Chief Learning Officer - December 2007 - (Page 34) environment Shifting the Strategic Focus of Learning Learning can — and must — play a central role in creating and implementing the culture of innovation outlined above. Three key ways that the learning organization supports innovation include: 1. Facilitating the development of new business models, particularly those that are global in nature. to provide learning in the context of solving an actual business problem. Action learning also manifests itself in the return of the apprenticeship model. Focusing on realworld situations, the apprentice learns not only primary job skills but also the nuances that come from working with an experienced practitioner. • Cross-unit, face-to-face collaborative sessions that build community, even as e-learning becomes more embedded within corporate cultures. These collaborative sessions provide a place for individuals working in similar disciplines across different geographies to meet and learn, face to face. These sessions often prove a hotbed for new ideas and make it easier for employees to build the trust that allows new ideas to flow more freely. • Bringing the outside in when learning departments partner with other segments of the business to make connections and seek insights from beyond the firewall. Programs such as quarterly innovation sessions, sponsored by the CEO, bring together both internal experts and outside speakers, creating both a learning event and an opportunity for the CEO to demonstrate his or her commitment to an innovation agenda. Finally, CLOs must innovate within their own functions in order to address two of the most critical learning needs today: reducing the time it takes to develop key competencies and supporting a multigenerational workforce. Innovation is no longer a choice. It is the engine through which an organization will either thrive or wilt. 2. Fostering the creation and deployment of new products, services and operational improvements. 3. Innovating within the learning function itself, including the development of internal services and new delivery channels. The learning function should take the lead in defining, identifying and locating worldwide workforce skills and capabilities to enable new business models. As companies source their key knowledge and talent from both developed and emerging economies, they must be expert in: • Classifying the types of skills they are looking to bring into their organizations. • Identifying and prioritizing gaps at a local and a global level. • Linking career development and learning priorities to those skill gaps. • Locating individuals and/or partners with the right expertise and making that expertise visible throughout the broader organization. However, the classification of skills and capabilities can be very challenging. Efforts often flounder because organizations develop a taxonomy that is too detailed and cumbersome to manage on an ongoing basis. Others underestimate the amount of change management required to inform and engage the organization regarding the importance and value of such skills classification. Despite these issues, a global view of skills management helps ensure that the organization can source the right skills in the right location at the right time for the right price. It also enables the organization to reallocate learning resources to rapidly build “hot” skills, essential in a rapidly changing business environment. Business strategy provides the mandate for innovation, in the form of new products and services. Learning leaders can deploy a number of practices to foster idea generation and distribution in their organizations. These include: • Action learning, which brings people together from different parts of the business Learning and Innovation: Building a Common Agenda With innovation rising to the top of the leadership agenda, learning executives have a significant opportunity to play a new strategic role in the organization. The time is right for learning professionals to think beyond their traditional roles and to facilitate the creation, development and spread of a culture of innovation. Whether through the facilitation of organizational communities, the preservation of institutional knowledge or the ability to rapidly develop leaders in a global environment, the learning function can help set the stage for and activate innovation within their organization. Innovation is no longer a choice. It is the engine through which an organization will either thrive or wilt. Likewise, innovation will enable the learning function either to make a lasting contribution to organizational success or to operate on the outskirts of corporate relevance. December 2007 Mary Kay Vona is a global learning executive with the Human Capital Management practice of IBM Global Business Services. Michael DeMarco is a senior consultant with the IBM Institute for Business Value and focuses his efforts on human capital management. They can be reached at editor@clomedia.com. I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 34 http://www.clomedia.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.