Cutting Edge with Learning Edge

As flag-bearers of Learning and Development, we are fortunate enough to harness an organization’s skills, talent and culture and steer it towards the right direction.

What is Learning &Development?

For the uninitiated, team L&D has a rock steady, single-minded focus on creating, and nurturing the in-grown talent pool. Our efforts are critical to addressing the unique and complex challenges of today’s work world and preparing our teams for rapid future changes.

For an involved L&D, progress and service have to go together, we have to maintain a reputation of excellence. With every skill we impart, we see a new segment of learners emerge. To keep it simple, we can break them up into 4 segments:

1. Getting skilled for the first-time learner (new concept)

2. Getting skilled more learner

3. Hands-on learner (skilling in problem-solving)

4. To work with change learners

How can we contribute?

A robust L&D initiative has to be always consistent, focused, and involved. With the constantly changing business dynamics, we have to be always on our toes to ensure our associates are learning all new-age skills and techniques. We share the responsibility to give our associates that competitive advantage.

The training plans, programs, content, methods, activities everything that we put in a course has to be relevant and engaging.

As a knowledge center, we sometimes have to fill the gap that academia has not been able to fill.

While we also apply methods of competency mapping and try to bridge them too, parellely we are also trying to engage the associates, in the skill/ will tug of war.

In short- L&D can never be a lone ranger, we have to have our antennas up

How L&D affects talent and culture?

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, to have a rock-solid culture, one needs to have someone to be the driving force and that is where we step in. We should never see the teams as manpower, we should see them as communities, communities who support and sustain each other. 
L&D has to create an environment of shared values, where we encourage hand-holding and respect while ensuring that each community member is always in the learning mode, somehow, somewhere and with someone. The core agenda, when one is skilling, its workforce is to ensure that the learning journey is engaging and objectives are achieved and pain areas are reduced.

The young talent expects openness and team play and the moment they don’t see that they move away. As communicators of knowledge, we need to keep espousing the message sounding like, ‘Each One, Teach One (sic) always and can never have our guard down.  Cross-functional teams and collaborative learning are what a talent-driven company will always need.

Empowerment driven through focused skilling efforts is not enough we have to also ensure that we match the pace of the business and have to ensure that real results are driven day in and day out.

In Simon Sinek’s words “The goal is not to be perfect by the end. The goal is to be better by tomorrow.”