The Need For An Organizational Approach To Continued Learning

We have all heard that employees at Google are allowed to devote 20% of their time working on anything that stirs their interest, subject, of course, the organization benefits in some way or another: a highly progressive means of making work seem less like work while spurring innovation.

                Very few organizations are actually committed to stimulating interest and tapping that potential windfall because it involves a free rein to grapple with advancements, more specifically change, beyond an employee’s innermost sphere of influence. Most companies are averse to the pursuit of non-sectoral developments on their dime.

                Compelled with the need to unmesh the finer rudiments of business innovation, the likes of which have propelled Apple to the apex of the corporate world and fuelled a spate of exceedingly successful crowdsourced ventures such as Uber and Airbnb, I hauled myself back into the classroom after a 25-year hiatus. Case study after case study and the heated discussions that ensued enabled us, the class, to draw parallels between processes deployed within far removed industries and our respective realms of proficiency, thereby shaping the way we think and in effect, formulating strategy.

                With innovation redefining the way we persevere, it is not enough to take inventory of shifts within a given sector. The thought process has to be as evolved as the marketplace and must encompass the larger, more holistic paradigm. How then does a company motivate its employees to track how much the economy has moved and what resources does it need to allocate to merely making sense of change? Not everyone is innately charged. Is it enough to bunch like-minded individuals together to deliberate over the relevance of such change or is there a need for a conduit, like a professor leading a class, to streamline the flow of thought?

                You may be working in Pharma but there is a lot you could learn from Southwest Airlines. Similarly, a regional rep of a QSR would do well to study the trials and tribulations of Carlos Ghosn in the Renault-Nissan saga. I, for one, think continued learning, not just training, needs be indoctrinated into an organization’s cultural vein to induce progressiveness. You may get more hours out of your employee by forcing him or her to really put the shoulder to the wheel but a failure to stimulate interest and expand his / her knowledge base translates into sub-potential productivity. At the very least, some research during work hours must not only be tolerated, it must be condoned.

                I like to circumvent clutter and consume ideas before my mind is laden with the day’s encumbrances. Once I have dispensed with higher priorities, I take an hour out of my work day to just look at systems that are either working for others or failing them, without any certainty of pertinence. The fact is, I do so because I can. I am not sure how many organizations would construe such an approach to learning as anything but waffling.