Learning and skill agility: What is it and why do we need it in 2025?

As organisations worldwide battle skill shortages and technological disruptions, we all agree that learning and development is the key to survival. But did you know that learning alone won’t help? To survive and succeed in turbulent times, we need learning and skill agility.

Learning and skill agility fuels professional growth in individuals and helps build agile, resilient organisations that remain competitive and thrive even in difficult environments. In this article, we take a good look at learning and skill agility, explaining why it should be included in organisations’ skill agility strategies for 2025.

What is learning and skill agility?

Learning agility is the ability to learn from experience and apply that knowledge in new ways, allowing one to succeed even in unfamiliar circumstances. Learning agility is an indicator of good leadership, as this definition by Columbia University and global non-profit Center for Creative Leadership shows: “Learning agility is a mindset and corresponding collection of practices that allow leaders to continually develop, grow and utilise new strategies that will equip them for the increasingly complex problems they face in their organisations.”

As for skill agility, it means being able to learn new skills at the pace of change.

While they have different definitions, learning agility and skill agility share the same purpose – to help individuals and organisations thrive (not just survive) in challenging situations through lifelong learning.

Organisational consultant Korn Ferry has done extensive research on learning agility and breaks it down into five parts:

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1. Mental agility

The ability to think critically and look at things from different perspectives. People with mental agility aren’t afraid to learn new skills, ask questions, or admit they don’t know everything. They are open to possibilities, which makes them better at overcoming challenges.

2. People agility

The ability to listen, understand, and relate to others. Those with people agility value diversity of thought and are open to different perspectives and opinions. People agility improves conflict resolution, teamwork, and collective performance.

3. Change agility

The biggest constant is change. Change agility allows one to accept this reality and even make something out of it. People with this ability aren’t threatened by change but are curious and willing to work to bring about positive transformations for themselves and for their organisations.

4. Results agility

While we usually perform adequately in situations that are similar to those we’ve experienced in the past, not all of us can succeed in a situation we’ve never faced before. Those of us who can do the latter possess results agility with qualities such as resourcefulness, confidence, and the ability to inspire confidence in others.

5. Self-awareness

Self-aware individuals are prone to self-reflection, which means they have a pretty good idea of their strengths and weaknesses and how they affect others. Self-awareness is an important leadership trait, with research showing self-aware leaders with good people skills drive better financial performance.

Why organisations need learning and skill agility

Four factors that underscore the importance of skill agility and learning agility: 

1. Evolving skill sets

The skills required for the average job will change by almost 50% by 2027, says LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report. Fostering skill agility in employees is the only way for organisations to avoid slowing down or even shutting down due to rapidly changing skill sets. This reality isn’t lost on business leaders with 89% of L&D professionals surveyed by LinkedIn agreeing that the evolving future of work demands proactive skill-building.

For top skills currently in demand, read ‘These are the skills employers are looking for now… right up till 2030’.

2. Upskilling/reskilling needs

With demand for new skills at an all-time high, organisations are hitting the accelerator on upskilling and reskilling. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 says 85% of employers plan to prioritise upskilling. But large-scale upskilling/reskilling needs time and commitment. Only by prioritising lifelong learning and adopting a culture of learning and skill agility can organisations hope to tackle their upskilling and reskilling requirements.

3. Employee engagement and retention

Our employees want to learn and do meaningful work. They are also actively seeking out opportunities for career growth. All three aspirations have direct ties to learning and skill agility. Given that 93% of employers are worried about retention, it makes sense to give the workforce the opportunities they seek. Organisational learning agility opens up multiple pathways for employee development, which improves engagement and retention.

4. Internal mobility gap

Internal mobility empowers employees to grow and advance. It creates opportunities for career progression within the organisation, which does a lot for employee engagement. Unfortunately, there is a wide disconnect between the mobility opportunities sought by employees and those provided by their employers. Only 15% of surveyed employees told LinkedIn they were encouraged to move to new roles while only 26% said they were challenged to learn new skills. Only by adopting learning and skill agility in the workplace can such a large gap be rectified.

Impact of learning and skill agility on employee performance and productivity

What are the traits of an agile learner?

• Agile learners show healthy curiosity and always ask questions, seek knowledge, and explore new ideas.
• They aren’t overwhelmed by change. Rather, they are calm, focused, and face challenges and disruptions head on. They’re not afraid of challenging the status quo.
• They are resourceful, known to take a different approach if the previous one doesn’t work.
• They draw from past experiences and learn from mistakes.
• They are self-critical, constantly reflecting on themselves and seeking feedback, which helps them become better professionals.
• They take calculated risks to get what they want, but also know when to take a step back.
• They have the ability to make others look up to and rely on them.

