The corporate journey is a journey of talent development. This is the single biggest hygiene factor for millennials and Gen Z employees. Talent Development is probably the best tool for leaders to retain great talent and it is no longer a good ingredient for organizations in the contemporary VUCA world. This is the reason why expressions like up-skilling, re-skilling and many more similar terms can be heard commonly in the corporate corridors in the last few years. However, still we see, a lack of development and learning opportunities as a key reason while analyzing exit interview results.
Education Inertia: For most of us, what is the most common start of our learning? Structured schooling, in a more traditional world or even homeschooling in some cases, right? From the day we start looking at the learning, we see a teacher coming to satiate our quest for learning. This cycle keeps on happening for years and years and by the time you become a “well-learned” individual, you are conditioned to see learning in a particular way. I call it Education Inertia’ as this makes our mind keep on believing that if we need to learn something, we need to sit in a room, preferably in person and someone will come to help us learn. Education Inertia freezes our minds to perceive only one way to learn.
A Known Fact of Unrealized Potential: 70:20:10 approach of learning is not new, but we invariably see employees, leaders, and even HR practitioners focusing on only 10% of learning and keeping the focus on classroom learning most of the time, thanks to “Education Inertia”. It is not that we are not aware that around 90% of the learning opportunities come from social learning and from experience. However, how many of us are actually leveraging it? How many leaders and HR practitioners are focusing on it? The question is, do they really know how to unleash the untapped potential of this 90% learning? If we imagine the employee life cycle drawn on a white paper from joining to exit and start to map learning opportunities at each step, we will see big white spots indicating space for missed social and experiential learning. I define it as “Learning White Spaces” in my teachings and consultation. Some of us unconsciously fill these white spaces more than others and see a direct correlation with our development.
Cognitive Shift and Taming the Change: By now, we are clear that at least on paper, we know that a lot of untapped learning exists beyond the formal classroom. But this awareness is just a beginning, a good beginning of self-awareness. The next step is to initiate the change and bring the mindset shift needed to leverage it for our development. Where should we begin? A good starting point is to explore the concept of “Learning in the Flow of Work” by Josh Bersin2 which talks about embedding learning in the day-to-day work. The next step is to start noticing the learning opportunities floating around us and registering them. This learning can then be leveraged in more conscious manner the next time you encounter a similar or related challenge. Let’s say you have been invited to attend a working session on idea generation with the help of Design Thinking. Are you just participating or are you also considering how you may utilize it for your own work? This cognitive shift from a mere participant to a participant learner will enable you to fill the “Learning White Space” and propel your development.
The Virtuous Cycle: This shift in approach may not be sustained, if not supported holistically. A good way to do it is to start sharing your newly noticed learning with others help them fill their Learning White Spaces and encourage them to do the same. Discuss with your direct team, peers, and managers what have you learned in the flow of work and how are you thinking of leveraging it. This will also help in integrating experiential learning with social learning. I see an opportunity to create a virtuous circle of learning, where employees share their learning and apply this shared learning at work, leaders recognize and appreciate this behavior, which further encourages and fuels such sharing and application. This is of interest to notice here that everybody needs to play their part for this change to happen and sustain to see results in the employee development journey. We have talked about the role employees and managers/leaders will play but what about HR practitioners? Do they have any role to play here? HR partners play a crucial role in bringing this awareness and helping this change to sustain by differentiating how they coach when they observe a knowledge gap, where a formal classroom or e-learning may help vs when the gap persists because of a lack of practice where experiential and social learning may work best. Let’s take an example of learning a language, I can learn grammar in a classroom but still cannot master it if I am not using it in my social interactions. This differentiation is needed in the consultation and the coaching HR practitioners provide
Hidden Message for Academia: For most of us, already working with organizations, this intentional shift is going to take time before it becomes second nature to us to effectively fill our Learning White Spaces and to reach our true developmental potential. However, academia can play a crucial role in fostering this awareness by bringing experiential learning in the curriculum. A mere internship, once during the entire duration of the degree is insufficient for sure. It needs to be embedded in each and every course. When I teach³, I try to design a curriculum that allocates sufficient points for going beyond traditional learning where knowledge does not flow just one way from teacher to student.
As I conclude, that holistic learning is the precursor to one’s development but unfortunately, most of us see, experience, and apply only one dimension of learning, formal learning while missing severely social and experiential learning. Being aware of this fact and then taking action can add great value to an employee’s development journey, given we all remember the role we play as employees, leaders, and HR partners.
Author: Vipul Srivastava
About the Author:
Vipul Srivastava is an HR professional with 17+ years of experience in India and the US across
various HR domains. An IIT and TISS alumnus, he has led global HR functions, including
Talent Management, Leadership Development, Labor Relations, Change Management, and
Plant HR leadership.
Currently part of Global Talent Development at Cummins, he oversees multiple businesses and
regions. An award-winning Adjunct Professor at IUPU, USA, he has taught MBA and
undergraduate courses for seven years. He also serves on the Industry Advisory Council at
SPJIMR, contributing to HR thought leadership and industry-academia collaboration.
