Training to Learning

Training & Development, Sep 2005 by Sloman, Martyn, Webster, Lois

Informal learning has become more important... and the role of the workplace learning and performance professional must keep pace.

WHAT IS HAPPENING on the ground in the workplace learning and performance profession? To what extent are priorities changing and the focus of activities moving?

Transatlantic discussions and exchanges of research information have brought about the following conclusion: A shift is taking place from training (a top-down intervention initiated by the organization) to learning (an ongoing process that lies in the domain of the individual). The way learners learn is changing. Partly because of the nature of today's organizations and partly because of individual preferences, informal learning has become more important and the role of the workplace learning and performance professional must change accordingly.

Ultimately such changes are dictated by the economics of competition and delivery and the new business models that have emerged as a result. In his 2004 book Reason, Robert B. Reich, President Bill Clinton's Labor Secretary, argued that in developed economics only two categories of work will grow in numbers. The first will be knowledge workers (he calls them "symbolic analysts") who are employed in identifying and solving new problems. Computer technology is a given and they require even more tools for mentoring, creating, and communicating. The second category involves personal service. Here value comes from human touch, care, or attentiveness. Reich's argument is that all other work will be done where it is cheapest-these are the jobs that will be outsourced to low wage economies. Reich's observation of our profession demands an answer: If knowledge workers and those delivering personal services will predominate in our future organizations, how should we design and deliver our training, learning and development?

The conclusion must be that, given changes in the economy, traditional classroom training courses are likely to be of limited value in the future. Knowledge workers learn from each other. So, informal methods of learning are more appropriate-and a key job of the training and business professional will be to ensure that they are supported.

Given that background, it's beyond dispute that the role of the trainer (to use the traditional term) is changing. New job titles have emerged, often involving the word learning. Research led us to describe the new role as one of supporting, accelerating, and directing learning using the intervention that is appropriate to the need, the learner, and the context.

We do, however, know that the training-to-learning message has not yet gained universal acceptance. Consider the following letter from a line manager at a research facility: "What a pity more organizations don't adopt this perspective on training and learning. Our training manager has all the qualifications. But, she concentrates on organizing courses and feels that if she's done that, she's fulfilled her duties. She pays very little attention to the relevance of courses and a lot of attention to spending, cramming participants into the room to get her money's worth, and filling the training section on the performance review form."

Certainly, in some places, there is a way to go in getting the message across.

The workplace learning and performance professional will proceed through a series of interventions that, because of their relevance, will command support in the organization. There is no single model of a universal best practice, but a lot of examples of good practices. The case studies that follow offer current experience. They also may serve as a roadmap for other organizations to follow.

CASE STUDY 1

GCHQ

The changing nature of the external threat requires a different approach to problem solving in the U.K.

Background

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is a Civil Service department in the United Kingdom engaged in intelligence and security operations. Approximately 4,700 people are employed by the department. Almost all of them work at the new purpose-built, high-security site at Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, which houses one of the biggest computer complexes in Europe. Staff members are engaged in two main areas. First, GCHQ produces signals intelligence to protect the vital interests of the nation-in line with government requirements, and within a regime of clear legal guidelines. second, the organization is the national technical authority for information assurance-helping keep government communications and information systems safe from hackers and other threats. This includes assistance in the protection of information networks supporting critical national infrastructures, such as electricity and water supplies, against hostile activity from whatever source and in whatever form.

As well as terrorist threats to institutions and individuals, GCHQ. is concerned with fighting serious crime-ensuring, for example, that the financial sector is protected from fraud or illicit movement of money through hacking. GCHQ employees must be leading-edge in terms of applications and their abuses. That knowledge extends beyond the obvious areas of technology and the Internet.