STRATEGIC WORKPLACE LEARNING
Integrated Learning in
New York State Government
by Nancy Y. Nee
The desire to improve From the moment students start elementary school all the way through
college, they are taught concepts mainly through verbal instruction that
business analysis prompted teachers expect will later be applied in the real world. However, in school,
NYSOSC to create an teachers gauge levels of learning and understanding by conducting tests. By
integrated, strategic the time students leave school, learning is equated with listening to lectures
that are followed by tests. This approach, however, doesn’t translate well in
educational program the workplace. As observed by Malcolm Gladwell in his 2005 book, Blink:
focused on the transfer The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, “We learn by example and by direct
of best practices. experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.”
Unfortunately, today’s workplace learning still tends to mirror this
one-way teaching approach in which education focuses on the mechanics
of a concept rather than how it should be applied on the job. And employ-
ees typically are taught in a one-size-fits-all manner, as if they all are at the
same stage of comprehension and ability.
The good news is that workplace learning is starting to fully embrace
a more layered, nuanced approach to how employees receive, apply, and
transfer information within the organization. Amidst reorganization,
downsizing, and employee turnover, organizations need to create a system
whereby learning is accessible and imprinted on the entire organization,
not just on single employees or one project team.
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Let’s face it, you don’t want valuable information and right set of tools and techniques to advance to the level of
experience to walk out the door only to start training all over learning required to meet organizational or project goals.
again. By leveraging an integrated learning framework, orga- These stages are not to be viewed or applied in
nizations can develop a training and performance program a vacuum. For each skill or competency that must be
that helps employees apply learning immediately, teaches learned, an individual must go through each stage of
workers how to share and transfer knowledge effectively, and progression. The stages in the framework are iterative for
aligns learning initiatives with overall business objectives. each competency or skill. Each stage of learning is but
one step in a progression that builds on the others.
An organization achieves its objectives and results
more quickly by supporting and creating an environment
Creating a culture or community or community that enables job shadowing, coaching, and
of leaders and coaches permits an mentoring. Creating a culture or community of leaders
and coaches permits an organization to develop those
organization to develop those around around them, thereby improving the capacity and capa-
t