The Learning and Development team can refocus on creating the conditions for better learning and better work

"Over the past several decades, the business world has relentlessly pursued efficiency-driven business process re-engineering, seeking to integrate, standardise, and automate tasks in ways that can reduce costs, increase speed, and deliver more profitable outcomes. 

As the landscape shifts, perhaps it's time for organisations to expand their focus beyond business process re-engineering to pursue business practice re-design, help front line work groups to learn faster and accelerate performance improvement, especially in environments that are shaped by increasing uncertainty and unexpected events."

John Hagel  

Much corporate L&D 'practise' continues to focus on maintaining control. Farming of fixed skills for fixed roles, predetermined capabilities and catch all learning programs remain the goals.

These entrenched approaches are driven by a narrow focus on executing process. As a result, "learning solutions" are inevitably shaped by:

Reacting to "urgent problems"

The way tasks are currently organised

Assuming a predictable environment (annual planning)

Explicit knowledge; ("We know what we need people to know and, when and how they will learn it")

Linear thinking; (Assuming the problem needs content + placement + attention + consumption in order to be "solved")


L&D can choose to adopt a different approach, based on the reality of the practices in the organisation:

Focusing on the way that work tasks are done and why

Responding to a changing, unpredictable environment

Driven by tacit knowledge

New approaches and new progress enabled and accelerated through a 'web' of connections and contributors.


Paul helps organisations create the conditions for better learning and so better work.