Organisational Learning After the Crisis

The future agenda for executive education will of course be greatly influenced by the Covid-19 crisis and the economic downturn that is likely to follow. Organisations will in the short-term be strongly focused on survival and will be looking for support in hard-edged subjects around finance and crisis management.

In the medium to longer-term other priorities will surface. A recent report from Warwick Business School reveals the way senior executives, as well as L&D professionals, rank these priorities and how they see the corporate learning landscape shifting.

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Download Warwick Business School’s Organisational Learning Report 2020

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Based on a survey of over 500 executives from around the world, the report’s key findings were:

1. The need for corporate learning to help attract and retain talent topped the agenda. 80% of larger organisations saw this as their top priority.

2. The need to build greater agility, characterised by cultures which foster innovation, is seen as key to creating growth in a rapidly changing landscape.

3. There is a clear recognition of the important role of learning for organisational success, but there is seen to be an urgent need to speed up―organisations need to learn faster than the pace of change.

4. The ability to lead is an ongoing a priority―now with an emphasis on the ability to lead transformational change and foster agility and innovation.

5. Developing digital leadership capability―leading organisations in the age of data analytics, AI and with machine learning―is a top personal development priority for 77% of senior executives, though interestingly it does not feature as a priority for the L&D community.

6. Fewer than half of respondents said their organisation had developed the right approach to strategy in the digital age. This suggests significantly more digital knowledge is required by all levels of management.

7. Most organisations predicted a growth in their annual learning budget, with senior managers favouring coaching and online resources for self-directed learning, and high potentials online resources, in-house programs and peer-to-peer work-based learning.