Learning to Learn

By Sherif Attar

In a world of ever-changing ambiguity and uncertainty, executives have to face two challenges: excellent performance and people development. Where many managers think those endeavours are “competing”, this author believes they are “completing”. GET DOWN TO BUSINESS argues.

Adapted from “Create Learning Pathways to Close Your Organisation’s Skills Gap”

by Marc Zao-Sanders & Georgina Peake

With all the recent changes in the labour market that have been accelerated by Covid-19, the skills gap has ballooned. Last year, the World Economic Forum calculated that addressing the gap could result in a GDP uplift of $6.5 trillion by 2030. At the same time, the world is bursting with learning content. What, then, is the best way to ensure that people can find and engage with the right content in order to develop the skills needed to close this gap and achieve much-needed business outcomes?

The answer, for most firms, is a learning pathway: a designated sequence of activities, often from different sources and in different formats, devised to develop the skills and behaviours of colleagues. Indeed, every time content is shared by one employee with another – be it over email, Microsoft Teams or LinkedIn – an informal learning pathway has been laid out. Content curation is increasingly replacing the previous trend of content creation. We don’t just see this in the corporate world; the explosion of videos on YouTube and TikTok are examples of immensely popular mainstream curation.

At their best, learning pathways stitch together disparate educational resources into rich, diverse, cohesive and enlightening learning journeys which can have a transformative impact on both our professional and personal lives.

Here is a curation checklist for how to choose, curate, and motivate people to embark upon eye-opening learning pathways.

Which Learning Pathways?

Data sources from your corporate walls offer some clues here, including search queries, business priorities, research on trending and future skills, and job descriptions. Overlay this data with conversations with your target audience about their learning desires. For example, consider a colleague who says, “I’m not good at presenting. Ask: “How do you prepare for presentations?” Or, “How do you feel before and during a presentation?” You may discover that low confidence and a fixed mindset are the root causes which could shape your subsequent pathway to help the learner achieve their goals. You might then also prioritise some of the candidate needs and pathways.

Take a liberated approach to capture the imagination of colleagues. Consider that the name of your pathway is important, too.  “Crisis Negotiation,” “Controlling Your Mind,” or “Perspective-Shifting” are pathways that could intrigue and excite people.

Impactful Pathways

Be clear on the purpose of the pathway? Who is it for? Is it to instruct or inform or inspire? Is there an ordering that is logical and tells a story that the learner can follow? Is the duration of the pathway appropriate for your audience?

Then, the content. Here’s a checklist to help finding the right content:

• Mixed modalities: Articles, videos, podcasts, infographics etc. will keep learners engaged longer, and cater to a wider range of learning preferences.

• Recency. Critical in rapidly-changing domains.

• Providers. Mix of providers within your pathway for variety and diversity .

• Length. Short-form content can be great and supplemented with longer-form content to build proficiency.

Constructing pathways tends to be an iterative, non-linear process. You may think you’ve found the perfect article only to later exclude it in favour of alternative videos or courses in order to ensure diversity.

Popular Pathways

Learners are more motivated when they understand why a pathway will be useful.  Consider the following ways to convey the value of your pathways:

• Pathway-level description of what the pathway will help the learner achieve. Customise for your organisation or industry if possible.

• Content-level explanations, such as the reason for its inclusion or some subsection that is especially pertinent.

• Social proof. If the pathway is endorsed by a subject matter expert or business leader, learners are more likely to follow it.

Link it to a key initiative and have your pathway enjoy the associated exposure. Amplify the message with a dedicated campaign on your company’s communications channel. Convince seniors to promote it meaningfully.

Anyone in your organisation can become a curator of brilliant learning pathways. These pathways will play an important part in your organisation’s upskilling journey, and can have a transformative impact. Educate and encourage your workforce to become subject matter experts and to share their expertise by creating learning pathways. Guide your workforce to the skills and competencies you and they need.