These attributes help agile learners succeed in a variety of situations and even outperform their peers. Research shows that they are capable of discerning problems precisely without fearing the unknown, and can also identify the right course of action after taking all perspectives into consideration. Due to the experiences and knowledge they have gathered over time, and their self-awareness, they know that what’s needed to succeed in one situation might not apply to another. They keep working and striving for perfection until they find the right answer. Most importantly, individuals with learning agility are aware that lifelong learning – rather than relying solely on their current skills – will serve them better in the long run.

Similarly, the importance of skill agility in the workplace comes from its direct ties to performance and productivity. Skill agility empowers people and institutions to not only withstand the digital disruptions reshaping our workplaces but to use those technologies to reach higher levels of innovation and performance. Employee skill agility is a stepping stone to building naturally agile skills-based organisations. And skills-based organisations, as research by Deloitte shows, are 49% more likely to improve processes that maximise efficiency, 52% more likely to be innovative, 57% more likely to anticipate and respond effectively to change, and 63% more likely to achieve business and workforce outcomes.

Impact of learning and skill agility on organisational success

Skill agility and learning agility are crucial for organisational success. Prioritising them requires a strong commitment to continuous learning, which can reshape company policies, goals, and even drive major change. Agile organisations value and embrace constant learning – even when disruptive – because it ensures survival and success in an ever-evolving work environment.

Organisational learning agility and skill agility are made up of three elements:

• Speed: How quickly employees can identify and learn the skills the organisation needs.
• Commitment: How committed employees are to applying the learning opportunities they receive.
• Flexibility: The organisation’s ability to adapt to changing needs. 

An agility model where all three factors are in sync empowers organisations to be swift in responding to change and take timely and informed decisions. Apart from augmenting adaptability and resilience in the face of change, learning and skill agility also boost business success and financial gain. Studies have been conducted to prove this connection, such as this Korn Ferry study that shows businesses with high learning-agile executives produce 25% higher profit margins.

How to create a culture of learning and skill agility

The first challenge is to change set attitudes and behaviours and cultivate these four attributes, which are the hallmarks of agile individuals and organisations:

• Curiosity: Employers must nurture curious minds that question, explore, experiment, challenge, and push the boundaries. Curiosity drives people to seek out new and different experiences, broaden their perspectives, and challenge assumptions. It makes them strive for fresh ideas and solutions instead of settling for the first one. A curious workforce responds to change more effectively. Encouraging employees to be inquisitive results in better outcomes, superior performance, and fewer conflicts, says Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino. To foster curiosity, Geno suggests rewarding employees not just for the results they deliver but also for the learning journey they take to that outcome.
• Risk-taking: Playing it safe is no longer an option. One of the requirements of agile learning for organisations is the willingness to take risks. No, it isn’t about going all in and hoping for the best. Agility is about taking a calculated risk after carefully weighing its gains and losses. Purposeful risk-taking is essential to weathering disruptions and turning adversity into opportunity.
• Adaptability: Managing change demands a workforce with superior adaptability. Fearing change means giving up. We need to welcome change and treat it as an opportunity to do something great. We need to cultivate experimental minds who aren’t afraid of venturing into unknown territory. Learning and skill agility and adaptability have a reciprocal effect on each other. Agile learning empowers us to internalise our experiences. When faced with a new situation, we automatically look for similarities with past situations and draw on these to find a solution. This builds our adaptability.
• Inclusivity: In a genuinely agile organisation, learning opportunities are open to all. Promoting inclusivity and removing biases and obstacles creates a level playing field where each individual competes fairly for their advancement.

Strategies for fostering learning and skill agility in the workplace

Here are three fail-safe skill agility strategies for 2025: 

1. Customised learning opportunities

When we think about agile learning for organisations, we naturally think about training sessions, workshops, upskilling and reskilling programmes, and so on. Tailoring initiatives to employees’ aspirations and interests and offering flexibility in what, when, and how they learn will lead to the best results. Apart from the obvious choices mentioned above, there are more innovative and practical skill-building exercises to foster learning and skill agility, including:

• Cross-training, where an employee learns the work of another employee in addition to their primary job. Global design firm IDEO successfully used cross-training to create what it calls “T people”, where the vertical stroke of the T represents an individual’s primary skill or expertise while the horizontal stroke stands for their ability to collaborate across disciplines.
• Job rotations and internal mobility opportunities, which promote employee skill agility by allowing them to experience different roles and apply themselves across the organisation.
• Peer mentoring, which is an innovative knowledge-sharing arrangement between two individuals who are at a similar level but have an experience gap.

2. Informal assessment

Instead of formal and periodic performance reviews, making assessments a part of everyday interactions is more effective in fostering organisational learning agility. In such a culture, employees are comfortable giving and receiving feedback. They find value in the advice they receive, which helps them work on their weaknesses. What’s more, such an informal assessment system is designed to improve employee skill agility because it requires them to work on core skills such as communication, active listening, and self-awareness.

3. Quality resources

Fostering learning and skill agility is akin to a work culture overhaul, which requires resources and commitment. These resources include qualified learning experts who provide value and bring out the best in the workforce, a healthy budget to support all the earmarked learning and skill-building exercises, and sufficient time for the initiatives to show results.

4. Tolerance of mistakes

Agile organisations and individuals aren’t afraid of making mistakes. After all, mistakes are common when trying out something new, like learning a skill and putting it to use. To nurture workplace learning agility and employee skill agility, it’s imperative to respond to employees’ mistakes with patience and tolerance. Criticism and admonishment will only discourage them and kill their confidence, pushing them to retreat to their old skills and habits.

5. Skills intelligence tools

Before developing a learning and skill agility strategy, an organisation must first understand its existing skills and competencies. This is where skills management platforms like MuchSkills play a crucial role. Designed to provide deep workforce insights, MuchSkills empowers organisations to enhance their skill agility strategies for 2025.

With MuchSkills, you can:

• Visualise your organisation’s skills matrix: Create a clear, comprehensive database of skills and competencies, making workforce capabilities easy to understand.
• Conduct an in-depth skills gap analysis: Identify even the most hidden skill gaps to drive effective upskilling and reskilling initiatives.
• Leverage expert resources for employee development: Access award-winning playbooks and guides to design personalised, impactful employee growth programs.

By integrating skills intelligence into your strategy, you can build a more agile, future-ready organisation.

Common challenges when implementing learning and skill agility

1. Resistance to change

If agile learning for organisations involves getting comfortable with change, it is also true that resistance to change is the biggest hurdle to implementing learning and skill agility in the workplace. The transition from a traditional organisation into an agile organisation demands disruptive changes and adjustments at various levels. Everyone – from regular employees to managers and leaders – must be absolutely committed and ready to make the big shift. That said, we humans are wired to resist change, and that doesn’t disappear overnight.

2. Communication failure

If policy changes and learning strategies aren’t clearly communicated to every individual in the workforce, there will be confusion, disenchantment, and even opposition. From timely announcements to an honest exchange of feedback, leaders must seriously up their communication game during the transformation phase.

3. Leadership buy-in

It’s imperative to get leaders and managers on board, which is easier said than done. A culture of learning and skill agility leads to a flatter organisation and can create adjustment problems for leaders and managers, especially those who hold on to traditional hierarchies and ways of working.

Case studies – Stories of success and failure

1. How agility transformed Amazon and Netflix

Amazon started off as an online book seller and Netflix as a DVD-by-mail service. Today, both run highly successful video and original content streaming services that are giving traditional movie studios a run for their money. Amazon boss Jeff Bezos is often hailed as a “highly agile CEO”. Korn Ferry, which has come up with seven types of learning agile profiles, categorises him as a “trailblazer”. Bezos has all the qualities of one – willingness to take risks and learn from failure, desire to constantly acquire new skills, ability to think long-term, and innovation to build successful new businesses. His qualities have rubbed off on his company, which is called one of the most agile large organisations in the world. Similarly, the Netflix leadership has been the subject of several corporate agility studies and is credited with developing a culture that enables the platform to constantly “innovate, disrupt, and pivot”.

2. The story behind the Spotify Model

Introduced in 2012, the Spotify Model is an agility success story that’s been emulated by many companies. The music streaming platform’s unique management system centres around cross-functional teams called Squads, Tribes, Guilds, and Chapters with emphasis on autonomy and collaboration. The Spotify Model serves as an effective learning and skill agility model as it is designed to encourage experimentation, innovation, continuous learning, and skill-building.

3. How Kodak missed its moment

On the other end of the agility spectrum is Kodak, which invented the digital camera in 1975 and should have rightfully led the digital photography revolution. Only, its conservative leadership shelved the digital camera to prioritise its existing business even as rivals picked up on the novel idea. Kodak’s aversion to disruptions brought on by technological advances and changing customer demands eventually led to the company filing for bankruptcy in 2012.