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As performance
consultants, one of the biggest complaints we hear from our clients is
something along the lines of: "The learning does not stick" or
"It doesn't translate into their work-life". We couldn't agree more.
Though many organizations realize this as a growing need for them, very few
organizations actually see the change they wish to see. What is it that those
organizations are doing right which the many others are not doing?
In our interactions with
several organizations with varied learning strategies, we learned that the answer
is simpler than we’d think. Most organizations (where learning penetrates into becoming
habits) apply the simple concept of prioritization. Stephen Covey in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People calls this concept First Things First. He
simply states that in order to get things done, you must have an idea of what
priorities mean to you. That’s at a personal level. When looked at from an
organizational level the answer is embedded in a question. What is the most
important priority for this organization/department/team with respect to
learning?
The challenge arises
when we consider all training needs as top priority. As a result we don’t end
up achieving any kind of noteworthy success from the array of training programs
we design based on the gathered needs. The father of business management, PeterDrucker, had a simple process of sequential tasking in his learning curriculum.
He would take one subject and study it thoroughly for 3 years before moving on
to the next. There were times when he would delve into a subject and realize
its vastness and conclude that he would need to break the subject down into
sub-subjects and go into each one for 3 years at a time. He would allow himself
enough time and reflection to be able to understand the broadness of his topic
and its application in his life. That kind of growth is known as organic
growth. It comes from within. It’s a form of growth which results from an intrinsic
pull for one to want to learn rather than an extrinsic push towards learning.
The process of such
organic growth is observed by organizations that apply the concept of
Regressive Progression. Regressive Progression focuses on
developing new skills without losing what has been taught in the past. In order
to effectively apply it, it's important to prioritize the competencies first.
The process starts at the beginning of the year with a training needs analysis which
will lead us to several gaps in competency that lead to performance issues at
work. This is where we must be vigilant about venturing to find a common thread
among all the gaps in competency with respect to a certain department/team. Each
department/team within an organization will have their own sets of competency
challenges. They may also be at different levels in their skill with respect to
their maturity, thus each department/team must be looked at individually and
training interventions be tailored to address specific needs. Finding that
common thread between the seemingly unrelated competencies requires us to put our
Sherlock Holmes hat on and think about the underlying reasons for certain
competencies to come up in the training needs analysis. By doing so, we will have
gained clarity and a sense of priority of the training needs.
After identifying the
common thread, we can move towards accomplishing the one goal in mind. Rather
than trying to achieve all competencies we now focus on just one or two throughout the training year for that specific department/team. This does not
mean we ignore other competencies, it means we draw a tangent from each of the
related competencies and work on the skill which is core to them all. When
the foundation is strong, other structural problems will, in effect, not arise. After all, we would all agree that after a year of learning one or
two skills from several different angles one can’t help but be proficient
at it.
