What does it mean to have ownership in learning? Maybe it’s acquiring a sense of pride in how you learn? It could mean mastering your prioritisation? Or maybe it’s building confidence in your employees when training? The truth is, it’s all of these things and more.
Acquiring a sense of ownership is significant to the learning journey. It makes learners feel invested in their role, invested in their colleagues, and invested in the company.
A 2015 study revealed that your staff’s sense of ownership has hugely beneficial effects on their productivity.
We take ownership when we are given the opportunity to take action. So, to give your learners a sense of ownership, encouragement is key. Make sure they know that they have the right and responsibility to make decisions about their role.
How To Encourage A Sense of Ownership Within Learners?
Inspiring a sense of ownership isn’t always easy, especially in training. According the National Bureau of Economic Research, companies where employees feel a sense of ownership tend to ‘exceed the performance of similar firms.’
So, how can we encourage and nurture a sense of ownership within learners? Let’s take a look at the five best ways.
1. Put Your Learners in Control with Open Access Content
Gifting ownership to your employees tells them that you trust them to do the right thing.
Growth Engineering LMS gives control to the learner by allowing them to discover at their own pace. Learning modules can be uploaded to the library. Here, learners have the option to freely explore and download the content as they choose.
The VARK model explains that there are four different types of learning styles:
- Visual
- Auditory
- Reading/Writing
- Kinesthetic
Each learner has a different preference.
You can let them decide what content they learn. You can do this by uploading the same content in different formats. Employees will undoubtedly appreciate the choice. Need to teach your health and safety in the workplace module? Give your employees ownership of their training experience by uploading a PDF file, a video or an audio file.
2) Shared Values
If staff don’t share a businesses vision and values, it can feel like you’re in a boat, trying to row in different directions. On the other hand, if your vision and values are aligned with your staff’s – you’ll be sailing on the ownership in no time!
This is when staff begin to feel a part of something bigger than themselves. This is what we like to call Epic Meaning. Epic Meaning is held in high regard at Growth Engineering because we all feel responsible for each other. If you feel like you have a stake in the team, you’ll feel valued. If you feel valued, you’ll naturally have a sense of ownership.
What are your company’s vision and values? At Growth Engineering, our values are to be kind, bold and responsible.
Would you think that a nine page booklet on vision and values could be the reason for a billion dollar companies success? Well Verifone’s founder Hatim Tyabiji credits the success of his business to his booklet on values and the way that every employee committed to living them out.
3. What’s In It For Me?
WIIFM, or ‘What’s In It For Me’ is what every learner will ask themselves. Long-term answers such as career progression sometimes seem so far in the distance that they aren’t tangible.
Simply giving your team a voice can help you answer this question to this question. Yet according to a survey conducted by Interact, a whopping 69% of managers find it hard to interact with their employees.
To create content that answers your learners WIIFM, you need to know what it is your staff want to get out of their training.
Encourage a community of communication, and you’ll be giving empowerment to your employees.
There are lots of ways you can demonstrate your listening skills on the LMS. How about these, for example:
- Constructing a Survey
Why not ask your employees what they what to learn the most? This way, you can still cover each module, but shine a bigger light on the content according to their feedback.
- Self Evaluation
Our Clubs feature allows work communities to share info about anything they want. How about a Club where workers can discuss what they’ve learned that day?
- Encouraging Feedback
Encourage feedback on their training. Was it effective? What did you learn? What worked? What didn’t? You could include a feedback form at the end of each module if you wanted.
By providing a space for your team to air their opinions, you’ll be able to tailor the training you deliver to their needs. When they see that their feedback is making a difference, it will reinforce the feeling that they are able to input into their own development and that their opinions matter.
4. Appointing Experts
Once it becomes obvious that a learner is experienced in a particular skill, then you can appoint them as an Expert.
When a question is submitted to an expert, they can share it as an FAQ. Make sure to review the FAQs and stay in touch with Experts so you can keep your finger on the pulse of what your learners need.
But why does putting someone in this position create ownership? It’s because the Expert feels responsible for the learners growth.
5) Knowledge-Sharing
When learners interact with each other they are able to share what they’ve learned and also ask others to share the knowledge they have. This helps you create a knowledge-sharing culture in which each learner shares responsibility for driving training.
This is something we refer to as the Knowledge Economy.
The Clubs feature is the perfect place to get involved with work culture and encourage knowledge sharing. Here, you can develop your hivemind, bond, and be examples of the company values.
Final Words
Ownership does so much for the learner. It makes them feel like an essential part of the team. It installs in them a sense of responsibility. It builds workplace confidence.
It helps colleagues bond and it encourages the learner to strive for even more knowledge. By putting your learners in control, installing your values, awarding them, appointing experts and sharing knowledge, learners will feel invested in the company quicker than you can say ownership!
