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Learning in the agile age: waterfall or cycle?

Learning in the agile age: waterfall or cycle?

by Dominik Etzl | Jun 28, 2022 | Agile Leadership, Best Practice, MDI Inside | 0 comments

What is the reality of learning in large companies today?

We often see in a wide variety of companies that there is a department that is single-handedly responsible for designing training programs, then planning them through from A to Z in advance, with a strong focus on teaching abstract models.

What’s the problem with that? Firstly, the work context is too complex for any department to know what the employees’ real-world challenges are. Secondly, the pace of change is now too fast for training to be valid over time. And thirdly: Us humans are not purely rational beings who learn on the basis of theoretical models, but also need “heart” and “hand” to change.

About the author

​Dominik Etzl is Solution Development Manager and Trainer at MDI Management Development GmbH and Managing Director of Metaforum International. His focus is on topics of digital transformation, as well as OKR (Objectives & Key Results), agile leadership and lateral leadership. His goal is to support managers in leading a valuable contribution to their environment: on an individual, corporate and societal level.

Waterfall vs. cycle

It seems obvious: If employees are inefficient somewhere, we choose an expert on learning who is qualified by his long-time expertise to create the perfect learning program with the appropriate content.

Although this seems very obvious at first glance, this approach belongs to the outdated mindset of taylorism. This sees people as machines working on an assembly line, for which all that is needed is an engineer who knows which update will increase efficiency. Learning here resembles a waterfall, where from start to finish one thing leads causally to the next.

In theory, it looks like this:

  1. Pre-reading X leads to
  2. Aha-experience, leads to
  3. Interest in more, leads to
  4. Active involvement in the seminar, leads to
  5. Trying out in everyday life, leads to
  6. Better business results, …

Is learning even plannable?

This approach cannot be dismissed completely. After all, looking back on a learning experience, correlations can be seen! Entire models and companies have specialized in optimizing this approach. For example, Dr. Donald Kirkpatrick has made the valuable contributions with the “New World Model” that a training program must be designed “back to front”. One must derive the necessary behaviors etc. from the desired goal and not vice versa.

This has its merits. Nevertheless, these approaches are built on an assumption: Learning could be planned.

Thought exercise

But is it? Please think of one thing in which you have achieved mastery. Would your personal path to mastery, as it happened, have been predictable? Could an expert have given you a coherent chain of experiences that you just had to follow blindly to get really good at? Of course not. Nevertheless, in practice we see far too often that people compulsively try to understand learning as a complicated, i.e. mechanically transparent problem.

Learning is a profoundly complex problem

However, it is true that learning is a deeply complex problem and thus cannot be planned. Whenever we deal with people, especially knowledge workers, we find ourselves in the complex cynefin quadrant. Thus, the expert loses its validity. There are no more “good practices” to follow, only “emergent practices.” This means it takes an iterative, collaborative, and holistic approach to learning. So the metaphor for learning – especially in the digitized 21st century – is not the waterfall, but the circle.

The 3×3 Rule

In what follows, we don’t invent anything new, but let the effective laws of learning work for themselves. What we are doing is bringing 3 elements of agile learning, which have mostly been seen separately, into a coherent picture.

Element 1: 3 process steps

Agile has defined – in complex situations – iteration as the most efficient way to reach the goal. The mantra is: long planning is a waste of time because the context is in flux. It is more efficient to take small steps and to refocus on the goal at regular intervals. This applies to project management (e.g., SCRUM) or product development (e.g., design thinking) just as it does to learning: “What small learning iteration do I need right now to master tomorrow’s deadline better than yesterdays?”

Big Picture

At the same time, it’s important not to lose sight of the big picture in learning either. Similar to business strategies, there needs to be some sort of vision or north star to follow. This can also be questioned at regular intervals. In this way, short-term and long-term goals form a symbiosis that optimally supports the learner in the learning journey.

Thought Exercise

Join in: What’s a skill you’re proud of? How did you learn it? – Think through the process: Whatever you learned, at some early point you had at least a rough idea of what you wanted to learn next (planning). Then you jumped into the more or less deep end (acting). Finally, you were either happy because you managed one more pace in the water, or you pulled yourself out of the water exhausted and analyzed what could be better (evaluating). Then the cycle starts all over again.

Let’s take a figurative look at this – indeed, deeply human – movement: These 3 process steps form the outer framework of the MDI learning circle: plan, act & evaluate. They are the skeleton that gives the learning process its shape:

Element 2: 3 levels of action

Running in circles does not automatically make you better. Us humans are living beings and need stimulation on 3 levels, which only as a coherent whole results in change.

