Why Learning Journeys Matter

Recent events have spurred more conversations about the importance of learning and how it impacts our ability to adapt to changing environments. At ICAgile, we see learning as a journey — one that requires both knowledge acquisition and competency building as depicted in our Learning Roadmaps for agile delivery and business agility. We interviewed Martyn Jones, Managing Director of SoftEd, on approaching learning as a journey and how this approach can benefit individuals and organizations.

There have been a lot of recent conversations about the importance of learning. Why is that?

If our current COVID-riddled world has amplified anything, it is the importance of learning. Now more than ever, businesses and employees are learning to respond to increased digitalization, changing markets and evolving customer needs. Our ability to learn and adapt to change has become the biggest source of competitive advantage.

What does success look like when it comes to learning?

Successful learning journeys take the “what”’ and the “why” components of learning and add the all-important “how” element. This makes learning sticky. It changes behaviors and operationalizes the change. At a foundational level, we learn about what agile is and the key principles, then move on to using some of the tools and practices with that foundation in place. The aim is to keep learning, gaining experience and building mastery in the agile mindset.

The martial arts phrase ‘Shu-ha-ri’ is often used in the agile community to describe the process of learning. When we begin learning, we start at the ‘Shu’ stage where we gain an awareness and understanding of the principles. At the ‘Ha’ stage, we can explore further using the foundation principles as a base. At ‘Ri’, we learn from our experiences and can experiment and adapt as we see fit.

How have you seen organizations benefit from approaching learning as a journey?

SoftEd has worked with a number of organizations that have embraced learning as a journey. This includes businesses that have established agile academies, centers of excellence and communities of practice. One such example is DBS bank who has embraced customer driven design as a core differentiator. DBS have trained more than 1,400 staff in agile principles and practices including agile awareness, facilitation and iteration management, product ownership, testing, exploratory testing and test automation. They have since become recognized as a digital leader in the financial industry, including being named ‘World’s Best Digital Bank’.

A recent LinkedIn report found that 49% of Learning and Development Professionals believe that getting managers to make learning a priority for their team is a challenge. What are your thoughts on the de-prioritization of learning?

Learning is an ongoing process which results in improved capabilities, not just for the individual, but the organization. We believe that an investment in learning is an investment in developing talent, developing change resilience and readiness, and in developing businesses that are future-fit — particularly in this challenging time.

What should individuals and organizations consider when planning learning journeys?

It’s important for organizations to align their capability uplift programs with their business strategy. For example, businesses adopting a digitalization transformation program will require their teams to have skills in change management, delivery management, and deep domain knowledge of agile. Most importantly they will need to adopt a culture of learning and continuous improvement to become more adaptive, resilient and future-focused. For individuals, learning journeys don’t need to be linear and they don’t need to be role-dependent. A growing demand for T-shaped skills calls for individuals to become generalizing specialists.

SoftEd have long been proponents of learning journeys, offering the largest range of ICAgile-accredited programs globally. ICAgile’s Learning Roadmaps support professionals in both agile delivery and business agility domains on their quest to achieve agility. SoftEd recognizes that this is a journey and that agility will not happen after just one course.