Prior to March 2020, the most sought-after skills people engaged in learning were unsurprisingly Data Science and Business (Coursera: April 2020). Since March both these subjects dropped in popularity, with Data Science halving its appeal, a back runner came galloping to the front leaving the other subjects in the blurred distance. Its name is Personal Development.
When the writing is on the wall and when the going get tough, we have a choice fight or flight. I observe individuals and organisations pulling back rather and pushing forward…
Let’s just think for a moment… Every single one of us is working (or not), and living our lives differently than we were 2 or 3 months ago. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD) about our future; processes that we held dear that couldn’t possibly be changed, have changed; skills that we didn’t need to worry about, we now need to get on board with; feelings that never thought about, now occupy our conversations; and knowledge that was someone else concern is now everyone’s concern.
When the landscape changes so must we, history has taught us that.
When you consider the work of Abraham Maslow, who put forward that people are motivated by five basic categories of needs: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. As the lower needs are met (starting at physiological) the next will be sought all the way up the hierarchy to self-actualization, all of these needs need to be satisfied we are compelled to, when they are not fulfilled we experience a avoid, perhaps distress, urgency, we will seek that what we need and sometimes at all costs.
Over the last few months, you can see evidence of society trying to fulfil their hierarchy of needs. From the panic over toilet paper and pasta to the need for belonging and giving/supporting society.
When you cross reference this with massive swing in learning focus could a hypothesis be that as individuals adapt to their landscape, our FUD takes hold, or as the disruption presents gaps in our capability we are plugging these gaps and fulfilling the need for and/or to show others: love, esteem and self-actualization.
From an organisations perspective, the world and his wife are talking about the need to rework now organisations are going to present themselves going forward, to fulfil its hierarchy of needs, and how they (organisations) are going to serve their employees so in turn employees can serve clients/customers. These were important questions pre-COVID-19 that seem more urgent now.
What we know for sure is that any change at any scale is going to require learning in all its forms. As roles, processes, products etc. are disrupted and we look to solutions such as Reskilling, Upskilling and Transitioning employees, Role crafting, transforming our digital capability, how work is completed and when it is completed. If organisations and leaders are not providing what employees need they will go and find it themselves, this may seem proactive and that is to be applauded however, your talent could be proactively walking out the door and this starts a new problem.
Therefore, this is not the time to stop learning. It needs to be front and centre, it is the only way we are going to move forward. We all need to adapt, we all need to learn new skills (and quickly), we all need a sense of belonging (a purpose) and we all need to feel supported by our organisations and leaders. This is not the time to stop learning, this is not the time to pull back investment but, it is the time to rework how learning will be enabled. Performance and Capability Experts need to disrupt learning strategies before they are disrupted too.