Professional Development in 60 Seconds: Microlearning For Senior Leaders
Scores of books and blog posts offer theories on effective leadership development. But effective leaders themselves remain in short supply. Today, top executives need greater global fluency, a sharper mind for innovation, and an almost superhuman ability to keep up with rapid-fire advances in technology. How can we design learning programs for them that get results?
Microlearning can help.
As a training methodology, it aligns well with the needs of senior leaders in the digital age. Microlearning offers three key benefits that are particularly valuable to this audience: speed, flexibility, and effectiveness. Let’s take a quick look at each.
Change comes quickly. Microlearning keeps up.
Microlearning provides the speed necessary to help senior leaders keep up with a world in constant flux. It’s short, bite-sized, and focused — much like the rest of today’s media. Only instead of being a distraction, it’s a boon, offering strategic bursts of learning that are relevant to each leader’s current challenges. An offsite scheduled weeks from a pressure cooker business situation doesn’t do much good. Microlearning helps leaders lead better now.
One size doesn’t fit all. Microlearning fits like a glove.
In order for any training to truly change a senior leader’s behavior, it must be contextually appropriate. That’s where the granularity of microlearning becomes so powerful. Bite-sized content can be endlessly mixed, matched, and repurposed around the unique needs of each individual. No two leaders are exactly alike, and with a microlearning approach you can accommodate them all.
Leaders need to produce results. Microlearning delivers.
Just like real leadership, real learning happens on the job primarily — not in the classroom. Microlearning works much the same way. It’s just-in-time, blending right into a leader’s workflow. Quick post-lesson assessments provide immediate feedback and reinforcement. The learning is retained because in most cases it’s applied right away. No leadership retreat can compete with the learning that comes from honest-to-goodness, in-the-weeds decision making and problem solving — the kind microlearning supports directly.
Let’s get smart about how we train today’s leaders.
In the fast-moving and often uncertain climate of 21st century business, we need methods for training and development that are quick, effective, and provide our leaders with the information, know-how, and insight they need to shepherd our companies forward. Bit by bit, little by little, microlearning is emerging as perhaps the biggest opportunity we have for doing just that.
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