WHY YOU NEED A NEW APPROACH TO LEARNING By Jens Baier, Elena Barybkina, Vinciane Beauchene, Sagar Goel, Deborah Lovich, and Elizabeth Lyle ow more than ever, companies are can continue to adapt. That will be essen- Ncompeting on how fast they can tial to attracting, developing, and retaining innovate and help employees pick up new the critical talent needed to support a com- skills—in particular, digital skills. But pany’s digital transformation. Corporate people don’t learn just by taking online leaders who do this successfully will follow classes or reading articles. And they don’t in the footsteps of Microsoft CEO Satya Na- absorb new material in a day or even a della, whose successful turnaround of the week. Building knowledge requires focus, technology giant was based in part on shift- practice, coaching, and the forming of new ing from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” attitudes, all of which take months. If culture. organizations want to win at learning, they need to incorporate their skill-building efforts into the work that people do every The Skills Chasm day. And they must build skills at all levels A chasm exists between the skills that peo- of the enterprise—top to bottom—as an ple possess today and what they will need integrated part of the business and use to have in the future. Even before the regular business metrics to measure impact. COVID-19 crisis, addressing this gap was the number-one challenge for companies that As companies take steps to recover from were adopting new technologies, according the COVID-19 crisis and rebuild for the to research on the future of work conducted new reality, learning must be part of every- by BCG, the World Economic Forum, and thing they do. Learning is required in order Burning Glass Technologies. Other research to innovate and deliver in a world that has has found that the vast majority of CEOs been catapulted by COVID-19 a full five to are somewhat or very concerned about the ten years into the digital future. Learning lack of digital skills in their workforce. The must be embedded in the corporate cul- crisis has made addressing the skills gap an ture so that people learn how to learn and even greater strategic priority. More than ever, organizations will rely on • Managers. Operations or function skills to differentiate themselves from the managers need to know how to work competition. They can no longer afford to with the teams leading the digital separate learning from core business oper- transformation and the IT staff that ations. support those teams. They must therefore learn such skills as data-based decision making and agile ways of Building Skills at Speed and working. Scale BCG’s work with clients across geographies • Digital Talent. Organizations need to and industries has shown the following provide their digital talent with continu- skill-building practices to be essential. ous training on the latest technologies. And if they lack sufficient expert-level Link business goals directly to skill-build- digital talent, they may need to com- ing plans. Even after the COVID crisis has pensate by upskilling existing staff to passed, people will work online more than gain those skills. ever, which will require companies to automate processes. This calls for work- • Disrupted Talent. People whose jobs force planning down to the skills level. And are being replaced by automation or because skills go out of date so quickly, advanced software need to be reskilled companies need to start thinking of work- for new roles. Truck drivers, for exam- force planning as an ongoing process rather ple, who may one day be replaced by than something they only have to do every autonomous vehicles, could be reskilled few years. to work as robotics mechanics. For example, as part of its global digital • Digital Users. Whether a company transformation, the home-goods retailer launches a digital transformation to IKEA conducted a comprehensive assess- improve sales, the customer journey, or ment of its IT workers’ skills in preparation other processes, the changes will affect for designing a workforce strategic plan. how work gets done. Organization-wide, First, the company built an algorithm to people must be encouraged to adopt uncover gaps between the group’s existing the skills needed to perform daily tasks, skills and those it would need in the future. such as multichannel customer commu- Then it determined the best way to close nications and team collaboration those gaps by upskilling current employees, platforms. hiring people with new skills, automating certain functions, and outsourcing others. Make every moment a learning moment. The best way to build a new skill is to use Include everyone. Skill-building plans it every day, get feedback and coaching, should cover everyone in the organization, and try again. We’ve found that the most not just people with technical capabilities effective approach is to have leaders, who need to work digitally. And each managers, digital producers, and users cohort needs its own learning journey to practice new skills daily and, at the end of build the needed muscle: the day, reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Working alongside digital or agile • Senior Executives. Top leaders must experts helps create these learning mo- adopt digital and agile ways of working ments, in which people can pick up new in order to model them for the rest of knowledge and immediately apply it on the company. When workers see senior the job. leaders exhibiting the needed changes themselves, it sends a signal that skill For example, an Asian real estate firm un- building is something to take seriously dertaking a large-scale business transfor- regardless of who you are or what you mation had its top managers practice need- do. ed new skills in preparation for their Boston Consulting Group | Why You Need a New Approach to Learning 2 regular monthly leadership meetings. The Create a learning culture. Historically, managers were expected to scout for human resources and learning and devel- trends, identify opportunities, and present opment staff have led learning efforts. As a what they’d learned to the group, all of result, learning has always been considered which helped them take ownership of the an add-on, something to do in addition to process—and ultimately helped the com- daily work and, for that reason, easy to pany launch a more aggressive business minimize or skip. But minimizing learning strategy that resulted in higher sales and is no longer an option. Business leaders market share. and their teams must lead on learning, with HR and learning and development Companies can use the following additional acting as partners to deploy it. In addition, tools to make learning a part of operations: learning experts can work within business units as coaches to coordinate and rein- • Intentional Staffing. People can force learning activities. diversify their skills and acquire new ones through temporary or permanent Going forward, managers need to view reassignments, transfers to different learning as part of their job. They should parts of the organization, or rotation ask their direct reports, “What are you through multiple roles. learning?” as often as they ask, “What are you working on?” Every step of an employ- • Tandem Running. An ant that finds ee’s career path should include skill build- food will lead another ant to it, and ing, with time given to acquire knowledge, once the second ant learns the route, it practice new skills, and reflect on and rein- passes that knowledge onto a third ant; force what has been learned. For both in this way, followers become leaders teams and managers, bonuses and promo- throughout the colony. Companies can tions should be linked to the mastery of adopt this social-learning phenomenon, new skills. Leaders can support the learn- known as tandem running, throughout ing culture at all levels by publicly sharing a function or team by pairing people their own skill-building efforts. who need to learn a skill with more experienced colleagues. As the less Measure learning against the digital experienced employees master the skill, transformation’s goals. As organizations they become change agents for the rest encourage employees to adopt new skills in of the team. support of their digital transformations, the metrics used to assess learning effective- • Feedback Culture. People need regular, ness should reflect the initiative’s goals. real-time feedback to gauge how well Metrics could include such business they’re adopting new skills. At one large outcomes as new-product development, bank, managers began carving a few revenue increases, and profits. minutes out of regular leadership meetings to share feedback with each other on new ways of working. Within a Making It Stick few months, the group’s adoption of the An efficient skill-building program needs a new ways of working increased by 30%. well-structured plan. We recommend that companies consider the following when • Digital Nudges. People can use push creating such as plan: notifications and other digital nudges to reinforce a new skill at the exact • Don’t forgo formal training. Skill- moment that they need help. One type building programs won’t erase the need of nudge is a training program that sits for more traditional, structured forms of on top of a software application that learning, with employees stepping away needs to be mastered. If an employee from their regular duties on occasion to gets stuck, the training program displays take a class or attend a seminar or suggestions for solving the problem. conference. But even formal training is Boston Consulting Group | Why You Need a New Approach to Learning 3 changing to accommodate employees’ tem, companies may consider offering preferred ways of learning, including mindfulness training or other less the incorporation of online classes.