A report by Avado Tara MacInnisDecember 2020

Why your organisation’s success depends on your approach to learning

There has been a significant focus on organisational agility throughout 2020, as businesses have adapted to the dynamics of operating within. This reflects the capacity to adapt a business to respond to a change in market and customer needs. The organisations that can respond with agility are the ones that see success, changing as the challenges come and finding new ways to keep their workforce focused on their goals. For us at Avado, we know that the second part – guiding your workforce – is incredibly important, and the best way to do that is to help them develop both the skills and mindset to respond to ‘new normals’. It’s good for them as individuals both professionally and personally, and it’s good for your organisation.

We conducted a qualitative study with more than 40 C-suite people and senior leaders from a wide range of industries. In addition to that initial research, we also conducted a survey of 2,000 office workers, including 49% decision makers, about organisational agility and how it influences their business. Based on our research and the input from those people, we’re now able to better understand common challenges and priorities, and how the provision of skills and development needs to evolve to help those businesses get closer to where they want to be. From upskilling to meet future needs, to finding the right kind of agile learning, to proving the relationship between that learning and organisational change; the following research will seek to provide you with invaluable insights to support your organisations next step.

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A little bit about our research

Qualitative interviews DateSummer 2020

Interviewees42 C-suite people and senior leaders

Industries incl.• Technology & Telecommunications • Financial Services • Pharmaceuticals, Health & Life Sciences • Advertising & Media • Government & Public Services • Consumer Goods & Services • Professional Services • Leisure & Tourism

Organisational agility research DateAutumn 2020

IntervieweesInterviewees: 2,000 office workers, 49% decision makers

Industries incl.• Technology & Telecommunications • Financial Services • Pharmaceuticals, Health & Life Sciences • Advertising & Media • Government & Public Services • Consumer Goods & Services • Professional Services • Leisure & Tourism

Why your organisation’s success depends on your approach to learning

Mark CreightonCEO Avado Learning

The critical skills of the futureWhat does it mean for an organisation to properly prepare for the future, and how can they foster agility in their people?

• The most successful organisations value employees who proactively take ownership of their professional development. The people at these organisations are eager and motivated to take steps to advance their careers, for the good of themselves as well as their teams. The benefits of that learning are then directly tied to the organisation’s strategic goals.

• There is an ever-growing recognition that data and broader digital skills are vital to an organisation’s success. That means those skills should be considered foundational and organisation-wide, rather than specialised roles or teams.

• The need for organisations – and this means the people and teams within them – to be adaptable and operate with greater agility is essential and learning and development has an important role to play. In our recent survey, respondents rated their teams as 6.2 out of 10 when asked if they were working in an agile way. This dropped to 5.6 for decision-maker responses.

• Developing new capabilities can be a challenge but embedding them in a business takes even more; it requires a culture change. According to a 2020 study from McKinsey, diversifying your workforce leads to a broader scope of ideas and skills that can impact far beyond your normal operating space. Drawing people from a range of backgrounds fosters cognitive diversity, which leads to success.

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Both customer-centric ways of thinking and taking a more creative approach stood out as indicators of agility with our survey respondents. On average, 27% said that ‘always thinking from the customers’ perspective’ was what they associated most with working in an agile way, 21% said thinking creatively was another indicator of agility, and 23% saw agility as an important part of finding and resolving bottlenecks.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Always thinking from the customers perspective

Identifying and resolving bottlenecks/blockers quickly

All team members empowered to take time to think creatively

Running multiple small tests to get data to inform decisions

A focus on outcomes instead of output

27% 21% 18% 20% 14%

23% 20% 20% 20% 16%

21% 25% 20% 20% 14%

16% 15% 21% 20% 28%

12% 19% 21% 20% 28%

Reskilling is an effective way to increase capability at scale, but according to another McKinsey study from this year, few organisations do this systematically. Alongside developing specific new skills, shifting the mindsets of leaders and managers should continue to be a focus,

as well as creating a culture of mentorship as so many of us learn through hearing and seeing tangible examples. Creating organisational agility remains a challenge. For us, organisational agility is adapting, at pace, to the needs of the customer, regardless of whether there’s a crisis to

react to or not. That agility has to be woven through multiple departments, each adopting a way of working that increases their productivity, rapidly identifying and removing bottlenecks, applying a ‘test, learn, iterate’ approach, and enabling a focus on outcomes over outputs.

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Further reflections...

The critical skills of the future

How does learning fit into organisational agility, and how can learning methods keep up with the needs of a modern team?

There’s a new look for learning

• The acceleration of virtual learning supports a more agile operating model. That model also works for another organisational priority: inclusion. This transformation means learners can be drawn from a much wider base across an organisation, which creates a better peer-to-peer experience. Industry expert Josh Bersin covered this in a 2020 piece, too – inclusion and a sense of belonging is a huge factor in workplace engagement.

• Along with a focus on virtual learning environments, organisations want contextualised learning programmes that are tailored to meet their specific needs. More and more, organisations see the learning experience itself as equally important to what’s covered within that learning.

• Traditional, ‘short & bulky’ learning delivery is being replaced by ‘longer & thinner’ virtual models that better support the learning in the workplace.

• Immersive learning experiences tend to engage more of the audience. That means improvements will happen across the whole organisation, rather than advanced content delivered in a more conventional way that will likely lead to a smaller pool of ‘experts’ in an organisation.

