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Showing posts from May, 2023

A unilateral 'L&D Transformation' is not sustainable

"An important function of almost every system is to ensure its own perpetuation." Donella H. Meadows The work of a corporate L&D team (its preoccupations, tactics, and success measures) is part of the organisational system ('how the work works here') and so a unilateral 'L&D Transformation' is almost impossible to achieve. Paradoxically, if an L&D team 'breaks out' and starts to operate in a new way that is counter to the prevailing system, this can actually reinforce their work as 'out of sight, out of mind' of senior management. Inevitably the system will eventually correct itself and this outlier team is usually 'reset' through restructuring / redundancies / budget cuts. NB. Transforming the role, focus and approach to corporate learning is an outcome of deliberately changing the prevailing system ('how the work works here'). Changing the prevailing system depends on an openness - and excitement - by management

5 Es of enabling continual learning

"The Enterprise Leadership wants a Learning Culture? They are going to have to explain it, demand it, inspect for it, and hand out rewards and recognition when they see it, and punish the gatekeepers who are stopping it when they don't see it. Otherwise, it's just yada yada." Guy W Wallace A  balance of ' Experiences, Exposure, Education ' is a useful framework for ambitious L&D leaders choosing to be more than just passive internal training vendors. But enabling these three strategies needs considerable pre-work to ensure they can take hold and enable new performance in practice: 1. Setting new Expectations - influencing leaders to recognise and lead a new role for ongoing learning AS THE WORK for everyone at all levels.  (As opposed to 'learning' as a lazy shorthand for 'completing training' whilst we all carry on as before). And Deliberately creating a new Environment - Influencing leaders to see their role as responsible for creatin

Where should we focus our performance change efforts?

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"If we have a system of improvement that is directed at the parts, taken separately, you can be absolutely sure that the performance of the whole will not be improved. The performance of a system depends on how the parts fit, not how they act taken separately. " Russell Ackoff