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Employee and organization growth go hand -in-hand .
When people feel stagnant and lack opportunities for advancement in their company, they tend to be disengaged.
The less engaged your employees are, the more likely they are going to keep their options open and start looking for new opportunities hence leaving your company. This will lead to costly turnover and can negatively impact the whole company as a whole.
It is the greater employee learning experience that ultimately influences whether or not your people take advantage of the opportunities that are available for them. Lets discuss how you can create a great learning experience for your employees;
1. Build In Daily Practice
No one ever mastered a skill on the first try. Understanding concepts, definitions, and theories does not equal capability. If this were so, doctors would skip a residency program and jump straight to treating patients without supervision. Why shouldn't they? Four years of grueling medical school should have prepared them for the real world, Don’t you think so?
Ask any first year surgical resident whether they feel ready to take the lead in an open heart surgery. Ask yourself if you want a first year surgical resident taking the lead in your open heart surgery. Practice, yes, even for physicians, is key to capability. Practice is so important, in fact, that physicians have numerical targets to hit prior to graduating residency. At the University of Minnesota, OB/GYN residents must complete 200 deliveries, 150 C-sections, and 110 hysterectomies (though they all perform many more) before finishing residency.
2. Encourage Social Learning
Social learning means information sharing. Information shared is information repeated, and repetition increases retention. Small group exercises, on-the-job mentoring and learning networks, whether formal or informal allows employees to bounce questions and ideas off one another, creating learning experiences that foster memorability at work.
3. Break Learning Into Chunks
Learning can be overwhelming when viewing the big picture. Breaking down information into digestible chunks or micro learning allows employees to master a section before moving on. Eventually, the chunks create the whole. Structure your learning experience so that your employees complete small segments at a time.
4. Focus On One Topic At A Time
No matter how hard we try, the brain cannot actually multitask. People who believe they are multitasking are actually switching between two tasks very quickly. Whenever this switch occurs, a cognitive switching penalty takes place. Basically, the brain wastes time and loses information while rebooting. Create the learning experience to allow employees to have a singular focus.
5. Make Learning Visual For Employees
Vision trumps all other senses in learning. This doesn't mean throw all information up on a PowerPoint. It does mean that utilizing video, posters, flow charts, flash cards, and other visual focal points will keep your learner engaged. If its a session, consider providing your employees with highlighters, pens and pencils to color code or recreate visuals by hand they've seen during the learning experience.
study was conducted with two groups of scuba divers. One group was tasked with learning a list of words on the beach, the other studied a list of words while underwater. The different groups were then tested in the context of where they learned the information and also where the other group studied. Those who were tested in the environment where they learned the information outperformed the other group.
With this in mind, classroom training isn't always appropriate, especially when learning new software. Seek to create learning experiences that reflect the environment the learner will use the information in. Often this may require a blended learning solution.
6. Use Spaced Repetition
As you probably remember from high school, cramming doesn’t produce long term results. To ensure long term retention, spread out your learning. Studies have shown that recall improves when learners take a break during tasks. As a general rule, it’s better to study, or partake in a learning experience for 20 minutes a day, than for two hours one day a week. Avoid the knowledge dump.
7. Invest In Temporary Loss
Learning a new skill will undoubtedly result in a period of poor performance, at first. When Josh Kaufman learned how to type on a new keyboard, his typing speed got worse before it got better.
When employees learn a new software system or process, it's very likely that there will be dips in productivity as they adjust. This temporary dip doesn't necessarily mean that the learning experience isn't working. Allow for this short-term dip (to a point), and as the learner becomes more competent, long term gains will outweigh short-term losses.
8. Focus On The Critical Components First
The Pareto Principle states that for any event, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Learning speed can be increased by focusing on the critical 20% and by structuring the learning to accommodate. Work with a subject matter expert to identify the most critical information and structure the learning experience to cover these components first.
9. Prepare For Resistance The body and mind constantly seek equilibrium. When pushed out of balance, both attempt to auto-correct. This tendency is great during a crisis, but a negative force when encouraging positive change. Prepare for this resistance buy gaining buy-in on the front end. A short explainer video with testimonials from company higher ups will appeal to the heart of your learners. Remember "Heart, Head & Hands." Employees need to first believe learning can happen (heart). They need to understand what is happening, and why (head). And they need to know how to make it happen (hands).
10. Lean Towards A Goal
Having a goal or organization outcome that you're learning toward gives the information meaning and purpose. Learning for the sake of learning does not bring long-term results, and it's waste of time and money. Be constant in your focus, making sure the employee understands every minute spent in the learning experience is justified. Consistent reminders of the end goal will keep your employees motivated and moving forward.