Mostly unconscious, but nevertheless present in every learning process, are these 3 effect levels of learning:

  1. Brain: understanding why and how something works
  2. Heart: feeling that the current situation is not good, or that another one would be better
  3. Hand: trying – only by doing the world changes

Learning can start at any point

Tip: The 3 levels of impact are not chronological, but learning can start at any point. What is important is not when, but that all 3 are stimulated. Think of a 3-legged stool: If one leg is missing – no matter which one – the stool tilts. Three of them create stability.

What happens if one of the three “legs” is missing?

  • A learner without “brain” (cognitive insight) is at best a “blind benefactor” – and at worst wasted potential because he does not see when, how and why action should be taken.
  • A learner without “heart” (emotional responsiveness) is at best a “rational optimizer” and at worst a narcissistic manipulator.
  • A learner without “hand” (practical experience) is at best a “benevolent theorist” and at worst an “aloof know-it-all”.

These three types are extreme expressions to illustrate the co-dependency of the 3 levels of effectiveness. In practice you will find these types in a weakened and mixed form. Do you recognize someone?

Example

But let’s also look at a positive example. For example, on the topic of giving feedback:
Giving critical feedback in such a way that the other person receives it as a gift is an art. It has to be learned. Are you good at it? If so, please recall a specific feedback situation. (If not: Choose another skill you have mastered.) – If you are a master of feedback, you have certainly given and received critical feedback frequently (hand). – You’ve felt at several moments how it works, how good authentic feedback feels, and how painful hidden or unfair criticism is (heart). And you cognitively understood that critical feedback is a value-add that moves you and your colleagues forward, even if it’s not always pleasant (brain).

Note: Often it’s not stand-alone learning moments, but many small “AHAs” that lead to the big “eureka.”

Element 3: 3 Stakeholders

The third part of the 3×3 rule is about stakeholders. Why? Learning success in business is proven to be a collaborative success. It takes several to pull together and make their respective contributions. Who is that specifically? Learning research clearly shows that 3 stakeholders in organizations are crucial for learning to actually work (cf. Weinbauer-Heidel, Ibeschitz-Manderbach):

  1. Learner
  2. Organization (especially HR & leadership)
  3. Trainer

The learner
he learner naturally bears a main responsibility for the interplay of learning and applying. What matters most is the learner’s own will and confidence to apply the content in the short and long term.

The organization
The organization’s learning lever lies primarily in providing a system for defining and evaluating short- and long-term learning objectives that learners can use as a guide.

The Trainer
The biggest levers to learning success on the trainer side are clearly communicating expectations, teaching relevant content, allowing active practice in the seminar and conducting implementation planning for applying what is learned in the work context.

Similar to the 3 levels of impact, all 3 stakeholders play essential roles in the success of learning in continuing education. If one of the 3 stakeholders does not fulfill his task, potentials remain unused and in the worst case the learning construct collapses like a house of cards.

The MDI Learning Circle

Finally, let’s take a step back and widen our view again from the individual element to the big picture. What does the 3×3 rule tell us? It sums up how learning works in an agile environment. Here you can find everything summarized in one picture:

  • The 3 process steps: plan, act, evaluate.
  • The 3 levels of action: Brain, Heart, Hand
  • The 3 stakeholders: Learner, Organization, Trainer

Take all 3 elements into account and you can be sure that the learning success in your organization will increase!  Note: This article addresses almost exclusively your brain – not your heart or your hand! 😉 So consider: what concrete next steps can you take to establish a more agile learning culture in your organization?

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3 P’s – The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership

by Dominik Etzl, Gunther Fürstberger, Peter Grabuschnig | Jun 23, 2022 | Digital Transformation, Leadership Tips, MDI Inside | 0 comments

The 3 P’s – The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership

Basically, the concept of leadership in a hybrid set-up can be broken down to 3 main factors:

Purpose, People and Performance.

Each of these factors is an important piece of the puzzle that allows us to work efficiently and at full speed in hybrid. Here you will get a brief introduction to the basic principles of hybrid working and leading and why our 3 P’s are the 3 main success factors of hybrid leadership.

PURPOSE

Who would want to return to a workplace where you can’t identify with the values and thus don’t feel comfortable at all?

Everybody needs a reason to want to open the laptop every day – whether at home or in the office. In the hybrid world, you have to take care even more about keeping all of your employees on the ball. To do that, you need a collective mission – a Purpose.

