What L&D can learn from the music business
For decades the music business had the perfect model. You had to go to a record shop to buy their products. When the old record wore out you had to spend money on a replacement. The record companies were in complete control of the artists and of production. Their products were spread by a free sampling tool - the radio. It was the ultimate centralised, hierarchical, money making machine.
With the internet everything changed. The record company's monopoly on production and content ended. Every record ever made was available for free. Control was now in the hands of the artists who could create, share and market for themselves. Communities of fans could come together on new digital platforms to engage directly with each other. Fast, open, two-way and connected. Reliance on the old model where the record companies decided who got signed and what music was made (and for who) soon collapsed.
There are parallels here for the work of L&D teams in the new knowledge economy.
L&D's control of production of 'learning solutions' and 'resources' has shifted because people can find more of what they want for themselves. The same goes for the idea that L&D controls storage and access to everything needed by employees to do their work. The means to become competent in a job can't now be centralised and locked down.
So supporting the race to a competent and compliant workforce is less of a priority for L&D. The new competitive advantage for an organisation comes from its capacity to adapt, to question and to connect. The ability to move knowledge and ideas faster. These are often new or limited behaviors in many organisations. This is where L&D can support instead.
Of course technology can help to accelerate and amplify this shift for individuals and teams. But only if creating the conditions to become more open, more adaptable and more joined up is a priority for the organisation.
As with the music business, the technology isn't the point. Music lovers have constantly found ways to come together around their passion and to make a difference. Musicians and music fans have always wanted to connect, to share and to collect, to curate and narrate. The technology works there because it helps people to do what they've always done.
We are still so far behind understanding how to use technology to enhance the learning experience and not just using it as a gimic. Great blog Paul!
ReplyDeleteHi Paul, as a musician - I was really drawn to this topic and can see the analogous relationship between two worlds and on the surface different systems. What I can also see is that in sharing music s freely and breaking down the monopoly of the record companies - we have also created an environment in which people dont expect to pay for music anymore and if they do through Spotify etc - they are often massively undervaluing what it takes to write and create music and maintain a life of creativity. and now we have the monopoly of the 'providers' and platforms like Spotify. I saw a piece written by Paul Wheeler on how many downloads it took for him to make a couple of quid. So whilst the system crippled artists (and artists now find revenues elsewhere) it seems to me that the artists are like L & D in that they need to prove their worth and get people to 'part with cash' and time to support them. In this case the org has the power to dismiss L & D an make them feel worthless and in turn even the people attending the courses start to diminish the value of the courses and expect it for free; again this then links into consultants and freelancers like me.
ReplyDeleteSo what am I saying? A change we think is liberating - can be crippling and before we change a system we should look at what we're trying to accomplish and how were look after as many (if not all of the people within it) and remain open to the needs of the many - not just the few - who have maybe instigated the change.
Thank you for the invocation and promoting a few 'rambling words on a Sunday PM'.
Stefan