What are the skills that your organisation will need in the future, and how will you develop these in your people? How has the Covid pandemic affected the way you deliver learning, and the way leaners engage with learning experiences? Have you adapted your learning practices? How do you plan to operate your L&D function in the future? Will you need to adapt learning practices to stay relevant – and how do you help learners to adapt too? Do you think there is more of a role or less of a role for learning and development in future?

As L&D practitioners, we are facing questions that are much broader than simply the role of technology in learning, reflecting rapid shifts in the nature of our organisations, our employees and how we work together – whether this is a shift from management to leadership or a desire to be more innovative.

'Agile learning' describes the shifts that Learning & Development will have to make in order to respond to these changes. With the Covid pandemic, this is more relevant now than it has ever been.

Objectives

The Agile Learning SIG will consider four interrelated elements: New Capabilities and Skills, Learning Culture, Agile Methods in L&D, New L&D Operating Model. As a group, we will have a chance to discuss, explore and share best practice in these areas. The results will be a compiled SIG report.

Outcomes

The SIG group provides a collegial forum for forward-thinking Learning & Development leaders to meet, to share and discuss, to reflect over time, and to engage with experts.

The SIG will benefit from the most up to date research from LBS Faculty guest speaker sessions, and industry experts.

In addition to this, the SIG participants will:

• Share best practice/intelligence in the form of a final report.
• Develop our understanding of the four focus areas
• Dive deep into key issues affecting our organisations now and in the future
• Undertake experimentation to shape thinking
• Test thinking and premise with other group members
• Identify practical applications from the learning within the group
• Experiment with new tools and ways of working.

Deliverables

We aim for five essential outcomes:

• Community of practice among organisations that have similar challenges and can depend on each other for impartial input and support
• Detailed case studies of current best practice - insights, initiatives and early results from member organisations who are on the journey from delivering training to building adaptive, learning organisations.
• Summary of current research exploring the evidence that supports best practice in personalised, agile learning
• Final report summarising the findings of the SIG, and illustrating the group’s conclusions around agile learning methods and impacts
• Acceleration of your organisation’s transformation agenda with particular reference to the current Covid situation.

SIG Timeline

The Agile Learning SIG will conclude in the Summer of 2021.

Key events in 2020-21:

• Re-launch of the SIG
  September 2020 - A relaunch of SIG following disruption caused by the Covid Pandemic.
• Continuous learning events
  December 2020-June 2021 – Participants will be invited to attend speaker sessions and group forums addressing core topics, contributing their own stories and data, and the results of experimentation, which will be compiled by the SIG team the final SIG report.
• Final event: July 2021
  The SIG will culminate in a Corporate Advisory Seminar where SIG members will engage a broader audience of EFMD company members in discussing key findings and implications.
• Final Report
  The final report incorporating all research, findings and conclusions will be a White Paper published in August 2021.