At MDI, for example, we’ve made it our mission to develop leaders who “strive for a better world.” If your employees have a mantra that reminds them of why they have an important position in the company, they will be much more motivated to work and achieve more.

PEOPLE

Of course, employment itself should not be the only reason to enjoy showing up at the office. Often, it’s the people who motivate you to work every day. Much more emphasis should be put on the relationship among each other – the trust, the cohesion in the teams and the bond to the company. Especially when many employees are not physically in the office, you have to make sure that everyone is seen and heard. Transparent communication and respectful mutual behavior can quickly resolve conflicts and create a pleasant working atmosphere.

PERFORMANCE

The last P – Performance – is made up of three components:

  • Motivation
  • Competence and
  • Doing the Right Thing.

We ask ourselves the following questions: How much can and want our employees to achieve good results? Every starting situation of our colleagues is different. It is important to be understanding of each situation, to inquire regularly and to offer support where necessary.

We should also always keep up to date with the latest technology developments that can potentially facilitate processes and ways of working in the hybrid set-up. New apps and features are constantly being developed that make our routine workflows much easier and more flexible.

Clearly, hybrid work and especially leadership is still new territory for all of us. But before we despair and give up, let’s try around and keep the 3 P’s in mind.

Want to learn more aboute 3 P’s – The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership?

There are so many resources we can tap into to make work uncomplicated.

For more practical tips and tools, check out our guide

Successful hybrid leadership –

The 3 success factors of hybrid leadership

… and/or join our LinkedIn Leadership Community:

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or maybe this?

How can VR help with leadership training?

How can VR help with leadership training?

by Anita Berger, Dominik Etzl | Oct 11, 2021 | Leadership Impact, Leadership in the digital transformation, Leadership Tips | 0 comments

How can VR help with leadership training?

Our Virtual Reality & Leadership Development Experts Anita Berger & Dominik Etzl talk in this Interview about Leadership Impact through VR.

Immersive learning through virtual reality

can help organizations address some of today’s key leadership challenges.

Why is virtual reality for leaders on the rise?

Dominik Etzl: Apart from the fact that VR is cool and is guaranteed to remain in every participant’s memory for a long time, VR leadership training solves a long unsolved problem: bringing virtual teams together in a (virtual) room where they can work together on problems and solutions – not just via the camera in front of the screen – but with full physical engagement and an almost face-to-face feeling.

What do new VR leadership trainings look like in practice?

Anita Berger: Some of the training experiences are designed to be “played” alone, practicing individual situations for yourself over and over again and constantly improving – for example, giving a presentation in front of a virtual audience or even the board of directors.

Other VR trainings involve the whole team and you can think of it more like a virtual escape room.

Others you do alone, but you have physical coaches next to you who guide you through the various scenarios and reflect on what you’ve experienced between VR experiences.

In addition, a distinction can be made between those VR trainings that are tailored to one’s own company and learning situations and those that are standardized and can thus be used in a variety of ways.

In order to have the greatest possible impact, it makes sense – as is already known from face-to-face training – not to view VR leadership training as a stand-alone solution, but to integrate it into a learning process that includes a good mix of synchronous and

What opportunities and possibilities does VR offer?

Anita Berger: VR offers the opportunity to engage with a broad range of content topics in an experiential way from different perspectives in iterative loops.

Different perspectives: Currently at MDI we work with 3 roles:

  • the space travelers
  • the guides/coaches 
  • the observers.

All have the opportunity to immerse themselves in all roles.

The space travelers are the players who, if you use the soccer analogy, are supposed to be on the field scoring the goals. The space mission is about saving others.

The guides/coaches have the opportunity to help the space travelers accomplish the mission. They are the coaches on the sidelines who do not play themselves, but are instrumental in the success of the mission by recognizing and responding to what the spacewalkers need.

Observers are tasked with watching what is happening on the field and on the sidelines, and sharing it in debriefings. One can also use the role of observers for assessment or development settings.

After each mission, participants switch roles and therefore gather lessons learned from the different perspectives.

Iterative Loops:

As in real life, there are many uncertainties, knowledge, and information that must first be acquired. Participants experience certain phases as exciting, fascinating, frustrating or chaotic.

After each round, what is experienced is reflected upon, processed and placed in the respective context of the content. The mission is started repeatedly until it succeeds. Therefore, the knowledge gained from the previous mission can be implemented right away.

Content topics:

The Apollo mission makes it possible to work on various topics and sets of questions.

For example, if the content context refers to “Overcoming Disruption” the different phases of

  • “Fail Fast”
  • Learning Together”
  • “Performing together”

in the different missions can be experienced by the participants.

