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High-growth companies offer the opportunity to observe an environment that requires agility – the ability to adapt to rapid and continuous change. Companies that achieve success in becoming more agile generally see themselves as having more capacity to effectively deal with change, view the pace of change as accelerating but predictable, and recognize change as providing new opportunities. Within companies that are growing rapidly, L&D leaders have adopted this “agile mindset” to meet the challenge of being both fast and effective in their learning and development operations. As previously cited, this is about simultaneously increasing speed, keeping control of resources and having a significant impact on the business. Successful high-growth companies can show us how to deal effectively with this L&D management balancing act. L&D leaders in high-growth companies pay close attention to utilizing and leveraging technology as part of an overall learning strategy that includes how they organize the L&D function and align activities with business goals.
But, while high-growth companies are extremely active users of learning technology, the effectiveness of their L&D organizations is based on following the same best practices that we have observed across many companies. The following sections discuss the four key findings from this research, along with the experiences of our high-growth research subject companies. From these experiences, we gain valuable insights into how organizations that are undergoing significant change can still focus on making progress in implementing effective learning strategies and practices.
Based on our interviews with the subject companies and data from our Corporate Learning Factbook research , we have developed the following four key findings. From this research, our key findings support what we have often observed – technology is a powerful enabler, but it does not (by itself) provide a shortcut to learning effectiveness.
High-growth companies clearly need e-learning technology to grow.
LMSs are required for the management of increasing scale and more complex learning challenges. Virtual classroom technology becomes an important tool in reaching employees in widely distributed locations. But the high-rate of usage of the remaining technologies – LCMS, application simulation tools, rapid e-learning, EPSS / knowledge management systems and podcasts – means high-growth companies are leveraging multiple types of learning technologies to address the continuing pressure to scale up.
In our interviews with the participating companies, several described scenarios in which e-learning technologies (or combinations of technologies) were used in creative ways to meet demanding business requirements. Kohl’s, for example, uses customized, self-paced e-learning programs to address training needs for store personnel working in various departments (e.g., shoes, jewelry, et al). The company also uses webcast training events to simultaneously reach personnel in hundreds of stores to support new sales promotions or product offerings. In addition, Kohl’s combines instructor-led classroom, e-learning courses and experiential events in a blended-learning program to develop the skills of new employees who may be new to the retail industry.
As another example, the global engineering services firm combines online training programs with virtual classroom-based discussion sessions to create common leadership development activities across its decentralized businesses. It also uses rapid e-learning tools to share the knowledge of SMEs in a variety of engineering disciplines.
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