"You can't use an old map to see a new land." Gary Hamel Rule of thumb for 'Transforming' organisations: The level of change and new expectations in your Learning / Capability strategy should be proportional to the level of change and new expectations in your business strategy.  The same level of new ambition and new commitment is needed here too because: Most corporate learning and development priorities, strategy (and therefore) tactics are still out of sync with the challenges facing business and workers today Content led, education based, (topic broadcast, 'school at work') 'L&D' is a hang over from the industrial era - when businesses only created their value by optimising and scaling efficiency Businesses can no longer codify and transfer fixed skills fast enough to equip workers with the confidence they'll need to add value.  Competence and compliance are no longer the scarce commodities behind successful, differentiated, sustainabl...

"A sustainable, self-regulating work system is a direct threat to those who making a living off of regulating work systems." John Cutler The role, focus and measurement of workplace learning still remains stuck in the industrial age. A generation of early adopters advocating a shift from content creation to enabling learning through work and networks remain marginalised by the status quo.  The convenient collusion between corporate leaders still obsessed with control and plans, L&D teams entrenched in education and tools, and a proliferating, enabling vendor community has created an impasse. So, in most organisations L&D leaders still go unchallenged and continue to prioritise and reinforce: Content creation as 'the Learning Strategy' Self-reinforcing vanity metrics; (clicks, visits, course attendance) Bending the definition of ' employee   performance ' towards ' being   compliant ' A reductive focus on tactics over context, operating environm...

" The first law of bad management: if something isn't working, do more of it." Tom DeMarco There's still a fascinating gap between the post COVID / post hybrid working / post 'great resignation' realities and the role and focus of workplace learning.  Despite these three seismic impacts on business models, value creation, employee contribution and workplace culture, most leaders choose to stick with the same detached approach to 'learning'. Whether implicitly or explicitly, senior leaders' expectations of their L&D team and annual L&D budget remain stuck around: Developing training 'solutions' aligned to 'hot topics' Investing in new (cheaper) tools and tactics with which to develop and scale training solutions Prioritising access to training solutions over enabling performance improvement Distracting colleagues from their work to 'engage' with 'training solutions' Tracking 'engagement' with training ...

"This obsession with control gives a greater power to gatekeepers than to connectors. In a culture of compliance and competition, it is rational to avoid taking risks." Celine Schillinger Most corporate learning and development still serves a simplistic and reductive management model.  The default focus on tools, (which now includes a proliferation of enabling 'learning technologies') means that the underpinning status quo mindset remains unchallenged.  The underlying goal is still centralised control through 'compliance' - an unacknowledged  mindset that runs deeper than just the well worn 'mandatory annual compliance training' cycle. Symptoms of a control based L&D strategy hide in plain sight, for examples: A default focus on individuals' 'learning'  A default approach which reinforces a separation between 'learning' and 'working' A default focus on only productive learning; (based on improving 'what we already...

"Advocates of bold and ambitious strategies too often find themselves on the sidelines, labeled as losers, while the rewards go to those to those more skilled at working within the system." Kenichi Ohmae Some things that aren't your ' Learning Strategy' : The 'Annual Training Plan'  The 'Learning Offer' An 'Academy portal' where colleagues have to go to access the 'Learning Offer' A collection of L&D team 'to-do' lists for the year ahead The prioritised list of 'orders taken' from senior stakeholders by the L&D team The new 'learning technology' implementation and adoption project plan The 'L&D Marketing and Engagement Plan' for the current training curriculum Approved ' Instructional Design Standards '.  

"Quite often a 'Training Needs Analysis' is conducted by wandering around asking important people what they think less important people need to know. They usually have no shortage of ideas." Nick Shakleton Jones From my experiences, a 'TNA' can be a defensive instrument which only maintains the status quo approach to learning. Some questions to consider around the role and approach to ' Training Needs Analysis': Is the use of the word ' Training ' deliberate and relevant? How might this preempt outcomes and reinforce existing expectations? Who decides the construct of the 'TNA' template? Why? How effectively does the 'TNA' enable the agreed learning strategy? How effectively does the 'TNA' capture the context within which people are working and need to learn? How effectively does the 'TNA' limit the risk of jumping to solutions?

