No More Prescribed Learning! Now We Share Knowledge

Randy Emelo - 8/2/12

Learning leaders’ primary role is no longer to decide what learning employees receive; it’s to enable knowledge sharing across the enterprise.

Want Learning To Stick? Chunk It

Learning professionals need to design learning strategy and content to reflect evolving learning behavior. Learning should get to the heart of things quickly and be easily accessible.

Malcolm Knowles, a thought leader for adult learning theory, or andragogy, and author of The Modern Practice of Adult Education: Andragogy Versus Pedagogy, argued in the 1970s that as people mature, they become more motivated to learn based on internal drivers, such as their own personal desire to learn, rather than external drivers, such as someone telling them they need to learn. He postulated that as people age, experience becomes an increasing resource for learning, and that people seek to apply new insights immediately to solve problems.

With this framework for adult learning theory in mind, who is best suited to decide what employees learn today — the company and learning leaders or the individual employees?

A Shifting Landscape
Corporate training is in the middle of a major transformation, according to David Mallon, learning analyst and vice president of research at consulting firm Bersin & Associates. Mallon said the centralized, program-centric, university model of learning used by many organizations is shifting to an integrated “capability development” function that understands formal learning, informal learning, social tools, expertise networks and performance consulting. “This transformation is as big as the e-learning era that hit the market around 2000,” he said.

This shift in learning is largely based on what people view as their competitive advantage in business. John Hovell, leader of learning operations and technology for multinational defense, security and aerospace company BAE Systems Inc., said more organizations realize that competitive advantage comes from knowledge, and no longer from spending power or market share. “This shift is resulting in individuals and organizations thinking and operating differently,” Hovell said. “We are seeing some organizations and some leaders taking risks and giving up control to allow individuals to drive their own learning. Those organizations are reaping rewards of increased trust, high morale and inclusion, not to mention increased financial profits.”

The learning leader’s role is no longer that of a knowledge broker or manager — it’s an encourager and enabler of knowledge exchange (Figure 1). Organizations that can move from being keepers of content to being facilitators of learning connections will thrive in the 21st century. As more millennials swarm the workforce, it will be imperative to support them with the type of learning connections they have come to expect through their schooling — free-form networks where people come together to solve problems.