The ever-changing workplace demands people develop new skills consistently. If you're having trouble keeping up, entrepreneur Adam Ferrari explains that you can apply the principles of agile project management.
Agile project management is perfectly suited for learning. By applying some of these techniques that incorporate taking new approaches, you can more effectively learn new tasks while "unlearning" old ones that are unsuccessful.
Here are some ways you can integrate agile strategies so you can meet the complex challenges of today's workplace head-on.
Learn Continuously
Learning is something that shouldn't have an endpoint. If you want to be able to adapt to a constantly changing world, you need to ensure that you are learning on an ongoing basis.
You can do this by encouraging and celebrating continuous learning in the workplace. When you do this, your employees will feel fulfilled and constantly strive to learn more and build their skills.
This can be done through programs set up specifically to help you develop new skills, improve on the skills you already have, or recalibrate your skills to the changing environment around you.
People learn very effectively from their peers. You are more likely to be receptive to something one of your peers is teaching you as compared to one of your superiors.
In the workplace, an example of this could be having employees teach each other different aspects of their job. This accomplishes two things. First, it breaks down barriers to learning by having the information come from colleagues. Second, it reinforces the skills and knowledge of the person who's serving as the teacher.
Learn with Others
A supplementary approach to the point above is to learn alongside others. People learn best when they do so with others. Sometimes, talking out different angles of a problem or situation helps everyone involved gain valuable knowledge and skills needed to complete a task.
In addition, learning in this way helps foster a culture that invites and encourages communication among all team members. Ultimately, that results in a more effective and efficient workplace.
Learn on the Go
Different people learn differently. Some may be mentally aware in the morning, while others might prefer learning at night. With today's rapidly advancing technology, it's easy to allow each person to learn on their own time when they feel it's best for them.
Instead of requiring all employees to attend a regularly scheduled in-person training session, you could make pre-recorded virtual learning sessions available. This way, every employee can attend the training or educational course when it works best for them.
An added benefit of this virtual and remote learning is that it allows people to utilize technology to aid in their learning. Using tools such as cloud computing, videos, and walkthroughs on their smartphones, for example, adds a layer to the learning.
Learn in Spurts
One of the main principles of agile project management is quick sprints. Applying this principle to learning, try limiting your learning sessions to five minutes. Instead of full-blown courses, for example, you could view these learning sessions as little nuggets that people can easily and quickly consume.
As Adam Ferrari explains, this is a great way to remain agile as you're trying to learn and develop new skills or get rid of old and outdated skills that are no longer serving you well.
About Adam Ferrari
Adam Ferrari was born and raised in the south suburbs of Chicago, IL. He is the grandson of an Italian immigrant coal miner who worked in the mines of Coal City, IL. Adam was taught the value and dignity achieved through a hard day's work from an early age. The oil and gas industry provides good-paying jobs for millions of blue-collar men and women across America. This is one of many reasons Adam and his company, Ferrari Energy, are such staunch supporters of the oil and gas industry. Blue-collar men and women built America, and the modern oil and gas industry keeps America moving forward.
