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You have just completed your degree and have been selected to join a company. Five common myths about learning that could hamper your performance on the job include: |
- I have completed my learning phase and now have to start work life.There is no such thing as completing learning! In fact, your learning begins afresh when you start working with an organization. You have to learn about the company - culture, processes, organization structure, about the people – top management, senior management, your bosses, your peers, about information flow - hierarchy, communication channels, about HR systems – performance management and appraisals, rewards and recognition, leave and other eligibilities, and above all about your role requirements – job description, goals, key result areas.
- The company will provide me induction training and I will start performing after that.
The induction provided can at best help you get a glimpse of all the areas listed above. However, to ensure high performance levels, you have to continuously learn on-the-job. The world economy changes continuously and to keep pace, organization practices have to keep changing too. This means that you must also keep learning about the latest and best practices from the industry. In addition, each of your colleagues has something new to teach you. What is relevant is not how much you have learnt, but how well you continue to learn.
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My seniors will ensure that I get the appropriate learning that is required for my performance.You alone are responsible for your learning. The proverb ‘You can take a horse to the water, but you cannot make it drink’ explains it all. Your seniors will design the appropriate structure and systems for learning, but the initiative for absorbing, processing and utilizing the learning lies with you. With organizations becoming more and more competitive, time is becoming a serious problem at all levels. You have to take the initiative to learn by observing, asking relevant questions, reading up whatever material is available to you and constantly look out for new and better ways of skill development through your own peer groups.
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Learning is a lifelong process. Though much of the formal learning happens in school, what you learn in your first job helps set the base for a work life of conscious learning and creates enriching experiences. |
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Training is the way the organization equips me with the required knowledge for doing my job.
Training only focuses on one aspect of the job and that is skill development required for performing tasks. To a smaller extent, it provides you with conceptual and theoretical knowledge. Formal training happens only over a brief period, probably spread over a few days, and if the learning is not carried forward and used on the job, it will be forgotten. Even if you start using the learning effectively, new approaches and ideas are introduced every day into the industry which makes it important for you to update the learning, and in some cases, even relearn something. Moreover, in times of recession or when the company is going through a bad phase, training is the first activity to take a hit. However, it is during these times that more cutting edge technology and latest approaches are required.
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Learning culture means the top management continuously focuses on employees’ learning and development.
A learning culture is certainly driven from the top, but it is the responsibility of every individual in the system to keep the focus on learning. An organization reinvents itself and remains competitive through continuous learning. A learning organization is one where there is total employee involvement in collective learning and there is openness to adopt collaborative change.
Learning is a lifelong process. It begins at birth, and though much of the formal learning happens in school, a significant learning about work and life happens in the first job. What you learn there helps set the base for a work life of conscious learning and creates enriching experiences.
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