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In 1978, United Airlines flight 173’s crash that killed two crew members and eight passengers, changed the airline industry forever. There were issues with the landing gear, however the cause was put on the pilot and crew’s interaction and lack of prioritizing information around remaining fuel levels. The National Transportation Safety Board acknowledged that the planes were no longer the problem. Instead, focus on building better pilots and crew communication.
In a very similar way, learning and development in the workplace is facing a revolution. Content is no longer the problem. One only needs to do a quick Google search to see the mass amount of information available for pretty much any topic under the sun. Learning and development professionals, people managers and employees at all levels need to build better ways to mine, organize and learn from all the content at their fingertips.
Below are tips to building a savvier approach to development in this new world of content overload:
Understand how your learning experiences influence how you approach development. It will be interesting to see how this pandemic and the requirement of all kids to move to a distance learning model will shape their learning preferences and needs as this new generation grows up and moves into the workforce.
Katherine Macdonald, Senior Instructional Designer and eLearning Developer with KCM Training, emphasizes that, “Generational, cultural and resource differences influence the way we were taught to do things like read, understand math and acquire basic life skills. They also help form the neural pathways that we come to rely on, and return to again and again, when we need to replicate the learning process next time.”
Build self-awareness regarding your learning curve and what that process looks like. If you need to dive in and start making mistakes right away to get your head wrapped around new concepts, it’s critical to know how to share this with your manager and other partners at work. If you need time to observe and research before taking action, understand that managing others’ expectations can help give you the space to do that without inadvertently sending the message that you’re not taking initiative.
MacDonald highlights that, “Just as preferred learning styles are different, people’s learning curves differ as well.” The actual act of learning tends to be messy, similar to watching a small child stumbling and falling while learning how to walk. As adults, we often mistake the stumbling as a negative sign vs. a symptom of learning something new. “Be patient with yourself and try to manage your own and others’ expectations about your ability to do something perfectly after you’ve “learned” it,” recommends MacDonald.
Get clear about what you need to learn to help select the best development method and tools. Different learning goals require different development methods.
- Technical Training – This tends to need a combination of written guidance and hands on practice. This is where instructional guides, do it yourself videos and opportunities to experiment tend to help retention and building mastery.
- Interpersonal Skills – This requires more than just mechanical application of key behaviors. Though having a framework or simple steps can help you navigate this of nuanced and ambiguous aspect of work, painting by numbers doesn’t build relationships. Opportunities to build self-awareness, shift mindsets, trouble shoot situations and practice new approaches. “The best way to learn how to engage with other people, is with other people,” shares MacDonald.
- Protocol Training – This can be topics such project management processes, topics that often fall under compliance training or sit in places like an Employee Handbook or regulatory guides. “Look for the human element and get connected to the ‘why’ behind the content. Too often, we treat compliance topics as a pain or time suck but companies invest in that training for critical reasons. To ensure time spent on learning these topics is a good investment, find a connection beyond the process steps,” advises MacDonald.
Take the lead on your own development. Instead of viewing learning as something your forced to do or putting your development completely in the hands of other people, realize that you need to sit in the driver’s seat of your development. Sure, managers and leaders can be great supporters and coaches but they aren’t your school teacher. You are paid to support them and the business. The easier you make it to invest in you, the more you will receive. Key things to keep in mind while driving your own development includes:
- Cultivate a growth mindset, made popular by Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University. View everything from a place of, “What can I learn from this?” and, “I haven’t figured this out yet.”
- Don’t wait for an invitation. In business, it’s critical to assess, plan for and find the development you need to keep your skills competitive with the market and industry you’ve chosen to work in.
- Build a business case for your development. When looking for the company you work for to invest in your growth and development, treat it as an investment pitch vs. seeing as something the company or your manager owes you.
- Embrace learning technology. We’ve all been pulled out of the world of in-person training or education. Some of us love learning virtually and online, while many of us find it difficult to engage with and focus on. MacDonald’s advice is to, “Look for a live online webinar or workshop, seek out learning that’s being offered by an institution—or even better, an individual—that exhibits that skill in a way that you admire. You want to find an instructor who models the aptitude, and can engage you in it, too.”
The better we get at advocating for and embracing our unique learning needs and styles the more we can leverage this unique time in learning history. The information is there. It’s a great time to use the abundance of content to enable us to cultivate our talents and interests. MacDonald emphasizes, “Investing in your own development goes a long way toward helping you feel like you are worth investing in. It will ultimately encourage others to invest in you, too.”
