Some of the most productive work environments consist of team members
who work exceptionally well together despite their differences. Working
collectively with a group of people requires strong communication
skills. However, not everyone naturally has those skills.
Before becoming a solid communicator, it's crucial to connect with
colleagues and understand how they prefer to learn new information. My
company helps organizations navigate their learning needs, and in my
experience, understanding different learning preferences can help
business leaders and their employees overcome common miscommunication
issues — all while improving agility to boost morale and productivity.
Most people probably wouldn't assume that agility can be a challenge
in the workplace. But I've found that it's become an increasingly
challenging issue among employees struggling to attain a level of
harmony as they work alongside one another. The idea behind agility is
to get everyone working well enough to create a seamless, stress-free
process that leads to greater productivity and produces great results.
Unfortunately, this becomes a struggle when people aren't on the same
page due to different learning preferences.
Learning differences among employees impact a workplace for several
reasons. For example, one individual on your team might not process the
information given to them the same way as someone else, so they may
react differently or take a unique approach when using that new
information to take on tasks at work. In some instances, these learning
differences might eventually lead to misperception, workplace conflict
and cause an output delay. This then becomes a struggle for businesses
looking to reach high-yielding goals.
Embracing agility within the software development area has been
adopted as standard practice for some time. But it's not enough for
businesses to simply practice agility within their technology functions.
Instead, agile methods should be embraced organizationwide and across
business functions, including research and development, manufacturing,
sales, marketing and administration.
Businesses often want to experience the rewards of agility, such as
speed, productivity and engagement, but they don't always look at the
bigger picture, such as the changes they'd need to make to achieve those
desired results. If they're willing to look at the bigger picture,
business leaders can create a more welcoming work environment that
functions more effectively.
Everyone has unique learning preferences. The sooner business leaders
have a detailed understanding of these, the sooner they can expect to
build productive teams with individuals who excel at their jobs.
Speed isn't everything, especially if companies are not providing the
best learning environment. In some cases, it's necessary to slow things
down and set a pace that works for all employees based on their
learning preferences. When you understand the learning preferences of
your employees, you can group people based on how they learn, which can
help with the cohesiveness of your team. Once you've mastered the art of
communication among employees, you can focus on improving other
components that lead to agility, such as speed.
In other words, knowing a team member's learning and communication
preference is an insight that helps business leaders rethink structures
and processes used daily in the workplace. They can then align these
structures and processes with their team's strengths. If business
leaders are willing to dive deep into this, I believe they can improve
efficiency and productivity without miscommunication and frustration
delaying the output.
Learning and growing in work environments requires self-awareness.
Taking the time to identify each team member’s ability to learn and
communicate provides a number of opportunities for leaders. If each team
member can optimize the way they connect with individuals, they can
ultimately improve communication within the team.
A great starting point is to meet with your employees and discuss
their key learning attributes, their sweet spot for taking in new
information and the strategies that accelerate their capacity to learn.
For instance, someone might like to brainstorm practical solutions with
real-life examples and find it useful to write personal and group action
plans.
After connecting on a team level, you have the potential to unlock
the collective power of the group by mapping these preferences across
your team. Create a matrix that articulates and showcases the different
learning and communication preferences within the group. When
individuals are empowered with this knowledge, they can consciously
apply it to daily interactions and improve the influence of their
emails, meetings, business reports and presentations. In my experience,
improving communication can result in people feeling heard, understood
and appreciated. It may even help boost morale and optimize productivity
in the workplace.
While some struggle with agility, the right influence can provide
change. The best way to impact influence is to become a strong
communicator with everyone within the workplace. Success and learning
agility are driven by individuals collaborating as teams with a shared
skill of learning, processing information, connecting with others,
communicating and ultimately influencing.