'Lamentably, business remains grounded in a slow-to-change mid-twentieth century 'scientific management' zeitgeist. What we have learned from the sciences since then - emergence and complexity, network science, and behavioural economics readily come to mind - has only made the slightest dent in how businesses are run. The fact is, despite what we have learned in the last 100 years about the world and human nature, businesses are organised around the premises and principles that are, at best, arbitrary vestiges of bronze-age hierarchies, and, at the worst, mechanisms intended to coerce and control the majority for the benefit of the few. As Clay Shirky once wrote, institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.' Stowe Boyd I think this quote is such a beautiful summary of my own thinking and indirectly, the overall theme of this blog over the past six years.  A recent family bereavement and some time away have found me reflecting more deeply

"For training to work it has to match the work." Nick Lawrence Most corporate training includes everything that leaders and 'stakeholders' need to feel 'off the hook'. So, 'learning' 'products' or 'modules' will include: - Content (text) lifted from a Policy document - Content (information) already published on an internal intranet site - Process flows and procedures; (found in the Policy document or internal intranet site) - Questions with answers; (that can be found in the Policy document or internal intranet site) - Elements favoured by the 'gut feel' of leaders; (which help to get the 'product' or 'module' approved...). When choosing to invest in a formal training 'solution' - rather than exploiting more effective ways to enable people to learn - the fundamental characteristics should only be: Designed with performance improvement as the goal; (not 'completion' or, 'enjoyment') Form

"It is not an intelligent strategy to train people to overcome system deficiencies. Instead, we should design the system properly to make sure that performers can leverage all their capabilities." Klaus Wittkhun One of the key features of the (deliberately) disconnected status quo model for corporate learning is the resulting 'blind hand offs'. To recap: The approach to 'learning' remains separated from 'work' - with a myopic focus on formal courses and 'resources' (education) This separation is facilitated and incentivised by people who reply on the status quo (leaders, vendors, and L&D teams and their annual budgets) This approach is fundamentally anti-systemic. ( If we acknowledge, investigate, and commit to adjust all the connected factors that contribute to individual and team performance we might conclude that most of the formal learning agenda and investment contributes very little. ..) So the output of the formal learning agenda dev