(from May thought leadership meet)
Learning is an integral part of every organization. As human beings, we all crave for learning and developing constantly. Organizations have profound and rock-solid learning programs that enable organic upskilling, best practice sharing, tackling application of complex thought and more. The corona virus pandemic has disrupted almost everything and with uncertainty at all- time high, we are most likely to look at the future and see only doom, gloom and zoom.
So, we sought to understand what learning looks like in organizations at the current situation. What are the challenges faced by learning and development leaders and how they plan to bounce-back in the face of challenges? In order to answer some of these questions, we put together a panel – Preeti Bose, Sabih Kidwai, Chhavi Bajaj, Meenalochani Kumar and Capt. Shantanu Chakravorty who shared great insights with us which we summarized in this blog for you…
Organizations that embrace the “culture” of learning create an environment that encourages curiosity, knowledge sharing and motivation to learn and develop persistently. When supported by a culture that values learning, the program will stand the true test of time. People are adapting to the shift that’s happening and are beginning to realize and accept the new reality. Business is changing its way of operations, almost everything around us is undergoing change and as learning professionals, it is imperative for us to look at learning differently and match it with the current environment.
Focusing on the here and now, being agile and re-thinking the learning programs, references and tools will help navigate learning in the virtual world. We can see the intersect of psychology, technology and economy come into play, understanding human behavior towards learning is critical, equipping learning programs with the required technology and understanding the economic aspects for investments will help navigate change in the learning world!
Though we realize the challenges posed on the L&D function, we can view the circumstances as an opportunity, transform more effectively, adapt to best practices, understand what’s going around objectively and build solutions appropriately.
The learning function is beginning to see a shift from “push to pull”. People are willingly looking for learning opportunities, resources and tools. People around the world are on the lookout for tips and tricks to work from home efficiently, to maintain physical and mental health while working from home, managers are finding out creative ways of managing newly remote employees and leaders are adapting to be more resilient than ever before and leading through crisis more effectively, simply put – everyone is looking for something to learn! So as learning professionals, it is important for us to be ahead of business in understanding and facilitating learning needs. Be in the here and now, participate in business meetings and plan for more than the regular training programs and match it with the surrounding conditions.
Whether the L&D function sits with the CEO or the CHRO, for the learning and development team it is important that we have access to primary data straight from business, understand and design programs based on the need of the hour. It is important to view the HR function as nothing but business who make strategic impact, it is also important to realize if we understand business enough and can contribute.
Captain Shantanu asked panelists what was going on in their mind when the first lockdown was announced on 25 th of March to perk up the evening – Our panelists Chhavi Bajaj answered ‘Do I know technology enough’ Preeti Bose said ‘How to get back home safely, how to ensure business continuity and what to do next’ Sabih Kidwai uttered ‘What does it mean for business and how can I support’, you can take a moment to reflect about what was going on in your mind… 🙂
Chetna, a participant in the session asked our panelists a live question – Is the train the trainer program helping you? Especially for larger organizations, how effective has the learning programs been? – Panelists shared that the learning programs have been doing just fine and what’s worked is having the learning modules and duration short, going slow with content cover, sharing agenda ahead of the presentation and making it very interactive with live chats!
The panelists were asked a thought-provoking question by Captain Shantanu to understand if companies will collaborate with competitors in the given situation to bring in cross company facilitators to run the learning sessions… From the panelists perspective, there will be cross company collaboration to design, build and deliver the best learning programs for people, organizations and teams will continue to share and adapt best practices from one another upholding solidarity.
Panelists were asked to share a message to aspiring students willing to enter the field of learning and development and here is what they told us – Meena mentioned ‘Stay with your dream and work very hard to get there’ Sabih shared ‘learning will be central to business strategy, make sure you have the knowledge to larger context and you will be valuable’ Preeti pronounced ‘Irrespective of background, anybody can take up a profession in the field of learning and development as long as you want to help people learn and develop’
With 247 plus people in the meeting, great insights and thoughts from our panelists and amazing participants who said that the session was very interactive, insightful and greatly moderated, the May thought leadership meet was a roaring success!
We hope you enjoyed the blog and found it informative and we hope to see you in our next thought leadership meet!
Take a look at our youtube channel for the full session here.
