Behavior Change through Day-To-Day Learning

The purpose of any learning initiative is behavior change by the integration of new skills. This can only happen when four things are in place; a connection to organizational strategy, enthusiastic support from leadership, accountability from management and measurement of the impact.

“Learning is a Day-to-Day Activity.”

I’m quoting Gabriella Salvatore here from her article of the same name in the July issue of Chief Learning Officer Magazine. I’m quoting her not only because she has interesting things to say but because on July 21, 2010 Gabriella will join the Executive Team of The Ariel Group as Vice President of Learning Solutions!

I’ll summarize here the essence of the piece and if this whets your appetite the click through below for the full story.

The purpose of any learning initiative is behavior change by the integration of new skills. This can only happen when four things are in place; a connection to organizational strategy, enthusiastic support from leadership, accountability from management and measurement of the impact.

Connect Learning to Strategy
Learning leaders need to fully understand the business they are in and the skills and behaviors needed to meet the business goals. They should meet with line leaders, or even better, establish an advisory board to ensure they are providing appropriate and timely solutions.

Leadership Messaging
If the learning solutions are tied to the business goals then senior leadership should have no problem getting behind them. So ask them to. Senior leaders need to publicly endorse the investment of time and money in learning initiatives and where possible involve themselves in the actual teaching.

Accountability
Managers need to know what skills their people are learning and hold them accountable for the application of those skills back on the job. Managers must understand the skills and be able to model and coach to them.

Measurement
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure” right? We’ve heard it before but it doesn’t happen often enough, particularly with so called “soft” skills. The bottom line is that if we don’t measure the application of the skills, they won’t get used.

There’s a lot more in the story so I encourage you to read it here: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/mediatec/clo0710/#/20

Look out for more from Gabriella Salvatore when she joins us later in July!