HYPERLEARN - BUILDING RESILIENCE How do leaders rise post-COVID: A virtual event for HR Leaders in partnership with World Vision - Rockbird ...

HYPERLEARN
Post-Conference Whitepaper

 BUILDING
 RESILIENCE
 How do leaders rise
 post-COVID: A virtual
 event for HR Leaders in
 partnership with World
 Vision

 AUGUST 05-06, 2020

Post-discussion
                                             reflection on
                                             acceleration of
                                             the hyper
                                             learning era

                                          Author/s: Harpreet Kapoor, Lokesh Nigam

 Roundtable Panelists:

   Kacy             Meinar              Johnny                 Novita               Kristine
   Wang,            Siagian,             Loke,               Sasongko,            Marisse Perez
  HR Director        AVP HR          Head - Retail L&D,       Head - HR,             HR Manager
APAC, Qualcomm   Head - corporate,      RHB Bank          Amalan International   Learning Experience,
                 PT Asuransi Cigna                                                   CIMB Bank

DISCUSSION SUMMARY:
The panel shared some interesting insights on the way learning is shaping and
changing the newer times powered by more self-driven and self-reliant behaviors,
that are becoming a reality in the digitized world. Add to this, there are additional
variables pertaining to the new skills that emerged quite suddenly on the scene,
given the global pandemic, that started earlier this year. The pandemic has brought
a breakthrough shift in the way people perceive and conduct work related activities.
Surely this is a new and evolving situation, that requires new skills for each one of us.

The panel discussed on some interesting and deep insights, pertaining to the overall
learning ecosystem. As a first, due to the mostly self-driven nature of learning, that
has been evolving at a rapid pace, with the advent of search engines in late last
century – content personalization has been evolving, to support both individual
performance and growth. Personalization and availability of blended learning
solutions, at the time of application is one of the most important drivers of modern
learning. Secondly, the performance-led design of learning ecosystems, bringing
together organizational and external knowledge to people, for enhancing their
in-role performance, and to make it autonomous has been a key shift of focus.
Micro-learning and peer-learning and coaching is evolving at a rapid pace, to ensure
resource availability at the time of delivery. Anytime, anywhere learning is the third
most important evolution, which points to the disjunctive nature of learning delivery
need going forward. It is no more a linear classroom or even e-learning architecture
that matters, but the asynchronous natural learning process, which is being sped up
through digital means. Finally, it is important to note that from a trainer and
teacher-based architecture, the learning of the new times is more learner-led.
Strategy, design and architecture of learning content is more and more learner-led
than trainer or teacher-led.

A few of the greatest shortcomings of the “teaching” and “education” era, that have
often led people and individuals to, at times, a learning disability has been a
three-fold and erroneous approach to learning:

1. One size fits all design and content dumping practice, set in the industrial
   revolution era to cater for manual and repetitive activities.
2. A linear learning design, graduating people from one standard to other of a
   systematic learning path.
3. A teacher-led discourse, set in the system of what teacher wants to teach, not
   what learner wants to learn.

These three attributes of learning design, which pretty much has remained
unchanged in the last three centuries has done many a good and was relevant for a
time that required a bureaucratic, command and control approach to work and
managing businesses.

With the advent of Digital Technologies, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, we
have already observed a shift in the way people work and learn. In the past 40 years,
mankind has created a zillion times more content than all the human past put
together. The servers over the world are brimming with information, that can be
used for learning and growth, instantly.

At such a pace of information forming and distribution, the above three practices
have already died their natural death. We as learning, training and teaching
professionals may choose to disagree, but few of our learning practices do anything
but trigger a thought in the minds of your consumer, the learner.

The only great practice from the past that still works wonders, is personalized
coaching and mentoring. In fact, this is the fastest shaping field, as we will find more
and more people signing up for personal and one-on-one learning sessions with
gurus, rather than attend a corporate program. A personal coach or mentor has
historically been and continues to be the one most effective way of learning and
growth. If internet is bringing a revolution, it is bringing here – personalized
one-on-one engagement with one’s mentor, rather than the factory and mass
program approach to learning. It is therefore safe to assume, that whether off-line or
online, mass classrooms will have very limited role to play in learning – limited to
information gathering. Learning is an intensely personal process, created, led and
consumed by the individual. The learning professionals can at best hint to a
direction, while coaches and mentors may trigger enquiry and mold the direction of
reflection in an individual, both important to the learning activity.

