Lifelong learning: leading by example — and AI
A great example
I’ve been a fan of Coursera for a few years now. It started during the pandemic, as I was in the middle of the HEC Executive MBA program, during which students were given access to curated content on the platform.
Recently, I followed a few courses on Generative AI. I was incredibly impressed by one titled “Navigating Generative AI: a CEO Playbook”. Not only was the content particularly good, full of examples and practical insights, but the instructor was none other than Jeff Maggioncalda, the Coursera CEO.
This really is leading by example when you are the CEO of a Learning Tech company and you decide to fully immerse yourself in a strategic topic and share your knowledge via your own platform.
Time is the essence
As we all know, in most cases the main obstacle to successful corporate Learning & Development strategies isn’t necessarily the content, nor the technology, but the time (or lack thereof) dedicated to learning. I am guilty of this myself: working at Speexx, I have access to high quality language classes and am learning Italian, but I don’t devote nearly enough time to make any visible progress. I know perfectly well allocating 15 minutes every day would make a huge difference, but I don’t plan accordingly. On the other hand, I am in charge of Business Coaching and therefore I’m currently following a training to become a certified coach myself, so in this regard at least I’m trying to be consistent.
So what is the lesson here? People will devote time to train if they really feel that this will have a positive impact on their work and that there is a moment during which focusing on learning is the most valuable way of spending their time, and if it is extremely easy to manage. The question is how do we make it happen if we work in L&D.
You can make some training mandatory of course, which is necessary for compliance-related topics. In the case of on-site training, the time to learn is de facto pre-defined and so this issue has already been decided when people registered to the class (as, in my case, for my coaching training). This applies to synchronous digital learning where you have to join an online session with the trainer. But what of asynchronous digital learning, which you can theoretically access at any time? How can we ensure highest usage?
AI answers
Of course I decided to apply some of the learnings from my various AI classes on Coursera, and I reached out to Google Gemini Advanced. My first prompt was about building a strategy to bring as many users as possible to access the content, and to do so on a regular basis. The result was interesting at a higher level and gave very good advice on building a comprehensive L&D strategy (including assessments, curation, communication, integration in daily work…), but did not mention time specifically.
So my next prompt asked how to ensure users allocate sufficient time to their online learning. Once again, I got very good advice on how to convince employees and managers to free up time to learn (linking to performance, building a culture of learning, improving time management and offering attractive content). This was all useful but still wasn’t exactly the answer to what I had in mind.
In my last prompt, I asked what very practical steps could be taken to enable employees to free up time to learn. This is where I wanted to arrive at as I assume all the previous steps are already managed by L&D teams. In that case the answers may seem logical: dedicate time to learn, streamline work processes to free up time, encourage learning on the job, develop microlearning, and get leadership support.
So what now?
All of this may appear obvious, but isn’t necessarily implemented in organizations. Successful companies do devote time to learn and explore new ideas, as we know from 3M, Google, Danone, and many others. At the end of the day, it comes down to two elements: dedicate time to learn, and get executive support. This will only work if your executives not only give support, but lead by example in learning and in sharing knowledge, as we’ve seen in the Coursera example above.
It’s not necessarily that difficult. Depending on your own company culture, you can decide to allocate 20 minutes everyday to online learning, or 1 to 2 hours a week, or a day every 6 to 8 weeks. Whatever the format you decide to implement, it will only work if your C-suite plays along and is part of the program, both for learning and for sharing knowledge.
