Read my disclosure policy to understand how I work with companies and individuals.

Every day we learn so many things from our surroundings or from the environment. Due to the fluctuating business world, managers also have to learn so many things every day. The learning process is continuous whether we talk about the business or in daily routine. We come across many diverse people and cultures all with different needs and expectations. Some things we learned by watching other people, and some are being taught to us. In an organization, there are many employees working with all different levels. Everyone has a different mindset, leadership skills or other qualities. In order to fit in the new organization, they have to learn lots of new things. They can only learn diverse things if they possess the ability to learn. To measure learning agility is a somewhat difficult task, but there are many tools available which can be used for measurement.

The agility to learn in an individual is the most important factor which determines its future growth prosperity. In order to succeed in any field, they need to learn and adopt so many new plans, rules, procedures, etc. Learning agility stands for the capability of an individual to learn or adopt a variety of things, experiences, plans or ideas. The demands for the various skills required of an employee is changing every day. To meet the new arising demands of skills or abilities, employees have to learn multiple things. The trends in business are volatile, which demands changes in job roles, profiles or various skills.

What is expected from an employee from four years ago to now is totally different. The business organizations have to maintain their employees to survive and prosper in the market. In order to succeed, a business also has to recruit those persons who possess the ability to learn and are ready to learn. With the passage of time, old skills and ways of doing a job become obsolete. They need to be reinventing themselves for further growth process. The candidates who possess learning skills can make their career anywhere they want to. There is a strong need for the presence of learning agility in a person. Some of the points of needs are as follows:

• Invention of new and advanced technologies.

• Increasing scope of the job roles of employees.

• Increase in the novelty of the business.

• Reduced life of skills and equipment (they become obsolete soon).

In an idle organization, its employees must be ready at all times to adapt the various changes and handle new problems. This not only leads to the growth of the employees, but it also leads to benefits for the organization. It will contribute to the increased productivity of the business organization. There are many benefits of learning agility for business enterprises.

• Increased productivity of the organization.

• Increased profitability.

• Readiness to face future scenarios.

• Increased potentials in employees.

• Reduced waste of time, efforts and resources.

The next question that arises under this learning agility concept is how to measure the learning ability of the candidate.  At one time, organizational managers were able to use the previous performance of the employees to judge the learning ability of a candidate. But this method of measurement is outdated. You cannot measure the learning ability from only the past behavior of the employees. Every job or roles require different skills or levels of intelligence to accomplish the tasks. One particular skill which is useful for performing on a certain job may not be suitable for another. This is the reason why the employees in the business organization are expected to be learning agility.

We can measure the learning agility of a person on the basis of some factors. The two major factors are discussed as follows;

• Capability to learn things: this is the willing power of a person to learn new things. One can only learn new things when they have that ability and caliber. Employees must relate their skills and knowledge to required and actual skills from the data. They must adopt the patterns and trends of the market as soon as possible.

• Learning orientation: one can only learn or adapt new things when they possess that attitude or inclination. They can learn faster when they actually want to learn. Their attitude must be integrated towards learning the concepts or patterns.

Therefore, it can be concluding that the learning agility is basically made or dependent on two basic factors. One is the capacity or capability to learn and the second one is learning orientation.

Learning ability can be measured in many ways. The simpler one is to determine how one is able to learn new things and to use those things or concepts in daily routine activities. It depends on a concept named fluid intelligence, which means creating links between various things for better understanding. In order to measure learning orientation, the behavioral attributes must be measured. The various behavior-related attributes are: open-minded, alertness, dominating, etc. All there and more are factors to be considered. The business organization must assess the various employees or candidates. They must focus on the skills of the employees and their learning ability. Their skills are of no use if they do not possess learning agility.

In business organizations, managers must determine from the various employees the categories in which they will fit. This will include the employees with average skills and ability, high potential employees or enthusiastic employees. Managers need to understand the various types of employees in the organization. Average learners are the ones who possess both the qualities above stated in average quantity. Average learners are required for routine tasks. High potential learners possess higher learning ability and the behavioral attributes to learn. To measure learning agility, the above stated two factors are used for a variety of employees. On the basis of those two factors, the learning ability of a person can be measured and assessed. In short, learning ability is the ability of a person and its behavior attributes.

Spread the love

Tweet