Feature Time to change
Robin Hoyle on how Learning and Development (L&D) can better respond to change
H
ow are your predictions for the year going? If you’re a planner, chances are at some stage you undertook a PEST (Political,
Economic, Social and Technological) analysis looking at the factors that might impact your work in 2016. If you’re anything like me, your assessment of the political, economic and social trends for the year have been consigned to the waste bin.
The fact that change is a constant is somewhat of a cliché. But the reason it became a cliché is because it is fundamentally true. If we doubted it, the seismic changes of recent months – from Brexit and changes in political leadership to currency turmoil and infrastructure projects put on hold – would suggest that change is alive and kicking (us in the pants for the most part).
The T of PEST is technological, and the world of L&D has long predicted and embraced radical change in technology platforms. From VR (Virtual Reality) to AR (Augmented Reality) to xAPI (Experience Application Programming Interface), technological developments are on everyone’s radar. While there has been a fair degree of sound and occasional outbursts of fury, however, technology has been pretty slow to change the fundamentals of what we do. Though some of the methods might have moved online, we still spend most money on the classroom and our
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focus remains on content and courses. Recent research by Towards Maturity (who will be sharing their insights at the World of Learning conference) has shown that L&D may be a little nervous of technology innovations. According to Towards Maturity’s 2016 In Focus report, Preparing for the Future of Learning, 57 per cent of L&D leaders report that their team lacks the skills to implement and manage digital learning. The World of Learning conference for 2016 includes many opportunities for L&D professionals to look at how technology- facilitated learning has worked, can work and might work in the future, but it won’t be a tech fest. While other events seem to think that the phrase ‘learning technology’ is really all about technology, World of Learning has always been an event that has put learning, and how it can boost performance and build capability, fi rst. I am looking forward to discussions about leadership, coaching, collaboration and innovation. I want to think about technology not as an end in itself, but as a route to untangling and making sense of change... change that isn’t going to slow any time soon. I’m especially excited by the prospect of Matthew Syed as introductory keynote speaker. Best-selling author, Olympian, and Times journalist, Matthew has used his experiences to provide fresh and challenging insights about performance, motivation and how successful organisations learn from mistakes. Too often when L&D has wrestled with
change, technology has been just another change we need to deal with instead of an opportunity to do things differently and do things better. Instead of a strength and an opportunity, it has been a weakness and a threat. As ‘people people’, we sometimes abdicate responsibility for the barely understood intricacies of technology to those who seem to have a natural gift for bits, bytes and buttons. We have allowed ourselves to be novices in a world of those we have anointed as experts. Because we barely understand some of the mistakes we have made in our use of technology, we have sought to explain them away or blame the user or the lack of budget. In an era of turmoil – whether political, economic, social or technological – only the brave will succeed: the people who can admit their mistakes and learn from them; the people who share their stories and listen to the stories of others; and the people who are humble enough to know they don’t know everything and confi dent enough to know they care a lot. It’s going to be an interesting journey… I hope you enjoy it as much as I will. n
Author
Robin Hoyle is senior consultant with Learnworks Ltd and chair of the World of Learning conference 2016.
robin@learnworks.org.uk
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