Why the C-suite must dare to do things differently

“I’ve had lots of conversations with senior teams over the last couple of months,” says Bruce Fecheyr-Lippens, Founder and Chair of Huapii. “About 90 per cent realise that traditional ways of learning are not unleashing the full potential of their people. That’s good. Yet only 25 per cent dare to take action.”

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So how does Bruce approach the challenge of getting the C-suite to dare to do things differently? “Let’s make it more experiential,” he says.

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As an employee experience platform that puts people in the driving seat of their career, Huapii’s company ethos is in sync with ours at Stellar Labs. And we’re on the same page when it comes to experiential learning. “Your book Neuroscience for Learning and Development was a source of inspiration for me to make everything as experiential as possible,” says Bruce. “As a Belgian, I’d say ‘taste the chocolate!’ Get away from the theory.” Bruce also wants to turn the spotlight on the need to upskill and reskill the workforce. Although he agrees that a company’s willingness to expand and update employees’ skillsets creates a significant competitive advantage, Bruce reveals he “always felt a bit of tension” with the model. “And a couple of weeks ago, I figured out why. I find it quite top-down.”

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Instead, Bruce advocates empowering people – increasing their intrinsic motivation to want to learn new things. “Organisations need a system in place that allows their people to organically learn new skills. Let’s embed a more empowered, organic way of learning and do it in a different, more experiential, way,” he says. It’s a technique we champion at Stellar Labs. Our methodology supports employees to put their learning into action straight away, to experience and practise new skills with on-the-job activities in their own working environment. We’re also great believers in personalised support, promoting and providing mentoring and feedback along the learning journey to motivate people to reinforce and refine skills.

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Bruce understands the power of feedback and, like us, is keen to pair it with something else: feedforward. With its emphasis on the future, feedforward is not about critiquing previous work but more about suggesting what to do next time. “It creates a real conversation about skills,” says Bruce. “And it’s something company leaders can adjust to easily.”

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Bruce has one more tip for the C-suite – shift from within. In essence, that means practicing what you preach. “It’s a question of ownership,” he says. “Too often we say that others need to change, they should learn this or do that. But we don’t apply it to ourselves. How can you inspire the people around you, your organisation, your business, if you don’t first shift from within? It all starts from there.”

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And before you worry that all sounds too much like hard work, remember you can start small. Just be proactive. The beauty of choosing your shift – rather than reacting when something happens to you – means you retain control and it’s a more positive and constructive experience.

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Now’s the time to create the future you want for yourself, your teams, and your organisation. Will you dare to do things differently?