Learning and development (L&D) industry leaders and renowned experts explored “How to Drive Innovation and Transform Organisations through People”. In an interactive and collaborative atmosphere, they shared thought-provoking insight and practical learning at the global 2020 MERIT Annual Summit, which took place in Seville on 5-6 February.

Check out: Highlights from the Leadership stream

Lead innovation

#1. Of all the parts of the organisation, HR should be the most bias-alert.

Cognitive biases often hinder company innovation. Authority bias, conformity bias, status quo bias, action bias – while they help us survive, organisations should be wary of routines and behaviours that stand in the way of innovation, revealed the CERN case study discussed by James Purvis, Head of Human Resources.

#2. Balance the contradictory elements of leadership.

Great innovators need to stick to their vision while staying agile, follow their intuition while capturing their customers’ imaginations, and strive for perfection while experimenting. Successful innovation calls for balancing the contradictory elements of leadership, Natasha Bonnevalle, partner at THNK School of Creative Leadership, emphasised in her MERITalk.

#3. The pressure to capture innovation and improve speed-to-market is greater than ever.

Examine innovation through the lens of benchmark companies. In this scenario, leaders need to develop the right relationships to capture innovation, suggested Gordon Crichton, Director of the Management Institute at Kedge Business School (France).

Enact agility

#4. Start from functions, not roles.

ING’s journey in implementing agile principles required all their HR processes to be rethought. This transformation was initiated more than two years ago. Christophe Vanden Eede, Global Head of Talent Management at ING walked the audience though the journey, sharing the lessons learnt.

#5. Simplify structure and focus on people.

With multiple levels of seniority and validations required to advance in a project, Nestlé needed a change. How was the company able to uncover areas of improvement and act on them? Anna Walther, Global Learning & Capability Building, illustrated a case study on learning and the importance of agility.

Scale learning

#6. Demystify learning preferences.

PMI built an opt-in global learning network. A focus group and survey insight helped demystify learning preferences and performance at the company. Findings were diverse – 50% of employees prefer to learn in a language other than English, while 60% favour digital learning from their laptop. Dr Nina Kreyer, Global Head of Learning, highlighted the challenges and next steps in an audience award-winning case study.

#7. Open the learning environment.

While the experience of managers and employees differs on most levels, both groups need autonomy in their learning processes. Ernesto Barrios, Head of Learning Office at Repsol, outlined his organisation’s transformative journey towards an employee–manager responsibility-based, open learning environment.

Nurture culture

#8. Empower employees to speak up.

From attracting and recruiting candidates to developing leadership and talent – organisations need an inclusion roadmap. Felizitas Lichtenberg, Global Diversity & Inclusion Lead at Vodafone engaged the audience in experiencing firsthand how to make a difference by speaking up in uncomfortable situations, such as discussing personal topics in the workplace.

#9. Attention is more valuable than feedback.

Challenging conventional business and leadership practices, Robert Dobay, Co-Founder of Act2Manage, highlighted what makes feedback effective. He summed up evidence-based findings on three principles, staring with the importance of attention in the feedback process.

#10. Leverage the subconscious brain for people development.

In a world with abundant access to information and research, we have to worry less about what we know and more about how we implement it. This is a huge shift in the area of people and personal development. Our brains are home to 95-98% of our subconscious. Being able to understand your brain is to understand how to have content and give it context, explained Christiaan Oosterveen, human growth hacker and trainer.

Learn on

Gain and contribute novel ideas and working solutions at the MERIT European Summit co-hosted with LinkedIn, “Rethinking Learning in a Connected World”, Paris, 18 September 2020.