A Case for Learning & Development
I came across an HBR article this morning, “Where Companies Go Wrong with Learning & Development”. You should go read that article, but the brief summary is:
- Employees want training
- Managers aren’t satisfied with current training offerings
- Training happens asynchronously from the application of said training, making it harder to retain the learning
- [A lot of] employees just want the certificate and endure the training to get it
- You need to use the learning immediately or you risk losing it
- You should employ a ‘lean learning’ approach instead, which is superior to traditional corporate training methods
The article does a reasonable job of explaining how to implement the lean learning approach. If you want to know how to do that, pause reading this and go read the article. :-)
Back? Awesome. So now’s the time for me to tell you what I think. I think the author is mostly correct here, but the exceptions are notable. Here are the ones that come to my mind, bearing in mind that I have: experienced training at three companies now, both technical and managerial; run an internal program at two different companies (Yahoo and iHeartMedia) to capture and distribute peer learning; and read so many HBR articles I might as well get a job editing them at this point. ;-)
Some training SHOULD be asynchronous. If I wanted to learn Kotlin, I would follow the ‘lean learning’ approach. Manager training is one I would advocate should happen asynchronously. Good manager training will show you how to effectively communicate, give feedback, host 1:1 meetings and to think strategically.
In my opinion, 1:1 meetings are a non-negotiable part of managing someone, and how exactly would you employ lean learning techniques when you won’t know what learning you needed to have until it’s already too late?
Beyond the race condition you’ll run into, these are topics you need to know not just ‘what’ to do, but ‘why’. In my experience, lean learning techniques are a lot of what, with little why, akin to the difference between a trade school and liberal arts education. The former teaches you a thing; the latter teaches you how to view all things and provides a blueprint for learning individual things.
Some training cannot be done in DIY fashion. A good example is training in unconscious biases in hiring. How would you know you suffer from this problem? The article leads you to believe this is something you can learn from a peer or in lean fashion, but that assumes a lot about your peers and your own level of self awareness. Even Maslow himself estimated only a small percentage of people in the world will ever achieve self actualization:
Reinforcement is necessary regardless of leanness of learning. The support mechanisms referenced in the article [guided learning, ongoing support, peer learning] are all good ideas, and can be used either with or without lean learning. The article suggests 75% of learning is forgotten after six days if not immediately applied. I’m not sure if that’s the correct percentage, however, I can still do matrix multiplication, write simple asm programs and understand simple cryptography and I graduated from college 19 years ago (egads, is that even possible?) and have yet to be called upon to write any of these professionally. Perhaps that’s the 25%.
In conclusion, I believe that learning a trade is best done in this DIY, lean learning fashion, so in that sense, I agree. I don’t believe the same learning techniques will help you with more strategic pursuits such as learning to be a good manager (although, if you haven’t already, check out my list of four great books on that topic!), D&I, and other categories that might reside in a blind spot of your brain, and that’s if they reside in your brain at all!
Shameless plug, but not really: I have had a great experience with LifeLabs Learning and they do a great job training without being stuffy about it. I took their Manager Core program (both I and II) and highly recommend it as a good way to learn management fundamentals. I also like their holistic approach to not just learning but retaining knowledge. A lot of similarities exist between the recommendations in the article and things espoused by the LifeLabs trainers.
I include the link but please note, I do not stand to gain anything if you try them out. I am not affiliated with the company in any way. I commissioned them to come in and train 25 managers at iHeartMedia (mostly in person, but a few remotely as well) and think they did a fine job, perhaps you will like them too.
