Disruptive Learning Method for Innovative Solution

 

An organization has a vision and a mission in the form a service or product for its customer. Through the learning and development support, an organization helps its employees with adequate information of their functional goals in the form of their role and responsibilities in line with the organisation’s vision and mission. Again, through its Learning and Development support the organization provides its employees with adequate training support for building their competency, knowledge, skill and aptitude to function effectively in achieving their functional objectives.

The Learning and Development team of the organization devices various methods of evaluations assess the efficacy of the training in achieving the training objectives. Such as pre-training and post-training tests of the employees and feedback from the employees on the effectiveness of the training.

Post the training, the employee gets necessary mentoring support at an individual level at the workplace.  This helps him to address the challenges faced at his workplace. The first level of training and mentor support can help an employee to identify and address the challenges he may face due to his own inabilities, but this may fall short of a proper reality check of any shortfall in the systems and process that may be the root cause of the employee and invariably the organization may face in achieving its objectives. Since the organisation and its customer are part of a dynamic market environment, that eventually demands necessary changes within the organisation’s work environment in the form of its systems and process to align with that of the external market environment. This can also result in innovative changes also in the organisation’s products and services. 

How can the Learning and Development Department of an organisation provide necessary support to help in such reality checks?

The answer to the question is in the form of Disruptive Learning Method that can be the second level of training support to the employees.

Based on the analysis of the mentors’ feedback and reports on the performance of the mentees and the challenges faced, the Learning and Development Department can identify the external challenges that may be in the form of customer feedback and market response reported by the employees that need the reality check. For example, the employees from the customer care department of a telecom company or a retail company or an online retail service provider site may report of the customers complaining of difficulties faced in the billing system. The customers may have complained of few products or service that the organisation needs to study comprehensively in order to address the problem.   Based on the analysis report, the Learning and Development Department of the organisation can provide the Disruptive Learning Support to help the organisation address the challenges:

The Methodology:

·         Based on the Analysis Report, identify few areas in the market for the field study; it can be few retail outlets of the organisation.

·         Prepare teams of executives that can represent various departments of the organisation to visit the identified outlet as mystery shoppers.

·         Conduct a workshop for the teams identified for mystery shopping regarding the objective of the field study and the teams need to simulate during their field study as mystery shoppers. The methods of recording their observations, for example, video recording, make observation notes, etc.

·         Post the field visit collect the observation reports from the teams and identify the challenges reported in the process, system, products or service and gaps in the knowledge, skill and attitude of the employees.

·         Organise workshops with fair representation of various departments and the frontline staff to brainstorm on the reported challenges with the objective to innovate solutions.

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This method is effective in checking any bottlenecks in the process of education. The learners and the teachers can use this method to evolve the education process to respond to the challenges they face in achieving their learning objectives. The following Emotional spiral explains how the use of this method of learning can help both the teacher/facilitator and learner to achieve their learning objectives. This encourages the teachers to continuously study and research to respond to the challenges and changes in the education and overall environment (geographic, social, cultural, etc.)

Few methods of Disruptive learning are the use of Blended Learning, Micro Learning with adequate use of education technology in Collaborative Form of Learning:

Image Source:

https://holykaw.alltop.com/blended-learning-a-disruptive-innovation-info
https://www.slideshare.net/Downes/disruptive-innovations-in-learning
http://janetclarey.com/2007/12/28/making-a-space-for-disruption/