In our current rapidly changing technological world, learning quickly and easily is now essential, not optional. Agile learning is a new approach to learning and development built on the hope that individuals and organizations can keep pace with rapid innovation, shifting tools, and new market demands. Agile learning is centered around principles of flexibility, teamwork, and continuous improvement. Agile learning is an approach that allows the traditional learning experience to be transformed into a learning experience with rapid iterations and responsiveness. This article defines agile learning, offers insight into the importance of agile learning in the tech milieu, and offers insights on how to embrace agile learning towards thriving in a world of rapid change.
What Is Agile Learning?
Agile learning is an iterative, learner-centered approach to learning similar to agile methodologies in software development. Agile learning will replace the traditional, one-off corporate learning experience that does not incorporate application, with more continuous, collaborative experimentation, feedback, and adaptation. The focus of agile learning is on fragmenting complex skills, allowing them to be focused on units that allow learners to use the learning quickly, reflect on what they did, and make adjustments before moving on. This allows for a rapid learning cycle of skills in sync with real world situations.
Why Agile Learning Is Critical in Technical Fields
The technology industry is rapidly changing. New programming languages, frameworks, tools, and best practices appear regularly. Learning opportunities that are static are falling behind and putting employees and teams at risk of skill obsolescence. Agile learning allows employees and teams to embrace their learning and utilize a growth mindset in order to ensure that learning is a continual part of how they work. The goal of agile learning is to ensure that professionals stay relevant and can react with speed when the technologies on which they rely or the business priorities change.
Key Principles of Agile Learning
- Learner-Centered Approach
The learner is the top priority in agile learning. Specifically, the learner’s preferences, needs, and goals are prioritized over everything. There is no standardized training model for everyone; content and pace are uniquely selected and paced by each learner as the learner leads their development. This model creates motivation and engagement because the learner is interested in the material and recognizes the immediate application of the learned material. - Flexibility and Adaptability
Change is a basic tenet of agile learning. Training is designed to accommodate, accept and evolve because of change. Traditional training programs need baked-in flexibility to modify content, methods, and delivery quickly, based on feedback, new technologies, or business priorities. Flexibility keeps learning relevant and adapts with the pace of work. - Iterative Learning Cycles
Agile learning uses a short cycle of learning, practice, feedback, and reflection. Each iteration encourages continual improvement by breaking down complex skills into increments that are manageable. As learners reveal their acquired knowledge in the iterative exercise, they apply what they have learned, receive real-time feedback, and repeat the cycle. Each repetition of the learning cycle leads to increasingly deeper mastery of the knowledge. - Collaboration and Social Learning
Learning is better when collaboration and sharing takes place amongst co-learners, mentors, and leaders. Agile learning cultivates a culture of collaboration and sharing by incorporating knowledge sharing, dialogue, and peer feedback into the learning process. Essentially, by utilizing collective intelligence and sharing, these factors compact the processing time and allow individuals to learn skills at a faster pace, while simultaneously developing a strong learning community that continues to grow within the organization. - Real-World Relevance
The content of agile learning connects directly to actual work situations and business objectives. As learners gain practical skills and engage in real world practices, they can immediately start to use what they have learned. Retention of knowledge is increased, and the work value of the training is shown to both individual learners and the organization.
How to Implement Agile Learning in Your Organization
- Assess Current Learning Needs and Gaps
The first step is to determine the aspects of your organization that already have existing skill sets and, more importantly, identify the gaps which are causing performance or innovation issues. Ideally the assessment will involve surveys, performance data and, as much as possible insight gained from listening to employees and their managers, to construct a landscape of the pyramid of learning that agile learning can target. This assessment will provide you with a concrete baseline and will help you to prioritize learning based on alignment with business objectives. - Foster a Culture Open to Change and Experimentation
Agile learning thrives when experimentation, feedback and adaptation is reinforced in the environment. Leadership must model growth mindset behaviour and reward attempts to learn, mistakes included. It is critically important to create a psychologically safe environment to empower employees to explore skills to understand and develop their abilities, albeit with fear of making unnecessary mistakes, all while providing opportunities to fail safely. - Break Learning into Small, Manageable Modules
Create learning content as small, digestible modules that enable learners to understand the main concept, and apply it immediately. This modular approach provides continual learning and flexibility for learners to select topics that are relevant to them. One of the benefits of this approach is that learners can progress at their own pace while weaving learning into their busy work schedules. - Encourage Collaborative Learning and Peer Feedback
Provide opportunities for learners to collaborate, share insights, and provide feedback to each other, through group projects, discussion boards, regular knowledge sharing sessions, etc. Collaboration builds onto the learning experience while speeding the ability for new skills to spread across the organization. - Use Real-Time Feedback and Continuous Assessment
Build feedback loops into your learning content so information can be presented to participants at the time of the learning activity, such as, quizzes, peer reviews, or supervisor check-in sessions. Continuous assessment can help learners adapt their learning strategies in a timely manner, reinforce the learning done, and foster motivation to continue learning through real-time, observable improvement.
Benefits of Agile Learning
- Faster Skill Acquisition
An agile approach to learning ultimately allows faster skill development. It does this by reducing the size of complex knowledge into smaller bite-sized portions. Rather than focusing on acquiring all the knowledge required to be held accountable for a specific job, learners are programmed to master one concept or skill at a time. When completing one portion of knowledge, learners can immediately implement that knowledge in the real-world context. As a result, the internalization of that newly acquired knowledge is rapid because learners are not overwhelmed and implementing it immediately. Skills are developed much faster than in traditional lengthy learning or training programs.
- Increased Adaptability
With agile learning, learning is flexible, with little to no rigidity. The learner can develop their own learning paths which can adjust throughout the learning process. Learners can adopt learning paths that are conducive to newly formed trends, new incoming information, or changes in the requirements of their job role and tasks. Throughout the entire learning process, learners can respond to rapid changes in technology or their ever-changing business or other organizational needs without being tied to a rigid plan of outdated skills or knowledge.
- Enhanced Engagement and Motivation
Utilizing an agile learning approach can create ample opportunity for active engagement by making learning personalized through collaboration, feedback, and practical application. With an emphasis on learners being at the center of the learning experience, learners are thrilled and motivated by what is being learned because it has immediate relevance and impact on their personal and professional lives. In addition, the feedback loops that put learning and earning in close proximity creates not only feelings of progress and increased motivation for continued learning in the future.
- Better Knowledge Retention
Agile learning enhances knowledge retention through an integrated practice of teaching with real tasks, and frequent practice and reflection. Learners open up the pathway to retention through practice and feedback seeing real experience and practice and feedback create a stronger likelihood that skills remain and transfer to the workplace.
- Promotes a Growth Mindset
Agile learning reduces the threshold to a growth mindset of trial and error, and spotting the gap and making that gap a learning opportunity. This cultural shift creates not only resilience from failure, but more openness to change which translates to adaptability, essential in the rapidly changing technology world, which is founded on innovation and continuous improvement.
Conclusion
In a world that is changing almost daily from a technological perspective, agile learning is a relevant method for thriving in this world of change and new expectations. By building an environment of continuous, flexible and collaborative learning, individuals and organizations etc. can remain relevant in a rapidly changing technological environment, thereby ensuring long-term success. Adopting a philosophy of agile learning is not simply about surviving the change but thriving in it.