The future of learning is in the twin pillars of self and coach:
1. A mentor, coach or guru-led learning path based on individual’s interest
    and growth need
2. Self-driven, self-led and self-determined learning to meet the day-to-day
    skill requirements for work or life applications
   (viz. solving business or technical problems at work, cooking at home et al)

Therefore, the sooner we stop relying on mass education and generalized content,
the better for a corporate. Because, such resources are anyway available to the
learner, and mostly for free, on platforms like YouTube, Google, Wikipedia et al.

In such a scenario what is now going to be the role of learning professionals? What
is the role of content developers? What is the role of the learning technology
providers? What is the role of educational institutions that train the young minds for
corporate readiness?

As we interacted more on the hyper-learning acceleration with some great minds
across the Southeast Asian region, we got some great insights on this evolution, as
they are happening. Kacy Wang from Qualcomm shared about, the trends she has
been observing in her organization. She spoke about how at Qualcomm, they
experimented with leaving the design in the hands of talent, which worked well. She
said, “the new things that we experimented with during the pandemic to support
our people with new learning and that worked well, was to have people design what
is needed. For instance, we let people design for creative thinking and managing
stress during these times and then have content designers aligned with people to
design content for the need.” She further spoke about the virtual coaching initiative
that helped people mitigate the stress & well-being related issues that the workforce
may be facing. As we look deeply at her words, these are not just one-off initiatives,
but the definite trend towards, one-on-one mentoring and self-directed learning,
that more and more organizations are adopting to kickstart meaningful learning for
their talent. What’s therefore needed, is not a lot of investment on generic content,
but an attitude of empathy with our customer, the learner, to design what’s best
suited and provide them with more opportunities to interact with experts & mentors
who can further accelerate their self-directed learning.

   “Let people design what
   they need, and align the
   content designers to
   them.”

   – Kacy Wang,
   Qualcomm

Humans are continuous learners, they
observe, and they learn. Human mind is
continuously taking information from the
outside world, to form judgment, opinion, and
learnings to either change their existing world
views or come up with new ones. This involves
a complex process of people interacting and
connecting with the environment as well as
other people around. This creates an
emotional bond, as well as triggers the
phenomenon of observational and social
learning. Meinar Siagian, at Cigna, Indonesia
spoke in detail about this phenomenon. She
spoke about, how Cigna is trying to create a
digital ecosystem that help the employees
connect with each other ensuring live
sessions and webinars let people engage and
draw from each other by being connected
socially, though in a virtual manner. She spoke
about communities and how they are really
helping people develop new skills. She said,
“At Cigna, both formal and informal learning
communities       are     there.  For    formal
communities we have the leadership talks
where senior leaders share their experiences      “Cigna has formal and
and insights. External speakers help build
external perspective and provides exposure to     informal communities that
the workforce. Cigna has informal learning        help with professional and
communities on several topics such as, health,
                                                  personal growth of
lifestyle, as well as personal development.
These communities may not be just about           our people.”
business but are both about the professional
and personal growth of our people.”
Communities are a very integral part of the
social learning process and having influencers
drive the communities is a very important
aspect that organizations have started
leveraging upon. Communities, help shape
the minds, in an asynchronous manner,
                                                  – Meinar Siagian, Cigna
harnessing the way that people learn in real
life – asynchronous observation.

One of the important aspects of self-directed learning is to form and shape a content
strategy that pulls people to utilize the resources. Content is at the core of the
ongoing transformation in learning. Content that is relevant, linked to performance,
and easy to consume is the mantra organizations are leaning towards. With a huge
amount of content being created and (usually) dumped on the learner,
organizations may be doing an injustice to the learner. Content strategy needs to be
deeply investigated and planned to serve the real learner need. Johnny Loke, from
RHB Bank, gave us insights on how content is being curated to help the learners in
their journeys. He spoke about the way organization is leveraging Workplace by
Facebook for people to curate the internal content in the form of videos, that are
readily available for learners when they need it. While experts the internal content,
there is a shift in content consumption, mostly to digital. In such a scenario, a mix of
internal and external content and the knowledge management have been enabling
the learner to consume the content as they need it. He said, “our internal and
customized work-specific content, and the Workplace by Facebook has enhanced
organization’s social learning experience. While our practices may be like other
organizations, providing simple content to people has really helped enhance their
experience.” The simplicity and the ability of the content to be used at the time of
need, is directly proportional to the adoption of such content. The more relevant the
content, and simple in its presentation, the more will be the consumption of such
content – even if it is just a simple check list.

