Session Title: Toxic Risks for Learning and How to Help Learning Thrive

 

Session Number: 201

 

Room: Acapulco

 

Day and Timeslot: Monday - 11:15am to 12:15pm

 

Formats: Thought Leader

 

Listen to a Preview PodCast

 

Session Description: We will look at why learning flourishes in some organizations and struggles to survive in others. Discover what makes learning toxic and what you can do to help build a learning culture.

 

• Why learning strategies can fail
• Strategies to neutralize toxicity and help learning flourish
• Case studies and experiences from a variety of different organizations

 

Led by: Nigel Paine - MASIE Learning Fellow

What makes learning environments toxic?

Middle managers screwing up the learning environment deliberately

Hostility to learning at certain levels in the organisation

Culture is anti-the learning message

Bad delivery and bad content, therefore training is seen as a waste of time

User experience does not work

Migrating to a new environment fear of job losses

Mandatory stuff colours the environment for everything else

Competition between units so decide before they begin that it won’t work

Models that are destined to fail because a delivery method is imposed

Conflict and fighting between the learning team and the rest of the organisation

Bad measures that drives wrong behaviour

Passive agreement that stops improvements

Agree and discommit by senior staff

Learning is seen as the answer to everything in the organisation

Toxicity in the training group itself and between elements of the training group

Lack of accountability

 

How to fix this?

Use a methodology called force field analysis

Go for the positive and accentuate what works; do not conflict head on as you will make things worse

Eg things you can do to neutralise toxicity:

 

Help experts write the content to make it more effective and shorter

Help staff get the time to learn

Build links to change management

Try to establish genuine commitments to support and sponsor

Reinforce why you are encouraging learning and the impact of not doing it

Empathy building amongst all the players

Offer multiple options fro delivery

Try to minimize competition so everyone can focus on the design of an important program

Spend time communicating the issues and pulling a wide range of people into the design process

Own problems

Develop skills sets around focus groups, problem ownership and marketing of products

Start with the assumption that you don’t know the answers

Try to establish Leader buy in

Use the generational difference to your advantage

 

 

 

 

 

Nigel Paine is a MASIE Learning Fellow and President of his own company, Nigel Paine Corp., that is focusing on creativity, innovation and learning. Nigel is a Dean and Co-Faculty of The Learning Leaders Academy, taught in Saratoga Springs, NY at The MASIE Center with Elliott Masie. Formerly, he served as Chief Learning Officer of the BBC, where he built one of the most successful learning and development operations in the UK, including an award-winning Leadership program, state-of-the-art informal learning and knowledge sharing, and one of the most successful and well-used intranets in the Corporate sector. He left the BBC in September 2006 to start his own company and is a key believer in the development of Learning Leaders in our profession.

 

 

Return to Sessions

 Create your own business wiki!Support CommunityPublic, Platinum wiki Privacy Policy RSS