The fundamental blocker to L&D teams 'pivoting to performance'

"We surrender the belief that a person must be "in control" to be effective. We become willing to reveal our uncertainties, to be ignorant, to show incompetence - knowing that these are essential preconditions for learning."

Bryan Smith

There is a fundamental blocker to the long standing soundbite of L&D teams now 'pivoting to performance':

Industrial leaders believe that they 'own' 'performance'.

This mindset is inextricably linked to status, control, and heroic individualism. This mindset reinforces and maintains the training (education) paradigm, because:

Its easier to separate training from 'the real work' (and so deprioritise whenever required)

Its easier to devolve responsibility for training down the organisational hierarchy

Its easier to (inevitably) manage training as another programme or project checklist item

Training fits with a busy, 'get people to execute' mantra

And most critically:

It means that leaders can maintain their own behaviour as is.

(And the majority of the corporate L&D community is willingly complicit in maintaining the status quo).



I work as a thinking partner and advisor with mid sized, value oriented companies going through significant change. I help you to build new capability and mindsets through shifting your approach to organisational development.

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