15 Best L&D Practices by the Largest Japanese Airline

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the largest airline in Japan by revenues and passenger numbers.

15 Best L&D Practices 

by the Largest Japanese Airline

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the largest airline in Japan by revenues and passenger numbers. As an organization, ANA follows the best learning & development practices to take full advantage of opportunities for business expansion & Group growth. Let's see how...

As a training professional, I am always on a lookout for the best practices followed by world's greatest organizations. It was a pleasure to visit All Nippon Airways (ANA) headquarter at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. 

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is the largest airline in Japan by revenues and passenger numbers. As an organization, ANA follows the best learning & development practices to take full advantage of opportunities for business expansion & Group growth. 

While attending a session by none other than Mr. Shiomi Keisuke, President & Chief Executive Officer, (ANA Wing Fellows Vie Oji Co. Ltd.), I realized that ANA is thinking way ahead of its competitors. 

With Mr. Shiomi Keisuke, President & Chief Executive Officer, (ANA Wing Fellows Vie Oji Co. Ltd.)

ANA is actively investing in the human assets who are the driving force behind their growth.They are creating programs to motivate employees, and enabling them to fully demonstrate their abilities. 

Here are 15 most pertinent L&D practices that ANA follows, 

1. To deepen their understanding of different cultures, they have established an exchange program that provides the opportunity for overseas staff members to visit Japan, and cooperate with Japanese staff members. 
   
   
2. They emphasize the planning and execution of lectures, seminars and other training programs to innovate employee awareness and corporate culture. 
   
   
3. Their mentoring system won the Japan Productivity Center’s Mentor Award, which recognized ANA’s unique internal network that facilitates access to the advice of senior employees who have dealt with similar issues in the past. 
   
   
4. They established the ANA JINZAI (Human Assets) University in 2007 to provide human assets training, including programs such as rank-based and elective training. 
   
   
5. Training is given by lecturers from inside and outside the ANA Group, and incorporates such methods as on-site courses and even Zen meditation to heighten its effectiveness. 
   
   
6. These development programs support the autonomous career development of all Group employees and promote an environment where individual employees can display their capabilities to the maximum possible extent in their respective roles. 
   
   
7. The ANA Group is providing education to Groupwide classes of mid-level employees (people aged 25-29) and managers (people in their mid-thirties). 
   
   
8. The curriculum for mid-level employees includes leadership and problem-solving techniques to cultivate the ability to help achieve the vision of the students’ divisions.
   
9. Managers research case studies of other companies and have opportunities to meet executives from other industries to discuss their successes, thus cultivating human assets who can look beyond the company in innovating established thinking and practices. 
   
   
10. ANA has been printing customer compliments on the cover sheets of monthly payslips since long. This practice, proposed by an employee, was initiated to raise both everyday awareness of customer satisfaction on the part of employees and the level of customer satisfaction. 
    
    
11. Among frontline staff members, ANA promotes the exchange of Good Job Cards, where employees who find something praiseworthy in a colleague’s work write it down on a card and pass it to the colleague. 
    
    
12. This system utilizing praise of colleagues’ work is useful for creating interest in what others are working on, while encouraging an atmosphere where employees always take pride in their jobs and the jobs of those working with them. 
    
    
13. Furthermore, the “Wow!” Award was established to recognize employees and work units that inspire their colleagues with original ideas that are not bound by existing systems and values. 
    
    
14. The ANA Group proactively creates opportunities for frontline employees to directly discuss issues with top management. The Group’s executives talk directly with employees in their own words about business conditions, while employees directly convey to top management the status of their work sites and any unresolved issues. 
    
    
15. ANA Virtual Hollywood is a program in which employees propose and execute projects that capture the hearts of customers, just as film directors produce Hollywood movies that have the power to enthrall the masses. 
    
    
    So, which best practices are being followed in your organization? Feel free to share.
    
    

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