With the Fourth Industrial Revolution bringing in exponential changes, leaders are missing one important element — rethinking the process of learning
I had just finished addressing a group of executives in their mid-thirties in one of the B-schools. We all know that as a norm, all executives are sponsored by their organizations so that they could build their strategic thinking skills, and so was the case here too. However, during one of the coffee breaks, a participant walked up to me for a discussion. And during our conversation, I could not stop but think that he looked at least a decade younger than the others in that class, and had also been an individual contributor in the session. My curiosity took the best of me and I asked him as to why his employer had sponsored him for this program?
And his answer was: “I paid for it myself. If I have to wait for my organization to sponsor me for such a program, I have to be a Vice President in the organization before they spend this kind of money on my education.”
This was one of the many instances where I got to meet executives who were paying for their own learning. And I must add that over the last 3-4 years I have met many more like him. But this is the truth these days — more and more people are taking charge of their own learning today through technology or other channels! This is the new aspect of learning that we are seeing today.
But my question hinges on what’s coming next in the wake of the 4th Industrial Revolution technologies where people are already taking charge of their learning needs: Does it mean that organizations need to design learning differently to cater to the appetite of the 4th Industrial Revolution technology?
Learn-earn-retire
We know about the first two Industrial Revolutions. The First Industrial Revolution triggered the need for labor in the textile mills that encouraged people to move from farms to mills, which subsequently also increased the demand for women and children as cheap labor.
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