Webinars
Carving Yin From Yang: The Curious Split Between Change and Innovation
Aug 19, 2010

Breakfast Club
San Francisco: The Next Frontier for Learning and Development
Sep 23, 2010 07:30 am
The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
San Francisco, California

CLO Symposiums
Unleashing Learning: From Strategy to Execution
Sep 27, 2010 - Sep 29, 2010
The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel
Dana Point, California

Best Practices - Josh Bersin

Published August 2008

Best Practices for High-Impact Learning

  

  Josh Bersin

In our recent study, “The High-Impact Learning Organization,” Bersin & Associates discovered that profound changes are taking place in corporate training. We also discovered that the learning organizations that best cope and adapt to change — and drive the highest business value — share 18 best practices. This column will highlight several of these practices. (For the full list, see the related article, “Today’s High-Impact Learning Organization,” on page 54 of this issue.)

First, the single greatest predictor of impact is what we call the organization’s learning culture, a broad set of practices that embed learning into business processes, employee and manager behaviors and organizational reward systems. With learning now taking place everywhere — formally, informally, through social networks and on-demand — an organization’s ability to support and encourage learning drives business results.

One research participant, General Motors, commented that the single biggest driver of impact for much of its professional development is the continual reinforcement of training by management and others. We also find that L&D professionals play a pivotal role in building, supporting and enhancing a company’s learning culture. Therefore, it’s important to think beyond learning programs and consider enterprise learning in a broader context.

Today’s learning organization must focus heavily on the development of talent-driven learning programs that integrate with talent management strategies. Leadership development, career development programs and integration with performance management are critical best practices. Investments in these areas are crucial because many companies are talent-constrained by impending retirements, gaps in the leadership pipeline and the influx of younger workers.

Informal and collaborative learning have become as important as formal learning. Communities of practice, coaching, content authored by subject matter experts and on-demand learning are some of the biggest drivers of organizational impact. Such approaches also match the learning styles of young workers.

All learning organizations must have a core expertise in e-learning. Today, much of our corporate work experience is dependent on electronic content. E-mail, audio, video, mobile devices, webcasting, messaging, portals, search engines and social networks make up a huge part of almost every businessperson’s life. The high-impact processes identified in this research involve not only content development, but skills in information architecture, creation of content standards and implementation of processes for content reuse. Today’s modern learning organization understands how to build context, not just content.

The disciplines of planning, governance, measurement and leadership continue to be tremendously important. While not all organizations can justify the role of a chief learning officer, learning must have a leader. This leader must ensure learning is integrated with the organization’s talent management strategies and aligned with business planning processes. Steering committees that represent the federated learning organization also are mandatory.