Want to create an innovative workplace environment and an engaged, high-performing team? Switched-on leaders are reaping the benefits of using experiential learning to activate real, sustainable development, and build thriving businesses.
Recently there’s been a lot of talk about the impending “Great Resignation” and the plight of forgotten middle managers. (You can read more about that here).
It seems to me that all too often businesses, especially growing mid-sized organisations, place investment in tangible things like machines and technology ahead of investment in their people for continuing success.
It’s no wonder they struggle to hold onto the key people that drive outcomes in their business or to adapt and innovate the business for growth.
One way or another, your business will only survive and thrive with enabled and valued people
Culture plays a big part in driving what gets done and what’s forgotten.
A culture that invests in its people as a priority to achieve the business strategy will be focused on:
- building a talent pipeline from within, rather than continually buying in new talent
- enabling their people to see what is possible and to step into potential
- building both the mindsets and the behaviours necessary to succeed in a vastly changing workplace.
Investment in your people is a smart strategy, not only for retention of key talent, but also to promote the kind of culture and mindset that’s critical to thrive and evolve as a business.
It’s no longer a question of being able to afford the investment. You can’t afford not to make clever decisions around long-term investment in your people.
Often when I work with business leaders to define their development frameworks, I get told that staff are already accessing development programs. ‘They have access to online training or external 1-day courses’, is a common response.
My response is to ask the question: is it training or experiential learning that will make the difference to your team’s performance and the achievement of your goals? Or is it a combination of both?
Training versus Experiential Learning: what are the benefits?
Training is all about skills acquisition. It’s necessary and important for people to learn the technical and practical skills to get the job done.
But Experiential Learning is the real driver of innovation, engagement, and a performance mindset. It helps cement new skills and thinking around new behaviours in the work context, so that your investment pays off.
Experiential learning happens through ‘doing’. It’s based on the idea that real learning – retaining information and facts – only happens through experiences.
Supervised experience on the job (with a manager or mentor on hand), creates opportunities for your staff to build confidence, develop lived experience, reflect on what worked and didn’t work, adjust and adapt for next time. It’s also a breeding ground for those “aha” moments, when the dots are joined and everything makes sense.
Examples of experiential learning could include developing an idea into a business case, contributing to a cross-functional project, joining a client visit, taking the lead on a presentation, or shadowing your manager.
To evolve your business and access the true potential of your people, I would encourage you to invest the time in developing a framework that includes both training (targeted at specific learning needs) and experiential learning (applied on the job, in context to imbed new habits).
The best way to use Experiential Learning in your development programs
To get the most from your team, your talent development program needs to meet 5 criteria:
- It must be aligned to your business strategy and meet the needs of the business and the program participants.
- It must be clear how the learning can be applied in the context of your workplace. This helps embed the new habits being taught.
- You must create a reciprocal learning program for all levels of management so that new skills and habits are applied, noticed and valued.
- The program must help build relationships between team members, and where possible, across different parts of the organisation.
- To be effective, a training and experiential learning program must aim to deliver increased positive energy and motivation of the whole team.
To discuss strategies for developing your whole team to set your organisation up for success, contact Joanne Fisher on + 61 (0) 423 163 319.