Reflection phase:

In addition, a content-related discussion can take place, for example on topics such as:

  • Dealing with and coping with uncertainty, complexity and (over-)demanding situations.
  • Performance as a (virtual) team
  • Leading (virtual) teams to performance, through communication, collaboration, inclusion
  • situationally adapted leadership
  • Strengthening (self-)confidence and resilience
  • taking and transferring responsibility

The novel setting offers attractive and exciting development opportunities for leaders at all seniority levels up to top executives and for entire teams.

Can you actually learn better with VR?

Anita Berger: It’s best to let the results of studies speak for themselves

  • Learning takes place up to 4 times faster than in a traditional seminar setting.
  • VR learners are up to 275% more confident in implementing what they have learned after training
  • a 40% improvement over classroom training and
  • a 35% improvement over e-learning training.
  • VR participants felt 3.75 times more emotionally connected to the content than face-to-face learners and 2.3 times more than e-learners.
  • Three-quarters of participants surveyed said they had a wake-up call during the VR course on diversity and inclusion and realized they were not as inclusive as they thought.
  • During VR learning, participants were significantly less likely to drift off with their attention.
  • In the PWC study, participants in the VR setting were up to 4 times more focused during training than their e-learning peers and 1.5 times more focused than their face-to-face training peers.
PwC VR Soft Skills Training Efficacy Study

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In this compact hands-on workshop, we will show how leaders learn immersively using VR.

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As an active participant, as a coach and as an observer.

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What technology and requirements do you need for implementation?

Dominik Etzl: Until recently, the hurdle to working with VR in your own company was relatively high.

In addition to the special VR hardware from Oculus, Vive, or Sony, for example, you also needed a powerful PC to start the system in the first place. In addition, there were a lot of cables and sensors. If, on top of that, you didn’t have a permanent VR room available, but had to set up and take down again and again, or even move to a different location, you can imagine that this was partly off-putting and only suitable for a niche.

However, these times have largely been history since 2021 the latest. Nowadays, you can buy a powerful VR set starting at €350 and it includes everything you need in terms of hardware to get started. Processing power and sensors have been built into the headset in the latest models, e.g. the Oculus Quest 2, so that a PC, cables or external sensors are no longer necessary.

This makes it very easy and uncomplicated to set up and transport – even for those who have no experience with VR. In the past, it was still common to rent VR hardware – today, a purchase makes much more sense in most cases, because the price difference is cancelled out by the effort. The only requirement is now a room of about 2.5 x 2.5 meters per player, which can easily be found in most offices.

Can every company afford this?

Dominik Etzl: As already written above, one can distinguish between those VR training experiences that are tailored to one’s own company and those that can be purchased in a standardized way.

Which one is right for one’s needs depends primarily on whether the skills that are to be learned with it concern very specific processes in the company, or whether it is about, the general ability to collaborate, agile principles, handling resistance, etc.

Whereas the former usually requires several months of production time and corresponding financial resources, VR leadership training aimed at general soft skills is already available at a slightly higher normal daily training rate. Then you also have trained VR experts to ensure that the VR training is effective. 

The original german article was written for magazintraining by

Anita Berger

Anita Berger

Executive Coach, Consultant, Trainer & Managing Partner MDI

Anita Berger is an executive coach, consultant and trainer specialising in leadership development and international human resource management. She is a partner of MDI Management Development International. For more than 15 years she has worked in management and leadership positions (among others as HR-
Director at Coca-Cola Hellenic and HR Manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions).

  • LinkedIn
Dominik Etzl

Dominik Etzl

Trainer & Solution Development Manager MDI & Manager Metaforum International.

​Dominik Etzl is Solution Development Manager and Trainer at MDI Management Development GmbH and Managing Director of Metaforum International. His focus is on topics of digital transformation, as well as OKR (Objectives & Key Results), agile leadership and lateral leadership. His goal is to support managers in leading a valuable contribution to their environment: on an individual, corporate and societal level.

  • LinkedIn

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Suddenly virtual! – Our learnings from the past months

by Dominik Etzl, Marlene König | Jun 16, 2020 | Digital Transformation | 0 comments

The last few months have been quite eventful and full of surprises and new experiences. Slowly, companies are beginning to find their way back to normality and have gained a lot more experience than at the beginning of this year – as have we, of course. Today, MDI Solution Development Manager Dominik Etzl looks back on the period from March to the end of May 2020 and shows how he, as the person responsible for innovative solutions, has experienced the entry into a new reality and which lessons he takes with him into the future.

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