                                                    Simplified content and
                                                    simple delivery
                                                    interface, enhances
                                                    people’s experience.”

                                                    – Johny Loke,
                                                    RHB Bank

Skills, directly associated with work outcome and the performance therein is critical
to organization’s learning agenda, and often the most neglected one. Organizations
that focus on technical and problem-solving skill building have shown a lot of
resilience and grown consistently, be it Toyota or Samsung – which have
disproportionate focus on technology and work-related skill building, that further
builds autonomy. Novita Sasongko from Amalan International highlighted this
aspect in the requirement to build technical skills and capabilities by building
certifications and training at each departmental level. She spoke about how learning
is everyone’s agenda in the organization and how line managers participate in
building the certifications and learnings to enhance technological capabilities in
their own functions. She highlighted, “We are looking at business strategies, and see
what we need to achieve and accordingly design certifications & training. Each
departments’ focus area is being looked at in designing these certifications &
trainings.”

“Certifications and trainings are
closer to the function and
business needs. Letting
departments design their                                 – Novita Sasongko,
priorities is key”                                     Amalan International

Having self-driven people in an organization immensely depends on the leaders,
managers and organization’s ability to engage talent and provide a psychologically
safe place to work and contribute. Organizations having an energized talent, are at
least 10X more effective than their counterparts. Companies that create happy,
committed and a hungry workforce have a distinct resource and capability
advantage, key to winning in the global competition. Kristine Marisse Perez from
CIMB Bank highlighted this aspect profoundly, that they are driving in her
organization. She highlighted quite a few critical factors, that she has been working
in her organization to drive learning effectiveness. She said, “Learning is supposed to
be fun. We trust our employees that they are going to do work as supposed to be
done. Employees are not robots. We cannot expect them to do something without
explaining them why they need to do it. Our role is to encourage learning. Providing
flexibility in learning is our focus – we are human beings, we have different
productive hours, different learning styles. I personally prefer byte sized learning. So,
we decided to focus on giving each of them a different way of learning. And we ask
employees what the best way to learn is for them and try to provide them such
opportunities.” Sooner we realize all of us are adults at work and not a herd, the
better for organizations. Autonomy is a value that can work wonders for
organizations and create a highly differentiated value for the customers. There are
tons of case studies on the subject and each one points to the fact – that providing
more self-directedness makes employee judgment better.

 “Learning is supposed to be fun.
 We trust our employees that they
 are going to do work as supposed
 to be done. Employees are not                           – Kristine Marisse Perez,
 robots.”                                                       CIMB Bank
Finally, measuring learning ROI is something that most organization leaders have
continuously struggled with. The better way of looking at the ROI is not in the value
addition or dollar return but is in the time to competency. How quickly are we
enabling people to perform autonomously? The faster this rate the higher the value
add to the individual as well as the business. Businesses deploy several tools, like
Meinar Siagian spoke of learning goals with KPI’s, while Novita Sasongko spoke
about micro-learning and resource availability in the flow of work. It is quite
important to see what content we are promoting – as Kacy Wang said, “There is not
much difference in the type of platform but the content and what is needed for the
business needs to be looked at.” Practical direct insights, that link to business
outcomes is the future of learning as per Johnny Loke as he said, “Reduce theories
and make things more practical. Theories are good to have but people should be
able to apply their learning immediately or as soon as possible. It drills down to how
well the content is designed.”

Conclusively there is an evidence, to accelerate hyper learning culture, we need
learning and HR professionals as well as organization leaders to bring it closer to
individual’s specific needs, preferences and professional needs in performing their
roles better.

What is increasingly been observed, and what remains as a definitive
recommendation to organizations, looking to transform learning we recommend the
following based on research our experience, and the conference speakers’ inputs.

