Rachel Burnham writes: At this time of year, I often curate a set of
resources that I think are helpful for developing L&D and enabling L&D
professionals to modernise our ways of working.
This year I have decided to do something different and instead take a
step back to focus more generally on how we think about L&D.
Whilst some in the
L&D profession are forging ahead trying out new ideas and experimenting
with approaches based upon well-founded research and evidence of what works
well, we also are part of a profession that is slow to change. Many continue to
use methods and practices that we know are not as effective as they could be -
methods and practices that are not meeting the challenges facing organisations
or individuals.
Here are five areas
that I think we need to work on as a profession.
1. Evidence-based
Whilst this approach
has been adopted recently by CIPD, there is still a lot of muddle and confusion
around about what this really means. I
think getting more in our profession familiar and confident using an evidence
based approach can help with three challenges:
·
Tackling
the pervasive influence of learning myths around subjects like learning styles,
left brain/right brain and so on.
·
Encouraging
a focus on effectiveness and what actually makes a difference to performance.
·
Building
an appetite for making use of data analytics that is practical in focus.
2. Looking
at a wider range of jobs and sectors
So often the case
studies, research and examples explored in L&D conferences, articles and
podcasts are from the same rather narrow fields of employment. It is time that we started to look more
broadly beyond the knowledge worker or service sector and also consider the
needs of other types of worker, sector and size of organisation.
When we are only
hearing from this relatively narrow field, important though it is, we risk
considering only these needs of these kinds of organisation and that the ideas
and solutions presented only are effective in those situations. If we want to tackle the long tail of L&D
that is mostly still only using face to face delivery of content-heavy
material, then we have to ensure that our examples, our research, our practices
can meet these needs of a diverse range of job roles and organisations.
3. Less
black and white, more nuance
I think we are running a risk of being too simplistic
in some of our thinking about L&D practices. Of making ‘blanket –judgements’ about ways of
working. ‘This is good’, ‘this is
not’. This is current, up-to-date, the
latest thinking and this is not.
For example, I notice in each at the time of the Learning
Technologies conference and exhibition a slew of articles about the latest
technologies and a corresponding slew of articles defending face to face
delivery.
When it isn’t either or.
We need to be so much better at being nuanced. Not just about about the respective values of
using technology and face to face, but across the whole field. It is not helpful to run down the whole of
education. We know that context
matters. So let’s get much clearer
about what works when, and in what circumstances, for who and at what point in
their career and what the limitations are.
Let’s identify the boundary conditions for approaches, rather than
portray each approach as the answer to everything.
4. Connect
ideas
There are some
amazing ideas being developed and explored in L&D. New ways of working and new (well, newish, in
some cases) models and practices. Many
have slightly different focuses and emphasis.
When you begin to be exposed to the range of approaches to performance consulting,
models of learning, alternatives to face to face, learning at the point of need
or in the flow of work and so on (and also their critiques) – I think a lot of
people in our profession, who are new to these approaches can feel overwhelmed
and over-faced. ‘Where are earth do you
start?’
It would be great to
see some more linking up of these ideas, some more comparing and contrasting of
them, so that they are not just used piecemeal, but more systematically. We
need help to work our way through the thickets of new ideas and research, to
weigh up what is of value and work out which ones link together and are worth taking action
on.
5. We
neglect skills at our peril
I think there is some very interesting thinking around
at present about knowledge – mostly about how we make much better use of
resources or other performance support tools to reduce the need for knowledge
learning. There is great work on
behaviour change around – work on habit formation and learning transfer to
support this. But I think we need to be
also paying attention to how to effectively support ‘skills’ development.
I think we have taken
our eyes off this area a bit, yet it is hugely important. High level skills can be challenging to
develop and continue to be important in many areas of work. Although we critique learning programmes for
‘mere content-dumping’ and a reliance on knowledge transfer done badly, we
haven’t really focused much on how to develop complex skills effectively. Skills that are needed in this wider range of
jobs and organisations that I think we should be looking at.
So, these are the 5
areas, which I think we could usefully focus on, to help shift thinking within
our L&D profession, this year. What
do you think?
Rachel Burnham
13/1/2020
I help individuals and organisations to work and learn
more effectively, particularly though using the tools of Sketchnoting and the
curation of resources. I make use of
Sketchnoting to introduce people to using visuals to aid thinking, working and
learning. I help people to manage for
themselves the information they need to stay up-to-date in their professional
work.
