How do you help people learn best? By putting them in charge. That’s the thesis of Laura Overton of Towards Maturity and Teresa Rose of E.On Group, who bring together research and experience to demonstrate that a learner-centric approach is not only desirable, it’s a necessity for successful learning at work. 96% of L&D leaders want to increase self-directed learning but we continue to struggle to connect and engage. It's time that L&D worked smarter, to stop blaming their staff for not engaging and to start listening instead. This practical session will consider how true learning organisations put staff capability at the forefront of their thinking by placing staff at the heart of their strategy. When L&D provide staff with an active voice productivity and engagement flow. Join this interactive panel with Tesco and E.on to find out how to kick start a customer-centric strategy that delivers growth, profit and business transformation: Challenge your assumptions about how staff really learn Banish your organisation’s preconceptions about learning Find out how listening more helps you achieve more Inject vital evidence to win hearts and minds of managers Crucial research on the learning voice

1. How to kick-start your
learner centric strategy
All content © 2017 Towards Maturity CIC Ltd. Not to be distributed or copied.
@LauraOverton
@JaneSDaly
@TeresaRose
@TowardsMaturity

2. CONSTRAINTSEXPECTATIONS
The reality of business today

3. The voice of the
board…
The talent
agenda needs
to deliver:
Growth in competitive markets
Transformation
Productivity
Profitability

4. DIGITAL
TALENT
The reality of most learning today!

5. But we are struggling
Staff lack skills to
manage their own
learning
Managers are
reluctant to
encourage new
ways of learning
Staff
don’t want to
learn with new
technology

6. Only 30% proactively find out how their staff currently learn

7. The laziness
of boxing
staff
CONSTRAINS OUR
THINKING & ACTIONS

8. If we want a
learner-centric
strategy we need to
Actively
listen
PAY ATTENTION
CLARIFY UNDERSTANDING
RESPOND

9. Learner Insights
Teresa Rose

10. Insights from over 4000 staff
Over 4,000 staff participated
• 92% are full time. 67% have worked at E.ON
for over 5 years
• 16 Areas of business
• 6 countries
10
5%
13%
80%
2%
Function
Executive
Manager
Employee
Trainee/Apprentice

11. Understand
our staff
Employees have more options for development than
ever before, but who and what engages them?
35%
Are self
directed and
need no
encouragemen
t
33%
Value the
opinion of their
manager
15%
Value the
opinion of their
coach/mentor
14%
Social
networks
influence their
choices

12. Understand
your
learner
What channels do they use to learn?
For work
44% YouTube
47% Facebook
76% Google +
88% Twitter
78% LinkedIn
92% SharePoint
94% Social Intranet
40% Pinterest
100% Instagram
For my
learning
90% YouTube
75% Facebook
84% Google +
44% Twitter
74% LinkedIn
68% SharePoint
71% Social Intranet
80% Pinterest
0% Instagram

13. Understand
your
learner
What are their perceptions of learning @ E.ON?
67%
Feel learning is
provided
relevant to their
job
83%
Have a clear
personal plan for
what and why
they want to
learn
77%
Curate content
59%
Think online
learning has a
positive impact
on their
performance

14. Understand
your
learner
What are the barriers preventing them from learning
and what motivates them?
Barriers
42% Content not relevant
54% Lack of time
36% Learning objectives
not made clear
45% Uninspiring content
39% Unreliable IT
bandwidth
24% lack of suitable IT
equipment
Motivations
56% To keep up with new
technology
81% To do my job faster and
better
67% I like to learn
15% Do not spend any time
learning per week
40% spend 1 to 2 hours per week
learning

15. Active listening15
What do they say?
I get more from
communicating with
a person
Google doesn’t always
help you solve the
problem, sometimes it
just describes it
I use YouTube when I
need to learn
something practical
Mentoring helped
me gain a broader
picture

