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Features

Published November 2007

Rediscovering the Essence of Learning

  

  Alan S. Gregerman

Our companies and organizations need every employee to be brilliant to unlock and deliver compelling value for those we serve. They don’t need the CLO and learning department to be average. In fact, they can’t afford it.

They need us to come up with new ideas, products, services, solutions and ways of doing business that will enable our customers to achieve their most critical business objectives. That requires us to get out there and engage the world around us, to set off in search of genius and, in the process, unlock the individual and collective curiosity and brilliance in ourselves.

But at a time when leading companies finally have come to appreciate learning’s critical importance, most are clueless about how to deliver learning that really matters. Instead, most provide learning that sparks incremental thinking and incremental action. They teach skills and hope they stick. And in the name of innovation, they give employees “new” ways to learn — through “state-of-the-art” classroom sessions, video conferences, webinars and many other virtual and customized learning experiences.

Some even drive learning to employees’ hand-held devices, assuming their eyes and their thumbs are strong enough to follow along. And many teach a wider array of essential tools than ever, coupling “hard,” technical knowledge with “softer” skills such as communication, collaboration, leadership and creativity.

It’s all good stuff. But does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Are we really making a difference or just patting ourselves on the back for the wrong job well-done?

This is learning’s real challenge today, and it is the gut issue for learning leaders and professionals. In a world that consistently rewards new thinking, better technologies and greater-quality customer experiences, can we afford anything less than to unlock the hidden genius in ourselves, our colleagues and our organizations? Maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at what it takes to provide learning that matters.

Genius in Chains
To understand the challenge clearly, let’s look at why even our best efforts to inspire brilliance are doomed to fail. Picture this scene, when learning matters most: as your most thoughtful employees are brought together to figure out how to address a pressing business challenge or create an amazing opportunity.

They gather in the finest high-tech training room armed with workbooks, colorful flip charts filled with big ideas and words of inspiration, PowerPoint presentations, an instructor or a facilitator, a sense of urgency and a list of questions quite possibly inspired by Socrates.
Each element is intended to spark their learning and creativity, free them from the powerful grip of everyday thinking and lead them to a breakthrough that will ensure their organization’s survival at a minimum and revolutionize life as we know it at best.