1. Before building platforms, and content strategies or libraries, learning and
   development leaders should engage with businesses on creating a competency
   approach and determining resources that have a direct impact on meeting
   business and individual’s performance objectives. Start with outcome first and
   determine the value of training in meaningful business terms – as time to
   autonomy and full competence.
2. As a rule, value simplicity - emphasize agile and shorter sessions or "course-lets"
   delivered where and when needed, rather than longer sessions that take
   employees out of the field for extended periods of time.
3. Make learn an important component of work. Further, capitalize on both online
    and off-line social communities that are included with corporate learning systems
   to allow employees to engage and learn from each other.
4. Ensure internal or external experts are available on demand, to upskill people.
   The experts should be available on demand, for specific performance related
   issues and as agile coaches rather than elaborate coaching programs.

Building hyper learning infrastructure requires a change in the way training and
education is currently viewed, and organization & learning professionals should gear
up their portfolios to drive deeper changes in the learning ecosystem in years to come.
While we set to change, we should keep in mind the new workforce is already more
used to hyperlearning, than we think, based the way they have been used to learning.
So, fasten the seatbelt and embrace this welcome change!

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

                         lokesh@kognozconsulting.com

Lokesh Nigam is the Co-Founder & Director at Kognoz Research
& Consulting. In his 20 years of management consulting
experience he has worked intensely in Change, Employee
Experience,    Organization      Transformation,      Digital  HR
Transformation and Leadership Development. Lokesh brings
deep expertise in areas of strategic workforce planning, strategy
mapping and deployment, organization set-up, Digital HR
transformation,     talent    management        and     leadership
development with a consulting track record of advising global
and Indian clients, across several industry verticals including Oil
& Gas, Engineering, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Banking &
Financial Services, Conglomerates, Information Technology,
Services and Family Led Enterprises.

                         harpreet@kognozconsulting.com

Harpreet Kapoor, CEO of Kognoz Talent Solutions is leading
Talent, Learn & Engagement consulting, products and solutions
for ASEAN Region. She has over 10 years of experience in
working deeply in the areas of HR transformation, Organization
Design, Learning & Development, Talent Management,
Engagement, Well-Being with a holistic approach on
developing practices, policies, and digital enablement.

ABOUT THE SPONSOR:
                                                              www.kognozconsulting.com

Kognoz Research & Consulting Private Limited: We love what we do and work with
passion in driving real-time change. At Kognoz, we help transform people & businesses
through our research-based consulting solutions. Our expertise includes, agile organization
redesign, culture change, digital-led HR transformation, employee experience & leadership
development. Design thinking, digital enablement and agile-based implementation form
the core of our methodology, powered by a communication and dialogue studio that draw
from real-time strategic change methodologies.

What is new with us:
Kognoz Talent Solutions, our digital arm launches two flagship platforms this year:
• HiperLearn, a micro-learning platform and content studio
• Immerz, an employee immersion and culture enablement platform

                                                                  www.rockbirdmedia.com

Rockbird Media: We offer premium events and business solutions designed for C-level
Executives—the most influential members of an organization—to facilitate powerful
interactions, benchmark strategies and unlock innovation. We have assembled an
exceptionally talented team - each member honed with years of experience - making them
capable of rising to the challenges of a rapidly changing market. We tested our strengths
across multiple industries and assimilate ourselves more with each event. It is in those
experiences that our combined workforce finds desire to innovate and bring them towards
you. After all, your success is what drives us to exceed expectations in every single event we
produce.

                                                                         www.worldvision.in

World Vision is the largest child-focused private charity in the world. Our almost 40,000 staff
members working in nearly 100 countries have united with our incredible supporters to
impact the lives of over 200 million vulnerable children by tackling the root causes of
poverty. Through World Vision every 60 seconds…a family gets water…a hungry child is fed…a
family receives the tools to overcome poverty. Motivated by our faith and guided by our deep
experience and expertise, we are a Christian humanitarian, development and advocacy
organization devoted to improving the lives of children, families and their communities
around the world and creating lasting impact that will live on in generations to come. We
serve all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender.

REACH
US

     50, No. 5, 17/F, Strand, 50 Bonham Strand,
     Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

     Quezon Ave, Diliman, Quezon City, 1104
     Metro Manila, Philippines

     13, SpringHouse Coworking, Lower Ground,
     Grand Mall, MG Road, Gurgaon, India

     Wework, 40th Floor, Mercu 2, No.3, Jalan Bangsar,
     Kampung Haji Abdullah Hukum, 59200 Kuala Lumpur

     21K Three Central Valero Street Vilage, Makati City 1227 Philippines
     Email: contact@kognozconsulting.com