This has been the key message of my presentation at the Future Learning Lab day organized by Isa Zöller and the IDEA team consisting of learning innovators from different SAP board areas.
I had the pleasure to share some insights from the Future Learning Lab history. Additionally, I invited the participants to share their learning vision in a warm up exercise.
The featured picture on top of this post illustrates that it has not been a straightforward journey of course. Therefore, the stones show dead ends. To be an innovator means to face resistance and experience failure. But, also to enjoy “aha”-moments that gives you energy. Each stone stands for an energy moment in our history. There were so many, so, I‘ve selected six stones as stages of our history
Execution engine vs. Innovation space
My team has to execute 25 learning programs for 30,000 engineers. How do we find time and space for innovation?
The dilemma between the execution engine and the innovation space is real. It exists at company level, at team level, at individual level.
We as a team have experienced that it‘s possible to create space to feel safe also in the execution engine. One example is the Kudos box, a weekly feedback round as part of our team meeting. We share observations on behaviors and appreciations for support and useful outcomes.
And to make the innovation space happen, we blocked calendars, secured resources, allocated budget. Every team in any company can do that.
The future of learning is here – now.
For inspiration please check „Managing for Happiness“ from Jurgen Appelo
Intuition vs. Methods
We are a company full of engineers. We love tech. We love to play with tech.
But what about the experience for the learner, the human orientation?
Our team has developed the first virtual reality learning app at SAP: SAP Galaxy Learning. It has been a “submarine” project, totally understaffed. Nevertheless, thanks to Isa we made it, she has even won two Brandon-Hall Gold Awards for our team.
So, experiment with tech and address the main challenge: adoption by humans. We learnt to gamify the experience; e.g. organizing SAP Galaxy Learning contests in different locations.
The future of learning is here – now.
For inspiration please check e.g. Make Design Matter by David Carlson.
Intuition vs. Methods
Now comes the arena of the gurus with „Futurist“ on their business cards. The surprising truth is: you can learn foresight mindset and become a futurist yourself.
At least, this has been what Mario Herger conveyed to us when he upskilled the Future Learning Lab team with foresight methods. Hence, start designing your preferred future today. Each of you can do that.
The future of learning is here – now.
If you wanna know more, please check Foresight Mindset by Mario Herger.
We vs. They
If you look on the SAP website there are many “SAP is the #1…” messages. We can become self-complacent if we hear these messages all day long. So, the best is to leave the own rooms, the comfort zone and discover a whole new world outside
The Future Learning Lab team explored the Berlin learning startup and innovation scene. We experienced the diversity of approaches. We were inspired by peers with similar roles in new and established companies, and we learnt a lot by really synthesizing the findings from the exploration tour. I never played so much with Lego since the childhood of my kids again!
This led to the „WeLearn“ initiatives that we started in 2019.
The Future of learning is here – now.
Inspiration for co-creation methods can e.g. be found in „Game-storming“.
Global vs. Local
Most of us work for a company. But life is not only about work, it‘s about our role in society, our kids go to school, our home is surrounded by neighbours. “Think global – act local” is one mantra of my youth
What if we connect engaged people in the company with social initiatives? And there are many social initiatives within SAP, even more outside.
Therefore, the Social Learning Experience Day has been certainly a highlight this year with activists like Dale Lane from IBM talking about Machine Learning for Kids. It’s so inspirational to discuss what exponential tech can bring to society, to connect and give back to society, and to start co-creating for our future.
The future of learning is here – now.
Karl-Heinz Land is certainly one very inspiring personality with his thought-provoking „Earth 5.0“ book (only in German).
5G vs. Working Out Loud
On the tech side we are investing in 5G networks to connect devices and sensors around the globe. What about the 5G for human networks?
We are grateful that we invited Katharina Krentz from Bosch in 2018. She shared her WOL circle experience. We jump started a dozen of working out loud circles already during the event. And now we have already established a network of WOL ambassadors.
WOL improves the quality of relationships, makes yourself visible by your contributions to others, and supports change at all levels.
The future of learning is here – now.
For inspiration please check the Working Out Loud community by John Stepper.
Innovation Mindset Warm up
It has been important to prepare the minds of the participants for all the fantastic presentations and discussions that followed my intro talk: time for a warm-up.
This one has been inspired by an innovation mindset session delivered by Frederik Pferdt from Google. You may check their re:Work guides for additional inspiration.
The lead question was: “Imagine yourself in 10 years from now. How will you learn?”
The participants had to write down their vision in 3 minutes on a piece of paper. Then to fold it into a paper plane, let it fly, and grab another vision paper plane.
I was impressed by the number of visions that we have collected in just 10 minutes. This will be one important input for the future activities of the Future Learning Lab. I’m looking forward to continuing this journey.
Thanks to all the active participants and contributors to the Future Learning Lab day.
Thank you Noémie, Sofie, Xinru, and Ingo for your feedback on the draft versions of the talk.
BTW: the sketches that I used for the talk have been inspired by postcards with pebbles that I discovered on the island of Crete some weeks ago. The pebbles are from Triopetra beach – a fantastic place to relax.
