How to Integrate the Development of Learning Agility into Your Coaching Practice

The February Work Smart workshop -- Coaching to Accelerate the Development of Learning Agility -- was well received by an audience including SIOP members and nonmembers eager to discover more about the meta competency of learning agility. The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Veronica Schmidt Harvey (Schmidt Harvey Consulting) and Dr. Anna Marie Valerio (Executive Leadership Strategies). These two SIOP Fellows joined forces to share their expertise in a highly interactive workshop that provided practical approaches for deliberately integrating the development of learning agility into the coaching process.

Schmidt Harvey introduced learning agility as a “metacompetency” and provided a brief history of the research on learning agility, and why learning agility is important when developing leaders. Valerio shared how coaches can create a “double bottom line” for coaching by concurrently supporting the development of specific leadership capabilities and learning agility. The speakers discussed how coaches can assess the organization and individual to determine how best to integrate learning agility into the coaching process. A model for developing learning agility was distributed and participants engaged in breakout sessions to begin applying the model in different scenarios and create a robust list of coaching questions addressing each of the components of the model.

Participant responses to the session were overwhelmingly positive. One hundred percent of respondents indicated that the session fulfilled its learning objectives, that participants learned new concepts, and are motivated to apply what they have learned in the session. Some example participant comments are the following:

“It was informative and I can easily take what I learned and apply it in my work.” 

“Great job mixing things up and balancing science and practice.”

Participants also mentioned the value of the Agile Learning Toolkit and other resources.

If you were unable to attend the live workshop, you are still able to purchase the recording, all the materials that were shared, and additional resources on the SIOP Work Smart Series webpage (please note that breakout sessions were not recorded). And even if you were able to attend, this is a session you will benefit from revisiting!

Thank you to the presenters for so graciously sharing their time and expertise during this dynamic workshop.

For more information about sponsoring this SIOP learning channel, please contact Susan Rogers at srogers@siop.org. If you have questions or ideas for the Work Smart Series Team, please email WorkSmart@siop.org.

Save the Date:

The next Work Smart experience is a deep dive into Evidence-Based Strategies for Building Inclusive Workplaces. This virtual event features Dr. Meisha-ann Martin (Workhuman) and Dr. Nick Salter (Hofstra University). We look forward to learning from these experts in inclusion and intersectionality on Wednesday, May 22 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. ET. Please register even if you can’t attend live; all registrants will have access to the workshop recording and resource pack.