Have you thought about the impact on capability training and development in your organisation whilst Covid-19 pushes UK Plc back on its heels? Perhaps you’ve decided to halt training and development until the crisis is over? Well, maybe you’d like to revisit that if you have because we should remember that there is no finite end date to downturns, virus-related or not.

There is never a day when the war is declared over, downturns just disappear. And like the other downturns, this one will be a slow burn to the finish which means society will come back online slowly, metaphorically speaking. We should be preparing now for a ramp-up in customer and client interest rather than waiting to reboot on the day we think the downturn is over because that will be too late. To prepare now, or not, is the tension between having a mindset of open and infinite growth versus a closed or finite one.

Downturns are a time of infinite opportunity, not finite certainty

In every downturn for the last 60 years, the first two areas to be curtailed are marketing and training. I think that this is bizarre because if you applied some critical thinking around what might be the two most important areas to an infinitely minded business when things are bad, it’s those two. This is because, firstly, all of your competitors will cut back their marketing budget, they don’t know why specifically it’s just something they’ve always done because the belief has been that no one has any money in a downturn, but I’m not sure that’s as true in the ‘easy credit’ 21^st Century.

They’ll stop actively promoting through the conventional media outlets in one form or another and in doing so retreat from customers’ thinking –  so why would you also join them in reducing your presence? If anything, you should increase it and take over the spaces left vacant with your message so that when the economy starts to right itself customers will have your name in their thoughts.

The second victim of spend reduction is training. Now here’s a quick question; which business strategy book does it tell you that in times of stress, you should reduce the very thing that’s going to keep you at the front of the field in terms of capability? No book says to do this. So, just like with marketing, when downturns strike this is the very time to swim counter to the ‘accepted direction’ and speed up training and development so that when the economic upswing arrives you not only lead the market but you may even find yourself being the one to define it. Above all else, it would be a shame right now to halt a training programme mid-stride and risk losing all the benefits gained, not to mention the financial investment that you would undoubtedly have to write off.

So, rather than hunker down and wait indefinitely for the storm to pass (as enticing as that might feel right now), as a leader you’ll need to find a way to continue the enabling and empowering benefits from training and developing your staff.

“Leadership & Learning are indispensable to one another”. – John F Kennedy

FIVE SMALL STEPS, ONE GIANT LEAP

There are five steps you can begin to action right now to protect and develop yourself and your people, through maintaining and expanding the momentum and benefits of your workplace learning and development.

Create (and lead) a learning response team.

Are you taking notes right now about how your business is responding to the crisis? This team should be asking, what worked, what didn’t, what works now, what is still broken, what could be done quicker next time? (Yep, unfortunately there will be a next time of some sort).

Consider how you train and prepare staff going forward – for example, do your induction and on-boarding programmes need to be done in person in the physical workplace? Maybe not.

You may already have a learning and development team in place. If you do, they should have a comprehensive picture of organisational-wide learning and be currently adapting them to this new business environment. If you don’t have the luxury of an L&D squad, consider outsourcing, bringing in a partner to support you as now would be a really good time to take the lead on some Skills & Capability Gap Analysis and begin to build a programme of learning to plug those gaps.

Take advantage of the fact that people are working from home. With the help of all relevant stakeholders in the organisation from HR through to IT and everyone in between, see what is available online or in-house that could be delivered online.

In our present world right now, this is the best time to undertake an audit of your current learning offerings and set priorities to those that can be adapted to digital.  This is good practice anyway because the most resilient organisations ‘review and renew’ as a core part of their L&D.

Setting metrics against each piece of learning is critical to make the correct decisions. What this means is that through your audit you should be able to gauge;

1. How effective your training is as it stands right now, and where does it need to be?

2. How critical to the organisation is it?

3. How soon does the training have an effect?

4. How adaptable to digital is it?

As an example, in the present climate of physical distancing, digitising your Onboarding & Induction is the very first place to start. From here your team should look at the Remote Working skill levels of your employees (can they use Teams, Zoom, Skype etc), do they know how to share screens, what are their presenting skills like, and from here you then move into management skills training to aid your managers in Remotely Managing Teams.

