The cultural phenomenon of continuing to invest in things that won't work

"It's difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon him not understanding it."

Upton Sinclair

The two convenient load bearing myths in workplace 'Learning and Development' are linked:

'Formal learning (education)'

and 

'Skills'

Both are the least likely cause of a 'performance' problem

Both (therefore) provide the lowest opportunity for impact

However...

Both remain the 'go to' priorities for the workplace 'Learning and Development' industry because:

Leaders continue to love the idea of 'building skills' and 'investing in education' as both of these require little or no commitment on their part.

L&D teams and their vendor whisperers rely on the commercial safety that the status quo continues to provide. 

There are many other areas that could be the focus - with greater to opportunities to affect performance outputs:

Expectations

Incentives and rewards

Ongoing feedback

Resources

Information (processes, policies)

Consequences.

As I wrote in 2021, we know that the performance of individuals reflects the system within which they are working.

(Don't we?).


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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