Learning agility is the differentiator that excels companies ahead of their competitors, according to talent consulting firm, Korn Ferry. It’s also a strong indicator for long-term success. But learning agility only happens when all employees are learning agile. Which means, that employees are taught the skill of knowing what to do when they don’t know what to do. It’s the ability to study, analyze, and solve new problems. 

Learning agility is especially important for businesses in the wake of Covid-19. Previous ways of doing business may not result in the same outcomes. To achieve success, leaders must encourage their workforces to get creative and think outside the box.

To unleash your employees’ learning agility, look out for five defining factors. A lack of agility in these five areas could result in company-wide loss of innovation, brain drain as unengaged employees leave the company, and falling behind competitors. 

1. Mental agility: Staying inquisitive builds fresh perspectives

Mental agility focuses on employees’ ability to look at information and problems in unique ways. In other words, it’s about how well your mind can adjust to new circumstances. As one of the five major components that comprise learning agility, mental agility asks that employees make decisions on less than perfect information in what is likely constantly changing situations. Those with high mental agility are curious and eager to tackle complex issues.

Help your employees boost their mental agility by suggesting the following tips:

2. People agility: Open-mindedness brings out the best in others

Communication skills are an important, but not the only characteristic of people agility.  It also encompasses the ability to work with diverse groups of people and make space for other voices. Those with high people agility enjoy helping others and value diversity of thought. 

Where people agility meets learning agility is in collaboration. Collaborators who respect one another’s ideas have purposeful conversations, which then delivers results. Boost your team’s people agility factor by encouraging them to: 

3. Change agility: Experimentation leads to comfort with change

When the only thing you can count on is change, understanding the characteristics of a changing environment is essential to teams tackling the demands of the modern workplace. But knowing how to roll with the punches is only the first step in change agility

A few additional ways to grow change agility in your company include: 

4. Results agility: Delivering results in tough situations 

Over the last year of change in the business world, teams have found new ways to hone their cross-functional abilities — even from afar —to take projects over the finish line. Results agility means employees consistently deliver in new or challenging situations and even thrive on overcoming obstacles. 

Boost your team’s results agility factor by:

5. Self-awareness: Understanding strengths and weaknesses

The last piece of the learning agility puzzle is all about understanding your strengths and weaknesses. Self-awareness indicates the ability to reflect on your behavior, criticize your own performance, and recognize your professional development needs. High self-awareness doesn’t mean you or employees are overly confident, rather that you have the humility to recognize where you do or don’t succeed. .

Boost your team’s self-awareness with three techniques:

Grow learning agility in your company

When a company embraces the five factors learning agility, the doors open for management and employees to be creative, flexible, and open to innovation. Together, these pillars create the “X-factor” that helps companies stand out from their competitors and keep their employees engaged and motivated. 

Discover more ways to encourage agile learning in your organization in Reinventing L&D with Agile Learning.