Guided Learning

It is widely accepted that 70% of learning happens on the job and that highly engaged participatory learning methods, such as solving challenging problems while doing a job, yield the highest knowledge retention rates. Additional research on learning while doing shows the power and need for people to solidify learning by assimilating it within their own context (Co-Constructed Developmental Teaching Theory).

Understanding that people are different and they learn differently means we need to optimize their learning experience. Formal training can be valuable on its own; however, it should not stop there. Optimizing the learning experience based on a person’s current knowledge and skill by providing ongoing feedback, guiding them on the best activities to do next and customizing their journey offers the greatest opportunity to grow.

Guided Learning Solutions

For nearly two decades, Scrum.org has delivered world-class training through Professional Scrum Trainers (PSTs) and validation of what students have learned, yet that is only a part of helping people, teams and organizations be successful in their adoption of Scrum and Agile techniques. Many of our PSTs and the companies they work for also offer coaching and consulting services to provide support outside the classroom.

Guided Learning Solutions enhance how PSTs and their companies partner with an organization to build proficiency in competencies optimized for individuals and their role (Scrum Master, Product Owner, Developer, Agile Leader) working with resilient, self-managing teams. This approach takes a typical coaching or consulting engagement to the next level by bringing transparency to the learning journey, focusing growth in core areas and on real problems and leveraging an iterative approach to maximize the impact and value gained.

PSTs have the freedom to create Guided Learning Solutions tailored to meet the exact needs of an organization based on the consistency of the Professional Scrum Competencies. Before starting, they uncover an organization’s goals and design an engagement with those goals in mind. These solutions leverage practices proven through experience enabling agility in organizations they’ve served through the Scrum.org approach for Guided Learning.

Ways to use Guided Learning

Uplifting Scrum Master capabilities
Organizations with highly capable Scrum Masters are more likely to have teams that reliably deliver value each Sprint. Organizations often fall short by only investing in Scrum Master training. With a Guided Learning approach to building up your Scrum Masters’ capabilities, they will be better positioned to help their teams grow and deliver more value for the organization.

Launching agile teams
Creating disciplined and self-sustaining teams capable of reliably delivering value requires additional investment in helping teams learn how to effectively apply their knowledge to their work. Foundational training, followed by Guided Learning provides new teams the support they need for bringing theory into practice.

Building internal change agents
Resilient agile organizations leverage the talent of their employees to create and sustain an environment where agile teams thrive. A Guided Learning approach for deliberately developing your internal change agents provides an accelerated pathway for aligning staff with new ways of working and enabling outcomes the organization seeks to achieve. This creates an engine of growth within your organization capable of adapting to the evolving challenges that appear in complex work.

A Structured Approach for Developing Organizational Capabilities

The Scrum.org approach for Guided Learning facilitates the development of organizational capabilities centered around succeeding with Professional Scrum. It focuses on amplifying the effectiveness of on-the-job Learning for agile practitioners.

Guided Learning blends Coaching & Consulting Services for organizations with Professional Development optimized for the individual who is learning. While each can be done in isolation, the value is maximized when combined with more traditional approaches for training, coaching and consulting agile teams and organizations.

Meet people where they are. A Guided Learning approach starts with understanding the type of work a person does and their proficiency with the Professional Scrum Competencies.

Curate a developmental journey. A Guided Learning approach provides individuals with a series of curated assignments completed in the context of their day-to-day work. Each assignment is designed to help a person focus and deepen their proficiency in the Professional Scrum Competencies while delivering better business outcomes with their teams.

Adapt from individual guidance and feedback. Each time an assignment is completed, detailed feedback from a Guide is provided to the person who completed the work. This feedback reinforces where they are improving and reflects where additional growth and changes in work can unlock the full value Professional Scrum and complementary practices have to offer. Feedback can also result in an update to the assignments they have to work through.

Use evidence to understand growth. As people progress, they produce evidence about what is (and is not) working for them, their team and their organization. Over time, this evidence creates a transparent portfolio of work. It reveals an individual’s patterns of working and learning that enable people to grow and thrive in complex and uncertain environments.

Benefits

• Specific and customizable: Guided Learning is tailored to the specific needs of the individual, company and the job they are doing, based on a consistent set of competencies driving consistency across the organization. This allows for a more personalized approach that considers the individual’s learning style, work context and the specific skills they need to develop all while continuing to deliver value with their teams.
• A more effective way to learn: Guided Learning is often more effective and efficient than traditional classroom-based training alone because it allows the individual to apply what they learn immediately to real-world, product delivery-based scenarios. The hands-on, iterative feedback approach of Guided Learning helps individuals retain more information through direct application to their work.
• Increased impact through proficiency: When individuals participate in guided Learning, they become more proficient at their job, which can increase job satisfaction, productivity and engagement. As satisfaction, productivity and engagement increase, learner commitment to the efforts and the organization also improve.
• Improved critical thinking skills: Guided Learning encourages learners to think critically and reflect on their Learning, which can help them develop essential problem-solving skills. Applying those skills encourages learners to explore alternative approaches, providing new opportunities for personal and organizational growth.
• Enhanced adaptability: Engaging in Guided Learning develops skills for learning how to learn. People who complete assignments develop skills for approaching their personal development when faced with challenging situations or uncertainty about how to create the outcomes they seek to achieve.

Interested in bringing Guided Learning to your organization? Contact Us