Agile Learning: A Case Study in the Automotive Industry

Foreword

The Client is one of the most prestigious Italian brands in the automotive industry.

To cope with the complexities of the new post-pandemic “phygital” scenario, and provide people with the skills needed to move in a more fluid environment characterized by the convergence of the physical and digital worlds, the company decided to launch a training course.

PRAXI worked with the company to design a continuous learning path, which integrated the use of content from PRAXI4Learning, our Learning Management System (LMS), and virtual meetings.

Guided by the trainers, participants were able to develop action plans to concretely apply the learnings in the organizational context.

Project

Agile Learning for an Agile Company: a project to support continuous learning

The Agile Learning for an Agile Company project was developed through a series of well-defined phases.

In the first phase, more than 80 opinion leaders, including 60 percent employees and 40 percent managers (33 percent women and 67 percent men), were involved in several focus groups aimed at investigating the specific needs that emerged during the remote working period and in the subsequent return to presence. On the Agile Working model, participants’ behaviors and experiences were examined using Storytelling and Storydoing methodology.

The information that emerged was the subject of an instant survey, with the aim of identifying the most relevant resources, either present or to be increased.

The Winning Practices identified, i.e., the skills needed to work agile in an increasingly complex environment, were nine: agile learning, time management, effective meeting management, engagement and motivation, networking, feedback, virtual collaboration and cooperation, accountability, and communication netiquette.

Based on the Winning Practices, nine ad hoc courses were designed, hosted on the company’s dedicated LMS platform and composed of various training resources, such as pills, mini-games with integrated feedback, and in-depth learning suggestions (videos, movies, and themed readings). Each course included an initial competency self-assessment test, a concluding learning assessment test, and a qualitative-quantitative feedback questionnaire.

The training started with an introductory lecture called the “Welcome Training Kit” to provide participants with:

• An overview of the pathway;
• a test on Winning Practices, to orient participants with respect to their learning priorities;
• a learning styles test based on Kolb’s (1984) model to identify each person’s most effective ways of acquiring information;
• An editable booklet to support assimilation of the concepts.

In parallel, several webinars were delivered, designed as discussion spaces and learning gyms.

Two key tools facilitated the discussion and active involvement of pathway participants:

• the figure of the Buddy, a colleague with whom to exchange feedback and stimuli for improvement (Peer Coaching);
• the Forum, a kind of virtual learning plaza on the LMS platform, which facilitated the sharing of achievements and new learning insights, such as movies, books and TV series.

The project concluded in January 2024 with a collective event aimed at celebrating the journey and consolidating the learnings.

Results

The high participation helped reinforce the value of the course and cohesion among the participants. The training path closed with the distribution of the Agile Learning Book, a document containing all the sheets related to the Winning Practices, insights from the webinars, and valuable feedback collected on the platform. The project yielded significant results:

• Participation of the entire organizational population involved (99.1%) in the proposed course on the LMS platform.
• Practical application of learnings: 76 percent of participants (81 percent of managers and 74 percent of employees) said they could act on what they learned in their daily lives.
• Acquisition of methods, tools and practices for organizational improvement. Specifically, as a result of the course, participants identified a number of benefits, including sharing a method of continuous learning, improving meetings through SMART goal setting and prioritization for better time management, supporting the creation of a feedback culture through a shared method, and becoming more proficient in using digital tools in professional contexts.
• Tangible evidence of the implementation of the behaviors learned during the course, both individually and within the respective teams.
• Clear change toward a more agile mindset: greater awareness of its potential and the importance of continuous discussion among colleagues, even from different functional areas.

The customization and co-design of the entire course and significant cooperation with the company’s training team were key to the project’s success, thanks to the use of innovative and integrated methodologies that reached and engaged participants around the world.

Future

Agile Learning to spread the organizational culture of continuous learning

Continuous learning does not stop: in 2024 the LMS platform was relaunched for more than 300 new participants, integrating digital continuous learning and virtual meetings as a key element for tomorrow’s performance.