Two things
never stand still in life; the first, of course, is time, and the second, less
recognized, is knowledge. Knowledge gained through education is the prime
ticket for career entry. Thereafter, consummate application of such formal
knowledge as well as experiential knowledge gained in one’s career is the key
to further progress in career. Industrial and business organizations are
paradoxical. At one level, they are at the leading edge of technology. At
another level, they tend to stagnate at past levels of knowledge, which is
attributed mainly to employees being engaged in repetitive jobs and not being
challenged to be at contemporary standards of knowledge. A study of different companies reveals that
those companies which invest in continuing education for their employees tend
to be more competitive.
Continuing
education even in the best of companies is a misnomer. Usually, it is limited
to providing “canned programmes” to a proportion of employees, “allowing” a few
employees to pursue formal part-time degree or higher degree programmes, and “sponsoring”
even fewer to executive development programmes. Some companies eschew all of
these on the basis that there is no substitute for on-the-job-training on a
continuing basis. These policies cause a stagnation of skill levels and lead to
competitive decline. In some cases, companies which are impacted by competitive
decline engage external consultants at an aggressive pace and at great costs to
reinvent themselves. In contrast to such uncoordinated efforts, it would be
more appropriate to embed continuous learning in organisational culture, with
emphasis on contemporaneity and quality rather than just coverage.
Shared responsibility
Continuing
education is a shared responsibility of both the company and employees. While the
company has a lead responsibility in articulating that it places a premium on
knowledge, and following it up with a learning environment, employees also need
to consider continuing education as their responsibility too. In fact,
continuing education is a very useful platform to align the career
possibilities that a company can offer and the career expectations that an
employee has. Continuing education helps in that it could derive greater
competitiveness through skilled-up employees and be in a position to offer them
better opportunities. For employees it
is an opportunity to offer a superior or different value proposition to the
company and seek career progression in the same or different track.
The extent to
which responsibility for continuing education is felt by company and employees
varies based on the business context. Start-ups by definition are innovative
and, where required, learn by experimentation; they are likely to have little penchant
for continuing education. Growing firms evidently are competitive and successful
but also cost conscious; they are likely to adopt a need based approach for
continuing education. Mature firms are engaged in defensive strategies and are
likely to be open to a skill based approach for continuing education. Declining
firms are engaged in survival strategies and are likely to have little time for
continuing education. While employees may like to prefer a degree or skill
based approach, the company context determines their approach.
Multiple approaches
Companies could
adopt one of the three approaches in fulfilling their share of responsibility. The
first is a ‘qualification gap’ based approach. In this approach, the company
determines an optimal qualification for each role (as contrasted with minimal
qualification required for entry) and encourages acquisition of degrees or
certifications/accreditations for bridging the gap. The second is a ‘competitiveness
gap’ based approach. In this approach, the company maps people competencies to
company’s competitiveness and does whatever is required to make the company
competitive. The third is an ‘industry leadership’ approach. In this approach,
the company believes in a heady mix of superlative qualifications and competitive
competencies for a differentiated performance. While most companies would
follow the first or second approach, top ranking consulting firms, law firms
and investment banking firms appear to be following the third approach.
Employees’ approach
to continuing education, by and large, depends on the nature of the company. A technology
and research intensive industry will require skills that are typically offered
in leading educational institutions. Skills required for other industries may
be more easily sourced in the general marketplace. Regardless, in general the approach
tends to favour the acquisition of higher formal degrees. Whether employees do
it through part time education or by taking a break depends on personal
circumstances, company environment as well as career shift that is desired. Research
indicates that employees do not consider in-house training as being supportive
of career aspirations; they also consider external short term courses as little
more than of marginal support for either on the job performance or career shift.
Education as mind-set
The primary objective
of industries and businesses is to provide products and services, and not to
educate. Similarly the primary objective of industrial and business employees is
to put their knowledge to use. To conceive, therefore, of a situation where
industries and businesses as well as employees focus only on education is
somewhat impractical. However, the need for continuing education as brought out
above is critical. The blog post suggests a few mind-set approaches to
accomplish the objectives.
