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Learning sure…. but how?
Learning Sure…. but how?
“Learning led”. “Learning centred”. “Placing learning at the heart of our work”. “Learning as a core value”. “Learning as a way of working”. “Learning as a strategic goal”. “Learning as a strategic outcome”.
These are phrases and comments that we commonly hear and see in our work today. And in my view, as an ardent advocate of learning approaches, happily so. That, in itself, gives cause to celebrate.
Because recognising that learning is a powerful tool has been a real positive shift. It’s visibility and prominence in visions, strategies, values and plans feels like a strong commitment – demonstrating a collective desire to better understand, to improve, to progress and move forward – obvious steps which bring us closer to realising our missions.
Of course that doesn’t mean that learning is new or news to us. It has, of course, been discussed since earliest recorded times within scriptures, through proverbs and famously Aristotle teachings as an early exponent of experiential learning (“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”).
And as partnerships we have always learnt.
We evaluate our work. We review our progress. We look back. We plan forward. And we shift thinking and what we do as a result – our narratives demonstrate that.
We talk about understanding better that achievement of our ambitions requires multi-layered approaches where ‘no single solution acts as a silver bullet answer’. That the last 18 months has accelerated our recognition that we need agile people who can adapt and respond to different and developing needs.
That we appreciate that we need a common purpose which enables everyone involved to work towards shared ambitions; and how experience has taught us that bringing people together to explore what works, what doesn’t and what to do next is time to be invested in. We’ve shown progression in our thinking about data. That it becomes far more meaningful as a tool when its translated into insight. And insight becomes more purposeful when its translated into action. And that our thinking has evolved around impact as a tool to evidence that change can produce better, ideally more sustainable outcomes.
So we can confidently say we are learning led?
Certainly learning happens. There’s no denying that. But still – there’s a nagging concern that merely putting the word learning in all things without really exploring and articulating how we will do it puts it into buzz-word territory. And the danger in keeping it at that superficial level is that learning becomes merely a concept – and we develop a tendency to talk about it in abstract terms.
“We will learn by creating time and space” being a common one. Of course its an important way to enable learning to happen. But it can make learning feel like something which hangs in the ether to be ‘grappled’ with.
And many are subsequently grappling with it.
It raises more questions than gives us answers. What does ‘creating time and space’ mean? And look like? And if that’s all learning is then does it really add value to our work? How do we show it’s made a difference? Had impact? Contributed to an effective spend of investment?
So, let’s change our narrative.
We will learn. We all think. We reflect. But strategic learning which shifts mindsets, influences the conditions we work in and progresses our movements has got to be deliberate. Intentionally done. Planned. Observed and purposeful. And to do that we have to spend time exploring and stating how we will do learn.
Because ‘creating time and space’ cannot be the extent to the answer of how we have learnt.
But then what is the answer?
As ever, there are no simple one size fits all solutions.
For we are all, as systems, organisations, teams and individuals, distinct.
Each unique to the political, social, economic and cultural dynamics of our local place. And of course, our systems, organisations and teams aren’t a ‘thing’. They’re made of people – it’s people who build the system – people with their own individual learning styles, needs and approaches.
And our progress – our ‘journeys’ – are happening at different paces because of it. It sounds dismissive, but is often honest to say, we are where we are. And our learning should therefore reflect what matters distinctly to us because of that.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t progress with some collective thinking. There is expertise to be shared. Ideas to be tested. Processes which can be put in place and structures which can be built.
Learning can be ‘operationalised’ and shifted from being abstract into more tangible actions.
I often describe it by aligning it to something we can all associate with – being at school, college or university. Any educational institution. It wouldn’t be enough to say ‘I’m learning’ simply because I was stood on a university campus many years ago (and far too frequently I wasn’t!). Learning doesn’t just happen by being in a created space with time. It’s constructed to happen. There are planned course programmes to ensure focus on the key areas to learn. Lectures and lessons are scheduled to transfer knowledge. Tutors are in place to help students make the connections of what they study. Essays and homework asked students to apply their learning with feedback showing where progress is being made. Workshops and field trips help see a context. Experiments can be set up to enable practical application of learning. Exams test understanding and rate performance.
You get the point. Learning is structured and driven. It’s then simply a choice to engage with it.
But whilst there may not be a template which can be rolled out, there are practices which can be universally applied and although not a step-by-step blueprint, in my experience, following these proven principles can help tread what can feel like an unclear path.
Principle 1 – Separate learning from measurement and evaluation.
As learning has risen on our agendas we often tag it onto the other seemingly unsolvable questions – how do we measure our impact? And how can we evaluate effectiveness? And in doing so those words become interchanged with one another. ‘MEL’ can be seen as all the same thing. But they aren’t. They too are distinct and rightly add value in their own ways.
Learning in my view hasn’t usurped measurement – and doesn’t preclude it from happening.
Measurement maintains a strong and vital place in our work. After all if our core purpose is to enable everybody to be active surely we still need to know how many people are inactive so we know what work remains to be done.
Perhaps our learning though means we see it through a different lens.
