Learning is never time bound. It is a consistent process through which one has to keep passing. From the viewpoint of an employer this is a must in the employees as there are many stages where the process in the business and technology change which force the staff to learn new skills with latest technology. At this stage those who have low learning agility may not be able to offer the desired services with required qualities which may have impact on not only services of a department but overall business also.
To avoid such situation one needs to find the people who are sharp and agile when it comes to learning. They must be able to grasp the function of modern tools and technology with the help of which the business may flourish. There are many companies in the market that use modern technologies for various purposes. The learners, who can walk with the use of modern technology, can prove fit for the job they are offered and to check the same before hiring the employees HR prefers to check their agility for new learning. Those who can clear the tests may have better scope to get an opportunity in the concerned organization.
It is defined as the ability and willingness to learn from all kinds of experience and use those lessons to perform effectively in different situations. From a distance, it may appear to go along with intelligence; however, it usually is not the case.
With time and practice, people can become better leaders but highly learning agile people master the task faster and more completely. These people are constantly on the lookout for new challenges and actively seek feedback from others on their growth and development. They tend to self-reflect, evaluating their experiences and drawing practical conclusions. Although intelligence impacts the ability to learn from a traditional perspective, learning agility refers to an individual’s adaptability in learning new ways of coping with unforeseen problems and opportunities.
Since the year 1991, Lominger International, which is now known as Korn Ferry Hay Group, has been at the cutting edge of research into the identification and development of high potential talent through learning agility. After research, it was found that learning agility is the primary or essential individual measure of a person’s potential to grow and perform well in different jobs.
After thorough research, it was identified that there are essentially five factors of learning agility as a foundation for developing and mastering a powerful set of leadership skills.
There are five factors that are an important part of Learning Agility, those are-Mental, People, Change and Results Agility, and Self-Awareness form. It is the basis of structured, standardized and consistent assessment, which objectively measures learning agility and evaluates the leadership potential.
Organizations should assess learning agility to accurately identify individuals who can lead, and have the potential to succeed in new and different roles, allowing you to invest in the right talent for leadership development.
There are three specific ways to measure Learning Agility:
An online test for self-assessment with viaEDGE™
An interview protocol that is known as Learning from Experience™ Interviewing
An online exam for self-assessment of Leadership Potential.
An essential part of the broader Learning Agility Initiative, which is conducted in collaboration with CCL, is concerned with understanding how well learning-agile people behave at work. One of the best ways that we one can do this is to compare how individual responses on a number of other established psychological assessments compared to his or her responses on Learning Agility Assessment Inventory (LAAI).
Five essential factors of Learning Agility:
A. Mental Agility: It is a measure of how best a person can embrace complexity or complex problems. It examines problems in unique ways, and how inquisitive the person is and can make fresh connections between different concepts.
B. People Agility: To measure a person’s open-mindedness towards others, and how much they enjoy interacting with a diverse group of people, and how well he or she understands them. And how well they work with them effectively to accomplish organizational goals.
C. Change Agility: An individual’s drive for change and continuous exploration of new options and solutions is an indicator of being learning agile.
D. Results Agility: How a person can be motivated by challenge and can also deliver exceptional results in complex situations.
E. Self-Awareness: How to measure a person’s insight, and cognitive thinking abilities and well clearly they understand their abilities, is free of distractions and uses this knowledge to perform effectively.
A person’s Responsiveness
It usually offers more adaptability in today’s world of exceptionally fast changes. Planning is usually not something that is done only once at the beginning. It’s a constant process and is evolving.
Measuring Flexibility
By the virtue of flexibility that agility brings, whether it is in IT or in learning, it is usually something that can’t be measured in general terms. The purpose of learning is not to certify an individual with a badge but to keep sharpening their skills across the entire delivery spectrum, on a continuous basis.
A person’s Adaptability
Learning is directly proportional to market dynamics. Companies do not train an individual about assembly language programming if someone is hired to code advanced algorithms on machine learning. If someone is an agile learner, you are expected to adapt and innovate with the market’s needs.
The primary idea is to be people-driven and not to be process-driven in learning agility. For that, It usually requires a unique approach to continuous learning. It usually takes a lot of burden off companies, as employees are able to handle their daily tasks much more efficiently. When you infuse flexible learning into daily work, employees usually tend to graduate almost every week, and they are not tormented by disruptive technological changes.
The distinguishing factor between flexibility and adaptability in the context of flexible learning capacity is about being able to change frameworks according to necessity, and adaptability is being able to rapidly adjust to an impromptu situation.
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