Learning at Scale

Organizational learning doesn't accomplish its purpose unless it is taken “to scale” - diffused through the entire enterprise, particularly for people at lower levels in the hierarchy. These are often the managers closest to customers and processes. Their decisions make an enormous difference to cost, quality, health, customer satisfaction, and (ultimately) shareholder return.

There may already be training programs - perhaps hundreds of them - in the organization. But they tend to be purchased on an ad hoc basis, to meet some urgency or another. Even if there is a program oriented to the company as a whole, it tends to be designed in a cookie-cutter approach that doesn't fit peoples' jobs, desires, or future. Such programs become just one more piece of change management, sent down from the top, that people must endure.

Instead, what if we could develop a form of learning that involved people at all levels as sponsors - not just those being trained, but those who depend on them? That might generate a tremendous source of competitive advantage. Dialogos has developed precisely this sort of initiative at companies like BP. It doesn't supersede other training and development activities at the organization; it integrates them.

The leadership program development begins with the critical question of purpose: "What is the type of leadership we want to develop, and why?"

For an in-depth example of Learning at Scale, download this article about the BP Helios award-winning “First Level Leaders” program.