HRI
learning and unlearning
Hire curious people The pandemic truly demonstrated the resilience of humans, says Abey Kgotle, HR executive director at Mercedes-Benz SA, who kicked off the HR Indaba Conversation on leaders and creating a learning culture discussion, which was sponsored by Mercer.
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BY REABETSWE RABAJI
ercedes-Benz, as an established brand, had to transform into a liberating organisation in its journey of learning, and to accomplish this, the team underwent a reverse learning experience, which received positive feedback. “We had to quickly learn how to adapt and reinvent ourselves to demonstrate that we are capable of surviving beyond the pandemic,” Abey Kgotle, HR executive director at MercedesBenzSA, said. “We never imagined we’d get to this point with a hybrid working mode. Covid19, on the other hand, has given us a beautiful
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gift, the gift of how we as leaders can learn and improve our leadership styles in the future.” He added that managers have had to move from managing people from the office to managing them remotely. The silver lining is how leaders have unlearned how they managed businesses in the past, and to never waste a good crisis. “Participants expressed how rewarding, refreshing, and enriching it was to learn from other people. Learning from both experienced and inexperienced people is critical, and this is a fantastic opportunity to take advantage of. Digitalisation also improves the learning and
