"Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets." Paul Batalden I think the Summer holiday period can be a good time to reflect and, to restate some realities that are difficult to acknowledge in bureaucratic organisations: Performance of an organisation reflects the system - and systems are wholly owned by leaders Systems are shaped by leaders' choices, which are shaped by their worldviews The focus of most leaders' is to maintain their status and to keep their job Systems are the outcome of the choice of measures, incentives, what gets rewarded, the choice of rewards, processes, policies, rules, team structures, roles and responsibilities, hiring policy etc. etc. Investing in training / coaching / 'transforming individual employees and  / or teams won't change the system Changing the system can enable people to perform for effectively and to fulfil their potential  Individual skills can only have a tiny amount of impact / leverage on overall p...

"It probably doesn't pay to argue over things we have chosen to believe as part of our identity." Seth Godin  The decades old noise on 'the role of the Learning and Development department' misses the real point: 'What is the current system for?' The answer isn't : 'Performance change' 'Productivity' 'Business results' 'Profit' or  'Culture change' The current centralised education model is designed for control . Maintaining a separation between the 'work' and 'learning' (education) Maintaining the role and status of Leaders Maintaining the commercially lucrative illusion that access to and consumption of 'content' enables change Maintaining the structures and processes that rely on the assumption that collective individual performance impacts the performance of the organisation as a whole Maintaining the ability for leaders not to have to challenge their own assumptions and beliefs - that...