16. There is too much jargon,
acronyms and abbreviation. Too
E.ONised
Autonomy. You should not have
to be spoon-fed to learn. And
time is precious. I want quick
solutions
Information. I do not get a list of
courses on a regular basis, only
the compulsory courses I must do
Variety. It needs to be more open,
flexible, different focus, online,
short 20-30 min webinars
Bespoke. Business knows what I
need to work on and offers
tailored support.
Clarity. I need to
know where to
go
Needs to be
relevant and
practiced on the
ground whilst
doing the job
There needs to
be learning
sources outside
of E.ON’s
internal system
How do E.ON’s people see the future of learning?
“Sometimes
I don’t even
know what
the aim is”
Follow up is lacking.
There should be a
system in place for
this
“People are being
bombarded and being
offered so much, but it
isn’t always clear what
it all is. Can it be more
relevant? Can we
resonate with it?”
“Time is precious I want
quick solutions”

17. Kickstart:
Learning design
Thinking globally – acting locally
Management buy - in
Teresa Rose

18. What can we
learn from high
performing
learning teams?
Defining
Need
Understanding
Learners
Work
Context
Building
Capability
Ensuring
Engagement
Demonstrating
Value
THE TOP 10%
T O W A R D S M A T U R I T Y I N D E X
TOP
DECK
TOP LEARNING ORGANISATIONS
They actively
listen!

19. Top Deck
organisations
are DELIVERING
what matters
to business
Compared to rest of sample
of 600 L&D leaders
Growth
Transformation
Productivity
Profitability
3x
4x
3x
3x

20. The Top Deck…
Tune into the
voice of their
staff
82% are proactive in understanding
how their staff learn what they
need to do their jobs (vs 30% rest)
Defining
Need
Work
Context
Building
Capability
Ensuring
Engagement
Demonstrating
Value
Understanding
Learners

21. 2x as likely to be aware of how
staff are using social media
(outside of L&D) to share ideas
(46% vs 18% rest)
The Top Deck…
Listen beyond
themselves
Defining
Need
Work
Context
Building
Capability
Ensuring
Engagement
Demonstrating
Value
Understanding
Learners

22. Willing to
share
are willing to share what they know
(18% need help getting started)
80%

23. Role of
Managers
say their manager’s opinion
counts
(vs 4% L&D)
38%

24. Staff learn
on the go
34% 34%
29%30%
48%
26%24%
47%
21%
17%
50%
19%
On the way to/from
work
Evenings and
weekends
Whenever I'm alerted to
updated information
30 and under 31 - 40 41 - 50 51 and over
48%
Use personal
mobiles to
download
work related
apps

25. The role of L&D
82% of employees know what they
need to learn to do their job
62% of L&D believe their staff lack skills to
manage their own learning
78% say support from managers is
essential or very useful to learn what they
need
26% of L&D equip line managers to help
them help their teams get the most from
learning
48% use their personal mobiles to
download work related apps
18% of L&D are using native mobile apps
to support learning at the point of need
35% say uninspiring content is
a barrier to learning online
7 in 10 offer e-learning custom made in
house, but only 34% have the necessary
digital content development skills
LEARNERPERSPECTIVE
L&DPERSPECTIVE

26. 7 in
10
5,000+
learners
80%
Prof
services
75%
Line Mgr
82%
>6mth in
role
71%
< 5 yrs in
role
78%
>30 yrs
72%
< 50 yrs
75%
Charity
82%
Retail
75%
Sales
74%
Pharma
To do my job better and faster!
#1 Motivator for learning online Minimum
500 in each
sample

27. Towards Maturity
Organisational
Learning Index*
*Beta title
Purposeful
Curious
Sociable
Confident
Proactive
Flexible
To what extent are our
staff modern learners?

28. Defining the modern learner
6 characteristics/ habits
• Business-aware
• Outcome-driven
Purposeful
wanting to increase their value to the organisation
• Receptive
• Resourceful
Curious
keen to extend their knowledge and skills
• Sharing
• Positive
Sociable
eager to learn from and with others and to help them in turn
• Tech-savvy
• Organised
Confident
using digital tools to manage their learning
• Motivated
• Aware
Proactive
empowered to take ownership of their learning
• Reflective
• Progressive
Flexible
open to new ideas and to build on them

29. Exercise: 6 habits of highly effective
learners
What do you think?
What will you share?

30. Exercise: The Sharing Gallery
Which habits are you going to
kick-start?

31. resources@towardsmaturity.org
What will you do differently
as a result of today?
All content © 2017 Towards Maturity CIC Ltd. Not to be distributed or copied.
@LauraOverton
@JaneSDaly
@TeresaRose
@TowardsMaturity