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Posted on 14 Oct, 2010 by Ollie Gardener
I came across a quote recently that really struck a chord with me:
“The correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.” Plutarch, Greek philosopher
The purpose and value of the L&D is frequently questioned - in a recent blog post by Jane Hart entitled, “Why have a L&D department, revisited” quoted a pretty straight forward answer: “To develop the people so they can increase the competitive advantage and value of the business!”.
It is an answer that is pretty hard to argue with - yet in my mind there is something not quite right here. It is the very first four words that I struggle with. I just simply don’t believe that people can “be developed”.
It is 2010 - and I would agree with Jane that it seems “that not very much has changed except perhaps for the use of different training delivery media”.
So why haven’t things changed?
I think that our stagnation is partly due to our failure to recognise that learning cannot be forced - it is a consequence of each individual learner’s interest and motivation for learning.
It is also tempting to assume that as it is the learners responsibility to learn, our job is to simply deliver content. That way we can get back to where we feel in control - back to things we can more easily measure and manage.
I worry about the affect this approach has on our ability to facilitate learning and engagement. I believe we can take a more valuable role in increasing the competitive advantage and value of the business by ensuring employees are engaged and motivated to learn. And I believe it starts with creating the right environment.
The right environment
In order to provide an environment conducive to learning, we need to change roles from suppliers of training to enablers of learning. This is achieved by creating an environment that supports and nurtures each individual’s learning journey.
Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk, summed it up perfectly:
“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer or more water or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.”
So if our new role in Learning & Development is to produce the optimal “growing conditions” and to tend the fires of employees imagination, how can we do this?
Remove obstacles
Marcia Conner, co-author of The New Social Learning, put it rather nicely:
“Remove the obstacles in people’s paths to do what is hardwired into their DNA—to learn together to grow strong—and you’ll find it creates healthy organizations where social learning is their lifeblood.”
Many organizations choose control over trust in their relationship with employees, and have elaborate structures and procedures to enforce these decisions. Needless to say, some of these decisions are necessary, legally required even, but when you start looking you will also find that many are based on fear, mistrust, status or tradition. The problem is that wherever we restrict individuals control, responsibility and freedom, we also limit their opportunities for learning and engagement.
To take the step from suppliers of training to enablers of learning, we must dare to challenge both our own and others assumptions regarding control vs. trust. Doing so can reveal some very fundamental forces of a company’s culture. Listen carefully and observe - does the current environment encourage or inhibit learning, engagement and initiative? What obstacles can we remove? In what areas would we benefit more from increasing trust than from enforcing control?
Introduce enablers
The next step is to introduce enablers that help to create a supportive environment and increase the organization’s ability to benefit from their people’s ideas, learning and engagement.
Encourage new connections to form - provide meeting places, communication channels, places for collaboration, participation and interaction. Allow different combinations of ideas, knowledge, people and resources to come together in new ways. If you encourage play, engagement and learning will follow.
I have seen an excellent example of an enabling scheme in a Scottish company I visited earlier this year. They had implemented a “license to innovate” - recognition and encouragement straight from the top handed out to people that had ideas they wanted to work on. The license provided the employee with time away from their job and access to experts to help build on the idea, as well as training and support in writing up a business case. The scheme enabled employees to take initiative, and connect their enthusiasm for work with the development opportunities of the organization.
Fitting in to our new role
I think that the main issue we face in L&D is underestimating the role that learners play in their own learning - that we, nearly two millennia later, still see the mind as a vessel that needs filling, rather than fuel that needs igniting.
We have got stuck on delivering - forever improving the quality of our content and the efficiencies of our delivery methods, while ignoring the true needs of the learners themselves.
Where there are people, there are ideas and knowledge and creativity.
Once we understand and acknowledge our responsibility in creating an enabling environment, then the opportunities for increased employee engagement, learning and development are practically limitless.
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