facebook

Guide

|

Building Capability

How Does Institutionalised Learning and Best Practice Sharing Build Organisational Capability?

Back

Institutionalised learning—or capability academies—is learning focused on building capabilities through processes, programs, events and developmental assignments. It’s designed to give employees the exposure and experiences needed to grow professionally and develop their capabilities. 

What are the benefits of institutionalised learning and best practice sharing on building organisational capability? 

Best practice capability academies aren’t just about learning the capabilities needed to perform in a job. They focus on the organisational capabilities needed to meet business goals. There are a few benefits to using these capability academies for your organisational capability building.

The challenges of capability academies when building organisational capability 

Like all activities related to developing your workforce and business, building a capability academy for your organisation doesn’t come without its challenges. 

The first hurdle to clear is actually defining and determining capabilities for development. Not all will be high priority in terms of business impact or availability. Training should reflect risk factors, otherwise learning practices won’t feel meaningful to employees or business leaders.  

You’ll find the external pace of change has an impact on prioritisation. Consistent assessment of the relevance of your capabilities—alongside assessment of employee performance—may be hard to navigate with a leaner L&D team.  

You’ll also need means with which to measure progress. You’re essentially answering questions like: Are your training methods working as they should? How has time to proficiency been impacted post-training? How do you evaluate learning transfer? Evaluation is the only way to determine the efficacy of a capability academy. Remember that training is only half the equation. You need to ensure you’re achieving real behavioural change for training in any form to be effective.

That’s why we’ve developed the first performance learning management system (PLMS) here at Acorn. It’s designed not just to manage learning, but to link learning to the metrics that really matter: Performance improvement. Ultimately, a PLMS enables your employees to become the impact players and driving force behind organisational efficiency and growth.

The impacts of not using institutionalised learning or best practice sharing on building organisational capability 

Capability academies are often designed with an “always on” approach to learning. That is, it’s available when, where and how learners need it. Without that constant backbone of learning in your organisation, you’ll find that many complementary processes will degrade. That could be capacity building, succession planning, talent mobility or even organisational agility.  

And without a developed capability academy, you’re kind of at the mercy of stagnant learning materials. A content library is one thing, but it doesn’t beat the benefits of guided, hands-on learning. In that case, you’ll find your organisation is disadvantaged by a workforce that doesn’t understand the contextual, practical applications of your strategic capabilities.  

Want informative L&D content delivered straight to your inbox?

SUBSCRIBE

Share this post!

Related Reads on This Topic

corporate employees in capability academy

What is a Capability Academy & Why Should You Be Using One?

Capability academies are crucial for building capabilities in your business. We discuss best practices for building them…

content Image

How Does Implementing Formal Measures to Ensure Continuous Improvement Build Organisational Capability?

Formal measures ensure continuous improvement on organisational capability. Find out how implementing formal measures builds capabilities…

Series of Internal Courses in a Classroom Setting

Using a Series of Internal Courses in a Classroom Setting to Build Organisational Capability 

Internal courses in a classroom setting help create intentional learning at a moment of need, making them key for building capability…