Learning Objectives:  

In this session, you will learn:  

• High-level theoretical underpinnings and practical guidance for a variety of learning techniques applied “in the flow of work”  

• How employees (including you!) can boost their skill development with some actionable practices for learning on the job  

• How L&D can enable people to learn effectively in the flow of work  

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The post Current Practices in Leader Development: A Report on Characteristics of Effective Leader Development in Current Contexts appeared first on Learning Guild.

This report explores the challenges facing modern leaders and provides practical recommendations for developing high-performing leadership teams. Delve into the latest research, industry trends, and expert insights to offer a comprehensive guide for L&D professionals. 

Key Takeaways: 

• Leadership development is essential for organizational success, driving innovation, employee engagement, and financial performance. 

• Today’s leaders must navigate a complex landscape of challenges, including economic uncertainty, technological disruption, and changing workforce dynamics. 

• Effective leadership development programs must be aligned with organizational goals and strategies. 

• Leveraging data and analytics can help organizations measure the impact of their leadership development initiatives.    

• Providing opportunities for hands-on experience and practical application is essential for developing effective leaders. 

• Fostering a culture of continuous learning and development is crucial for preparing leaders for the future. 

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This interactive session explores a framework describing six modes of engagement and the management actions and behaviors that comprise them. Managers should clarify, coach, challenge, connect, curate, and customize. Using research on cultivating learning culture, scaffolding self-directed learning, and coaching, we will dig into the ways that effective managers ensure that employees continuously strengthen their skillsets and build capabilities needed for the future. The framework can help you encourage effective manager-led development activities; it may also be a useful guide for developmental interactions with direct reports.

In this session, you will learn:

• A research-based framework for manager-led development
• Six critical modes of engagement, along with associated actions, that managers can use to develop employees
• The characteristics and skills of an exemplary developmental manager

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In this session we’ll explore specific ways to improve yourorganization’s learning culture. You will discover how learning culture isnurtured by communicating inspiring goals, generating intense engagement amongpeople, and leveraging ingrained learning attitudes and skills. By attendingthis session you will learn how to assess your learning culture and define animmediate action plan.

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Many people are not feeling it, though, so it raises the question of how to cultivate, create, build, nurture, or strengthen (pick your verb) a culture of learning in our organizations—and what role L&D can play in that project.

On culture

In A New Culture of Learning (2010), Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown make the point that there are several ways of thinking about culture. There’s the traditional Edgar Schein-like definition that speaks of culture as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions” and there’s the culture that is found in a petri dish. In a petri dish, “culture” is understood as the growth produced in that environment.

“In the first case the culture is the environment, while in the second case the culture emerges from the environment—and grows along with it.” (Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown)

In the context of rapidly changing workplaces, it seems to me that it’s more useful to think of cultures as emergent and changeable than to think of them as monolithic and immutable. For one, that gives us far more hope for creating a strong learning culture than might seem possible in a constraining organizational context.

The petri dish culture analogy is also more in alignment with our ongoing experiences. Culture is a socially constructed phenomenon—it exists in a relational space (how we interact with one another) and is formed in the values we espouse, the beliefs we carry, the actions we take, and the stories we tell.

Notice the “we.” While culture can be deeply influenced by leadership, it’s not not fully realized without the engagement of the people within its scope. If “we” don’t like the culture in which we find ourselves, “we” can change it (although I don’t doubt that is sometimes easier said than done). Further hope can be found in the fact that culture can be very localized, and that subcultures exist within broader cultures.

On learning culture

All that heady philosophizing comes down to this point. We can grow the kind of learning cultures we need to thrive. We do that, I think, by being as deliberate as possible about what is in our petri dish—being thoughtful about our values, beliefs, actions, and stories, regardless of whether we are leaders or players.

Researchers, theorists, and learning leaders have shared many key ideas that we can use to conceptualize a petri dish that will grow a vibrant learning culture. In my analysis of quite a bit of material on the subject, I synthesized the foundations for strengthening learning culture into three main elements—purpose, connections, and mindset. In the writings of both academics and practitioners, we can find not only these imperatives, but plenty of actionable tactics that can help us in our own efforts.

