Everybody needs a Learning Agenda
What the acceleration of AI really does is put to the test how strong innovation strategy companies have and how strong learning habits individuals have. Do you agree that the world changes all the time? Most people would agree to this and the question may almost seem irrelevant. However, what follows is very important, which is that in a world that is changing all the time, the only long-term sustainable strategy for any individual and organization is to learn at least as fast as the world is changing around you so you are a bit more capable tomorrow than you were yesterday.
If I were to ask you as an individual as well as an organization what you are going to learn next week, and you don’t know, it means that you are leaving learning to chance, rather than to design. It’s far too important for that. Learning doesn’t happen best automagically, but you owe yourself and your organization to be proactive and deliberate about learning.
A great place to start is by creating a so-called Learning Agenda [Template]. In a Learning Agenda you basically list things that you as an individual or organization want to learn. This could be anything. From which markets to expand into, to what role AI can play for your customer service, to what the net effect on society is of your whole operations, to what products / solutions you are missing in your assortment, to what generative AI tools that can help you in your specific role, to how to better retain employees. You decide what you want to learn.
The great thing with a Learning Agenda is that it will force some things, for example:
Ownership: Who is responsible for ensuring that you have a prioritized Learning Agenda? For you as an individual, it’s you. Who is it for your organization though?
KPI structure: What does a razor sharp KPI structure look like towards which you evaluate your learning? I.e. how do you know if what you learned is better or worse vs how you did it before?
Tooling & data: Do you have the tools and data in place to be able to learn what you want to learn?
As a starting point for you as an individual, consider what direction you have in life and what you want to learn to accelerate that direction.
As a starting point for you as an organization, bring together your team in a workshop where you together craft a first version of your Learning Agenda or refine what you already have.
The most important thing is to get started, and you’ll learn how to best use the powerful tool of Learning Agendas for your development.
To get you started, here is a Learning Agenda Template that you can make a copy of.
Happy learning! 🎉