Can L&D drive Organizational Transformation?

Innovation, volatility and new customer expectations, are some of the many triggers that are a stimulus for Organizational Transformation. Organizations today, have to get past historical paradigms of doing business, as new entrants emerge that seem to play by a different set of rules. These new entrants like Uber, Netflix etc. are challenging core business assumptions and introducing new business models. This is forcing transformation with a capital “T” in existing organizations which involves changing their very essence. Just like turning liquid to gas, or lead to gold, Apple is moving from computers to consumer gadgets, Google from advertising to driverless cars, Amazon from retail to cloud computing. This list is ever increasing and is almost necessary for survival.

Organizational Transformation is an imperative, not an option for survival. Over 50 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have disappeared over the last 15 years1. Another study says that one in three companies will delist in the next five years2. A third shows that the “topple rate” of industry leaders falling from their perch has doubled in a generation3. Digital disruption is at the heart of the threat to organizations. Thus, organizations now need to consider the digital consumer with expectations of personalized experiences. They also need to move towards being a digital enterprise, leveraging technology to not only optimize and collaborate, but also revolutionize how they do work. 

We need to think of Learning and Development teams as enablers of Organizational Transformation. As organizations begin to make investments on Robotics, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive computing and several other key megatrends of the 4IR world, the people who work within the organization are the ones who will help realize the value of these investments. At the same time, these people are as much the ones who will need to build a new set of skills, be motivated and bring a different behaviors and attitudes to work to create value. L&D should be at the forefront of improving individual productivity and organizational capability that will create organizational transformation.  

There are several changes that the L&D function will need to bring about within themselves and how they work to enable organizational transformation. The three key changes can be categorized into “Who is the new L&D professional”, “What should be the focus of the L&D professional in the new world” and “How can L&D create a structure that will ensure success”.

Building an outside-in perspective 

There is a big shift in the thinking required where L&D is far more business aligned and measures impact through business metrics. This will mean an understanding of social, economic and demographic environment in which the business operates. 

Think of the employee as a customer 

It is important to pay attention to improving the overall employee experience, with a focus on disciplines like user-centered design, marketing, and customer service to apply design thinking to processes that touch employees. Due to the pervasiveness of social media platforms in employees’ personal lives, they have an expectation for connectivity and instant access to information. As an answer to this, L&D functions will need to leverage social media and collaboration tools that promise to enable effective learning.

Focus on insight and enablement

The expectation will be to be able to not only diagnose problems, but determine the right solutions. L&D teams need to think holistically about what the business needs and what learners need to support the current and future business. By doing so, learning and development will be able to create a concrete business impact and continually add value to the wider organization. 

Creating a full stack L&D function 

The L&D function will include a range of professionals, not only those with “classic” degrees in teaching or instructional design but also people with knowledge of data science, neuroscience, marketing, user interface and user experience design, application development, information design, and content development.

Content is king

L&D needs to think about how to curate and host content that already exists (references, courses, conferences, sites, professional associations) along with content created in-house and content that’s user-generated from within the organization via knowledge-sharing platforms, crowdsourcing, internal social networks, and the likes. Effective L&D professionals will need to become trusted curators who find, filter and, in some instances, modify information for employees. They also will need to equip learners to be critical evaluators and managers of the information and content they receive from other sources.

As organizations transform, L&D professionals will have to gravitate towards becoming ‘Organizational Transformation Consultants’ and it will mean developing a business, commercial understanding, technological and analytical capability, as well as the ability to curate content. These are critical skills that many are lacking today. The role will be to anticipate the need, curate the content and enable the organization. 

Increasing individual productivity 

In the new work environment, L&D must equip employees to build and apply existing and new competencies, but  also enable them to apply their competencies in situations that are new and unfamiliar. 

Building organization capability

In the modern, knowledge-based enterprise, employees need to work with and through others to succeed. This “network performance”—where employees contribute to and draw value from the work of their peers by sharing resources, feedback, advice, and innovations—is the mark of a high performer today. As such, L&D organizations must move beyond working to increase employees’ ability to carry out individual tasks and objectives, and instead focus on building employees’ network performance to enhance their enterprise-level contribution.  

Go where the 4IR world is going and do it faster 

Learn and understand how technology works at a very deep-level. Engage with experts in User Experience, full-stack developers, vendor partner eco-system and experts to know and bring to the table these innovations. It is imperative to bring these in ahead of the time to partner with these teams to bring to life a 4IR Learning ecosystem.

Create a connected learning space

Use technology that operates on the principles of Neural Networks and leverages Machine Learning to build content, connections and patterns. Create opportunities through which the learner and the teacher can collaborate and learn faster and collectively. Make this available on demand, relevant and specific to the individual. Connect the experienced professional to the learner of today, who can also be the trainer, coach and mentor, through knowledge sharing, guiding and collaborating. This way everybody can learn faster and collectively – just the way the Neural Network or the Brain and the Machine Learning space does – learning by recording a pattern.

Channelize content curation

Learners now have the ability to source, create, modify, and share learning objectives without L&D’s involvement. Because of this, L&D’s former position as a learning and content provider is becoming increasingly indefensible. From micro-content to crowd-sourced content to learning-on-the-go to real-time knowledge and case-management, there is so much more possible today. L&D can play the role of gatekeeper, assessor and reinforce to rationalize, restructure and reinvent content.

Offer a learning ecosystem that is a marketplace

Most of the regular manual L&D activities and are now automated and require far less effort of running — from diagnostics to delivery to learning operations. The intersection of technology, user demographics and user generated content creates the right amalgam for random and parallel access to learning. 

By shifting away from being a provider of learning and moving towards becoming architects of continuous development, L&D teams will further amplify their delivery of performance improvements that affect the business. 

References
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/digital-disruption-has-only-just-begun/ 
https://hbr.org/2005/03/the-faster-they-fall 
https://hbr.org/2016/01/the-biology-of-corporate-survival