• Up to now, the discussion around learning locations was about a hybrid model of synchronous learning, mixing face-to-face and virtual learning. But now, the new hybrid is a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning that’s more focused on the learner’s needs and prioritising convenience for them. And, as this 2020 study from Deloitte shows, as people adjust to that shift, it’s important for organisations to think strategically about those needs.

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Further reflections... This year has pushed many to rapidly adopt virtual working, and this is true for learning as well. This year has pushed many to rapidly adopt virtual working, and this is true for learning as well. We believe that even with a return to office-based working, the adoption of tech for both work We believe that even with a return to office-based working, the adoption of tech for both work and learning is the new normal. That said, there’s a big difference between a remote-based and learning is the new normal. That said, there’s a big difference between a remote-based workforce communicating with each other through tech and collaborating effectively. This is also workforce communicating with each other through tech and collaborating effectively. This is also true for people and teams learning together.true for people and teams learning together.

We believe that learning experiences over the next few years will need to include an increased focus on the human connection. Virtual learning has already proved to be a scalable solution for large organisations, but going forward, it will be essential to incorporate that human connection.

Whilst most organisations upskill their leaders alongside other leaders, we wonder if this is always the most effective way to equip them to drive change, or if it’s another example of sticking to the status quo. When it comes to shifting mindsets, learning alongside your peers can be very beneficial. But when it comes to learning new behaviours and new ways of working, wouldn’t it be useful to learn alongside your team?

“Our webinars will be predominantly off-the-shelf on things like soft

skills. But there will be an element of customisation where the

facilitator will add some talking points in the session around how the

content relates to us. We wouldn’t necessarily need the slides to be

branded, but we would expect the facilitator to make as many links to

the bank as possible.”

Vice President at a global bank

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There’s a new look for learning

Respondents to our agility survey were asked how their organisation is most likely to upskill leaders to create greater agility in their teams. ‘Train a leader/manager in the same training session as other leaders/managers’ was chosen by 44% of decision makers and 40% of non-decision makers.

Train a leader/manager in the same training session as their team

Train a leader/manager in the same training session as other leaders/managers

Train a leader/manager in the same training session as other leaders/managers and then in another...

30% 28%

42%

The impact of learning on organisational priorities and outcomes has always been difficult to attribute. This won’t change anytime soon, but it shouldn’t be a reason not to measure learning’s value. Defining the changes you want

to see in mindset, behaviours and ways of working as enablers to your business priorities is a critical activity, and those changes can and should be measured.Whilst technology is increasing the level of automation, it’s still people

that determine success or failure. Some learning is designed to improve skills, but the most effective learning experiences are those that enable a change in behaviour and, critically, ways of working with other people.

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Further reflections...

There’s a new look for learning

How can you determine just how much your efforts, and the efforts of your workforce, have contributed to your overall success?• Collaboration is even more critical as organisations adopt a remote working model.

Leaders and managers are the essential driver for this collaboration, setting the tone and maintaining an adaptable and agile work environment. LinkedIn Learning’s 2020 Workplace Learning Report shows that more CEOs need to be “champions of learning”.

• Successful organisations are doing a better job of measuring and tying learning outcomes to their strategic objectives, though it still isn’t easy. They are moving away from participation and towards more meaningful measures of improvement and how this creates value.

• Organisations are working more and more with an ecosystem of learning partners and providers. They want providers they can build a relationship with, working with them long-term and creating learning experiences.

If you can’t measure it, there’s no point

“Our L&D team would deliver training, and courses after courses after courses. People loved it, but

there was no impact being measured. There was no value. So when they

started measuring it, there was a big shift that then happened, which is

they actually got a dedicated CPO.”

Director at a global toy company

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Teams working effectively in an agile way can have several results, and we asked our survey respondents to rank those outcomes. 30% chose increased collaboration between departments, 28% chose a deeper understanding of their customers, and 22% chose improved business processes.

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Increased collaboration with other teams/departments

Deep understanding of the customer

Improved business processes

A clear view of which activities (in a team) create the most value

Bottlenecks and blockers resolved faster

30% 19% 21% 16% 14%

28% 18% 20% 18% 16%

22% 25% 19% 20% 14%

13% 19% 22% 20% 25%

7% 19% 18% 25% 31%

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If you can’t measure it, there’s no point

Upskilling to future-proof your business, working and learning with the best tools available to you, and combining it all to create an agile culture will build you a solid foundation for success. That is what we learned from this qualitative study with 40 C-suite people, and then cemented with a recent survey of 2,000 people of all levels from multiple sectors. Of the 980 decision makers in that group, 34% said that ‘increased collaboration with other teams/departments’ was the most important factor for working effectively in an ‘agile’ way. In addition to that, 25% felt more empowered to think creatively when they were working in an agile way.

At Avado, with our expertise in learning and knowledge of what organisations across a variety of industries need when upskilling their teams, we understand the value of finding that agility. When you can embed it from top to bottom across every department in all that you do – learning and beyond – it’ll help you reach your goals faster than ever before.

Final thoughts

Avado is the professional academy that helps people and businesses through interactive learning experiences. Avado builds capabilities and supports real change by offering new skills and mindsets, setting organisations up for future success.

Who are Avado?

Want to know more? Reach out to us via solutions@avadolearning.com, call us at +44 20 3906 7116, or visit our website at www.avadolearning.com

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