New ways of working mean new ways of learning
In late July last year, Dr Jen Frahm and I were excited to launch our books and celebrate with our peers in Melbourne’s vibrant change community. Through our activity in Melbourne and beyond, and via social channels, we’ve enjoyed networking with our industry peers from all corners of the globe to share our experiences, learn through connection and co-creation, and generally stay ahead of emerging trends in all things related to change so we can continually refresh our approaches to our consulting work and workshops.
A year on, our collaboration continues! We are just as excited to introduce our newest product to the market to help leaders in organisations build and sustain change capability while meeting their challenges of non-negotiable business-as-usual activities and deliverables. The mantra we hear constantly is ‘we are busy’. Our response is ‘let us offer you a different approach’. And that offer is called ‘change pick n mix’.
Here’s how it goes…
New ways of working means new ways of learning. There’s a great deal going on in our work-scape - along with agile and new ways of working, we see the constant dynamic of new power and VUCA. People typically have fewer hours in their day to attend long face-to-face training sessions. Combine this with our diminishing attentions spans and it’s easy to see how we now consume most of our information outside a formal learning environment.
It’s no surprise that mirco-learning - learning in shorter, sharper events - is more aligned to the way we receive and send information in our hyper-connected world.
People are learning in smaller, shorter chunks, and often in a just-in-time or ‘need to know’ basis.
Test, then learn
A shift from longer, face to face formal learning sessions means we need to shift our mindset about learning. It was once assumed that we learn in a classroom, then go out and put our new information to practice.
The tsunami of information we encounter now means we prefer to consume content in these shorter, snack-able chunks. With a growing preference for visual processing through video clips and infographics, micro-learning is easier to fit into busy schedules.
An iterative learning cycle not only provides these shorter learning episodes. The cycle is more agile, with a spirit of experimentation and autonomy to allow learners to test it first, then reflect, evaluate and learn. Learning occurs not only by doing, but by reflecting, talking with peers or coaches and iterating their approach. This approach nudges the mindset to see learning as an ongoing process rather than an isolated event.
The change pick n mix elements
Workshop - Kick off with a four-hour foundation workshop where Jen and I work with your team to equip them with the basic concepts of managing change in disruptive world and facilitate the design of a set of principles you can use as anchors in the turbulent times ahead.
Followed by:
Learning Bumps - These are 10 to 15-minute themed video clips on specific topics designed to help navigate uncertainty and continuous change. Each Learning Bump contains a cluster of three related clips. With each video comes a handout out and an experiment to try in your workplace. These come with an annual organisational licence so you can share and reuse with your people any way you see fit.
Change Coaching Clinics - Delivered as either one-on-one or in a ‘fishbowl’ style with
multiple attendees where an experienced practitioner works with you on your change
challenges in real time.
Change Ready Nudges - Short pieces of written content designed to nudge people’s thinking about change. These are aligned to the Learning Bump themes. We give you 100 pieces that you can use in any way that suits you.
Our clients are typically organisations who kick off their discovery with the foundation workshop, and then go on to craft their own agile learning journey from this range of options to meet their immediate and longer-term needs. We are there when you need us, and hands-off when you need to self-direct your learning.
Future forward learning - find out more
Our innovative change pick n mix approach respects that people are busy and considers the value of iterative learning in cycles. It’s an agile learning program designed to build change capability in bite sized chunks.
To find out more about change pick n mix, head over to our websites.
We are hyper-connected too, so there’s lots of ways to reach us or to find out more:
Dr Jen Frahm https://conversationsofchange.com.au/