Rather than for example just collating participation numbers to meet checklist needs, we use them to critically indicate if we’re targeting those experiencing the most inequalities in the areas we most want to reach. Great stories telling us people move more is good to hear and reinforces maybe why we exist. But it doesn’t show the scale of impact and enormity of the task still ahead. Quantitative data which gives us stark facts arguably keeps us on point and focused on the big picture.
In organisational development terms the M in MEL does not usually stand for measurement but monitoring – which may be a more useful way of describing its value in our work?
Evaluation too naturally has its place. Assessing how well a project or activity has met its aims enables us to better understand our effectiveness. Its more subjective than monitoring, but more specifically focused than learning.
A blended approach to using measurement (or monitoring), evaluation and learning purposefully, where and when each distinct function most adds value can help you, your partners, funders and communities show how what you are doing is addressing the challenges you are tackling.
Principle 2 – Get clarity on what you mean by learning.
So if learning isn’t just measurement or evaluation than what is it? This may sound obvious but the key principle here for me is that learning can have different meanings. And different meanings for different people. Being applied in different ways at different times.
So have an early conversation in your strategic development articulating what does the word learning mean to us – as individuals and a whole organisation (and then wider).
Look up any dictionary definition of learning and there is no catch-all sum up sentence. Its described as many things. As an act. A process. An experience. Its about knowledge. Its observing. Interacting. It can be a role. An action. An input… and an output.
Taking time therefore to collectively explore what sits ‘underneath’ the term ‘learning’ can go a long way in helping frame how you’re going to go about doing it.
The same applies, in my view, to any learning values. We know there are values which help drive learning. Being adaptive. Open. Curious. But again, what they mean can interpreted in personal ways.
What does being curious mean to you? To me it means asking questions to understand better. Its visible because I talk to lots of people and ask lots of questions – and hopefully listen well and respond effectively to the answers. To you it may mean wondering. Taking time to stop and reflect and ponder about connections. And that may be less visible to me. To someone else it may mean building knowledge. Which may result in them looking into things deeply. Analysing. Dissecting. Challenging people and processes.
So curiosity can look and be different to different minds.
Again digging into this to collectively understand and agree the competencies, skills and behaviours for being curious can remove some of the mystique and turn it into tangibles which can be reviewed, and managed.
Principle 3 – Establish what you need to learn.
I’ve highlighted already that learning is a constant in our lives. And if we follow the motto ‘everyday is a school day’ our learning happens daily and is vast. Where do we start?
Understanding that learning can give us different things is a good starter for ten. As the picture demonstrates it can develop what we know, inform what we will do and drive how we work culturally. The value of viewing learning as an iceberg means it reinforces that there are layers to learning – with some more visible than others. But none more important than the other, nor independent of each other.
We can therefore use learning to build our knowledge. To shape our direction. And help create cultural change. But you need to know what you want to use it for and therefore what you want to learn.
In doing so I believe you ensure your learning is addressing what really matters.
Questioning will this learning help you answer your important strategic questions, and if so how? What are you trying to shift? Or solve? And how does this learning help get you there? Answering these questions and then weaving it as the ‘golden thread’ through plans, theories of change, logic models etc means you can plot your learning intent at the start of anything you do.
Visually creating learning destination or roadmaps can be highly effective in enabling you to be more specific and targeted with your planned learning – giving you a ‘live’ tool to monitor progress against as well as a framework to capture any unplanned learning and change.
Placing your learning goals onto Board and team meeting agendas, recruitment activities and personal review sessions etc means you can hold yourselves to account for how closely you match yourselves against those goals.
And evaluating them in impact reports and annual reviews means you can tangibly demonstrate progress against your intent.
Make failure to achieve them an organisational risk. Reflect your commitment to them by including them on risk registers, balanced score cards or metric dashboards and be prepared to share progress even if you haven’t yet reached a goal. Or missed it completely. If learning really is the job, then use your learning goals to genuinely indicate your impact progress.
Principle 4 – Functionalise learning!
As noted earlier, for many organisations learning isn’t just an action but a function.
I’m not advocating for dedicated learning roles to be bought into organisational structures – I think its everyone’s job to create a strong learning environment. But it’s worth remembering that learning experts don’t just focus on getting people to attend courses or training. Their primary focus is to support the delivery of the overall organisational strategy by building learning strategies, processes and a culture to bring them to life.
The visual below gives some examples of how this can be functionalised into everyone’s role, showing the different actions different layers can take to ensure learning is systematically collectively embedded through tangible processes, structures and behaviours.
And finally remember learning is a continual process. Strategies and plans don’t have to be written in stone. They can and should be adapted as learning grows. Yes, keep ensuring you achieve what you intend, but also be flexible to re-shape what and how you want to learn as conditions change and your learning evolves.
Keep honing it till you can unreservedly say that your learning-led approach really does place learning at the heart of everything you do, helping steer your strategic direction, develop your people’s mind and skillsets and enable you to affect that difference you know you want to make.
In conclusion I like the words, right, of the
American author, Brian Herbert who ably reflected that learning is so much more than just thinking. It’s a capacity matter. And not only requires us to be able to learn, but to choose to do it. Finding the sweet spot for all three elements I believe, gives us permission to truly call ourselves effective learning organisations.