Continuous as
lifelong
The first is to
consider continuous as really meaning lifelong. As a concept, continuous
education has lesser emotional connectivity to an individual than lifelong
education. Once an individual gets into a mind-set that education is a lifelong,
value adding process, he or she will surely develop ownership. Similarly, it
focusses to the company that the continuous education initiative would need to
be a part of life skill development of an employee. The concept of ‘lifelong’
is humbling as well as futuristic, for both employees and companies.
Company as
campus
Companies take
many structural approaches to supporting their versions of continuing
education. These include setting up their own in-house technical training centres
with pilot equipment for on-hands training and management development centres
for development of executive and managerial skills. These, however, tend to be
just a part of the company infrastructure and figure more as slots in training
calendar. The compelling proposition, on the other hand, is to consider the
company as a campus wherein every piece of equipment, every bit of procedure
and every interaction with a person provides learning opportunities.
Individual as
learner
While the
company has a lead responsibility to provide a learning ecosystem, it is for
and up to the individual to mould himself or herself as a perpetual learner. Being
a learner does not make one a novice; only the insecure would feel that way. Being
a learner and asking questions should never be seen as infra dig by employees
or management. Wise scientists learn from every reaction of an experiment, wise
operators from every rhythm of their equipment, and wise executives learn from
every interaction they have in the company.
Learning processes
When we think
of learning processes, things like classrooms, flip boards, audio-visuals,
presentations, course materials etc., come to mind usually. Some think of off-site
events and programmes as great learning opportunities. However, all these are
at best accessories and aids to the learning processes. The real learning, that
too perpetual learning, happens through the following personal approaches.
Listen, observe,
absorb
In keeping with
the prime responsibility on the individual to learn, the prime responsibility
for learning approach also shall be that of the individual. It is fairly simple
too. For a perfect learning process, the individual must listen intently, observe
closely and absorb earnestly. These processes must take place in all
interactions, peer to peer or boss to subordinate. In several cases, there
could be learning opportunities from the younger reporting staff too. Learning
environment is usually an expressive and empowering environment.
Follow, emulate,
excel
The objective
of learning is to excel in performance. This is usually preceded by two fundamental
stages of following and emulating. Following is the process of merely implementing
the learnings as absorbed. It is task oriented learning, putting into effect
the ‘know-how’ learnt. Emulation is the process of thinking and acting like the
person providing learning inputs; it is mastery of both ‘know-how’ and ‘know-why’.
Excelling is the process of creative thinking and execution based on the
learnings imparted/ received. Excelling is the result of empowered learning.
Teach, share,
coach
Everyone has a
responsibility to disseminate learnings as much as they absorb. This again
occurs through a three stage process. Most people who are well-versed in their
art tend to teach. Those who teach prepare their learners only for ‘know-how’. A
few others not only teach but also share their thinking around the subject
matter of interest. Such people help the learners absorb both the ‘know-how’
and ‘know-why’. A few go beyond both the stages and truly coach the learners overcome
their issues and limitations, and become what they can truly become.
The winning twelve
This blog post
has reviewed the ticker of continuing education that most organizations would
like to carry, and proposed that it should be considered more as lifelong education.
It has reviewed current shared responsibilities between a company and its
employees, and noted that while a company has the lead responsibility to create
a learning ecosystem the prime responsibility for learning must be that of an
individual. It has considered the multiple approaches currently adopted and postulated
that they serve to accessorize rather than elevate continuing education as a
lifelong journey.
The blog post
proposed twelve elements of a lifelong learning journey. On one plane is a true
learning platform that embeds the concept of lifelong learning, with
perpetually learning individuals considering the entire company as their learning
campus. It also proposes an easy and feasible multi-step process to learn
through listening, observing and absorbing to be able to follow, emulate and eventually
excel. It legislates that those with superior knowledge must endeavour to
teach, share and coach all the time. Lifelong learning is a humbling feeling and
a rewarding experience. It is a win-win for both employees and organizations.
Posted by Dr CB
Rao on May 18, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment