IN AN INCREASINGLY global business environment, organisations face a number of challenges in keeping their workforce up to date through the latest trends in learning and development
IN AN INCREASINGLY global business environment, organisations face a number of challenges in keeping their workforce up-to-date through the latest trends in learning and development.
Speaking on a recent visit to Australia, Bob Corcoran, chief learning officer for General Electric, said the company is facing a couple of global learning and development challenges – one of them being coming to grips with local languages.
“The ability to develop and translate material in a short period of time [into a language] that is understood and relevant to each country is a significant challenge and one that we are working hard to overcome,” he said.
Another was distinguishing between a centralised common training curriculum versus a decentralised regional training curriculum.
“The boundaries keep shifting and we need to determine where each is appropriate and ensure that implementation is effective,” he said. “GE is driving and supporting a culture of growth with new thinking and learning and it is working to develop leaders for that.”
Corcoran said GE’s objective was to continue to help make the company great in the eyes of its neighbours and global communities, and it was in the process of building programs to help support this objective.
“Learning and development is focusing on growth and innovation and we are introducing a number of different modules that encourage outsider thinking,” he said.
“We want employees to take a critical eye to GE and view it from the customers’ perspective, we want to change the game by taking an honest and unbiased look at GE.”
With a focus on innovation and leadership through 2005, Corcoran said GE was aiming to help create ideas and bring creativity to the fore of the business.
The firm, he continued, is currently developing modules to strengthen the focus on growing GE’s five leadership traits: external focus, clear thinking, imagination and courage, inclusive leadership and expertise.
He said GE employees took pride in their work and ownership of their projects, giving GE the feel of a small organisation, but the power and mass of a big company. “We believe that channelling that energy and enthusiasm will keep us ahead of the game,” he said.
