Self-Directed Learning For Companies: HOW!
The question on everyone's mind is, how do we achieve it? How do we get to that balance of people having access to formal courses but also taking responsibility for their own learning?
Let’s Look at Why
Why do we want Self Directed Learning (SDL), well because if it’s your idea, you are more likely to engage, more likely to follow it through, give it more effort and genuinely use it for your job?
Compared to being told this is what you need to do to achieve the next stage in your career, pay or the company. It then just becomes a step.
How?
This isn’t going to work for everyone. We have to respect that and not force it.
In my own ideas, to get to a place where you have SDL you need a Google-like system inside your organisation.
As a start this allows people to go fetch their own learning when they want and it can be specific to the company which makes it a real bonus.
Secondly, developmental courses are internal and external. For people to progress, they need to know exactly what they need to do and why they need to do it. I always think if you can use feedback and training needs analysis to guide what people need to work on then that is going to create a good working environment.
Thirdly, understanding SDL is far more than just courses. It is shadowing, mentoring, coaching, listening, reading and working with others. The ability to learn in lots of different situations gives you the ability to choose when it’s right for you. The downside here is that many will then choose the path of least resistance and so when they get the problem again, they will go for the easiest option.
Having a system, setup or software that allows people to track and see what they have achieved and what they are going to achieve. It’s inevitable at some point to think ‘why am I doing all this learning’ and it’s only when you look back and realise how far you have come and developed!
Changing is Hard
Change is hard and implementing change properly takes some time to move people away from the old style and to the new style. My top tip for changing culture is setting a precedent for what you are willing and not willing to accept.
These small acts let people know that this is what we want to achieve and the reason why.
Why is such an important question to answer.
You can follow change models like ADKAR and Lewin and Kotter to help you plan how you are going to get from where you are now to SDL.
If I was starting at the bottom, I would be working on content for learning. Courses, documents, soft skills, videos, processes and anything else I could create which will help others develop and then start putting it in spaces where it can be found!
Then you can start to focus on the people and working with them, asking questions and understanding what is going to make them start making their own learning decisions.
I hope this helps a tiny bit. If you can make it better, please let me know and I can add it in!
