Mastering Global Mobility: Harnessing Learning Agility for Enhanced Workforce Strategy and Talent Development
Jack November 16, 2023 Resources
Introduction
Global mobility is crucial in today's interconnected world, enabling employees to move across locations and contributing significantly to talent development and workforce strategy. This article aims to guide global mobility professionals on leveraging learning agility to enhance their programs' effectiveness in this dynamic field. Specifically, I will be discussing what learning agility is, the challenges of global mobility, and the strategies for enhancing learning agility.
Section 1: Understanding Learning Agility
Learning agility refers to the ability to learn from experiences and apply that knowledge to new, first-time situations. In global mobility, this translates to adapting to different cultures, legal frameworks, and business practices swiftly and effectively. To bring this to life, imagine you are a free agent on a sports team, you bounce from team to team with each one providing different team cultures and ways of doing things. You also must build relationships with different teammates who have their unique situations, all while playing in a game that continually changes. To be an effective player, you must remain humble, coachable, and adaptive. That is what learning agility is.
Section 2: The Challenges of Global Mobility
Global mobility professionals face numerous challenges, including navigating complex immigration policies and varying tax regulations across countries. These challenges are compounded by the need to manage the logistics of relocating employees and their families, which may include aspects like visa services, school searches for dependents, and cross-cultural training. In effect, our industry requires professionals to be constantly aware of different political changes and movements across countries. Remaining agile in Global Mobility requires discipline in studying the environment. As humans with complex lives, maintaining this discipline can be challenging, yet it is critical for success.
Section 3: Strategies for Enhancing Learning Agility
To enhance learning agility, global mobility teams need to stay flexible and adaptive, especially in the face of constant changes such as border closings and policy shifts. Emphasizing upskilling and reskilling opportunities is also crucial for talent development within global mobility programs.
To make this easier for you the global mobility professional, I recommend the following strategies to ease the burden on yourselves and grow as professionals:
Easing the Information Search: If you are responsible for a certain territory, set up Google Alerts to email daily updates so you remain in the loop about policy changes, geographical events, and other vital pieces of news that will allow you to stay up to date about your territories, which will make anticipating and adapting to changes quicker.
Adopt a Growth Mindset: Ask yourself every day what are one or two things that you could do better and improve on. Be that communication skills, productivity, technical skills or simply understanding the new innovations in technology such as Microsoft Excel or OpenAI and devote 15-30 minutes to it. Read books and watch videos from other professionals that help expand your mind and capabilities. It doesn’t matter if you are a new professional or a seasoned vet. Aim for 1% growth every day and you will find in 90 days you will be a better professional and human being for it.
Embrace Change: We stand at the forefront of another industrial revolution that will provide immense tools and new ways of performing tasks. Do not be afraid to challenge the status quo and try out these new tools. Experiment like a “mad scientist” and enjoy the process.
Prioritize Learning Goals: As with adopting a growth mindset, identify a set of skills you wish to improve and prioritize them. Which areas do people want you to improve on? Which areas do you want to improve on? The intersection of those two questions should be your priority system for personal development.
Conclusion
In conclusion, learning agility is a critical component for success in global mobility. By understanding learning agility, acknowledging its implementation challenges, and adopting strategies such as easing the information search, adopting a growth mindset, embracing change, and prioritizing learning goals, global mobility professionals can better navigate the complexities of their goals and significantly contribute to their organization's talent and business strategies.