It a bit like the story of the tortoise and the hare. - Blair McPherson

The speed at which someone adapts, acquires skills, and integrates feedback is important to organisations required to adapt quickly in today’s fast paced business environment. So organisation should recruit fast learners and measure employees ,”learning velocity “ claims a recent contributor to HRD ( Learning Velocity August 20 ) Whilst it is true that we are in an era of continuous transformation and employees need to be adept at learning new skills and ways of working , speed is not the only criteria. I would argue the most important requirement is the willingness to learn. 

 

Resistance to learning is a very real problem for organisations. Firstly there is the challenge of getting people to attend training, it’s amazing how many excuses people can come up with if they view it as a waste of time of time, not important or simply don’t like the idea. Even when employees attend courses there is no guarantee they will learn, retain info or acquire a skill. Yes you can have a test at the end of the course but it’s alarming the number of people who can’t integrate that new knowledge into their job or who simply claim to have forgotten what they learnt only a month latter. I should add that in my experience this is not related to intelligence, smart people are just as likely to be resistant to new learning. 

 

Therefore the most important criteria is not speed at which someone acquires skills and knowledge but their willingness to learn and their openness to new ideas and different ways of doing things. If they are keen to learn then they will get there in the end- like the tortoise.And in my experience the keener they are to learn the better they will be at applying that new learning. 

 

Blair McPherson former director author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk