Over the past several weeks, RPM-Academy has been asking Canadian municipal leaders a simple question: What capability does your municipality need next? It is a question prompted by an increasingly complex municipal environment.

Innovative technologies are changing how work gets done. Workforce expectations are evolving. Fiscal pressures persist. Citizen expectations continue to rise. And employees at every level are being asked to solve problems, adapt to change and make decisions in circumstances that could not always have been anticipated when an annual training plan was developed.

Traditionally, organizations have responded to workforce development needs with training and that starting point needs to change.

Instead of asking: What training should we provide?

What if we started by asking: What do our people need to be capable of doing?

From Knowledge to Capability

In the first article in this series, RPM-Academy introduced a simple progression:

Knowledge -> Competency -> Capability

Knowledge matters. So does competency. But organizational value ultimately comes when employees can draw upon what they know to perform, solve problems, make decisions, adapt and deliver results when circumstances demand it.

That changes the role of learning. The objective is no longer simply to complete a course. The objective is to make learning available when it can change what someone is capable of doing.

Start With the Need - Not the Training Catalogue

Traditional training catalogues typically begin with what is available: Here are our courses. Which ones would you like your employees to take?

A capability-based approach turns that thinking around. It begins with the employee or the organization: What do we need to accomplish? What capability do we need to develop?

• A supervisor needs to navigate a difficult conversation.
• A project team needs to understand a process before trying to improve it.
• A manager needs to interpret data or lead change.
• An employee needs to solve a problem that appeared this morning, or
• An organization needs to build deeper capability in continuous improvement, Lean Six Sigma, Agile, leadership or project management.

Different needs require different depths of learning. Some may require only a few minutes of focused, just-in-time learning. Others may require structured development, practice, application, and certification.

The common starting point is the same: Begin with the capability required. Then find the learning that helps build it.

From "Just-In-Case" training to "Just-In-Time" capability

This philosophy is helping shape RPM-Academy's approach to workplace learning. RPM Platinum All-Access provides access to more than 1,000 Learning Bytes and a growing library of deeper professional development programs covering continuous improvement, Lean Six Sigma, Agile, leadership and a broad range of workplace capabilities. But the number of courses is not really the point... Access is.

Organizations cannot anticipate every challenge an employee will encounter six months from now. They can, however, make relevant learning accessible when the need arises. That means an employee can access focused learning to address an immediate challenge, develop deeper competency where required, and increasingly move beyond simply consuming content toward opportunities to practise, explore and apply what they are learning.

It represents a shift from learning primarily just in case it might someday be useful toward learning that is also available just in time to be effective.

Building a Capability Engine

For municipalities, this creates an intriguing possibility. Instead of viewing workforce development primarily as a collection of courses assigned throughout the year, what if learning became an accessible resource employees could draw upon continuously?

A resource that helps people move from:

"I need to know something" to

"I need to learn how to do something" to

"I can use what I've learned to deliver a result."

That is the idea behind a capability engine: An environment where learning is not the destination. It is the fuel employees use to become more capable. And capability ultimately shows up not on a training transcript, but in the workplace - in better decisions, stronger leadership, improved processes, solved problems, and better service to communities.

What Capability Will Your Municipality Need Next?

No municipality can predict every challenge its employees will encounter next year - or even next month. But municipalities can create an environment in which people have greater access to the knowledge, development, and practice they need when those challenges arise.

Start building capability.

Explore RPM-Academy's approach to municipal workforce development at: rpm-academy.com/municipal-capability

About RPM-Academy

RPM-Academy is a Canadian online learning platform focused on building practical workplace capability. Through accessible professional development, Learning Bytes, structured programs and applied learning experiences, RPM-Academy helps individuals and organizations move from knowledge to competency - and from competency to capability.