Inspiring employees to Learn @Workplace

In my career as a consultant to the businesses, I have been constantly challenged to provide solutions which are fast, specific and a quick fix to the current situation. However, I personally feel that most of the learning and performance solutions require time and patience to see the effect. I strongly believe it’s an investment worth pursuing!

So I decided to investigate further, What drives today’s learner to learn? Here are my conclusions based on the findings:

Curiosity

Curiosity has constantly been linked to age. As the person grows old, he becomes mature and wise and this reduces his urge to learn. Well, not really! If that was the case, we would not have Galileo trying to discover if the earth moved around the sun or otherwise at 67. So, if the learners are curious, they will continue to learn, irrespective of their age. We need to create that thirst in our learners. We will need to create enough interest beyond classroom for them to take on the topic and continue to discover on their own.

Choice

Today’s Learner is spoilt by choices, thanks to information technology. Learner wants to decide on how he plans to take the course – in classroom, offline or blended. When the learner finally decides to take up any course, he also evaluates the options of self-paced learning. He decides to take up the course based on how much personal freedom does the course allow. Can he take the course face-to-face or online? Can he mix-n-match the modules? Can he decide the milestones for the successful completion of a module?

Size

Learners today want complete autonomy, how much they wish to digest. Few prefer to go through the exhaustive course content and others are happy watching videos; some want every element of the course covered, others want ‘just as much’ to help them understand. A lot gets decided based on the above 2 points – Level of Curiosity and the Choices they have.

Relevance

Learner today wants to know the longevity of the content and its relevance. In this fast-paced, ever changing environment, the learner looks for an assurance for how long will the content support him. He prefers to pick the latest, the most recent and trending options to make his knowledge last long!

Validation

The learner tends to test his knowledge by taking a test or a simulation. Some of the learners look for validation through test scores or could be in form of a Certificate/Diploma. This gives them that recognition and assurance that they have been looking for. However, at the same time, few learners are equally fine to not test out, but to apply those skills directly at the job.

Most organizations have been using ‘One size fits all’ approach and guess it’s time for us to include some of the above observations as we build Learning Solutions. Today, I believe is the ‘Age of Personalization’ – from google pages to LinkedIn URLs, we can customize to our choice, then why not ‘Learning’?

*Image Credits: Google Images