{"id":22711,"date":"2024-01-08T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/?post_type=article&p=22711"},"modified":"2025-12-15T05:11:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T05:11:04","slug":"learning-development-what-are-the-most-effective-strategies","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/learning-development-what-are-the-most-effective-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning & Development: What Are the Most Effective Strategies?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n 8 Jan 2024 <\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>Articles<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t

Learning & Development: What Are the Most Effective Strategies?<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n \n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Category<\/div>\n Coaching & Development<\/a> <\/div>\n
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https:\/\/leadersinsport.com\/performance-institute\/articles\/learning-development-what-are-the-most-effective-strategies\/<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n\n\n\n
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As discussed on this virtual roundtable, it has to be more than a tick-box exercise if you\u2019re going to reinforce a culture of continuous improvement.<\/p>\n \n \n \n

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By Luke Whitworth<\/h6>\n
In our penultimate virtual roundtable of 2023, we reflected on the frequently discussed theme of learning and development. The aim of this particular roundtable was to provide a space and platform for Leaders Performance Institute members to share best practice and experiences with one another, centred around the theme of learning.<\/h6>\n

Two questions underpinned the groups\u2019 conversations on the day:<\/p>\n

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  • What have been the most impactful learning and development strategies you have integrated in your teams?<\/li>\n
  • Reflecting on your own experiences, what have been the most effective learning experiences you have engaged in and why?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Having a clear philosophy and intent<\/strong><\/p>\n

    In summarising all of the responses and suggestions from the group, it became clear that the effectiveness of your approach to learning and development starts way before the actual practicalities. A reflective question for all is whether your team or organisation has a clear philosophy and intent on learning or if it is just a tick-box exercise because you know it is something that generally needs to be done? Put simply: if you don\u2019t have this philosophy and statement of intent clearly mapped out, it isn\u2019t likely to be effective. We also discussed around reinforcing a culture of continuous improvement, of which clear approaches to learning form a large part of this outlook.<\/p>\n

    Firstly, start off with outlining key principles. Instilling a set of clear principles that sit behind your learning and development work allows you to find the balance between short and long-term focuses. There is a natural tendency in many high performance environments to be reactive, which can minimise long-term growth. Thoughts from the group suggested that your principles should cover both bases so there are clear expectations from the here and now, but also the future.<\/p>\n

    Be intentional, often less is more. There is a vast amount of learning and development opportunity for staff and also athletes, so much so that it can be overwhelming. So with this in mind, ensure you are intentional with what is being focused on, how much time you are dedicating to it and perhaps most importantly, how will it drive positive change. One of the comments on the call that summarised this point well was the importance of creating the need and desire for change.<\/p>\n

    Have a needs-based approach. This is a natural follow on from the point above and will support the intentionality of what you or your team engages in. The key element of the needs-based approach is making sure you are participating using the right stimulus.<\/p>\n

    With any learning and development experience you engage in, do you have a clear commitment to action post-engagement which highlights what you are actually going to do differently or to deepen the quality of that learning?<\/p>\n

    Finally, how do you think about developing an organisational system that facilitates learning and development? A reflection is that learning can often take place in silos and learning isn\u2019t shared organisation-wide. Environments that create a true culture of learning have clear systems and strategies in place to create opportunities for the sharing of practice. Intention and organisation will also help to elevate the quality of your learning.<\/p>\n

    Peer group opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n

    When aggregating all of the responses from the group conversations, unsurprisingly the most common response when thinking about effective learning and development strategies were aligned to peer group opportunities. There were a few specific examples of this in how you are able to facilitate these opportunities for staff or your athletes.<\/p>\n

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    • Creating opportunities for regular feedback that focuses on specific topics of analysis. One attendee shared that taking 45 minutes and breaking this up between 15-minute presentations and 30 minutes of conversation has been impactful.<\/li>\n
    • Having a blend of in-house learning and bringing outside expertise in. How are you leaning into the expertise that is already in the building that can sometimes be overlooked? When the time is right, what knowledge from outside of the environment can be welcomed in to provoke thought and challenge thinking? One environment shared that every Thursday an external thought leader is invited to speak to the performance team leaders. They have even created their own Sport Performance Summit, bringing together a mix of internal and external perspectives on key pain points, combining theory and practice.<\/li>\n
    • Spending more energy on focused learning versus passive. There was a reflection in the conversations around the amount of passive learning that can take place, whether that be articles, podcasts or other media. This can be valuable, but to shift a change in behaviour, we want to keep learning focused through regular scheduled sessions around key topics and challenges.<\/li>\n
    • Leveraging the power of peer mentoring every month in your environment has seen high levels of effectiveness.<\/li>\n
    • Opportunities and spaces to be creative that takes you away from the temptation of day-to-day delivery. Another environment on the call shared how they have implemented creative breakfasts to share ideas.<\/li>\n
    • Encourage cross-departmental projects. We often hear of the challenges of siloed working. The act of encouraging and facilitating cross-departmental projects or learning opportunities has been incredibly impactful in some environments, not only in helping to develop relationships but to also expand knowledge outside of specific teams and disciplines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Other impactful strategies<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Although a large number of effective strategies aligned to peer-group opportunities, there were also some excellent thoughts and considerations that sat outside of this bucket. Some of these strategies are well-known and utilised well in environments, but it was a good reminder of the impact they can have when focused on consistently and strategically.<\/p>\n

      Unsurprisingly, experiential learning was identified as a really impactful strategy for learning. To get this right, create a space for the learning experience, mixing theory and practice and then make the learning activity experiential in nature.<\/p>\n

      There was also a thread of discussion around after-action reviews and debriefing. These tend to be strategies that are not utilised as well across high performance sport, largely due to the fast-paced nature of the industry \u2013 it\u2019s often onto the next game. However, one environment shared how much they have gained by having reviews every week on decision-making processes and having this consistent approach has yielded some really positive results. How consistent are you with reviewing?<\/p>\n

      \u2018Question-based leadership\u2019 was something the group felt was an opportunity when considering effective learning and development strategies. Question-based leadership refers to the notion of communicating through open, targeted questions more often than in closed statements. In a number of recent conversations across the Leaders Performance Institute, several members have shared how quality questioning is an under-utilised skill in many environments.<\/p>\n

      Finally, the group also touched on the importance of psychological safety in the environment and celebrating a \u2018beginners mind\u2019 to help reduce fear, noise and impostor syndrome.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \n \n \n <\/div>\n

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