perform at their best and the business succeed. They know that learning and development is an ongoing process, that wherever and whenever businesses do things there are opportunities to learn and make things better. When an employee delivers a presentation, for example, she or he needs to present a positive image of the company – whether this is internal or external. Good public speaking skills are essential and great leaders recognise this and support their people’s development. They need development to be accessible and effective at their point of need. Effective leaders also, for instance, present their people with opportunities to help one another do their best by exercising good teamwork skills. They are aware of the importance of knowing when to talk and when to listen and recognise this as an invaluable skill. They have humility and are willing to do work they are ‘overqualified’ for when needed. Good leaders know there are learning opportunities in every situation. Empowering others to be responsible for both taking time to learn and taking time to share their learning, can make businesses more agile and more capable faster than any other business choice.
Learn from mistakes
Learning is often focused on avoiding mistakes, (and we don’t do that very well) and all too often little time is spent understanding how we can not only learn from mistakes, but also leverage the learning we get from successes. It’s here that the work of learning and development programmes have the most to add to 21st century organisations. Remarkable organisations look beyond the boundaries of their own markets, to gain insight, to develop understanding. The experience of others, in their context, and the opportunity to apply their knowledge in your context means that successes in one market can often, with minor change, be applied in your own. A simple example of this was the idea of turning a wing upside down and fixing it to the rear of Formula One cars as that sport moved from the era of Fangio to the more technological eras that followed. Today, aerodynamics plays, perhaps, one of the most important parts of that sport. Also, experience in your own market of the things that go wrong can be shared more widely. By doing so it’s possible to identify ways to avoid repetition. Encouraging people to share mistakes and reframe them as opportunities for all to learn from is just as important for success.
Business leaders so often end up being a bottleneck and a constraint on operational speed
Collaborative learning
When a team learns together, supporting each other, wherever they are, using technology to bring, and keep them together, the experience is truly shared. Learning delivered in collaborative way with a group of peers provides the opportunity for learning to be effective and sustainable. There’s more to it than that though. When people learn together they also learn about each other, about their strengths and weaknesses and in the 21st century business it’s the network of specialists that will win over the team of generalists. Collaborative learning facilitates the depth of understanding within the team, which makes a team act with unity of purpose and perform with purpose. When learning of this kind takes place remarkable results can be attained.
Sustainable profits
Making fewer mistakes, understanding the team and supporting them as they develop and grow is how additional profits are assured and because the underlying methodology is designed to make the changes last for the long term, those profits are sustainable. Sustainable profits are virtuous, because they create the means of investing further, on an ongoing basis.
Summary
Remarkable businesses work effectively and use training to secure long term sustainable benefits; particularly ensuring profitability is maintained and ever improving. Firstly leadership must inspire and engage
throughout the business. There must be informed, fast decision making where experience is communicated and shared easily. Effectiveness comes not just from the right support, but also the willingness to learn from mistakes and to leverage and embed success. Creating a collaborative learning environment, with those things in place drives sustainable profits and an engaged, motivated workforce.
William Buist
is a business strategist, speaker, and founder of the xTEN Club find out more at http://xTEN
Club.com and http://William
buist.com
Amanda Vickers
is managing director of Speak First Ltd find out more at www. speak-first. com
www.trainingjournal.com September 2015
59
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