It is rare for me to find a reference from Sports and relate it with what I am passionate about, learning and development. The ‘commonwealth games 2010’ to be held in Delhi, India is the most trending topic in every newspaper, news channel, and the Internet. This will be the largest multi-sport event conducted to date in Delhi and India in particular. With a lot of fanfare for the grand event, the government is investing heavily on the infrastructure, security, accommodation, and much more to make the event a grand success. Indeed, the total budget for the games is estimated to be above $1.6 Billion, even larger than the previous games held in Melbourne 2006. However, the billion dollar question is, has winning the games ever crossed our minds?
Merely making heavy investments in infrastructure will not fetch us more medals. In the light of the commonwealth games, Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, the world’s eighth largest passenger terminal was opened. However, how does it encourage our Athletes to perform well in the games? With so much of money thrown away in Infrastructure, we are missing the key point – training! Training and not infrastructure will improve the chances of our Athletes in winning more medals and enable India as a nation to progress.
This is something I know. A recent article updates sports lovers on 10 Indian athletes who are training in Durban for 2010 CWG. What strikes me is their passion for learning, which is evident with their confidence:
Sinimole Paulose, who is an 800m and 1500m experts, is hopeful that the training schedule will help them improve their performance before the quadrennial event in Delhi.
India bagged in 50 medals in 2006. This time, they are hopeful in grabbing 70!
With that in mind, the scenario for Indian corporate is no different. When I started to think about this in the context of organizational learning and development, I wondered: how can Indian organizations leverage the potential of their best learners?
Spending too much on infrastructure has always been a trend and a faux pas. With so much investment in building a state-of-art infrastructure, training often takes a back seat. What companies do not realize is that their common wealth is the people – the employees. It all begins when organizations recognize the significance of human capital and tracking capabilities thus turning their business into winning success. Employees are passionate about learning more but are the organizations willing to spend in their learning and development?
Knowledge gives organizations the edge in any marketplace. While training used to be considered as a minor function, it now plays a strategic role. However, there is more to developing employees than merely provide them with proper training. Your most passionate learners need more than training. They need a learning path, which can satiate their hunger to learn more. Being associated with Element K, a corporate learning academy, I know providing employees with a learning path and keeping a track of their progress is one of the most effective ways to increase organizational productivity and boost employee satisfaction. Moreover, it gives you an opportunity to build the most critical assets of your company –employees.
Instead of worrying too much about the training infrastructure, a corporate learning academy such as Element K, avoids technical and budgetary issues during implementation of unique learning programs. Off lately, the real world blended learning subscriptions, which is a blend of online and classroom content created to complement each other, are the most preferable choice among organizations. A corporate learning academy provides a mutual fruit that both employees and employers can reap benefits from.
A corporate learning academy is like a Swiss-army-knife for organizations that equips them with the ability to ensure that training is imparted among the employees, and they have a learning path so that you can see them grow old with the organization.
So my question to you is what do you do to tap into your employees strengths? What are you currently doing to enable your passionate learners stand out and provide your organization with the most value that they can?
The author of this article is Vipul Sachdeva who works with Element K and specializes in e-learning domain.
