Summary of How Learning Contracts Can Drive an Industrious Revolution

Andrew Dyer, Elena Barybkina, C. Patrick Erker and Jeff Sullivan

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How Learning Contracts Can Drive an Industrious Revolution summary

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The digital age looks to be as impactful as the Industrial Revolution, warn professionals from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and companies that ignore history’s lessons are likely to retread serious missteps. Thus, the BCG team calls for a new “covenant” between employer and employee that centers on mutually beneficial workplace learning. This important, yet sometimes dry primer explains how to create and enact a “learning contract” that will help your business grow while keeping your people employed.

In this summary, you will learn

Why businesses of the digital age should forge a “learning contract” with their employees and
What basic components define a learning contract.

About the Authors

Andrew Dyer, Elena Barybkina, C. Patrick Erker and Jeff Sullivan work for the Boston Consulting Group.

Summary

The Industrial Revolution taught the hard lesson that technological advancement requires an equal dose of social advancement. Today’s businesses have the power to usher in an “industrious revolution” by forming “learning contracts” with workers. Under this new social contract, employers and employees commit to building the human skill sets needed to stay apace of technological disruption. Employers honor the learning contract by nurturing a forward-looking corporate culture with diverse educational opportunities, and employees do their part by pursuing desirable skills, identifying as learners and learning “how to learn.” The contract keeps businesses growing and workers employed. It orients employees toward the company’s learning programs and systems. Though variable, learning contracts include these basic components: