Feature


Time to break new ground


A call for change and to consider L&D professionals’ own development – from Lisa Walker, Director of The Learning Network


H


ow do you develop yourself at the depth and quality needed to thrive? How do you take advantage of


learning opportunities to transform your value and advance your career? These are the key discussion points emerging from our latest research study. We found that 36% of the study’s participants made a huge contribution to ensure their learners could work virtually through the pandemic – recognised as one of the top business disruptions. 72% stressed this disruption was managed with no increase in staff within their teams. While trying to boost our own wellbeing, there was little time for thought or planning. Our actions had to be reactive and swift – quicker than our own development. It’s time to reect on our elfare, self-development and career progression; our own learning and development can’t continue to slip. Only 25% of participants think its easy to find the ualifications and experiences they need to drive impact. Moreover, only 34% feel it’s easy to develop themselves in the Learning industry; 66% are struggling to advance. With an astounding 91% believing that


20 | learnevents.com


professionalising the Learning industry would add value, there is a need to break the mould and create change. But how?


Break new ground Amid the pandemic, L&D professionals struggled to convert face-to-face workplace training to virtual learning and understand the technology behind it. We must allocate more time to our own self-development. But is it acceptable to prioritise our own L&D over that of our learners? What are the risks if we don’t? We also need to identify our comfort zones and how we break out of them – “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.” How do e apply these findings to improve our output and transform our value? With the L&D community trying to


overcome the same challenges year after year, how can we professionalise standards and qualify the role of a high-


impact L&D professional? Furthermore, we must do better to protect our mental health and safeguard our wellbeing.


Call for change Something needs to shift. As a community we can make the changes we want to see. We can create our own career paths, shape our future and thrive But e first need to address what we need to do differently to make this happen. Our annual conference – LN Connect 2022 – takes place on 15 November in London. The conference theme explores what changes the learning community needs to make for their on benefit and that of their people The day unites the L&D community to discuss and debate their challenges – and drive change. n Online registration for LN Connect is open until midnight, Monday, 31 October 2022.


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