The Focus of Organizational Learning Departments Has to Change
Organizations have to change and have to become better at changing.
As a result, the way of working of the Organizational Learning Department (OLD) should no longer be to just take requests and provide or arrange specific skills training as HR used to do in the past. The OLD needs to take a more pro-active and strategic role, applying lean / agile principles and teaming up with business unit managers to define what's needed, and helping employees become peer teachers, guides and coaches. The department must make learning an integral part of the organization's strategic agenda.
Some key ideas to achieve that include:
1. Act as curators and co-creators (combining external and internal content)
2. Foster learning from peers (rather than from formal instructors)
3. Measure the impact of their efforts (on the organization's overall strategy)
From: "The Transformer CLO" by Abbie Lundberg and George Westerman, HBR Jan-Feb 2020.
