Why ‘learning agility’ is crucial for growth

We should never stop learning, and organisations should never stop offering employees the opportunity to do so.

In order to keep staff engaged, productive, and efficient, care should be taken to ensure they’re always developing their skill set. Not just to assist in the growth of the business but also to achieve personal development.

“Continuous learning is so important … One of the things that comes up a lot with those that have grown and progressed their careers is that they have consistently levelled up their skills. They haven’t sat and gone, I studied at uni, I’m done now. It’s a growth mindset. It’s consistent,” said Lauren Karan, director of Karan and Co.

Part of offering consistent learning opportunities is being agile. Agility can help businesses prepare for the worst by equipping employees with the necessary skills to tackle challenges. This is especially useful when technology is concerned, as the evolution of tech can often be hard to keep up with.

“Learning agility is actually something that organisations are looking at now, too, for growing in the future. Because think about it, AI and all these changes in technology, you need to be able to learn and adapt your skill set. Some of the tasks you might do [could become] automated, some of the tasks you might do [could] be changed or augmented by AI,” Ms Karan said.

“Constant learning agility and constantly continuing to look at how you can be upskilling, what else you need to know is really important.”

Understanding the skills you have gathered and the ones you are missing can be a great way to gauge where you are at professionally. This is helpful when going for a promotion or applying for another role.

Ms Karan commented: “I have a good friend of mine transferring out of defence in the future. And now what she’s doing is sitting down, looking at the plan and going, what have I done in defence in this career that is transferable? Where is my skills gap for where I want to go? And having a couple of year plan to transition out by upskilling in those areas.”

For those interested in upskilling or reskilling, approaching your manager with a plan is a great first step to getting the ball rolling in career development.

“The conversation with the manager should be, hey, I have had a real think about my career and I see myself really wanting to move into finance management or commercial management. I’m here. What do you think are some of the key areas I could work on? Where do you think some of my skills gaps are?” Ms Karan said.

“Be open to have that honest and real conversation with your manager, and don’t leave your career in your manager’s hands … You need to have a real conversation about your future progression and what things you can be doing, and what got you where you are won’t get you where you want to be.”

The transcript of this podcast episode was slightly edited for publishing purposes. To listen to the full conversation with Lauren Karan, click below: