{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"#8: How a CLO helped change a learning culture through smart communications","description":"How do you get employees excited about learning? This was a question that Abhijit Bhaduri was grappling with back in 2009 when he was the Chief Learning Officer at Wipro, the information technology services company headquartered in Bengaluru, India. This was quite a challenge, particularly given the size of Wipro (160,000 employees at the time across 54 countries). It was important for Abhijit to accomplish this goal by cutting across different geographies and levels. Abhijit had the idea to try addressing this issue in part by sending out a regular weekly communication to the entire organization. This consisted of a 200-250 word written email on a topic that would resonate with the entire organization (such as how to instill curiosity or new year\u2019s resolutions). Accompanying this message was a graphical representation of the key points highlighted in the email. An overwhelming majority of employees opted in to continue receiving the weekly communication. \u201cWithin six months of doing this, I started to receive back a tremendous response,\u201d explained Abhijit on episode eight of the Learning and Development Stories podcast. \u201cInitially I tried to respond to everyone who wrote until I realized that this would require another full-time position.\u201d Tying to organizational objectivesThis initiative correlated to a key goal that Abhijit and his L&D colleagues were looking to address: creating a culture where employees are continually learning, both formally and informally. Related to this was the importance of instilling a mindset of curiosity. The L&D team undertook a number of other different initiatives related to this goal. \u201cThe overall idea was to help people become more curious about how to use technology, apply new concepts and look for ideas from the outside,\u201d Abhijit said. \u201cWe needed people to be more externally focused, to take control of their own learning and to stay curious.\u201d Lessons from mistakes Abhijit explained how he and his colleagues have evolved in their approach to putting together learning designs.  \u201cWe stopped designing materials for the person in the classroom as an end-consumer to actually viewing this person as the teacher,\u201d he said. \u201cWe started to believe that learning happens when the person in the classroom begins teaching someone else.\u201d In other words: see one, do one and teach one. This manifests itself in different ways, ranging from individuals sharing knowledge during in-person events to communicating insights on an internal communications platform like Yammer. The link between training and employee engagement On the topic of engagement, Abhijit referenced Daniel Pink\u2019s work around motivation: freedom to interpret your role, your own skills and seeing how it makes a difference. \u201cYou don\u2019t learn to enjoy something unless you have a certain level of skill in in,\u201d Abhijit noted. \u201cSkill is a big part of engagement. It is underleveraged. If a job is interesting, it triggers the ability to learn more, become more skilled and then you perform your job at a higher level.\u201d Resources Abhijit believes that L&D professionals need to be able to leverage the 3 V\u2019s: video voice and visuals. In terms of recommended content, he notes that \u201cit is really about whatever works best for you and how you best learn, whether it is podcasts, Instagram and so forth. Social media offers so many options. There are always experts available on tap.\u201d   ","author_name":"Learning & Development Stories Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/landdstories.libsyn.com\/website","html":"