I talk to a lot of people about the future of work as part of my podcast, I talked to Anita Lettink today and she talked about how "work" has become decoupled from "location".

The pandemic has accelerated the way we work and it's accelerated the need for digital skills.  Digital skills, will mean skills like Zoom and Teams, but also the ability to use social media, (internal social media such as Slack and externally social media such as LinkedIn and Twitter). 

Digital skills also means the use of video.  One Sales Leader I know gets each salesperson to sum up their week on a (no more than) two minute video, that the salesperson has to send in on Friday's.

This article quotes that

"As jobs are transformed by the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030."

And, of course this isn't about training people with a 100 power points, we all know people don't learn anything this way. 

This article also goes onto say

"But there shouldn't be short cuts when organisations are building their reskilling muscle."

But how can organisations get their reskilling efforts right in a large-scale and programmatic way, to realise a fully-fledged skill transformation?

Death by Powerpoint

Many organisations still seem to think that "push training" is the way to learn.

I present to you a compelling message, share a load of "facts" through "100 power points" and somehow my audience is supposed to be convinced and their minds changed.  We all know life isn't like that. 

We've all been on these courses and we all know they don't work.  

In business, nothing "just happens".

• People are scared of being fired.
• People don't know what to do.
• People don't see it as a priority.

How as humans how do we get new skills?

Let's talk about how we learn. 

Now I've never flown a plane, but really how hard can it be?  I'm joking.

When people learn a new skill, like flying a plane, we don't just give them 100 powerpoint presentations and then say "off you go".  We don't employ a person called a "pilot trainer" and hope all the people will become pilots.

We take people through a methodology.  Think about the way you learn best.

Somebody will show you some theory, then you try it out in a safe environment.  The coach will be there to make sure they can answer any questions.  You then get the ability to try it out in your normal day-to-day work, but knowing the coach is there at the end of the telephone, email, whatsapp.

If you think about how you become a pilot, you are given theory lessons on the ground.  You then fly with your coach.  The coach will then hand over the plane to you, but will be there to try things out.  You can then try (on the ground) flight simulators and then you can go back to the coach.

Knowing that the "theory" of flying and "doing" the flying are two different things.

What I have described above is a common learning framework, let's talk about what a learning framework is and how it will achieve getting your team to change. 

There is a learning framework called 70:20:10

The 70:20:10 model emphasises the benefits of informal learning, it’s also a great methodology that encourages better employee engagement.

The methodology divides learning into three categories:

• 70% – informal, on the job, experienced based
• 20% – coaching, mentoring, developing through others (social learning)
• 10% – formal learning interventions and structured courses

Of the organisations that have embraced the 70:20:10 framework:

• 73% improved process
• 72% improved efficiency
• 63% improved productivity

To go back to this article

"In our experience, organisations lay the foundation when they are being conscious about the mindset shift needed in the long-term and recognise that skilling is not a sporadic exercise. Rather, organisations need to develop mechanisms and incentives that make basic upskilling a part of employees' everyday lives at work rather than a programme where up- or reskilling employees happens only every five years."