Foundations for cultivating learning culture

“We can then build ‘learning organizations,’ organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.” (Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, p. 3)

Want more?

I’m offering a full-day workshop on “Building a Stronger Learning Culture at Your Organization” at the Learning Solutions conference in Orlando, Florida, on March 30. Join me for the conversation.

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In Getting Started in eLearning,Catherine Lombardozzi examines credible resources from The eLearning Guilddesigned to help kick-start one’s professional growth in the eLearning field.Because eLearning has become vital tool for learning professionals, severalwhite papers, research reports, and archive material have been curated into aconvenient list so you can find available tools and resources to help you inyour future learning projects!

Here are a few of the resourcescovered in this eBook:

• Articles forprofessional and personal development
• Research reportson instructional design
• Articles andinterviews on corporate digital learning

Download your free copy today to start exploringan array of articles, research reports, interviews, and more that could helpyou cultivate new learning strategies!

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The message is that our old models of supporting learning inorganizations need to be set aside, and we need to find modern ways to championand scaffold learning. The techniques that are gaining attention includeinformal learning, social learning, narrating our work, and learning in theflow of work—techniques that, by the way, don’t necessarily need L&Dsupport to flourish.

What’s next in L&D

Whether we talk about breaking up with training, revolutionizingL&D, building a learning ecosystem, or defining new roles, it’s clear that,if we want to remain relevant, we need to craft ways to support learning wellbeyond designing training. It’s equally clear that learning remains the lifeblood of organizations in our fast-paced, ever-changing workplaces, so theright kind of support would certainly be welcome. Learning resources may bewidely available, but finding the most useful can be a daunting task. Whilelearners appreciate diverse options and individual control over when and how toengage, they also like to have some guidance and support in identifying thebest sources, checking their understanding, and getting feedback onapplication.

In A New Culture ofLearning, Doug Thomas and John Seely Brown conclude that one of thechallenges we face as learning leaders is “To find a way to marry structure and freedom tocreate something altogether new.”

But what is the “something altogether new” that L&Dprofessionals should be creating? To answer that question, we can draw on whatis emerging from the efforts of learners themselves.

The notion of a personal learning environment has beenaround for over a decade. A personal learning environment consists of resourcesand practices that a person pulls together to support his or her own learning.To develop a specific knowledge base or skill, an individual might find andaggregate static resources like articles, books, and web sites as well as “follow”thought leaders, develop a network of like-minded peers, and perhaps seekformal learning. A personal self-directed learning process is also likely to involvedocumenting and sharing learning, envisioning how to apply new knowledge andskill, monitoring one’s own results, and discussing implications with trustedothers.

You’ve probably created personal learning environments foryour own development goals. Having identified what you wanted to learn, yousought out a variety of resources to explore the topic and began talking withpeople who share the same interests. The resources in this environment arelikely quite diverse: a bookshelf of resources behind your desk (or on yourtablet), a few document files on the computer, new names on your contact list,new people whose blog or Twitter feed you follow, and your own notes or blogposts on what you’re learning.

Communities of practice have also been identified asimportant learner-generated learning spaces. According to studies of thisphenomenon, communities are formed by committed people who have a shared bodyof knowledge and a desire to collaborate on emerging practices. In theworkplace, these groups find many ways to work together and to share theiremerging understanding of their practice field. They engage in ongoing discussions,share documents, and wrestle with problems. The community often interactsthrough digital common spaces that hold multimedia repositories, discussionforums, blogs, and instant messaging.

You may be personally familiar with communities of practice.It is fairly common in our field for work teams to share stories and ideas withone another, often using some kind of electronic platform to house shareddocuments and allow asynchronous conversations. Developers share code andtroubleshoot issues; consultants share presentation templates and discusslearning strategy with one another. These kinds of communities work best when thecommunity itself founds and maintains them—too much company “support” cannegatively impact the camaraderie and commitment that holds them together.

