Dive Brief:
- All learning leaders should be focused on enabling real behavioral changes in employees, Alex Khurgin, director of learning for Grovo, told Chief Learning Officer. Leaders should look at what they do as a craft. Taking this stance can change the way people learn, and the way they think about workforce training.
- Khurgin provides three steps that learning leaders can take that will lead to better performing employees. Learning professionals must become "strategic leaders," and take their place at the decision-making table. Secondly, learning must be linked to business outcomes. Last, "learning must be relevant to each employee's experience." When these elements are in place, behavioral changes happen.
- As a last point, Khurgin says that. "small, digestible bursts of learning content can engage learners." Learning programs must keep in step with how people prefer to learn new things.
Dive Insight:
Leaders have their work cut out for them today. Not only are they required to meet business objectives to make sure things are profitable, but they are expected to continually transfer knowledge to subordinates through their interactions. Learning leaders are those who embrace learning and understand the critical role this has on employee success and morale.
Focusing on performance alone does not produce the right kinds of results. Leading by example does. Sitting employees in a classroom or putting them in front of a new e-learning platform and expecting them to embrace new ideas doesn't work well if the leadership doesn't demonstrate its relevancy in the daily work environment. While the tips provided by Khurgin are accurate, they should be common sense to most effective leaders.
