T-Shaped Professionals: training in depth and breadth with the LXP
Monja Eberlein has been with the Haufe Akademie since 2022. Prior to that, she worked as a project manager and consultant, supporting more than 30 industrial companies from a wide range of sectors, from SMEs to large corporations, in the implementation of their digital transformation projects. She is passionate about learning technology, digital learning and information and knowledge management.
In this interview, Monja Eberlein talks about agile learning with the LXP and the development of T-Shaped Professionals.
Monja, first things first: What are T-Shaped Professionals and why are they actually interesting for companies?
Monja Eberlein: Okay, let's start with the "what": The "T" is in T-Shaped because it visualizes the skill set that the corresponding talents have. T-Shaped professionals are people who have a balanced mix of in-depth expert knowledge in one or more topics (vertical axis in the T), but also have broad expertise in other knowledge domains (horizontal axis in the T). They are generalists and specialists in one.
However, your question as to why this is interesting for companies is much more exciting: most companies do not know today what challenges they will face tomorrow and what skills they will need within their organization in the future.
T-Shaped professionals as the key
T-shaped professionals can be a key here because they can adapt relatively easily at short notice to new, unforeseeable challenges and changing task profiles. In this way, they can help their company to continue to be successful even under changing conditions.
You also came across the topic of "T-Shaped" in your role as a strategist for the Learning Experience Platform. What advantages do you see in an LXP for companies that want to develop more T-Shaped professionals?
Monja Eberlein: The biggest advantage probably lies in the DNA of the solution: Learning Experience platforms were developed to give employees the opportunity to learn as easily as possible and embedded in their everyday working life in a way that suits their situational knowledge requirements and individual interests - without complicated approval processes. employees can therefore decide for themselves which content interests them, which topics they only want to take a quick look at and where they want to expand their knowledge more deeply.
What makes the LXP different from other tools?
But that alone doesn't mean that learners actually work on their T-Shaped skills, does it? What makes the LXP different from other tools?
Monja Eberlein: No, that's right. Specifically, the LXP is a platform that bundles all learning opportunities in an organization in one place. It offers learners a wide variety of formats - from small micro-nuggets to more comprehensive e-learning offerings or e-books through to entire learning journeys. Synchronous and asynchronous. At the same time, LXP encourages its users to post and share their own content. So-called user-generated content.
In the LXP developed by us, the learning process is also supported by a recommendation algorithm (Recommender). Based on the specified areas of interest and individual user behavior, the recommender suggests personalized learning content. The individual learning journey therefore does not end after a microcontent on the topic of "creativity" or a learning journey on "AI prompting". It continues directly.
The exciting thing about the Recommender is that users are also shown newly added or particularly popular content. In this way, employees can see which topics are currently topical in the company. They are motivated to think outside the box, get a taste of unfamiliar topics and discover new knowledge domains for themselves. In short: to continue their education across the board.
Advantages for personnel development
So far, we have talked a lot about the individual learner. Now let's change perspective: What benefits does the LXP bring to HR development when it comes to developing T-Shaped Professionals?
Monja Eberlein: Giving learners more responsibility also relieves the operational burden on HR development. The capacities gained as a result can be used to tackle strategic issues.
I recently had a conversation with the L&D manager of a mechanical engineering company. She told me that the platform's statistical data in particular helps her to define future topics for her company and to take into account the actual use and specific knowledge requirements of employees when allocating budgets, e.g. when purchasing learning content.
However, I got really excited when she then told me that with the LXP she had finally found a way to show her organization a tangible professional career.
How so?
Monja Eberlein: If someone climbs a step up the career ladder, this is a tangible career step that is also immediately visible on their CV. With a professional career, it is usually more difficult to achieve visibility and offer concrete career steps.
The contact function in the LXP is the key here. With this feature, employees can make their expertise in a specialist area visible.
The company in question fully exploits this potential and manages the development of specialist skills and the build-up of expertise in a very targeted manner: The company has defined a set of specialist topics for itself that are already crucial to the company's success - its core competencies. They have also identified future fields in which they want to actively build up expertise.
What followed was a stroke of genius: they posted internal job advertisements for 'subject matter experts' and 'knowledge scouts'. employees can apply for this additional role, regardless of their current position. In future, their task will be to pass on their existing expertise, research new knowledge in their specialist area for the organization and then share this know-how with the organization via the LXP . The experts and knowledge scouts will also be available to other colleagues as contact person for the respective specialist topic via the LXP contact feature.
This opens up concrete professional development prospects foremployees that are visible - sometimes even on their CV. And the company also benefits: company-relevant expertise is retained and new knowledge is actively built up.
The ideal learning culture for T-Shaped
Finally, a fundamental question: What does the ideal learning culture look like in an organization where employees can learn T-Shaped?
Monja Eberlein: I am convinced that an open and experimental learning culture saves time in the long term. Our customers generally take a similar view: they give their employees free learning time and encourage them to make full use of it. Companies offer fixed learning days and support learning at the "moment of need", i.e. during working hours when there is a specific need. At the Haufe Akademie , by the way, this is not an issue at all: our employment contracts state in black and white that learning is part of our work.
Ultimately, a successful learning culture always depends - and in the context of T-Shaped in particular - on trust in the employees : Do I think they are mature enough to decide for themselves which skills and expertise they need and when? Do I trust my teams to act in the interests of the company - in their day-to-day work and learning?
Be a pioneer for tomorrow today. Companies can achieve this by training their employees to become T-Shaped Professionals with the LXP . Learning is integrated into everyday working life. employees contribute to the success of the company every day - and to its future. Set the course now and remain adaptable - with the Haufe Akademie 's LXP and your T-Shaped Professionals.
https://www.haufe-akademie.de/lxp
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