The Learning Imperative

Raising performance in organisations by improving learning

Mark Burns, Andy Griffith

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781785833762
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Learning is central to the long-term success of any team and is far too important to dismiss or to relegate to a 'nice to do' list. In The Learning Imperative, bestselling authors Burns and Griffith explore the common barriers to effective learning and present a range of practical tools and strategies to help teams bring about and reap the benefits of a more positive culture around training and development.

Together they map out the key stages of the learning journey and provide a comprehensive guide for team leaders and managers who want to improve learning in their teams. They also share essential advice on the design and delivery of effective training programmes, and punctuate their instruction with a range of illuminating case studies drawn from real-life contexts across the public, private and third sectors.

The book has been split into three sections. Part I sets out why creating and maintaining a learning team needs to be a high priority, and provides an easy-to-use framework to help leaders establish their team's starting points. Part II is designed to assist leaders in fostering an open-to-learning mindset in their teams offering tools to diagnose any closed-to-learning mindsets and supplying straightforward strategies to facilitate team members' development in becoming habitually reflective, curious and responsive to feedback. The final part of the book concerns the designing and leading of effective learning, whether it is packaged within a one-off session or a multi-session programme, and will help leaders ensure that the learning their team participates in is engaging, appropriately challenging and, most importantly, will develop their performance.

Whether you are an experienced leader or just starting out in the role, this user-friendly manual will empower you to boost your team's performance and to make a powerful impact on their learning.

Two Books that I Would Recommend by Thomas Stansfield.

Click here to view the feature on The World of Learning's blog.

Click here to read the review of 'The Learning Imperative' on 'Thought Space' blog.

Radio Edutalk 18-12-2018: Mark Burns on his new book, 'The Learning Imperative'.

The Learning Imperative has been named the winner of the HR and Management category of The Business Book Awards 2019.

The Learning Imperative has been named a finalist in the 2018 INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the business and economics category.

The Business Desk - Authors celebrate success after business book accolade.

Click here to watch Mark Burns' videos in relation to The Learning Imperative.

The Extraordinary Business Book Club - Episode 167 The Learning Imperative with Mark Burns

Part I

Learning and your team

Chapter 1

The importance of learning

We were on the 11.07 out of Liverpool Street station. Sitting across the table from me (Mark) and my 6-year-old daughter, Ruby, was the store manager of (according to the documents in front of her) a major high street retail chain. She was making a series of calls, and, judging by the nature of the conversations, it seemed she was returning from a major review at head office. With each successive call we could sense her palpably growing frustration with various colleagues and their failure – in her eyes – to do their jobs properly.

Ruby – who, due to her curiosity, might well end up working for the secret services one day – was intrigued to eavesdrop on these conversations and was fascinated by the new range of language she was hearing. Arriving into Ipswich station, the preoccupied manager was surprised to discover that she had reached her destination. She leapt up, grabbed her belongings and hustled down the carriage. My little co-traveller observed all of this in silence. Then she turned to me and fixed me with a puzzled look. I knew a question was coming.

‘Why doesn’t she just teach them?’

‘To do what?’ I replied.

‘To learn how to do their jobs properly. Then she can be less angry!’

There certainly appeared to be learning gaps in the store manager’s organisation. But for whom?

Have you ever wondered why it is a struggle to engage your team in learning?

Do you sometimes feel tired or stressed by constantly finding and fixing issues in your team?

Do you find ‘developing your team’ the one task on your to-do list that you never get to?

What’s in this chapter for me?

This chapter will examine first why learning is such a crucial foundation to the future success of all teams and organisations. Having addressed the imperative of learning, we will then go on to explore the common reasons why learning is not always given the priority it deserves. As part of this process, we will give you the opportunity to reflect on your own team or organisation and the importance of its ongoing growth and development.

What do we mean by a ‘learning team’?

A team, as we define it in this book, is the particular group of people who you directly lead or over whom you have direct or indirect influence. This could be a small team of two or three or, if you are a chief executive, a team of several hundred to many thousands.

As the authors of this book, we are making the assumption that you, the reader, are curious about the value of learning for your team and organisation, and seeking clarity and practical strategies to help develop and implement effective and sustainable learning and development.

Throughout the book, we will use case studies from real life. We will cite the experiences of individuals, teams and organisations we have worked with to illustrate the principles and strategies we are advocating. Our case studies are drawn from a wide range of contexts, locations and types of organisation. They include those that have learning and development deeply embedded in their DNA, and those that don’t. We will also include the learning journeys of organisations and leaders who thought they were optimising the learning of their staff, but who later came to realise that the approaches they were using were ineffective.

Drawing on our experiences, we suggest that a learning team is a group of individuals who commit to learn together. After all, down the ages, human development has been enhanced by people collaborating, sharing learning and struggling through adversity to explore new ideas, new perspectives, new possibilities. We consider how this collaborative power can be focused on ensuring the ongoing growth and development of your team and your organisation into the future.

In what contexts does learning take place?

Learning takes place in many forms in organisations. On some occasions it will be through formal learning programmes. More often, however, it will be in less formal situations such as on-the-job experiences. In this setting, individuals learn from their mistakes as they attempt to master their work role and from the feedback they receive on their performance. Individuals also learn alongside fellow workers through a variety of activities, including social learning, coaching, mentoring, collaborative learning and other methods of engagement with peers. This book will help you to maximise the potential for learning across each of these contexts.

Learning can take many different forms. One of the models we have found most useful in achieving deep learning is the KASH model. This stands for the ongoing development of the knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits of individuals within teams and which contributes to individual and collective improved performance. While Paul Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard Clark have defined learning as ‘a change in long-term memory’,1 in the workplace, learning is likely to lead to the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits which are readily available from memory to use.

The pursuit of KASH reminds us that this book isn’t just about how to design effective learning in our team, alth...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Learning and your team
• Part II: Overcoming barriers to learning
• Part III: Designing effective learning
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Feedback survey
• Appendix 2: Learning programme planner
• Bibliography
• Copyright
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