Learning Agility
Learning Agility is the tendency to learn quickly from experience and flexibly apply that learning to new, ambiguous challenges. Assessio’s model has five sub-agilities: Change, Mental, People, Results, and Self-Awareness. Together they form a single, reliable construct used in selection and development.
The five sub-agilities (and what they look like)
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Change Agility — curious, flexible, open to novelty; comfortable experimenting and shifting direction.
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Mental Agility — reframes problems, sees patterns in data, handles complexity and ambiguity.
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People Agility — collaborates, seeks perspectives, builds trust and open communication.
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Results Agility — sets ambitious goals, stays proactive and persistent under pressure.
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Self-Awareness — humble, feedback-seeking, emotionally regulated; knows strengths and gaps.
Learning styles through sub-agilities (how each person learns best)
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High Change Agility: learns by experimenting; lower scorers prefer structured, stable routines.
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High Mental Agility: thrives on abstract ideas & complexity; lower scorers learn best via concrete, hands-on problem-solving.
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High People Agility: learns through collaboration & feedback; lower scorers prefer independent reflection.
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High Results Agility: motivated by stretch goals & persistence; lower scorers need calmer contexts.
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High Self-Awareness: strong metacognitive learning (seek feedback, reflect, adjust); lower scorers may avoid reflection and resist input.
Use these preferences to tailor onboarding and development plans (e.g., pick learning activities that match a person’s high sub-agilities, and add safeguards where they’re lower).
Where you’ll see Learning Agility in Assessio
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Recruitment (Analyse page and Onboarding Insights): LA helps shape early-days guidance about what to leverage, watch, and practice for a new hire.
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Development (SAI & Development Insights): LA informs ongoing coaching; combine it with Leadership Feedback when available for a performance-linked view.
How LA is built (in plain language)
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The five scales were developed from a rigorous SME and psychometric process with strong reliabilities and a clear five-factor structure that rolls up into a single higher-order LA factor.
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LA shows expected links to Big Five traits and related measures (e.g., Need for Cognition, Feedback Seeking), supporting construct validity.
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Global norms (updated 2024): based on a stratified, high-stakes sample (n≈1,152) with small/negligible subgroup differences and no adverse impact in simulations under typical decision rules.
Note: The self-awareness scale was refined and now stands on its own rather than moderating other scales in the final scoring model, improving transparency and fit.
Using LA in practice
Selection
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Use LA as evidence about adaptability for roles facing novelty/ambiguity.
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Combine with role lenses, interviews, and (where relevant) work samples—never a single-metric decision.
Development & coaching
Convert insights about learning style into the shared goal language:
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Directional goal (behavior): e.g., Increase experimentation in uncertain projects (Change Agility).
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Actions: time-boxed trials; “stop/scale” reviews; rotate through one new method per sprint.
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Checks: at least one experiment/quarter documented; decision note shows what was learned and applied.
FAQs
Is LA just “intelligence” or “EQ”?
No. LA is a behavioral tendency to learn and adapt. It correlates with relevant traits but is a distinct construct with its own evidence base.
Does LA bias against age or gender?
Norming and simulations indicate small/negligible group differences and no adverse impact with recommended practices.
What’s a “good” LA score?
Interpret relative to role demands and alongside other evidence (role lens, experience, performance). Use trends and behavior change over time, not a single cut.