of-need tech, such as workflow performance tools and chatbots, reach the learner on the job.

These tools not only personalise learning and are available when needed, but allow alteration of content real time rather than having to go through weeks of development. Imagine a pocket knife that always has the exact tool you need when you need it in the palm of your hand!

05 Leave a trail

It’s easy to get lost in delivering your strategy and then losing sight of where business priorities have shifted . Make it easy to find your way back to success by establishing reliable baseline data and setting up a clear stream of measurement and assessment, but also re-assessment of the learning strategy against business strategy. Make re-evaluation of the lie of the land a regular event with business leaders so that you’re always adapting to business priorities. That way you can move quickly should there be a disruption that no one foresaw.

Data is your secret weapon, and one that can set you apart from your competitors. Currently, only 18% of learning departments have skills in data analytics. Measurement tools are now much more advanced and data collection and analysis can go much deeper, so build them into your strategy. You can then predict how long change initiatives and skills uptake will require. That way, when curve balls hit the business, L&D can respond strategically and with agility.

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06 Get back to civilisation

Eventually, the aim of almost all survival situations is to return to civilisation. You’ve got to think about how your learning strategy is practically adding value to the business. This is a key component of not just getting budget for your department, but also changing the culture of the business to put learning and continuous improvement at the heart of it.

Continuously demonstrating business value can ensure the survival of your learning department itself. Long term, as sweeping change breaks down previously stratified business departments, that adaptability and capability will be absolutely essential.

Then you can relax… until the next adventure.

Need a knowledgeable guide on your next learning expedition? Want some light shone on your learning dilemmas for next year? You’re in luck. For a limited time only, this code will entitle you to a 1.5-hour learning strategy workshop with one of Saffron’s expert consultants.

Simply click here and enter your code to redeem it now!

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Author spotlightSam Franklin, Learning technologies consultant

With a master’s degree in Literature, Culture and Media, Sam knows all about the importance of language and communication in learning. Teaching in both Japan and Sweden gave him a penchant for karaoke and pickled herring (preferably not combined), and a keen sense of the importance of social learning communities. Sam is driven by helping digital learning hit the right notes using a smörgåsbord of the latest technology.

References

Open University 2018 Business Barometer

Towards Maturity 2018 Health Check

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