by Erna George (@edgeo23) I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about the changing market and world, speeding along at an ever-increasing pace. What this does mean, however, is that requirements around people are shifting. Teams need to be hungry for knowledge and learning, and have a willingness to adapt and stretch.
Those of us who studied in the ’80s, ’90s and early 2000s have had to simply assimilate learning about social media and other digital technology, processes and more in what we do in order to continue delivering to a high standard in a relevant way. But how do you know if what you’re doing is enough and what is your role and the role of business in this process? How do you balance brand, business and personal needs or benefits?
Continuous learning
Three things happened recently that brought me to thinking about continuous learning in the workplace.
- Attending a digital-marketing course in our internal learning programme
- Joining our manufacturing team and a global supplier to understand new process and manufacturing options, and
- Attending the international food exhibition, SIAL, in Paris
I left the digital session feeling empowered to step-change approaches in my team. While some of the basics weren’t new news, some were. Having the benefit of an expert (Dave Duarte) taking us through theory to ground principles within relevant brand business circumstances was enlightening. The basics, put into context from a unique perspective peppered with global and local examples, helped me work through key questions I was grappling with. Great on the day but learning has to translate into performance so the focus must be on transformative continuous learning. I always ask my team to come back from a course with one or two things they want to implement and measure. We make this known so that the learning (in key and comfortable chunks) is built into their work, and shifts behaviour. So I walked out of the course with a plan on how to improve engagement with my agencies, and reset my expectations of what great is today with a view on how to get there or how to challenge everyone in digital to a new reality for our brands. Progress!
Sharing of experiences
The second opportunity was the sharing of experiences across the business units, categories and brands with colleagues. There is never enough time in the week but, on course, we had the space to collaborate and share practices around agency relationships and improving approaches — just inspiring each other.
What we must remember is that carving out the time for learning may actually make us more efficient. Time out to think may help refresh approaches and ways of working. Therein lies the opportunity for senior leadership teams to encourage and create ways for teams to connect and learn more collaboratively. Creating internal-engagement sessions or a sharing platform may allow teams to use experiences and current market events to reconsider policies, hypotheses and approaches, and facilitate a renovation or reinvention of the team dynamics and/or ways of working to achieve in the changing environment.
This is what happened when I attended the session with the manufacturing team and we could learn from and bounce things off each other and, from this, devise new approaches. I was the only marketer in the room but this meant I took out a different perspective to facilitate 360-degree learning (and selfishly I improved my knowledge about processing to enable other areas of my role). This is simply (using the old adage) that a problem shared is a problem halved. Think of this as on-the-job training on steroids.
Tailored
What has made the outputs of the digital course so powerful is that it was tailored to our organisation; little felt unnecessary or wasted. Identifying the courses or the content that fits needs the most is a challenge when there are a multitude of options, from bricks-and-mortar universities to o-line self-development courses. Self-development is a tough area to navigate, even in some more traditional paths, as different institutions yield expertise or focus in different areas. There is therefore something to be said for the business to support and assist by offering or highlighting the courses that count. This may help focus learning in the areas that suit the business purpose and grow the individual.
Dealing with the changing environment requires strong people. Building and investing in the business’s most-important asset therefore becomes critical. This may be done by encouraging and providing space for self-development, as well as providing internal structures for learning. There may be concern from some that people are upskilling themselves to leave and find better opportunities externally. The reality is that not focusing upon growing employee skills is more likely to create a sense of not being valued and create room for an exodus.
Being afforded the opportunity to visit SIAL has certainly left me feeling invested in. I feel more committed than ever, not because of the amazing opportunity but mostly because my brain is buzzing with inspiration from all the new innovation, interesting ingredients, and global and adjacent category examples. I feel energised and ready to keep chasing new heights.
Many guises
Awesome, external inspiration comes in many guises. There are meaningful opportunities for learning from partners. There is greater engagement with customer teams, from buyers to marketing teams. Collaborating on opportunities or creating unique approaches helps share learnings from each other’s environments to create a new reality.
Spend a day at your agency learning its processes or spend a few years in the agency world to round off your abilities, such as brief writing and reverts. There are ways to learn from your consumers via call lines and digital two-way communication in addition to more traditional research. Spend a day walking in their shoes or even going on a trade visit — the options are endless and may be found in the simplest mechanics. Be it customers, consumers, suppliers or agencies, the sources for external stimulus are numerous and are waiting to be partnered with.
Businesses need comprehensive strategies to enhance capability and performance; not only is this a great retention strategy but it offers an opportunity for competitive advantage.
Your greatest assest
There are definitely more than my usual three rounding-off points in this piece but here is a stab at my favourites. Investing in your greatest asset — people — will benefit the individual and the organisation. Fostering continuous learning requires:
- Some external inspiration and knowledge-sharing and partnership
- An internal platform for collaboration and sharing
- A shift to focus upon performance: integration of key learnings into daily operations to help remodel behaviour and processes, transforming the workplace
Even though access to information has made it easier, the volume and multiplicity of topics make it more challenging. A balance between a drive for self-development and business support will deliver optimal learning, resulting in a more committed, inspired and proficient team.
After starting at Unilever in a classical marketing role, Erna George (@edgeo23) explored the agency side of life, first as a partner at Fountainhead Design, followed by the manic and inspiring world of consultancy at Added Value. She has returned to client-side, leading the marketing team in the Cereals, Accompaniments & Baking Division at Pioneer Foods. Her monthly “Fair Exchange” column on MarkLives concerns business relationships and partnerships in marketing and brandland.
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