A handful of organizations stand out from the rest – not because they excel in their fields, but because of their pragmatic willingness to unlearn and adapt to changing business dynamics. These organizations are top performers that create sustainable impact.
What are the reasons behind their top performance? What are their operational characteristics? In other words: what’s the secret to their success? To answer these questions, I uncovered some unique insights from a recent study by Towards Maturity which highlights the defining characteristics that drive performance and productivity in top-performing organizations.
In this article, I would like to draw your attention to five key points that resonate with us, especially with our approach to employee-generated learning, which enables companies to harness their internal expertise and easily switch to bottom-up, collaborative learning approaches. Let’s take a closer look at what makes an organization a top performer.
According to the study, high-performing organizations implement people-centric learning models to create an agile knowledge environment. The 39% of L&D leaders who implement agile and iterative development methodologies are reported to be more successful in keeping pace with dynamic business changes. They leverage on-demand tools and platforms based on communities of practice to create continuous knowledge currency for the workforce.
What does it take to initiate a people-centric learning model? In our article published on CLO Media, I talk about how organizations can manage organizational changes and switch from top-down approaches to employee-centric learning models to deal with the influx of changes.
Towards Maturity’s report indicates that 38% of the high-performing organizations consider employee empowerment to be crucial for solving business problems. They believe that trust is the cornerstone of empowering and retaining employees for organizational development. As the report very fittingly states, “A thriving ecosystem of collaboration and innovation demands the confidence and empowerment of staff.”
The report highlights that such organizations are ten times likelier to drive business innovation than low-performing companies.
Do you want to know how organizations can enable employees to trust each other to collaborate and share responsibility when solving problems? How do you create a knowledge-sharing culture to foster innovation? How does it impact employee morale? In this article published on Jane Hart’s website, I share insights drawn from academic literature and industry research on why employees share knowledge. I also discuss proven best practices from the corporate world for activating knowledge-sharing behaviors that foster employee engagement.
The findings from Towards Maturity show that high-performing organizations are twice as likely as average to provide a safe space for employees to collaborate with others and share their ideas and professional expertise. About 85% of these organizations provide the necessary environment for working out loud.
So, how can organizations provide that safe space for employees to share their experiences while aligning with the organizational context and competing with the numerous external learning opportunities? In our article Think Like a Startup, Act Like a Product Manager, I share six fundamental lessons gleaned from the experiences of product managers that address this need. 
Towards Maturity indicates that limitations in terms of budget and resources are common among top-performing organizations. However, what differentiates them from the rest is that they think of smarter alternatives to leverage available resources and create engaging activities that drive results.
Faced with tight budgets and resources, how can organizations create engaging activities that align learning with the company’s context and help keep the workforce on pace to meet business demands? In this article published on Training Industry, I introduce a “3C” framework for organizations to implement a cost-effective, employee-driven learning model.
High-performing organizations secure stakeholder buy-in and employee engagement organically through involvement, co-ownership, and commitment. As Towards Maturity reports, “By asking rather than insisting, high-performing learning organizations understand their people, establish ways of gathering feedback, involve key stakeholders, and finally provide the opportunity to apply what has been learned.”
This resonates with the key findings from our recent survey, in which most participants indicated that changing the mindset of three key stakeholders was paramount to the successful adoption of learning interventions.
Time to start
By bringing together such a wide range of findings of high-performing organizations, Towards Maturity’s study is an excellent resource for organizations trying to walk the path of progress. On top of that, the findings are very consistent with the direction we are heading at Easygenerator. They encourage HR and L&D teams to start thinking about switching to people-driven, bottom-up employee engagement models.
Our idea of an employee-generated learning model is critical to the ongoing discussion and gives organizations an easy way to start that transition. I look forward to sharing more about our model via various platforms. If you have any requests/questions related to this topic, please leave them in the comments below.
The Learning 2019 conference
I have been to a ton of learning conferences but this will be my first time at #learning2019. I’m looking forward to it and I’m planning to report on all interesting sessions via this blog.
