Build People, Not (Only) Processes

Getting ahead requires more than skilled employees. Whileproviding eLearning on skills that employees use every day is one way toimprove team performance, it’s not enough. It is also essential to take stepsto build better people in ways that might be less obviously connected to theirdaily tasks or even to the bottom line.

A recent HarvardBusiness Review article, “The Key to Adaptable Companies Is Relentlessly Developing People,” argues thatfocusing on the personal evolution of employees sets up companies to flourish,whatever challenges they may face in the future: “It turns out that relentlessfocus on people, on developing everyone in the organization, leads to anorganizational culture designed for adaptive change.” The article continues, “Inthis sense, culture is strategy.”

The good news for managers is that eLearning can be apowerful ally in steering employees toward personal growth. While some eLearningfocuses on teaching processes or conveying facts, excellent eLearning exists toteach more elusive skills and concepts, to develop people by feeding theirinnate drive to learn and grow. Try these strategies for people-building usingeLearning:

Encourage training that develops employees’ potential.Sure, employees are encouraged—even required—to complete training on specificskills needed right now for specific company-dictated tasks. Tryflipping the focus: Encourage employees to learn skills that might—or mightnot—be used in a current task but that build them. Identify theirstrengths and aspirations, and encourage them to stretch, learn related skillsof interest, or improve their facility with tools they already use. Letemployees take professional development training, or complete badges andnanodegrees. Don’t stifle the urge to learn anything that is even remotely connectedto their current job—or their stated career path.

Facilitate learning networks. Learning networksencourage collaboration among employees. They also spread learning around. Thatemployee whom you supported in his quest to learn a new tool? He’s now teachingthree colleagues to use it, and they are exploring ways to apply it to improvingperformance on their biggest project. Facilitating informal exchanges ofknowledge mostly means giving employees space to let learning networks develop.The space might be mostly metaphorical: If employees feel that the culture andmanagement are supportive, learning communities will emerge organically.

Curate content. Provide opportunities for employeesto learn and grow through knowledge. Let them explore relevant, quality contentthat you have selected and made available. Encourage employees to share additionalcontent. Engagement with the curated content will spark discussions that canlead to collaboration, teaching, learning—adding up to personal developmentamong employees as well as stronger collegial connections.

Encourage critical thinking. Telling employees whatto do and how to do it might feel efficient. Butencouraging them to sharpen the skills needed to figure things out on their ownreally sets them up to face future challenges. To teach critical thinking, saysPoynter’s Jill Geisler, managers should invest in training that goes beyond processand emphasizes “how to think about” an issue. She also emphasizes theimportance of supporting employees’ attempts to become independent decisionmakers—even when they err.

Adopting these strategies does not mean neglecting efforts and trainingthat will improve performance in the core business of the company. But on itsown, that is not enough. Building people is essential to ensure that thecompany will not merely survive, but thrive and adapt to meet future challenges.A company cannot realize its potential without spurring the people whoconstitute it to reach theirs.