You should at this point set regular meetings to give the process a tempo, or cadence, and to align it with the speed of the wider organisation’s response to the disruption.

Protect your staff

Protecting employees in this new approach is vital, don’t assume that everyone is digital or computer literate. You will have to make sure that everyone learning remotely is familiar with your organisation’s digital learning platforms. For example, is this something you’ll move into Employee on-boarding (see above)? Sharing and working on documents in the cloud and hosting video conferences are just two of the new remote working skills that are going to be so important in the future. You have to protect your staff from any negative effects of not being able to use these tools.

Just as important as knowing how to use your chosen technology platform, the most effective workshops begin with good participant experience, protect your staff by making sure that processes are in place to make sure the technology has been tested, local dial-in numbers are known as required, roles assigned, and pre-reading material has been distributed well in advance.

Promote digital learning

Consistently and constantly promote and improve the digital learning experience. Remote virtual learning brings obvious environmental benefits and cost savings, it’s good for us, good for the environment, and good for the bottom line.

There is something of a new community spirit evolving as people move through the change curve and start aligning themselves with remote virtual learning. This is because working independently from one another is starting to drive a more focused purpose across a larger team of people rather than a purpose being only naturally strong in a smaller office-based team.

Digital learning is also benefiting right now those organisations that have teams stretching across different time zones. The majority of global firms have had to get good at remote virtual working and learning over the years – if they can, you can, we all can.

Explore alternative digital strategies

For employees suddenly finding themselves using digital learning as a new way of increasing their capability it’s easy to stay with one platform, despite the fact it may have weaknesses. You shouldn’t be afraid to try out and explore alternative learning strategies.

Operating with several digital learning platforms can help to increase learning. To do this, re-frame the remote learning problem as a design opportunity and re-think the recipient’s end-to-end experience. Set priorities for the essential learning objectives and then focus solely on the content that will meet them.

Design shorter interactions with more time between sessions to strengthen learning, such as embedding time. Aim to create human connections wherever possible by creating intentional meaningful interactions and finally, make it a seamless learning experience from the very first contact to the last and make sure that it is consistent for all participants.

Practice & Prepare for multiple outcomes

Finally, we have to recognise that there are limits, currently, to what can be addressed when using live virtual sessions and classrooms. These might not be the best ways to build interpersonal skills but then again a by-product of digital learning is that we’re talking about structuring new ‘remote inter-personal’ skills here and you could be right at the front of the queue when it comes to this. But it’s vital to remember that like all learning, online learning still needs to reinforce the link between business outcomes and longer-term capability building and that learning in any form shouldn’t be thought of as a one-off event. It should be thought of as a broader learning journey tied closely to the business objectives.

So, if your three-year roadmap has at the end of it, a raft of outcomes that you don’t have the capability for just now, start putting in place a programme of digital learning immediately so any economic interruptions do not impact on the three year roadmap as they are undoubtedly doing right now.

At Masters in Minds, we are experts in delivering online learning and development programmes, along with facilitated problem resolutions that are specific and measurable with a tempo that aligns with your business outcomes. Our teams of experts can guide you and direct you through these difficult times but more importantly we can and we will prepare you and your business to be resilient for the future and any further significant interruptions.

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No one would argue that this year has been tough for B2B sales, and how leaders have responded is polarised. The human truth, “we do not have a fear of the unknown, what we fear is giving up on the known” has never felt more apt.

Change the untapped into unbeatable 

Some organisations are transforming their business models and adding to their digital capability. As a result, they are focussing on how best to serve their customers and upskilling their people accordingly. But many leaders are stymied, still debating the right way forward with a ‘wait and see’ attitude.   

People will be at the heart of recovery. The societal shift in attitudes to tech has opened new ways and opportunities to serve customers.  What level of F2F sales will re-emerge is unknown but what we do know is that digital acceleration means life will not go back to ‘normal’. 

A new sales narrative is required for an omni-channel future. An honest assessment of where you are and the right mindset to learn fast and thrive on velocity will be your North Star.  

Past:

Pre-pandemic, Tradeshows allowed you to showcase your wares to an engaged audience, business development reps kept potential buyers in the loop and salespeople clogged up motorways and airports in pursuit of a F2F meeting.  Some forward–thinking businesses started to digitise their B2B sales processes. 

