In a world where a college education can easily represent over $100,000, you would think that the recipients of that education are prepared for the rest of their careers.
Not so says Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies. Her studies along with Deloitte’s Shift Index reveal that skills learned via higher education max out at only five years, leaving college graduates with the need to keep learning in order to stay viable in a competitive and ever-growing workplace.
Leaders who wish to thrive in this ever-changing age of technology — where what was new last year is old this year — must commit themselves to continual learning, organized so well as not to interfere with the demands of their work.
The challenge is real and is surprisingly addressed by the self-organized learning (SOL) phenomenon happening in our schools. Applied to business, SOL takes place when team members help each other learn and when individuals use technology to personalize their learning as much as possible.
In what ways can leaders use SOL to grow their teams as well as themselves? Here are six personal development tips.
Action Steps
1. Create a plan. Imagine what self-organized learning would look like in your organization and create a plan. Learning advisor Jane Hart (referenced above) suggests these categories to develop for your plan: Training/E-learning, Performance Support, Social Collaboration and Professional Learning. Your personal self-organized plan can follow similar categories.
2. Embrace peer-to-peer training. When you master a skill, teach it to a colleague and encourage team members to do the same. For peer-to-peer training outside your organization, look to online learning resources such as SkillShare, School of Everything or share your thoughts and comments right here on Learnstile.
3. Go online. Your hectic work schedule makes it difficult to fit actual classroom classes in your day or evening. Solve the problem with online college courses and other online learning resources such as Lynda.com and Learnstile.com.
4. Acquire the necessary tools. When planning your budget, be sure to plan for necessary learning tools such as subscriptions to online learning platforms, intranet for team collaboration and possibly the services of a learning and development coach to get you started.
5. Publish an online portfolio. A public portfolio highlighting your growing skill set is a key way to keep yourself accountable to keep you on track with your self-organized learning plan.
6. Encourage social interaction. Social interaction among your team is critical toward their SOL success and personally collaborating via social media groups keeps the learning momentum going. Regularly visit LinkedIn’s question and answer pages, too. Ask and answer questions there and you won’t be the only person to benefit.