By Sharon Daniels
This is the first of four posts on AchieveGlobal's study on organizational learning, and our reports "The Rise of Blended Workflow Learning" and "How to Succeed at Blended Workflow Learning." Be sure to read the complete reports.
We used a great metaphor at the beginning of our report, Why Learning Has a New Logic, describing the business world today as a "shifting topography." That description seems even more relevant now with so many news stories of major earthquakes, tremors and even volcanic eruptions across the world. It's the same on the business landscape too.
Businesses face a continuing need to change because of the changes in the economy. But it's also about new technologies and changes in legislation and how those changes are affecting the core of how businesses operate.
This is the first of four posts on AchieveGlobal's study on organizational learning, and our reports "The Rise of Blended Workflow Learning" and "How to Succeed at Blended Workflow Learning." Be sure to read the complete reports.
We used a great metaphor at the beginning of our report, Why Learning Has a New Logic, describing the business world today as a "shifting topography." That description seems even more relevant now with so many news stories of major earthquakes, tremors and even volcanic eruptions across the world. It's the same on the business landscape too.
Businesses face a continuing need to change because of the changes in the economy. But it's also about new technologies and changes in legislation and how those changes are affecting the core of how businesses operate.
We've heard it over and over again: organizations must learn new strategies, and adopt new tactics to keep pace with this new environment. But, what specifically is changing on the organizational learning front?
Our recent study on Blended Workflow Learning (BWL) looked at why this new approach to organizational learning is gaining popularity now. We also looked at and how organizations can successfully adopt BWL practices.
Two intertwined truths: economy and globalization.
Recession, contraction, shift, shrinkage, crunch. We've come through the past few years with a new vocabulary to describe economic change. This economic reality ranked high in our study for obvious reasons: this "new world" of business means we've all had to think of ways to reconfigure what we do and how we do it. How can we keep our workforces learning everything they need so that we can stay globally competitive, even while facing economic changes?
So many organizations see Blended Workflow Learning as a real lifesaver because it offers ways for organizations to improve their learning outcomes, even while cutting back on major expenses. Case in point, through e-learning, a learning and development program could significantly cut costs like travel for participants in some areas, while reinforcing this with some classroom experience or peer-to-peer coaching.
It may well be that with Blended Workflow Learning organizations have found a way to have our cutback cake, while enjoying improved corporate learning outcomes too! What's that expression about necessity being the mother of re-invention...?
Sharon Daniels is CEO of AchieveGlobal in Tampa, Florida