Present:

Fast forward and ways of working and sales approaches have had to be reimagined. Sales teams are struggling to reach new audiences. Restricted travel and COVID-19 uncertainty have fuelled mass adoption of tech. Tech confidence has changed the ways that customers interact with suppliers. This leaves many businesses struggling to survive as they grapple with the need to deliver digital transformation to a weary “hope it goes back to the way it was” workforce. 

Is there a brighter future?

To get ahead of slower peers, behavioural change will enable organisations to accelerate recovery. An omni-channel sales advantage will be at the foundations of a resilient and thriving business. Change is tough, and transformation is tougher still – but changing people’s capabilities leads to successful business outcomes.  Your business re-energised and your people reconnected. A snapshot of our results are proof of that: 

• 126% increase in sales through service performance
• 38% increase in skills capability
• 78% said they felt improved wellbeing

You are not alone 

The human impetus required for a business to bounce back is challenging and leaders are looking for support. Business culture, future-focused leadership, company-wide engagement, and talent retention are daily topics of conversation.   

Exceptional growth requires a challenging mindset and a fearless attitude. We’d love to help you see yourself, your business, and your employees in a different light. Overcoming longstanding barriers and unleashing opportunities ahead. 

MiM can help … 

1. Survive to thrive turnaround – Big and small steps. Our aim is to understand where you are now and how best we can help to stabilise and transform your business.
   
   
2. Sustainable future delivery – We can help you transform and deliver an optimised change programme. Setting up your people and your processes to deliver measurable sales growth.
   
   
3. Grow and expand – A fast-growing business comes with its own risks. We offer a range of business intelligence, cultural transformation, and transformation leadership solutions that will help align your vision and your people to the benefit of all.

Mindset change is at the heart of B2B sales transformation – and the winners will be those who equip their workforce with the right tools and skills needed to excel in the new normal.  

You don’t have problems. Just things you haven’t talked to us about yet.

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… The future is where you apply it. 

Survival of the fittest 

161 years on and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution feels very poignant. The need to embrace change or face possible extinction is perhaps too black and white in business. However, words like ‘adapting’ or ‘evolving’ to meet the needs of a changing environment do ring true. And as we head into 2021 and beyond, “survival of the fittest” holds more weight than ever before. Ambitious businesses don’t want to ‘survive’ it but rather create environments where their people and business can ‘thrive’.  

The digital acceleration in 2021 has been eye-watering for many.  In a recent survey, Mckinsey reported that businesses once mapped digital strategy in one-to-three-year phases now they must scale their initiatives in a matter of days or weeks. Notably, this puts increasing pressure on Leadership teams to learn quickly what is/is not working and why.   

What is the people impact of change? 

How do you ensure that your workforce is ready to keep up the pace of change? Are you leading in ways that enable your workforce to flourish and thrive? Significantly, 50% of the UK workforce are Millennials/Generation Z (Source: Institute of Leadership and Management). These generations are tech-savvy. They’re at ease with quick and efficient procedures driven by email, social networks, and databases. Millennials and Gen Z can adapt easily to new technologies and they’re ambitious. Moreover, they are not afraid to move on if they feel there’s limited growth opportunity. In addition, their energy is infectious.  

Leadership that resonates with your workforce 

The average age in the C Suite is 56 (Source: Nasdaq survey Jan 2020) making them Generation X (give or take a few years). To this end, the pandemic has challenged everything they once took for granted. As Generation X look to lead Millennials’ and Generation Z to a better future, do they really know how their workforce is ticking? 

People Surveys 

Every business has had to communicate more frequently with their workforce during 2020.  At the very least employers have engaged with colleagues about Business Continuity and Public Health Information. However, many companies have engaged with more frequent and different ways to inform and listen to their workforce, such as:  

1. Annual Surveys – to understand the employee experience and gauge engagement and intention to stay.
2. Pulse Surveys –to get results/feedback for a project like training or culture.  Often used to focus on issues like diversity and inclusion to measure progress since the last survey.
3. Always on – used throughout the year and increasingly so this year, to get ad hoc employee feedback to spot trending issues/concerns.

