By learning you remain relevant as an organization. According to Peter Senge, American scientist in the field of knowledge management and director of the Center for Organizational Learning, your people are your capital: ‘In the long run, your only sustainable source of competitive advantage is your organization's ability to learn faster than the competition.‘
But how do you ensure that your people take control of their own learning process so that you as an organization remain relevant? Five tips.
1. Provide context
First of all, your people need to know why it is important to keep learning. There is only a small group of people who have an intrinsic motivation to continuously learn and develop themselves.
Then there is a very large group of people who do want to learn, but who need an extra push. Especially for this group it is very important to understand what development the organization is going to undergo. Communicate clearly and concretely where the organization wants to be in five or ten years' time and what that will require from the employees.
Only then will they understand why it is important to continuously work on their development and to take control of it themselves.
2. Give space
But how do you help your employees actually take control? For this it is very important to offer employees the space to take their own responsibility and take initiative.
We see that personalized learning is increasingly becoming the standard. Employees no longer want to be poured into a standard solution. No one feels themselves standard, everyone is unique.
The way in which people prefer to acquire knowledge is also different for everyone. It is important as an organization to be open to this and to provide the space for it. After all, there are several roads that lead to Rome. While it works very well for one person to follow a classroom training, it works much better for another to read a book or watch a video or use a combination of learning methods.
Then also give the space to apply the newly acquired knowledge. It is very common that people learn new things, but then there is no possibility to actually apply the newly learned in the workplace. This not only has a demotivating effect, it also means that what you have learned will not take root.
3. Set a good example
Don't forget your own role. If you, as a management and HR department, tell us how important learning is, then also set a good example. Also as a manager or HR (D) employee you have to show that you are continuously working on your own development. And share your experiences too .. Do not stay high in your ivory tower, but talk to people in your organization.
4. Pay attention
It is also very important as an HR department and management to pay attention to the development of your people. This can be done by giving feedback to employees on their learning process, but also by entering into a conversation about it at all. Help your employees make their goals as concrete and achievable as possible. Do leave the employee responsible, but support them in this and reward them if they achieve their goals or show other behavior that benefits you as an organization.
5. Facilitate
To ensure that your employees can really take control, it is of course important to facilitate them in this. You can say how important you think it is that your people take their responsibility, but if there is nothing available with which to do that, then little will get off the ground.
Provide a learning platform where your employees can find a wide range of education and training, where they can choose from a range of learning methods, but where you can also find test exams and books, for example.
If you make such a learning platform available to your people in an easy and accessible way, it also becomes easier for them to take control of their own learning, to discover the material and to look for what will help them to achieve their learning goals to achieve.
Curious?
Do you want your employees to take control of their own learning process? Do you want to put continuous learning on the agenda, but could you use some help with that? We are happy to help you give knowledge development an even more strategic role. Please feel free to contact us.