" Until you accept that it's the collective assumptions and beliefs of your organisation that constrain performance, success, etc., you'll ALWAYS be stumbling around in the dark ." Bob Marshall The most powerful forces affecting the performance of an organisation are the assumptions and beliefs of its leaders.  In most organisations there's a 'perfect storm' of inertia because  a) leaders are not encouraged to question themselves and,  b) no one is encouraged to question leaders. Looking outside of their organisation and its current rituals can help leaders to acknowledge the new forces at play and pose useful new questions. For examples: 'How is our thinking changing on what we now need more of / less of from all of our people?' 'How is our thinking changing on what is valuable to us and why?' 'How is our thinking changing on where we need stronger connections?' 'How is our thinking changing on the environment we now need to c...

"Bureaucracy is a massive, role-playing game. If you're an advanced player, you know how to deflect blame, defend turf, manage up, hoard resources, trade favours, negotiate targets and avoid scrutiny. Those who excel at the game, unsurprisingly, are unenthusiastic about changing it." Gary Hamel In most organisations there is a chasm between the mindset and assumptions from the industrial age of business and, what is now required today. On one side of the the chasm there is status, control, hierarchy, reactivity, process, self-servants and a deliberate separation between 'thinkers' and 'doers'. On the other side of the chasm there is an acknowledgement of organisations as connected systems, the role of 'leaders' as enablers and facilitators, empathy, curiosity, inclusion, possibility, and learning as the work. (If you're invested in and dependant on the first side of the chasm you'll inevitably see the other side as a risk and a threat).

"There's nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all." Peter Drucker It's the time of year for 'annual budgeting' in most (legacy) organisations. So, I've collated 10 interesting (new?) question CEOs might pose to their senior team in L&D / Capability to ensure the right conversations are in play: Is there a clear view on the role and priority of 'learning' in our organisation? Is there a clearly defined and well articulated L&D vision and strategy to enable this?  Is our L&D strategy aligned with, and connected to, the organisation's strategic goals? How do L&D recognise their role in developing current and future organisational capability and readiness? How important are problem solving, critical thinking and feedback to the success of our organisation? How is "learning" success measured in our organisation? To what extent is L&D success expressed in terms of...

"The way organisations are designed and managed, the ways people's jobs are defined, create fundamental learning disabilities." Peter Senge Clearly define the role and priority for learning - as a strategic enabler for the change / success the organisation seeks Agree the (new?) characteristics of the organisation when re-orientated towards continual learning; (what people will do and not do and why) Acknowledge the barriers to continual learning today ; (the prevailing mindsets and preoccupations, the resulting management model, the incentives and rewards in play, the processes and measures of success) Agree in practical terms how these systemic barriers to learning will be reduced / removed Agree the new goals, strategy and tactics for enabling and accelerating continual learning which capitalise on changes to the system Agree the new measures by which we can reflect on positive progress as a learning organisation and adjust course as needed.

"The problem with poking fun at people stressing that it's all about systems is that there are those out there who will take this as permission to keep the focus precisely where they want it, which is on the performance of individuals and that is wrong, wrong, wrong." Charles Lambdin 'Green-washing' (noun):  ' When a company's marketing messaging doesn't line up with its actions. Typically the company will claim to be environmentally friendly but it's real-life activity is ineffective or insignificant compared to the negative impact the business has on the environment.' 'Change-washing' (noun):  'The process of introducing reforms that purport to bring about change but fail to result in any substantive shifts in systems, service or culture.' (Thea Snow and Abe Greenspoon). Most organisations are 'Learning-washing'. We know that providing access to 'Learning content' and measuring rates of access and consumption, ...

"If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produces it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory." Robert Pirsig If your organisational " Transformation " or your " Learning Transformation " is still being enabled by the previous mindset and approach then you will end up with the same results. 'Still being enabled by the previous mindset' might include: Content (digital or otherwise) as the strategy 'Learning' as the focus (rather than work and networks) Standardising employees through centralised curriculum Order taking and project management; (reacting and ' deliverology ') Leaders and L&D teams can choose to focus on new goals that have the potential to be transformative, for example: Prioritising facilitating experiences and exposure over education Deliberately creating social structures that help collaborative problem solving Defining the new capacity and capabilities now needed ...