But do any of these reports indicate whether your workforce has the mindset needed to share and deliver the transformation needed to thrive?  

Growth Mindset 

Businesses will be forced to evolve and transform working practices to create a better future. Therefore, nurturing growth mindset working practices will be key to the pace and scale of transformation facing business. 

To illustrate, Professor Carol Dweck’s research linked a growth mindset with many benefits in business including: 

• higher motivation.
• lower stress, anxiety, and depression.
• better work relationships.
• higher performance levels.
  
  

 

Do you have a Fixed or a Growth mindset?

Does my workforce have a Growth or Fixed Mindset? 

These are three indicators to consider:

1. Do they fear feedback or failure? Are they asking for feedback on how they and their team are doing? Do they own and share their mistakes? 
   
   
2. Does your team reward effort, not outcomes? Do they give feedback and show appreciation for the efforts and learning they can see unfolding rather than just the outcomes achieved? 
   
   
3. Does the business invest in training and development, create cultures of self-examination, and encourage open communication and teamwork? 

With only two weeks until the New Year how will you activate a growth mindset in your workforce to achieve great outcomes for all? 

Grab a mince pie and Click Here to hear Carol Dweck talk about “Developing a Growth Mindset Culture in organisations” for inspiration. 

Take a look at our Mindset Indicator Monitor.

Home | MIM (mindsetindicatormonitor.com)

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Why you need MiM LaaS:

An interesting article in the Business Journals that we suggest everyone to read. As the author rightly says:

‘Investing in employees is no longer a nice to have, but a must-have.’

As you read the article, you’ll read how to invest in your employees affordably:

• Establish a learning culture: a culture that constantly develops knowledge and encourages learning new skills. A strong learning culture enables employees to seek, share, and apply new skills and knowledge.
  
  
• Create a microlearning programme: microlearning is a useful format as it is relevant information delivered at the appropriate time, such as learning videos or infographics with absorbable information.
  
  
• Train leaders to become mentors/coaches: With the correct tools, teach leaders to be accountable for creating a relationship with their direct reports.
  
  
• Provide free content: Create relevant content, through various formats, to be readily accessible to employees.
  
  
• Provide stipends for self-learning: Offer employees a learning and development stipend to attend varied sessions. Axonify found that 76% of employees said they would find a job more attractive if it came with learning and development opportunities.

These are all effective methods to invest in employees; however, you may be wondering: it seems like it will take a lot of time. From one leader to another, I know time is of the essence. But, I have a quick way that you can accomplish all of that without having to leave your desk.

MiM LaaS can do all of those investment methods and more. MiM LaaS is a unique learning-as-a-service solution. We do not just provide e-learning courses; we have various features that businesses can benefit from, which is why you need MiM LaaS.

We have microlearning and content readily available; your employees can benefit from animated bite-size courses, download resources whenever, and a function where you can design your own courses. There’s no need to provide a stipend for your employees as MiM LaaS includes (plan dependent) business webinars, access to a digital quarterly leaders forum/group, and an online social community, which is advantageous to develop leaders.

MiM LaaS creates a strong learning culture and develops your business. Regardless of which plan your organisation is on, you will have an implementation manager, so there’s no need to be tech-savvy or go through a transitional period. Each plan has an allocated number of consultancy days where you can benefit from specialist knowledge to develop your organisation.

Furthermore, you can benefit from online action clinics and architecturally designed development glide-path for colleagues. Our e-learning courses include gamification and bespoke certificates to keep your employees motivated. You can include our bespoke services, Johari360° and Mindset Indicator Monitor™, designed to develop your business and report any challenges your business could face during a change transformation.

Again, this will all be done from the comfort of your desk – you don’t have to leave. MiM LaaS is designed for leaders to continue doing what they do best while we care for the rest.

As the article said: It’s clear that employees are eager to improve their skill set, and companies that invest in their employees’ future are going to have a competitive advantage over those that do not.

Do you want to have an advantage over your competitors?

If you do, book a meeting with us and take advantage of your free demo!

Head over to MiM LaaS here.

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