Personal learning environments and communities of practiceare solid models for what we might do to marry structure and freedom for thelearners we support. Taking cues from these kinds of learner-driveninitiatives, L&D professionals can move from designing learning events to designing robust learning environments intended to supportspecific learning needs. A well-designed learning environment is a deliberatelycurated collection of resources and activities for learning related to aspecific need—it’s blended learning taken to the next level.

A learning environment can be designed by assembling arecommended collection of materials, and then making those resources accessibleto learners who need them. The list of potential learning resources is quitewide-ranging, including information sources (books, articles, web resources,performance support, etc.), tools that allow knowledge sharing and timelyconnection, people (mentors, peers, experts), training and education options,company development programs, and tools to support learning by doing. Thedeterminant of a learning environment’s worth is active curation of theresources and activities (a topic for another article). The point is to guidelearners to the best learning resources.

All of these resources and activities are typically madeavailable through an electronic gateway of some kind (e.g., web page or documentwith embedded links). Given the tools we now have at our disposal—especially onlinecapabilities, social tools, and access to Internet-based resources—we caninvest our energy in ferreting out the best available resources instead ofcreating material from scratch.

Types of learning environments

Learning environments can be designed in a number of ways.Initial forays into learning environment design have been in creating blended learninghubs. You build the collection ofresources in this case around aformal event on a specific topic (e.g., a management-training class or salesskills). The hub extends the learning by providing additional links, articles, tools,application-support materials, feedback, coaching, a place for ongoingdiscussion, and more.

L&D leaders have also engaged in efforts to create spacefor knowledge exchange. Building from the approaches popular in knowledge-managementcircles, a knowledge exchange provides space for both experts and learners toshare resources, engage in Q&A, and collaborate on relevant projects. The mostimportant feature in this kind of learning environment is the extent ofuser-generated materials.

A third approach is to assemble a learning resource portal.When learners have widely varying needs, or the knowledge base and skill sethas many elements, learners need to be able to pick and choose the learningresources that will be most useful. A learning resource portal organizesresources and activities to be easy to search and browse. It offers manydifferent modes of learning (text, videos, courses, live discussion, etc.) sothat people are able to find an approach that matches their preferences.

In a different vein, a collaboratory recognizes that aparticular knowledge base and skill set is so new and evolving that documentedresources are hard to come by. A collaboratory-type environment focuses onenabling timely robust exchange among participants—to share knowledge, yes, butmore importantly to invent new ways of doing things and discover new conceptsand ideas that are useful to the group as a whole. In a collaboratory,knowledge is generated by doing and learning from experience.

These approaches are just prototypical designs—every learningenvironment design project generates a different set of resources and calls fordifferent kinds of interactions. Learning environment design is a way ofconceptualizing how we can support learning without necessarily controlling it,how we can incorporate powerful learning techniques like social learning andexperiential learning without getting in the way.

A recommendation

The L&D profession, then, is steadily expanding fromcreating targeted training, to conceptualizing blended learning programs, todesigning more comprehensive learning environments. For your more-robustprojects, consider the ways that you can support learning and application in anongoing way rather than defaulting to an instructionally designed event ortraditional blended learning approach. Employ readily available tools tocollate additional resources and enable ongoing interaction.

By advocating and facilitating the development of learningenvironments, we can provide highly valuable support to learners in theirefforts to keep up with ever-changing knowledge and skill demands.

For additional information

For a small sample of opinions on what needs to change,check out David Kelly’s blog on breaking up with training, Clark Quinn’s thoughts about revolutionizing L&D, Mal Poulin’sarticle on building a learning ecosystem, or Jane Hart’s perspective on defining new roles in L&D.

Also, for more on personal learning environments, see Harold Jarche’s PKM resource page; for more oncommunities of practice, browse the Wenger-Trayner web site. For more onlearning environment design, see here.

References

Thomas,Douglas & Brown, John Seely. A NewCulture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of ConstantChange. Scotts Valley: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2011.

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