Do you feel it? A shift is taking place in our world. A perfect intersection has taken place between economic drivers, workforce demographics, and the technology evolution. Together these three factors are creating an environment where businesses, government entities, and even non-profit organizations must adapt to new models for achieving success. One of the most important alterations we face is the necessity to change how we educate and develop our workforces.
So organizations are assessing new learning models in an attempt to better manage the information flow and change employee performance expectations.
Social learning, knowledge sharing, and relationship building are at the center of these new approaches. Many organizations are quickly realizing that simply implementing new learning methods inside separate programs or courses isn’t enough to sustain the long-term change required for this market shift. They must scale these traditionally individual learning approaches to large employee communities.
Brandon Hall Group has observed successful organizations create expanded learning environments, specifically ones that include an infrastructure to transform the learning approach into a valuable business tool. A critical element of these expanded learning environments is a dynamic learning network that provides structure to relationship building, knowledge sharing, and collaboration.
Our new report, The Shifting Workforce: Driving Development with Dynamic Learning Networks, shares insights gathered from the lessons gained by four unique organizations – Humana, URS, Monsanto, and UnitedHealth Group — as they built the foundations for implementing learning environments that included dynamic learning networks. Members can view the report here.
The report looks at key practices in their approaches to:
- Connecting business strategies to learning strategies
- Connecting competencies and needs by building a dynamic learning network
- Managing cultural and environmental realities
Organizations that embrace this reality of today’s working environment, and acknowledge that our world has made a major leap forward in how organizations will achieve success, will be one step ahead of everyone else. This shift requires a fundamental change in how we educate and develop our workforce – a shift toward adaptive learning models that center on scalable approaches to:
- Social collaboration
- Knowledge sharing
- Relationship building
To achieve these goals, organizations must think beyond learning strategies that focus on courses and programs and instead build a vision for learning environments that integrate technology, workflow, and processes. These environments will enable a workforce to adapt and quickly gain the information it needs to accomplish their business goals.
