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Learning and Development - What do employees want?

 Employees want to learn and they want to develop. Yes. What does that mean?

They want learning opportunities. 

How does one get learning opportunities? How does one develop?

As an employee/human being, I learn when I stretch (not necessarily in terms of hours) myself. I learn new things through the process of failure, unlearning and relearning. And as I learn I develop. Can there be development without learning? My take - almost always not - there can be exceptions, but every project I have picked up has resulted in  a learning. 

And as an employee, I need such opportunities. When I stagnate in a job/role I dont learn or develop. I might also "develop" under a bad boss, but thats not really an opportunity or something to look forward to is it not? 

So, as someone heading an L&D function what do I need to do? Enable these - simply put. 

Learning skills might be a pre-requisite in terms of how I grow in my job. And I might also be able to develop on being opportunities for self reflection, being vulnerable as I learn new skills and put them to practice and make them second nature. 

So, provide avenues for skill building. Practice. Reflection. 

Now whether you do it using AI or HI or whatever mode depends on the scale of the org, your budget, your employee pool and so on. 

This set of principles - have been core principles for a while - whether you were a farmer, factory worker or someone working in AI tech. I need to learn and develop at the job - after all I am investing a good part of my life in it. 

Developing thoughts...


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