How do you deal with resistance or challenges to team learning?

According to LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2023, many employees want to learn to progress in their careers or simply grow. Yet, many say they would invest more in learning "if they had more time". This seems to be true also from my observation and working 15 years in a corporate environment. Leaders are running out of time bouncing from meeting to meeting, from project to project, from report to report. Time and schedule management skills are not given. They should be taught and continuously coached at any level of professional development. These are essential skills that will allow leaders to make room for learning and urge their teams to do the same. #TheGoodBusy

Start with the “why.” People inherently want to know the reason they are being asked to do something. And everyone is busy and work doesn’t go away, so a day in training is a day they will probably have to make up by working a bit longer/harder. Explain how work life will be better after they make this investment of their time.

Continuous learning culture is beneficial for the organization creating resilience, adaptability and agility in the workplace. To motivate the team to invest time in learning: 1) Create a proper learning and development goal 2) Explore intrinsic motivations of that goal 3) Propose and agree on the development plan 4) Keep the employee accountable for the goal 5) Review quaterly the progress during the performance review Bonus: ask the employee "how can I support you in achieving this goal" #TheGoodBusy

Show people the “what’s in it for me?” by tying benefits of the training back to the competencies they are assessed against in their performance reviews. If you can’t make that connection, reconsider if you have picked the right training.

In my experience psychological safety is the cornerstone of building great culture. The greatest threat to culture is fear of failure, of humiliation or disappointment. Build an environment where mistakes are handled in a productive way and focus on learning as part of the success story.

In my experience, leading by example always works best. Teams copy the behaviour of their managers and leadership. 1) Join learning & development programs 2) Debrief your own learnings with your team 3) Share what you've learned when you read or discovered something insightful 4) Make learning recommendations to your team related to skills they want to develop or their interests 5) Take learning recommendations from your team and show that you have taken them My team knew I love books and Ted Talks. I used to share with them what I've learned. They shared with me books they thought I might enjoy. It was our way to build a collaborative learning culture in the team. #TheGoodBusy

Location, location, location! If at all possible, do the training at a location away from your everyday office. It will put people in a different mindset. It will also lessen the chances of people getting dragged away into calls or meetings.

If you do team exercises, mix people up so they don’t just form their same work teams. If there is a leader role in team exercises, make sure to rotate those so the same people don’t always play the leader role. Consider mixing the seats people have between big breaks to encourage people to sit next to new people each time. Identify people who are not as active in the training and engage them by asking them questions or checking in with them during breaks.

Everyone has different learning preferences and styles, so it's important to provide opportunities for team members to learn in ways that suit them best.

When it comes time to do performance appraisals, remember the skills taught in the training and look for examples where they applied the lessons. Seeing training referenced in their appraisals will reinforce the importance of training with attendees. If you can’t identify examples of where the training helped, that might tell you to pick different training in the future.

1) I find breaking mountains up into small pebbles by teaching the basics of organization such as prioritization & chunking time. 2) Also reinforce esteem building exercises, as my team at times come to me on the verge of shut down when we talk marketing & sales, a foreign concept to most medical professionals. I regularly remind my team…”In the medical spa world we are pioneers in the healthcare industry, writing the book on how we are to present ourselves, how we treat our guests/patients with concierge service, taking what we hated about the old broken healthcare system & rewriting it. Our model requires we promote our services, educate patients. Pioneering is scary, also a legacy worth mustering the courage to make a change!”

More esteem/safe environment building exercise my team loves are our AR Bucks system. On a regular basis I use our company bucks employees can use to spend on med spa menu items with thank you notes attaches noting various times I noticed them going above and beyond. I also encourage them to give each other bucks/thank yous. This not only builds esteem but camaraderie. Additionally, as human beings we tend to dwell on the negative. This gets myself and the team focused on the positive rather than the negative. I have found this contributes to the family-like atmosphere we have within our team.